A/N: Hello people! Ya girl's working now, so, unfortunately, I haven't been having a lot of free time to write.
I do have the next 2 chapters already written, but I can't promise they'll be posted so soon because I still haven't had the time to go over it to make sure it has no plot holes or typos or anything like that and I won't upload them before I double-check.
With that being said, I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 02 - Organised Chaos
It's safe to say that Sakura was not ready for the scene she stumbled upon when entering her house. Normally she would have picked up the hints and avoided the place like the plague, but she was distracted and walked in unknowingly.
Tsunade was drunk (that was normal), Shizune was not there (that was unusual and enough to raise red flags for Sakura, usually) and there was also an unknown man there, also drunk (weird all over).
Upon entering the house, the first thing Sakura noticed was that in the living room there were empty sake bottles all over, along with empty chips, rests of various foods and… clothes?
What the hell- she was thinking to herself, walking to the kitchen and into her personal hell.
Lost in thoughts, she had failed to notice the noise. She had walked in on her shishou and some rando enough times to learn the woman's patterns and avoid it. Though they all scarred her for life. She would never get used to it.
Without them even noticing, she turned around and went away. She decided to search Hinata, because they needed to talk about a certain blond boy.
#
Turned out, Hinata was actually free, so they went for a walk, but before Sakura could say anything more private, she felt it, the gut feeling of being followed was back. Cursing inward, she suggested that they went on a spar instead. Hinata agreed, not questioning the reason behind the change of mind.
They found a training ground that was free and began warming up. Sakura knew that her follower couldn't hang around for as long as they stayed there if he didn't want to get caught by Hinata's byakugan.
They could spar and then talk. It was a win-win situation, given that Sakura would even get to test herself against one of the strongest types of taijutsu ever, while witnessing how her friend had improved (and show her own improvement too) and as the cherry on top, she could study the gentle fist up close. Also, it would be a damn good test on her healing seal! That way she could definitely improve herself and her knowledge even if she lost, which she was not planning on.
Having photographic memory sometimes felt like her own kekkei genkai. Okay, that's not entirely true, but Sakura said that to herself sometimes, it was a good incentive to improve it as best as she could and use its advantages to her benefit. Wasn't that something kekkei genkais offered? Advantages? Well, a girl can dream, right?
Speaking of kekkei genkais, her friend was walking towards the middle of the clearing, already done with her warm-up.
"Sakura-chan, I know you're stronger now, but you remember how deadly the gentle fist can be, right?" the girl asked, looking uncomfortable.
"Yes, Hina-chan. I remember. Have you got any sequel from that fight with Neji?" Sakura asked, a little confused and her friend blushed a little but shook her head 'no'.
"No, no. I was lucky Tsunade-sama was here that day and she healed me completely." she smiled "She's incredible." Sakura nodded. Her shishou was awesome, indeed "I'm actually asking because I need you to promise me to stop this immediately if you feel bad. I don't want to hurt you, but I won't hold back. I want to show you what I can do and see what you can do." she finished with a bright smile, which Sakura mimicked.
"Yes! Let's have a fair spar. Please don't hold back. I'm really excited to test my skills against your byakugan!"
They bowed to each other in respect and took their stances. Sakura released her bubble at the same time as Hinata activated her byakugan.
She was about to run to strike the brunette when the girl gasped and relaxed from her stance. Sakura immediately spreaded the reach of her bubble as wide as she could (as of right now, 12 meters was her full range), but felt no one else. What had Hinata seen that scared her?
The girl walked awkwardly towards her and Sakura stood straight, waiting for an answer or whatever. She wasn't, however, waiting for a small jolt of chakra the girl sent on her arm. It wasn't meant to harm her, so she stood still until the girl spoke.
"Sakura-chan. Your chakra… is so messy. I thought you were in a genjutsu. I- It's all over the place and there's more than one and… Are you okay?" she asked with concern, her eyes scanning Sakura up and down continuously.
Calling back her bubble, Sakura chuckled and the girl relaxed a little. "I totally forgot to warn you, Hina-chan!" she laughed "I'm sorry I scared you. I assure you that I'm fine, as much as it might not look like it." she said but could see that her friend was not completely convinced, given that she was still scanning her, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.
"I don't remember ever seeing someone with such chaotic chakra. The fact that you manage to have such good control over it besides the mess is impressive, Sakura-chan."
