Kakashi arrived back at training ground seven to see his genin hard at work. Sakura had managed to walk straight up the tree the first time, and presumably done so again before starting to tutor Naruto. Sasuke meanwhile was carefully limiting himself to stay just ahead of the other boy's progress. 'Give him a rival to beat, but don't put him down,' Kakashi thought. 'Well done Sasuke.'
Having arrived by Shunshin in the tree line across the field to avoid startling anyone on a tree (knowing Naruto he WOULD have landed on his head) he walked out and across to the others. "Yo," he said by way of announcing himself. "How's it hanging?" he asked the currently upside Sakura with an eye-smile.
"That was bad, sensei…" Sakura deadpanned. "Naruto-kun is halfway up the tree though! Oh and Sasuke too!" Ignoring the funny look Naruto was giving her for the moment, she made eye contact with Kakashi. "I was just saying I bet you'd give us a jutsu if we can all get this down on the first day, right?"
"Mah, that seems reasonable. If my cute little students are so determined in their training, I can only reciprocate, can't I?" he confirmed.
Suddenly there was a fire in Naruto's eyes as he glared at the tree. From beside him Sasuke spoke up, "Remember, Naruto, deep breaths. Calm and focused, not wild and determined." As Naruto compiled a pressure seemed to drop over the clearing, Sakura and Kakashi grinning at each other behind Naruto.
With a deep breath, Naruto's eyes snapped open and, to Kakashi, the pressure seemed to snap forward onto the tree. With determined strides, Naruto walked up to the tree, placed a single foot on the bark and calmly walked two thirds of the way up before slipping, pushing of and landing on his feet.
Beside him Sasuke smirked. "Guess we know what motivates you. None of Sakura's promises of dates got that much out of you!" Ignoring Naruto's spluttering, he turned to Sakura, "And how does that make you feel, Sakura-san?" he asked in a frankly terrible imitation of a therapist.
Crocodile tears forming in her eyes, Sakura turned a tearful gaze in the direction of the two boys. "It breaks my heart that spitting fireballs around means more to Naruto-kun than my love!" slamming a fist into her palm, she resolved. "I shall just have to try harder to earn his love!" At Naruto's frantic stammering and hand waving, she finally lost control and started giggling. "Honestly Naruto, you're too easy to tease." She pointed at him authoritatively, other hand in a fist on her hip. The effect was somewhat ruined by her still being upside down however. "Besides, as my boyfriend you know we will be going on dates anyways."
At her declaration of her view of their romantic status Naruto did a startlingly good impression of a certain Hyuuga heiress.
BhwO
The following morning lead to a new routine for team 7. Rather than waiting for several hours on their bridge, the three genin had agreed to meet at Ichiraku's for breakfast. To their (Naruto's) surprise, Kakashi had somehow convinced Teuchi to stock healthy breakfast foods for the team to eat there. Naruto still attempted to order ramen, but it only took a few moments of pouting from Sakura to get him to submit.
Following an unsurprisingly lively breakfast, over which Sasuke had had a surprising insightful back and forth on ambush tactics with Naruto which Sakura occasionally interjected into, the trio headed to the bridge to meet Kakashi who was once again on time. Still somewhat weirded out, both Sakura and Sasuke gave him suspicious looks, but had accepted his explanation the previous night that given what they knew was coming, they didn't have time to waste on his imitating his deceased friend's habits.
As they arrived, Kakashi stood from his position leaning on the bridge railing and tossed them a two-fingered wave. His omnipresent orange book snapping closed as he started speaking, "Ready to go?" At their answering nods, he turned and started to lead them off towards the Hokage tower. "First stop today is the Hokage tower."
Sakura froze for a moment at the implication, though thankfully Naruto missed it as he was too busy ecstatically shouting that he would get to see Jiji. Sakura's hand went to her pouch only to gain a disappointed look when she realized she didn't have whatever she was looking for. She gained a relieved look when Sasuke waved a camera at her from behind Naruto.
They shortly arrived at the tower and joined the short queue of teams waiting for missions. By the time they were allowed into the dispatch room, Naruto was visibly vibrating due to excitement. "YO! JIJI! WHAT KINDA MISSION DO WE GET?! IS IT AN AWESOME ONE!?"
Kakashi let out an exasperated sigh, though the smile visible in his eyes belied his mood. "Team 7 reporting for our first mission!"
Sarutobi smirked inwardly as he observed his surrogate grandson's excitement, and adjusted his pipe in his mouth. This was always his favorite time of year to assign D-ranks. The fresh genin's reactions were always amusing. Sasuke clearly knew what was coming as he was readying a camera, but Sarutobi could forgive whoever spilled the beans if he got a copy of the picture. It was rare he got to prank Naruto rather than the other way around after all.
Growing tired of waiting, Naruto shouted out again. "So, so what do we gotta do? Storm a castle? Steal a priceless relic? Rescue a princess!?"
Naruto's tirade was interrupted as Sakura slapped him upside the head, surprisingly gently. "Oi, as your girlfriend I'm the only princess you should be worried about!"
Sarutobi raised an eyebrow at that revelation. He hadn't heard Naruto had secured the affections of the legendary 'Sakura-chan' he spoke incessantly about. A glance at Kakashi, had the man discreetly signal that it had been a recent development. Then Sarutobi noticed something spark in Naruto's eyes. Some bastard mutation of that glint he got when planning a prank, but somehow with more of Minato in it than Kushina.
"Eh, Sakura-chan is a princess!?" Naruto shouted in mock shock. Looking quickly up and down her body he turned back to the Hokage and nodded resolutely. "I should have known. She is far too beautiful to be anything else."
