I don't own Naruto

Chapter 6

Sakura had turned up to where team 7 was going to be meeting only for their blonde teammate to not turn up. This worried the pink Kunoichi as she'd only been with Naruto yesterday and he'd received some of the best but most hurtful news that he ever would. Cherry could only hope that Naruto would be okay, similar thoughts going through the minds of her team mates.

"Kakashi-sensei where is Naruto-kun," Sakura asked.

"I'm not sure Sakura-chan," Kakashi replied although he was clearly lost in thought, probably extremely worried about the missing member of their team.

Sasuke had an expressionless look on his face but Sakura had been around him and knew him well enough to know that the Uchiha to was worried about their teammate. His eyes subtly looked over to where Naruto would usually arrive from, and Sakura looked at the concentration in his eyes at trying to spot the blonde ninja.

"Well I'm gonna go ask Hokage-jisan where he is then since neither of you two know anything useful," Sakura said mock mockingly. With that said she ran off in the direction of the Hokage tower, hoping that perhaps he'd have some answers. It took a short while; Sakura had ridiculous stamina thanks to Kakashi's rigorous training, and knocked loudly on the Hokages door. "Hokage-jisan where is Naruto!"

"Sakura-chan its fine he's fine," the Hokage reassured her. "Come in and we can talk about this in a more secure place." Sakura quieted down and walked into the office, it seemed the Hokage had answers for her. "First things first Sakura-chan, how are you after the news you received yesterday?"

"Honestly I don't have a clue what to think. It's strange, going from being a nameless orphan to the head of one of the greatest clans in shinobi history. How are you going to tell people anyway? I don't know what to do as a clan member, what will the others say?"

"Calm down Sakura-chan it will be fine," the Hokage reassured her. "The village will be overjoyed to have a Senju in the village; you don't have anything to worry about."

Sakura took a deep breath. In all the panic of where Naruto had gone and trying to help him the day before she hadn't properly processed the news but overall she was happy. She liked that she was a Senju and felt like she was connecting with her father's side of the family just by taking his name.

"Well Senju-san," the Hokage said with a smile. "Would you like me to tell you where Naruto-kun went?"

"Hai," Sakura replied instantly. At that moment the door opened and both Sasuke and Kakashi walked in.

"Honestly what is it with people running into this office," Sasuke asked.

"I'm sorry Sasuke-kun but I was worried about my friend. I'm sorry it's too much effort for you to look for your friend," Sakura teased and Sasuke fell silent at that, he wasn't entirely sure what would be a reasonable response to that.

"Now now Sakura-chan; did you find out about Naruto," Kakashi chuckled at his teams antics.

"Not yet Kakashi-sensei the Hokage was just about to tell me before you two walked in," Sakura said pointedly.

Hiruzen chuckled at this, he was truly happy about how this team was turning out. "Yes as I was saying Naruto is fine," at this Sasuke and Kakashi's shoulders eased up a little bit. "Naruto is going to be gone for four months training with his Godfather Jiraiya of the sannin."

"WHAT!" "I see." "Hn."

These were the three different responses from team seven.

"What do you mean four months?! Where is Naruto?!" Sakura was worried, she didn't want to not see Naruto for four months that was far too long.

"Sakura-chan Naruto will be fine with Jiraiya he taught the Yondaime," Kakashi began to explain. "Anyway you're going to have to do your own special training so it's good that Naruto is training with Jiraiya. You'll see him when the Chunin exams begin."

"What are the Chunin exams," Sakura asked. Sasuke looked mildly curious at this which meant that he was paying his full attention to what Kakashi was about to say.

"Well this year is going to be slightly different to other years. Normally it's just an exam that tests if you have the capabilities to become a Chunin."

"So what makes this year different?" Sasuke and Sakura asked this simultaneously.

"Well you see this year the Chunin exams are going to be," Kakashi paused for dramatic effect. Sakura and Sasuke looked on expectantly. Kakashi shot them both a look then that told them what he was about to say was 100% serious.

"A war."

Walking through Konoha Sakura was trying to clear her head. She knew what she'd just heard but that didn't make it any less scary. I'm going to be fighting in a war? It'll be against Iwa ninja then, which means that Naruto will be in danger. What do I do? These were the thoughts plaguing Sakura's mind. She was worried about so many outcomes that might take place.

