Sakura nervously opened the door to the Konoha ninja academy. This was it. Time to see all her old friends again, whether they realize it or not.
Glancing around at everyone, a flash of bright blonde hair caught her eye. Naruto was standing on his desk, bragging about something to a group of kids. She didn't know what he was saying, but judging from the looks on the other kids faces, it must have been stupid. When her eyes rested on Sasuke her heart skipped a beat. He was a little kid again, seven years old, and happier than she ever remembered seeing him. He was still alone, like always, but she could just tell. The Uchiha clan was still alive.
Unsure of what to do, Sakura walked past everyone and took a seat at the very back of the classroom so she could think things through carefully. As much as she wanted to sit with Naruto or Sasuke, she resisted that temptation. She needed to think things through very carefully before making a move. Don't want to do anything stupid.
Shikamaru and Choji were the last ones to walk through the door and they took the seats next to Sakura as every other seat was filled. She had no problem with that. She and Shikamaru had become good friends after going on so many missions together and Chouji was probably the nicest guy she had ever met.
Resting her chin on her hand, Sakura sighed, her eyes fixated on Sasuke, who was currently gazing out the window with a determined look on his face.
A lazy voice brought her out of her thoughts. "Don't tell me you're obsessed with Sasuke too? That's all I hear about from girls these days. It's troublesome."
"Girls are so weird," Choji agreed, nodding his head while he pulled out a bag of chips from his bag. Opening them with a big grin on his face, he began stuffing chips in his mouth as if he'd never see food again.
Laughing Sakura said, "No, I was just staring out the window thinking about something."
"Wow," Shikamaru said in surprise. "Do my ears deceive me? Seems like there's actually one sane girl in this world."
Kiba, who had been eavesdropping on the whole conversation turned around in his seat to face the three of them. Rubbing his chin thoughtfully he said, "Huh? So you don't like Sasuke either? Neither does this girl!"
Grinning widely at the quiet girl next to him, he clapped her on the back while she turned bright red.
"I...uh...I," Hinata stuttered, glancing around nervously.
Sakura smirked, knowing exactly who it was she liked. Well, maybe she wasn't as infatuated with Naruto at the moment since they were so young, but she knew later on she definitely did. Perhaps she could help move their relationship along.
But did Kiba like her? Sakura had never thought about that before. They were teammates and Kiba always rushed to protect her.
"So, how do you know she doesn't?" Sakura asked him.
Chuckling as if it should have been obvious he replied, "She's not staring lovingly at him like all the other girls in here are, duh! Liking people is so stupid anyways! All I can think about is training and fighting until I become strong enough to become the Hokage one day! Isn't that right Akamaru?"
Akamaru barked happily in response from atop Kiba's head.
"When's the teacher going to get here? If I knew he wasn't go to be here on time I would have stayed home and got some more sleep," Shikamaru complained, frowning at the empty podium.
"I should have brought more food," Choji moaned, shaking the empty potato chip bag sadly.
Kiba pumped his fist triumphantly in the air. "I can't wait 'till we're throwing kunai knives around and blasting people with ninjutsu!"
"You do realize there are other things we do here than just learning how to fight. Apparently flower arranging is part of the curriculum," Shikmaru snorted and Kiba lookled crestfallen.
Hinata tapped her fingers against each other timidly and said, "Besides, you might hurt someone if you're not careful Kiba."
Sakura smiled at her words. Hinata was so gentle and kind—which is what she loved about her. Before the attack on Konoha took place, she had trained nonstop every single day until she was sweating and gasping for breath. It was amazing how one person could really change someone from a shy little girl to a determined woman bent on becoming stronger. Too bad Naruto didn't give her the confidence she needed until the chuunin exams. Just another thing Sakura would have to change then.
"Hinata, once we start learning the basics of fighting, would you want to train together sometimes?" Sakura offered.
"Hey yeah! That's a great idea! Count me in!" Kiba exclaimed, leaning backward in his chair and pointing to himself. Shaking her head and smiling, Sakura remembered one of Kiba's distinct qualities was finding a way to interrupt every conversation.
"So Hinata, you for it?" Kiba asked while feeding Akamaru a dog biscuit.
Hinata's eyes grew wide and Sakura was sure she felt overwhelmed from the amount of attention she was receiving, but she gave a small smile and said, "Sure. That would be nice."
"Choji, Shikamaru, what about you guys? We could meet at the training field once a week or every other week or something."
"Sounds like too much work," Shikamaru said making a troubled face. "But I'm all for looking at the clouds."
