Kakashi regards his grinning student with more than a healthy level of trepidation, fiercely reviewing their last three-second encounter as his mind tries to work out the best strategies in the face of her practically burning gaze. Her eyes are confident, her chin held high, and her grin more than a little menacing.

A bead of sweat runs down his temple.

Amused, the Sandaime clears his throat.

"Well then, let's go, shall we?"

As the three of them make their way out of the building, Sakura speaks up in question.

"Where are you taking us for this spar?" she asks with a bit of suspicion, noting that they seem to be heading in the direction of the Forest of Death.

"I was planning on the Tower," the Third says with a gentle smile. "It has a great view and will be easy to assess your abilities in that controlled environment." A sharp laugh, heavy with amusement, causes him to raise one eyebrow, head turning to regard the girl in question.

"Unless you were planning on demolishing that tower, I suggest you think of somewhere else," she says, throwing him an amused glance. "Kakashi and I have been known to, ah, change the landscape, to put it mildly," she continues, laughter writ on her features, Kakashi now regarding her somehow even more suspiciously.

Shaking his head, Sarutobi considers pointing out that they could just hold back for once - but knowing Kakashi, and thinking of what little he knows of this brash, ridiculous, fiery Sakura, he simply stays silent and reroutes them to the nearest outdoor training ground.

Funny, Sakura thinks to herself as she stands yet again in the vast expanse of Training Ground Three. This is pretty nostalgic.

Kakashi is thinking along the same lines, yet again trying to reconcile the confident woman in front of him with the flimsy, long-haired genin he tested just the other day. Compared to that practically civilian little girl, the young woman before him essentially radiates confidence and pride - one hand on her hip, a smirk playing on her lips. He takes in the bags around her eyes and realizes that her eyes themselves are slightly more dim than they should be - she likely isn't completely recovered, but she's clearly lively enough and her eyes are attentive, sharp, and assessing. He will just have to trust her judgement as a medical ninja.

Now, for the spar - and Kakashi's wariness returns at his own train of thought - he needs to be careful. Close range would be suicide, he thinks. I need distance.

Lifting his hitae-ate, Kakashi's eyes sharpen. He can't afford to slouch against someone who can lay claim to a title as heavy as 'Sannin'.

Sakura's eyes flicker to Kakashi's sharingan, knowing of the constant chakra drain and eye strain. She needs to fix that later; perhaps this evening once she's recovered from their spar. Her appearance remains relaxed and confident; to an extent, this isn't a front- her and Kakashi sparred all of the time, and being on the frontlines for so long granted her skill by necessity if anything else. As one of the second generation Sannin, she knew she could take most shinobi head-on; however, Kakashi was a different breed. It was just timing that pegged Team 7 as the new sannin - had his own team not fallen apart, it's possible they may have done the same in time. Not to mention, she is a close-combat shinobi, whereas Kakashi can flourish at all ranges. She's no slouch, and her Genjutsu is astonishing, but it's still limited against a sharingan and her ranged attacks are mostly focused around chakra-channeling projectiles.

To put it more precisely, she has next to no ninjutsu versus Kakashi knowing over a thousand, and is as good as done for if she can't bring him within her range.

She can't afford to let her guard down for even a second.

Then, all of her thoughts are put on hold at the Sandaime's sharp 'Begin'.

Sakura immediately goes on the offensive, layering genjutsu over herself to make her appear three inches further to the right - subtlety is key when it comes to going undetected. She executes a shunshin, materializing directly in front of Kakashi, leg raised and poised for an axe-kick. Her eyes are a burning jade as she rips her leg down through the air at blinding speeds; unfortunately for her, Kakashi had already glimpsed her taijutsu affinity in their last fight, and thus was immediately prepared to leap back, easily matching her speed. The corner of Sakura's mouth twitches upwards as her eyes flash in the sunlight and her leg makes contact with the ground - the fight has begun.

The Sandaime's eyes widen as the fight unfolds in front of him. Sakura leaves a path of destruction the likes of which he's never seen - which, considering he taught Tsunade, says the next generation of shinobi will be nothing to scoff at.

