A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews!
Arc I: Chapter 01 - Catch the medic!
Konoha's gates stood tall and proud right in front of Sakura while she was being yelled at by a very pissed Tsunade. They had been standing on the same place for minutes on end and Sakura was still just as frozen as the first second she had laid eyes on it.
As much as she was telling her legs to just 'move, dammit!', they remained glued down. Or so it felt.
Until, all of a sudden, the world twirled briefly and she smacked her face on a green surface that was not grass.
No, no. Sakura was being (wo)manhandled by her shishou. She was lucky the woman hadn't decided to punch her into the village instead.
She knew that her shishou was worried. Both Tsunade and Shizune had been worrying for some time about her being back. So she tried to put on a brave face, which worked pretty well up until she saw the gates and froze.
Sakura had tried to keep her little 'pig waiting for slaughter' secret destiny a secret from both Tsunade and Shizune. She didn't want their pity. But she found out that, much like Ino, she couldn't hide things from her shishou, try as she might.
Soon enough, both women knew about the whole thing. Sakura and Shizune had a real hard time trying to talk Tsunade out of punching her former sensei into mere pulp (they tried to actually restrain her, but got some broken ribs and noses instead).
That day, they were already halfway to Konoha following the blond when they finally managed to convince the older woman to stop and go back. That the best revenge was to make sure Sakura got strong enough to actually ruin the fools' plans.
After that, her training got much more intense and strict (which Sakura didn't think was possible). She got pushed beyond her limit time and time again and, more often than not would collapse in sheer exhaustion and chakra depletion. Despite the harsh treatment, she thrived under the woman's guidance and got stronger with each passing day.
But now she was entering Konoha (after 25 months and 17 days, she remembered well) upside down on her shishou's back! That wouldn't do.
"Shishou! Put me down, I can walk on my own!" she urged. They were just a few meters away from the actual gate.
"Apparently you can't, Sakura. I've waited and now I'd like to get over with it already." the woman huffed.
"I was just a little overwhelmed. I'm alright now, I swear it. Please put me down, this is so embarrassing!" she whined.
The blond stopped and suddenly released her. Had it not been her recently developed quick reflexes she'd have fallen flat on her face, but as of now, she extended her hand, doing a quick handstand before placing her feet on the ground again, standing up behind Tsunade and next to Shizune who was smiling warmly at her.
"Are you ready, Sakura-chan?" she asked.
"Yes. Lets go before shishou changes her mind about just punching me through the gates instead." Sakura smiled.
Tsunade snorted and turned to look at them with a devilish smile "That's not a bad idea, you know?"
That got Sakura walking fast to leave Shizune standing in the middle and they made their way in.
#
Sakura was half expecting that the Hokage would be there just beyond the gate, scowling at her. She got the scowling part right, but it was Tenten waiting for her instead. She couldn't complain, it was a much more appreciated view.
"Tenten!" she raced towards the brunette and jumped into her arms, effectively bringing them both to fall on the ground with a muffled cry and then laughter.
"You're late, missy!" the girl tried to sound angry, but the warmth in her tone was much stronger.
"We got a little action on our way back." she chuckled remembering the mercenaries who tried and failed (outstandingly) at ambushing them. "People really need to stop underestimating shishou's strength just because she's a woman." she frowned.
It was, unfortunately, very common that Tsunade, though being known as a Sannin and being listed as an S-rank shinobi in the Bingo Book, was constantly attacked by men who just couldn't believe that a woman could be stronger than them.
At first the older woman would just punch them away or leave them for Shizune to handle, but eventually she began leaving the dirty work for Sakura, which proved to be a good thing for her training and also to anger those men further. It was funny to see them realising they had no way of beating them. (Especially not Tsunade, given that they weren't even able to defeat her pupil.)
Standing up and giving a hand to pull Tenten up too, she smiled at her friend. "I've missed you so much! I can't wait to catch up and see Pig and Hina-chan!"
"We've missed you too, Pinky." the girl grinned "I've come to, not only see you, obviously, but to also inform you that we'll all be waiting for you tonight and won't take a 'no' for an answer." she winked.
Sakura laughed and nodded. "I'll be there, Ten."
Seeing that her companions had arrived where the two girls stood, she quickly made introductions and Tenten left shortly after, looking a little starstruck.
"Let's go get this over with, Sakura." Tsunade jumped to the nearest rooftop and soon they were all racing towards the Hokage tower. Despite seeing some familiar faces, the three women didn't stop until they had reached their destination.
Led by the Sannin, they made their way to the Hokage's office in no time, ignoring every single person that crossed their path and stopped right outside the office door. Sakura didn't really know what to expect of her shishou, she looked about to punch the door open but at the same time she had guaranteed she'd behave and not put Sakura in more trouble.
Before the blond could decide, however, the door flew open and out came Danzo and a skinny pale boy trailed behind him. The man looked displeased until he noticed them and schooled his face blank again. He walked away in silence.
Soon Sarutobi's voice called them in.
Once inside, Sakura noticed that it had not changed in the slightest in the last two years. The only difference was the Hokage himself. He looked tired, very tired.
"Tsunade-san, how good to see you well." he said in a warm tone, smiling at his former student.
