Chapter IV: Serious Business
"Hurry up already!" Ino said, glaring at Sakura from over her shoulder.
With a heavy sigh, Sakura looked up to see Ino staring at her. Wasn't it enough that she had resigned herself to letting Ino drag her around Konoha? Did she really have to run everywhere too? "I'm doing my best to keep up…"
Ino didn't seem to like that answer. Instead of yelling at her again, Ino grabbed Sakura's wrist and proceeded to drag her down the path. When she saw the sign for the training grounds—and the three other people occupying the area—Sakura nearly groaned in relief.
Ino ran full-force until they reached the three figures before abruptly letting go of Sakura's wrist.
"Oh, hello, Ino," Asuma-sensei's lips curled into a smile. He didn't seem very surprised to see her. "What a surprise to see you here!"
Shikamaru and Chouji were sitting several feet away from him, in what appeared to be some sort of meditative position.
"How is Team Ino coming along?" He asked.
Sakura gave Asuma a blank look. He was taking this awfully well, wasn't he? Especially since what Ino was doing was probably grounds for being fired… or whatever it was that happened to insubordinate ninjas.
"Our team needs a place to train and all of the other training grounds are reserved," Ino said. "We're kind of in a hurry, so you guys need to leave."
Chouji's jaw drop a few inches. Well, this wasn't going to end well…
At least, that's what Sakura thought until she looked at Asuma, who just continued to smile at the two of them (even if it did look a bit forced).
"Why aren't you guys mowing lawns or something, anyway?" Ino continued. "Shouldn't you be doing missions right now?"
"Uh…" Chouji cleared his throat, "Don't you mean we should be doing missions..?"
"Actually," Asuma interrupted, "Shouji and Chikamaru are going over the basics of harnessing chakra."
Sakura saw Shikamaru cover his face with both hands and groan loudly.
Ino looked like she was contemplating something incredibly important. "Chakra, huh?" She said, biting her lip.
"Yeah," Shikamaru looked uncomfortable, "Chouji and I could use the extra practice."
"Of course," Asuma agreed. "After all, you won't be able to learn any new jutsu without working on your chakra control first."
"Jutsu?" Ino lit up.
"You know," Asuma continued, "You and Sakura are welcome to join us if you'd like. We'd be happy to have you."
"That'd be great!" Sakura said quickly. She and Ino had no idea what they were doing. It had been two days since the formation of Team Ino, and so far, all they had learned was that training grounds had to be reserved, and that as a general rule, shinobi did not like to be ordered around by "a couple of ten-year-olds."
"Watch it," Ino grabbed her shoulder, "I'm the Team Leader, and I decide what we're going to do. This isn't a democracy."
With that, Ino turned back towards the remaining members of Team Ten. She gave Shikamaru and Chouji a good, long look before seemingly coming to a decision. "Alright, then, Asuma-sensei. I'll let you use the training grounds at the same time as Team Ino as long as you promise to teach us, too. But I'm still the team leader here, so don't get any funny ideas about bossing us around."
"That sounds reasonable," Asuma smiled at her.
What—seriously?!
"So, how do we start?"
"Please take a seat," Asuma said, gesturing towards the two males on the ground.
"Argh!" Ino spluttered, mouth full of water as she surfaced from the pond. "Why is this taking so long?!"
"Seriously…?" Shikamaru muttered under his breath. Next to him, Sakura and Chouji nodded in agreement. The three of them hadn't even gotten to water walking yet. What was Ino even complaining about?
"You're doing great, Ino. I haven't seen anyone make this much progress in just a few days."
"Hmph. I guess."
With that, Ino returned to the surface, immediately resuming her practice routine.
Personally, Sakura thought she was crazy, but the pace she kept was pretty impressive. Who knew Ino had that much stamina?
At some point, Asuma had moved to stand behind her. "And how are you things going with you, Sakura?"
"Er, well… Um…" Sakura bit her lip, glancing up at the tree in front of her with apprehension. Thank God no one here seemed to know that Sakura should have mastered this already… Kakashi-sensei must not report much to anyone.