Sarutobi himself is almost tempted to hang up the old robes and ask for a spar between them - it would definitely keep him on his toes, he thinks, as he watches Sakura's head-on and precise approach while Kakashi flutters between the treeline and the ground, evasive yet powerful like the lightning he so prizes.

They're a good match, he thinks, relocating to avoid being hit by a tree that has just been thrown across the clearing, bearing Kakashi aloft. Kakashi is fluid and persistent like water with all of the quickness and bite of a lightning strike, while Sakura herself is strong and steady as the earth and dances as the wind that kicks up a maelstrom, fierce and unrelenting.

The two exchange rapid blows in a deadly dance under the scorching spring sun; both of them approaching the end of their spar as the day burns away. To Sarutobi, it seems there's no clear end in sight - that is, until lighting fills the air, and it happens.

Kakashi breathes laboriously, chest aflame after he made the mistake of trusting his Sharingan against Sakura's genjutsu; trusting his own vision without question had led to him being blindsided and punched into a tree so fiercely that he could feel his ribs creak under the strain. Receding into the treeline yet again, he allows a clone to slink out of the shadows and play for time; however, when that clone rockets past him with enough force to dispel it, it's all he can do to think get out of close range right now-! before she is upon him, blows raining down as blue chakra flickers to life on her fingertips. Chakra scalpels, his mind supplies unhelpfully, as Kakashi feels his left arm tingle with three of his fingers failing to respond. He narrows his eyes, taking in his student as she grins fiercely despite a split lip, a hot line of blood across her temple, and an awkward gait (it still impressed him that mid-fight she snapped her own bone back into place - be as it may that her leg clearly wasn't functioning normally, Kakashi has never even heard of a medical-nin with such efficiency during battle). He needs to think of something, and fast. Subtly forming a series of one handed seals, he flickers to the treeline, leaving yet another clone in his place as he prepares his prized jutsu, the sound of a thousand birds piercing through the training grounds.

Sakura smiles viciously, her eyes alight as the blood rushes through her ears and her chest heaves with the exertion and excitement of live combat. On the battlefield, she didn't have time to really think about and appreciate mastery over her own body, or the adrenaline as you constantly shift just in time to live another day. However, sparring against her sensei here, safe (well, relatively) in Konoha, she doesn't think she can be more elated if she wants to be. Unfortunately, none of this can distract her from the fact that her constant layering of genjutsu, chakra scalpels, and even the small fraction of her monstrous strength are all taking too much out of her. I must not be completely recovered, she realizes as she drops beneath a kick, retaliating with a deft sweep-kick of her own, dispelling the second clone of the day and turning towards her real sensei. It doesn't take a genius to realize the second that he replaces himself with yet another clone - it does, however, take one Sakura to flicker over and lift him like a toy, pulling him back and launching him past his human counterpart at speeds fast enough to make him dispel in a cloud of smoke. Finally, she thinks with a fierce grin, dashing forward at full speeds. You're mine. Lost in the haze of blows, exhaustion beginning to weigh down on her, and still caught up in the buzz of finally roping her sensei into a battle she knew she could win - she didn't notice the familiar flash of lightning until it was too late.

Taking aim, Kakashi steps out from the trees and dashes towards his student at an impossible speed, breath steady and his body primed for her inevitable counterattack. When he notices that she's stopped moving altogether and is staring at him with wide eyes that don't seem to be focused here nor there, he realizes with a mental start that he's moving too fast to stop and she isn't moving. When his hand slides through her abdominal cavity like a knife through butter, he immediately cancels the jutsu and can only stare, half expecting another genjutsu and mind racing through how fast they can get a medical ninja when a surprise attack doesn't come. Shit.

Sakura hears it and freezes. Her eyes flash with fear as she registers the shrill shriek of Chidori, her mind instantly shutting down logical thought and plunging her into a memory. When she turns and looks, the Chidori isn't wielded by her trusted sensei, but by a raven-haired madman. Sakura can only internally screech he's going to kill you, get out of the way get out of the way get out - ! before his ice cold hands plunge into her body, tearing through flesh, muscle, and internal organs, barely missing her spine, and bursting through her back like a skewer. She grabs the arm lodged inside of her, meeting the burning, blood-red (concerned, charcoal grey) eyes of her former teammate (sensei).

