"So what kind of training do you usually do?" I asked. "I know you were already training when we got here."

Ten-Ten rolled her eyes. "We weren't training yet. That was just Lee and Sasuke-san getting into a fight." She grinned. "Our training changes from day to day, depending on what we want to focus on and what our missions are. I'm our long-range specialist; I work with thrown weapons, mostly!" she said. "Lee is our taijutsu specialist! And Neji, of course, has the Byakugan."

Right, that eye-thing he'd used before. "Huh. So how's that work?" I asked him.

He frowned at me- or rather, he was frowning at my forehead. He did not reply. In his place, Ten-Ten smiled and said, "With his Byakugan, Neji can see everything around him at 360 degrees, up to fifty metres! He can also see an opponent's chakra system all the way down to their pathway's tenketsu!"

My eyebrows shot up. That was… ridiculous. The tenketsu of the chakra system were where chakra emitted; they were tiny. Like, almost microscopic.

"Not only that," she went on. "But he's a genius with the Hyuuga clan's Gentle Fist taijutsu. So he can directly hit a tenketsu point and temporarily shut off chakra flow in an opponent's system!" She smiled. "So even if I say Lee is our taijutsu specialist," she patted Lee's shoulder consolingly. "Neji still manages to bring him down, too. He's so fast, and his vision is so good, I can't hit him with kunai no matter where I hide!"

That was terrifying.

"Sakura, you're not training with him," Sasuke said roughly. I turned to stare at him; he was glaring daggers at Neji. "Sakura has an… illness with her chakra. It wouldn't be a good idea."

Oh. Shit. Right.

"I agree," Neji said softly. "I would not recommend it."

"What? Sakura-san also cannot use chakra? We are the same!" Lee shouted merrily. His eyes were practically sparkling. "Together, we will become excellent ninja, even if we only use taijutsu!"

"Um," I said, twisting my hands together. "I can use chakra. I just need to be very careful to not use too much. I could get... very sick."

Sasuke and Naruto stared at me. Oops. I guess I haven't told them about that, have I? I gave them an apologetic smile. "I'll be fine, though," I said, pointing toward the seal on my forehead. "Tsunade-sama took care of me, so as long as I'm careful, I'll be fine. She didn't say anything about chakra-blocks, so it probably wouldn't matter. I could probably spar with Neji-san."

Neji's face clouded over. "No, we will not. If you're destined to be at a disadvantage in your chakra, you should not fight against it."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "There's a difference between working against something and working with it. Otherwise, how could I expect to get better?"

"YES!" a loud voice exclaimed from directly behind me. "WHAT YOUTHFUL VIGOUR!"

I emitted a high-pitched noise, spun around, tripped, and fell spectacularly onto the ground like a drunken ballerina. Sasuke and Naruto likewise jumped, but the other team behind us remained unfazed.

The man who stood before me looked like a much older and more muscular version of Lee. Brows, bowl-cut, green spandex suit and all. I gaped at him. Stunned silence seemed to be my theme for the day.

"LIKE A BEAUTIFUL FLOWER BLOSSOMING ON THE TREE! THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUR YOUTH HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN!" he cried, striking a dramatic pose. Behind him, I saw a mirage of ocean waves; seagulls flocked in the distance.

I brought my hands in the seal to dispel the genjutsu and whispered "Kai!". It did not fade. I glanced sideways at Sasuke; our eyes met. His attempt at breaking it hadn't worked either. We both went back to staring at who could only be Gai-sensei.

"Sensei!" Lee cried, confirming my hunch. "I, too, will work hard with great youthful vigour! I will overcome every obstacle I face!"

Gai burst into tears, throwing his arms around the boy. "LEE, I AM SO PROUD! YOU ARE TRULY A GENIUS OF HARD WORK!"

Lee also began crying. "Sensei, I will not let you down! If I cannot defeat Neji in a fight today, I will do three-hundred chin-ups!"

Slowly, I rose to my feet and shuffled closer to my teammates. I cast my eyes around desperately for Kakashi. He was nowhere in sight.

Already regretting the action, I called out, "Um, Gai-sensei? Where is Kakashi-sensei? He promised he wouldn't miss training..."

The embrace and ocean illusion vanished instantly. "Ah, yes. Unfortunately, my Great Rival said he was running late to a very important meeting." He sighed. "He can be very forgetful! But no matter, children. I, Maito Gai, have agreed to be your Sensei for the day!" He began to literally sparkle. I did not bother trying to break the genjutsu.

"That's great, Sensei!" I said, my voice high-pitched. "We, um, we're very excited to train, so we've already figured out what we'd like to do today! I'm going to-" I cast my mind around before settling on the least-intense of the three. "Going to be training with Ten-Ten-san today! I need to work on my throwing accuracy!"

