Chapter Eight: Day 1.14

Sakura's alarm clock jangled insistently on the kunoichi's nightstand. Sakura shut it off and stood up, stretching. She took a quick shower, dressed, and pulled her hair back into a tight bun as she hurried down to breakfast.

After the meal she told her parents she loved them and hurried off to Ino's house. Ino was out front putting a flower display up. "Good morning Ino. I need to see your father, Hokage's orders. I'll see myself up thank you," Sakura said as she was already halfway up the stairs. She knocked on the door at the top and entered, giving the passphrase. She held the door open for the clan leader. She watched as he set his cup down like he always did, apologized to his wife for leaving early, and walked out the door that Sakura held open.

Sakura convinced him to view her mind as they walked so by the time they reached the Hokage's office Inoichi was already up to speed. After team seven was summoned and the Hokage explained what was going on, he did as he'd done before, or so Inoichi told him, and suggested team seven train as usual.

"Sensei can I spar with you today?" Sakura asked as they headed to their usual training ground.

Kakashi was taken aback by this request, as usual. Sakura was only barely starting to pick up on his reactions to things. It helped to already know how he was going to respond before he knew himself. "Of course," Kakashi said smoothly.

Sakura insisted on sparring with Kakashi every day after only two mock battles total with each of her teammates. The reason was simple, her teammates were inexperienced and when faced with a new, unknown situation they reacted the exact same way every time. Normally this wouldn't be a problem with the enemies they'd faced so far but for Sakura is was boring. Each day she surprised them by being better than they remembered. Each day they reacted to this surprise by using the exact same moves only with more force. Fighting with Kakashi, however, was entirely different.

Although surprised by her sudden advancement in taijutsu, she watched his eye carefully and started to notice how it would widen slightly, Kakashi would just make things more challenging for her. The first few moves were always the same. She realized that he used them to feel out where her skills had improved. Once he found what she'd enhanced, he'd test her in another way.

She was getting faster, stronger. She was able to spar for longer and longer each day. One day, when she and Kakashi had finished, she turned to see Sasuke and Naruto sitting on the grass watching her.

"Is this a stadium?" Kakashi asked, not even out of breath.

"No," Naruto answered.

"Then stop watching and start running laps," Kakashi said. He turned to Sakura, she'd been mouthing the orders along with him.

"I know. Me too," she said trying not to laugh at Kakashi's expression.

"I know you've lived this day before but cut your sensei a break," Kakashi said. "I feel like I'm teaching in circles."

Sakura ran off to catch up to Sasuke and Naruto. After about a dozen laps around the training field, Kakashi would have them break for lunch. The break was a couple of hours, since they had to cool down and then eat.

"What am I about to say Sakura?" Naruto asked.

"That." Sakura responded.

"What?" Naruto asked.

"You ask that every day, 'what am I about to say', then we have this conversation about it."

"Oh, sorry," Naruto said scratching the back of his head.

"You've apologized for it before too."

Naruto growled in frustration.

"Now Sasuke's going to make a comment about how we should both be quiet."

Sasuke shut his mouth quickly. Naruto and Sakura both saw it though and laughed. "Was not," the Uchiha muttered.

After lunch they returned to the training grounds. Kakashi had them practicing with weapons. Sakura was improving on her target practice but was still imprecise, meaning that she'd generally hit around the center but her groupings were very sporadic. Every day her groupings got better, tighter. Kakashi wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Your shuriken throwing is getting better," Sasuke said awkwardly one day.

Sakura looked at him in shock and blushed; this had not happened before. She'd been so focused she hadn't noticed him watching her.

"Thank you," she replied and went back to her throwing. Even though she didn't retain the muscles from each previous day, Sakura's confidence grew. She believed she could run further, so she tried harder. She began to realize that the problem wasn't her body, it was in her mind. She thought she had been good enough. She thought she couldn't catch up to the boys. Yet after each day she saw more and more that she could.

After practicing with her teammates, Sakura went back to her home to study. There was still a lot to learn even though they were out of the academy. She scoured the library, attempting to read one book each night. If she didn't finish, she'd have to go find the same book again the next day.

Several days went on like this, until one day, Sakura had an idea.