AN: yeaaaaahhh so been like what four years since I updated? Recently I lost interest in the Naruto manga (I'm expecting somebody to go supersaiyan at any moment. Oh wait Nartuo already did!) so I decided to going back to my own works in that field. Not sure if anyone that read this story is still around, but I'd love to hear from you guys! And I will be introducing a theme song for my characters. Probably do that for every chapter before this now that I'm going about revising the story (dang some of my writing is . )
Naruto Uzumaki: I will not bow by Breaking Benjamin
The murky lake water shimmered with odd light in the dimly lit forest. A soft gentle breeze pushed through the low lit clearing, playfully rustling the overhanging leaves on the verge of changing colors for the coming autumn. A bird landed on a branch and peered about in the quiet forest checking for any signs of danger. Seeing none, the winged creature broke out into a whistling song filled with high chirps and notes too sharp for human ears.
A doe slowly stalked into the clearing, head bent down as her mouth worked away at the blades of dew covered grass sprinkled across the untouched floor. Her ears twitched back and forth, perking up with each high note the bird sang. Suddenly the creatures ears perked up and the doe's head rose up from the ground to peer about in the shadowed forest grounds. Deep amber eyes scanned for danger, but after a moment the doe relaxed and returned to feeding.
As it fed, the doe moved closer to the mini lakes edge, clearing out the nearby ground of any edible plant life. At last it reached the muddy banks and moved it's neck over the edge and peered down at it's own reflection. The mirror image in the water gazed back in confusion, a reflection of it's owner's own expression. After a while, the doe seemed to lose interest in it's look alike, and instead lowered it's head to the water so that it may drink.
The water rippled near where her mouth touched the surface and as she drank, a second ripple bounced back towards her face. Pulling its head back, the doe peered down in curiosity at the strange ripple of water that had brushed up against it's nose.
Water exploded upwards in an instant, and an arm snatched the doe's head in a vice like grip, fingers almost tearing off the frightened creatures flap like ears. Dragging the bucking animal into the water a second hand pierced out from beneath the murky depths, this one holding a sharp kunai. The blade sank easily into the doe's throat and with a mighty pull, the waters began to darken with red as a cascade of gore poured down into the lake.
The arms wrapped tightly around the dying creatures neck and dragged it into the water where it's flailing began to slow as blood lost began to darken the creature's vision. With a final feeble kick of it's hind leg, the doe fell silent and the body vanished beneath the depths of the dark lake water. The songbird continued to chirp away in it's perch above the bloody scene, sounding it's merriment for the world to hear, oblivious to the life that had just been so swiftly snuffed out below it.
As the lake waters settled back to it's serene untouched mirror like surface, the natural ambient sounds of the forest once more became audible. Joining the songbird's tune was the creek of some insect and the croak of an amphibian from the far side of the lake. Another breeze pushed through the small clearing, adding it's soft whisper punctured by the crackle of dry leaves to the symphony played by mother nature.
From the far side of the lake almost 200 meters from where the doe had previously stood, another ripple broke out on the calm liquid surface. A dark amber shadow ghosted along the surface before becoming a dark red. Finally as the waters parted, a mop of pink became visible, shortly followed by green eyes that scanned the muddy banks. Narrowing her gaze, Sakura reached out with her senses, trying to pinpoint her teammate who was currently filling in the role of sensei. Feeling nothing, she allowed herself a victorious grin from below the water and slowly made her way out of the dirty lake and onto solid ground.
The soft thump of something heavy landing in the forest ground caused the girl to close her eyes and groan to herself internally.
'Damn he did it again.'
"That was sloppy work Haruno." Damn he was using her last name. He only used her last name in two situations, expressing disappointment and letting her know he was upping her training routine again.
The ivory mask with it's red cross shaped imperfection appeared from the dark foliage. The blue eyes that stared out from beneath the mask were hard chips of ice, a sharp contrast to the monotone he delivered most his words with. Even after having spent an entire month under the private tutelage of her esteemed teammate, Sakura still couldn't shake off the chills whenever their eyes met. There was something inhuman about him, as if what lay underneath the mask was not flesh and blood but steel and wire, a mannequin shaped like a boy after it's creator had breathed into it life but never having taught him how to truly be human.
Stifling the sigh that was threatening to spill from her lips the young girl hung her head.
'WTF is he talking about? It was perfect this time!' Inner Sakura was not so tame with her reaction to her current teacher's five word evaluation of her performance.