"Sasuke!" She all but hisses through her teeth as she applies enough force to the arm to crush bone, the hand inside of her flickering to life with yet more lightning chakra as she screams and it burns through her body like fire, blood splattering beneath her.

"-s me," she hears in the distance between the haze, Sasuke's arm making like a blade and slicing through her right side.

"It's me!" the voice calls again, Sasuke's form retreating with cackling laughter.

"Sakura! It's me!"

Kakashi? What…? And then, it comes back. Shit. Looking up from her surprisingly not-nearly-severed body, she meets the frantic eyes of Kakashi as she registers the chakra of the Sandaime rapidly approaching them from her right side. Still wrapped up in the shock of her memories, she looks down yet again, taking Kakashi's arm and ripping it out of her abdominal region, shoving him back ungracefully. She can apologize later, right now she needs to stop herself from bleeding out rather unceremoniously. A dramatic death is great in fiction, but Sakura still has things to do and she is not going to let 'Spar' be written down as her cause of death.

Staggering backwards, she manifests her Seal for the first time since coming back, not trusting her control amidst her exhaustion and shaken emotional state. Using the excess of chakra, she begins to stitch her internal organs back together before lacing together her muscles and reattaching skin, finally directing that chakra back to her forehead to reforge the seal. Absently she realizes she probably could've done with sending some medical chakra to her head for the absolute killer headache she was expecting any minute now, but she's had worse. Much worse.

Kakashi watches in a stunned silence, his cracked right arm throbbing painfully as he processes what just happened.

Sasuke. One word, gritted out between clenched teeth, spiked with fear and braided with betrayal. Sakura wasn't in the present, but just where the hell was she? He grimaces as he remembers the strength with which she gripped his arm, nearly crushing it - yet what surprised him further was her scream when he didn't do anything. What the hell was going on in her mind? He called out to her for several seconds, trying to bring her back to the present before she destroyed his arm. He realized the exact moment she was herself again, jade eyes flickering up to meet his briefly, flashing in recognition yet hard with the pain of… whatever it was that just happened. She shoved him back rather painfully, forcing his arm out and thus breaking the dam and ultimately splattering blood everywhere, but what surprised him even further was when a deep blue seal appeared on her forehead as her body started to stitch itself back together.

As she finishes healing, her seal fading yet again into nonexistence, she meets his eyes with an apology, and Kakashi can only ask one thing.

"What the fuck just happened?"

Sakura heaves a sigh, stepping deftly over to Kakashi before stopping in front of him and holding out her hand. At Kakashi's somewhat bewildered stare, she simply clarifies "Your arm, please," before she gently grabs the injured limb and makes to heal her sensei. Surprised, Kakashi begins to pull back, ready to demand that she not distract him from the issue at hand and instead fill him in immediately.

"I'm not going to avoid you," she says, an exhaustion that isn't entirely physical tinging her words, "but I do need to heal your arm as soon as possible before that damage becomes permanent."

Kakashi blinks, considers his students pleading and apologetic eyes, and relents - he has a feeling he'll always crumple like wet paper when his students give him that look, but he can worry about that later. Now, as the both of them take a seat on the forest floor and Sakura's soothing healing chakra envelops his damaged right arm, he needs to worry about the present, and figure out just what is wrong with Sakura and why she didn't evade his attack.

"So," he begins, trying to sound authoritative - yet only managing an awkward and uneasy tone.

"So," she laughs, shaking her head. Inhaling deeply through her nose, as if steeling herself, she begins.

"I'm sorry about your arm," she says gently, "and I'm sorry that you had to see that. It wouldn't - I'm not normally like that." A frustrated sigh escapes her lips, an exhaustion that isn't entirely physical weighing on her words. "That's not really happened like that before."

Kakashi narrows his eyes minutely. 'Happened like that', she said. Meaning it had happened before. However, having calmed down from the initial thought that she would avoid him, he realizes that now isn't the time to demand answers.

"Well, in fairness to you, it isn't like there's a guidebook to the sort of emotional and physical exhaustion that comes with traveling through time," Kakashi concedes fairly, trying to offer comfort and support in a field he's never fully tested his capabilities for.

