Thank You for all of the amazing reviews! They really made my day, and made this chapter possible! Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy!
As always, being the forgetful person that I am, I forgot to mention that there is a link on my profile to a fanart I made a few weeks ago. It's no work of art, but it should get the point across.
Here's the link, though I'm not sure if it'll work.
art/Sakura-from-one-small-change-Chapter-3-339457389
After sensei's announcement, it didn't take a genius to figure out that this 'test' would be no piece of cake – even an unresponsive jounin was a high challenge for fresh-out-of-the-Academy gennin. But a fully-fledged, prepared-to-hit-you-back jounin seemed like a nightmare.
This was proven when I saw Akane immediately rush at Izaya-sensei, kunai drawn and flying – the boy obviously attacked without any plan whatsoever, and I fought back a wince when he was easily sent flying a good twenty metres across the field before he crashed into a tree. I saw Kaoru pale a little and flinch when his teammate fell limp to the ground.
I relaxed slightly when I saw the redhead move, and his hand flew to his head as he released a groan. I was surprised when I saw a soft green glow envelop his hand, and, as he moved his hand closer, the cut on his forehead healed.
A medical ninja…?
I was startled when, for the second time in the last few days, a kunai came whizzing at my face, and once again I managed to deflect it with only seconds to spare.
"You won't be able to space out when I'm your opponent, little girl!" Izaya-sensei called, but before he could run at me, Kaoru had jumped in his way. I was curious about what the quiet boy had to show, and I was stunned when I saw sensei's pupils dilate; that was my chance! Kaoru had caught him in a genjutsu! If he's unable to defend himself, now is the perfect time for me to paralyse him!
I ran towards the duo, but in my excitement I hadn't noticed that Akane had gotten up and was rapidly making hand-signs. My wake-up call came with a waterfall of ice-called water which fell on Kaoru and Izaya-sensei, effectively snapping me out of my daze, but unfortunately, also kicking sensei out of the genjutsu.
"You idiot!" I shrieked at him. "We almost had him!" outrage was currently overwhelming common sense, as in any other case I would've thought twice about saying something so… un-me.
But Akane didn't seem too bothered by it and had no problems with retaliating. "Well, it didn't seem like it! And if you 'almost had him', then go and get him!" he raged.
"I would've, had you not snapped him out of the genjutsu with your idiotic water jutsu!" I yelled back. I needed to control myself, but the annoying redhead seemed to bring out the worst in me, and I'd only known him for a day.
"The justu wasn't idiotic! That was The Exploding Water Colliding Wave! It's a B-Rank jutsu, no doubt higher than anything you'll ever be able to do!" he exclaimed.
I was seething. But a moment later I felt the ground disappear from under me as I was swept off my feet and shared Akane's fate of smashing into a tree. I winced. Not a pleasant experience.
"And that was the Violent Whirlwind, an A-Rank technique, unique to Konoha ninja, mainly jounin." I heard the sarcastic voice of our sensei above me.
"Ugh, that's twice in one day, sensei." I heard a groan beside me. "Please don't make this a hobby, or I'll- oh." It seemed Akane had only just realised our situation; we were both facing the point-blank of a kunai. A single flick of his wrist is all it'd take and we'd be dead.
I noticed sensei had his other arm wrapped tightly around Kaoru, a kunai pressed to his throat. I met the brunette's apologetic gaze and tried to offer a smile. It came out more like a grimace.
"Were this a mission," sensei began calmly, which completely contradicted his intimidating appearance, "You'd have all been dead. Akane – you don't attack without a plan, or rush into a battlefield while you have no clue what's going on." I felt a smug smirk tugging on the corners of my mouth before Izaya-sensei continued. "Sakura – although your idea was good, you cannot spend every battle biding your time on the side-lines and waiting for the opportune moment to step in and save the day. Kaoru – you seemed to have had the best idea of how to handle this battle, and I admit your genjutsu threw me off considerably, but you cannot just stand there while your teammates argue! Step in, slap them around the face, threaten, whatever! Just do something!"
