Getting plenty of sleep was the norm for Sakura, so waking up tired was something that she definitely wasn't used to. The clock beside her bed told her that it was a bit over half past six, therefore she had gotten an hour of sleep. Great.
She groaned to herself, and started the exercises that Baku sensei had assigned: the first one was called dark chakra synchronization, or dark synch for short, it involved relaxing ones body to get a better feel for the incredible small amount of dark chakra within. If her normal reserves were bad, this was down right pathetic: she couldn't even make a bushin with this.
Thankfully for her, her natural affinity didn't require much chakra, and with little to no effort, she activated her 'mind eye.' An ability that didn't do much, but was cool non less: she wasn't actually seeing anything, more like sensing, and with it she could 'feel' other people's minds. This was the second part of the exercise.
Her parents were down stairs, (or she guessed, she hadn't felt them yet, so she hadn't gotten a chance to memorize their signature) a smell of cooked bacon instantly got her out of her medative stance, and she hurried down stairs to eat.
"Morning!" She said brightly, and sat down at the table and quickly got some food.
"Morning dear." Her mother replied. "How did lasts night training go?"
"Tiring" she replied with a groan. "But cool. I learnt a new lightning jutsu from Sasuke!" If word got out that she got private late night training and learnt new jutsu's from another ninja, she, Kakashi and Baku would be in trouble. So Kakashi had told her to not hide it (and therefore get people curious) but talk about it continuously, or however she would usually act about something she had no need to hide. Sakura had blinked in surprise at the deception, and pointed out that talking about illegal stuff was the quickest way to get discovered, and to that, Kakashi responded that she wasn't seeing him, but another genin.
Since most genin didn't really have jutsu's to teach, Sasuke was the chosen one for her cover.
At her obvious concerns, Baku had waved her off saying that Sasuke's memories would be modified. Huh.
She supposed that she should have been more creeped out about that, but she couldn't really bring herself to care. Maybe it was because she herself was immune to such a thing?
She ate breakfast happily while her father walked in, said good morning, and gave her a small letter. At her questioning glance, he opened it and read it out loud.
The letter was a formal one, from Konoha's administration office, and it gave her the order to go to training ground 37 by 8 'tomorrow morning' (The letter arrived yesterday, or at least that's what the date on the package said, so that means that tomorrow is today). She acted surprised but not too concerned and mostly curious-exactly how she would have acted, had she had not already known that she would be getting a new teacher.
She ate quickly and got ready to leave, combat equipment and everything (Baku had frowned at her choice of red and white, but didn't say anything against it), and she left, ready to meet her new teacher.
As she walked, she was greeted to the sight of an old man struggling to carry an enormous bag. Shrugging (she had a lot of time on her hands) she offered to help him, much to his delight.
The old man lead her to his house, with the order to leave it on his table in the living room. The old man gave her a few biscuits as a reward.
"So, you're a ninja huh?" He asked curiously.
"Yep."
"Can you do ninja magic then? Are you super fast? Do you assassinate people in the night?" He asked with incredible intensity. Had he been anyone else, and she would have felt uncomfortable but the old man made her feel at ease.
"Yes I can so ninja magic, but not much. I'm not really fast but I'm trying to get better, and no, I don't really do any of that stuff." she said sheepily. That sounded unimpressive even to her.
"What are you going to do now?" He asked curiously.
"Going to meet my new sensei!"
"How are you feeling? Exited? Nervous?"
"A bit of both actually, I've never met him before."
"What do you think he's like?"
"Stern I guess, I don't know much, only that he's really mysterious and old."
The old man shook his head. "Mystery just means lack of knowledge. There is nothing mysterious about reality, just a lack of understanding. Suppose you were your teacher, what would you do the first day you met your team?"
"Get to know them I guess, personalities, combat abilities, intelligence etc."
"And how would you do that?"
"Uhh, I'd test them. See what they are capable of."
"But you know that they are going to try to be impressive." The man said with a shake of his head. "How would you learn what the real them is like?"
She blinked. "Well I'd get to know the real them eventually."