"Thanks, Hina. But I learned how to control it before it got this messy. I just... adjusted to it afterwards." she shrugged. It didn't even felt messy anymore. Well, more like an organised chaos, if that was possible "Here, sit. I'll explain it to you."
She sat down and tugged Hinata to do the same.
"First, can you see anyone else around here?" she didn't bother to release her bubble again, the byakugan had a far larger range than she was able to even dream of reaching right now.
"No, nobody. Why?"
"I've been assigned a personal stalker." she shrugged, but explained better when the girl seemed alarmed "The Hokage. I think he has someone watching me. For safety reasons, of course." she frowned.
"Because of how you left."
Even though it wasn't a question, she nodded.
"But now, tell me, Hina-chan. How is my chakra messy?"
"It has four different concentration places and I can spot what seems to be three different chakras, though one of them doesn't look like yours… It looks, foreing." her pale eyes scanned Sakura's body one last time before locking with hers.
"Wow, Hina-chan! You've really improved! You are absolutely correct." she said excitedly "Where do you see the different concentrations?"
Hinata didn't need to scan her again and answered promptly "There's one on your center, as usual and another on your head. Those two look like the same type of chakra, if that makes sense. The other one is on your bellybutton and this one looks different than the other, while still being similar? I can't understand it to be honest. The last one, is very tiny and is located on the back of your shoulder. That's the one that seems foreing." she finished with furrowed eyebrows, confident on her answer but confused nonetheless.
"You're incredible, Hinata-chan!" Sakura praised and the other girl went completely red "That's 100% accurate." she nodded and launched on an explanation.
"The center one, is my normal chakra, like any other shinobi. The others are seals. The one on my forehead is because of the Byakugō no In, the same seal as Tsunade-sama's! My diamond will be visible any day now." she said proudly and her friend smiled "The one on my bellybutton is a seal I created in the last couple of years and is made of healing chakra, maybe that's why it looks slightly different?"
"Oh, that makes sense, Sakura-chan! You said that you invented the seal? That's incredible!"
It was her turn to blush.
"Tsunade-sama helped me, but yes. I invented it."
"How does it work? I-I mean, if you don't mind telling me, that is."
"Are we still alone?"
"Yes!"
"Well, do you know how the nine-tails chakra makes Naruto heal really fast?" her friend blushed but nodded "It works just like that. It heals me automatically from any injury I have and I don't even need to spare any thoughts on it." she extended her arm to her friend and closed her eyes "Try it, you can see for yourself."
"W-What?"
"Cut me, Hina-chan. It's okay."
"Sakura-chan!"
"I promise, Hina. You'll see what I mean."
A few seconds passed before Sakura felt a cut sting on her upper arm, not too deep, then a gasp and she opened her eyes with a small smirk.
"There's not even a scar!" her friend said grabbing her arm and studying it.
"It was a tiny cut. But I do have some scars from bigger injuries." she shrugged.
"And your chakra responded so fast!"
"I know, right? It took a while, but I think the seal is almost perfect right now." she said proudly "I'm looking forward to seeing how it will perform against your gentle fist, Hina-chan!"
"Me, too, Sakura-chan." they both smiled and Hinata blushed again "And the last one?"
"Oh." her smile died "That one." she frowned "I'm sure you can remember, Hina-chan."
"Is it from that day?" the girl went pale.
"Yeah." Sakura grimaced, she didn't like to think about that day "That one is Orochimaru's curse mark. The one that was meant for Sasuke and that I was too dumb to jump in front of him."
Sakura didn't like to remember that day. Back then she thought she could make Sasuke fall in love with her. She thought she would do anything for him. She actually hadn't even thought twice about jumping in front of the boy and pushing him back, getting the bite in his place. That thing hurted more than anything else hurt in her entire life.
Afterwards she discovered that she had passed out from the pain. She woke up a day later, between the roots of a random tree, with Naruto and Sasuke fighting about whether or not they should leave her behind. For a long time after that, she told herself that the discussion had been because they had assumed she was dead. She couldn't bear to think otherwise.
She thought that, eventually, Sasuke would thank her for saving him from such fate. Or for saving them all when they were being attacked by some sound nins and she discovered that she had a weirdly strong chakra pumping through her. The only thing he said was that the strength she now had wasn't her merit, for it was someone else's.
