Chapter 03 - Forced Affinity
A/N: Hello, I have important notes in the end for you!
On the next day, Sakura woke up to a very excited Ino, followed by a disgustingly wet tongue slapping across her cheek. She shrieked and waved her hand to push it away, but hit only air. Then came a laugh and a bark.
She was really confused until she noticed Akamaru sitting on the blond's bed (that they were sharing). Her eyes widened. Was Kiba there too? She would punch Ino into oblivion if he was. Sakura was wearing nothing more than a loose (and mostly translucent) shirt and panties!
"He's not here, Forehead." her friend sneered and Sakura turned to face her "It's just Akamaru. He comes to see me sometimes." she smiled sweetly and scratched behind the not-so-little-anymore dog. He was thoroughly enjoying the caress.
"Oh." she didn't know what else to say, except for "Why did he lick me? I've never seen him do that." granted that she had paid very little attention to both Kiba and Akamaru through the years.
"I guess he was tired of hearing you snore…"
"What? I don't snore!" she answered outraged, the dog had sat up and was eyeing her with curiosity.
"Chill out, Forehead. I'm sure he simply meant as a hello. I might have talked about you a little to them when you were away and they're anxious to meet you. Properly." she said dismissively and Akamaru stood up and walked right to her, sniffing her all around until he plopped his head on her lap, a clear sign that he wanted to be pet. She reached to scratch him like she had seen her friend do and the dog quickly melt into her caress. His fur was surprisingly soft while still thick.
Sakura looked up and saw her friend staring at them with a content smile on her face.
"I think he likes you." she said softly.
As to confirm that, Akamaru rolled over and licked her hand, rubbing his snout on it. She laughed. Ino was right, Akamaru could be a darling (when he wasn't being deadly, that is).
"Akamaru?" Sakura asked and the dog stilled, raising his head to look at her "I think I like you too." she smiled and he barked playfully.
"Yeah yeah, that's great." Ino tried to hide her contentment "But we have to get moving if we're to keep on schedule." the blond stood up and began fetching some pieces of clothing, placing them in front of her to look in the mirror, shaking her head and then repeating it until she settled for a deep purple skirt with black shorts underneath and a white tank-top. Sakura had remained seated on the bed, petting Akamaru.
"If you don't get going fast, you'll be late for your thing with Shizune-san and Tsunade-sama. I'm pretty sure they'll kick your butt for it." the blond said looking at her through the mirror.
Sakura sighed and paused the scratch on the dog's belly. Ino was, unfortunately, right. Tsunade would kick her butt if she was late.
She stood up, grabbed some of her things and made her way towards the bathroom. As much as she liked Akamaru, she wasn't about to change in front of him. Even though he was a dog. It was just weird.
As she undressed, she looked at her image on the giant mirror Ino had on her bathroom.
Over the last couple of years, Sakura had gotten somewhat comfortable with her own body. She loved how her slim figure hid a strong and defined body that was built to be agile. She liked how toned her legs and arms were. She even began to accept (she wasn't in the 'like' phase yet) her forehead, mostly because of the idea of how good she would look with the diamond seal in it. She also accepted, and was beginning to like, her small breasts. They were much more fitted for an active kunoichi and didn't get in the way of her agility. She'd rather be lithe and fast over having big boobs any day (or so she had repeated to herself like a mantra until it finally stuck).
Ino's yell shook her from her thoughts.
"Breakfast is getting cold and you're getting late!" her voice came from within the house, the living room, probably. Ino never ate at the kitchen unless forced to.
"Coming!" Sakura yelled back, dressing up quickly in an all black outfit. Pants, boots, tank-top and her weapon pouch for the spar later that day. She liked to stick to black now. It was easy to match and she discovered she looked damn good in it.
The pinkette raced towards the kitchen to grab something to eat and found Ino putting her own dish in the sink.
"I've packed you a snack, there's toast and jam on the table. Also some fresh coffee on the mug." she said dismissively, the spitting image of her mother.
Sakura grinned and raced to give the girl a hug. She loved Ino.
"Thank you, Pig! You're a lifesaver!" she released her before getting smacked and sat to drink her coffee and nibble on a toast "Where's Akamaru?" she asked through a mouthful of toast with strawberry jam.