The woman simply nodded, but Sakura could see that she was trying hard to bite back some harsh words. Apparently Sarutobi noticed it too, because he quickly moved to acknowledge the other two.
"Shizune-san, how have you been?" when the brunette simply said 'Good, thank you.', he turned to the younger kunoichi "Sakura-chan, I trust your training went well?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama." she nodded.
"Good, good. So," he turned the blond "is she ready to come back to her team?"
"Yes, Sakura is a very skilled kunoichi."
"I trust you have instructed her about all the med-nin's policy within a team. We wouldn't want our precious Sakura-chan to get hurt in a mission if her medical skills are anywhere near as good as yours." it was clear he was trying to flatter them. But it all came out so wrong that it had Sakura cringing and gritting her teeth.
"You'll find that Sakura has been well instructed, Hokage-sama. And she's been allowed to fight in the front line." She smiled proudly at the old man, who gaped.
The Hokage turned to look at her and Sakura had to stiffen a laugh at his expression.
"But she doesn't have the seal, Tsunade. How-"
"She's plenty capable." She cut him, unwilling to explain further. Her shishou had explained to her that the seal would become visible (and ready for usage) only after the reserves were at least half full. As of right now, Sakura was almost there, the seal would be visible in a few more days, given that now she would probably use less chakra, thus being able to store more on a daily basis. If that proved to be true, she would probably reach full capacity in no time.
"After only two years? Surely it's too soon to allow her the fourth…"
"She's my pupil, Sarutobi-san. I'm aware of all of her capabilities and have, personally, allowed her to follow the fourth med-nin clause." her tone was final and the man frowned, but nodded.
It was true. After seeing Sakura's new healing seal, Tsunade set to test it's limits and after a while (and Sakura's promise to still work on the Byakugō no In, for it was a stronger seal), deemed her pupil capable enough to fight in the front lines while being a med-nin. They celebrated the news with plenty of sake (well, Tsunade did, Sakura and Shizune drank tea instead) and games (which the blond lost every match).
"Very well. Tsunade-san, Shizune-san. You're both dismissed for today, but I expect a full report on Sakura's training by tomorrow." He turned to face Sakura after they were gone "Team seven is to meet tomorrow at 8 am in training ground 5. You have a week to get used to each other again before you depart on Kyuubi training."
"May I ask where and how this training will be done? So I can better prepare myself."
"You'll be moving to a more discreet and secure location outside of Konoha where Naruto will be training until he can control the first tails. Your job is to keep an eye on Naruto and make sure he stays in one piece, but also to get familiar with the sharingan and how it works. So you'll be using both Sasuke and Kakashi for that." he sighed "The rest you may ask your sensei."
She nodded and exited after being dismissed.
Once out of the building, she took a deep breath and relaxed some. It hadn't been anywhere near as bad as she anticipated it would be.
She looked up at the sky, it was a beautiful day and she had a couple more hours until meeting the girls, so she decided to go shopping for some home supplies. She would need to clean her parents' house before Tsunade got there or she would never hear the end of it.
She also needed to start searching for a new place for herself. Her parents house was just too big for her alone.
If only her shishou and Shizune were to stay…
She shook away those thoughts, Konoha was a painful place for the blond and Sakura couldn't (and wouldn't) ask her to stay more than she needed to.
In order to avoid unwanted attention, she henged herself and went shopping with very long and raven black hair, paired with grey eyes.
#
Just as it got dark, Sakura exited the house and made her way towards Ino's, to see the girls. She was wearing basic black pants, white shirt and black boots. She had long retired her beloved red qipao and decided to stick to pants instead, they were much more practical and had pockets, also known as the most useful thing in a piece of clothing!
Quickly jumping to Ino's bedroom window as soon as she arrived and making her way in, she called aloud "Tadaima!"
And in a few heartbeats was tackled by a blond giggling blur yelling "Okaeri!", while the brunettes sat on the edge of the bed.
"InoIcan'tbreathe" she croaked out and the blond released her. They both sat, Ino chuckling and Sakura stood up, promptly hugging the Hyuuga girl.
"Hina-chan! It's so good to see you."
"You too, Sakura-chan!"
"Oi oi, girls! Let's give Pinky a breather so we can properly hear about her last two years." Tenten said, smiling at her when Ino pulled them down on the bed again, hugging the two in a bear hug.
They moved to the living room, sitting in a circle of sorts, munching on some chips and iced tea. Sakura was in heaven, she had missed them so much!
"Come oooon! Tell us, how was your training!" Ino asked, well it wasn't really a question, more like an order, but Sakura answered it anyway.
"It was... intense! Tsunade-sama is a medic legend, but she's also a crazy scary kunoichi." she said matter-of-factly "She's just the best, you know?!"
"Come on, cut the sentimental crap, Forehead. I wanna know about practical stuff! Are you a good med-nin? Did you have to work on corpses? Did you participate in any surgery? What else did you learn? Have you met cute guys? Or girls, whatever floats your boat." the blond finished slightly breathless.
"I take it that your training with Ibiki is going well?" she chuckled and received a glare.
"It is, thank you. Now answer me!"
