Sakura's alarm went off loudly at 3:45 in the morning. Theoretically that would have given her just enough time to get up, get dressed and head over to the training field for her new early morning 'youthful' training. In reality she had vastly underestimated how hard it would be to get herself up at such an ungodly hour.
It took about five minutes for Sakura to drag herself from lying down to sitting up on her bed. Examining her clock she realized with despair she had only gotten a couple of hours of fitful sleep. That feeling from yesterday hadn't gone away, the one where Sakura felt there was something wrong and missing inside. In fact it had gotten worse. She had lain awake most of last night with a desire to do something, though what that was she did not know. After an eternity lying in bed she had finally dozed off well after midnight.
Still if there was one thing her parents had taught her was to always keep your word if you can help it and Sakura wasn't planning on disappointing Guy-san… or Guy-sensei as he had insisted she start calling him.
She threw on something comfortable and easy to work out in – the red dresses she owned were only for wearing in front of Sasuke after all – and half stumbled out the door at such an ungodly hour. Even jogging to the training field she was five minutes late.
It probably said something about her experiences with *other* sensei's that Sakura actually stopped and stared when she saw that Guy was waiting in the training field on time. It was almost like a universal constant had decided to pull out the rug from under her.
Still it might be nice to work with some responsible people for a change thought Sakura, suddenly feeling more enthusiastic despite the early hour. Despite feeling tired she was eager to work. Anything to work off whatever weird thing she had been feeling for the last couple of days. But more importantly in her mind was her new found resolve to no longer be a burden to her team. With her chin held high in determination she strode towards the two spandex clad shinobi.
"GOOD MORNING SAKURA-KUN!" Said Guy in a booming voice that was so not ok at four in the morning making Sakura cringe and hold her ears, "you are five minutes late, but it's your first day. I'm sure it won't happen in the future will it Sakura-kun?" he asked, his voice going uncharacteristically serious.
"H-hai Guy-sa…sensei," she said. Somehow Sakura got the impression that missing even five minutes of training time was a big taboo with him.
"Good morning Sakura…-san," said Lee. When she looked at him his gaze went to the floor. It was hard to tell but she thought his cheeks reddened. Funny, he had been acting weird the day before too. Was it that he didn't want her around? No she didn't think that was it. Heh, she'd figure out what his deal was. At least he was polite and hadn't yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Good morning Lee-kun," she said with a friendly smile. She didn't notice him nearly swoon as she moved her gaze back to Guy.
The Jounin of course missed nothing and he got a huge grin on his face. Ah, the dramas of youthful romance! It was like an injection of liquid youth straight into his soul.
"Well! Let's get started. Sakura-kun, since this is your first day it will be a sort of evaluation day. I'm going to cycle you through different exercises to get an idea of your endurance…"
They weren't human.
Guy… Guy-sensei was an Oni.
He had to be. How else could he be so cheerful while inflicting his sadistic 'training' methods on someone else?
For four hours he'd had her go from exercise to exercise with no break in between. Do push-ups until her arms and chest felt like pain filled rubber jelly… and then be forced to somehow do twenty more. Sprints. Pull ups. Lunges. Squats. The back to push-ups, except he had wanted her to do them with one hand that time. It went like that for four agonizing hours with only the occasional one minute break.
Sakura lay sprawled on the ground twitching as her muscles were probably either all shutting down or having a seizure. There was a tiny chance that joining those two had been a mistake after all.
"YOSH! You were most youthful today Sakura-chan. Your determination to keep going shows you have potential to be a true genius of hard work," Said Lee standing a little awkwardly next to her.
She looked up at him and couldn't help but feel some resentment at seeing him look completely composed and not even slightly winded. Guy had given Lee his own brutal set of exercises – much more intense than her own – and she had only seen him ask for more while having few problems from what she could see in completing any of the ridiculous exercises. Sprinting around the training field one hundred times on his hands? What was wrong with these people?
Sakura wasn't really feeling up to speaking so she replied to Lee by weakly giving him a thumbs up. Even that hurt as the muscles in her forearms screamed in protest at being asked to do anything else after the abuse she had just put them through. Lee seemed pleased enough by her gesture at least if his bright smile and what she had come to know was called the 'good guy pose' was any indication.