"He's gone already." the girl shrugged "He rarely stays more than an hour if he's alone. Kiba and Akamaru are training really hard to be promoted as jonin." Ino smiled.
"Hm! That's cool." Sakura smiled back "That reminds me, you must've worked your ass off in those past two years, huh, Pig? You were a genin when I left and now you're already a jonin."
"Yeah." she blushed "I did work my ass off."
"I'm really proud of you, you know?"
Ino's blush deepened "Yeah? Let's see how proud you'll be when I kick your ass tomorrow." she huffed.
"Even more proud!" Ino scowled, it felt good to tease her "But don't hold your breath, Pig-chan. I won't go down easily."
The blond smiled "There's no way you'll beat me again. That time was just luck, Forehead."
"Luck? Whatever makes you sleep at night!" Sakura laughed "Bring it on." she smirked and the blond did the same.
#
Sakura had scheduled a quick lesson with Tsunade and Shizune on a new poison that was being used around Oto to kill many shinobis recently and they didn't want to leave without Sakura learning all she could about it. They decided to meet at 6:30 in the morning, so Sakura wouldn't be late to meet her team.
She was set on behaving well enough that her stalker (who was already following her ever since she left Ino's place) would be gone as soon as possible. And if that meant that she had to suck it up and pretend to be a good pawn, then so be it.
Lucky for her, Tsunade was in a good mood today, but not so much so that she'd just let a stranger watch her teaching Sakura and she quickly made it known to the little shadow by yelling that if the 'freak' didn't leave on their own, she'd punch them to the other side of the village. Soon enough, it was just the three of them and they proceeded with the lesson.
Sakura really wanted to spar with her shishou and test the thing she did with Hinata (numbing her arms) on the older woman. That was bound to surprise her, Sakura knew. But to her misfortune, they didn't have enough time after the poison lesson and neither later, for Tsunade was being called to work in the hospital for as long as they stayed and then they had that dinner with Jirayia and the girls.
Because of the constant attempts of some missing-nins on attacking Tsunade because of the bingo book, it had become a habit of hers to walk, most of the time, with a small version of her bubble around her, not to be caught with her guard down. So, as soon as she arrived at the training ground 5 and expanding said bubble, she felt that her shadow was already there, waiting for her somewhere to her right. She didn't acknowledge the person, even though she was curious about who'd be.
Sakura sat at the same place as the previous day and waited, this time without closing her eyes. The same happened, Sasuke came first and leaned against a random tree without even acknowledging her (which she did the same), followed by a loud Naruto talking non-stop asking her many things. Some she would answer and others he just ignored when she didn't and followed with more talking.
Kakashi was late, obviously, but arrived earlier than yesterday. Only an hour and twenty minutes late. It was quite something.
Sakura was expecting that they'd be sparring again, so she was surprised when, instead of asking them to go at it, Kakashi asked her (directly!) "Sakura-chan, can you use chakra natures?"
She frowned. He had already seen her using earth release, so what was that question for?
"Of course I can use chakra natures."
"I thought you didn't have any affinity…" Sasuke spoke to her for the first time since she arrived in Konoha. Actually, he just mumbled looking nowhere in particular (but definitely not at her), though it was obvious that he had said it for her to listen, so maybe he wasn't really speaking to her, but he was still speaking to her, somehow. (Does it make sense? No? Well.. Neither does the Uchiha prat.)
She scowled. He had to say that, didn't he? Damned Uchiha.
Ever since that awful day when that little freaking paper remained just as smooth as before she touched it, Sakura had dedicated herself to studying as much as she could about the natures so she could train, in secret, to be able to use one of them. Water was the one she had decided to try first. Don't ask her why, she just took a liking to it. Call it a 'forced affinity' if you'd like.
The first time Tsunade had asked her that very same question, she had been utterly ashamed to say that she had no natural affinity, but was quick to add that she was training water release on her own (and failed to admit that she wasn't good at it, though the woman quickly caught on to that). Then her shishou told her one thing that stuck in her heart and made her train ever harder.
Tsunade had told her that the first three Hokages and her own ex-teammate, Orochimaru, had mastered all five elements. Yes, they had had affinities, but they had mastered all the remaining natures by training alone. Tsunade herself could use four of them, except for wind, and had affinity only to lightning.
