So more editing done, not much. I promise the plot won't change, like I said, i am just doing some Spring Cleaning so to speak. I'm sure that you won't even notice the changes!
I'm also editing out the japanese. It's relatively simple, but I feel it takes away from the story too much for people who wouldn't understand it and it would also distract if I gave definitions either in the story or in the author's notes at the end and beginning. I am keeping "Shannaro" and "Dattebayo" though! ;D
So here you go! The second chapter of Sakura no Tenshi re-vamped!
Sakura awoke that morning to a feeling of dread. Something was wrong. She fingered the ring around her neck and wondered…
Sasuke-kun, Satoshi-chan… I hope that the both of you are okay. Satoshi-chan, watch over your aunt and uncle. Protect Suzume-chan with your life.
She sighed heavily and tried to get dressed for the day. She wasn't sure if she was prepared for what was going to happen. Today was the day that she and the others were going to meet Kakashi. She thought back to the night before.
She had gone to the Third Hokage's office to talk to him. She told him that she had decided to tell the jounins. In case of an attack or if something went wrong, she wanted to be prepared.
"She had said "The only ones I want informed are Hatake Kakashi, Mitarashi Anko, Sarutobi Asuma, Maito Gai, and Yuhi Kurenai."
The look on the Sandaime's face had been surprised to say the least, but he didn't say anything, only nodding his head and she got the feeling that he wasn't telling her something. She asked him what was wrong and he replied that maybe the jounins may have some doubts.
"If they have any doubts, tell them to come to me and I can prove to them that what I say is true." With that, she once again turned around and left the Tower.
Maybe I was a little rude. She thought to herself.
Hell no! If they don't believe us they'll get the ass-kicking of their lives! Hahaha!
Excited much?
Cha! I'm finally going to show that I'm strong enough to beat that Sasuke and demonstrate my awesomeness!
You're starting to sound like Naruto.
What! You dare compare me to that…
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud shout.
"Hey Sakura-chan! Come on! We can grab some ramen on our way!" Yes, her favorite knuckleheaded ninja came to pick up Sakura so that they would not be late. The Academy had given the genin squads a few days reprieve until they were to meet their new teacher. Over those past few days,Sakura and Naruto had been spending more time together and recently, Hinata had joined them. Sakura had forgotten how Hinata had stuttered so much that she couldn't talk straight when Naruto was around.
With Sakura's behind the scenes prompting, Hinata and Naruto started spending time alone without Sakura. Not that she minded that at all.
Naruto seemed to like the Hyuuga's company. She never criticized him and even seemed to admire him though he had asked why. She had replied that he never gave up and that she looked up to him for that. He even started calling her 'Hinata-chan' which, when she heard that, promptly made her faint.
Sakura leaned out her balcony to call out to Naruto and Hinata who she knew was too quiet and polite to shout out at her.
"No Naruto! You go ahead and eat with Hinata-chan! I'll meet you in the classroom later!"
Naruto didn't seem to mind for he yelled out: "Alright! Come on Hinata-chan! Let's go eat ramen and then later I'll walk you over to where you're supposed to meet your team." He grabbed her hand and sped off. "Eh! Hinata-chan? What's wrong? Why are you all red? Maybe some ramen would help! Dattebayo!"
Sakura held her hand up to her face and snickered a little at Naruto's antics.
Oh Naruto, you might be maturing faster than before, what with growing closer to Hinata and all, but you still are the same number one hyper knuckle headed ninja I knew.
She sighed to herself and looked at the clock. She had an hour if she wanted to be "on time", but she knew that Kakashi was always a few hours late. Sighing once again, she looked into the mirror.
"Look at yourself girl. You're pathetic. What are you doing here?"
"That's what I'd like to know."
Her eyes widened at the sight before her. She wheeled around only to find an empty window sill where, she had been sure of it, she had seen someone she hadn't thought she would ever see again. She looked back at the mirror and saw that nothing was out of place.
She kept sighing to herself and lay down on the bed crossing her arms over her eyes in the process.
"You're going crazy. There was no one there. If you keep sighing to yourself, you'll get shorter than you already are. Besides, why would they be here? How would they be here? It's impossible! Impossible." She said the last word in a soft undertone.
She looked out the window to the soft blue sky outside and the fluffy clouds passing by. Even with the laughter of children and the birds happily chirping, the anxiety from that morning returned. She gripped the ring hard in her hands and prayed that what she was doing was the right choice. That somehow, this would turn out all right.
"Sakura-chan! You're late! Why are you so late? It's been three hours already! I've gone three hours without ramen! When is that jounin going to show up already! I'm so bored! Sakura-chan do something!" Naruto shouted as Sakura walked into the room.
"Shut up dobe. If the jounin is late that must mean that he had a good reason for doing it."
