Disclaimer: I do not own any Naruto characters, though I wish I did.
Naruto-Heart of Honor FIVE
The weeks slowly passed with each harsh day for Sakura, and every day, at the end of the day, she felt like the weight of the world was on her shoulders and she was slowly slipping down to her knees on how heavy it was. The training she was going under was an understatement to what she believed. It was very harsh but she knew that it was for the best.
As the day began each and every morning, Sakura woke up to the morning activities, sometimes a few of the other young men yanking up her stakes and letting the tent collapse on her or throwing icy cold water on her just for fun. But she did her best to keep her game face on. She didn't complain out loud when she joined the young men, even though a few of the Elites actually took care to asking her what had happened when she was soaking wet. Instead of telling them the truth, she just told them that she accidently knocked over her canteen full of water and it spilt all over her through the night. She hardly sold anyone out, even though she could easily have done so.
The training, itself, was not as easy as her father used to tell her about when he was in the army, serving the Shinobi Army. All of the new recruits began to learn multiple techniques of jutsu. The beginning lessons of the day were always Taijutsu. Hatake Kakashi and the other Elites began teaching them those first. Some of the lessons they had began teaching the recruits were a cinch to Sakura, for Suka had taught her quite a few moves.
Truth be told, she impressed a few of the Elites with what she already knew, but never Kakashi. He never showed any of the Elites his true emotions. He was always wearing a mask of emotionless. And wearing the mask to hide the bottom half of his face made things worst. No one could tell if he was smile, frowning or anything.
To the Sakura and the young men, Hatake Kakashi was just rock in their opinion. Cool and hard on everyone.
However, as Sakura went through each lesson with the men, she was always the butt of every joke. And it wasn't any easier when the men played practical jokes on her. During one of the Taijutsu lessons, while everyone was learning many varieties of kicks, one of the young men had snuck up behind her and put a poor mouse down the back of her shirt.
Unfortunately, Sakura was deathly scared of mice. She was like any other woman when it came to rodents like mice and rats.
So when she felt it wriggling around in her shirt, against her bandaged back, she could not stop herself from screaming as she began to thrash around to get it out. She knew it was probably stupid to scream but none of the other men seemed to even notice. The recruits just burst into laughter as they watched her. Even some of the Elites laughed her dance around, digging at her back to get the mouse out.
The only ones not laughing was Kakashi, Naruto, Rock Lee and surprisingly, Hyuuga Neji. Instead, he was giving the young man responsible a silent scolding, telling him that it was the act of a child for putting a mouse down anyone's shirt.
But they weren't laughing anymore when Kakashi angrily moved forward to make her stop and she hit him right in the stomach while she was thrashing around. No one dared to laugh because of the dangerous look on the serious Shinobi's face. Sakura, like always, received the blunt end of the knife though. As soon as she managed to open the bottom of her shirt and let the mouse drop out, she was suddenly finding herself right in front of a very angry looking Kakashi. So the mouse was the least of her problems.
Kakashi just glared at Sakura before he grabbed a hold of her shirt and shoved her off to the side. "Run laps, Haruno, around the training grounds. Don't stop until I say so."
"Yes, sir." Sakura sighed as she began immediately. "I'm sorry for hitting you, sir."
It was actually a big surprise to Sakura though as she made her run around the training camp, when she discovered that Hyuuga Neji had scolded the young man who had stuffed the rodent down her shirt. He hadn't seemed the type who would do that. He was actually very quiet and stern like. She was also surprised that every time she passed by the young men while they were still working on their jutsu, Neji would look right at her, meeting her eyes with his strange pure white ones.
In the beginning, when she had actually noticed his eyes, she had thought he was blind because he didn't seem to have pupils. But she slowly learned that he was not blind at all. He could see very well, more than well. When working on Taijutsu with other young men, he always caught the other's attacks before delivering his own. He also knew every time Naruto was making faces at him and he would glare at him.
It was still interesting to know why Neji seemed interested in Sakura. He was always looking at her, almost observing her every movement. So she tried most of her time to avoid his very eye sight or acted more and more like a guy each time. She did not want him to know that she was a girl.
Sakura also found it funny when Lee-Maito Rock stood up for her once in a while. Especially when a few of the other guys called her ugly.