"Granted you pulled off the kill with much more ease this time and managed to close in on the target without it's notice, there were still a few areas where you made mistakes." Solid arms like steel bars folded across a rather well developed chest for a twelve year old. "Your approach was not perfect, there was a moment before which you struck when the target had become aware of an unusual presence."
Biting back another sigh, Sakura rolled her left shoulder which had felt like it had nearly been dislocated by the bucking of the deer. The ripple that had alerted the doe to her approach moments before she struck had not actually been caused by untimely movement on her part. She had actually needed to sneeze, and had barely manage to stifle the reflexive reaction to the itch in her nostril by clamping down hard with her teeth. Nonetheless she had forcefully blinked as that was one of the few reactions no one could overcome when sneezing, even when it was a stifled one, and it had been the cause of the tiny ripple that had warned the doe moments before it's demise. Of course Naruto wouldn't take that as an excuse. Shinobi were perfect tools, inhumanly efficient. Of course they didn't need to sneeze!
Somewhere in Tea Country
Itachi clenched his teeth as hard as he could praying to whatever deities that may be listening that it would be enough. It wasn't. An explosive squeaking nose escaped from his nose like a stifled fart. His eyelid clenched shut out of reflex, and the Uchiha could feel the air pressure back out his eyeballs with a squirt of tears. The same backed up pressure also blew out his left eardrum with a dull crack.
In a blur of motion, his target exploded from above the tree Itachi had been carefully creeping towards for the past 8 hours and took off for the sunrise at an unbelievable pace.
"GOD DAMN IT ITACHI!" The inhuman roar sounded oddly stifled coming in from his left ear as if he were submerged underwater, giving way to an odd stereo effect as his unhindered ear delivered his partners yell at more normal volumes.
Rubbing his nose furiously, and wiping away at the tears in his eyes Itachi let loose an quiet groan to cover up his desire to scream and jump up and down in place like a denied two year old. Uchiha had too much dignity to do something so childish, even if he had been sneaking in the underbrush for the past 8 hours inching his way towards their twitchy target. Kisame on the other hand had no such inhibition as he furiously displayed a grown man's version of a toddler's tantrum.
Forest
"Slashing the jugular is an excellent way to quickly kill a target when a kunai blade is the only weapon on your person. However it is one of the more messy methods for killing and leaves behind a lot of hard to clean up evidence. The area from where you made the kill still bears evidence for what happened, and any skilled shinobi would be able to deduce what had taken place given a careful examination. Furthermore, your disposal of the target's body was unacceptable. Dragging the target into the water to drown it while increased the speed in which the termination process occurred also increased the amount of noise made as it moved about in it's death throes. Again a skilled shinobi in the vicinity would have noticed the sounds of struggle and intercepted you. You are no use to the village if you die along with your target."
By now Sakura was gazing down at her feet in shame. Even after a month of training under the watchful eye of her teammate she still wasn't as good as he wanted her to be. Unable to keep the sigh of disappointment at her own performance back any longer, she let loose the breath in an defeated fashion.
Realizing that her teammate had stop speaking, the top ranking academic kunoichi of her year looked up into the steady gaze of the blonde in front of her. The orbs that gazed out from beneath the mask held an indistinguishable expression in them and Sakura wondered what her teammate was thinking.
"I offer you criticism so that you may improve on your flaws Sakura. Do not mistaken that as you having not improved. Compared to the girl who fell into my care a month ago, you are as different as the moon is from the sun."
Green eyes widened in astonishment as her mind processed what she had heard. Not once in the month that she had spent training until she shed blood and tears underneath her harsh taskmaster had he offered one word of encouragement. Silence had punctuated her struggles, the only acknowledgement received for her hard work was even harder work.
Sakura had spent her academy years soaking in praise from the teachers for her always perfect test papers and ability to flawlessly cast out henges and bunshin. Her parents had always been the encouraging sort, believing that positive reinforcement being the best teaching method for good behavior. It was something she simply took for granted as part of life. Never once had she truly appreciated just how much a few words of phrase could mean to her.
"Yeaaaaahhhhhh still nowhere near good, but she's gotten better." The deep rumble of the Kyuubi's voice echoed in Naruto's head, but the blonde ignored his lifelong companion's wisecrack.
"Today is our last day we train together. I have equipped you with as much knowledge as I can in the past month we have spent as disciple and student."