"Yes but what if you had a lot to do, and didn't know if it was worth the trouble getting to know the team?"
"I don't know, I'd probably do something extreme to see the real them, something unexpected, like study them in hidden or try to get to know them when they don't think they are talking to me-" she stopped. The old man had a weird glint in his eye. "Excuse me, I just remembered that I didn't ask you your name."
"Me? Oh, my name is Danzo Shimura."
Normal people would've been a bit anxious at meeting a new teacher, but Sasuke didn't fit into that category.
He arrived at the training grounds a bit early with nothing noteworthy happening in the morning and waited patiently.
He didn't have to wait long.
Sasuke knew he wasn't normal, and that's why he liked his team: a weird sensei, a girl, and a guy with a childhood on his level of bad, was better than anything he could've asked for.
That's why he was surprised at his teammates reaction when they met their new teacher. He himself didn't notice anything strange, but Naruto's mouth dropped to the floor and he pointed at the man as if his entire life was a lie, while Sakura didn't do much (but as an Uchiha, incredible attention to details come with the black hair and pale skin, and he noticed how she was incredibly uncomfortable).
What's up with this guy?
The training session wasn't much, they just had to fight their way through the training ground, which was filled with traps, but between Naruto's clones and his eyes, they got through the thing without too much trouble.
The man told them to come back the following morning at the same time as today and left, without saying a thing.
"I can't believe that old man Takashi was Danzo sensei all along!" Said Naruto in shock. "For this entire time I was living next to a jonin!"
Sasuke didn't really care about his ramblings but Sakura was way more interested. "Who's Takashi?" She asked.
"He's an old man that lived next to my apartment for years! He never forgot a single birthday of mine! He used to read me stories when I'd have nightmares! He bought me my first shuriken set! He helped me with my homework! This is nuts!"
Sasuke shrugged, not seeing the big deal, but he noticed that Sakura was suddenly a lot more uncomfortable.
"Man I wished I asked him for training earlier!"
"That would have been a waste of time." Said Sasuke with a shake of his head. "He can teach us now because he's our teacher, but before today he couldn't do anything because protocol."
"Ah true. Good! That means I don't have to regret anything!" Naruto replied with a cheeky grin. "Who's up for ramen?"
"Not me." Said Sakura with a shake of her head. "I have too many things to do."
"Like catching up" Sasuke thought bitterly. He had not forgotten how far behind she was last night.
"Ah, that's fine then. What about you Sasuke?"
He shrugged. Why not. He was hungry anyway.
"So how did it go?" Asked Baku anxiously, as Sakura walked into his house.
Sakura opened her mouth. Then closed it. She opened her mouth again, but no sound came out.
"I see" he said gravely. "Let me access your memories please."
She nodded and felt Baku sensei's chakra fill her head.
"Me? Oh, my name is Danzo Shimura."
Sakura stared at the 'old man', and he stared back. She immediately tried to access his mind, remembering her orders, but was blocked. Suddenly it was her mind that was getting read.
She put up a full block, and Danzo frowned at her. "Sloppy." He said. "If i had been here to kill you, not only would I have gotten all of your secrets, you would have died without making a sound."
She said nothing. "Your private training will start in two days time. I expect you to be fully rested, and on guard."
She couldn't breathe. A test. It had been a huge test. And she had failed.
"Humans cannot be constantly paranoid at all times, it's not how they function. You have no excuses however, to not read at least the surface thoughts of those around you. What if the old man had been an assassin?. He said sharply.
"But I'm at home! There would be no reason-"
"It does not matter where you are, but what happens. You where in the middle of the street. Alone. Also you do not know everything, so while there could be no reason for you, there could be a reason for others! You have a gift in retrieving information, how dare you not use it!"
She blinked hard, tears starting to form at her eyes, but she did not let them fall. She had failed. "I-I'll use it next time-"
"No you won't! You'll forget! It's up to me to give you survival habits, that's what teachers are for." He finished softly.
She nodded. "What about-"
"Kakashi and Baku? I knew that they would try something like this years ago. Fortunately for both of them, they are far to valuable to kill over something like this."