"Yeah, you better answer her, Pinky. Best not get her bad side going." Tenten said with a grimace.
"Yeah, she gets scary" Hinata agreed with a nod.
Ino was looking very smug. Sakura complied.
"I'm a goddamn good med-nin, thank you very much." she said proudly, because it was true "I did work on corpses at first, yes. It was gross." she shivered "As for surgeries, yep. I did a bunch of them on my own. I'm telling you, I'm good! I learned a lot, Ino. And I was too busy to notice any cute boys." she blushed at that last part because it was not completely true. She had had a tiny tiny crush on a patient's son just a few months back.
Before any of them could ask about it, Sakura spoke again.
"That's pretty much the most of my time away." There was more, of course, but she wanted to hear about her friends' years as well "What about yours?"
They spent the next couple of hours talking and catching up on the news they hadn't share in letters.
Sakura learnt that Ino was a very promising pupil and was thriving under Ibiki's guidance, which didn't surprise her, but filled her with pride. The Yamanaka was also dating Kiba (but refused to tell more about it until Tenten and Hinata had all shared about the last couple of years) and that news confused the living daylights out of Sakura. She had missed too much while away! The blond told her that she had many juicy gossips to tell later and she was looking forward to it.
Hinata was slowly but steadily catching up to her clan's expectations and had gotten as strong as her genius sister, but had not claimed her heiress title back (neither did she intended to). She was no genius, but she was working harder than any other Hyuuga (except maybe for Neji) and it was paying off. She was also training to become part of the Barrier Team and her byakugan was stronger than her father expected of her. Also, Sakura noticed that the stutter was mostly gone and she seemed to have a shy but solid confidence now, it warmed Sakura's heart.
Tenten was helping at her family business, their weapons store. With some connections, they began to fully supply the Academy and had recently closed a deal to also supply ANBU. Tenten herself had just been promoted as jonin with Ino and Sasuke, who, according to the blond, looked positively pissed that he was being promoted at the same time as her.
Sakura learnt that Neji was ANBU now (but hey, don't tell anyone, okay?) and that Shino and Shikamaru had been promoted as jonins a few months previous. Now there were no genins anymore and as for chunins, they were: Hinata, Kiba, Choji, Lee, Sakura and Naruto (who had come back two months before from his own training with Jirayia).
"Okay okay, now I want the juicy news about this thing between you and Kiba! How long has this been going on? And most importantly, how the fuck did that happen? I thought you couldn't stand the guy! I mean, no offense, but he can be as loud as Naruto." Sakura asked as soon as they had returned with some homemade meals Ino's mom had prepared them.
"He's not that bad... Tell her, Hina-chan!"
"S-sorry, Ino-chan. Kiba is my friend, but he really is loud." Hinata murmured.
"Right. But he's a good guy, Forehead! And Akamaru is a darling. I'm sure you'll like them once you get to meet properly."
It sounded like she was trying to convince, brag and defend herself at the same time. Sakura was thoroughly amused.
Turning to Tenten she asked "Is she?"
"She is." The girl nodded, understanding her broken question.
"Oh my-" Sakura was shocked but Ino gave her no time to process.
"Am I what? You know I can hear you, right?" she puffed.
"In love, Pig." Sakura chuckled "I never thought I would see you truly in love!" Tenten chuckled with her "And with Kiba nonetheless! I would never have guessed it."
The blond blushed deeply and mumbled "I'm not in love!"
"Yes, you are! Look at you blushing! I don't think I've ever seen you blushing like this, Pig!"
Her friend mumbled "It's just that he's gotten really hot, you know?! And once you're past the loudness, he's really sweet." The blushing returning tenfold.
Sakura reached to cup Ino's face "I'm happy for you. You know that, right?"
The blond cracked a blinding smile and hugged her, whispering 'Thank you" in her ear.
"Now, will you tell me already how did this happen or do I need to ask Ten and Hina?" the pinkette asked arching an eyebrow.
Soon the blond was telling her about it and the other girls would occasionally jump in and help or correct Ino.
As it turned out, he was being very weird with Hinata and the girl told Ino, who decided to confront him about 'creeping out Hinata'. In the end, he was trying (and failing miserably) to ask the Hyuuga if Ino still liked Sasuke because he wanted to ask her on a date. Ino, obviously declined, but he didn't give up and bugged her until she agreed to a date, if he promised to leave her alone after if she didn't like it.
She had had a good time, but, because of pride, said otherwise and he obliged his promise to leave her alone. But every time they bumped into each other because of Hinata, there was this thing telling her to give him another chance and after a while of being stubborn, she swallowed her pride and asked him out. They had been together since then and, according to Hinata and Tenten, they were disgustingly cute and happy together.
Sakura asked about the other girls, but got nothing. Tenten said she was too busy to date and denied having a crush. (Though Ino told her later that she had seen the girl look fondly at Neji a few times before.) Hinata, on the other hand, only blushed and shook her head looking a little torn. She had had a crush on Naruto, that much Sakura knew for sure, but after getting to know about that thing two years ago, she hadn't been able to talk with the girl about him. She knew how difficult it was to discover that someone you like is not who you thought they were. Sauka made a mental note to chat with the girl about it, given that she had been through the same.
Sasuke.