Sarutobi's pipe clattered to the floor, even as Sakura blushed a deep crimson. He could swear he heard Iruka's jaw hit the floor. Did Naruto just flirt? Well!? How fast had Kakashi been teaching the boy? What had he been teaching the boy? Should he be preparing for another Minato level menace to the kunoichi population!? He turned to Kakashi in time to see him wipe a tear of pride from his eye.
"To think he had it in him this whole time. And with no guidance from his sensei even." Kakashi sniffed tearfully.
It was worse. Even Minato had, had Jiraiya influencing him, who while perverted was astonishingly smooth when he desired. And when he wasn't well known. If Naruto was already like this… Sarutobi turned back to Naruto in time to see Sakura recover enough to glomp onto Naruto from the side.
Sarutobi sighed in relief. It seemed that there was already a Kushina like factor in play, the village was safe.
Eventually the room calmed, and business was resumed. By which Naruto shouted again: "WELL JIJI?! WHAT'S OUR MISSION!?"
Sarutobi drew himself up to his full height as Sasuke readied his camera. An impressive aura seemed to surround him as he spoke, "Very well. Given the unique skills and extensive qualification of the team in question. I have selected this mission for you." Naruto's eyes began to sparkle as he stared at the Hokage in awe. Sarutobi drew a scroll from the rack nearby him. "Team 7! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be: TO CLEAN THE INUZUKA KENNELS!"
You could hear a pin drop. Sarutobi, with years of practice was able to keep his mask of grave seriousness while he cackled internally. He could hear a rapid fire clicking as Sasuke snapped picture after picture from the corner.
Gradually realization made an appearance in Naruto's eyes. "NANI!" Sarutobi was fairly certain his shout could be heard clear across the village.
BhwO
And so, time passed for Team 7. Each morning they would meet at Ichiraku's for breakfast, before meeting Kakashi at the Hokage tower for a mission. After the mission, they would grab lunch somewhere, before heading to training ground 7. Once there they would work on a variety of things, from chakra control to refining Naruto's atrocious (though surprisingly effective) taijutsu. Kakashi held the reward of additional jutsu up to push Naruto, on the stipulation that they would only get the jutsu he had earned when Kakashi felt the team's basics were up to an acceptable level. Thus he supposedly pushed the team to work together, despite their not needing it.
He had also conspiratorially informed Naruto of a way he could learn jutsu in hours rather than weeks. Naruto had been practically bouncing in place at that.
After the end of their training for the day, and depending on time, the group would occasionally grab dinner together. With three of the four members living alone, it was a welcome source of companionship to them, and Sakura was hardly against the idea of spending more time with Naruto.
Sakura and Naruto would occasionally also split off for dates, usually finding some interesting corner of the woods to explore, or hiking up the Hokage monument to go stargazing. Sakura was well aware of Naruto's reception in most businesses and wasn't eager to push him to take her anywhere that would throw him out. And sometimes they were all just a little too worn down for anything and decided to just go home and sleep.
Thus, one day several weeks after team selection, Sasuke and Sakura were walking home together, sharing a route partway, while Naruto lived in the opposite direction, and Kakashi was walking him home.
"Ne, Sakura?" Sasuke broke the comfortable silence between them. At Sakura's inquisitive look, he continued. "What is the story between you and Naruto? I know you were upset when he died, and you're glad you have him back, but is this a permanent thing?"
"Hmm, you aren't jealous are you Sasuke?" she asked slyly, leaning forward to look him in the eyes.
Sasuke just snorted a laugh. "Hardly. But if you were to drop Naruto, he would be crushed, I just want to make sure-" he cut off when he realized Sakura's gaze had turned frigid.
"I would never hurt him and you of all people should know that, Sasuke," she bit out.
"I didn't think, nor mean to imply you would. At least not intentionally. But if this was just a tactic to motivate him, or a reaction to him dying for you? If you suddenly lose interest and he thinks you were more committed than you are? It would crush him."
Sakura looked down thoughtfully. "I…I dunno. I mean I'm pretty sure it was just a reaction to the fact the he wasn't, you know, dead. But at some point, that…just didn't matter. I kept waiting for the gratitude to wear off or me to grow tired but…There was something…magnetic about being able to make him smile…" Sakura trailed off looking away embarrassed. She completely missed the gentle smile that briefly graced Sasuke's face. "Have…have you ever dreaded doing something soooo much…and something finally makes you bite the bullet and just do it. And then suddenly realize it wasn't all that bad after all? That you actually kind of enjoyed it?"
Sasuke smirked. "Of course. I'm friends with you, aren't I?" Sakura came to an abrupt stop and spluttered. "Later Sakura!" Sasuke called over his shoulder as he made the turn towards his house.
Meanwhile Sakura was still speechless. 'Did Sasuke just make a joke!?' Sakura sent a suspicious glance at the sky looking for any flying pigs. Shaking her head Sakura turned towards her house and continued on her way home.
A/N: So, I am still amongst the living. School is an absolute nightmare at the moment however, so I have very little time to write. However, a scene for this chapter popped into my head and then as I was prepping the intro for it the rest of the chapter just kind of…happened. There are a couple of spots in here I'm a bit iffy about but we'll find out what you all think. In other news I may be in the market for a beta for either this or Kami's Reward, as Conquest (my friend who beta's for me) and I got in a bit of a spat and they said they wanted a couple of days to calm down…four weeks ago.
Next chapter will probably have some sparks flying between Hinata and Sakura, and the intro to the wave arc.
A/N2: So, this has been written for literally a year, but since there were issues getting it proofread, it hasn't been posted. My apologies for the delay. Thanks to my friend Maosre for proofing this.