A.N. Sakura's powers are based on primarily Rogue from X men but as you can see there are aspects of Parasite from Superman as well. I'm using them as a starting point. She won't necessarily be constrained or have all the benefits they do. We'll see how it goes.
Pink Parasite 2
Sakura woke up before sunrise and leapt out of bed. She hummed to herself as she got ready for the day and enjoyed the surplus energy she had. I wonder if Naruto feels like this everyday, he's so lucky.
In the kitchen her mother had laid out a large spread for breakfast like the day before. Sakura sat down without complaint and began working through whatever was piled in her plate. She didn't ever want to be in a position where she needed to eat someone because she had been dieting. It was hardly as if it mattered what her figure looked like now, she thought glumly.
"Your father had to leave for a mission this morning. He won't be back for a few weeks. That scroll on the table has instructions from him," her mother said.
Sakura nodded. "The exercises to increase reserves, right?"
"And to better control what you have. If you have good control you will waste less and have more left in the tank," her mother added. "Teach Naruto as well."
Sakura frowned at her mother who in turn raised a golden brow in question. "Why?" Sakura asked suspiciously.
"If the boy controls his chakra better then he will have more in his reserves in case you ever need to feed off of him," her mother said, blithely ignoring Sakura's deepening frown.
"I'm not going to eat him." Sakura glared at her mother.
"Start thinking like a ninja, Sakura. You don't know when you might need that boy. So make sure he's good enough to help you when the need arises," her mother said.
Sakura groaned and dropped her head on the table. "Why does it have to be Naruto!"
"Do you have another Uzumaki willing to hang out with you?" her mother said waspishly. Sakura only groaned in answer.
(Break)
Sakura made it to the training grounds before anyone else and set herself to read her father's scroll. A small letter was enclosed with guidance on what she should focus on. Her father was concerned about her getting injured so he wanted her to specialize in things that didn't make her a frontline fighter. Sakura snorted at this direction. Seeing how physically aggressive both Sasuke and Naruto were she had no doubt that they would be a heavy combat or assassination team. Which meant she would have to be tough enough to fight alongside them. It would only make her job of staying out of a hospital harder.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled as he came on to the grounds.
Despite herself Sakura smiled. The evening before had been fun and his chakra inside her was still making her feel pretty happy. "Naruto...you didn't change your clothes?"
"Ha, well, I escaped that demon lady. But I have the mask." He gave her a victory sign. "Ne, what're you reading there?"
"Some training scrolls to make my chakra very strong," Sakura said, trying to keep her explanation simple.
"Ooh, can I see?" He crouched next to her and tried to read over her shoulder.
Sakura was about to clobber him for invading her personal space when her inner spoke up, He's putting himself on a silver platter, outer. Teach him like mother said. We might need to eat him later. Besides, he's fun.
Sakura rolled her eyes at the last statement, wondering why her inner liked Naruto so much suddenly. "You can see if you promise to work on it with me later."
"You got it, Sakura-chan, it's a promise." He grinned toothily and blushed.
"Eugh," Sakura groaned. "I'm not asking you out, idiot. I just want a training partner."
"Sorry, sorry," he said but didn't lose the grin.
The sound of approaching footsteps distracted them both and they saw Sasuke slowly making his way on to the bridge. He stared at Sakura for a long moment and it seemed as if he was going to say something but then decided not to. As usual his presence made Sakura's heart race a little. "Do you like my new uniform, Sasuke-kun?"
"It's better than that dress you wore." Sasuke shrugged.
"Thanks!" she said happily, not really minding the backhanded compliment.
Naruto had stood up and was glaring at Sasuke. Sakura wondered if the boys were going to start fighting so early in the morning. Naruto threw something at Sasuke which he deftly caught and frowned at. Naruto held up his blue facemask and said, "I got you one too for our team picture. Now we can match with Sakura-chan."
Sakura smiled. "That was very nice of you to think of Sasuke-kun, Naruto."
Naruto blushed but Sasuke ruined the moment. "I don't need to hide my face," he said and threw the mask back at Naruto.
"Bastard!" Naruto yelled and jumped at the other boy. Unfortunately Kakashi chose that moment to appear and the little blond crashed into his sensei.