"Well done Sakura!" said Guy, "My Lee-kun is right, a most youthful effort today. Tomorrow I will evaluate your taijutsu skills and that should give me all I need to know how you best nurture the flowering of your youthful spirit,"
Unexpectedly Guy grabbed her and set her on her feet. Her leg muscles trembled and wobbled and had it not been for Guy steadying her for a moment she would have fallen flat on her butt.
"While it might be tempting to rest now you need to stretch your muscles or it will be much worse later on. I recommend a long soak in mineral salts sometime before tomorrow to deal with some of the soreness. Remember, eat plenty of protein, fruits and vegetables! Now me and Lee have to get going. We can't be late for our team meeting after all."
Sakura flinched a little at his mention of food. What was she going to do about her diet? She knew there was no way she could do this without eating more. Oh no, what if she became too muscular from all this exercise and Sasuke didn't think she was attractive anymore?!
"Hai Guy-sensei. Thank you for training me today," she replied trying her best to hide her new inner turmoil. Lee and Guy said their goodbyes and took off going to meet their team at their regular training grounds. Sakura was left alone to stretch and sort through her thoughts.
Luckily for Sakura her sensei was a lazy ass. Where most teams met early in the morning her team didn't meet until ten. Which is to say Kakashi-sensei would arrive sometime between noon and two in the afternoon. Since her workout ended at eight she had plenty of time to go home and get ready for meeting with her team.
In the end she had been too tired to overthink it and just took a shower and ate her fill of eggs, bread and miso soup while her whole body quivered like jelly as her muscles protested doing even the most basic day to day things. With some difficulty she donned her cute red dress that she liked to wear just for Sasuke-kun (because she had heard from a very reliable source Sasuke-kun like girls in red) and left the house feeling oddly energized by having done so much already so early in the morning.
When she arrived at the training field she found both Naruto and Sasuke already waiting by the bridge. The seemed to be doing their level best to ignore each other and Naruto had what could only be called a scowling pout on his face.
"Good morning Sasuke-kun, good morning Naruto," she said. When the team had first formed she would have just flat out ignored Naruto but after some time being on a team with him it turned out that Naruto was actually pretty nice even if he was something of an annoying idiot most of the time. Sakura had decided to at least try to get along with him and not clobber him over the head unless he really deserved it.
"Good morning Sakura-chan!" said Naruto enthusiastically with a big smile on his face. Sasuke barely glanced her way and made a grunting sound which Sakura interpreted to mean 'good morning'.
This was actually an improvement from Sasuke's part believe it or not. Before the last mission he would just ignore her flat out. Sakura hoped that meant he was softening up to her. In any case him saying 'good morning' to her in his own way could only be a good thing in her book.
Normally at this point Sakura would start to try to talk to Sasuke and get his attention but after the brutal training in the morning she just wasn't in the mood… especially given the fact he always ignored anything she had to say that didn't involve the team, missions or ninja arts. She contented herself with standing next to him leaning on the guardrail. Just being close to him was enough to keep her inner fan-girl happy for a while.
Their wait for their sensei was filled with the energetic chatter of Naruto who always seemed to be overflowing with energy and could neither keep still nor keep his mouth from talking. He chatted about ramen, complained about Kakashi-sensei, and generally made a lot of noise about how much stronger he was going to get, how he was going to become Hokage, blah blah same thing different day. Most days Sakura would at least hold up a bit of conversation as a middle ground between Naruto and Sasuke but that day she was quiet. Her unusual silence didn't go unnoticed. Eventually Naruto asked her about it.
"Hey, what's wrong with you Sakura-chan? Are you feeling sick or something?" he said looking at her intently
Sakura opened her eyes which she had been resting and looked at Naruto with some surprise. "No. Why would you think I was sick?"
"Well… you're usually more chatty, you pace a lot and try to get Sasuke's attention. Today you've been all quiet and sitting down almost the whole time."
Naruto classic, all the honesty and zero the tact. "I do not pace a lot, maybe just a bit. And what's wrong with trying to talk to Sasuke-kun?" she said in a tone that was almost daring him to give a wrong answer.
Naruto held his hands up, long experience teaching him that he was treading dangerous ground. "Nothing! Nothing wrong. Just you're acting a bit different is all. I just wanted to make sure there was nothing wrong."