She nodded again. The memory ended.
"Well fuck." Said Baku out loud. "That went way worse and yet better then we hoped...don't look so surprised: Danzo is still training you, that's the best that we could have asked for. We have to do a lot more training than expected though. You need to properly learn how to defend yourself otherwise you'll constantly be at his mercy. Now read my mind."
Instead of getting a few words, she saw nothing, but felt a mind. It was as if she was seeing her mind's eye get activated from an outside view. Was she seeing Baku sensei's memories?
Dark chakra gathered together , and formed a protective shield around the mind. Suddenly she was back in the real world.
"I call that a chakra shield. It repels most psychic attacks and is easy to repair. Today's lesson will be learning how to make one and resist my attacks."
Sasuke returned home in annoyance. Danzo sensei was insane.
Apart from the mind games (those he actually enjoyed: it made him feel smart), Danzo's training regime was just insane. He knew about restriction seals that would require a specific type of chakra manipulation to activate (and therefore stop restricting his movements), but seals that would change pattern at random intervals?
Annoyingly enough, Sakura became the most useful in these conditions. She would manage to learn the pattern almost instantly and was by his and Naruto's side in an instant.
Naruto was another surprise. He expected him to be the worst at this fight with his terrible chakra control, but apparently , you can overpower the seal if you have bullshit chakra levels. Naruto over powered the thing the entire time (something that surprised even Danzo, Sasuke noticed) and didn't even feel the changes. It was a new experience for him to be the most useless in the team, and Sasuke had enough. He applied the seal (that he had conveniently 'forgot to give back', not that the man seemed to mind) and instantly his arms were locked together and his legs became stiff. Sasuke grit his teeth, he would get this, so help him.
Dozens of clones were in the area, all of them doing nothing. Naruto in the clearing was concentrating on a pebble and a leaf. When Danzo sensei had mentioned extra training he had been filled with enthusiasm. Now he wished he never knew the man. He had expected all sorts of new jutsu's, and instead the man taught him one (that wasn't even an attack!) and made him do annoying chakra control exercise. Did he mention that there were over 10 clones in the trees, that would throw rocks at him at random intervals? There were clones in the trees and they would randomly throw rocks at him. Some bullshit about 'spacial awareness' (Naruto just figured that sensei was evil), not to mention the whooping he would receive if he didn't keep the chakra control exercise up.
Danzo sensei's logic was 'if he didn't have time to keep up the exercise, then he could defiantly pull off a Kawarimi. Without hand seals. HIM.
A whooshing in the air told him that a rock was coming. He jumped to the side, only to get hit by another. Fucking clones. Danzo sensei's small smirk that appeared every time he got hit didn't help.
A small breeze made her long hair levitate, and gave her sweat filled body the chills. This place was creepy.
Not a sound was made as she approached the gate, leading to a two story house. The architecture told her that it was old, and yet the paint indicated that it was new. Was it structured like that on purpose or did it get a paint job recently? She supposed it didn't matter.
The gate was locked, but it proved no trouble to her, as she just jumped over it. The garden was surprisingly absent of traps, and the front door was unlocked. She walked inside.
Being completely dark, despite the sun outside, Sakura activated her mind barrier and strained her ears. She would not get attacked. She would not fail another test.
She walked in the squeakyless hallway, that quickly lead to a dining room.
"Take a seat" Said Danzo beside her. She didn't scream at his sudden apperance.
"You walked in on guard. Good thinking." Danzo praised. She nodded happily in responce.
"I have no doubt that you can resist most mind attacks, and Baku will no doubt teach you how to attack. Since that part of the training is already dealt with, you will learn memory manipulation from me."
Sakura's breath hitched.
"Memories are easy to delete, but hard to manipulate. You have to master all five senses, plus every second in the memory takes a second to make in the real world; therefore the longer the memory, the longer it will take to change it" at this point he presented a deck of cards. "Another problem is that memories are processed differently by every living person. That's why you will start by modifying your own: I will show you these mixed cards in a random order, and later on you I will read your mind, and they will have a specific order." And with that the training started.