This makes Sakura laugh, a true laugh this time, as through her mild fatigue she feels the soft regard of her Sensei.

"I wish it did," she says, her smile smaller, yet still present on her features.

Another pregnant silence permeates the space as the Sandaime hovers tactfully out of hearing range, likely giving them space to talk about… whatever it was that just happened.

Sakura, clearly not going to be the one to open the discussion, remains pointedly silent. Kakashi narrows his eyes.

"You know, no matter how much you heal that arm, you can't get out of this discussion," he says, gentle yet firm.

Sakura mutters something under her breath, Kakashi definitely hearing a quiet "just watch me".

"And yet, you're still here," he challenges, expression deadpan as his student's eyes meet his own with more than a little annoyance.

"I suppose I am," she relents, finishing up her healing on his right arm and moving on to his incapacitated left hand. "It doesn't make it any easier to figure out where to begin," she sighs, finishing up her work and running a hand through her rough hair.

Kakashi watches as his student shifts her weight back, drawing up one knee and resting an arm on it, as her other arm supported the rest of her weight.

"It's…. Complicated."

"Well, how about we start with why you practically hissed the name 'Sasuke' after I impaled you," Kakashi says, internally wincing as Sakura's eyes darken, her exhaustion briefly replaced with something twisted and ugly.

"Sasuke… my Sasuke, future Sasuke, is…" she begins abstractly, struggling to find the right words. She doesn't want to hurt Kakashi, but she knows he would want the truth. She owes him that much; she decides that today, honesty comes before anything else.

"He's a missing-nin," she finishes quietly, glancing at Kakashi out of the corner of her eye. Before she can read his response and use it as an excuse to back out of the conversation, she barrels on.

"He defected shortly after the Chuunin exams. For a time, Naruto and I gave everything to bringing him back, but by the time we could even do anything, he was too far gone. He became one of the major figures in the Fourth Shinobi World War. He himself razed the last standing streets of Konoha, and for all I know, he's the reason I'm even here. The last thing I saw from my time was his Chidori colliding with one of my attacks," she finishes, conflicted about dumping all of this on the teacher who may blame himself, but also recognizing that Kakashi needed to understand, to brace him for what was yet to come and what had to be done.

Chancing another look at Kakashi, Sakura sees him regarding her with an even gaze, as if waiting for more. She can see the undercurrent of guilt, but more than anything else, she finds a quiet yet strong determination to avoid history repeating itself.

"Is that why my chidori made you react in such a way?" he asks, eyes flashing in a way that tell Sakura that he didn't miss the immediate stiffening in her posture as the question fell from his lips.

"Kakashi, you really don't need to know," she says, ignoring the way her gut twists as his eyes harden.

"Yes, I think I do," he challenges, outwardly demanding but internally guilty; heavy with the knowledge that he had failed to help Sasuke, he knows he can at least learn everything he can in order to prevent the future from repeating itself.

Sakura, knowing that once Kakashi wanted to know something he would stop at nothing until he had answers, knew she had no choice but to relent. Doesn't mean I have to be happy about it, she thinks bitterly, the things that need to be said leaving a sour taste in her mouth.

Kakashi, knowing he's won, simply stares expectantly, practically daring Sakura to run from this conversation.

Annoyed, Sakura turns sharply towards Kakashi, eyebrows furrowing.

"In telling you this, I expect you to not ask about it again. I'm going to tell you because I think you deserve to know, but don't expect me to tell you things on-demand every time something like this happens," she grits out through her teeth, knowing she may be being unfair yet resolved in her decision all the same.

Kakashi nods, nearly imperceptibly, thankful that despite knowing she could just as easily not tell him, she is relenting because she feels he deserves to be involved. Not only that, but she seems genuinely sympathetic, despite her outward irritation.

At Kakashi's nod, Sakura raises a hand to her head, smoothes out her features, and again relaxes.