She flicked her eyes at Sasuke-kun and was disappointed to see he looked to be completely uninterested in the conversation. Sometimes loving Sasuke when being on the same team as him was a lot harder than loving him from afar.
"Well if you must know," she said turning to face Naruto, "I got up really early to do some morning for some training. It kinda wiped me out."
The look of surprise both Naruto and Sasuke gave her made her angry with them. Was it really so unthinkable that she would do some early morning training on her own? Well at least Sasuke was now looking at her with something resembling interest in his eyes.
Before Sakura could reply there was a spark of chakra, a swirling of dust and leaves and suddenly Kakashi appeared in front of them.
"YOU'RE LATE!" shouted Naruto pointing his finger accusingly at him. Sakura would have joined him once upon a time. Now she was half convinced Kakashi enjoyed the over the top reactions.
"Only an hour late for once. Must be some kind of record," she deadpanned. That earned her a few curious looks. She blushed and silently cursed herself while inadvertently letting her eyes slide towards Sasuke. Sakura had a definite sarcastic streak to her but she often tended to keep it under wraps. She had heard from a very reputable source that boys find sarcasm unfeminine and unattractive in girls. She didn't need to make her chances with Sasuke any worse.
Luckily for her Sasuke didn't even twitch. Or maybe unluckily. He never seemed to notice anything she did after all.
"Mah, mah let's just get going to the tower. I know just what mission to take today. Word on the street is that the Dynamo's wife has misplaced her cat for the third time this week…"
Two D-Ranked missions and two hours of stealth training later (which involved a ninja-version of hide and seek with traps involved) Kakashi dismissed them for the day. The sun was already starting to set and Sakura was physically exhausted. Still it was the kind of tired that made you feel good because it said you'd worked hard, not the type that left you wishing for painkillers or for some blissful loss of consciousness.
As the team started breaking up and through Naruto's near constant chatter Sakura eyed Sasuke. Pretty much every day she asked him the same thing after practice and the answer was always the same.
Sasuke-kun, maybe we could go get something to eat together?
Not interested.
We have to eat sometime Sasuke-kun. Would you like to come over to my house and I can make you dinner?
No.
Do you want to hang out together?
Leave me alone Sakura.
No matter what she asked Sasuke always said no. For once Sakura wasn't feeling up to butting her head against that immobile brick wall. She suspected it had something to do with her new desire to train hard that kind of softened the urgency she always felt in pursuing Sasuke-kun. Yes she would still win his heart but maybe giving him some space while she tried to get into a routine with her training wouldn't be a bad thing.
Come to think of it, maybe it was a little over the top to pester him about the same thing every day. Sakura felt a little sheepish at only just then realizing it. She had been so into her pursuit it had never really occurred to her.
"Hey Sakura-chan! Want to go get some ramen?" Naruto asked. Funny enough he had gone from asking every day to only once in a while now. It made him a lot more tolerable. Maybe there was a lesson to be learned there.
"No thanks Naruto. I've got some things I need to get done. Maybe some other time, just as long as you understand it wouldn't be a date," she said to him firmly.
Naruto nodded looking both disappointed and hopeful. He was like a puppy. Sakura resolved to keep her promise to him sometime soon. Besides his antics weren't that bad once you got used to them. As long as he didn't get any funny ideas there was no harm in it.
"So what do you have to get done? Anything important?" asked Naruto.
"Oh you know… girl stuff, if you know what I mean," she said trying to sound mysterious.
Naruto paled and Sakura had to struggle not to laugh at the deer in the headlights look on his face. She was pretty sure he didn't know what 'girl stuff' entailed other than it was probably something he should stay far, far away from and not comment on if he valued his family jewels. A mischievous part of Sakura wanted to ask what he thought 'girl stuff' actually was but she refrained in the interest of not giving her teammate an aneurism.
"I'll see you tomorrow, ok?" she said to him cheerily.
"Oh, ah sure, sure Sakura-chan. Tomorrow he he… bye!" he said before turning and running off at a dead sprint. Sakura rolled her eyes at his antics and headed off.
The actual truth was she wanted to keep training and if she had said that Naruto would have tried to invite himself along. If she got bored or tired of training alone it was something to consider but for the time being she liked the idea of being able to be off by herself and focus without any distractions.