"Maa, everyone is so energetic this morning." Kakashi's one exposed eye rolled from one student to another but came to rest on Sakura the longest. Just as she was beginning to get uncomfortable he smiled at her. "That's a good look, Sakura-chan."
She blushed and was happy that her face was hidden behind a mask. "Thank you, sensei."
"Look at me, Kaka-sensei." Naruto hopped where he stood and pointed at the blue mask he was wearing now.
"Ah, I have such cute little students." Kakashi ruffled Naruto's hair. "Come along, ducklings, we should get our picture taken."
"C'mon, Sasuke, last one there is a rotten Uchiha!" Naruto yelled and ran.
Before Sakura could scold him Sasuke took after the blond. "They're such good friends," Kakashi said with his crinkle eyed smile. Sakura decided not to correct her weird sensei.
(Break)
In the end Naruto harangued Sasuke into wearing the facemask for one picture and for another the genin showed their faces. The rest of the day went much better for Sakura than before. For training they worked on their weapon throwing accuracy. Sasuke disdainfully cleared all of Kakashi's challenges. Poor Naruto tried to outdo Sasuke so Sakura would look at him and sigh happily as well. Unfortunately he ended up getting reprimanded for throwing kunai like a monkey.
When it was Sakura's turn she stepped up to the line and looked critically at the three trees she would have to bounce her kunai off of to reach the target painted on a fourth tree. She tried to calculate the angles mentally but Kakashi-sensei barked at her to start. She jumped a little and threw the kunai. It hit the target perfectly centre.
"Whoa! Awesome, Sakura-chan!" Naruto pumped his fist. Sakura blinked at her shot in surprise and then just smiled at the others.
"You know I was pretty good in the Academy too, Naruto," she said, putting her hands on her hips and striking an arrogant pose unknowingly.
You can thank me for this one, her inner said. Sasuke-kun is so talented.
Sakura kept the smile on her face even though she wanted to react to Inner's comment. Apparently she had stolen Sasuke's kunai throwing skills. He'd always been the best at the Academy but she had been in the top ten so it wasn't a major upgrade in skill level for her.
"Nothing less to be expected of my protege," Kakashi-sensei said. He was leaning against a tree with his head in an orange book.
Sakura felt pride swell up in her at her sensei's approval. He called us his protege, cha! Outside she demurely bowed.
"Ano, why can't I be your protege!" Naruto yelled.
"Sakura-chan has shown her dedication to her sensei, Naruto." He tapped his mask with the book and gave both Sasuke and Naruto's scowls an eye smile.
"Hey! That's not fair, it's too hot to wear a mask!" Naruto yelled.
"Now, now, Naruto, I won't accept you and Sasuke being jealous of your teammate. So let's do a teamwork exercise." The silver haired jounin smirked at his kids' groans. "Alright line up in a row and get down for push-ups."
After the three were in the ready position he walked over and lay down on their backs. His head and upper body rested on Sakura's back, his middle was on Naruto's, and his legs were on Sasuke. "Aaand, start. Sasuke, count off."
"One," Sasuke grunted and knocked out a push up before either of the other two. It made Kakashi's weight fall unevenly.
"Bastard!" Naruto grunted.
"We have to do it together, Sasuke-kun," Sakura added, just barely hiding how peeved she was.
"See, you're getting it. All together now," Kakashi-sensei said and brought out his orange book to continue reading.
Sakura's Inner cursed like a sailor but she dutifully started doing pushups and coaxing the boys to fall in the same rhythm. She was so glad she had gotten the new uniform last night.
What are you talking about, Outer. It would be fun to drain Kaka-sensei. Imagine a thousand jutsu!
Shut up, Inner.
(Break)
At the end of the day which was midafternoon since Kakashi-sensei actually showed up on time, Sakura was beginning to feel really tired. Kakashi-sensei disappeared in a shunshin and Sasuke slouched away. Sakura had to stop herself from asking him out once again.
"Damn it! This sucks!" she screamed.
"What sucks?" Naruto asked her. As usual he had stayed back, hoping to spend time with her.
"Err..umm…" Sakura searched for something other than the truth. "You know how Kakashi-sensei disappears, I want to do that!"
"Yeah, he thinks he's so cool." Naruto crossed his arms and frowned at the empty space his sensei had been a few minutes ago.