Just thinking about him was enough to trigger some bottled up anger and get her seeing red, so she tried to push him out of her thoughts, but remembered she would have to see them tomorrow morning. It would be the first time since that day.
"Girls, the Hokage told me I have to meet my team tomorrow..." she sighed "We have a week before leaving for Naruto's training" she whined.
"Oh no, Sakura-chan!"
"Are you for real, Forehead?"
"So soon, Pinky?"
"Yeah, it sucks." she pouted.
"For how long?" Tenten asked.
"I don't know. I think I'll have to ask Kakashi about it."
"Well, if you're gonna leave in a week, we'll make the best of it." Ino announced with determination and went on to plan every minute of the week so they could squeeze in some quality time together, an outing with Kiba ('You can't leave before being properly introduced to each other!'), a whole lot of sparring and shopping.
When Sakura finally left, her smile was so big, she was sure it looked borderline psycho.
#
Sakura was on her way to meet team seven, walking through the village. She felt a little nostalgic, because things hadn't changed much on the outside, but she no longer felt as comfortable and safe within the walls as she once did. She felt the urge to look over her shoulder frequently to check that she was not being followed, but the feeling wouldn't go away, so she concluded that, probably, there really was someone following her, someone good at hiding themselves.
Tsunade had taught her to never overlook a gut feeling because it was usually right. Besides, she was already kind of expecting some sort of surveillance upon her return. It wasn't like she had departed on good terms with the Hokage.
As much as she understood why she was being followed, it was bothering her beyond reason. The instincts she had developed while traveling with her shishou kicked in full force, telling her to confront her follower or to lose him. But she knew that that wouldn't be a good idea, it would only serve to raise red flags about her and she would, most likely, have to endure an entire group following her instead of just one person and that was the best case scenario.
Basically, she had to suck it up, as much as it bothered her.
Reaching the outskirts of the forest where training ground 5 was, she made a little show of jumping to a tree branch (so her possible follower wouldn't think she was trying to flee) and quickly arrived at her destination, dropping to the grass unceremoniously.
No one was there yet, she was early, half an hour, to be precise.
She wanted to meditate some before seeing them and walked to a tree, dropping to sit on the ground, with her back against the tree trunk. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and made a very thin sort of bubble of healing chakra around her expanding it slowly in a seven meters radius and there it was. Her little shadow, sitting to her right. She held back a smile and set on regulating her breathing because, now that she had proof she wasn't alone, she couldn't meditate.
In the last two years, Sakura had quickly discovered that she could use healing chakra for much more than just healing. That most shinobi (if not all of them) had already gone to a med-nin and, having seen that kind of chakra in action, deemed it utterly harmless, which gave her an edge over most of them. She also discovered that she could use it to determine whether the person in front of her was a clone or not (clones were basically shells with chakra and a conscience, but no heartbeat) and to scan her perimeter. She would send a very thin wave of it in a bubble-like pattern (it was still connected to her in order to control it better and call it back so she didn't waste the chakra).
That way she could feel every living thing around her, discern whether or not it was an animal or human and pinpoint its general location. She had to work on sharpening her precision, but she wasn't bad at it.
Soon, she felt another person arriving and made an effort not to open her eyes immediately. She didn't want to give away her sensing ability to her shadow so she waited until the other person was close enough before opening her eyes, waiting for them to step into the clearing that was the training ground. In a heartbeat, the person stepped out of the trees.
It was Sasuke.
Her heart beated faster.
Damn, he looked good. He was much taller than before, his hair a little longer and he wore an all dark blue outfit, with a weapons pouch strapped to his leg and a katana on his hip.
He looked at her and she saw interest flash through his eyes before the usual boredom took over. That little thing was enough to annoy her and she arched an eyebrow at him, but only silence followed, neither willing to break it.
Sasuke leant against a tree across from her and she resumed her breathing exercises, not closing her eyes this time.
In less than five minutes, however, she felt another presence entering her bubble, moving faster towards them. She heard Naruto yelling even before he was out of the trees.
"Sakura-chan! You're finally here! Team seven is whole again!" he raced towards her, stopping right in front of her, looking a little torn between sitting down or pulling her up for a hug. He decided on the first and plopped down beside her, still talking "We should go to Ichikaru tonight, catch up. I have a lot to tell you about my time away and I'm sure you do too." he gave her a knowing smirk "Ero-sennin met granny Tsunade yesterday and said that she looked really proud whenever she spoke of you."
She couldn't hold back a small smile at the thought of her shishou being proud of her. Also, she had had a long time to think about everything in the last two years and discovered that she wasn't really mad at Naruto, she was hurt because she had thought they were friends, but she wasn't truly angry at him. Not when she understood that he was just as much of a puppet as she was, maybe even more so, given that he was to become Konoha's ultimate weapon and had been, for most of his life, seen as nothing more than the Kyuubi's vessel.
That realization dampened any anger she had for the boy, but by no means did it mean that she trusted him. She didn't. She knew better than that.
"Hello, Naruto. Thank you for the invitation, but I already have plans." She smiled politely.
"What about tomorrow? Or the day after?"
He wasn't going to give up, obviously.