"Which ones?" Kakashi interrupted her train of thoughts.
"Why do you wanna know?"
Sakura knew that it was probably to coordinate some teamwork and combined combos, same as she knew she was being childish, but she was wary of them and knew that to give away what she could and couldn't do to someone she didn't trust was potentially dangerous, also she was really annoyed and decided to be annoying in return.
"To see if it matches with one of the boys'." he said with an annoyed sigh.
Did he really forget that I used earth release just yesterday?
"What are their natures?" she asked, going along with the 'I can't seem to remember' act.
"Sakura-chan, don't you remember?" Naruto was the one who answered "My rasengan and teme's chidori?" he lifted an eyebrow and, when she didn't answer, he continued with a sigh "I can use wind and teme can use both fire and lightning."
So they hadn't acquired any other natures? Hm… They must've spent the time perfecting their own affinities. She thought.
Sakura knew that she was in no position to lie, so she decided to play it down instead. It would at least prevent them from knowing the extent of her abilities, while still playing the good teammate role enough not to put anyone in danger in future missions.
"I can use some earth, like I did yesterday, and water." She was training lightning release, but wasn't actually proficient at it yet, so decided against telling about it. Also, they already had Sasuke to use it anyway.
"Together we have all of them!" Naruto smiled "Team seven's the best."
"Don't get your hopes up so soon, dobe. She said she can use 'some' earth and water…"
Sakura barely restrained herself from jumping to the idiot's neck. Who did he think he was?
"Oy, teme. Don't say things like that." The blond said, suddenly angry "I'm sure Sakura-chan worked hard to be able to use both natures. And I'm proud of her improvement. Going from none to being able to use two natures must've taken a lot of training." he turned to give her a big smile. The same one he used to give her before. It felt surprisingly genuine.
She was taken aback that Naruto had defended her and gave him a small smile in return.
Sasuke had started talking, but Kakashi beat him to it "Ma, it doesn't matter. I guess we can test the strength of your natures and then you can work on improving them." he said with what Sakura classified as a 'masked frown' and sat down, fishing his icha icha out of thin air, apparently. "Let's get this over with. Show me what you got, Naruto."
The blond promptly got up and made his way towards the middle of the clearing.
"Yoshi!" he said, already making two clones and forming a rasengan.
"Naruto." the older man called "We already know you can make a rasengan. That is the epitome of wind jutsus, but it doesn't mean you have to use it all the time." He said tiredly.
Naruto just looked torned. Apparently, if Sakura was reading him well enough, he didn't understand why he couldn't always use the strongest jutsu he had.
She watched Kakashi trying to explain to him that he should keep it as a last resource of sorts, to which the blond just yelled 'but the rasengan works! Why wouldn't I use it?'. Sakura decided to intervene, against her better judgement.
"Naruto." she called everybody's attention with her annoyed tone "The point is not whether the rasengan works or not. We all know it does." The blond smiled smugly and she held herself from rolling her eyes "But it might be a waste of chakra against, for example, a strong fire jutsu. Also, you need to stay close to your target and sometimes that's not the smartest thing to do." she raised her hand when he was about to cut her and kept going "Also, if the goal is to combine our natures," the 'our' was said between clenched teeth "then you need to use a wind jutsu that can be added to a fire one or that can have lightning added to it and that's not the rasengan."
The blond frowned, then pouted "But the rasengan-"
"No buts, dobe. Just let it go, already." Sasuke hissed "Come on, hurry up. I've got better things to train today. Let's get this over with."
As it turned out, Naruto didn't know many wind jutsus, though the ones he did were good and mostly very well executed, much to her surprise.
After her explanation, they had changed slightly their plan of training and were trying to boost Sasuke's Gokakyo no Jutsu with Naruto's Fuuton Arashi no Jutsu. Sakura was simply watching. And studying them, of course.
The boys seemed to work together very nicely even though they had very different styles. They had good chemistry and were in tune with each other's movements. They had a tight synchronicity.
Too tight to insert someone else smoothingly, she mused.
She kept studying their movements and discovered a pattern. Was that an opening? Sakura smiled. It wasn't too obvious, but yes, it was there alright.