Sakura smiled at how easy it was to distract the boy. Seeing as how training was over she decided to make herself comfortable. It had been a hot day and she was sweating under her gear. She took off the long gloves, the facemask, and the armor. She sighed happily. "That feels better."
"Ne, ne, can I look at those scrolls now?" Naruto hopped in front of her with clasped hands in a begging motion.
For a moment Sakura was confused about what he was talking about. "Oh! I forgot." She dug out the scrolls from her small backpack. "Guess I should start on these," she grumbled. Unfurling the scroll marked with a '1' she started reading it. Naruto came around and hopped on the railing behind her so he could read over her shoulder.
"Tree climbing? How the heck will that make my chakra strong?" he groused.
"It increases the efficiency of your chakra use, teaches you precise chakra moulding, and because you're expelling chakra and gaining both physical and mental experience it grows your reserves," Sakura answered.
Naruto gave her a wide eyed look of incomprehension and scratched his head. "I don't know…"
Sakura sighed. She knew that people in her class didn't like her at times because she sounded like a nerd. Why did she think Naruto, of all people, would understand her. She was about to bop him on the head for being a moron when Inner stopped her. Tell him to trust you and that it's a technique Dad gave you so he should be honored you're sharing with him.
Sakura felt that hitting him into compliance was easier but went with Inner's strategy. "Do you trust me, Naruto?"
"Of course, Sakura-chan!"
Sakura nodded and held Naruto gaze before beginning solemnly, "My Dad gave me this technique, Naruto. Are you looking down on a father's precious teachings to her daughter?"
Naruto yelled and waved his hands in a warding manner. "No, Sakura-chan. I didn't mean that. Let's do it! We'll make your dad proud."
Sakura smirked. "Alright, let's go find some big trees." As Naruto scampered ahead of her to find the perfect tree she turned to her inner, When did you learn Naruto-speak?
Oh, I've been getting to know him in here. Pretty good, eh? Inner said in a superior tone.
What do you mean in there? Sakura demanded.
Nothing, Inner sounded panicked, I mean we've been hanging out, of course we would learn how to manipulate him.
Sakura bristled, We're not manipulating anyone!
We're not? Inner asked confusedly.
"Hey! Sakura-chan! Where are you?" Naruto's voice floated from somewhere deep in the copse of trees on their training ground. Leaving her argument for later Sakura decided to jog over to him.
(Break)
Two hours later Naruto and Sakura were lying on the grass in front of a large tree. Both were out of breath. The air was muggy and insects buzzed around them, further irritating the both of them.
"This sucks," Naruto grumbled. "How come you've gotten so far ahead?" He sat up, already beginning to look recovered.
"You have a lot of chakra and you never learned to do the leaf exercise well, Naruto. It's going to be harder for you." She breathed heavily, trying to get her heart rate down from the hard exercise. "Just be patient."
"Man, I wish we could so something cool. Are you sure your Dad doesn't have anything fun?" he asked.
Hey, Outer. He gets memories of whatever his shadow clones do when they pop. Think he will gain mental experience if he uses them? It might help.
"Naruto, why aren't you using your clones? Don't you get their memories?" Sakura snapped.
"Um, I don't know?" he said.
"Just do it."
"You got it, Sakura-chan!" Naruto made the hand seal and shouted. In a few seconds all standing room around them was filled with his clones.
Sakura's breath hitched. She could practically feel the chakra that had flowed from Naruto into the clones. An ache formed in the pit of her stomach. With fear she realized she was feeling hunger pains.
"I-I'm starving," she whispered to herself in horror.
"Do you want to go eat?" Naruto asked.
Her head snapped to Naruto and she thought she could hear a hum coming from him. She strained her ears but realized she wasn't really hearing it. Some unknown sense was telling her there was food right in front of her. "Yeah, I want to eat," she whispered.
Naruto jumped up and grabbed her hands to pull her up. For the moments their skin made contact Sakura got a burst of warmth but he let go too soon for her to be satiated. Terrified now, she hurriedly put on her gloves and covered the rest of her body. It didn't matter to her how hot she was, she didn't want to lose control.
Numbly she walked along Naruto to the ramen stand.