The look of utter betrayal from Sasuke was delicious, but since I was planning on walking home with him that night and didn't want to die, "And Sasuke is sparring with Neji, and Naruto is sparring with Lee! Because- because Sasuke excels as a long-range fighter, so he's a good match for Byakugan. And Naruto has this Shadow Clone technique, so he'd- he'd get some great practice in perfecting his, uh, coordination with his clones against a tough taijutsu specialist!" For ad-libbing, it was pretty decent reasoning.

Fortunately, neither Naruto nor Team Gai called me out on my bullshit. I'd been most worried about Naruto and Lee, however…

"Yosh!" Lee exclaimed. "Yes! I will defeat you, Uzumaki Naruto, and I will claim Sakura-san's heart!"

Naruto growled. "You stay away from Sakura-chan, you weirdo!"

I whirled around and caught Ten-Ten's arm with mine. "So yeah, we're gonna go train, bye!" She followed me willingly enough off to the other side of the clearing, toward the trees I normally practised my throwing around. I released her from my grip.

"Um… I'm very sorry about that," I bowed. "Your sensei seems very nice and supportive. I just… It's just too early."

She smiled back, unoffended. "It's okay! Gai-sensei can be a little overwhelming when you first meet him. Don't worry, though, he is a great teacher." She hummed. "I'm a little sad I didn't get to learn from Kakashi-sensei though. Gai-sensei says that his great rival would be an excellent teacher..."

I smiled. "He really is. Naruto and Sasuke might disagree with me, though. He has a very hands-off approach."

"How so?" she asked.

"Well, instead of directing every little thing, he just tells us what to work on next and leaves us to ourselves."

She raised an eyebrow. "That sounds… less hands-off and more like a spectator's approach."

I shrugged. She was allowed to be wrong if she wanted. "Anyway, mind if I do some stretches before we start on anything? Tsunade-sama says I need to be careful. I had some muscle strain and I overdid it in training yesterday."

"Of course!" She sat on the ground and began stretching. "So you got to talk to Tsunade-sama directly? She's my idol! You said she made that seal for you- oh!" She put a hand to her mouth. "I'm sorry, that's a very rude question, isn't it?"

I shook my head. "No, no, it's fine! Yeah, she and Jiraiya-sama. It's just a medical thing to keep my chakra working the way it should." I shrugged nonchalantly. "My main problem right now is just re-training my muscles."

She nodded, stretching forward to touch her toes. "So you guys never got to tell us what fighting style you have..."

"Oh! Sasuke mostly works with kunai, shuriken, and ninja-wire, but he's very strong in taijutsu and jutsu as well. Naruto says he graduated at the top of our year."

Ten-Ten grinned. "So did Neji for our year! That was a good match."

I smiled back. "And let's see… like I said, Naruto has this excellent Shadow Clone jutsu… all the clones he makes are solid, so they can attack, but they also get dispelled easily if they're hit. He can make loads at once, though, so it doesn't hold him back much."

"Wow..." she drew out the word. "I'm jealous, that sounds like an awesome jutsu. Maybe he'll teach me."

I sighed. "Sensei said it would take way more chakra than Sasuke and I have. Naruto has great chakra-reserves, I guess." I moved out of my stretch and rose to my feet, leaning forward to stretch my back.

"So what about you?" Ten-Ten asked.

I would have shrugged, but I was unable to in my position. "Eh, a mediocre all-rounder, I guess. I'm not particularly good at anything except chakra-control, but that's not really useful in a fight."

Ten-Ten hummed. "You think? Sensei says that if I can get better at chakra control, it'll help a lot with my throwing." She leaned back until her hands were on the ground, her body in an arch.

"How so? Sasuke told me I should direct chakra into my muscles, and that's helped a lot, but my aim is still really sloppy..."

She let herself fall gently to the ground, frowning at me. "You can direct chakra out of your muscles? I thought only Hyuuga could do that..."

I shook my head, letting myself slump down onto the ground next to her. "Nah. I'm still forming the chakra in my hands, feet, and stomach, I just… push it around from there, I guess. I've never really given it much thought."

Ten-Ten smiled. "That's pretty great chakra control. I can use it in my hands when I throw, and that helps with my aim, but I can only get so much range..."

I grinned. "I can throw pretty far, but my aim is terrible. I'm good for hitting anything within, oh, four metres. After that, I'm more likely to spend my training hunting for lost kunai." I stood up. "I'll help you with chakra in muscles if you show me your trick for aiming?"

"Deal!"

It was a surprisingly easy arrangement, for both of us. Ten-Ten was familiar with the Leaf Sticking exercise; all we needed to do was attach several leaves to the major muscle groups in her arms so she could familiarise herself with directing chakra to them continuously. Her suggestion for me was likewise simple, and genius in its simplicity.

