It was on the roof of the academy when Kakashi Hatake, there new sensei, had them introduce themselves.
"Well how do we do that? You should go first so we see how it goes!" Naruto said with a sardonic sort of expression, arms hanging loosely between his outstretched legs on the steps the three were sitting on. Kakashi-sensei was leaning against the railings across from them with apparent disinterest in his lone eye.
"Me? I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate…I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future? Never really thought about it. As for my hobbies…I have lots of hobbies."
Sakura internally sweat dropped. There new sensei made it obvious he really didn't want to share anything about himself. Naruto scoffed and turned toward her and Sasuke.
"Great so all we learned was his name. What the heck!"
"You first blondie."
Naruto grinned and grabbed his head band in pride.
"Believe it! I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant ramen in a cup and I really like the ramen Iruka-sensei gets me at the Ichiraku noodle shop. But I hate the 3 minutes you have to wait after pouring the water in the ramen cup. My hobby is eating different kinds of ramen and comparing them. And my future dream is to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody! Somebody important!"
Sakura smiled, already having heard this many times throughout the years and Sasuke just glared at the blonde from the corner of his eye. Kakashi-sensei didn't appear to be any more interested in them and turned his lone eye toward her.
"Hm. Next."
"I'm Sakura Haruno. I like reading, family game time with my Oji-san and Oba-san, and hanging out with my friend Ino. I don't like bullies. My hobbies are flower picking with Ino, helping my Oji-san and Oba-san with our family buisness, and learning medical jutsu. My dream is to be a strong shinobi and medic and to find cures for life threatening diseases."
Kakashi-sensei, though still looking bored out of his mind gave Sakura a miniscule nod before turning his eye toward Sasuke.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan and kill a certain someone."
Sakura couldn't help the foreboding feeling in her chest at Sasukes proclamation. She could only assume he was talking about the culprit of the Uchiha massacre. Naruto looked as if Sasuke said he was going to kill him instead of this mysterious person.
"Great. Your each unique and you have your own goals. Tomorrow we start our first mission. Meet at training grounds 3 at dawn. Oh and don't eat breakfast. Unless you want to end up throwing it back up. See ya!"
Kakashi-sensei disappeared in a swirl of leaves after his fake enthusiastic instructions. Leaving his 3 fresh genin to wonder what tomorrow was in store.
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Once arriving upon training ground 3 Sakura observed Naruto and Sasuke death glaring each other in the clearing and gave a quiet good morning. Naruto responded in kind and Sasuke just ignored her.
Those two are like night and day.
After 30 minutes of waiting for their sensei Sakura decided to do some stretches. Naruto was passed out face first on the ground snoring and Sasuke glanced at her in curiosity.
"Might as well warm up a bit till Sensei arrives."
"Hn."
Hn? What does that mean?
Guessing that meant he agreed because he got up from his sitting position against the tree to do some stretches as well. After about 10 minutes of stretches Sakura woke Naruto from his slumber and suggested he start to stretch as well.
"Do you guys want to go for a jog around the training ground till Sensei arrives? I have a feeling he's not going to be here for a long time yet."
"Hell yeah! Let's race!"
"You couldn't beat me if you tried dobe."
"Yeah we'll see about that teme!"
Sakura shook her head with a smile and got in a ready position.
So much for a simple jog.
"Okay last one to do 10 laps around the training ground has to buy dinner!" She said then took off at a dead sprint. Naruto and Sasuke gawked for all of a second before sprinting after her.
The boys ended up tying and so that made Sakura in last place though she kept close on their heels after they gained the lead. Kakashi-sensei appeared in front of them so suddenly after their race Naruto yelled and jumped back and Sasuke went rigid. But Sakura felt his chakra hiding in the trees half way through the race and assumed he was curious who the winner would be.
"YOU'RE LATE! AGAIN!"
"Ah you see I had crossed paths with a black cat so I had to take the long way around…"
Sakura giggled at the absurd excuse and Naruto grumbled about how lame it was.
"Were going to be doing a test. You see these bells? All you have to do is grab one."
"We just have to take the bells from you?" Naruto asked as he scratched at his spiky blonde hair. Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
"What are the conditions?"
Kakashi-sensei shrugged, "There are none. Any weapons and jutsu. Think of me as an enemy. Attack to kill. You have until the timer goes off at noon."
Kakashi-sensei took two bells out of his back pouch and Sakura instantly saw the problem.
"But sensei there's only two bells. What happens if one of us doesn't get one?"
"If one of you can't get a bell then you'll be sent back to the academy."