Taking a step forward the blonde studied his fellow genin's face. "I have established the foundations necessary to become a good ninja that the academy seems to have failed to train you in. It is now up to you to forge your own path as a shinobi. I will see you at the bridge at noon Sakura." Without so much as a goodbye her teammate vanished in a puff of smoke.
'Foundations? He considers this stuff foundations?!' If indeed the knowledge and skills she had accumulated in the past month were to be considered 'foundations' of a good shinobi, the academy had indeed failed in all aspects of preparing her for the real world she mused
Reaching back to grab her hair, her hands snatched at air as the habits of a lifetime had yet to catch up to the fact that there was nothing to grab. Her once luscious shoulder length hair had been neatly trimmed back into a shorter more efficient bob cut that barely graced her neck. It had not been some deliberate decision to change her image to match her new outlook as a kunzite; in fact it had been a rather spur of the moment improvising tactic involving a kunai knife to release Naruto's hold on her hair during one of their many grueling sparring matches.
She had barely flinched as she had torn of the once proud lengths that she had so carefully maintained with a regiment of conditioner and special exotic scented shampoo. It only went to show how much she had changed in the brutal sessions under Naruto's intense training methods. The blonde appeared to be a big believer in the sink or swim philosophy, and more times than she wanted to remember, Sakura had come pretty damn close to sinking.
Leaping up into the foliage high above the ground, Sakura began her trek back to civilization where a hot shower and breakfast was hopefully waiting for her at home. She had spent the past two days in the outback's tracking the damn doe Naruto had marked with a color pen on it's fur and waiting for the moment to make a perfect kill just as she had been taught by her blonde comrade in arms. He had of course shadowed her the entire time, and knowing that, she had taken extra care to make as little mistakes as possible, covering her scent with the natural musk of the forest, eating and drinking only when it was absolutely unbearable. Yes, she had gotten used to roughing it with her time spent under the thumbs of her teammate. But damn that shower and meal was going to feel good.
Konoha market street
Ino Yamanaka suppressed a sigh as she trudged ahead of her team. It had been exactly a month since her graduation from the academy, and life as a genin was not all it was cracked up to be. She had grown up listening to her daddy's tales of fighting fearsome foes, protecting helpless civilians and standing as the guardian of her home village. Nowhere in those stories had there been anything about picking up dog shit at the Inuzaka kernels, babysitting octuplets (honestly how had that woman carried them in her uterus?), or catching constantly escaping cats that had near jounin level senses when it came to detecting sneaking genin.
On top of it, she had her two childhood bum friends as her teammates. Shikamaru was as lazy as any of his kinsmen. The only reason he hadn't died from suffocation, a rather troublesome exercise requiring breathing being the only preventative measure, can only be attributed to his fear of what his mother might do to him if he did. Death wasn't seen as a viable form of escape in the Nara clan when it came to their women's tempers. Unassuming Chouji was still the chubby klutz with weight sensitivity issues she had grown up with. The only thing that had changed was his waist line.
Truth be told, she had known that there were slim chances she would ever end up with the Uchiha. The Ino-Shika-Cho team formation was legendary in the shinobi world, and traditionally whenever there were members of those three clans in the same age range they would be thrown together as a team regardless of whether they graduated together or not. There had not been a graduating class with all three members of those clans together since her own father's team with the father's of her current teammates, and she had been under no illusion who she would be partnered up with.
Still she had to fight back the stab of annoyance as she turned her gaze back towards the smoking jounin that was her sensei. The man could give Shikamaru a run for his money when it came to laziness and the chain smoking certainly added to her ire due to her acute sense of smell she had developed while helping out in her mother's flower shop.
They had just finished another mission of chasing down Tora the cat and was currently headed at a leisurely pace to Chouji's favorite BBQ restaurant. Seeing the slouched form of the shadow user and the chip scarfing face of the Akamichi, Ino had to fight down yet another sigh. She really got the bottom of the barrel when it came to team assignment.
A flash of pink at the edge of her peripheral vision caught her attention and the blonde girl swiveled her head around in time to see her rival for Sasuke's affection leap off a rooftop onto the main road. The Yamanaka rubbed her eyes to ensure that the figure ahead of her was indeed Sakura. Feeling her jaws hang open, Ino couldn't believe how much her former friend had changed in the past month since they had last seen each other.
