Sakura was awoken at dawn by Naruto shaking her. The instant she realized that it was Naruto, she scrabbled backwards until she was a reasonably safe distance away from him. He'd been reasonably nice to her so far but, she was still somewhat scared of him. She'd seen firsthand that he could be dangerous when he wanted to be, and had heard that he wasn't just dangerous, he was deadly. She wasn't too certain about his mental stability either. When he was around either her, or Sasuke, he was a completely different person than how he was around that masked ninja whose name was Kakashi or her new sensei.
"Geez Sakura-san, how can you sleep through three kunai landing right by your ear?" Naruto said when she was fully awake.
She blinked, and looked. Right next to where her head had been when she'd been asleep were a trio of kunai.
"Glad to see that you're finally awake." Tetsuo-sensei said from where he was seated munching on an apple which, at that point, was more core than apple. Sasuke was already awake and seated nearby, his face wearing the expression it usually wore at the Academy but, she thought she could detect a glint of humor in his dark eyes.
"Now that everyone's awake, it's time to start training." Tetsuo-sensei said. "Naruto, Kakashi has offered to give you a few pointers on your Ninjutsu. As for you two, we will be starting on the Tree-Walking exercise if you don't know it already."
"Tree-walking?" she asked, "What is that?"
"We're going to be climbing trees without using our hands." Tetsuo-sensei replied, pointedly looking at her hands which had been scratched up a bit when she'd been forced to climb up a tree to pick her lunch and dinner because she didn't have any stored food like Naruto, Kakashi, or Tetsuo-sensei, and didn't have any ration bars like Sasuke.
"How?" she asked.
"You draw your Chakra to the soles of your feet and climb up like this. Too much, and you get blown off, too little, you don't stick." Tetsuo-sensei said as he walked over to the apple tree she'd been forced to climb the day before, walked up it, and grabbed one of the rather juicy looking apples from one of the upper limbs which she had been unable to reach. "As soon as you figure out how, you can pick your breakfast. So, I recommend that you learn fast because, you only have until nine a.m. before we have to get to work."
She swallowed at that last statement and the prospect of going hungry as she moved to the tree, determined to at least get this one thing right. She'd seen the disappointed look that her sensei had constantly tried to cover up as he evaluated her skills and found them lacking, despite the fact that she had been the top of her year, yesterday evening. Right now, it looked like Sasuke-kun was right when he called her useless.
Much to her surprise, she somehow managed to get it right the first time, and she was able to pick one of the apples that had eluded her the day before because she'd been afraid of falling if she climbed too high. As she took a bite of the apple that was her prize for success, a faint whistle from below caught her attention.
"Would you look at that," Tetsuo-sensei said as he gazed up at her. "Perfect Chakra control."
She felt a small surge of pride at this. It would seem that she possessed at least one talent of worth. While perfect Chakra control wasn't exactly rare, it wasn't exactly common either. Most Ninja got by on average to above average Chakra control. Perfect Chakra control was more common in females than it was in males, which made it more likely that she would have it but, no-one had pointed out that she had it back at the Academy, so she didn't think she did.
"Get down here." Tetsuo-sensei said from where he was watching Sasuke struggle to climb his side of the tree. She complied, wondering what he wanted.
"Congratulations." Tetsuo-sensei said when she reached him. "You're our new team Medic. Or at least you will be after Kakashi gives you some training."
Tetsuo-sensei reached up to his vest and opened one of the scroll pockets and caught the scroll that dropped out of it. He then unfurled the scroll that he had retrieved from said pocket, which turned out to be a storage scroll, and released a small bag with a strap.
"You'd better not lose this. Not only will I be forced to pay for it but, the guys over in Supply will have my head if you do." he said as he handed the bag over to her.
When she opened the bag, she found that it was full of medical supplies. Despite the fact that she'd taken the standard First-Aid course at the Academy, she felt slightly lost and somewhat overwhelmed as she looked at the immediately available contents of the kit that weren't placed in the storage scrolls which were also neatly packed into the kit. That was probably because this wasn't a standard First-Aid kit like the ones just about every Academy student and Ninja was expected to carry on them at all times. This was a kit like the one at the Academy that no-one was allowed to touch unless it was a serious emergency, as in the person needs to be stabilized here and now or they'll die on the way to the hospital type of emergency.
How was she supposed to be team Medic? She didn't even know what to do with even half of the things that were in the bag...
"What's this for?" she asked as she held up a black bordered storage scroll that didn't seem to have anything stored in it when she unfurled it to see what might be inside.
"Pray you never have to use it." was all Tetsuo-sensei said in reply. The strange thing was, he had placed his hand on one of the scroll pockets on his vest when he did so.
What was so terrible about a seemingly empty storage scroll that it would provoke that sort of response?
While Sakura was becoming acquainted with the contents of a medkit that contained everything from bandages to a complete field surgical kit with which one could perform say an eye transplant or an emergency appendectomy for instance if one had the training, which she most definitely did not, her mother was back in Konoha cleaning house. As the woman dusted the furniture, she heard a knock on the door. When she went to answer it, it was to find one of her shinobi neighbors on the doorstep holding a dish which contained a berry cobbler.