She stopped by a food stall to get something to hold her over until she got home and headed over to the training field closest to her house. Sakura had found out no teams trained there so it was pretty much free to use. The pinkette reached the training field and walked to the edge where the stream in which she had practiced water walking on ran. Even though she had only been there a couple of time Sakura was beginning to think of this as 'her' training spot.
Well, she was physically mostly done in thanks to the training done that morning and all the additional training and work she had done with her team. However that did not mean that she couldn't train in jutsu or chakra exercises which were much more mental than physical disciplines to begin with. Even though she sometimes just wanted to kick Kakashi-sensei in the head she was determined to prove herself by completing the 'training objectives' he had given her. Namely master the water walking and be able to do the three academy jutsu without hand signs.
Sakura was a thinking ninja so before she did anything she needed to get a firm theoretical understanding of what she was trying to do. She sat down on the grass by the side of the creek and folded her arms in thought. Piece by piece she began pulling apart what she knew and try to figure out how and why she was doing this.
The how didn't seem too complicated when she knew chakra theory as well as any Genin possibly could. Hand seals were nothing more than a way to shape and move chakra in specific ways through the chakra circulatory system. It was also true that with intent and control one could make one's chakra move however they wished inside their own bodies, in theory. Therefore it was theoretically possible to do any jutsu without using any hand seals at all.
So why didn't everyone do jutsu without hand seals? Well hands seals was an easy way to get the chakra to move the way it was supposed to. Without that one wouldn't know how to move the chakra to perform the effect in the first place, since it had to circulate and move in very specific ways to produce a jutsu. So in theory if one did a jutsu enough to become intimately familiar with how the chakra moved in the coils and tenketsu one could reproduce it without any hand signs whatsoever.
That theory fit with what she knew and what Kakashi-sensei had said, that in order to be able to do a jutsu without hand seals (or by extension with less hand seals) the only way to do it was to do the jutsu over and over again and try to learn how the chakra moved in the body to produce the sought after effect. So, do them over and over and eventually try to do it with no hand seals. It seemed logical that you would need to drop one at a time as you made progress with the technique.
Satisfied that she understood what she was trying to do and how she was going to do it the knowledge hungry and logical part of her mind wanted her to work through all possible applications if she succeeded in her training. However right then Sakura didn't want to sit still and think anymore. She had kept moving all day and kept distracted by keeping busy but now that she was alone that gnawing feeling inside had come back full force.
It was driving her insane and frankly she was starting to get worried. It felt like a weird hybrid of having a panic attack and an intense starvation like hunger. It wasn't either of those and she had already eaten but that was the best way she could describe it. She was ok when she was training and keeping busy but even a few minutes break and it seemed to come back worse than before. Whatever this was it was really beginning to getting out of hand.
Even though she hated to think about it she had started feeling strange after the Wave mission and after… whatever had happened to her on that bridge. Sakura however steadfastly refused to think about it. That was because deep down she felt she knew the truth… and what she suspected wasn't something she wanted to contemplate.
So she soldiered on. Sakura stood and began drilling the basic three over and over again. Ten kawarimi, ten bushin, ten henge. Even with her somewhat pitiful chakra reserves if she did the jutsus slowly and focused on being as efficient as possible she could create many more than she would if she were doing the jutsus in a high pressure situation. She drilled for hours with quick breaks to recover a bit of chakra, surprising herself with how much she was able to do. Eventually though she couldn't continue without risking chakra exhaustion. Reluctantly the exhausted pinkette dragged herself home.
Sakura was laying in bed trying to sleep. But something was seriously wrong.
The Genin tossed and turned and could not recall ever being in more maddening discomfort in her entire life. She needed something, needed it so badly she thought she would die. It felt like insects were crawling under her skin, moving and trying to claw their way out. Sakura buried her head in her pillow and screamed into it out of frustration. This was not in any way normal. What in the world was happening to her?
Sakura thought about dragging herself to the hospital but for some reason she really really didn't want to do that. She hoped that this was something weird that would just pass and leave and then she'd be over it. Her mind tried to come up with theories as she struggled not to thrash in bed, things like she could have an infection of her nervous system or accidentally ingested some kind of poison. All her theories made it sound like it would be in her best interests to go to the hospital but for some reason she just couldn't.