Just before and right after they combined both jutsus, they left their guards completely opened. It was for just a second before and another one afterwards.
She was surprised that their sensei hadn't said anything about it, though he didn't seem to be paying them much attention. But then again, you could never really tell with Kakashi. For all she knew, he could be expecting her to point it out.
Before she said anything about it, however, the silver haired man put his book down a bit "That's enough. You can work on it later. Let's try" he paused "water and fire."
Sakura and Sasuke frowned at the same time.
She was sure this wouldn't work. She had trained really hard on her water release, yes she had. But then again, fire was Sasuke's primary affinity! Surely his jutsu could overwhelm hers and, by the look in his face, he was planning on doing just that.
Apparently Kakashi saw that too and, before the Uchiha could say anything, he announced that they (Sakura and himself) were to test her strength against a fire jutsu and promptly made a clone while he got his book up again. She got up as the boys were sitting down and made her way to the middle of the clearing.
In a second they were calling together and then breathing out their element.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu."
"Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu".
Sakura had expected that Kakashi's jutsu would be somewhat strong. At least as much as the one like she had just seen Sasuke perform when he was training with Naruto. But it was just a smaller, weaker version of it, so her own jutsu swallowed it whole pretty quickly. She had calculated wrong how much the man would underestimate her and wasted chakra.
She wasn't worried about being low on chakra, don't get her wrong, she was simply annoyed. Her shishou had told her that the chakra production and the final amount the shinobi had wasn't the same for the person's entire life.
Tsunade had explained that the chakra was sort of like a muscle. If you trained it frequently and rigorously, it grew to your maximum capacity, but no larger. However, if you slacked off your training or your health deteriorated, it would begin to atrophy.
Sakura kept an attentive watch on her eating and sleeping habits, made sure to meditate and never skipped on training, even if it wasn't too intense. Because of that, her chakra reserves and production were in prime condition, thank you very much.
However, it's safe to say that, for a med-nin, wasting chakra was downright foolish. For Sakura, however, it was completely unacceptable. She had worked too hard to perfect her usage of it to a point where her control was so on point, that the chakra wasted in any jutsu was just short on nothing at all. She knew her techniques and reserves and how much she needed to expend on any and all of her skills.
She frowned in annoyance and waited for the older man to break the silence, but he didn't. Naruto did.
"Kakashi-sensei! What the hell was that?" he sounded utterly confused "I've never seen you do such shitty fire jutsu before."
"He's testing her limits, dobe."
She never strayed her eyes from her sensei, so she didn't miss when he began making signs again and followed suit.
This time he had made a bigger ball of fire, but still not as big as she was expecting, even after she adjusted her own jutsu. Was he planning to have her wasting chakra like a fool? She all but snarled, angry.
Then he was going at it again and once more her water swallowed the fire whole, wasting chakra again. Her anger peaked and she was losing the hold on her temper.
"What the hell are you doing?" she asked angrily and, at his noncommittal shrug, her patience finally snapped and she yelled at him "Stop wasting my fucking time and chakra!"
Her mind barely registered that she had just yelled at her sensei, or how her teammates had gasped, or how she had finally managed to get an emotion out of Sasuke and missed it entirely. She only had eyes to the older man in front of her, whose only reaction was a single furrowed eyebrow.
He began making signs again and she did too. Despite the fireball being larger this time, she knew he was not taking her seriously and the fire died quickly upon meeting water. Sakura knew he was massively holding back. The strength of jutsu he was making was like a chunin's, at best. She knew he could do much better.
Her anger peaked in a small fit of rage, fueled by old grudges and annoyance at being so ridiculously underestimated and, without pausing to think about how stupid she was being, she flashed through hand signs and called "Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu."
At the same time, Kakashi called again "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu."
A sudden burst of hot air flooded Kakashi's side of the clearing at the same time as the air felt heavy with dampness on Sakura's side. Followed by a sizzling sound as the fire and water crashed together.
Finally, he had made a proper sized fireball. But Sakura was so worked up that she had used a much stronger than needed jutsu and the fireball was wolfed down like a simple inconvenience by the water dragon that kept his way towards her sensei's clone who popped away along with the dragon.
Even from a distance Sakura could tell that he was grinning before he popped. Then she understood. He had been playing her, much like she had played her teammates the day previous.