(Break)
At the stand Naruto chatted happily with Ayame and Teuchi. Sakura steadily worked through her second bowl of beef ramen. As the food filled her stomach it became a little easier for her to control the desire to consume Naruto. Also she could sense that Naruto's chakra was being restored. She didn't know what was normal but it seemed to her he was recovering fast.
We need that ability, outer. Just a little exhaustion made us flip out. What if we were really were at our limit?
Sakura was terrified of this latest discovery: Her hunger was disproportional to her actual need. She would have to find a way to control that or just get mentally strong enough to bear it. Now that she feeling steady, she decided to test her limits again. Slowly she took off her gloves and as casually as she could she leaned against Naruto's side. His arm met hers and the warmth began flooding into her. When she heard his incessant conversation with the two ramen chefs stop, she explained, "Don't mind me, Naruto, I'm just tired."
Naruto was blushing beet red and Ayame was snickering. "U-uh, that's ok, Sakura-chan. Do you want to go home if you're tired?"
"No!" Sakura blurted, wide eyed. "I mean, no...I'm fine. I want you to eat. In fact, Ayame-san, can you make five more bowls for him. I'll pay for them." She smiled embarrassedly at the older girl when she received a wink from her.
"Of course, Sakura. You just rest against Naruto," Ayame said and began cooking.
"Thanks, Sakura-chan, you're the best." Naruto gave her a thumbs up.
"Sure, sure. Hey, did you tell Teuchi-san about our teamwork exercise?" she prompted. Naruto gasped at forgetting and began regaling the man about their awful sensei.
Sakura sighed and kept measure of time in her head. She estimated she had touched Naruto the day before for only a handful of minutes. But the life force infusion in her had lasted for close to twenty-four hours. This time she was going to hold on to him as long as possible. With her new ability to sense life force, she figured she would know when her feeding would become dangerous for the boy.
I need to learn those chakra control exercises. I was wasting so much chakra on tree climbing today, she thought to herself. Hey, Inner?
What?
Did you learn how to use that shadow clone jutsu?
As if you have to ask, came the arrogant response.
Sakura rolled her eyes at her vain companion. Does it really need as much chakra as Naruto was putting in it?
Hell if I should know. I only have the hand seal and the mental process on how to do it. I don't have his memory of learning it.
Damn. There goes my plan to use them for learning things and grow our chakra by adding spiritual experience.
Just ask him where he learned it and get the scroll. He'll do anything for us.
He's already doing a lot for us. Even if he doesn't know it, Sakura grumbled. It amazed her that just two days ago she couldn't have imagined herself being nice to Naruto let alone be relying on him. Why couldn't it have been Sasuke-kun?
Thank your stars it's not him helping us. His psyche is too damaging. I had to lock it away and kill it before it could hurt us, Inner said and shuddered.
What?! His psyche?
I didn't tell you before because you would freak out. When we eat someone we take in their life force, knowledge, abilities, that's what Dad said. But he didn't say that we can also take in part of their psyche...what makes them who they are. Luckily it's just an imprint, otherwise Sasuke-kun would have been brain dead.
Sakura couldn't hear anything but her heart beating loudly in her ears. Her blood was rushing and she felt both cold and hot. She wanted these horrible revelations to stop. First she found out she couldn't touch anyone, then that she would develop an intense need to feed on others, and now that she could steal people's psyche.
Calm down, Outer. They'll notice. There's a positive, you've got me. I protect your mind and soul. And I will learn how to stop a psyche from coming through. Just focus on Naruto's chakra. It's warm, it's bright, it's innocent, and playful. Just focus on that.
Unbeknownst to Outer, Inner started absorbing some of the psyche imprint that was coming through to give them strength. She locked or destroyed all of the negatives, which were the loneliness, anger, and a sense of abandonment Naruto always felt.
Sakura took deep breaths and brought herself off the precipice of having another breakdown. She let Naruto's conversation with Ayame and Teuchi wash over. Their everyday casual bantering with affectionate teasing distracted her. She felt an immense amount of gratitude for them. In fact, she decided, she would have another bowl of ramen. It was comfort food after all.
The last thought gave her pause. Oi, Inner! Is why I like ramen suddenly because Naruto is in our head?!
...Maybe?
Sakura hung her head in defeat.