Naruto yelled in outrage and Sasukes form went rigid once again. Something wasn't adding up. Thoroughly confused she narrowed her eyes at their sensei who was clearly smiling beneath his mask.
That doesn't make any sense. Genin teams always operate in a 3 man squad with a jonin instructor.
"Now get ready. Go!"
Taking refuge in the trees Sakura forced her chakra into a small ball just like she practiced to hide her signature. Peeking between a few branches she saw Naruto didn't move from his spot. She observed Naruto charging after Kakashi-sensei and had to put a hand over her mouth to stop her laugh when sensei's poke in the butt shot him into the water. She took note in slight awe of Naruto's use of real shadow clones and Sasukes precise aim of his weapons after Naruto got caught. Thinking quickly once Kakashi-sensei left in pursuit of Sasuke she jogged toward Naruto's hanging figure and threw a kunai at the rope.
"Hey thanks Sakura-chan! But why did you help me?"
"Because I think we all need to work together to get the bells. There's no way even one of us can get a bell off of a jonin." She helped him stand up while trying to feel Sasuke's chakra.
"Why don't me and you just try to get the bells from Kakashi-sensei? We don't need that temes help!"
There she found it. He wasn't too far away. Sakura turned to Naruto seriously.
"Naruto-san we need to work as a team or none of us will get a bell. If all three of us make a plan we probably have a chance at getting them."
"But I doubt we could even convince teme to work with us! He's all lone wolf ya know?"
"We'll just have to convince him. I'll go get him and you try and set a trap for Kakashi-sensei in case he returns. We can regroup here." Naruto grumbled an okay and Sakura set off to find Sasuke.
She was only a few yards away when Sakura felt an odd shift in her surroundings making her halt her run. Naruto and Sasuke came around the trees ahead of her, bodies looking like target practice filled with kunai and shurikan. She couldn't help but scream at the sight, her heart racing in fear till Naruto looked at her with those bright blue eyes, "Sakura…help us."
She realized she was trapped in a genjutsu. Naruto always called her Sakura-chan since the first day in the academy. Remembering what she read in that book Ino stole from her father's library she disrupted her chakra flow and the vision cleared. But then a kunai came at her from a tree and she quickly dodged. Kakashi-sensei leapt down from his hiding spot, orange book glued to the front of his face.
"Ah it seems you are adept to genjutsu after all."
Throwing a kunai with an explosive tag at him she threw a smoke bomb down where she was standing at the same time before making her escape toward Sasuke who, by his chakra signature, didn't seem to have moved at all. Quickly making her way to him she realized the predicament he was in and why he hasn't changed locations. Sakura couldn't help but smile down at the glaring boy whose body was completely immerged into the ground.
"That's actually really cool. Was it an earth style jutsu?" Sakura couldn't help but ask and Sasuke turned his head the other way and responded in his unusual grunt. Taking that as an affirmative she helped him out of the ground just as Naruto came barreling into the small clearing.
"Sakura-chan you alright?! I heard you scream!" Sasuke looked at her then. She couldn't tell if he was checking for injuries or just curious about what happened.
"Yes I'm okay it was just a genjutsu. It startled me."
Confirming that she was okay Naruto stood in front of Sasuke, "Alright teme we all gotta work together to get those stupid bells!"
"Tch. I don't need any ones help. You'll only get in the way."
Sakura sighed, "I almost about fainted from that genjutsu, Naruto-san was caught by rope and you were buried to your head in the ground Sasuke-san. There is no way any of us are getting a bell working on our own. We have to do this together."
Sasuke glared at her as if the thought disgusted him but she could see the gears turning in his head. He just needed a push.
"What you worried I'll make a better plan than you or something teme?!"
There we go. That was all the push they needed to get Sasuke on board. The three talked strategies and finally came up with a decent plan when Sakura warned them of Kakashi-sensei's presence a second before he threw a bunch of kunai at them. Naruto bombarded Kakashi-sensei with clones until Sasuke was able to trap him in wire and Sakura was able to cut him with one of her poisoned kunai that rendered him paralyzed.
In the end Kakashi-sensei smiled at them and told them that was good teamwork and they all passed the test. Sakura and Naruto were able to convince Sasuke and there sensei to Ichirakus. Well more like Sakura and Naruto dragging there "poor old sensei who has to go home and paint his floors" to dinner, all the while Sasuke smirking in the background. Sakura ended up paying for all of them but she couldn't bring herself to mind.
Now we are officially Team 7.