"It was a few years ago," she says quietly. "Naruto and I had gone to confront Sasuke and try to bring him back home." A bitter sigh leaves her mouth. "We didn't understand it at the time, but he was already too far gone - too out of our reach. Unfortunately, it was only when he got his hands on me the first time that we realized he wasn't our Sasuke anymore. You don't need to know the details, and to be frank, I don't want to share them - but endgame, he attacked me with his Chidori, I ended up nearly severed in half. That was the day the remnants of Team 7 finally gave up on Sasuke," she cut out, her face remaining impassive, but her eyes and tone of voice telling a different, less tangible story.

Kakashi breathes steadily as he takes in the woman in front of him, her words settling in with a weight he hasn't felt in a long, long time. This gave him more to think about than he's had in years. Sasuke, Sakura, even Naruto - he knows that he failed them, and would have certainly failed them again had Sakura not come back to the past. Now, however, they've got a fighting chance. From what he's seen, Sakura is fierce, loyal, and kind, and aside from mentions of Sasuke, she's shown nothing but love and pride for everyone and everything in the village; he doesn't know what kind of relationship they had in her past, but for now, Kakashi will let himself hope that this time around, they could work together to protect the bonds of Team Seven and the Village that they would both die for.

"Well, at least that shouldn't happen again, unless we both turn out to be monumental failures," he offered lightly, trying to bring humor back into the mood and let her know that he wouldn't hold this against her.

Sakura let out a snort.

"I would certainly hope the fuck not," she says, fire back in her expression. "If this training ground says anything about what we'd do to the battlefield, we'll definitely be a force to be reckoned with."

"I would say you already are."

The kind voice of the Sandaime carries through the trees as he flickers into view, having sensed the end of their conversation.

"Now," he says, eyes conveying pride as if he knew that his two Shinobi just grew slightly closer, "Let's get back to my office, and we can discuss your placement in our ranks," he finishes as his eyes linger on raven-black hair.

Sakura quickly rises and dusts off her knees, holding out her hand to help Kakashi stand; Kakashi raises an eyebrow at this, but otherwise accepts her help without question. When the soreness in his legs hits him, he immediately sends a grateful look her way as the three of them begin the trek to the Hokage Tower.

"Well, I think we can conclude that that was a rather interesting spar," the Sandaime begins from the seat at his desk, gazing out as his two shinobi stand somewhat uncomfortably, likely still tired from the exertion of the spar. Allowing himself a moment to let them sit in anticipation - he always secretly loved the dramatics - he finally speaks up.

"Sakura Haruno," he says at last, straightening his spine and injecting authority into his words with the ease of experience.

"From my thorough observations of the spar between yourself and Kakashi Hatake, I now officially reinstate you as a Jounin of Konoha. May the will of fire burn fiercely within you."

Sakura bows deeply, accepting the Jounin flak jacket presented to her by one of the Hokage's guards.

Kakashi looks on with renewed pride for the only girl on his team. She has really grown into quite a woman; despite not having the slightest clue what is going on in that head of hers, and despite only knowing of her existence for a few days, he knows she has done and will do great things. Konoha's future is uncertain, but with her, they can work towards building the best future possible.

Sakura takes the familiar vest into her hands, her head reeling yet again with the weight of her responsibility. Konoha's future - Naruto, Kakashi, Ino, even Sasuke - it's all in my hands.

The thought threatens to overwhelm her, but she shuts it down and chains it in the cage of her mind - there but not overwhelming in its strength. She would do this. She would save them.

"Thank you, Hokage-Sama. I won't let you down," she says with conviction, eyes determined.

I won't let any of you down, ever again.

A/N: Hello lovelies! I'm so sorry about the wait for this chapter. I couldn't decide how I wanted to do their spar, and it was quite intimidating - I'm an inexperienced writer already, but especially with fight scenes. I hope this didn't disappoint!

Please R&R and please don't be afraid to criticize! I want to know what you all think. Is it moving too fast? Too slow? Thank you for all of your input so far! I'm excited by the responses to this story so far and will do my best to not let you down.

Also, I've decided to stick with the present tense. I find past tense quite hard to write, and I personally enjoy writing in present tense more, and as I've always been fine reading either tense, I hope you all can do the same. Thank you again for reading! I'll try to make the next chapter not have a month long gap -

Until next time,

- xAya