Then Kakashi sealed the curse mark and that hurted almost as much as the mark itself. She barely recovered in time to participate in the third part of the exam where she fought Ino. Ironically, the only reason she won that match was because of the seal. Soon after Ino took over her mind, the seal began to throb waves of pain, which helped Sakura's unconscious fight her friend out. Clinging to the last bit of strength the pain was fueling her, she walked over to Ino's unconscious body (the girl was completely out, drained of chakra and energy) and touched her throat with a kunai, winning the match.
But back to reality, Hinata had asked her something she didn't register.
"What?"
"I asked you if it still hurts, Sakura-chan."
"No, no. It doesn't. No need to worry, Hina-chan!" she smiled, but she was lying. The mark did hurt sometimes, whenever she felt really angry or was particularly weak, depleted of chakra. It was like, whatever there was in that curse mark, was trying to force its way out. "Now, can we spar?" she asked, trying to change the gloomy subject.
Hinata nodded and they took their stances again.
#
Soon Sakura understood why the Hyuuga's gentle fist was so famous. Even after being trained by Tsunade, it was hell to dodge the hits because you had to duck from not only the hands, but there was also the shockwave of the blow. And the combination of hits was so tight and precise, it left no room for the shinobi to get away.
Though Sakura was no mere shinobi.
She was a med-nin trained by Tsunade herself.
But she was not in her element. Well, that's not completely true. Sakura was used to a completely different type of taijutsu and also to be able to jump away to dodge and gain some space in a fight. That was what the medic in her wanted to do.
The thing was that the gentle fist was a close range technique and if Sakura kept jumping away, there would be no spar. She was sure she could outrun Hinata, but she wanted to give the girl the opportunity to show what she had learnt and to give herself the opportunity to do her best against a strong opponent with challenging skills. So she forced herself not to jump away, to stay and learn.
She realised quickly that Hinata's blows were very similar to Tsunade's when it came to the dodging part. Both were quick, precise, dangerous and had shockwaves (though Hinata's was chakra based, while Tshunade's was a sort of pressure, followed by a quick vacuum from the force of the attack). Though the best way to dodge was completely different, her shishou's hits were best avoided by leaping out of the way, or else you'd have no ground to stand on, literally. The Hyuuga girl's, however, were best redirected with chakra. Or at least that's what she remembered from Hinata and Neji's fight and she had an awesome memory.
Before realising that, she had sustained a few hits on her arms from blocking and because of those damned shockwaves and almost got one on her stomach. But afterwards, she adapted her own style of attacking and defending and the match got more balanced.
Sakura was surprised to see that her healing seal was helping to unblock her chakra points wherever Hinata had landed a hit on her.
The spar stretched for a long time, but eventually keeping up with Hinata was getting harder. Sakura was not used to fighting this way.
Then came a thought, an idea.
She had memorised various complex maps of the human body and its systems, including the chakra system. She didn't have the byakugan to see the chakra points, but she had a damned good memory (did she mention that already?) and a larger target. Sakura didn't have to disabilitate the chakra pathway, she only needed to disabilitate Hinata's ability to move her arms.
Now, hold on. She wouldn't maim her friend. She wanted to try to put the girl's amr to 'sleep', almost like she had done with Sasuke. To make it numb, to be more accurate.
The next time she attacked, she switched the type of chakra to a healing one and aimed on the head of the girl's biceps, injecting it with her chakra.
HInata's arm went sort of limp, it was twitching weirdly on her side. Seeing that the idea had worked, Sakura quickly aimed a kick to destabilise even more the girl and took the chance to hit her other arm. When it fell twitching on her side, Hinata stood straight and pouted slightly.
"That feels so weird, Sakura-chan. What did you do?" she asked panting.
"Just made it numb, Hina-chan. Come, sit. I'll revert it." Sakura answered, also panting.
They sat down and she began working on Hinata's arms. As soon as she was finished, the girl moved her arms, like she was testing it, and grinned at Sakura.
"I almost had you there, huh, Sakura-chan?"
"You did! Damn, Hina-chan, you've improved so much! Also, I now have a new appreciation for you. You've proved to me how hard you trained since your fight with Neji and I have a small idea of how brave you were by taking him head-on."
Hinata flushed.
"T-Thank you, Sak-chan." it was the first time the girl had used a nickname for her and it meant so much coming from the shy Hinata! She didn't want to overwhelm the girl by pushing her into a crushing hug, so she smiled and grabbed her hand, squeezing it slightly "I know you were holding back a little and as much as I appreciate it because it gave me the chance to actually show you how much I've grown in the last two years, I want you to promise not to do that next time."