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2 weeks later and Sakura's patience was worn. Everything seemed great at the beginning after they passed the bell test, but Sasuke's complete lack of respect for anyone on the team and Naruto's loud disposition and need to 'protect' Sakura from any rigorous training or the opponent of her spars was getting on her very last nerve. But the cherry on cake was the constant need to fight and compete against each other. It got to the point where they couldn't get along enough to practice team drills and formations. Even their clients on D rank missions wanted to ring their necks.
Currently Team 7 was practicing attack formation 18. Sakura and Sasuke attacked Kakashi-sensei, who was there acting enemy, from his front and back while Naruto used the same earth-style jutsu Kakashi used against Sasuke on the bell test to grab him from below. Sasuke, obviously not thinking Sakura could hold up her end of the formation, attacked from behind in a series of quick kicks and punches putting Kakashi further behind the mark they agreed upon to enable Naruto to grab him from below. Naruto lost track of his timing and shot out too early either way.
In conclusion, he grabbed Sasukes ankles instead. After pulling Sasuke out of the ground, Kakashi-sensei gave the three of them a deep sigh.
"Good grief. Who can tell me what went wrong there?"
Sasuke and Naruto immediately went at it.
"The idiot lost track of time."
"ME?! I DIDN'T LOOSE TRACK OF TIME! IT'S ALL YOU'RE FAULT TEME! KAKASHI-SENSEI WAS 5 FEET AWAY FROM THE MARK WHEN I CAME OUT!"
Sakura felt her right eye start to twitch. There sensei offering no help as he opened up his orange book.
"It wouldn't have mattered how far away he was from the mark because you came out too early dobe!"
"IT'S YOUR FAULT TEME!"
"Dobe!"
"TEME!"
Like a bomb she exploded, "Would you two just SHUT UP!"
Stunned the boys stopped mid argument and looked at her with wide eyes. In all there years in the academy, they've never seen quiet, top student, bookworm Sakura even slightly annoyed. Let alone furious.
She let two weeks of frustration spill out, "Sasuke-san you lack faith that neither I nor Naruto-san can perform our end of the formations and drills so you overcompensate all the time. I get that we need to earn your trust to watch your back but you aren't giving any of us a chance. Get over your arrogance and distrust because it's doing nothing but hindering us as a team. Naruto-san you let Sasuke-san get you angry because you hate feeling inferior and you constantly try and protect me from every little thing when it is not needed. But your biggest problem is you lack focus. Hence why you lost track of time and performed the jutsu too early. And I need to stop letting you two argue like a bunch of children and be a better teammate by earning both of your trust on the field. Does that about sum it up Kakashi-sensei?"
Kakashi lowered his book slightly to show is eye smile, "Couldn't have said it better myself Sakura-chan."
Sakura put her hands on her hips and waited for their response. Naruto looked properly chastised, the expression on his face as if he's realized something new about himself and was feeling conflicted. Sasuke's eyes harden, his eyebrows creasing together as turned his head to look towards the trees.
"Your right Sakura-chan. I'm sorry."
"Hn."
"You can't even give Sakura-chan a real apology teme?"
"Naruto-san."
"Sorry!"
Sasuke glared at Naruto before looking at Sakura and nodding his head. Surprised he was acknowledging what she said and knowing that was the best she was going to get regarding an apology she smiled.
"I'm sorry too."
Naruto grinned and threw his fist into the air, "Team 7 is going to be the best team there is! Believe it!"
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"Do you guys want to come over for family game night?"
Sakura asked her teammates after a long day of training and a very boring d-rank.
"Sure! What kind of games?" Naruto asked around a mouthful of ramen. Sasuke looked at him with disgust.
"Chew idiot."
"Actually we make up our own games but we do paly shogi and karuta as well sometimes."
"Cool!"
"I'm training."
Sakura narrowed her eyes before smiling innocently at Sasuke.
"My aunt and uncle told me to make sure everyone comes. They'll be very disappointed if you don't."
After a family dinner with team 7 Sakura realized Sasuke couldn't say no to her aunt no matter what she asked of him. She watched as Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his empty bowl of ramen before his shoulders sagged slightly in defeat.
"Hn."
Mentally cheering she then turned to the hardest one to persuade of the boys.
"Kakashi-sensei you have to come."
"I need to get home and feed the hamster."
"You don't have a hamster."
"How do you know?"
"Pakkun said Bull is scared of small rodents."
"…I need to dust the washing machine."
"Sensei! Your part of this team! You have to come!"
"Yeah Kaka-sensei! It'll be fun!"