Gone was the shoulder length hair that had once been the envy of the majority of the female population in the academy. The short efficient cut was not ugly by any means, in fact it suited the shape of Sakura's face quite well if she was being honest and exposed a relatively well proportioned neck for the world to see. Once pale skin that had been carefully maintained by lotions and imported oils had been replaced by a leathery tan that contrasted fiercely with Ino's memory of how her rival had looked. The Chinese style dress had been lost as well, replaced by dark skin tight shorts that hugged the waist and hips and a sleeveless zipper top dyed in army camouflage patterns.
Stylish open toed sandals that had changed as frequently as the designers could churn them had now become the dark standard issue footing of Konoha shinobi special forces, reinforced for comfort with steel plating beneath the soles to prevent cheaper brands of caltrops from puncturing the feet. Dark fingerless gloves adorner her hands and at her elbows and knees were support bandages to prevent sprains with reinforced cups at the bending joints to soften impact for the person wearing them. A hip pouch jutted out from the back of her waist, and weapon pouches were carefully taped onto both thighs with bandages.
Even from this distance Ino could make out the muscle tone on Sakura's arm, the bicep triceps and forearm clearly defined but not disgustingly so. Thin calves had given away to more visible shape and as she walked away Ino could see that even her posture had changed greatly. The Sakura she knew had strode along at a casual pace, one hand clasping the other arm in front of her when she wasn't holding anything. She now moved at a much more rapid pace, arms held gently to her side, inches away from her weapon pouches, head turning slightly to scan the area around her. The slump of her shoulders that had once dominated her posture was gone, now exchanged for a straight backed gait that conveyed a sense of urgency in her steps.
Blinking her eyes again, Ino's mind was still trying to comprehend what her eyes was telling her, but her mouth had already gotten ahead of her. "Hey Forehead!"
Sakura hadn't so much turned as pivoted in place, darting eyes pinpointing onto Ino in an instant before her tense posture had relaxed somewhat. "Ino-Pig."
Exchanging a nod with her rival's other two teammates and a respectful bow to their instructor, the pinkette turned once more to face her former best friend. "How's life been?"
"I should be asking you that Billboard Brow! Look at you! What happened?" Ino's eyes were still wide open as she struggled to process the changes to the girl she had once called friend.
Sakura looked taken aback.
"Me?"
"Yes you!"
Scratching at her cheek, the kunoichi of team 7 smiled sheepishly. "I guess I do look a little different huh?"
'A little?' thought the genin of team Asuma who were all still reeling from the changes in their former classmate.
"Listen Ino, I've got to go meet my team, but we should catch up some time!"
Thinking that this was an obvious taunt from her rival offering to brag about her time spent with Sasuke, Ino almost refused on the spot. But her own curiosity got the better of her and the Yamanaka gave a nod at her rival.
"Yeah we should. How about Saturday at Kimi's teashop at noon?"
"Ah, better make it a bit later, I have a shift at the hospital then. How about 2? I have an hour break then."
'A shift at the hospital?' thought Ino in disbelief. Just what had happened to Sakura?
"Yeah ok, see you then Billboard Brow."
Instead of flying into rage as Sakura often did when Ino called her that the girl simply gave a crooked smile that was filled with nostalgia. "See you then Pig."
With another quick bow to Asuma and a wave at the boys of team 10, the girl hurried off.
Watching her rival leave, Ino made up her mind. She would not be falling behind Sakura.
"Asuma Sensei we're going to train! As in right now!"
Cherry Blossom Bridge
Kakashi sat in the branches of a sakura tree that had been the reason for the name of the bridge, keeping a keen eye down below. Sakura had arrived five minutes early to the meeting as she normally did, and Sasuke had soon shown up as well, right on the dot. Naruto had yet to be seen, but no doubt he was simply hiding like Kakashi was.
Extending his senses, the jounin scoured the area for any trace of his blonde student, but found no telltale signs of the fearsome container of the Kyuubi. Years spent in the hunter-nin core had perfected Naruto's ability to hide, experience gained from stalking jumpy missing-nin who were constantly on the lookout for assassins.
No doubt the boy would reveal himself as soon as Kakashi showed, but at the moment the silver haired Hatake was content to sit and carelessly rifle through his beloved book. Down below the two present members of team 7 held their silence, though it did not appear to be an uncomfortable one. One thing Kakashi had learned about his team was that they weren't big on talking. Sasuke and Naruto only spoke up when they had to, and Sakura who may have been the chatterbox of the team was almost always too exhausted from her training sessions with Naruto to utter more than a few incoherent mumbles.