"Deal." Sakura smiled "Now, I think we should go back before Ino comes hunting us down." she chuckled.
They stood up and went away. The talk about Naruto completely forgotten.
#
Today the meeting with the girls would be at Tenten's, but first, Sakura had to go home to shower and change. And probably see her shishou.
Oh boy, would that be awkward. The answer is yes, of course it would.
She was considering entering right through her bedroom window, but, knowing Tsunade, it would be safer to just go through the front door. After knocking.
It was Shizune who answered the door and Sakura breathed relieved, which earned an apologetic smile from the brunette.
"So you came back earlier?"
"I did. And worst of all, I was too distracted to notice the hints!" she groaned "I walked right in!" she whispered.
The woman chuckled.
"How traumatized are you?"
"Plenty, Shizune-kun! Plenty!" then she grabbed her shoulders in a dramatic way "I saw too much and you know how my memory is, I'll never be able to forget that!" Shizune chuckled again and Sakura shook her a little "Too many limbs! Shizune-kun, way too much skin and hair and… arg! I really wish I hadn't seen it." she let her head hang down and released her friend.
"Believe me, Sakura-chan. I sympathize with you. I've caught those two way too many times."
"Wait." she lifted her head up "Are you saying that that blob of skin and white hair was not a rando?"
She was shocked. Tsunade was rarely with the same man for long, she refused to let herself be in a situation where she could fall in love. Her heart would always belong to Dan.
"Yeah, it's always like this whenever they meet. That was Jirayia, the other Sannin. Be careful around that guy, Sakura. He's a total perv. But they have chemistry, so yeah." she shrugged " I suggest you stay with your friends for a few days. They'll get tired of each other pretty quickly, but then comes the fighting and you don't want to be here for that part, trust me. But keep in mind you'll probably have to meet him too. It's safer over dinner, with more people around and in between. Is tomorrow okay? You can bring your friends too."
Ino wouldn't like that, but she'd make it work.
"Yeah, it's fine." she smiled.
"You should hurry, then. They're asleep, so you're safe." she winked at Sakura and the girl ran in, working fast to get away as quickly as possible and, preferably, with no incidents.
#
Sakura made it out of her house with no problems and went straight to Tenten's. The girl and her parents lived in a big apartment on top of the weapon store they owned.
The rest of the night was pleasant. The girls talked, cooked, shared secrets and ambitions. As it turned out, Ino was not quite ready to share her best friend yet, so it was only girls. They would go with Sakura to meet Jirayia and afterwards they'd meet Kiba and the boys (Shikamaru, Choji, Shino and Neji. Apparently Lee was in 'youthful training' with Gai and would be away for about a month still). It was agreed that Sakura would stay with Ino until her home was… safe again.
Ino grumply rearranged her timetable to fit some training with her shishou and Shizune. If they were gonna leave soon, she wanted to squeeze all she could out of them. Also, they made plans to spar with each other. They all wanted to show (and see) what they had learnt over the years and Ino wanted a rematch with Sakura, she hadn't gotten over the defeat yet.
A/N: That's it for the second chapter! Did you like it? PLEASE TELL ME
I know this is way smaller than the last one, but hey, I felt it was the right place to end it.
I struggled a little to write the fight with Hinata because her style is so unique (and I'm one of those people who read the manga instead of watching the anime for the Shippuden, so the only chance I got of seeing Hyuuga's gentle fist animated was on the chunin arc!), please be gentle on the comments about it. I'm working on writing better fight scenes, I swear.
On to some of your reviews:
LazyStudent → It makes too much sense, doesn't it? Hopefully I'll do her some justice.
NaluGrey → OMG I can't stand how Kishimoto did the Kunoichis wrong. Badass Kickass Bossbabe Queen Sakura. Damn, I loved it! I hope I'll be able to deliver some of that! haha
Kritabear → oooooh I got super upset with how OP Naruto and Sasuke got sooo fast and not a teeny tiny bone was thrown her way. As for romance, I'm not planning on it so soon (though I still want to give it a go, eventually). And Itachi… well, just wait and see! hahaha
bbygurl85 → Thank you!
your miss cadaverous → Thank you! My goal is to make more of a realistic Sakura in this fic, good and bad! I hope you keep enjoying it!
ReindeerEmu → I know, right? So annoying! *huffs* Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
I'll see you all on the next one! (hopefully)
Peace! ;)