"Hn. If I have to go so do you."
Kakashi sighed dramatically, "fine."
Naruto and Sakura cheered and Sasuke smirked in victory. Later that night, a drunk victorious Satow Haruno had an arm around a grinning and equally victorious Naruto after their game of cards. Sasuke helped Kimura make tea at the stove and Kakashi-sensei lounged in his chair with their leftover eggplant soup from the previous day. Sakura smiled at the scene as she set a plate of cookies on the Kitchen table that her uncle and Naruto devoured instantly.
.
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They did it. They caught Tora the cat. Again.
"Well done Team 7. Madam Shijimi is most grateful you've returned her cat to her."
"Old man we need a real mission! Not chasing cats or painting fences or-or PULLING WEEDS!"
Kakashi whacked Naruto on the head with his book at his rude outburst. Sakura frowned at her eccentric teammate but couldn't help but mentally agree. There D-rank missions feel more like chores and are just time wasted when they could be training. Lord Hokage just chuckled and took a long pull of his pipe.
"So be it. Since you are so determined. I'm going to give you a C-rank mission. You'll be bodyguards on a journey."
Sakura blinked curiously. Were they actually getting a real mission?
"Really?! Yes! Who? Who?! Are we guarding a princess or a lord? Or some big wig counselor?!"
Lord Hokage chuckled again, "Don't be so impatient. Bring him in now."
An older man came in with a hemp rope tied around his forehead, glasses, and a graying beard. He was sipping a bottle of alcohol.
Only a few words were spoken from the man before Naruto decided he wanted to "throttle" him.
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They set out early in the morning and a few hours later was when Team 7 ran into trouble. Sakura froze when the chains ripped their sensei into bits. Only when she heard the bridge builder scream in horror she got moving, putting herself directly in front the terrified man.
"Stay behind me!"
Sasuke trapped the two men's connected chain to a tree with a shurikan and kunai before kicking them in the face. But they disconnected the chain and split in two. One going after Naruto and the other going straight towards herself and the bridge builder. Thinking quickly she shot handful of shurikan towards the one going after Naruto and braced herself in a defensive stance with a kunai for the one coming straight toward her. Sasuke immerged when the man was only a few feet away, putting himself directly in front of herself and there charge.
"Don't worry I got your back."
Kakashi-sensei appeared and disabled both opponents in a matter of seconds. Sakura felt immense relief seeing her sensei unharmed. In those adrenaline filled moments she couldn't focus much on sensing chakra, though when there sensei wanted too, she couldn't feel his chakra when he hid it as he probably did during this brief fight.
"Sorry Naruto. I didn't mean for you to get hurt. I didn't think you'd freeze up like that. Good job Sasuke, that was smooth. You too Sakura."
Sakura immediately went into medic mode when she heard Naruto was injured. She forced him to sit down and inspect the cut on his hand, shushing Sasuke when he started taunting him. While cleaning the cut she listened in on Kakashi-sensei interrogating the ninja that attacked them. Realizing the bridge builder lied because he was couldn't afford to pay for higher ranked ninja, Kakashi-sensei thoughtfully, almost casually talked about going back to the village. Naruto caught his one eyed glance at his hand then shocked them all by stabbing a kunai through his cut.
"Ugh what is wrong with me?! I worked so hard…I will never back down or allow myself to be rescued ever again. I will never run away. And I will not lose to Sasuke. Upon this oath! Bridge builder I will protect you with this kunai!"
Sakura, although feeling proud of him, realized too late what he just did. Quickly getting a clean hand towel out of her medic pouch she tried to tell Naruto to sit down to look at his hand.
"C'mon Sakura-chan your ruining the moment! Wasn't that oath pretty cool?!"
"Naruto…that was really cool how you uh took the poison out and all but uh if you lose any more blood you're going to die."
Sakura rolled her eyes at their teacher, but Naruto didn't seem to catch onto his dry bland tone that wasn't even remotely serious.
"No! No! I'm too young for it all to end like this! No! No!"
"Kakashi-sensei! Stop freaking him out. Naruto you're going to be just fine. Let me clean the blood and I'll heal the cut."
Once she cleaned the cut Sakura noticed something odd, it appeared almost as if the cut was almost completely healed.
He just stabbed himself with that kunai a moment ago. How did he heal this fast?
"Um…uhh…so am I okay Sakura-chan? You have a really serious l-look on your face."
Sakura shook her head and smiled at Naruto, "Since you got the poison out its not serious at all. Just a small cut."