It was then she felt something weird with her chakra. For some reason it began to move on its own and pool in the top part of her body. Sakura tried to direct her chakra to move and flow in a normal pattern but it refused to do so continuing to rise higher and higher in her body. That was when Sakura finally began to panic but it was too late to go to the hospital.
The chakra flowing wrongly in her body disrupted her motor functions making her incapable of voluntary muscle movements. Sakura could do nothing more but lay in bed, scared and hoping that she could just ride out whatever the heck was happening to her.
The chakra continued to rise in her body until it started to pool in her skull. Her head felt like it was about to explode as chakra invaded her cranium and began to accumulate there in large amounts. Sakura instinctively felt that this was all building up to something and whatever it was she was terrified to find out.
After what felt like an eternity the chakra finally dived into her brain, washing over it and saturating every tissue with its life giving energy. A part of her mind that Sakura had never been aware of before began to come into her awareness, almost like a door in the far back of her mind.
With a strangled yelp the door flew open. Pain flooded her brain and from there to her entire nervous system. It was only a few seconds before Sakura passed out.
When Sakura regained consciousness it happened rather quickly with minimal fogginess in her mind. The first thing she did was glance over at the clock on her bedside table. It had been a couple of hours since… whatever it was that had happened to her had happened.
Intellectually Sakura was frightened even though the emotion felt strangely dull and far away. She had no idea what was happening to her and anything that had incapacitated her like that could in no way be thought to be a good thing. However her instincts were telling her something much different. They were telling her that this was natural and there was no danger. She also had the feeling that this would be the only time she would be so debilitated by the process.
Sakura didn't know how she knew any of that but even the most intellectual of ninja learned to trust their instincts and hers were telling her loud and clear that what had happened was something natural and that she was in no danger. Since she felt fine now and the feeling she got on the subject was so strong she decided to give it a chance to see if she was right. She suspected she was but she'd keep an eye open for any kind of relapse just in case.
Now though her head was much clearer. Whatever had happened had changed nothing yet at the same time changed everything. For one now she could be honest with herself and stop living in denial. Her instincts had been telling her all along what she needed and she had been doing everything she could to ignore them. No more.
She didn't really understand why but she needed to kill someone. It didn't matter who, really. She needed to take someone's last breath as much as she needed food or air. If had been a little over a week since the deaths in Wave and frankly she was surprised she had lasted this long without.
It was completely clear now that she had been a child denying a basic need, because intellectually she knew she wasn't 'supposed' to kill people and that it was something shameful. She could now see that naïve stance was beyond ridiculous. Now that she was more clearheaded and thankfully less insane she just needed to figure out who she could kill without getting caught.
Quietly she got out of bed and began to look for clothes to wear in the dark. She donned a long sleeved shirt and long pants in muted colors that would not be suspicious but at the same time would reduce her visibility in the dark. As she worked she began to contemplate where she could find a suitable target.
A rather brilliant idea came to her as she was strapping on her ninja tools. There was one place that was completely free of shinobi, even medical ones, and where people were expected to die anyway. Grinning at her idea Sakura went to use the bathroom before heading out.
After using the toilet she paused in front of the mirror to grab a tie for her hair. It was then that she gave herself a start when she saw her eyes. They were different now. Where her eyes had normally been a uniform sea green the eyes looking back at her in the mirror had a strange and alien color scheme. Around her pupils was a ring of pure white. The white slowly changed color to yellow as it moved towards the edges of her eyes ending in a ring of dark honey at the edge of the iris.
Sakura evaluated herself carefully in the mirror and then gave a wolfish grin. She didn't think it gave her any special powers but it was certainly more badass and intimidating than plain vanilla green eyes. Just ask a wolf or a snake. Real predators had yellow eyes. She decided she quite liked the change.
Finishing tying her hair Sakura exited the bathroom and hopped out her window. She decided to avoid roof hopping since at this time of night she might be stopped by a patrolling ANBU and be asked what she was doing out at this time of night. Instead she set a leisurely pace towards the more civilian parts of town.
After a good distance walk she finally arrived at her destination. The sign on the path leading to her destination read Konoha Hospice. It was a medium sized one story building that Sakura would have probably had had no idea existed if her grandfather hadn't spent his last days there when dying from renal failure.