On the Uchihas mind were slightly different thoughts. Will I find someone powerful to test myself against? Just how close have I got to you, Itachi? Sasuke was confident in his own abilities so a thought of doubt about coming out unscathed never even entered the Uchihas mind.

Kakashi had told both his students to go for a walk so that they might be able to think things through; it was a big thing knowing you were going to be fighting to the death against other people that wanted to kill you. Kakashi had already vowed to himself that no matter what, he would not lose a student.

Walking towards their meeting spot Sakura was going to be the last person to arrive. She had ended up losing herself in Konohas streets, unsure what she was to make of everything that had happened. She had had more surprises in the last two days then in the first 13 years of her life.

"Yo Sakura," Kakashi started. Sasuke simply acknowledged her presence with a nod. That was when the newly dubbed Senju noticed another man next to Kakashi; he had brown hair and brown eyes and was generally unremarkable. "Sakura-chan I have another teacher for you, he won't work on your taijutsu but he'll help you with something more special I'm sure. So we'll meet here again tomorrow and then you'll go to Tenzo here in the afternoons and train with Anko in the morning before we meet and after training with Tenzo before you go back to your home to rest."

"Hello Sakura I'm Tenzo and I'm going to help to see if you've got the same kekkei genkai as me, although mine isn't really my own."

"Umm Hai… Sensei," Sakura replied awkwardly. She wasn't entirely sure what to think about this man. However she'd give him a chance and Sakura was intrigued about what Kekkei genkai he might be on about. Sakura figured the only kekkei genkai that the Senju clan had was the mokuton but that was only present in the shodaime Hokage. The prospect slightly excited Sakura as she knew how powerful the Shodaime Hokage had been and if she could use his power then she'd be more successful at protecting the village.

"Well then Sakura-chan lets go to training ground 16. I'll meet you there in 10 minutes," Tenzo instructed.

Ten minutes later Sakura met up with Tenzo and was told about what she needed to do. First she had to work on her water release jutsu so that she could balance that with her earth release which would allow her to have better control over both chakra natures and combine them to make wood style, although it wasn't that easy. It had to be something that she could instinctively do else everyone would do it but Kakashi was sure that she had the potential to do so.

"Sakura-chan you need to work on your water release which means the leaf exercise. It should be easier this time then with the earth release as you will have a better idea of what you're doing and your water affinity is supposedly just as strong as your earth affinity, at least naturally."

Sakura groaned at the thought of doing the leaf exercise again but she knew in the long run it would be much more helpful. So she started the exercise and it was as boring and frustrating as it had been the first time although she knew that all she needed to do was persevere.

For the next week Sakura trained her water release as well as Taijutsu and after this week she wasn't supposed to do any missions as she had preparations for the exams.

"C'mon Cherry you're starting to properly get it now," Anko praised her student. The two had become very close as they spent a lot of time together. "However this alone won't be enough. Start adapting this style and make it your own so that it becomes that much more effective."

"Hai sensei," Sakura answered and began making subtle differences where she felt she could improve it. In a situation where she was getting attacked with a punch and she was supposed to sidestep it Sakura found that she could deflect it and that made the opening larger for her to strike quickly at the entire front of her enemy. Sakura's taijutsu was still coming along but slowly and surely she would be able to face anyone in hand to hand combat.

"Cherry you need to be able to hit the bullseye 10/10 times or that could mean the difference between life and death," Anko instructed. She worked Sakura hard but it was to make sure that she would be safe when she came to blows with the Iwa ninja.

"Hai sensei," Sakura answered and readjusted her aim. This time when she threw her shuriken all of them hit the bullseye. Sakura noted the change in her form she made and how it was useful to her.

"Well done Cherry now make sure you can do this successfully."

Sakura was truly hurting everywhere, she hadn't felt like this since her training with Kakashi when they'd first started. The day before this she'd been walking on water the entire time; making sure her chakra control would be perfect. Whilst doing this had to dodge, deflect and block different items that Anko threw at her. And the snake mistress didn't take it easy on Sakura; if Sakura could do this against Anko then she wouldn't have to worry about Genin from Iwa.

Two month had passed since Sakura had been training with Tenzo and she had managed to complete the leaf exercise and now was trying to combine her water and earth style to form wood style. She had seen how Tenzo had done it but seeing it and doing it are two different things entirely.