He would always say, "You're just jealous because he's better looking than you."
"Careful, Lee. You're making yourself gay, even though, everyone knows you are." A young man named Sai remarked. While everyone was sniggering, Rock glared at him but muttered under his breath, "Well it's true."
For days, Sakura got the same treatment every day and night. The young men played cruel jokes on her, causing her to do something that would always anger Kakashi and she would end up being punished. He didn't even seem aware that anyone was playing jokes on her, and if he did, he didn't do anything about it. It was then the Chuunin, Iruka remarked to her, "He knows they're doing it, Haruno. It's just he expects you to stand up for your own. You're old enough to stand up for yourself and not let anyone push you around, you know."
Sakura understood immediately and started standing up for her own self, though Naruto would help. They didn't do very well though. Sometimes the leers the other young men gave the pink haired 'boy' frightened her but she would keep a chin up and would leer right back. And sometimes the fight that would break out got too physical and Sakura would find herself with a black eye. But at least the other guy looked worst than she did. She proved to them to not underestimate them.
Of course, that never went well with the silver haired Shinobi commander, Kakashi.
Every single time she got into trouble, any one of the young men for that matter, they would be forced to run laps around the camp or do so many push ups that their arms burned with pain by the time Kakashi let them go. They all learned that he was very strict and he did not like rule breakers at all. During the time of training, only a few of the recruits had been kicked out of the camp and were forced to go home with a dishonor. So it was clear that Kakashi was not one to joke around with very often.
As the month slowly passed, Sakura was sure that she would never, ever get so many bruises, cuts, and scratches again in her life. The training was unbearable but she refused to break. Whenever she came close to just deciding to give up, she reminded herself of what happened with her father and she would try again. Unfortunately, every night when she went to bed, she was so sore and achy.
Her new beginning friend with Naruto was starting to look up though. He wasn't so grumpy with her anymore and he eventually cracked rude jokes with her. Some of them she didn't laugh at, but she did find him amusing. And he was actually starting to consider her as a friend.
"You know you're going to fail, don't you?" the dead weight recruit, Sai remarked as everyone sat down for dinner one night. "You should go home because you're weak." And then he went over to a table full of smirking men. Sakura gave him a dark look as she watched him but glanced at Naruto when he shook his head. "Don't listen to Mr. Emo over there, Zaku! He's just jealous because you can kick higher than he can." He then made a face. "Actually, you have the highest kick any one of us do. I swear if I tried to kick as high as you, I'd bust my balls open."
And Sakura blushed hot red at that crude remark but she did her best to hide it by dropping her chopsticks and getting under the table to pick them up again. "Ha, ha, ha. Whatever." She told him but she sounded so uneasy. But then she caught several eyes on her as she came back up, still slightly pink. Neji of course, as well as a few other young men.
To her embarrassment, Hatake Kakashi was watching her too from the Jounin table. His dark eye was always on her nowadays. It was like he was trying to figure something out and it terrified her to think that he was figuring out her true identity. She was trying her best to not be so girlish and she even tried some of the things Master Minato hat told her to do. She spat on the ground, burped out loud, did things that she knew her mother would KILL her for doing. But the one thing she hated the most about how girlish she acted, it was every time she blushed.
It was worst on the hottest days, as the season grew later into early summer. The days grew too warm that the training was harder on the recruits. Sure, Sakura could handle the rainy days and the strong windy days but how she really despised the hot days.
The reason why?
Well, while she had to keep her shirt on and nearly die of heat, the men could take their shirts off. In her opinion, it was like heaven to a girl. There were so many men with such well defined chests and manly builds that could make a girl just drool. She almost did herself the very first hot day when everyone did.
Even Hatake Kakashi took off his shirt and he was not some gangly looking guy either.
Unlike the other men, he did keep on a tank top while he removed his vest and jacket but it was still tight enough to show Sakura exactly how well built the man was. And he had what looked like a rock solid chest. He was definitely a soldier, she could tell. His biceps were not extremely large like a few of the other Elites' were but he was still strong enough.
However, there was one other thing. Kakashi never took off his mask. He always wore it, nor did he ever take off his forehead protector. He always had it pulled down over his left eye. So Sakura, nor any of the other men, ever got to see his full face.