Having rarely interacted with the woman aside from occasionally trading greetings in the marketplace, she was briefly puzzled as to why she was there. Then, she realized that her story had apparently gotten around, and that the other woman, who was apparently a decent sort of ninja unlike her poor daughter's sensei, had visited because she was feeling sympathy for her plight. This would of course advance her plans to have that Shimura bastard drummed out of the shinobi forces, as word of what a terrible ninja he was spread amongst their ranks. As she invited the Kunoichi in, the woman offered her the cobbler which she had brought as a gift.
Eventually, the two of them fell to talking, conversing as if they were old friends, and sharing the cobbler the other woman had brought with her. The woman whose name was Kiko turned out to be an excellent conversationalist, and had shared several anecdotes about raising ninja of her own. Eventually, the conversation was brought around to Sakura's diet, with questions about what the Academy Instructors had had to say about it, and what she herself had thought about it.
"I got some rather rude notes from that Umino fellow who we all know is that demon brat's friend but, that Mizuki fellow was far nicer, and even gave me a few tips to help it along." she replied, remembering how nice Mizuki had been during that one Parent/Teacher meeting, unlike that other instructor who she'd heard was friends with the demon brat. "I was a bit worried about how little she was eating, but I must admit that she was getting a little...bulky before she went on it."
It was at that point that her neighbor had looked at her watch, and had been surprised by the time. After apologizing several times for her abrupt departure, she left, leaving Barako to resume the cleaning that had been interrupted by her visit.
As Takamura Kiko made her way to her favorite watering hole for a much needed drink and a bit of gossip, she wondered how she had managed to keep the disgust off of her face throughout her entire visit with the Haruno woman. While the Haruno girl's problems may not have entirely been her mother's fault, the woman was responsible for the vast majority of them. Most of the talk in the conversation she'd had with the woman about her daughter Sakura's training had been about how this, that, and the other, was completely unladylike.
There was a reason that it was a very bad thing when a traitor got a teaching position at the Academy. While the damage done to the students' training was generally minimal amongst the children from shinobi families, it was catastrophic amongst those of civilian origin and orphans who didn't have anyone at home to train them. Knowing about the existence of the traitor, it was no surprise that the only civilian born student who had made it that year had been the one that had practically been trained by a Yamanaka.
It was clear that at least one of the Academy instructors had been trying to do right by that poor Haruno child, but the stupid woman had ignored his advice in favor of that from the traitor because of the instructor's association with the Uzumaki boy. Because that stupid bint had listened to the traitor, the poor Haruno child's training had suffered far more than it should have. It was amazing that the girl had managed to get as far as she had.
As for the other issue, she couldn't believe the woman was stupid enough to go up against the Shimura family. Based on everything she'd heard, Shimura Danzo, who was the head of the family, was dangerous as hell, had always been, and would be until the day he died in his sleep at an incredibly old age that would be a great deal older than the impressively old age he was at now. Considering his current age and the fact that he wasn't listed as retired, she she'd shit herself and run if she found herself in opposition with the elder Shimura. It was quite probable that the only reason that the foolish woman who had decided to try smearing dirt on his good family name was still alive was because the man wanted to completely ruin her before he killed her in a manner that couldn't be traced back to him but would serve as a warning to the next idiot who was foolish enough to even consider messing with him.
Hopefully, the twit's poor daughter wouldn't end up being collateral damage when the old man moved in for the kill.
When she got to the bar which she didn't usually visit this early in the day unless she'd gotten off of an extremely stressful mission and needed to unwind a bit in good company before she got home or otherwise would snap, there was a bit of a crowd of night-owls who would most likely be going home to sleep when they left. Despite the fact that Ninja often tended to hang out in bars, there were surprisingly few Ninja alcoholics considering. One of the reasons for this is that the first thing any competent instructor teaches their students when they reached an age at which they might start drinking was how to limit oneself, and that it is a very, very, bad idea to use alcohol as a crutch. Visiting a bar however, especially the sort of bar that contains exceedingly cheap and easily throwable furniture, was a good way to let off steam.
"Y'aren't the usual morning crowd." an older man, who was undoubtedly a regular, said as she seated herself at the bar.
"Just got back from visiting the Haruno woman. It's as bad as I heard. Worse, considering the fact that she tried to turn me against the Shimura family." she replied as she signaled for a drink, preferably a strong one. "I'd hate to see what'll happen to that poor girl if that stupid woman continues her power struggle with Danzo, since she's caught in the middle of it."
The old man made a face at this.
"Danzo?" the old man said incredulously, apparently just as shocked as she had been that someone could be that stupid if non moreso. "That woman's messing with Danzo? I'm amazed she's still alive. I was just a little pipsqueak back during the First War, but I saw him in action then. Crossing him is a really bad idea. It'd be quicker, easier, and a darn sight less messy to just turn a Lightning Jutsu on yourself instead."
Edited 10-5-12.