(Break)
Sakura arrived back home arm in arm with Naruto. It had been an hour of physical contact and she judged that she had drained a tenth of his reserves roughly. She couldn't be sure of that estimate because his constant chakra regeneration threw off her calculation. She herself felt incredible and imagined she had quadrupled her base capacity. I wonder if my chakra coils will keep developing to stay up with this much feeding.
The discovery was both exciting and humbling for her. The latter because she understood the difference in chakra between her and Naruto. She could never have imagined the silly boy was that powerful.
"Ne, Naruto, thanks for today," she said quietly when they reached her door.
"Huh, what for?" Naruto asked with his eyes scrunched up in confusion.
Sakura smiled softly. "For training with me, of course and for…" She didn't know how to say the rest so just settled for ruffling his hair like Kakashi-sensei did.
"Hey! Stop that!" he whined. "So do you want to train again tomorrow? Do you have any cool techniques from your dad?"
She giggled at his one track mind for cool jutsu. "You know, I do have one. It's the grand fireball technique. Let's learn it together tomorrow."
Naruto jumped and punched the air in excitement. "I'll make a fireball as big as the Hokage tower!"
Sakura started laughing but then suddenly stopped. "Err. No, Naruto. You might actually, really do that."
"So?"
"So, you want to burn our training ground down?" she smacked him upside the head. "We'll also do chakra control exercises like today."
Naruto groaned. "My clones are still doing them. One of them popped when he got bored. I'm three feet higher than when we left."
Sakura threw up her hand for a high five which Naruto returned excitedly. "You know, you'll have to teach me how to make a shadow clone too."
"I will, Sakura-chan. I'm going to go practice more. I'll get as high as you by tomorrow!" With that he ran off.
"Don't forget to sleep!" Sakura yelled after him. "Idiot," she muttered to herself without any heat.
(Break)
The next day Sakura decided go early to continue working on tree climbing. On her way she started noticing the chakra presence of people around her. The day before this sense had identified Naruto as food. She figured this sense was there to help her hunt. She tried not to stare at anyone but started building a classification in her mind for the varying strengths she felt. The greater the chakra the more her instincts told her to stalk the source. Luckily, after feeding on Naruto the night before she didn't feel the need to hunt.
When she got to the tree she saw that Naruto's side had marks much higher than the day before. She smiled in satisfaction, apparently using clones had worked. Gathering and focusing her chakra she took a few steps up the tree before she was blasted off.
"Damn it, I have a lot more chakra than I'm used to," she grumbled and continued. She was, however, naturally talented at control so managed to compensate for her new reserves within half an hour.
Her hunter's sense began buzzing again. She stood on the tree and looked in the direction she felt it from. In a few minutes Naruto came crashing through the underbrush. Sakura waved down to him. He babbled excitedly up at her about how much he had improved. She paid his words on half attention. She was too stunned by the fact that Naruto was registering to be even stronger than the day before.
The more chakra you expel, the more you grow. I guess he grows fast…very fast, she thought to herself. "Hey, how do you feel today? Are you still tired from last night?"
"I'm great, Sakura-chan, let me show you!" He ran up the tree, quickly reaching her.
Sakura grinned and held out her bare hand. Just as Naruto grabbed it she started running farther up the tress. She pulled him along until he started matching her step for step. I'm not just a parasite, I'm helping him grow too. If I feed off of him he's forced to regenerate and gets stronger. This will be the way I pay you back for helping me, Naruto.
"Woohoo!" Naruto shouted as they turned on their heels at the top of the tree and rushed down the trunk. Sakura happily went along with him. She had been feeling chipper since the feeding and now she was continuing it through their clasped hands.
After a few laps she called a halt. It looked like along with his clones Naruto had managed to get the exercise down in a night. "So the next thing we need to do is water walking."
"Can't we do the grand fireball now?" Naruto begged.
"Well, I want to do it by a lake so we don't burn anything down," Sakura said.
"But-but-!"
"Calm down. How about we try the shunshin, my Dad showed me how to do it." She grinned at his stunned look.
"That's what Kaka-sensei does, right? When he moves so fast we can't see him?" he demanded. Sakura nodded in answer. Naruto put his hands on her shoulders and gave her a serious look. "Sakura-chan, I love your Dad."