"Sakura you need to put equal amounts of water and earth to make this work or it won't form into wood style," Tenzo tried to explain again.

"I know that Sensei but it's not that easy!"

"Sakura just try it again you still have two months until the Chunin exams begin," Tenzo tried to ease Sakura's nerves. However this seemed to have the opposite effect on Sakura as she started to panic and try twice as hard which in this situation wasn't helpful as it meant she would rush into it meaning that she would be less likely to get the divide between earth and water nature right.

Sakura had gotten much closer to her senseis but she still couldn't help but feel like she was falling behind Sasuke who was being trained hard by Kakashi. Alongside this Naruto was being trained by one of the legendary sannin and a man that taught the yondaime Hokage.

Fighting against Sasuke had always been hard but when the Uchiha used his sharingan it was on another level. Sakura would try to be unpredictable to catch him off guard but Sasuke would be able to see it coming and move his body accordingly to counter her. When they used Jutsu his lightning style was far too effective and Sakura had seen the damage that Sasuke could do with his chidori which was much stronger than anything in her own arsenal.

Sasuke and Kakashi had trained hard for the Chunin exam. They worked on Sasuke's chakra reserves, enabling him to use the chidori at least a few times. Sasuke would copy jutsu from Kakashi using his sharingan and Sasuke's own range of jutsu was increasing. Kakashi had also taken to teaching Sasuke how to wield a sword. If the Uchiha was able to fight with blade in hand and sharingan eyes activated then he would be a deadly foe to any Iwa ninja.

Again Sasuke was able to copy Kakashi kenjutsu form and make it his own, his sharingan eyes making Sasuke a threat and truly a lot stronger. Kakashi was amazed at how much Sasuke was able to do with his eyes and if he could fully develop them than the Uchiha may become one of the strongest ninja that Konoha had ever produced. The two sharingan users worked hard so that Sasuke would be fine when the Iwa ninja turned up and at the rate they were going at Kakashi had no doubt that Sasuke would be fine.

Kakashi felt that Sakura would also be okay but he'd feel much more easy about it if she was able to use mokuton, he knew how strong Tenzo was when he used it so if the Senju had the ability to do it as well than their team would be set, not even to mention how strong Naruto would be when he returned.

Currently Kakashi was watching Sakura and Sasuke spar against each other and could tell that Sasuke was going to win again. Sakura was exhausting her chakra faster than Sasuke was. However something seemed different this time, Sakura seemed calmer than she usually would be. That was when she started going through her hand signs. Kakashi recognised them from when he use to spar against Tenzo and was intrigued to see if Sakura could so it.

Alas it wasn't to be as nothing happened and Sakura yelled in frustration. Sasuke took this chance to attack and unleashed a barrage of kicks and punched and Sakura struggled to deal with them. A kick caught her on the cheek and sent her flying into a tree.

"ONCE MORE," Sakura yelled out and began going through the hand signs again. This time she felt something different. "Wood release: Wood spear," Sakura called out and wood went flying towards Sasuke who got cut a few times. Sakura followed it up. "Wood release: wood dragon," the pink haired ninja called out and a wood dragon went flying towards Sasuke who couldn't do a thing about it and got hit, being sent back into a tree and knocked out cold.

"Maa Sakura-chan I knew you had the potential for wood release," Kakashi stated. He was proud of both of his students; they worked really hard and had improved themselves to a point where they would be ready for the Chunin exam. Now they just had to refine their skills and go the extra mile to make sure they would defeat Iwagakure.

"YOSH GAI SENSEI NOW I CAN FACE ANOTHER GENIUS," Lee said excitedly as a spar for Sasuke against Lee was set to take place. Whilst the two spar each other in the background Kakashi and Gai were conversing about what their teams would do against the Iwa ninja.

"Gai is your team ready," Kakashi asked, being serious for one.

"Of course Kakashi, my team was probably ready to become Chunin last year but I decided to make sure. With my team and your team I'm sure we will be fine."

"We need our teams to know teamwork, especially with Naruto not being here. I'd feel much more confident if they could work together."

"YOSH Kakashi what a youthful suggestion," Gai said passion evident in his eyes.

Meanwhile Sakura and Tenten were working together. Tenten had a katana out, she was a weapons specialist after all and she was facing off against Sakura. Sakura was currently just using a kunai to fight back.