"I actually already have plans for the whole week." it was, by no means a lie, Ino had even made her a timetable!
"But we have to improve on our teamwork!" he protested.
"Is that not why we're here? To train and get used to each other again?" she lifted an eyebrow.
"Yeah, but that's just training stuff. How are we supposed to rekindle our friendship if we won't hang out?" he asked with a whine and a pout.
"We're not." was all she said. For her, trust was the foundation of friendship and she didn't trust any of them anymore.
"What? Why not, Sakura-chan?" the blond sounded outraged.
Sakura frowned. Could he really be that dense?
"Because she doesn't trust you anymore, dobe." Sasuke said before she could (not that she would've anyways). She noticed that his voice was deeper and she didn't know if she liked it.
Naruto looked back and forth between Sakura and Sasuke, opening and closing his mouth many times before actually speaking again. When he did, he was looking directly into her eyes, serious for once.
"Sakura-chan. I will earn your trust back and then team seven will be the best team ever. Believe it!" he finished with a big smile.
She didn't know what to say because half of her was sure she would never trust them again, but the other half knew how relentless Naruto was when he put something in his head. So she just shrugged.
Kakashi was, as usual, late and using that to his advantage, Naruto set on telling her about his last two years with Jirayia. He told her about the travels, the training, the food, how he had learned 'awesome new jutsus!' and that his sensei had taught him a lot about Fūinjutsu.
Sakura sensed someone else coming, closely followed by Sasuke turning his head towards the same direction she felt the person approaching and soon, Kakashi popped out of the trees.
"You're late, sensei!" Naruto whined "Two hours!"
"Funny thing, Naruto. There was this black cat that was about to cross my way and-" he began, scratching his head.
"We don't care about the cat! You've already used that excuse before!"
That was when Sakura would usually jump in and tell Naruto to stop whining because they would waste even more time, but she remained silent and the discussion died soon after, with the blond looking gloomy at her.
"Sakura-chan, Good to have you back." Kakashi gave her an eye smile.
Is it? She wanted to ask, but just nodded instead "Sensei."
"So..." the older man began, plopping down himself between Sasuke and Naruto and herself "I guess the best thing now is to just let you kids find your rhythm again." he shrugged.
Trust Kakashi to not even bother... She rolled her eyes.
"Sakura-chan is now a med-nin, so we'll have to adapt to that." he said motioning at her.
"What does that mean?" and trust Naruto to ask the obvious. She held a snort.
"It means that she won't participate directly in any fight, and that we have to cover her, because she'll become a target."
Before Naruto got the chance to ask anything else, she spoke up.
"Actually, sensei, I was instructed to follow the fourth med-nin clause." she said with a sweet smile.
Kakashi's eye went wide, his visible eyebrow shooting up. It was safe to say that he was surprised. Even more so after his eye fell to her seal-less forehead.
"At sixteen? Congratulations, Sakura-chan."
"What? What is this clause thing?" the blond asked, looking from Sakura to Kakashi and back.
"It's a med-nin rule. Usually, they have to stay out of fights as to no get injured or incapacitated to heal their team. But the fourth clause gives the nin in question a clear on fighting in the front line. The only other med-nin allowed to do so is Tsunade-sama herself." the older man explained when it was clear she wouldn't.
"This means that Sakura-chan's a big deal, right?"
"I suppose it does, Naruto. It's a great feat indeed." Kakashi answered with a pensive look, tapping a finger on his masked chin.
"Way to go, Sakura-chan! Team seven's already making history." he said with a goofy grin and she could only smile and shrug. Sasuke snorted.
Before another argument developed, Kakashi told them to 'go spar already'. Naruto ran to the middle of the clearing, Sasuke walked just enough to be in the clearing and so did Sakura. So she and the young Uchiha were each other on one extreme opposite of the clearing, with Naruto in the middle. They all looked at Kakashi, waiting for further instructions.
The older man sighed. "What are you all waiting for?"
That snapped them right out of the trance, Naruto and Sasuke jumping to one another, going at it.
Sakura, however, didn't even move (besides rolling her eyes). She knew they'd do just that and forget about her, as usual. They were predictable. She thought about jumping in too, but that would only serve to get her caught in the crossed fire, so she remained in place, observing them, waiting for an opening and let out her bubble that stretched just beyond the clearing, just in case she would miss something with her eyes.
A few seconds later, she felt movement coming her way on her back and quickly jumped away, landing on a tree branch to see who it was, but didn't even get to recognize, because it was coming for her again, faster this time.
Dodging time and time again, she eventually made her way into the clearing once more, then she spotted three things at once: Naruto and Sasuke still way too focused on each other to notice she had moved; Kakashi missing from his earlier spot and a blur coming for her again.
So it was Kakashi who had come after her. She grinned, falling to her usual stance after dodging him a couple more times.
This time he stopped in front of her and said "Looks like they didn't really understand the point of this spar, ne, Sakura-chan?" and scratched his head.
She shrugged "Bet you were expecting this to happen, sensei".
"Hm, I guess I should set this straight." He said looking at the boys, Naruto was already making a Rasengan and Sasuke was racing to destroy the clones before the jutsu was completed. "Tell me, Sakura-chan. Is it safe to assume that Tsunade-sama herself taught you how to dodge and maybe some more things?" he asked without looking back at her.