Choji gave Sakura a grateful expression when she mentioned his name and nodded his head enthusiastically. Ahe faintly remembered him not fitting in so well at this age. Well, if her plan worked, than all of the rookie nine would become friends much sooner than how it happened in her timeline. No one was going to be left out. Not even Naruto.
Sasuke may be harder to welcome into the group because he had been a loner even when the Uchiha clan was still alive. Of course, he had been much happier and even respectful towards people, but he only seemed to hang around his fellow clansmen. Not anyone at the ninja academy. But that didn't surprise Sakura now that she knew the Uchiha clan was plotting to overthrow the village. Well, technically they currently are planning to overthrow it right now. She kept forgetting she was in the past!
Sighing, Sakura slumped down on her desk, covering her face with her hands. What was she going to do? She wanted to prevent Sasuke's clan from being murdered but that was a long shot. Even if she miraculously did somehow pull it off than they would try to take over the village. And that would only cause a war.
"Sakura, you okay?" Kiba asked, punching her in the arm and pulling her out of her thoughts.
Lifting her head up immediately she said, "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, I just blanked out."
Hinata started to say "You look worried-" when the door opened and a tall man with his brown hair pulled back in a style similar to that of Shikamaru's stepped into the room. Iruka sensei!
Iruka stopped walking when an eraser appeared out of nowhere, bounced off his shoulder and landed on the floor. Frowning he turned to the class and demanded, "Who did this?"
Naruto jumped up from where he was sitting and started laughing hysterically pointing at Iruka "I gotcha!" He was wearing a huge, dopey grin on his face and his eyes were closed.
Sometimes Sakura forgot how annoying Naruto used to be when we were kids. Of course, she couldn't deny how annoying she herself had been. But now she completely understood why he acted the way he did. She too would have gone insane if she had no parents and everyone in the village seemed to hate her for no reason. The more and more she thought about it, the more Sakura wanted to kick herself for treating him like such shit. At least she have plenty of time to make up for that. And she definitely would. That's her promise to Naruto. He once made a promise to her...to bring Sasuke back. She never realized what that kind of burden had had on him until Sai flat out told her. Well, she was going to return the favor. Sakura planned on giving him the best childhood he could ever have starting now. Not to mention finding a way to stop Sasuke from becoming evil and fueled by revenge. Then they could all be best friends...or at least Sasuke and Naruto could be.
Sakura didn't plan on sticking around Konoha. She had so many others on her list who needed help. Like Gaara for instance. But how could she ever find a way to leave the village without being noticed? Plus, her parents would freak out and probably alert the shinobi to tail her. And she didn't even know how she would get past the guards to the sand village. But she had to save Gaara. He's going through the exact same thing as Naruto right now. All he wants is a friend. If only she could introduce them somehow...
Another person she's wanted to help for the longest time now is...Sasori. After he let himself be killed by his puppets that looked like his parents, she felt like a piece of her heart was ripped out. It was just so sad. So many people Sakura has met in her life have seemed to have downright depressing lives. Unfortunately, she didn't think there was any hope for Sasori. If she was seven right now, than that would make him twenty five. Which also means that he's more than likely way past saving.
Downcast at that thought, she looked up, not even realizing that Iruka had finished given Naruto a lecture and sent him back to his seat. Right now he was in the middle of introducing himself along with his likes and dislikes.
Blocking out Iruka's voice because she already knew the answer to everything he was saying, she was soon absorbed in her own thoughts again.
Sakura wish she had completely planned out what she was going to do before accepting Olivier's deal because she honestly had no idea anymore. She had an overall goal she wanted to reach, but no way of getting there.
Well, before she could even start helping people like Gaara and Sasori, she needed to work on those from Konoha first. Including Rock Lee and Neji. Not completely educated on his background, she had the understanding that Rock Lee was mocked relentlessly by his peers when he was a student and he didn't deserve that at all. No one did. After class gets out, she'd ask Iruka where the older children hold classes and try to run into Lee later this week and invite him to a training session.
As for Neji, someone needed to get through to his thick head that fate is not decided at birth, and that you can change your destiny. That person really needs to be Naruto though. She wanted Naruto to be the one who is known for being able to change people for the better, not her. That's how it was in the future and that's how it will be now. First things first, she had to befriend Naruto!
"Sakura, come on! Iruka sensei is having the class go outside. You don't want to miss it," Choji said, shaking my shoulder gently.
Looking around the room, she realized everyone was heading out the door, shoving each other and laughing in excitement.
Kiba and Hinata must have already been out the door as she didn't see them anywhere.