She scowled. Way to go, Sakura. What happened to playing down your strengths?
Naruto was saying something, but all she could hear was her own voice in her head saying that she had been a fool, that Kakashi had known how to push her buttons enough to make her give away what she didn't want to. Sakura would have to be very careful from now on in order to keep control over how much she let the village know about her.
She mentally nodded to herself. She'd be more attentive and cautious from now on. Also, it would do no good to sour at that mistake, so she straightened her back and stared at her sensei.
"That was good, Sakura-chan!" he said cheerfully and she bit back a huff "Ma, I think we all deserve a break, ne? We can continue tomorrow." he said and vanished.
Sakura didn't wait any second longer and leapt on the trees, leaving both boys behind.
#
Sakura was so worked up with Kakashi's stunt, that she failed to notice that her shadow was not following her on her way back to Ino's place. She vaguely noticed the shadow's absence when she finally got there, but was soon distracted by an angry blond pulling her inside saying that they would have to go shopping because she didn't have anything to wear, though, upon entering said blond's bedroom, Sakura could spot an insane amount of clothes tossed on the bed.
They went on to prepare themselves for the meeting pretty early. Sakura knew how her friend took ages to get ready and Ino had insisted on doing her makeup, which Sakura agreed to, if the blond did something soft. The hours passed, they took their sweet time on skin care, moisturizing their bodies, hair treatments and all sorts of things that Sakura had missed when nomading with Tsunade and Shizune.
By the end, she felt so relaxed that she wanted to quit going to that dinner all together, for she knew that it would only upset her, but also knew that it was inevitable, so it was better to get this over with already.
Ino ended up wearing a greyish blue fitted and sleeveless midi dress that accentuated her eyes and black high heels sandals. Her blond hair had grown a lot since the chunin exam and was reaching the middle of her back in a braid. Her makeup was heavier than Sakura had ever seen the girl wear, but she looked beautiful with the black and grey eyeshadow framing her eyes and pink lipstick. Kiba was one lucky guy.
Sakura, on the other hand, was wearing a white and fitted midi dress with thin straps, paired with a beautiful mauve haori on top. Ino made her wear some black high heels and even though she hated how much her feet felt constricted, it tied the look together pretty nicely.
The haori had a tiger embroidered in gold on its back and some flowers along the end of the sleeves and edges. Her hair was mainly loose, with a small portion pinned away from her face on the left side by a golden pin. Unlike Ino, Sakura had kept her hair short (even shorter, actually) since the chunin tests. She liked how free it made her feel.
Ino had kept her promise and made a soft makeup on Sakura. She had used a very soft brown to accentuate Sakura's eye shape and added a light golden shadow on the inner corner, to illuminate her eyes, or so the blond had said. Her lips were slightly tinted with a rosy color on the insides. Sakura understood nothing about makeup, she could only appreciate how good she looked right now. Ino had done a good job.
They waited for Tenten and Hinata to meet them so they could leave together. But when they arrived, Ino insisted on doing their makeup too.
Tenten was using a white hakama paired with a lilac kosode, her hair was down and it cascaded to the middle of her back. She was wearing simple white sandals. The makeup Ino did on her was a purple eyeshadow smoked in a pointy shape and lips like Sakura's. She looked stunning.
Hinata, coming from a traditional family, was wearing a pink yukata with a red obi and geta sandals. Hers was the softest eye makeup, Ino had only added a thin layer of shimmery shadow on her upper lids, a soft beige on her bottom lids, some blush, and, to finish, a vibrant red lipstick. She looked like a doll.
When they left, they were already late.
#
The restaurant Shizune had picked was simple and cozy, it had a relaxing aura and Sakura got immediately suspicious. She knew for a fact that her shishou prefered fancier places or those where she could gamble her life away and this place was neither, which got the alarms ringing in her head.
The girls were chatting but, try as she might, Sakura couldn't focus on it. She had a feeling that shit was about to hit the fan. You know the calm before the storm? Yep, that feeling. But Jirayia couldn't be that bad, could he?
Then she heard it. That laughter. That explained her gut feeling alright.
It was Naruto.
Sakura frowned. She had thought about the possibility of Jiraiya inviting the blond, but thought that Shizune would tell her if he did.