"Hey is it true that you're a Senju," Tenten asked. She'd been intrigued about Naruto's team mate for a long time since it'd been revealed to the village that supposedly Sakura was descendant from Tobirama Senju, the second Hokage, and was named head of the Senju clan. "I suppose your attire answers the question anyway."

Sakura had changed her clothing since she was revealed as a Senju. She now wore a short kimono that stopped mid-thigh with the Senju clan symbol on the back of it. She had fishnet leggings going all the way up her legs, taken inspiration from Anko. Bandages were wrapped around her legs just a little below where her kimono ended. Also she wore white shinobi boots that went up to her knees. On her back was a scroll, but she had yet to open it.

"Yeah I'm a Senju and I'm going to prove I'm better than every Senju in existence, the Shodaime Hokage included. With that power I will protect the leaf village at all costs, that is my ninja way," Sakura said passionately.

"Not bad Sakura-chan," Tenten started. "However for now this fight is over." With that said she disarmed Sakura in a flurry of strikes and nearly caught her with a slash but Sakura managed to evade it by jumping backwards. They were fighting with blunt weapons so that they could hit each other without killing each other. "Nice move, but what will you do now?"

Sakura didn't word a response; she simply opened her scroll and pushed a little chakra into it, causing a strange spear-axe blade to appear, although there was no pole with it. Sakura then rushed forward as wood left her hand and wrapped around the bottom of the strange shaped blade. She finished wrapping it and swung it at Tenten who barely raised her own blade.

"A halberd, that's interesting. I never would have thought you would have something like this Sakura," Tenten said excitedly. She loved weapons and seeing something as uncommon as what Sakura had just done lit a fire under her to get the most out of this spar.

Sakura swung and then would block, however Tenten was superior with her weapon and it was supposed to be a fight without ninjutsu. Sakura had been told what she had done was fine by Kakashi beforehand as it wasn't really different to summoning a weapon which was perfectly legal. Eventually however Tenten got in close, thinking Sakura wouldn't be able to fight with such a large weapon in hand. However Sakura simply changed the length of the wood and turned it into a short halberd that she could hold with one hand, a similar length to that of a war axe.

Tenten had a great big grin on her face, Sakura's mokuton was perfect for fighting with weapons as she could extend them or shorten them; however she had placed more time into her own Kenjutsu training and so finished things quickly with her superior skill.

"Thank you for the spar Tenten-chan," Sakura said gratefully. The Senju had had a lot of fun with it but she still knew she had a long way to go in Kenjutsu.

"Not at all Sakura-chan, I had a lot of fun. How long have you been working at your kenjutsu anyway," Tenten asked.

"Two weeks, I saw it as a way to implement my mokuton but my skills aren't quite there yet."

"Two weeks? You're a natural talent then, I wasn't that good after two weeks. Give it a few months and you might just surpass me."

"Do you really think? Well I hope so, that way I'll be a step closer to surpassing the Senju."

"Sakura, you should fight Neji. Ninjutsu and all," Tenten suggested. "Neji Sakura-chan is strong, you should fight her."

Said person had been watching the other spars. To be frank, he wasn't impressed, much. Sasuke was good and almost as fast as Lee without his weights on but thanks to Lee's superior speed the Uchiha had been unable to do anything against his Taijutsu. Gai had had to step in to stop Lee doing some move that would have finished Sasuke off. And Sakura hadn't even been able to beat Tenten, so why should he fight the Senju.

"There is no need for that; fate has decreed that I would win. Therefore a fight would be severely pointless." As the Hyuga tried to turn around a wall of wood was placed in his way.

"I wouldn't be so confident Hyuga, I've yet to release my full power," Sakura stated coolly. Neji turned around to see her using the seal of confrontation. It was a clear challenge to the Hyuga and it bothered him that some people thought that they could go against fate so easily. Neji returned the sign before getting into his stance.

Sakura went through a number of hand signs before giving out a jutsu. "Wood release: wood spear," was what she called out before branches of wood shot out toward Neji. Neji was unfazed however and broke through them with his Taijutsu while gradually getting closer to Sakura.

"Wood release: World of Trees Wall," Sakura called out to stop Neji's advance. However Sakura was too inexperienced in her mokuton that Neji, with his Byakugan could see where the wall was weakest and break through it with one of his spikes.