"Yes."
He nodded and vanished, appearing between the boys, effectively ending their spar.
"What did you do that for, sensei? I had him!" Naruto whined.
"No, you didn't, dobe!"
"Boys, boys. I thought I said this was supposed to be a team spar?" He asked, releasing them.
They looked dumbfounded, but nodded.
"Then why were you two sparring alone without even paying attention to what was going on around you, thus leaving your backs open for Sakura-chan to attack?"
The blond's eyes went wide and both boys turned to look at her.
"You were gonna attack us on our backs?" Naruto asked in surprise.
"Was I not supposed to?" She asked, tilting her head to the side, feigning confusion.
Sasuke seemed pissed while the blond was just there looking at her and blinking.
"I think we should play a game, ne, Sakura-chan?" Kakashi asked, quickly snatching their attention. Answering their unasked questions, he continued "Catch the medic."
Now was her turn to have wide eyes. Oh no. Tsunade really liked to play that. Before they made their move, she quickly asked "What are the rules? Will you play too?" Tsunade was savage at that game and usually would only allow Sakura to dodge. One time she wasn't even allowed to run, she had to stay still and dodge anything that came her way, it was hell.
"Hm..." The sensei paused to think "Let's say that whoever catches and immobilizes Sakura first will get my help developing a new jutsu. And I'll be just watching."
"And what's in it for me?" Why would I agree to this? Was what she was really asking, raising an eyebrow and holding back a frown at how he was clearly underestimating her.
"If you incapacitate them both, I'll give my personal recommendation for you to be promoted as jonin." She nodded her agreement "You have thirty minutes. If the time ends with neither Sakura caught nor Naruto and Sasuke incapacitated, you all lose and have to take Pakkun and the rest of the pack on a walk for the rest of the week." They all nodded "Oh, I'm counting already." And disappeared.
Just as Sakura expected, Sasuke was the first to move and he was fast. But not as fast as she had just seen him with Naruto. He was underestimating her, she realized. But that was okay, she preferred when people did that because it pushed her harder to prove them wrong.
Thirty minutes was enough time to get caught, so she'd have to be extra careful.
She felt him coming more than she saw, given that she was averting her eyes to his feet, so he wouldn't be able to catch her with his sharingan, that would be no fun.
Lucky for Sakura, he was coming straight to her and when he was close enough, she spun to kick him on the legs, which he dodged by jumping, but by the time he was back on the ground, she was already elsewhere.
Quickly moving from branch to branch, she fished a kunai when she felt Naruto coming for her, though he was clearly not trying to be stealthy (could he even?). As expected, three clones broke through the leaves, towards her. There were two more behind them with the original. He didn't seem to have a plan and, instead, was just trying to catch Sakura by using many clones at once.
The first three were just jumping at her (clearly a distraction for the other three) at the same time as Sasuke was closing in on her from the back. In the last second possible, she made a substitution jutsu and, from the other end of the clearing, heard some pops and an angered huff.
Mid-air, she had made a clone and they both landed on the cleaning, one on the right side, the other on the left. They both stared at where the boys were. She had a plan. It was risky, but if she played it right, it would work. But she had to be quick about it.
"Is that all you boys got after two years of training?" the Sakura on the right asked as soon as the boys stepped out of the trees "Naruto, I suppose that means you should give up on becoming Hokage." the same Sakura sneered at the blond.
"Sasuke-kun… At this level, do you really think you'll last two whole minutes against Itachi?" the Sakura from the left put as much disdain as she could in that.
*POV Right Sakura*
The blond was staring at her in disbelief.
"Sakura-chan…"
"What?" She cut him "You really think you can bring me down with three little clones?" She laughed "You'll need many more than that to even have a chance, Naruto."
Sakura knew that the blond was a strong shinobi, a relentless opponent. But she also knew that if you pushed his buttons the right way, he was easy to distract from small details such as Sakura trying to direct his attack to be just a vast amount of shadow clones, instead of a more intricate strategy.
She knew that he would want to prove a point and go head-on with an army of clones. Or at least she was hoping he would, given that she had no real knowledge about his new skills acquired in the last two years.
But as it turned out, Naruto would always be… well, Naruto and did the same as he would have done two years before. Yelling that one day he'd be the Hokage (believe it!), the blond made an insane amount of clones to attack.
Seeing the small army of clones (many more than he used years before) Sakura stiffened a gasp. She would have to be nothing short on perfect while dodging them, or she'd pop out of existence before it was the right time.
Clone-Sakura got to her stance, ready for action and Naruto's clones began coming for her.
The first to reach her was jumping slightly on her left, coming down with his right fist closed, aiming for her chest. The best evasion would be to jump sideways into the trees, but that was too far for the plan to work and she could see more clones coming right after that one.
Wasting no time, she extended her leg in a quick kick to the clone's torso and it popped. One down, still too many to go.
Two more were approaching to the same side, faster than she would be able to get to her stance, so she flexed her knee and turned, hitting one clone on his side and, extending her leg once more, she hit the second on the head.