At dinner time, Sakura could have sworn that he would take off the mask so he could eat, or at least eat his food from under the mask but he never did. He didn't really eat with the men. From what she heard from the others, he always ate in his tent, alone. Never with anyone else. Sakura wondered why he wore his mask. Could he be badly scarred from a fight or something? Could he have some kind of disfiguration?
There were silent bets going around through the recruits about what Kakashi really looked like. A lot of the young men kept saying that they were sure that he was a harelip, or he had scars all over his neck and face like the Shinobi, Ibiki did. So a large group of young men began to bet about what the Shinobi commander looked like.
However, when one young man tried to find out late in the evening, he not only got kicked out of the training camp but he also got almost every inch of his life beaten out of him. Kakashi did come up with some really harsh punishments. What more to it, the young man failed to get a look at Kakashi's face.
Sakura was worried as the month started to pass into another month. The men were all treating her wrongly, most did anyway while a few left her alone. She was getting worried that someone would finally notice that she was not a boy. She knew that she was doing very well to pretending to be a boy, but it didn't exactly help her when she had her monthly PMS week. She did her best to try and keep her girlish habits at a limit. But she did notice that as she fought with herself, she was getting some raised eyebrows. Kakashi being one of them. She was wondering if anyone actually started to wonder if she wasn't a boy.
And eventually, in her horror, one of the men finally decided to confront her about it.
It had been almost in the middle of the second month of her training when one of the men confronted Sakura about her true identity. The day had started out as horrible as the others had and it had drizzled some on Shinobi. The training exercise the Elite Shinobi were making the recruits go through was a survival exercise. They were to run around in the Forest of Death, trying to find a certain point in the forest before the time limit was up.
Sakura was by herself, which she preferred anyway as she made her way through the trees, trying very careful to not get caught by anyone. She had discovered that there weren't just the other young men she had to worry about, or the Elite Shinobi, who would attack them and spar with each young man they met, but it was the giant snakes living in the forest. She didn't like snakes anymore than she did with mice so she did her best to avoid any snake she came across. Unfortunately, she had a run in with only one. It was to her luck that she didn't have to fight it. She just ran away, not wanting to fight the gigantic creature.
And to her anguish, her bindings came loose.
Finding shelter in the roots of a giant tree, Sakura looked around to make sure that there was no one around. She even listened very hard for any sound at all. She could hear the other young men far off in the distance but they didn't sound too close. She made sure that she was completely out of view before she removed her shirt and looked down at her bindings.
To her disgust, she found that the bindings were getting too ragged and dirty. The dirt and her sweat was starting to stain them and it really made her nose crinkle. She knew she needed new bindings. Maybe she could try and steal some out of the medical tent after everyone was asleep. But she needed new bindings. For now, the old ones would have to work. Sakura sighed as she began to unwrap the bindings, trying to adjust them.
"You need new bindings, you know? Those ones are too old and worn down." Someone said calmly from somewhere outside the roots.
Either way, Sakura yelped in surprise and fear as she nearly jumped high into the air, only to hit her head on the roof of the roots she was in. She had not heard anyone approach, much less seen anyone. But it wasn't just that had worried her.
It was the fact that she was busted.
Quickly, Sakura snatched up her shirt and pulled it back on while looking wildly around for whoever owned that voice. She half expected to a see a very angry Hatake Kakashi standing on a tree branch, looking ready to leap down and kill her for treason. It was either him or Rock Lee she was expecting. But it was neither one. It was actually someone she only half expected.
It was Hyuuga Neji.
Neji was actually sitting on a high tree branch, in plain view of Sakura but he wasn't looking at her at all. In fact, his eyes were closed while he had his arms folded nicely behind his head. It looked like he was asleep and Sakura would have sworn that he was if he hadn't spoken to her only moments ago.
"Ne-Neji?!" Sakura gasped, but then she shook her head as she tightened her shirt around her, swallowing hard. "Uh….h-hi! I didn't see you up there!"
The black haired ninja snorted before he lazily looked down at her, a light smirk on his face. "Obviously. Otherwise you wouldn't have been flashing off those bandages you're wearing." He told her as he shifted up into a more comfortable sitting position.