"So while you're holding your weapon, direct some chakra into it. Then when you're looking at your target, imagine a line of chakra extending from your weapon to where you're aiming. You're not directing real chakra there, but if you can visualise it clearly enough every time, your body will find its way into directing it along that line."

"Just like that?" I asked.

Ten-Ten shrugged, then stooped down to pick up a fallen leaf. "That's how I started, anyway. It didn't work immediately, but over time it became second-nature."

I nodded, hefting the kunai in my hands. "I guess it's the same with how I directed chakra in my muscles… it didn't always work perfectly, but I just got used to using it."

She nodded. "Give it a try. Throw a kunai into the straw doll in the middle," she nodded her head to the group she had set up. Each straw doll held a target board.

It was perhaps ten metres away. Which was further than I could normally hit a target, but that was the point. I took a deep breath and channelled chakra to my hand, imagining an invisible thread leading toward the centre of the bullseye. I snapped my arm out in an arc.

Thud! The kunai buried itself slightly above the doll's head.

My face split into a wide grin. "Did you see that? I've never gotten that close at this distance! Ten-Ten, you're a genius!"

"Oh? Who is a genius?" Gai-sensei landed in the clearing, coming from… somewhere. "What are our wonderful kunoichi up to?" He asked, glancing between my smiling face and Ten-Ten's leafy appearance.

I ecstatically began to ramble out the story of how we'd decided our practice. He listened with a very serious expression, nodding frequently.

"Wonderful, wise suggestions on either side!" he exclaimed. "How marvellous! To support one-another where the other has lack, to create perfection together! A beautiful plan befitting any kunoichi of the leaf!" He held his chin fiercely as tears trickled down his cheeks.

Well. He was certainly emotionally available and a supportive sensei. I smiled. "Thank you, Gai-sensei!"

"Should we try anything else, Sensei?" Ten-Ten asked.

Gai hummed and studied us both seriously, before giving a single nod. "Ten-Ten, when you become accustomed to your leaves, tell me and I will find weights for you. We will start with light weights and work our way upward. Sakura," he nodded at me. "Instead of using kunai, with which you have familiarity, switch between as many thrown weapons as possible. This will ensure you are adjusting to the different weights and aerodynamics every time. If you both practise this way continuously, there will not be an object too large or a distance too far for you to throw!"

My jaw dropped. That was… fantastic advice. I'd gotten used to using kunai because they were what I'd started with, but there were loads of weapons available to ninja. Shuriken, senbon- hell, I could probably throw arrows if I wanted. I had the strength and chakra for it.

I bowed. "Thank you, Gai-sensei! You're the best!"

He promptly burst into tears, clasping my hands within his. "To hear the student of my greatest rival say that I am a better sensei than he-"

Uh. I didn't say that.

"Sakura, I give you my oath!" He stood tall and pressed a fist to his chest. "By the time you are ready for missions again, you will be a genius of thrown weaponry! Or else I will balance atop the Hokage mountain by one hand for twelve hours!"

Oh no. I need to stop this, now. "But Gai-sensei, just a short time with Ten-Ten has already given me great genius in thrown weaponry!" I exclaimed. Now, how do I distract him? "Um, Sensei! Kakashi-sensei said your team will be joining mine on missions so they can learn leadership, right? How will that work?"

He dropped out of his dramatic pose and gave a thumbs up. "Ah, what a wonderful question! Yes, when your team goes on missions, one-by-one, each member of my team will be joining yours! They have excellent teamwork with each other, but need to learn to adjust quickly in the field and work with new personalities! It is the only way they can become excellent Chunin!"

"Chunin?" I asked. I knew there were genin, chunin, and jounin, but… "How do Genin become Chunin, anyway? Is it just when you say they're ready, Sensei?"

He tilted a hand back and forth. "Yes, and no! I wish to prepare my team for the upcoming Chunin exam that will take place next month. Indeed, they may not enter without a Sensei's approval, but whether they succeed is up to them! The Chunin exams can be very dangerous, so I am preparing them so they can survive! They will become excellent Chunin, or else I'll-"

"Dangerous?" I interrupted. "How can an exam be dangerous?"

Ten-Ten broke in, "The Chunin exams take place every six months, rotating between the different hidden villages. Next month is Konoha's turn. Some people say the exams are only to promote genin, but others say it is an opportunity to advertise the village, or even as a replacement for war… The exams are different every time, but they're always a serious test of a shinobi's ability. People can even die during them."

Yikes, I thought. That is probably what the original Olympics were like…

"And you're all entering?" I asked her.

She looked toward Gai with a warm smile. "If Sensei says we are ready when it's time, then we'll be ready."