"Come on you three!" Iruka sensei called, waving Sakura, Choji, and Shikamaru, over.
Getting up from her desk, she thanked Choji and the three of them hurried to catch up with the rest of the class.
"Why are we going outside?" she asked turning to both of them, confused.
"Sensei said he was going to show us a demonstration of the proper way to use a shuriken!" Choji rambled excitedly.
Sighing, Shikamaru took his hands out of his pockets, put them behind his head and said, "Why do we have to do so much work on the first day of school?"
"You really are lazy aren't you?" Sakura playfully punched him in the side and tried to stifle a giggle. Shikamaru was so lazy—even as a kid!
Smirking, he replied, "Nah, I'm just a coward. I really don't even like fighting."
"Then why the heck are you training to become a ninja!" she demanded.
"I thought it would be cool to be a ninja, to go on missions and stuff, but I didn't think it would be so much work. And it's only been the first day."
Raising her eyebrow Sakura said, "But-but we haven't even done anything except wait for Iruka sensei and listen to him give a speech about himself!"
"Ah," Shikamaru grinned, raising a finger, "but if you had been paying attention, you would have remembered Iruka sensei explaining about all the homework and tests we were going to be given in the near future."
"Yeah, I definitely heard him say that," Choji groaned, pulling his hair. "I already know I'm going to fail!"
"Well I'm pretty smart when it comes to taking tests and such. I could help you study if you want Choji," Sakura offered, vaguely recalling Choji and Shikamaru had barely graduated the ninja academy due to their low grades. In fact, she recalled Naruto and Kiba having the same problem. All four of them never payed attention in class and were always causing trouble some way or another.
Laughing at this memory, she turned to Shikamaru and stuck out her tongue. "Don't worry, I can help you study too Shikamaru."
"Are you kidding me?" he asked in disbelief. "I'm pretty smart you know. And I can beat everyone at shogi! Well, except my dad..." His voice trailed off and he started mumbling under his breath about his dad playing dirty.
"So you're setting up a study group now too are you?" A familiar voice said.
Looking up, Sakura realized Kiba and Hinata were standing in front of the door that led to the entrance to the training grounds.
"Oh hey Kiba! So you did wait for us after all?" she greeted Kiba with a smile on her face and turned to slug Shikamaru.
Clutching his stomach, he gasped, "Ah you're strong. What was that for?"
"For saying you were smarter than me!"
"I bet I am smarter than you!"
"Oh yeah? I bet I could beat you at shogi!"
"You're so on!"
"Okay fine. Tomorrow. After class. Your place."
"Party at Shikamaru's? I'm in!" This was from Kiba.
"Are you going to have food?" Choji asked, his stomach growling.
Shikamaru tilted his head to the side to look at his friend, "Guess I have to stock up on some considering Kiba invited everyone over to my house."
Kiba grinned sheepishly and glanced at Hinata. "You're coming too right?"
"Of course she is!" Sakura said, putting an arm around her. "We can start training after I kick Shikamaru's butt!"
Hinata gave a genuine smile and said, "I can't wait! I just hope my Dad is okay with it."
The five of them, laughing and talking about their plans for tomorrow, walked out the door to where the rest of the class stood around Iruka sensei.
"Now, I want each of you to demonstrate your ninja skills," he was saying.
The entire class groaned all at once, giving off a comical effect.
Iruka chuckled nervously, "Don't worry, you won't be graded. This is just so I can assess how to proceed with our lessons."
"So, we'll start off with throwing shurikens. First up, Sasuke Uchiha."
Sasuke stepped forward and Sakura groaned inwardly as several girls, including Ino, burst out in high pitched squeals and shouts, wishing him good luck and other petty things. Did she really use to be like that? How pathetic.
Ignoring his fan girls, Sasuke took the five shurikens Iruka held in his hands, and threw them at the target without a moment of hesitation.
Each one clearly hit the target and of course, all the fan girls started whooping and hollering.
Kiba, Shikamaru, and Sakura all exchanged glances with one another and started laughing. Those girls were so annoying, yet she couldn't help but chuckle. It was just so ridiculous! Hinata didn't laugh, but Sakura could tell she was trying to suppress a grin.
Sasuke smiled when all five shurikens hit the mark and turned to look at Sakura and the other kids as they broke out in laughter. He gave them a questioning look and walked away.
Hmm, maybe that wasn't a smart move. Sakura didn't want him to think she was annoying right off the bat. Of course, he's never seemed to like her, but she would get Sasuke Uchiha to befriend her if that was the last thing she did!