Seeing the beginnings signs of impatience from the two genin below at fifteen minutes past the hour, an eyebrow on Sasuke's forehead was beginning to twitch and Sakura's left foot was tapping a beat that would make a drummer jealous, Kakashi snapped his book shut and made the tiger seal. In an instant chakra surged through his body and he sprinted down from the tree and appeared in front of the two genin in an instant. The speed of the movement was fast, faster than the eye could follow, and the gust of wind that accompanied the inhuman dash swirled the dead leaves on the ground aiding in his dramatic entrance.
'That probably looked really badass' thought Kakashi with an eye smile at his students.
A second gust of wind swept through the bridge and the masked blonde was suddenly standing between the two other genin as if he had been there all along.
"Well now that we're all here, we can finally begin our day!" Kakashi carefully opened up his precious book and begin reading through the text, enjoying the small spike of killing intent radiating from Sasuke. Chuckling to himself internally he continued on as if nothing happened. Kakashi had discovered early on in their one on one sessions that Sasuke hated being ignored, and that it was one of the best methods to rile him up. Of course this was just to train the boy in his patience. There was nothing fun about messing with an emotionally suppressed twelve year old. Nope, none at all.
"Can we get something other than a D rank sensei?" the question from Sakura while polite still held a note of annoyance in them. It seemed his little genin were getting tired of doing D rank missions. Not that he could really blame them. He was surprised Naruto hadn't killed anyone yet. The boy wouldn't complain, oh no, orders from the Hokage were treated like the words from God himself. But having never done D ranks, the blonde treated each mission as if he were planning to storm an enemy village which had led to some very awkward moments.
Who would have thought grocery shopping would be so quick if you threatened to maim everyone in the checkout line if they didn't move. The spamming of a hundred kage bunshin had earned team 7 a permanent ban from ever taking a construction related mission again, the foremen of the crew stating that they didn't want to lose their jobs to someone capable of multiplying themselves who also happened to be strong as an ox. Or that crying children could be silenced with killing intent. That last one had been a little over the top and Kakashi had had a good long talk with Naruto about why he shouldn't be traumatizing young children like that. He wasn't sure the boy understood why, but he certainly was willing to follow his example. Funnily enough there hadn't been any more missions from that family for babysitting, and the Hokage hadn't assigned them another sitter mission since the incident.
"We're not doing missions today Sakura. Since this is the end of our month long separate training routines, I think it's time we had a little evaluation of our team's progress."
"We're doing the bell test again?" asked an eager Sasuke. Well eager by Uchiha standards meaning his eyes were about half a millimeter wider than normal. Obito had been the black sheep in his family due to his emotional expressiveness. Everyone else in that clan seemed to have been born with a scowl.
"Well we might get around to that," replied Kakashi.
The jounin began to saunter towards team 7's training ground area, his genin tailing him dutifully with Sakura taking up the back of their little troupe.
"But first I want to see for myself how Sakura's been doing." Startled, the kunoichi of the group missed a step and stumbled comically.
"I'll be sparring against you sensei?" Instead of the fear and apprehension, there was a hint of excitement in the girl's voice causing Kakashi's internal eyebrows to shoot up and off his metaphorical forehead.
'Just what have you done to this girl Naruto?' A quick glance at the blonde showed that he had a better chance of getting that answer from a wall.
"Not a bad idea Sakura. But actually I was thinking of having you and Sasuke throw down first." Eye smiling at the surprised look on both the combatants who had turned slightly to evaluate one another a the unexpected announcement, Kakashi shot another look at Naruto to see if there was any reaction.
'Should take him to a casino. He'd clear out the poker tables." mused the veteran jounin.
Somewhere at the borders of the Fire Nation a well endowed pigtailed blonde let out an explosive sneeze causing her to drop her hand which had held a straight flush. "SON OF A-!"
AN: so yeah not much action in this chapter, just a little warm up before I get my old ideas rehashed. I don't think I'll be following the manga too closely, so it will deviate, especially in terms of powers and how things are explained. Promise next chapter will have some good fights in it. Who else is curious as to what Sakura's capable of? I am! And I'm the writer ;p
Anyways drop a line people, even if it's to tell me how much I suck for not updating for four years haha