During lunchtime, the students headed their own way. Sakura went to the bench where Itachi had left her some time ago.
Sakura lies down on the bench and thinks about the future. There will be more than Naruto and Sasuke to protect; there is a whole village in their hands. She wants to locate Jiraiya sometime within the year so Naruto can be out of harm's way even though the organization may have started collecting jinchuuriki. Hopefully, the organization will search for Naruto last so he will be strong enough to defend himself. But if he is hidden, the whole village might be obliterated.
On the other hand, in the worst case scenario, Sasuke will have inherited not only the Mangekyou Sharingan, but the Curse of Hatred by killing Itachi. She suspects something else was going on with the Uchiha massacre. It is important for Sasuke to know the truth about the affair before another issue pops up.
Sakura senses a presence that unnerves. She finds no ill-intent but wishes that the person would go.
Kakashi stealthily observes his future student from a tree. She isn't doing anything, just lying on the bench. He can't read her face since it is entirely blank. No movement or expression. The Hokage didn't give him that much information about her. Though, the wise man said a few things that made him wary of the girl.
Flashback
Hokage-sama tells Kakashi about the new team he is in charge of.
"What about the girl?"
Hiruzen shakes his head.
"I can't reveal much of her information to you."
This statement unnerves Kakashi; it isn't common that Hokage-sama hides information from him. Kakashi looks at her picture again, more closely, and sees how mature she is. This 'Sakura' has an odd appeal.
"Tell me anything I am liable to know."
"Well, if you insist. Sakura is the top graduate and heiress of her clan. She has been for years. A theory of her strength comes from the fact that she trained and still may train Hyuuga Hinata after she was disowned by Hiashi-sama. Hinata went from one of the lowest Academy scores, to nearly reaching the Top 3. No one knows the reason why she took Hinata as her pupil."
"How high would you rank her? You said that she was offered to become a genin."
"To be honest, she is perfectly fit to be a jounin, maybe ANBU. You are probably going to ask about her abilities next, right? Sorry can't tell you."
"Alright, thank you Hokage-sama."
It strikes Kakashi odd how the Hokage speaks as if he is reading an article written by a reporter, and not the man who knows everything about everyone.
"One last thing you should keep in mind. Sakura has went through pretty bad experiences."
That perked his interests.
"Just... don't come into close contact with her. For her sake and yours."
How strange. Kakashi can't wait to get to the bottom of this puzzle of a girl.
Flashback End
He hears a couple of footsteps and sees the loudmouth of the team.
"HEY SAKURA! I FOUND YOU!"
Naruto sprints to his peer.
"WHATS UP! THANKS FOR-!"
He pauses at the icy glare that meets him upon reaching her face. He was going to say thanks for helping him pass. Looking back, he remembers what she said sometime later.
'Naruto...Do not mention that I helped you. Or else...'.
"Hello Uzumaki-kun. What do you need?"
"Oh..uh..do you wanna get ramen?"
"Maybe. Is Uchiha-kun going to join us?"
"Why?"
"He is coming this way."
Sasuke stomps toward Naruto and spots Sakura.
"TEME!"
"Hn. Dobe. Hi, Sakura."
"Hello, Uchiha-kun."
Sakura's piercing stare made Sasuke wince. He ignores it.
"So as Uzumaki-kun was saying. Are you going to get ramen?"
"No."
He grunts. Stupid Usuratonkachi.
"Alright! Since Sasuke-teme said no, let's go!"
"No. We are going whether you like it or not."
Sasuke thinks that if he eats what Sakura eats, then he could reach her strength.
"Why do we have to go with Sasuke?"
"Because the both of you cannot get along to save your lives."
Kakashi chuckles at their bickering after they leave.
At Ichiraku
"OI TEME! Let's have a contest to see who eats the most food!"
Sasuke does not want Naruto to beat him so he accepts the challenge. Sakura offers to keep count.
"On your mark..."
Naruto and Sasuke grab their bowls.
"Get set..."
"Go."
Naruto wins, of course, and the group heads back to the Academy.
"Uzumaki-kun, Uchiha-kun. Let's go."
"But Sakura~. I want more ramen."
She places the money on the counter and leaves.
"Umino-sensei told us to come back to the classroom. If we don't get going now, then we will be late."
At the Academy
"Okay class. Your teachers will be here soon so just wait."
And wait they do. The rest of the teams have already left. Eventually, Iruka leaves since he has things to do. Sasuke is annoyed while Naruto is throwing a hissy fit.
"Hahaha! This is what he gets for being late!"
Sakura feels a presence come into the building. It is the same as the one earlier spying on them. Their teacher is coming down the hallway. Sasuke scoffs at Naruto, thinking there is no way a jounin would fall for a stupid trap. The teacher opens the door and allows the chalk to fall on him. Naruto and Sasuke look on in shock and then the former cackles.
"Hm. My first impression of you guys is... I hate you."
Naruto stops cackling.
"Meet me at the roof."
And he leaves. Naruto and Sasuke are still slightly shell shocked so Sakura moves ahead of them. Not sensing any people, she appears at the stairs leading to the roof. Naruto and Sasuke finally seemed to have processed what he said and a loud ruckus occurs.