In a matter of a three seconds she had his cut healed with her healing chakra and helped him stand up. Since Naruto voiced his vote on completing the mission she looked toward their sensei and did the same.
"I'm willing to finish the mission sensei. It's not Tazuna-san's fault and his people need help."
Kakashi sighed and looked toward Sasuke who gave a nod.
"Okay let's head out team."
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They were now in the Land of the Waves and were only an hour or two away from the bridge builders home when there next enemy attacked. Naruto almost hit a rabbit with his kunai in a weird fit of eagerness for a fight, when Kakashi yelled at them to get down. A large sword flew over their heads into a tree and when they looked up a huge man was standing on top of its hilt. His head band was large and long over his dark, almost black short hair. He had the lower half of his face covered in bandages and his eyes were cold and cutting.
Kakashi told them to stay out of this fight so the team were in a protective formation around the bridge builder. A heavy mist settled around there group, so heavy Sakura lost sight of Kakashi who stood only a few feet in front of them. Her only relief being that she could still feel his chakra signature.
"Eight points. The larynx, the spine, the lungs, the liver, jugular and the subclavian artery. Kidneys, the heart. Now…which will be my kill point?"
Sakura's heart sped up in fear and she gripped her kunai harder into her palm. The blood thirst in the dense fog was almost enough to choke on. But then Kakashi used his chakra to dissipate the fog enough to see him and he smiled his one eye smile at them.
"Calm down. I'll protect you with my life. All of you. I will not allow my comrades to die."
Sakura was able to breathe easier with that reassurance but then she felt Zabuza's signature at her back. Somehow he got in between them and pushed the three of them away. When he went for the bridge builder Kakashi attacked him. While the two fought, Sakura stayed by Tazuna and kept a close almost awed eye at the battle raging before them. But then Kakashi got caught in Zabuza's water prison and reality came crashing down.
"Grab the bridge builder and run! There is no way you can defeat Zabuza! This battle was over the moment I was caught!"
Those who don't follow the rules are trash. But those who leave behind their friends are worse than trash.
Naruto and Sasuke tried charging at Zabuza one at a time and both got knocked down with no effort whatsoever by Zabuza's water clone.
"No way! We'll take you down you no eyebrow freak!"
"You have a mission to complete! Protect the bridge builder!"
Sakura turned determined green eyes to Zabuza before meeting her sensei's mismatched ones.
"We don't leave comrades behind."
"Listen up guys I have a plan."
"Tch. Let's hear it dobe." Sasuke said with a smirk.
But Zabuza attacked Sasuke before the plan was shared. Sakura watched for an opportunity to use a genjustu but the boys were able to release their sensei with an excellent strategy of changing Naruto's clone into the second windmill shuriken.
In the end the strange hunter-nin showed up to collect Zabuza Momochi's body and their sensei collapsed. Sakura was distracted by Kakashi's injuries and her sudden self -pitying turmoil that she pushed the strange location of that senbon in Zabuza's neck out of her mind. For in that moment her worry for their sensei and her sudden feeling of being absolutely useless was nearly enough to have her in tears.
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"Sakura."
"Hm?"
Sasuke was staring, she could feel it even with her eyes closed in meditation. They were on the roof of Tazuna's home. As soon as they finished up dinner and she checked on Kakashi's condition once more, she immediately retreated to the roof to calm her mind and think on the day's events.
"…what is it?"
Sakura sighed and opened her eyes. Despite only being a team for almost 3 months they've all gotten close enough that both boys can see the subtle signs when something was bothering her. Naruto realized a bit late into dinner but she told him she'd talk to him after there all rested. She knew Sasuke heard her so she was a bit surprised that he sought her out.
"Well I was thinking about that hunter-nin."
Sasuke walked up and sat next to her quietly and waited. Sasuke would never admit it, but he respected Sakura's intelligence and observations enough to listen.
"I don't think Zabuza is dead. I'm almost positive that those senbon didn't hit a fatal artery in his neck."
Sasuke stiffened and turned serious eyes to her, "That would mean the hunter-nin is working with him."
Sakura nodded and spread her chakra sensing range a bit further, "I'm not completely positive. Regardless I'm going to keep watch tonight and you guys should rest. We'll discuss what to do when Kakashi-sensei wakes up."
"We'll let dobe sleep. You take first watch and I'll take second."
Sakura smiled in thanks as Sasuke got up. Then she quickly returned to her meditation. It was almost easier to sense everything around her as she tried to build her reserves. Thoughts of being totally useless started to drift away as she focused.