In close range against a Hyuga Sakura had no chance in fighting back and Neji shut off chakra points until Sakura couldn't access chakra anymore. "Our fight was pointless as once again Fate doesn't fail," Neji sneered.

"Neji…" Tenten tried to start but was cut off by a glare. The girl on team 9 understood why Neji was so angry and believed in fate but it didn't mean he had to act the way he did. "I'll help you get past it Neji. Someday I know I will," Tenten whispered to herself, not loud enough for anyone else to hear it.

They continued to train with each other that week and Sakura became relatively close to Lee and Tenten became one of her new best friends. Lee weirded her out and he had a strange crush on her but if she looked past it he was honest, hardworking and overall a good friend to have. Tenten helped her with her stance when fighting with halberd in hand and the two of them bonded the most.

"You're getting better Sakura-chan," Tenten said giving Sakura the confidence booster that she needed. And it was true; Sakura's form had improved under Tenten's guidance. Sakura helped Tenten with her chakra infusion, the Kunoichi having an affinity for earth. If she pushed the chakra into her katana than it would became sturdier.

After training was done for the day, they had all been sparring each other and Tenten and Sakura were finishing up. "Hey Tenten-chan, in the Chunin exam let's watch each other's backs," Sakura said with a smile.

"Right," Tenten returned her smile and they finished up.

At mount Myoboku Naruto was trying to burst a rubber ball. He had managed to burst the water balloon after a while but the rubber ball was much harder. "Hey Ero-sennin how do I burst the ball again," Naruto asked although he already knew the answer.

"You need more power, otherwise it won't burst," Jiraiya explained again. He was surprised by Naruto's progress; it had taken him a year to learn it although he would admit that it was easier now he had the steps in place to achieve a rasengan.

Naruto thought about what Jiraiya said and came up with a plan. If he put in more chakra then it would have more power right? He gave it a try and this time the balloon burst properly leaving Naruto with a big grin.

"I did it Ero-sennin," Naruto exclaimed excitedly.

"Don't call me that! And well done Naruto we're ready for the last step."

The two of them had been training hard, Jiraiya needed to make damn sure that Naruto would be ready when the Chunin exam came around. Naruto's Taijutsu had increased, the toad sage taught him how to break out of Genjutsu and they were now working on giving Naruto a killer ninjutsu that would mean he would have the edge over his opponents.

"However you'll have to get the last step tomorrow as you need to copy out some of my books, with expert handwriting or you start again no less. You know the drill," Jiraiya said with a slightly sadistic smirk. Whilst it was helpful for himself that he would have more books it was mainly a thing he did to improve Naruto's handwriting so that the Namikaze would be able to use Fuinjutsu effectively.

Naruto huffed for a second but he knew better then to question Jiraiya now. In the three months they had spent at mount Myoboku Naruto knew that he had improved tremendously. His weights were now at the same level as Lee's and he was faster than the green clad ninja when they both had weights on.

Naruto spent his evening copying out Jiraiya's books and he found that he didn't hate it. He wasn't particularly interested in the smut that Jiraiya wrote but he was now a much better reader as well as the fact that he was able to write in neater handwriting than Sasuke and Sakura now. Also in this time he really bonded with his Godfather and felt like he actually had a real family with him. Whilst Team 7 were great friends his bond with Jiraiya had a different feel and he liked it, having never experienced what having a family felt like.

Naruto had managed to come to terms with the fact that his father was the yondaime Hokage but if he was perfectly honest with himself, the Namikaze was happier to know that Kushina Uzumaki was his mother and he asked Jiraiya for more stories of his mother. Naruto guessed it was because he had learned about so many of Minato Namikaze's deeds that he wanted to learn about his mother.

Jiraiya was happy to finally have a relationship with Naruto after so long and he found what he enjoyed most was the evenings when they would just talk with each other about random things. He learned about Naruto's life and what he missed out on and the two truly bonded. They were happy and Jiraiya supposed that was fine, they could be happy for the month before Naruto returned to a war.

Thank you for reading again; please may you review and tell me what you think.

I have a questions as well, do you think Sakura should learn a Jutsu that has similar power to rasengan and chidori, if so what one. Also do you have any ideas on Jutsu that someone could learn anyway, I'm open to ideas.

Thanks again.