Sasuke spared a glance in Sakura's direction, but that was all he did. Sakura ignored him completely and turned to Naruto.
"Be patient, Naruto. I bet he'll be coming along any minute now."
"Aww! But Sakura-chan!" Naruto decided he couldn't wait any longer and grabbed an eraser off of the board. "If he thinks he can get away with making us wait so long, he's got another thing coming. Hehehe!" Naruto snickered to himself and set the eraser on top of the doorway so that when Kakashi walked in, it would fall on his head.
"Naruto!"
"Dobe. Do you really think that something like that will fool a jounin?"
At that moment, Kakashi stuck his head in the doorway only to have an eraser fall on his head. There was silence in the room.
I can't believe he fell for that again. Sakura felt a pang at all the good memories that she had. She hung her head.
That's a jounin? Pathetic. Sasuke thought to himself.
"Hmm." Kakashi's eyes scanned the room, linked with Sakura's for a second and then lingered on Naruto. "My first impression of this group is… you're all a bunch of idiots."
Naruto and Sasuke's face fell and Sakura actually burst out laughing so hard that tears came to her eyes.
"S-sorry." She said between chuckles as they looked at her funny, and turned her head away for the giggles had turned to hiccups and the tears of laughter had turned to tears of remembrance. She quickly shook her head and followed the rest of Team 7 to the roof. She looked at them to see whether they had seen her tears and was relieved to find that no one had noticed.
Stupid, she told herself, be more careful next time.
She did not however see Kakashi look back at her and find Sasuke watching her carefully as if he was re-evaluating his opinion of her.
"Okay." Kakashi announced as soon as they had gotten comfortable. "Why don't we start with this? Tell us what you like, what you don't like. Your dreams for the future. That sort of thing."
"Why don't you go first then sensei? Show us what you mean -tebayo!" Naruto shouted
"Okay. My name is Hatake Kakashi. Things I like…well I don't feel like telling you. Things I don't like…you don't need to know that. And my dreams for the future…that's none of your business."
"Don't you think that was a little pointless sensei? You really only told us your name." Sakura spoke up. Kakashi shrugged as a response.
"Ooh ooh! I'll start! My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I like ramen, Sakura-chan, and Hinata-chan! I especially like the ramen at Ichiraku ramen stand! That's the best! Wait, actually no. The best ramen is the kind that Hinata-chan made for me! That was really good. Yeah, it really was! Things I don't like are… Sasuke! And my dream is to become Hokage! Believe it!"
"That's very good." Kakashi smiled and sweatdropped.
He must really like ramen this guy.
"Okay next, you." He pointed to Sasuke.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke." He said in a monotone and continued. "There are little things that I like and many I don't like. I have two goals in life. To restore the Uchiha clan… and to eliminate a certain someone." His eyes flickered over to Sakura, but her face remained impassive. She spoke up next.
"My name is Haruno Sakura. Things I like are medical jutsus, concentrating on my charka control, hanging out with Naruto and Hinata-chan, and" her eyes strayed to the ground and her fingers made their way to the ring that she never took off of her neck. "Praying that those dear to me are safe."
"Sakura-chan…" Naruto said
She looked back up and her eyes were void of emotion once again. "Things I don't like are people that hurt those dear to me, people who make you believe that they care about you and people who make a promise to you and don't keep them." Instead of being emotionless, her eyes were now filled with anger.
"My hope for the future is that I can become a strong kunoichi whose name will be known and not forgotten. I also wish to spend my future with all the people I care about."
There was silence. Sasuke eyed Sakura carefully, wondering where had the fangirl of a week ago had gone. Naruto seemed to have a pitying look in his eyes. He had watched this new changed Sakura and learned that although she was tough, she doubted herself. Kakashi decided to change the subject. He didn't want Sasuke and Naruto getting too suspicious about Sakura.
He clapped his hands. "Tomorrow we'll meet in Training Area 3 by the Memorial Rock . Be there at 6 a.m. sharp and don't eat breakfast. You don't want to end up puking. I want you to follow this as if an order given to you on a mission. Remember this, those who don't follow orders are scum but those who don't care about their friends are worse than scum." He seemed to smile at them beneath his mask and they shivered.
"Have a good night's sleep. You'll need it."
Sakura headed for the training grounds at 8 a.m. Two hours later than when Kakashi prescribed, but right on time for them to have a light breakfast. She made her way to her teammates with not only her lunch, kunai, and shurikan, but also with three breakfasts for Team 7.
"Good morning boys!" She cheerfully called out. She wasn't the least bit nervous about this at all. All they had to do was work as a team and they would pass.
"Neh neh! Sakura-chan? Why do you have so much food?" Naruto called out.