Sakura shoved him away. "Idiot, haha. I'll tell him you're a fan. Anyway, this is how it goes…" And so she started teaching him and realized that his hand seals were awful, which made the training become even more difficult.
(Break)
"Ready?" Sakura asked. Naruto nodded with a look of concentration and his hand in the ram seal. "Alright, go!"
A deluge of leaves swirled around Naruto and in another instant she saw only a blurred image of him run and slam into a tree. He was lying there twitching and groaning in pain. Sakura made her ram seal and rapidly moved to his location. She took one look at his scuffed face and broke down laughing. "Only you would try a high speed jutsu without looking where you're going."
"Sakura-chan, don't be mean," he grumbled.
"It's time for team training. If you want to practice this jutsu, why don't you send some of your clones to another field?" She suggested and then added with a grin, "Somewhere without trees maybe."
Naruto did just that and caught up with her as she started walking to the bridge. "You're pretty amazing, Sakura-chan, you didn't even have to practice the shunshin."
Sakura shrugged. She didn't feel like accepting praise for stealing the technique off her Dad. "I wonder what we'll do today. I've got energy to burn."
"Maybe we can fight Kaka-sensei again!" Naruto said.
"Well, we could improve our Taijutsu. Sasuke-kun is the best so he probably doesn't need the help."
"I'm pretty good, he's not the only strong one," Naruto was quick to add.
"Your Taijutsu technique is worse than mine but you're physically stronger than me. We could both improve…Do you think Sasuke-kun would like to practice with us?" she asked hopefully.
"That bastard?" Naruto snapped but then noticed Sakura's wistful face. "Ah, you know, he can be cool sometimes, maybe he will. You know what? I'll make him!"
"Wait!" Sakura shouted, seeing the blond run ahead of her. "Always going half-cocked!" She slipped on her gloves and mask and ran after him.
(Break)
A few weeks later
As it turned out Sasuke was only too happy to practice with Naruto and her. A small part of Sakura was aware that 'practice' to Sasuke meant complete beat down. But she was happy to get an approving nod from him for trying to improve.
"If I could use my clones you wouldn't look so smug now!" Naruto yelled after another thrashing from Sasuke.
"No, Naruto," Sakura snapped. "This isn't a ninjutsu battle. How many times do I have to tell you?" She leapt at Sasuke and spun, her heel aiming for the back of his head. Sasuke always fought them two on one because he didn't think they were challenging enough otherwise. She only managed to graze his hair before he ducked and hit her with a rising uppercut.
I'm going to suck out all his chakra, how dare he hurt our beautiful face? Inner shouted.
Don't say that about Sasuke-kun, he's only helping. Sakura picked herself off the floor and entered the fray again. Her stamina had increased exponentially after her feedings on Naruto.
Snap off the bastard's head, or I'll do it for you,Inner growled.
I think you're spending too much time with Naruto. You never used to call Sasuke-kun 'bastard.' Sakura landed a straight punch in Sasuke's gut and Naruto managed to kick him in the back. It forced the boy to keel over Sakura's fist. She lost no time in putting him in a headlock and Naruto jumped on his back.
"Yield," Sakura demanded. Sasuke struggled but in a moment gave up.
"Yes, yes!" Naruto jumped in the air and pulled Sakura with him. He spun her around in a victory dance. "How was that?"
"Humph." Sasuke brushed himself off. "I guess managing to beat me after two weeks of trying makes you happy."
"It does, you're not ruining this for me, bastard," Naruto said with a cheeky grin.
Sasuke smirked back at him. "You know this means you get to fight me one on one now, Sakura, Naruto."
"Great," Sakura said with put on cheer.
Naruto thrust out a fist in Sasuke's direction. "C'mon, you know you want to." Sakura giggled seeing Sasuke look at Naruto uncomfortably. The stoic boy gave in and bumped fists with Naruto then looked at her. Quickly Sakura bumped fists with him and cheered inside. She had no hope for romance anymore but it was nice to be friendly with Sasuke-kun. She couldn't stop her crush.
"Yo!" Kakashi-sensei floated down to them. He had appeared on top one of the many gates on the bridge in their training ground. "Sorry for being late, a black cat-"
"LIAR!" Naruto and Sakura shouted in synch.