Wasting no time, she inclined, placing a hand on the ground to use it as leverage to kick three more clones while spinning to avoid the ones coming from behind her and fishing a kunai with her free hand. But as soon as she hit one, three more took its place.
There were too many for her to deal with as a clone and she could see a Rasengan being formed in the middle of the crowd. She needed to complete the plan before it went sideways, so she called the sign.
"Stop hiding behind your clones!" she yelled at him and jumped high up, twisting to eye the original Naruto (the one with a heartbeat and the half-formed rasengan) and fell aiming a punch on the ground close to him. In Tsunade-fashion, the ground crumbled beneath the strength of her punch and most of the clones popped away.
Using the boy's stunned surprise and the smoke from the impact, she mustered a good amount of chakra on her leg (enough to get him unconscious), approached him from behind and spun to kick him on the chest. On the last split second possible, however, he made to duck down and the kick landed on his head. He was sent flying through the clearing, hitting a tree and slumping unconscious on the ground.
Clone-Sakura popped away when she felt real-Sakura's jutsu.
*POV Left Sakura*
Sakura was no fool. She knew that Sasuke was strong and skilled, possibly even more so than her. But he was also arrogant and that was a good weakness to target (in another spar). For this one, she would play a different weakness instead.
Sure he was strong. But so was she.
He was skilled. But arrogant.
He was fast. So was Sakura, though considering he had been working on his speed for longer, she had to assume that he was faster.
He was ruthless and she could be too.
He was levelheaded. She was too, even more so after her training. Med-nins couldn't afford to lose their heads in any circumstance.
Unlike her, however, he was totally rational.
Except when it came to his older brother, that is. Toss Itachi's name in a situation where Sasuke was already distressed and… bam! Emotions.
It was painfully clear that Sasuke wasn't good with emotions. Too used to shove them down and denying even their existence, he couldn't deal with them properly.
Whenever the older Uchiha was mentioned, Sasuke went into rage mode before reigning control over his emotions again. And by saying what she had just said to Sasuke when he was clearly angered already, was a bad idea. A very bad one that could result in a fit of blind rage.
But that's what Sakura was going for, because that way, he got stuck in an all offensive and no defensive mode. She needed that to take him down quickly.
Though, chances were that even in a blind rage, he'd probably get a few hits in, especially considering the sharingan. She'd have to be extra careful. She couldn't afford to make a mistake because she knew that he'd make her painfully regret her words.
She wasn't looking him in his eyes, obviously, but didn't miss his reaction to her words. His hands closed into tight fists and then he was gone.
He was indeed fast.
So fast.
Faster than she expected. But not so much that she had no chance to get him. No no, Tsunade had made her improve her speed Lee-style. The blond had stressed that Sakura, being petite and slim, was built for speed and agility and that she should play her strengths.
When he appeared right in front of her, trying to grab her, she was already jumping back, raising her kunai to block the fist that was coming her way. As soon as it connected, she had to jump because the boy was trying to kick her legs.
She had to move away before he cornered her, so she used the boy's fist, that was now approaching from her left, as leverage to throw him away. As soon as he was in the air, she rolled to dodge the kunais he had sent and getting to her feet, she had another kunai in hand right in time to deflect more of his own.
Then he was coming for her again. No time to breathe. Sakura dodged his punches and kicks until he managed to get inside her guard and landed a punch on her face sending her a couple of meters away. She felt her nose breaking, but before it could bleed, however, it was healing. She had no time to rejoice on how her seal was working well and fast because she had to spin mid-air to block a kick.
She landed and jumped back, stopping on a tree branch right when she heard the signal.
"Stop hiding behind your clones!" her own voice called from the other end of the clearing and she held a scowl.
It was too soon, but there was no way to stop her clone, so she pushed forward, towards a very angry Sasuke, who apparently had stopped when he saw her coming his way and was charging a chidori.
But before his attack was ready, the ground crumbled and he lost control of the chidori, which disappeared quickly.
Sakura reached the boy in a heartbeat and feigned a kick to force Sasuke to arch his back away and lower his head within her reach. She placed her hand on his nape, sending a (much larger than needed) wave of healing chakra to force him into unconsciousness just as he was aiming a kunai to her stomach and, lucky for her, her attack worked before his did and the boy went limp.
Her bushin's memories flooded her head and she made quick work of checking if Sasuke was indeed unconscious (he was), then tying his hands away from one another and making the seals to bury him in the ground up to his neck.
Then she raced towards the blond, checking him for injuries from her clone's kick. There was no serious damage, so she healed him (while making sure he stayed unconscious) and proceeded to bind and bury him just like she had done with the Uchiha.
When she was done, she straightened her back and took a deep breath, dismissing her little bubble. Her plan had worked.
She smiled.
They might be more skilled than her in some ways, but she had played the right cards. Now they would know better than to expect that she was still that same old clueless weepy girl.
She was still very emotional, yes. But she had learned to push any and all emotions away when she was fighting (except for anger, she had a hard time letting that one go) and fight rationally. She learned that she could always cry later, but only if she survived the fight.
"Well done, Sakura-chan." Kakashi's voice came from right beside her, on her left and she spun fast, already falling to her stance and automatically releasing her bubble again. She was still running on adrenaline.