Sakura painfully winced. So he had seen her bandages. But there was a possibility that he didn't know that she was a girl. So she decided to try and lie her way out of trouble. "Oh, ye-yeah. About these," She swallowed hard as she tried her best to keep up her Zaku voice. "I….uh, kind of hurt myself the other d-day. I fell onto a tree and cut myself! Nasty cut, if you ask me." She winced how pathetic she sounded but she hoped that Neji bought it.
"Please." Neji said rolling his eyes as he looked back up at the canopy above them. "I know who you are, Haruno girl. I know what you are." Sakura paled to completely white. "You obviously don't know a thing about my clan, do you? If you did know about my clan, you would know that we possess the Byakugan Eye." He then shifted his weight on the tree and slid himself down to the ground.
Sakura's throat was too dry and it hurt to swallow. "B-Byakugan…..eye?"
Neji looked directly into her eyes as he stalked towards her, his hand now digging into his hip pouch. "Yes. The Byakugan eye. The All Seeing Eye. I can see through objects with them. Through trees, buildings, whatever." He then let his eyes flicker over Sakura's body before looking back into her eyes. "I can see your girlish form. I know you're a girl."
It was a shock to even hear something like that, much less that last bit. Sakura was alarmed by every word and she couldn't' stop herself from over-reacting. It was an instinct to do it. She quickly wrapped her arm over her chest and she found her hand swinging at Neji, to slap him across the face.
However, Neji seemed to have seen it coming.
He took a quick step back and caught her hand with his before she could hit him. And when Sakura looked at him with wide eyes, he smirked smugly at her. "And I can see a person's muscles tense up when they're about to do something." He told her before he held up what was in his hand.
To be honest, Sakura had expected him to pull out a kunai to kill her, but he hadn't. Instead, he was holding up fresh bandages. "Wha-?!"
Neji shook his head as he placed the bandages into her hand before letting it go and stepping back. "Here. Use these. They should last for a while." He then turned away from her, as if he was going to let her have some privacy or keep watch.
"….How….how long have you known?" Sakura asked uneasily as she held the bandages in her hand, still not making a move to replace her old ones. She almost winced on how pathetic she sounded but she had to know. How long had Neji known? Did this explain why he was always looking at her?
Neji turned half way back, only glancing at her from the side of his eyes but then he shook his head and looked off into the trees, keeping watch for anything. "I've always known, since you even first stepped into the camp. Even with all the crude habits you've been using to fool everyone else. I could see that you were no boy. Plus, I am Hyuuga Hinata's cousin. She does tend to tell me about her friends now and then." He must have sensed Sakura's cringe because he turned fully back, seeing her blushing furiously and looking very afraid. "Relax. She doesn't tell anyone other than me. And I haven't told anyone that you're a girl. I don't think anyone else knows. And even if they did, they haven't said a word about it. Usually if anyone did know, they would have said something right about now."
Sakura still looked uneasy. "What about Rock? He seems to know?" She told him, in a low voice.
Neji snorted as he looked directly in her eyes. "He doesn't have a clue. He's always like that. His adopted father, Gai has taught him to never treat beautiful things wrongly. They're a bunch of 'beauty and youthful' loving fanatics." He explained before turning his back on her again. "Go ahead and put on the new bandages. I'll keep watch and I promise I won't look."
"Right. You can probably see through the back of your head." Sakura said dryly.
Neji rolled his eyes as he glanced over his shoulder at her then back towards the trees. "No. That's not how the Byakugan works. I have to be looking directly at something to see through it. Now, get those bandages on right now. We're running low on time to passing this training session."
Slowly, Sakura did so after moving back within the roots of the trees, trying to hide behind a large one. She was also keeping her eyes on Neji, eyeing him with suspicion. Exactly why was he helping her? Was he trying to trap her to reveal herself to the Elites? And why didn't he say anything about her being a girl and not a boy? "You…..you haven't told anyone about me, have you?" She saw him shake his head. "Why? I'm a…a girl in a men's only training camp. Doesn't…..doesn't that….annoy you?"
Again, Neji snorted as if he found it funny. He didn't turn around though, but kept his eyes looking towards the trees. "Not really. Should I be annoyed?"
Sakura shook her head as she removed her shirt and started wrapping the bandages around her chest, not wanting to remove the old ones just yet. She would do that later when she wasn't around Neji. "Well….yeah. It should annoy you. I'm a girl. Women don't have business in war, right? It's not allowed." She told him.