I guess the Land of Waves hadn't happened that long ago, so it makes sense that the other teams might be working on similar skills. Still…
Wasn't Sakura instantly able to walk up a tree in the anime, with her perfect chakra control and all? And since when did Ino have the stamina of Naruto and Sasuke?!
Not only was her chakra control shit, but she hadn't managed to accomplish much of anything these past few days. Okay, that wasn't totally true: at one point she managed to blow a whole layer of bark off of one of the trees.
And don't forget that one time I propelled myself off of the tree so hard I flew back into the pond. That was pretty impressive! I haven't managed to do it again, but that's beside the point, right?
"Don't worry, Sakura," Asuma pat her on the back. "You'll probably get the hang of it."
..Probably? That's comforting…
"Y-yeah…" Sakura mumbled. "I think I'm going to take another break… I'm starting to get a headache."
"Again?" Asuma's brow furrowed. "You've had a headache almost every day now. Do you think you need to see a doctor?"
"Er, n-no, it's fine, really. Actually, I was wondering…" Sakura quickly changed the subject, "Are you really okay with Team Ino? It seems like you could get in trouble for this…"
"Well," Asuma said, "While it's true that this is rather unorthodox, after looking into it, as long as Ino is still participating, the situation is salvageable. As far as I know, as long as the missions assigned to our team get completed, the details are left to us."
Uh…
"So… you're okay with Ino just not going on missions with you guys and telling everyone she's got her own team, then?"
"Perhaps we should think of it in a different way." Asuma gave her another empty smile. "I think it's much more sensible to let Ino have some freedom to do what she wants."
..How on earth is that supposed to be the sensible option?
"As long as Ino feels like she has some control, she seems to be more willing to work with everyone. She's even been training with us every day, just like she's supposed to. Not only that, but she's made some huge strides in her training."
I guess that's true… But what kind of ninjas would be okay with that? Wasn't there some kind of pecking order?
"I'm sure after some time, she'll get used to the idea of being a part of Team Ten again, and will get over whatever phase she's going through. There's no real need to go reporting her or causing needless trouble for anyone. Besides, who knows? At this rate, she might surprise us all and form her own team for real."
WHAT!?
"Ah, sorry," Asuma's mouth morphed into a smirk as he laughed. "I was only joking."
Joking, right…
"I think I'm ready to go home now…"
It was early in the morning, and Sakura was slowly making her way towards Training Grounds Three. As much as she liked complaining about Team Ten's rigorous routine, Sakura would have been okay with one more day of it, because she really wasn't ready for this.
You know, meeting with Team Seven officially for the first time.
And if that wasn't enough to make her nervous, imagining the fit Ino was going to throw if she noticed her absence was enough to send her into panic mode. Sakura "forgot" to tell Ino about having to resume her meetings with Team Seven. Ino probably would have ordered her to quit the team, anyway, and Sakura hadn't felt like trying to argue with her. It was easier to just avoid the problem. Or push it off for a later date and hope Ino didn't show up to punish her.
Sakura could feel the blood draining from her face when she got to the training grounds.
"You're late," Ino snarled, pointing an accusing finger in her direction. "Penalty!"
The very worst crime, Sakura sighed.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto grinned, waving from across the field as he ran towards her, Sasuke following a few feet behind him. "It's been forever! Hey, do you know what they're doing here?"
Naruto was gesturing towards Ino. Standing behind her were Asuma, Shikamaru, and Chouji.
No, she did not know what they were doing here…
"Um…"
"Sorry I'm late, everyone." Kakashi-sensei said, having abruptly appeared before them in a puff of smoke.
"You should be!" Ino put both hands on her hips, "We've been waiting here for ten minutes. What's wrong with you?"
"Only ten minutes?" Naruto gaped. "That's got to be some kind of record!"
"I know, I know…" Kakashi sighed.
"I hope you know you're buying everyone lunch now," Ino continued.
"Could somebody please tell me what's going on?" Sakura finally spoke up. "I thought I was supposed to be meeting with Team Seven."
Ino was almost certainly about to spout something off about Team Ino (if the look on her face was any indication), but Asuma spoke up before she could say anything. "Ah, about that. We've decided to schedule some joint trainings with both Team Seven and Team Ten, at least for the next few days."
Ino glared.
"And Team Ino," Asuma added with a smirk.
Kakashi had an odd look on his face for a moment before it morphed back into his signature nonchalance. Naruto seemed confused, but ultimately didn't say anything, and Sasuke gave Kakashi a look Sakura couldn't decipher before ultimately dropping the subject too.
Sakura was fairly certain that everyone was crazy.
"Actually," Asuma continued, "Our team trainings might have to be put on hold." As he spoke, he pulled out a mission scroll. "Team Ten has some missions to do today, after all."
..Then what was the point of coming all the way out here?
As she watched Team Ten depart—with Ino in tow, mind you—Sakura had to admit, she was impressed.
She didn't think it was even possible to change Ino's mind once it was set, but Asuma had proved her wrong.
"I know these sorts of missions are boring for you, Ino," Asuma began after having called for a brief meeting, sans Team Seven, who were now lounging on the other side of the field. Well, except for Sakura, but she was Team Ino now. Apparently. "But they're more important than you think."
Ino didn't look like she believed him.
"Now, I know you don't believe me," he continued, "But there's another hidden reason behind these sorts of missions. Just looking at them, they appear to be mundane, right? But for every mission you complete, you get a mark on your record. And for every fifteen marks, your chakra pool rises by several points."
Shikamaru opened his mouth and then closed it without saying anything.
"Really?"
"Really!" Asuma smiled. "Unfortunately, Sakura will not be able to join us. Chakra-raising missions can only be completed by three genin and a jonin instructor, so Sakura will have to do her own with Team Seven. I hope you understand."
Something about that definitely didn't sound right…
With that, Team Ten left, and Sakura was finally going to get a chance to get to know the rest of her teammates. In theory, anyway…
Training with Kakashi was proving to be quite a bit different than with Asuma. He seemed to take a much more laissez-faire approach, on the whole.
For instance, all Kakashi had done in the time since Team Ten left was move from the center of the Training Grounds to a nearby bench.
Sakura wasn't sure what to say to any of them, so she waited for one of her other two teammates to crack.
"Well, now what?" Naruto finally broke.
"Huh?" Kakashi looked up from the book in his hands.
"Aren't we going to train or something?" Naruto said. "Do we have a mission too?"
"Oh, right. Train. Of course," Without looking up from his book, Kakashi waved a hand at them, "Give me 25 laps."
Both boys groaned.
"What are you waiting for? Go on, shoo!"
Laps? Seriously? Chakra training was painful enough, but now she had to run too? This was like P.E., only about ten times worse.
"Um, I…" Sakura mumbled, "I-I can't run today… I'm sick..."
"Oh, sorry to hear that," Kakashi said. "Sakura gets to sit this one out!"
Wow, that was easy.
"WHAT!? She's not sick!"
"You're kidding, right?"
Sakura gave a weak cough and shivered for good measure.
"Why are you two still standing here?" Kakashi said. "Now it's 30 laps."
Sasuke and Naruto scampered off, and Kakashi returned to his book. Which, she noticed, did not have a bright orange cover.
"What are you reading?" Sakura asked; she didn't really need to, though, because she could read the cover as clear as day: it was a thick, wordy looking text called 'The Rise of the Five Great Shinobi Nations.' "That doesn't look like Icha Icha to me."
"Sakura, what kind of person do you take me for?" Kakashi gave a dramatic sigh. "I don't only read porn, you know…"
"R-right, of course…" So, should she just go home? Kakashi hadn't dismissed her, and she didn't want to get into trouble for not training. Or have to deal with her parents…
Sakura looked around for a moment, unsure of what to do, before reaching into her bag and pulling out her own book.