The girls were guided by a waiter and reached the table. And there it was, the storm ready to hit her hard on the face. Not only Naruto, but Sasuke was there as well.
They hadn't noticed the girls arriving yet and Sakura's body moved on its own accord, turning to go away before they saw her, but Ino grabbed her right arm.
"We're here with you, Sakura." she said not looking away from the table, eyeing them with restrained anger. Tenten agreed, so did Hinata, grabbing Sakura's left arm. She took a deep breath and they approached.
The conversation died and all eyes were on them. All five pairs.
Tsunade looked at her proudly, Shizune had turned to look apologetic to Sakura and she understood that she had not known about the boys coming either. Sakura nodded at her. Jiraya (Sakura had seen that hair before) was undressing them with his eyes, there's no other way of describing it and it felt horrible. Naruto's eyes were ready to pop out of his head, he was gaping at them, eyes moving back and forth between them and resting on Hinata. Sasuke had his same old boring mask on, but Sakura spotted a faint blush on his cheeks and that he was glaring angrily at the ceiling.
Tsunade was seated on one head of the table, with Shizune on her right and Jiraiya across from the blond, on the other end of the table. On his right side, was Naruto and next to the blond was Sasuke. The table was big and there were four empty seats next to Shizune and three next to Sasuke.
The girls inclined their heads towards them all.
The silence was deafening and Sakura could hear her own heart beating fast. She moved quickly, remembering Shizune's warning and led Hinata to sit next to Shizune, with Tenten next to her and (saying 'sorry') placed Ino next to the brunette, then made her way to the other side of the table, where she sat to Tsunade's left. In the end, there were three empty seats: one between Ino and Jirayia and two between Sasuke and herself.
The boys seemed uncomfortable with how Sakura selected the seats to avoid them at all costs, but the women seemed pleased. Tsunade and Jirayia seemed thoroughly amused.
"Sorry we're late, shishou." Sakura broke the silence and the older woman simply gave her a wink.
"I'm not, Sakura-chan. You all look amazing this evening." Jirayia's harsh deep voice came from the other side of the table, forcing her to turn towards him "I'd be honoured if you girls gave me the pleasure of becoming my muses for my next book." he said with a smile that gave her the chills.
Naruto immediately went red and began yelling at the old man that he should 'forget it' and that he 'would never let him use them for those perverted books'.
After the comotion, Tsunade introduced him and the girls.
Despite the tense atmosphere between them all, dinner passed with no big incidents. Hinata and Sasuke remained mostly silent, the latter being glared at for the entire time by an angry Ino, except when she was answering someone else. Tenten spoke mostly with Shizune and Sakura. Tsunade spoke with Jiraiya and yelled at Naruto, who tried (and failed most of the time) to maintain a conversation with the girls.
All was going well, until Ino told Sakura that they had to leave in about 20 minutes in order to meet the boys. At that statement, Sakura noticed three things at once: first being Naruto blushing, second being the waiter coming with their dessert (and almost tripping while she stared at Sasuke) and third Jiraiya smirking scarily.
That's it. That's when shit hits the fan. She told herself with a grimace at the same time as the old man said in an overly innocent voice, though very drunk.
"So eager to ditch the old people, huh?!" he smiled "Though I'm thrilled that Naruto and Sasuke get to enjoy the presence of four of Konoha's most beautiful women for more than a dinner."
She froze on the spot. What could she say to get away from the trap he had just laid? It would be extremely rude to point out that they were not welcome to come and she had decided just earlier that day to suck it up and play nice with them to avoid any backlash from Konoha.
At the same time, she wasn't about to actually invite them to come with, hell nah. She also didn't want to dismiss them by saying they could go another time, because she knew Naruto would grab that chance and make it happen whether she liked it or not. Before she reached a decision, Ino came to the rescue.
"Oh, you see, Jiraiya-sama. Our meeting is for couples only." Sakura's eyes went big as Ino kept her momentum, like it was no biggie to lie straight to the Sannin's face while knowing that he knew she was lying "My boyfriend" she emphasized that word as much as possible "is Inuzuka Kiba. Tenten here" she waved towards said girl "is with Neji-kun and Hinata is with my teammate, Choji."