"It's our breakfast." She told him. "We're going to need it." Having said that, she promptly sat down and started eating. Handing one to each of the boys she asked, "Aren't you going to eat?"
"Sakura, Kakashi told us not to eat. Are you going to disobey a direct order from our sensei?" Sasuke raised his eyebrows at her and narrowed his eyes. This was getting ridiculous. In the amount of less than a week, her personality had completely changed. She was no longer one of his fangirls, she no longer stalked him, and she considered Naruto and that Hyuuga girl to be close friends. In fact, she revered to him an attitude that at best could be described as cold. She didn't even try to pretend and act like she used to anymore.
In answer to his question, she glared at him and announced, "We are going to need the breakfast. Kakashi-sensei was kidding when he said that we would puke. Listen. We need to pass this test or we get sent back to the academy. The fastest way to pass would be to use teamwork. TEAMWORK!" She emphasized the last word and looked at Naruto who looked up from his breakfast and nodded. Turning her head to Sasuke, she looked at him as if to say "Well?"
"I don't need you guys slowing me down. I'm stronger than you guys so I don't need your help." He ignored Sakura's breakfast and stalked off. She stared after him.
So full of pride.
Sigh, Satoshi-kun.
Naruto watched them interact and caught Sakura's wistful stare. Despite being called stupid repeatedly by others, he was actually smarter than he let on. Yet another clue to add to the puzzle that Sakura had created. He watched as she stood up and went after the onyx-eyed boy. He observed when the Uchiha broke down and reluctantly agreed to eat with the two of them. He noticed Sakura fingers straying to the necklace And he saw how Sasuke's fists clenched whenever hers came to her neck. Interesting.
POOF!
Kakashi appeared in front of them at roughly 9 o'clock. By that time, they had cleaned up their breakfasts, and Naruto was arguing with Sasuke over something while Sakura was studying a medical scroll she had brought with her disguised so that no one would figure out she was strong enough to perform medical jutsus.
"Yo!" he called out to them. "Sorry I'm late! See there was this lady who needed help crossing the street and then she had a heart attack so I had to…"
"Oh stuff it Kakashi-sensei." came a voice from Sakura's direction. "We all know you're a liar so save it. The least you could do is make up a good excuse."
Kakashi and Naruto sweatdropped. Sasuke looked away in annoyance.
"Ano sa! Kakashi-sensei! Why were you really late? You told us six sharp and it's nine! Did you stop to have ramen? That's probably why right?"
Kakashi went on as if not hearing Naruto. "Today I will give you a test. Of the twenty-seven students that passed the Academy, only nine will actually become genin. To pass my test, you will need to get a bell from me." He held up two bells that jingled. His eyes caught Sakura's and she nodded in understanding. She was to hold back and assist when she was needed. Team Seven must pass this test.
"You must get a bell before noon or no lunch." Sakura grinned and instantly Naruto was glad that he had eaten Sakura's breakfast. Sasuke looked at Sakura.
How had she known? She packed breakfasts for all of us knowing that Kakashi-sensei told us not to eat anything. Somehow, she knew beforehand to prepare.
"Alright! There's no way that I'm gonna miss out on lunch! Believe it." Naruto charged at Kakashi who grabbed his hand and held it behind his back. Naruto squirmed in his grip.
"I didn't say start yet. Oh, and one more thing. Feel free to use any means necessary to get the bells. That includes using shuriken." Sasuke's eye widened and he smirked. Kakashi's eye crinkled signifying that he was smiling and he shouted out, "Start!"
Sakura quickly moved and grabbed Sasuke as well as Naruto and led them out to a clearing in the nearby forest. Kakashi looked at his empty hands.
"Well I'll be." He started off at a leisurely pace in the direction they had disappeared.
"Aaah! What the… Sakura-chan? What are you doing?"
"Shh!" Sakura held her hands on Sasuke and Naruto's mouth so as not to give away their position. "Like I said earlier. We need to use teamwork on this test. That is what is important. Those who disobey orders are scum, but those who don't care for their friends are worse than scum. Remember?"
"Saa. But what about the bells." Sasuke contributed. "There are only two. If each of us need one to pass, one of us will be left without one."
"That's Kakashi's plan. Three people and two bells. It leads to group conflict. Therefore, I propose a plan."
"Wait a minute!"
Sakura and Sasuke turned at the sudden shout to cover Naruto's mouth.
"Naruto! Be quiet! We don't want him to find us."
"Shut up dobe! What could you possibly want that would cause you to shout and give away our position?"
They let go and turned to look at Naruto.
"I don't get it."
They fell down anime style and Inner Sakura was close to coming to the surface. Naruto took one look at her face and immediately cowered behind Sasuke who backed up a couple of steps, for he had never seen this before. The Sakura he had seen was a goody two shoes who always had a smile on her face.