Neji only tilted his head slightly to the side as if he was going to look at her but when Sakura jumped in alarm, he straightened it again. "If you are here, dressed as a man and trying to act like one, then you must have business in this war. Allowed or not." He then turned around when Sakura did her shirt up again and she moved out from under the roots. "But question is, what is that business? I'm curious to know how a pink haired girl could be so brave to want to risk her life in the war. Surely you're not here just for a thrill. It all depends on what you're answer is if I help you or not."
Sakura looked at him with surprise when he said that. He wanted to help her? But why? "Why do you want to help me? I thought you hated me. The first day here, I made Shikamaru knock……"
Neji rolled his eyes and folded his arms. "Why, Haruno, do you think I shouted at Shikamaru for getting food on me and not you? I know you punched him and sent him flying all over the table, but it wasn't your fault. The procrastinated, good for nothing fool had it coming." He told her, earning a surprised look. "I heard what he said to you. The insult about your father. And he had no right to dishonor your father like that. Epsecially when it is Haruno Daisuka."
"You….So you do know my father's name?" Sakura asked looking troubled.
Neji shook his head as he shifted his weight to the other foot. "Who doesn't know Daisuka? He was once a guard of the Hokage, himself. He saved the life of the Hokage's son. He's famous that way. But no one doesn't know much about his clan, know about you. So like I said before, you're safe." He paused. "For now. So why are you here? Why are you pretending to be a man? Don't you have a brother or a male clan member?"
Slowly Sakura shook her head as a low sigh escaped her. "No. I have no brothers. My father is the only male in our clan, besides our hands. But even they are not apart of our clan." She told him before noticing the question on his face. She knew what he was about to ask next. "And the reason my father isn't coming to the Training Camp, himself is because He wasn't fit to fight. He has a limp in his leg and it would have killed him. I couldn't have let him come. He would have died. And I love my father so much." She sighed with much sadness. "That is why I became Haruno Zaku. To save his life and fight for my own honor."
There was a long silence as Neji stared at her, almost in a dull way. He didn't look impressed but then he smirked and turned away. "That'll do. I'll help you then and watch your back."
Sakura was surprised again but instead of asking for a better reason of why he wanted to help her, she just smiled. "Thank you, Neji. I could use all the help I could get. Especially with pretending how to be a boy." She told him. Neji only shrugged it off before starting to walk. "We better hurry. We have only ten minutes left before the time runs out." He told her.
"Well then, why don't we run through the tree tops." Sakura told him before she quickly hurried towards a tree and leapt up to the nearest branch. She looked like she was going to lose her balance and topple right off. But to Neji's surprise, she did not fall out of the tree at all but turned around to look at him…..as she was standing at an angle on the tree. An angle that she should be falling off but wasn't. "Well, you coming?"
Neji snorted as he looked up at and folded his arms. "You know how to control your chakra, don't you? You know how to channel it to your feet so he don't fall off the tree branch." He guessed.
"Well, yeah. My dad is Daisuka after all. Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean he hasn't taught me anything." Sakura said smiling innocently. "It's actually really easy if you know how to control your chakra." She told him. Neji just smirked and shook his head before he was quickly up the tree and they were running along the tree branches as fast as they could.
To Sakura's greatest pleasure, she and Neji made it right on time before the time was up.
The other young men couldn't believe it though. Haruno Zaku was standing beside Neji as if they were friends. They were even talking quietly to each other and when one of the young men decided to make a crack at Zaku, he suddenly found Neji giving him a very dry stare. "Now listen up, you idiot. You mess with him, you mess with me from now on." He warned him darkly. Zaku is a better man than you are. And he surely better at ninjutsu than you are as well." He scolded him before walking with Sakura to stand off with Naruto.
After that little blow up, none of the young men decided to taunt her again. They only watched as Sakura, Neji and Naruto stood together, looking around as they waited for the last men showed up.
Even Kakashi was watched her as she stood with the other three, soon to be four when Sasuke decided to move over to stand next to Neji. He seemed at least a little impressed that 'Zaku' had actually made it on time before he turned and lectured those who were late, making them run laps when they returned to the camp. At least things were starting to change only a little.