Hinata went absolute crimson at the statement, but didn't contradict the girl, so Ino kept going."And Sakura-chan there… well, I was hoping to pair her with Shikamaru-kun." she finished with a bright smile.
The Sannin seemed to be stunned for a moment, while Sasuke's frown widened, the waitress exited with none the wiser and Naruto was getting redder by the second. Tsunade and Shizune were talking in low whispers.
The one to break the silence, however, was Naruto.
"What about Lee and Shino? They're single. If they can go then it's not a couples thing and we can go too, because then there's a single in the middle and-" he kept rambling, but no one was really paying attention by then. When he shut up, Ino was smiling victoriously at him.
"Lee-kun is away for training and Shino-kun is on a mission. They're not coming." her tone screamed 'you're not invited, idiot'
"Oh." was the blond's only answer.
"Yeah." Ino said, already getting up.
"Maybe another time, then." Naruto said sadly, with a shrug and slumped down in his chair.
Expertly, Ino didn't answer, instead, she excused herself by saying that she had spotted a friend and wanted to say hi on her way out. Tenten quickly grabbed Hinata and they made their way out too. Sakura got up after she said her goodbyes and promised her shishou that she wouldn't be late for their meeting the next morning.
Sakura felt a little guilty for crushing Naruto's request, but not enough to do anything stupid like invite him either way or promised on a get togheter on another occasion. Mostly, she felt bad for Hinata, because clearly the girl still had a crush on her blond teammate (which apparently also had a crush on her? or had she interpreted things wrongly?) and Ino had basically crushed their chances.
Hinata, despite having grown a lot on her confidence, was still too shy when it came to the dating department and Sakura knew that she wasn't about to march to Naruto and tell him that Ino was lying and she wasn't with Choji. Especially not when the lie had been to help Sakura get away from them. She was that good of a friend.
Sakura decided that she needed to talk with Hinata about Naruto because, however much the boy had hurt her pride and bombed their friendship (even if by following orders), she wasn't about to trample over Hinata's feelings for the boy and possible happiness because of it. She was that good of a friend too. That and Naruto was a touchy point for her because she was torn between her own hurt feelings and the rationalization that he was even more of a puppet in all this than she was.
Shaking all that heavy inner talk away, she decided to think about it later because tonight she wanted to have fun.
A/N: Hello, a small (but needed) rant coming your way:
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A) I've written this chapter a while ago and I'm mainly posting this because I wanted to tell you something and needed the A/N space to do it.
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B) I'm feeling a little unmotivated to keep writing this fic, to be bluntly honest. Even though I have a pretty solid idea of how the whole story would play out, what I would do in each arc (there would be 3), the characters I wanted to play with (including Orochimaru, Itachi, Kiba, Akamaru, Kabuto, Tsunade...), the list of skills Sakura would learn throughout the story (the why and the how included), as well as having the ending already sorted out (not written, but I know what I wanted to do).
Is this me begging for reviews? It could be, but the truth is I'm really not. However, feel free to review it nonetheless. It might get my fire restarded on this fic, who knows.
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C) The one thing I have yet to completely decide is the pairing hahaha as of right now I could fit any pairing but I just don't know. The way things are right now, I could easily stir it into SasuSaku, NaruSaku, HinaSaku, ItaSaku, TenSaku, ShikaSaku… Hell, I could even go for KakaSaku if I played the cards right. But that doesn't matter until I actually decide to keep writing.
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D) I don't particularly hate this chapter, but I don't really like it either. I was aiming for something and didn't get anywhere near what I actually wanted, but I'm not willing to tweek it any longer because I just know it will get worse if I do.
I'm aware that nothing really happens in those 10 pages worth of words, but mostly everything in this beginning of the story has a reason and this chapter ended up being rather transitory (better just this chapter rather than 2 or 3, right?)
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E) Just wanted to point out that some nature jutsus mentioned in this chapter are made up because I either wanted them to use a specific form I haven't seen on cannon, or I'm too lazy to search for the real name.
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Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu → Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique (classic Uchiha coming of age rite jutsu)
Fuuton Arashi no Jutsu → Wind Release: Wind Storm Technique (I'm soooo creative it hurts, huh?)
Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu → Water Release: Water Bullet Technique
Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu → Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique