Year two, Month four, Day Sixteenth

I could tell that my eyebrows were twitching in irritation, who wouldn't with this wake up call? But I took in a deep breathe and I put on a fake smile as I addressed the person eating all my favorite honey. "Can I help you Grandfather dearest?" I asked lightly.

Grandfather chuckled, putting down the honey he gave me a subtle but smug smirk. Why would he even eat the honey with out anything else? How gross, he was just downing it like it was a shot of vodka or something. Good grief, this man confuses me. Super mature and smart one second, than suddenly he's like a child who got a cookie out of the cookie jar without being caught.

My smiled strained against my face before I got a hold of myself. 'This was not how I wanted to spend my morning' I thought, flickering my eyes out the window as I with held a sigh. My thoughts must of shown on my face because the next thing I knew I heard another chuckle from Grandfather.

"Cherry-tan so glad you could join me." He said, he's old war torn eyes slightly lighting up.

And with that suddenly without my consent my face had soften into something more genuine, because as of late Grandfather has seemed more... subdued whenever he could visit. Which in itself is worrisome, I know Grandfather is pretty high in the food chain, being a Jonin and all. But all that meant was something was happening or going to; whether it was personal or work related I had yet to find out.

And I felt like a child for thinking this, but the Old Man has been to busy to truly visit us. He stops by on some occasions to say a 'Hello' or 'How are you doing?' but not long enough so we can have one on one talks. His once every-other-day visits has turned into maybe-once-and-a-blue moon visit. And for awhile I had thought 'Maybe it's just a troubling mission from the third?' but the village was in peace, therefore no true reason for brutal interrogation, and Grandfather's age prevented him doing anything seduction like 'Would he even be bothered with something like that? Ew no, never mind. Abort the thought mind!' But I knew that he would never let something like a normal mission bother him before, so maybe it was something dangerous? Just the thought of that made my stomach clench with worry and because I knew how bad assuming was, past experience and all, I didn't want to do that. But I may have to, after all Grandfather has never let anything slip past his lips if he didn't want them too, which is not really surprising though. That however did not mean I wasn't determine to find out what was going on, after all he was one of mine. He was pack. So what on Earth is going on?

"Well then," I started, trying not get rid of my childish thoughts while I mentality sighed when my smile turned soft, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

I felt a shiver go down my spin, along with all my pity and worry too, when his smirk turned slightly devious. My eyes instantly narrowed in suspicion and my gut curled in agony as Grandfather leaned forward, an eager look in his eyes. I shifted so my legs were ready to run away at a moment notice as my mind raced, 'God, what is this man thinking? What was I thinking? I suddenly regret everything now.'

"Since ya asked so nicely, I took sometime off ta spend with my favorite granddaughter. How about ya an' I take a run around the village? Maybe find ya some nice weights?" Grandfather crowed as he stood up and dusted off invisible dirt from his pants, making one of his side pouches clank as it moved.

Drawing my eyes away from the pouch I desperately clutched my stomach and let out a pitiful whine. While the thought of Grandfather spending some one on one time with me sounded wonderful, he even wanted to get me weights! Score one for living! But I couldn't help but wonder why did he have to say it so deviously? Was he going to train with me? Dumb question maybe, but it never hurt to cover all of my bases. Or maybe just train me while he watches from the sidelines? My body was already aching at the thought of any more work than what Hinata and I were already doing. But I knew this was going to be good for me, as it would help with my goal of living and all, but nobody said I wasn't going to be a drama queen about it.

"Now, now Cherry-tan. None of that. You need some more muscle on ya than what ya got, and besides lifting heavy books don't count Darlin'." The devil incarnate said, conforming my theory on him wanting to train with me but apparently not thinking of the well-being of his only grandchild, and hopped off the chair. Hearing him come closer my stomach lurched, my mind screamed and I wanted to turn tail and run so badly but I forced my body to stay were it was. Continuously thinking,'Its going to be good for me.'

"No I don't think so." The devil hummed merrily, probably assuming I would run away at the thought of training before he quickly picking me up from the back of my usual shirt; like I was some sort of misbehaving cat. And started to make his way towards my caretakers door.

I squirmed as I tried to escape the devil's hold, I felt like a misbehaving child with the way I was being carried, but all he did was tighten his grip on my shirt and walked out the door. I briefly prayed to a merciful deity for my body's survival. Ignorant to the joyful but hopeful grin on my face.

Year two, Month four, Day twenty-three

My body ached something fierce as I limped through the busy streets of Konoha and with every bump and jostle from the people around me I let out a miserable groan. Grandfather had no mercy on me, he made me run the village four times a day for the last six days! My legs, my core, my everything hurts! Even when he wasn't there I still had to do it. One time I was super sore from over training with my Starfire so I tried to be lazy and just skip it, tell him the next time that he visited that I did in fact do it. But he somehow found out, appeared out of nowhere, and hulled my ass out of my room. That day he made me run the village six times for punishment all while laughing behind me.

And I know that I should be please with the extra training that I'm going, even if my body is not, but my already precious free-time was all gone and replaced with more, harsher, training with Grandfather. All the books I had planed to read was now just going to sit there collecting dust until the weekend because now my weekdays were now filled with eating, sleeping, going to the academy, training with Hinata, and running around the village; but not in that order. But as I always did now a days, I pushed the child part of me to the backburner; besides I wanted this training I wasn't about to let that part of me ruin this.

Of course when mother found out that I was training, therefore taking away from family time, even more she was greatly displeased with Grandfather and I. Since she sat me down and started to list everything that I was doing wrong. Her complaining made my rational side wonder if what I was doing was the right thing for me, mental and physical heath and all, but whenever those thoughts start to creep their way into my mind; my want for survival always outweighs my heath and morals.

But what I will admit is that while the harsher training is taking a toll on my small body, the time that grandpa makes to spend time with me is quite nice. Childish and stupid of me I know, but he makes sure that I'm not slacking, like I'm sometimes prone to do, and he's actually there for me instead of just telling me what I need to do and move on to more important kids; something the most academy teachers do.

Yawning, I looked up towards the sky before letting out a strangled shout. The sun was way higher then I thought it was, which meant I was going to be let for Starfire's and I training session. As I immediately started to go full speed towards our favorite training grounds my body cried out in dismay, but with a few mental waves of dismissal the burning pain slowly faded away.

Before I knew it the training grounds were in sight as well as a cute purple hazy figure doing warm-up katas' from the academy in the middle of them. A happy grin came over my face and before I could help it my mouth opened, "STA-RFI-RE-CHAN!"

As I heard a startled 'Eep' come from Hinata, a cheerful laugh bubbled its way out of me and I started to run towards her.

"Ah! Kura-chan! Wait!" Hinata softly shouted, her hands waving back and forth as she stumbled backwards.

Ignoring her words I leaped towards her with my arms spread out, her wide eyes and tiny but terrified smile were the last thing I got to see before a blur of earthly tones mixed with blue covered my vision as Hinata and I tumbled backwards. As we rolled to a stop so did our breathy laughs.

"Gooood Morning Starfire-chan! Sakura is sooo happy to see you" I chirped, looking done at her with a face breaking grin.

Hinata tentatively grinned back, her face looking a little out of place with the grin but still filled with joy, "Its nice t-to see you too, Kura-chan."

I couldn't help but laugh once more 'Hinata was just so precious when she's lit up with joy' I thought with a grin of my own once the laughter subsided, and before I could stop, I blurted out, "Sakura-chan loves her Starfire~"

We both awkwardly, in my opinion, looked at each other; waiting for either one of us to make the first move after my abrupt confession. When Hinata's eyes widen with realization.

Hinata's face flushed red quite swiftly when the words that had left my mouth finally dawned on her, stammering, "W-a-a-"

"Squeeze~" I chirped, pushing Hinata's cheeks together making her do a fish face as I started to internally panic. 'I really have no filter' I thought fleetingly, moving Hinata's cheeks round to stall for time to settle my flustered mind.

While I wasn't lying per say when I said I loved her, I noticed that on this world you tended to only tell that to your lover or a really close family member. Sending a brief prayer to any deity willing to listen, that Hinata knew I was talking about as a really close friend; the thought came and went but suddenly I had a light bulb.

As Starfire stared at me with confusion, clearly wonder what I was doing, I quickly opened my mouth to explain myself.

"Pretty-tan is like Sakura's most trusted and loved friend, so Sakura just had to tell you! We're gonna be like a super badass team!" I exclaimed while letting go of her cheeks. Backing up, I punched the air a few times with weird sound effects to show how badass we would be. Hoping she would take the bait and drop the previous subject.

Hinata giggled softly at my actions, her hands coming up to hide her still red face.

"Well then," Hinata started as she got up of the ground, brushing of the loose dirt, "We b-better start working then."

I enthusiastically nod my head and leaped up off the ground, childishly shouting, "WE EXTREMELY SHOULD!"

Year two, Month five, Day one

The damp, cool grass felt soothing on my slightly tender body. 'But' I mused with a smile 'I do ache a lot less then I did a few weeks ago. Thank god that the training is finally is paying off and for wonderful herbs that can appease the pain in my body.' I closed my eyes and let out a content sigh, wiggling a little; feeling only dull twinges instead of the burning inferno that it once was.

As the wind blew and made the leaves rustle in the places, I took a deep breathe before sharply letting it out; tasting the nice spring air. 'I never want to move' I thought feeling the sun's morning rays on my body, but the itch to do something was bothering me greatly. I frowned 'Splendid, all this training is making me more active' and quietly grumbled to myself, where was my old lazy self? Where did my lackluster life gone? As I got ready to let out another complaint, I gradually trailed off.

'Where was my lackluster life? I never wanted to give it up, I just wanted to train to live. But now that I'm actually thinking about it, I can't remember a time where I stayed in bed past four...' Now unnerved I thought about this past year alone 'The training in the academy is picking up so that meant we were doing more hands on practice but while I still kept myself at the bottom though Hinata was at the top in kunoichi class, which meant that Hinata and I were training ourselves even harder than ever before. Grandfather even took time out of what he was doing to actually train me, no matter how much I wanted it, the whole thing was weird and painful. He made sure to drill the importance of sneaking, information gathering, and how to act like you don't know anything. He is even made me memorize a whole bunch of hand movements without telling what it was or what it was for; it did however, heavily remined me of sign language from before.'

Suddenly my stomach gave a lurch like I was on a boat in a violent storm and all I wanted to do was puke, my palms started sweating as I breathed heavily. Information gathering, all the re-dos till I had it perfect and memorized, the clueless act, the damn hand movements; he was preparing me for something dangerous.

With a rough jerk my upper body flew upwards while my hand went to my mouth an a useless attempt to not puke, my eyes prickled with unshed tears as my body started to shake with goosebumps trailing along my exposed legs.

God, was he in enough danger that he needed someone as a type of backup? But if that was the case wouldn't I have been given a gift that could hold information or something of the sort? No, no that would be to obvious? Besides the only thing Grandfather has given me was weights and they can't hold papers. Why would he even pick me? I was a no-named wannabe, nothing to my name! Maybe I'm overcomplicating things? Just jumping to stupid conclusions because I could remember another life.

Biting my lips I took a forceful lung of air before releasing it, I bent my head into my knees as continued to breathe. 'Alright, I need to calm down and think about this logically.' I thought, biting my lips even harder. Grandfather has no reason to use me as a backup, he's probably just genuinely training his only granddaughter. I'm most likely freaking out because you'd usually do checkers or listen to 'Back in my day' story's instead of doing harsh training that would normal kill a human with your Grandparents. Besides wouldn't Grandfather have given me his special jutu's or something, like in the movies? Not just teach me something you would need to know as a shinobi?

Nodding my head lightly I removed my head from my knees, feeling much better. But now the itch to do something was worse, but I suppose I'm still worked up about my previous thoughts even if I actually thought it out. Sighing I decided to try to ignore the itch as best as I could and lay down to try to get some rest, mother was right in one regard; training to much could hurt me more the help me.

As I closed my eyes and tried to relaxed, a little voice piped up and taunted But what if your wrong making me tense up all over again. 'What do you mean!?' I wanted to scream this out loud but I didn't need to look crazy as well as feel it. There was a short silence before the voice simply tittered and left me to myself. Frustrated I turned over and attempted to relaxed like I planed but I just kept hearing that sentence over and over again; making me want to scream.

With a muffled growl I forced myself up and out of the slightly remote hidden spot of the park and into the bustling streets of Konoha, knowing that I won't be able to nap but still refusing to train my already sore body even more.