Sakura took to the shadows and slowly made her way around the building. It was the perfect target for her. No ninja would ever need a hospice since they all either died young or their enhanced chakra would keep them able to run and jump better than any civilian even if they reached a hundred and were dying of cancer. There was no way a ninja would ever consent to die in bed in a civilian place like this. The staff were all civilian nurses and doctors. Security was absolutely minimal. Who would ever target sick and dying civilians?
Sakura crouched outside a window that was hidden in the darkest patch of shadows. Using a tiny hand mirror she looked over the lip though the window to the inside of the room. There were two beds, one person on a respirator and the other seemingly just asleep.
Using a trick with chakra Sakura unlatched the simple window lock and let herself inside. A decent shinobi would have probably detected her but to these people she might as well have been a ghost. Slowly Sakura went to both the patients and read what was on their charts.
The one on the respirator wouldn't be waking up since he was in a coma. Easy pickings except she didn't want to mess with equipment she was unfamiliar with if she could help it. The other one had a little plastic oxygen mask over his face. He was dying of heart and lung failure and the doctors weren't sure when he would finally kick the bucket. Perfect.
Quietly Sakura removed his mask so that the sick man would not wake up. He didn't even twitch. Quietly contemplating how she was going to do this Sakura quickly decided and ripped the pillow out from under the man's head. Before he could so much as open his eyes she had the pillow over his face.
Sakura watched with curious, dispassionate eyes as the man woke up and blinked in confusion. It took him a comically long time to notice her and realize he was being asphyxiated. The man clawed at her hands, trying to wrench her arms free and flailing about a bit. For a dying man he sure put up quite a struggle to live. In the end though even if he had been hale and healthy he could not have stopped a kunoichi from ending his life. He slowly stopped struggling and despite his best efforts lost consciousness. His nails hadn't even broken the skin on her hands. To Sakura the whole thing had been rather pathetic.
She held the pillow to his face and it was about four minutes later when she finally felt him die. As he died she felt herself absorbing something from him but what it was she didn't know. Then there was an explosion of chakra from her hara that rushed with almost instantaneous speed to every nerve in her body. Sakura couldn't contain a low throaty moan of pleasure escaping her throat at the intense sensations she was feeling. She managed to stay on her feet instead of collapsing this time but the feeling of death and subsequent release of chakra was no less intense.
Giddy, Sakura let out a soft giggle at the amazing sensations she was experiencing that she had been longing for since a few days after the wave incident. It was like a breath of fresh air after being suffocated, food after being starved, and water after walking from here to Suna all at the same time. Knowing she shouldn't dally long lest she be discovered Sakura replaced the man's pillow and mask and arranged everything to make it look like he has passed in his sleep.
After escaping the facility Sakura walked home with a spring in her step. Analyzing her body she realized much to her surprise that she found herself with a rather huge boost in chakra. Sure it was nothing next to a Jounin but she thought that at that moment she might have enough chakra to rival Sasuke. Unfortunately she suspected from experience than in a day or two it would all be gone. Still she could certainly enjoy it while it lasted.
She thought about going for a late night practice to enjoy the feeling of having so much chakra but she quickly dismissed the idea realizing that she had not slept well for the last few nights and she needed to get as much sleep as she could if she didn't want to suffer tomorrow in training. Guy-sensei was going to evaluate her taijutsu and she didn't want to disappoint.
Climbing back in through her window Sakura spun and danced around her room a bit in joy before changing into her pajamas. Snuggling under the covers she closed her eyes with a faint smile on her face and was almost instantly asleep. Her last thoughts were that she wished whatever it was that was happening to her had started a long time ago.
AN: No, Sakura is not going to be in this new mindset for the rest of the fic. It will wear off and then she will have to deal with the consequences.
AN2: No, Sakura does not have a dojutsu or ocular powers of any kind. In Naruto changes in status, mindset or power ups are often reflected in the eyes. The change Sakura's eyes is sort of like the red slitted eyes of Naruto when he uses the Kyuubi chakra, just to let you know a change has happened and possibly to look cool. That is really all her white-to-yellow eyes are all about.
Like it? Hate it? Review and let me know, comments and suggestions welcome.