Naruto unfortunately was very familiar with Inner Sakura.
"Sakura-chan! Please forgive me! Don't kill me!"
All the shouting attracted Kakashi who was laughing in the trees at the scene before him. A pissed off Sakura trying not kill a cowering Naruto and an amused Sasuke on the sidelines.
Ah, well Kakashi thought we have to get through this somehow.
He pulled out his Icha Icha Paradise book and headed towards them.
"Ninja Battle Skills #1: Taijutsu" with that, he attacked Naruto who as he concluded was the weakest of the three even with the Kyuubi inside of him.
Lunging out, Kakashi sideswept Naruto who was caught off balance. Sakura immediately took action and tried to punch Kakashi. She held back her strength considerably. Kakashi though had no idea of Sakura's strength, though he knew that she must be strong, and was mildly surprised at how well she was at Taijutsu.
Sasuke soon joined the fray. He too widened his eyes at the scene before him. Sakura was holding her own against a jounin! How? He clenched his fists. Sakura was steadily growing stronger in his eyes and would surely soon surpass him. He needed to train harder if he was ever to beat Itachi.
"Sasuke-kun! Watch out!"
He looked up to see a barrage of kunai coming at him. He quickly dodged.
Damn! I was too caught up in my thoughts to notice. Focus!
Making the proper handseals, he prepared for his Firebell jutsu.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!"
Kakashi's eyes widened and he shouted, "What? Genin can't use fireball jutsus! It takes up too much charka!" Where he was standing, turned into a blur and he disappeared.
"Where did he go?" Naruto shouted
Sakura looked around and remembered the training after Naruto had come back. Kakashi had been underground. She tightened her fist, but held back. Showing her strength too early in the game would make others suspicious.
"Sasuke-kun! Naruto! He's underground! Trust me!" They all separated and stayed in the trees waiting. After 15 minutes of waiting, Sakura realized with a jolt, that Naruto's voice could be heard from far away.
Her eyes caught Sasuke's and he nodded. They quietly made their way to the clearing where they had started. There was Naruto tied by his ankle to a tree. Sakura hung her head down.
That idiot.
She slowly headed down and looked for any traps.
"Sakura. What are you doing? Kakashi could be anywhere." Sasuke asked of her.
Looking at him, she smiled. "Teamwork remember?"
Suddenly her body froze.
"What the?" Sasuke's face swam before her eyes. "Sasuke-kun? No. Satoshi-kun?"
"Okaa-san!" he called out to her and held out his hand. It was a two year old Satoshi. The one who had always asked her when daddy was coming home so she would stop crying.
"Satoshi? Satoshi!" She stopped herself. Holding out her hands and crossing them, she called out "Kai!"
The genjutsu of Satoshi shimmered for a second and seemed to disintergrate.
"That was a dirty trick Kakashi." She called out to him. Thankfully, no one but Sakura and Kakashi could see the genjutsu.
"Ninja Battle Tactics #2: Genjutsu." His voice rang out in the clearing.
Sakura smirked and raced up behind Kakashi, taking his Icha Icha book. To say he was shocked would be an understatement. Naruto came free of his rope and Sakura passed it off to him. He threw it up in the air and Sakura shouted to it,
"Ninja Battle Tactics #3: Ninjutsu! Go Sasuke-kun!"
"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!"
"No!" Kakashi cried out.
The book burst into flames and while their sensei was distracted, Naruto and Sakura grabbed the bells. They stood above him with the two bells and in Sasuke's hand was the Icha Icha book, completely unharmed.
"What? How did you? Genjutsu?"
"And a little bit of Ninjutsu from Sasuke." Sakura admitted. "Do we pass sensei?" she looked up hopefully.
He looked down at them sternly. They all held their breaths except for Sakura.
"You pass. I didn't expect you to do so well, but you surprised me."
Sakura smiled in relief, Sasuke 'Hn'ed and Naruto wanted to celebrate.
"Alright! Forget our lunches! Let's go out to Ichiraku! Dattebayo!"
He jumped up and down and then grabbed Sakura's hands and twirled in a stupid dance. They looked at each other while twirling and came to a conclusion. Grabbing Sasuke's hands, they added him to the circle.
"Hey! Let go! Dobe, Sakura!"
Kakashi laughed and saw the raw joy in Sakura's eyes.
This is the first step. Things are changing. Soon, I'll be able to see my baby again. Sasuke-kun, he really is so much like you.
Okay, that's all.I hope you guys keep reading this story! It's gonna get more complicated in the next chapter. They meet Gai's team at the Chuunin exams! Stay tuned.
Read and Review!
Also, I want to know if you think I kept them in character. I don't know.
Go on to Chapter 3!