He raised his hands, signaling that she didn't need to fight and she relaxed her body, but kept the bubble. The good thing about this particular skill she had acquired was that the healing chakra was so thin and felt so harmless, that people didn't even register it's presence. Not everyone, though. Sensor types felt it, but they usually just overlooked it, given it's soothing nature.
"That was… impressive. I didn't expect you to push those buttons." he paused "You knew how they'd react to those words, ne? And planned accordingly."
Sakura smiled and said with a shrug "They weren't taking me seriously."
"Hn." the man nodded distracted "Will Naruto be okay? That was a nasty kick."
"He's fine, just… sleeping. Kind of."
"You should put them face to face, Sakura-chan! So they'll be comforted by each other when they wake up." She saw his eye wrinkling in a smile and snorted.
That would be fun.
She made the hand signs and moved the boys to face each other. When she went to wake them, her sensei said "Hold on, Sakura-chan. I'll want to remember that." pulling his hitai away from his sharingan and nodded at her.
She placed one hand on each of their heads and sent a wakening jolt of normal chakra. When they grunted, she stepped back before they opened their eyes.
Sasuke was the first to 'wake up' and they saw his eyes going very wide upon taking up the scene and his situation, frowning at the same time as Naruto opened his eyes. The blond didn't look as surprised as the one in front of him. He was, however, scowling.
"You tricked me, Sakura-chan!" he yelled looking at her.
"Oi, dobe. Stop yelling at my face!" Sasuke hissed.
"Where else am I supposed to yell at? I can't move!" he yelled back.
"Then just stop yelling!"
Kakashi laughed and both heads snapped in his direction.
"Get us out of here, sensei!" the blond whined.
"Oh, there's no rush, Naruto. I think I'll leave you two there until the thirty minutes are up." he said sitting down fishing his Icha-Icha. Sakura mimicked (except for the book).
"How long?" Sasuke muttered.
"Oh, you'll be there for ten more minutes!" their sensei answered, not taking his eye from the book. He had already placed the hitai back above his left eye.
Sakura gaped. She thought she had used more time, maybe even more than she had available.
"Ne, Sakura-chan." Naruto began "How did you do that?"
"What?"
"The ground. It just.. vanished."
"Oh. Just a little trick I've learnt with Tsunade-sama." she smiled.
"That's cool. But I never got to use anything new." he frowned "I kind of thought I could take you down with the bushins…" he blushed.
All the while Sasuke was grumbling to himself about how he couldn't believe he had let that happen and that there was no way she had done that to him.
"You two should learn from this. But don't beat yourselves too much, Sakura-chan just knows you a little too well for your sakes." the sensei said shrugging.
She wanted to frown, but held her face blank. She had known them well, or so she thought back then. Now she just knew where to poke to make them feel bad.
"Yeah, Sakura-chan, how could you say that to Sasuke?" Naruto asked with big eyes.
She felt all eyes on her.
"It was the best choice for my plan." she shrugged. Deep down, she felt guilty, but she didn't want to apologize. Sasuke was staring daggers at her. She looked back to the blond, who was speaking again.
"Teme is much stronger now Sakura-chan! You'll see. And- Oh. How did you take him down?"
She remained silent. So did Sasuke.
Kakashi was the one who answered.
"She was smart, Naruto. That reminds me," he turned to face her "I swear I saw Sasuke breaking your nose…"
Sakura understood that he was fishing for information on how her nose was okay if she hadn't stopped to heal it.
"He did." she nodded.
"Teme! You didn't have to hurt her!" the blond yelled disapprovingly.
"Shut up, dobe. Her nose is fine, she's a med-nin, right?" he huffed.
"Yeah, but still..."
"My nose is fine, Naruto. No blood, no harm." that wasn't medically accurate, but Naruto didn't have to know that.
The boy nodded.
"Ne, Kakashi-sensei. So that means Sakura-chan will be promoted to jonin, right? I'll be the only chunin left!" he asked then whined.
"Maybe, Naruto. I'll recommend her, but it's still the Hokage's decision." which, for Sakura, meant that she could forget it. There was no way Sarutobi would promote her, at least not right now, or any time soon.
She frowned, wishing she had asked for the help on a jutsu instead.
"Sensei," she called his attention "if you don't mind, may I be excused to leave?"
"Same time tomorrow." he said and nodded, she left.
A/N: That's it for the first chapter! Did you like it? PLEASE TELL ME
It was a longer chapter (15 pages!) and I tried my best on that little fighting scene. I hope it was okay!
Also, before anyone goes hating on how Sakura would never beat Naruto and Sasuke, keep in mind that: (1) they were underestimating her and she used that in her favour; (2) her training with Tsunade was all far away from Konoha, so they didn't spend much time inside a hospital, thus being able to also focus more on actual fighting and dodging skills; (3) Tsunade is a Kage level kunoichi, it's only natural that Sakura got damn strong (not just the punches, tho); (4) I warned you that this would be a strong Sakura (I won't make her OP, though, just trying to serve some justice to overlooked female characters!); (5) I do not intend to power-down the boys, don't worry, they'll still be somewhat OP in there, much like the original (though maybe not that much).
See you on the next one!
Peace ;)