I hung my head as I took in his critique. "Akane, Sakura; you need to understand this: you can't start arguing in the middle of a bloody battlefield! You think your opponents will just stand there and let you get it out of your system before attacking!? Use your brains!"
I openly flinched.
"It's not my fault - the brat/idiot started it…" Akane and I grumbled at the same time. I sent him a glare just as his head snapped up to sneer at me.
"Akane-san, Sakura-san," the quiet voice of my brown-haired teammate brought me back to earth. "Could you please stop arguing like a married couple and help? This is not the most comfortable position." He said, while pointing to the kunai still pressed to his neck.
Realising my mistake, I quickly swiped at the kunai which was still pointing at me, the force of the blow dislodging it from sensei's hold, then jumped to my feet and pulled out my own kunai, thrusting it out, fully intent on stabbing sensei in the stomach. At the last moment, he let go of Kaoru and deflected the strike, but unbeknownst to him, that was what I had been waiting for and I pushed the brunette away before dodging a punch directed at me from Izaya-sensei.
Once a safe distance away, Kaoru brushed the invisible dust off of his shoulders and sent me a small smile. "Thanks." He said.
Izaya-sensei watched the interaction with a mysterious glint in his eyes. "I've changed my mind." He announced suddenly.
Immediately, all three of us directed our attention at him.
"You three shall stay a team, you'd proved to be interesting, and you have some potential, so, naturally, I want to keep you. However, if you can't manage to defeat me by the end of the day, I'll make sure that for the first year of your career you shall not even as much as glance at anything above a D-Rank. Painting, shopping, babysitting; just what you need to get that irritating spite out of you, don't you agree?" he asked, his eyes twinkling with sadistic humour.
"Sensei…" Akane almost whimpered. "That's just cruel."
Izaya-sensei smirked. "That's true. Well, you better get to work then, ne?"
I sighed and started to rise, but he motioned for me to sit back down. "I hadn't finished yet. I decided it was a little unfair of me to just tell you to work together after you've only been a team for ten minutes. So, we're – unfortunately – going to do the booooring introduction thing. Name, likes, dislikes, dreams, and most importantly, abilities, so you don't end up accidently killing each other, get it?"
"Yes, sensei." We chorused.
"Alright. Carrot-boy, go first." I snorted at the ridiculous nickname. Carrot-boy. His hair was red, not orange! But it did annoy him… Hm, I decided I liked it.
"My name is Akane Satoshi, not Carrot-boy." He said pointedly, glaring at Izaya-sensei in the process. "I like training and barbeque, I don't like annoying little brats with pink hair. I'm a ninjutsu user, and a med-nin in training. My dream is to at some point become the Head of the Hospital." He finished with a smile.
"Nice. Short, to-the-point, highly possible. Right, Kaoru-chan, your turn." Sensei announced, smiling mischievously.
"Kaoru Yuhi. Genjutsu type. I like reading, and onigri. I hate noise and conflict. I want to have a steady career, reach jounin, marry, have a kid, retire. And perhaps master the art of kenjutsu if I can find a worthy teacher." Although vague and monotone, I liked his introduction – it fitted him; slow, quiet, plain.
"OK. Not bad, old-man. Pinky, show him how it's done." He joked. I glared at him.
"My name is Sakura Haruno. I like dango, and training. I dislike thunderstorms and stupidity. I also don't like people who underestimate me due to my appearance. My dream is to reach ANBU in the next five years. Oh, and I'm mainly a taijutsu type, though I also know a little ninjutsu." I kept my abilities basic. Dad had once told me that the more you spill the less you are. I agreed wholeheartedly.
"That's a little ambitious, don't you think?" sensei asked, but this time I didn't detect even a hint of teasing in his voice. "But if that's what you want, then good luck." I nodded, accepting his commentary for the time being.
"I'll let you go over what you need to improve on. try to come up with a decent strategy this time, alright? I don't think Hokage-sama will appreciate it if I knock down any more trees." He said as he walked off, giving us the space we needed to discuss.
"Firstly, stop getting in the way brat, and let Kaoru and me handle him." The redhead spoke up. "We have no clue what you can do, so it's better to not make you do anything at all, since you'd only distract us."
"On the contrary, Akane, I think we should let Sakura-san have a go at fighting sensei." Kaoru defended. "Like you said, we don't know what she can do, and for all we know she might be able to distract him enough so we can then incapacitate him." His voice was quiet as he spoke, yet there was a sense of finality to his words. I sent his a small, but grateful smile. I had just about enough of Akane's unfounded hatred.
Akane also seemed to notice that it wasn't a request. "Fine. But if we get D-Ranks for the rest of the year, you'll be to blame, Kaoru-chan." The redhead spat out.
"Right, since it seems you're done, and we've finished our little heart-to-heart, how about we get to work? Or, more precisely, you get to work?" Izaya-sensei announced.
I almost jumped when I heard his voice, so close to us. I hadn't notice him getting closer, and suddenly there he was.
Apparently, Akane didn't realise we were going to attack him today. "But senseiiiii…!" he whined when he realised what Izaya-sensei meant. "We'd just fought you for, like, an hour! Give us a break!"
"OK. Say hello to a year of D-Ranks then, Akane-chan. That'll be rest enough, right?" he teased. The reaction was immediate – Akane jumped to his feet, accidently pulling Kaoru up as well, but since the brunette wasn't expecting the quick movement he quickly lost his footing and fell on Akane, causing both of them to end up sprawled on the ground.
While they were rolling about and spitting grass out of their mouths, I stood up and turned to face sensei. I let out a small smirk. Now it was my turn, screw whatever the redhead thought.
"Thinking of going one-on one, Sakura-chan?" sensei asked. "Brave. Well, let's see how you do."
I decided to start slow using a mixture of the taijutsu I learned and Academy style, because I needed to see how proficient sensei was at close-combat. I had a rough idea, but I needed proof.
When he managed to block all of my attacks – which weren't aimed to hurt, since this was like a reconnaissance mission – I upped the speed, and the complexity of the attacks. Now I could see him struggling slightly, almost unnoticeably, to predict my moves. My theory was therefore proven.
He easily got rid of Akane when the redhead first attacked because he was coming straight at him, at medium speed. What I was currently doing was twice as fast, and I was still not finished. I had spent the last four years training my speed. Now it was time to use it.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Akane and Kaoru were back on their feet, watching me.
I grinned.
It's show time!
This isn't good. Was Izaya's first thought.
He was not all too confident in his taijutsu, but he thought it was good enough to provide a steady defence against Rookies. He was seriously reconsidering that assumption.
The little pinkette, Sakura, was the reason. When he first saw his team, he had a feeling they would prove to be interesting. They all seemed to have something which separated them from the crowd; Kaoru's silence, Akane's brashness, or Sakura's pink hair. And only that. But that was a first-impression conclusion.
Now he also knew something else; they were all top. Perhaps he was beginning to see the Hokage's thoughts about his team – the old man wanted him to 'lead them onto the right path'. And in this case, the right path was the elite. He knew each of them was capable of it, even after only knowing the brats for a few hours.
Kaoru's genjutsu was so intricately layered he had to admit he barely knew what he should start with – the layers merged into each other, and made him feel like one wrong move and he'll lose. He had to admit, were it not for Akane's jutsu, he'd have had real problems getting out of that one.
Having mentioned the water jutsu, it was a B-Rank. Something which definitely wasn't taught in the Academy.
And then there was Sakura. The rosette had not shown anything exceptional apart from general awareness of where she should be, and her argument with Akane caused him to slightly doubt her strength, but now he was starting to seriously worry.
She began with an array of Academy attacks, mixed in with something which prickled in his mind that he should recognise, but he dismissed it, focusing on blocking the girl's attacks and trying to appear as unaffected as possible.
Then, she stepped up the speed, and he grew more and more uneasy; the Academy style disappeared, and the unidentified style was left, and combined with the fact that he didn't know what she could do, he was starting to fumble.
Suddenly, she disappeared, and it was only by the small burst of chakra behind him that he managed to turn around just in time to block a particularly nasty drop-kick. However, before he could recover, she vanished once again, but this time, there was no chakra spike, and as a result he earned a hard kick in the ribs. It went on for a few more seconds with Sakura near-invisible, the only confirmation she was even there being the frequent kicks and punches he couldn't block, before she finally reappeared in front of him, and delivered a strong, chakra-enhanced kick to his abdomen, which sent him flying back.
"Akane, now!"
"Akane, now!" I screamed at the redhead once my kick had connected.
The redhead, as if reading my mind, repeated the hand-signs I saw him use before, but this time there were a couple of additional ones which I couldn't fully identify due to the speed they were performed at.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!" he called out, and I watched, mystified, as an enormous water dragon appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and headed towards sensei, before it fell on him, engulfing him in its' mouth, creating a lake-sized puddle. I saw Akane bite his lip seconds before the dragon attacked, straining to control the massive body of water. A small feeling of respect for the redhead formed, but I squashed it down.
I saw sensei rise to his feet, his legs shaking slightly, and I realised the blow must've hurt quite a lot in order to create that sort of response.
I turned to face Kaoru, and he nodded wordlessly, also seeming to be able to read my mind.
He made some hand-signs and I felt a surge of chakra and saw sensei stiffen.
Akane noticed the movement and asked, "Have you got him?"
"Yeah," Kaoru bit out, his voice strained. "But we better end this soon, he's fighting my genjutsu."
The three of us walked the distance which separated us from Izaya-sensei and stood before his stiff form.
"To think a simple genjutsu is enough to stop a jounin…" Akane mused, his voice unusually quiet.
"I wouldn't be so simple about simple." Kaoru gritted out, before his eyes widened. "Shit, he broke the-!"
The warning was unnecessary, as it was hard to have missed sensei's eyes snapping open, and his body disappearing from where he stood. A burst of chakra I'd began to associate with Shunshin followed, and it was a split-second reaction as I sensed where the chakra had moved to that made me turn around and unleash my Killing Intent straight at Izaya-sensei now stood.
He stilled immediately, but so did Akane and Kaoru, since it was probably their first exposure to something so feral. Dad had told me that my KI reminded him of a cat; slow and graceful most of the time, but vicious when angered. Unfortunately, he didn't tell me what it felt like to have it directed at him.
Realising it was all in my hands, as my teammates were unable to move, I jumped to where sensei was standing and pulled out my kunai. I had to really stretch and get on my tip-toes to be able to reach his neck, but I pressed the knife firmly to his neck, and then proceeded to calm my Killing Intent.
I saw Akane and Kaoru snap out of it seconds before sensei had, probably because it wasn't directed at them and all they got was shockwaves, but I mentally congratulated them nevertheless.
Once sensei's eyes had settled on me, I pressed the kunai closer to his neck. "Don't move." I whispered.
My teammates moved to my sides, taking out their own kunai. "Is that incapacitated enough for you, eh, sensei?" Akane teased, the mischievous glint returning to his green eyes.
Sensei's eyes surveyed the three of us, taking in our victorious grins and tired faces. "Yes." He raised his hand in mock forfeit. "I give!"
"Oh yeah!" Akane cheered while jumping around and hooting in joy. "Beat that, crappy D-Ranks!" he cheered.
"Oi, carrot-boy, watch your language!" Izaya-sensei reprimanded teasingly. Akane pouted, but surprisingly didn't retaliate. "So, I guess this demands lunch." He said, arching his eyebrow.
"I call for barbeque!" Akane hollered. Sensei turned to me and Kaoru.
"Barbeque's fine." Kaoru replied, the small smile still on his face.
"Sure. As long as they serve dango." I confirmed.
Sensei laughed. "Let's go. It's on me."
I smiled.
Regardless of how insanely crazy, annoying, or loud my teammates could be, or how unsettling my sensei's mood swings were, they were my team. And they will stay my team.
Thanks for reading! I hope you can review! Oh, and I got my first flame four days ago... Let's just say I enjoyed my marshmallows ^_^
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