Kakashi ponders over his mess of a team and barely notices Sakura coming up the stairs.
"Yo."
"Hello."
She bows down and sits. Kakashi can't help but glance at her a few times. Like he thought before, there is something very off about her. Sakura has the same expression from earlier and doesn't give off any sort of vibes. And a crash comes through the door as the boys come to the rooftop.
"Okay now we are going to introduce ourselves. Tell your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dream."
"Why don't you give an example sensei?"
"My name is Hatake Kakashi. I like a few things, don't like others. I don't have a dream. Hobbies...hm."
'Hatake Kakashi. Also known as Kakashi of the Sharingan. Has a tendency to be late and reads books. More specifically the Icha Icha series by Jiraiya. Student of the Fourth Hokage. Killed his friend. Creator of the Chidori and Raikiri. Does not abandon his comrades.'
The list goes on.
"Loudmouth, you go first."
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, especially from Ichiraku. I don't like the three minutes you have to wait for instant ramen to cook. My dream... is to be Hokage and make everyone recognize me! My hobbies...pranking I guess."
"Next..."
"Uchiha Sasuke. I don't particularly like anything and dislike everything. I have an ambition to kill a certain someone."
A face and voice flashes through Sakura's head. It is worse than Kakashi expected. He turns to the kunoichi, hoping for something more than he was told.
"My name is Haruno Sakura. I like onigiri. My hobbies are training, reading, and perusing the village."
"What does perusing mean?" asks Naruto.
"Walking around, sightseeing," she replies.
Sakura's response was stranger than Sasuke's. Kakashi takes notice of how easily she avoided the rest of the questions. She is clever.
"Well you all are unique. But there is something else that might make you mad."
"What's so funny?"
"You have to take another test. And this one has a 66% chance that you will fail."
"WHA?! So what was the point of the first one?"
"To see who could meet some requirement as a ninja. Anyways, you will meet me at the Third Training Ground at 8:00. And by the way... don't eat breakfast or you will puke."
Kakashi poofs away, ready to continue reading.
"Bye," Sakura says. She walks away and takes the long way to recall what she has to do. Check on the clinic. Hizashi needs herbs for the medicine his clan makes. Prepare for the meeting in a week. Sign the documents clarifying the alliance to the Sand.
Sakura arrives at her home. The guards are in place, check. She goes across the district to meet with her gardener.
"Hitomi-chan, we need the special herbs for Hyuuga-sama."
"Ok."
She goes into the greenhouse and comes out with the ones Sakura needs. Check.
"Thank you."
The hidden building is their central office. Sakura enters to see Akise laying down paperwork.
"Hello milady. Is there anything I can help you with?"
"Inform our nurses that I will be coming to the clinic in an hour."
"Yes milady."
He poofs off and Sakura is left with the paperwork. First, she sees a letter from the Fire Daimyo. Since the Kyuubi attack, Konoha has been giving and receiving less money. According to him, she has direct access to the Hokage. He needs the money since shinobi are heavily relied on in the Fire country. She writes a note detailing the economy in Konoha. Most of the money from the citizens are from the yearly festivals. The village might need to establish more industries so there will be more jobs to hire. Ultimately, it is the Hokage's decision.
Next, she searches for the letter from the Kazekage. It issues the matters if she were to accept an alliance. She figures it would be easier to find out the spies and gather information about the Akatsuki. She also knows that his son is the Ichibi jinchuuriki, since he told her. The Kazekage wants her to kill Gaara, his son, but he hasn't physically done harm without being provoked according to her knowledge. Therefore, she agrees to the alliance with Suna, Akise just appearing before her.
"It is done Sakura-sama."
"Alright. You will escort me there."
"Yes ma'am."
Akise and Sakura teleport to the clinic. Everything looks in order so far. The waiting room is clean. All of the trainees are focused and treating the patients correctly.
"Mei-chan, Satoshi-kun, Keiyumi-chan. Go on your break. I will cover for you."
Shocked, they blink and bow down.
"T-t-thank you Sakura-sama!"
The trainees smile and walk out the office. The patient, Usigo-kun, has a broken ankle. So far, they popped it back in place and healed his minor injuries. Sakura straightens the leg in place. Adding chakra into her finger, she severs the skin on his ankle. Then, the offensive energy changes to healing. She forms chakra strings connecting the bone fragments together. Once they are completely linked, she uses a special jutsu to remake it.
'Ice Manipulation: Bone Recreation'
The ice materializes onto the strings and his bone is soon completely covered in it. Green chakra instinctively appears as her hand hovers over the open wound. His skin instantly heals and her work is done.
While Sakura waits for him to wake up, her thoughts drift over to the test tomorrow. Kakashi is late to every event so she may have time to get more work done.
"W-w-what?"
"Hello Usigo-kun. Your bone is back into place and your other injuries are healed. Are you having any additional problems?"
"Hi Sakura-sama. Thank you. No I am fine."
The kid looks nervous.
"Alright you may leave now."
"Ok. Bye-bye!"
With a smile and a wave, he runs out of the office.
She looks over the office one more time and leaves. Akise follows behind her as they walk through the district. Finally she gets into her room.
"Arigato."
"Good night Sakura-sama."