"Well, let's go do some missions," their sensei said in a subdued voice. He was going to work them extra hard for not listening to his excuses.
(Break)
Team 7 was once again on mission to catch Tora the missing cat. Sakura was getting well and truly tired of the cat. On more than one occasion Naruto had to hold her back from roasting the menace in a grand fireball.
"Kaka-sensei, I swear if we have to catch that cat one more time, I'm going to skewer it, BBQ it, and feed it to your nindogs," Sakura grumbled.
"Now, now, Sakura-chan, don't be like that. You'll give my dogs indigestion," Kakashi said with a smile.
"And whose fault would that be?" She shot him a glare.
"Oooh, Kaka-sensei is going to get it." Naruto nudged Sasuke who was smirking at how skittish their sensei looked around Sakura.
"Let's just report to the Hokage," Kakashi said while not so subtly moving away from Sakura.
"Stop being such a baby, as if I can do anything to a big bad jounin like you," Sakura snapped.
"You do know you're giving off killing intent, Sakura," Sasuke said with a genuine smile.
"Huh, really? Quick, Naruto, bring Tora here. I've heard small animals can get a heart attack from a ninja's killing intent." Sakura waved to Naruto who was holding Tora. The blond hesitated long enough for Kakashi to grab him by the back of his neck and shunshin to the Hokage tower.
"Too bad," Sasuke muttered.
"It's not over yet," Sakura grit out and disappeared in a cloud of her own shunshin.
Sakura appeared at the mission desk in a flurry of pink petals and launched herself at Kakashi. The man was handing off the animal to one of the chunnin. "I'll have vengeance!" she screamed. She landed on his back and pulled a kunai to stab the cat. Kakashi caught her hand just in time and pulled her forward to wrap his arms around her. In a moment he had locked down her arms and legs.
"Kaka-sensei, you never try to understand a maiden's pain," Sakura grumbled as the Hokage and his attendants stared at her.
"Naruto, Sakura, what's going on?" the Hokage asked.
"Ohayo, jiji!" Naruto greeted and looked at Sakura worriedly.
"Ohayo, Hokage-jiji." Sakura twirled her fingers in a wave. "Kaka-sensei was having us do an assassination exercise. I almost won."
"Kakashi! You cannot use the fire daimyo's wife's cat for an assassination exercise," the Hokage snapped.
"Ah…well…sorry?" Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and dropped Sakura on the floor. "I'll get you back for this," he muttered down to her.
"It's your fault anyway," she said and dusted herself off.
The Hokage heard everything so he snorted in amusement. Kakashi's genin were truly a handful. And the more the girl hung out with Naruto the more trouble she was becoming. Calling him 'Hokage-jiji,' the nerve of these youngsters. It's Naruto's influence on her.
Sasuke arrived shortly and started a whispered conversation with Naruto to find out what happened.
"Well seeing how all of your team is here now, I can assign you another mission. There's a babysitting mission in the town over," the Hokage paused when he saw Kakashi raise a hand.
"Babies might not be a safe option right now," Kakashi said glancing at his pink haired student.
"Alright, there's a grocery run-"
This time Naruto interrupted. "No thanks, I've had enough of being yelled at in stores."
"Hokage-sama, I think my team could use a midterm out of village mission," Kakashi added quickly before Iruka could blow his top.
The Hokage considered the team in front of him for a few moments and then nodded. He opened a 'C' rank scroll and threw it at Kakashi. "Escort mission to Land of Waves."
"Awesome, are we protecting a princess?" Naruto asked excitedly.
"Just pack for your mission and meet your team at the gate, Naruto. You will meet your client there. Dismissed," the Sandaime said. He figured the drunk client would not mix well with Kakashi's currently very volatile students.
"Yatta! C-rank!" Naruto ran off to pack.
Sakura, unfortunately, lost the fire she had built up. The village was safe, there was little chance of injury there. What would happen if she got seriously injured on this C rank? Her secret would get found out. She and Naruto had improved a lot in the last few weeks but she was still not confident.
In a haze of worry she left the tower, hoping to catch her mom at home.
(End)
A.N. Send me any requests you have of who Sakura should drain. They don't all have to be serious. They can be funny options too. Not all would make it into the main story but I can see some fun omakes here and there.