Chapter 2


Breakfast was pretty uneventful. She assisted Tsunami with cooking, gushed over Sasuke like normal, yelled at Naruto for his antics, and suckered up to Kakashi like a teacher's pet. All like what she did before during this timeframe. She was sure there were some nuances from the last time she was here, but everything was kept fairly similar. She had hoped. No one would notice these small changes unless they knew better. That she was more efficient in cooking. And her attention didn't linger on Sasuke as long. And that her remarks to Naruto weren't as scathing. And her gaze towards Kakashi held more warmth than normal. These things could easily be passed off as a fleeting teenager's emotional issues.

Once breakfast was concluded, Team 7 left to head out to the surrounding forest. Kakashi leading them in the front towards a secluded location, where they could train. Naruto and Sasuke followed a few steps behind him, arguing about who would be better at the new training before they even knew what it would consist of.

"Teme!" Naruto yelled loudly.

"Baka," Sasuke seethed back.

"I bet Ill be better at training then you will!" Naruto bit back.

"In your dreams loser." Sasuke scoffed.

This continued on while she was following behind them. Watching their backs. This used to scare her. Watching them succeed and be so far ahead. Her insecurities were one of the driving factors to how she became the Hokage's apprentice in the first place. After years of growing from those feelings she knew that just because she was here behind them didn't mean she was weak, if anything it meant she was trusted to watch their backs. Support them through whatever they may face. She was the one behind the scenes making things happen. She would make sure things would be better this time around, that they wouldn't have to suffer any more than they already had. She would take it all upon herself and shoulder any pain that was to come. Her boys deserved better, and she would die before letting any of them suffer any further than they already had. Including the other two missing members who they wouldn't meet for a few more years at most.

Kakashi slowed before a group of large trees, ones that were more than 100 feet tall. He turned around looking at all three of them. Quieting the argument that was still ongoing between Naruto and Sasuke with a hardened stare to the two boys. She stayed quiet in the back, waiting for him to go over tree walking.

"Okay we will now start the training." Kakashi exclaimed.

"HELL YEAH!" Naruto yelled out loud, scaring a few of the surrounding wildlife away.

"Before that, I want to talk to you about the shinobi ability, Chakra." Kakashi said, slumping down onto his crutches. Looking bored out of his mind.

"Umm… What's Chakra?" Naruto asked in confusion.

Kakashi slumped even further into the ground, looking like he wanted to be swallowed whole. Sakura giggled accidentally, thinking about how Kakashi was more than likely pouting under his mask and probably thinking of ways to kill the blond.

Kakashi's eye suddenly cut to her with a small glare, and then his eye lifted with a crinkle in that familiar way when he was smirking. "Since Sakura-Chan here thinks Chakra is so funny, I'm going to have her explain what it is to you Naruto."

"That Bastard! He's only doing this because he's too lazy to do it himself."

She frowned, rolling her eyes at Kakashi for a second before turning to Naruto and walking him through what chakra is using the academy textbook definition.

"Chakra is essential to even the most basic jutsu. Through various methods, the most common of which is hand seals, chakra can be controlled and manipulated to create an effect that would not be possible otherwise, such as walking on water, exhaling fire, or creating illusions. Chakra is ordinarily not visible to the unaided eye unless it is highly concentrated or manifested in large amounts. Chakra is created when two more primal energies, known collectively as one's "stamina", are molded together. Physical energy is collected from each of the body's cells and can be increased through training, stimulants, and exercise. Spiritual energy is derived from the mind's consciousness and can be increased through studying, meditation, and experience. These two energies becoming more powerful will in turn make the created chakra more powerful. Therefore, practicing a technique repeatedly will build up experience, increasing one's spiritual energy, and thus allowing more chakra to be created. As a result, the ninja is able to do that same technique with more power. This same cycle applies for physical energy, except the ninja needs to increase their endurance instead."

Kakashi looked at her in surprise, his one visible eye widened. She smirked at him.

"Uhhh… I didn't understand any of that, but aren't jutsu's something you do with your body?" Naruto said.

Kakashi and Sakura both looked at Naruto in exasperation.

"Naruto is right. We can already use Jutsu's." Sasuke spoke up for the first time since they arrived in this area.

"Nope! You guys are not using Chakra properly." Kakashi said staring at Sasuke.

"WHATT!?" Naruto yelled.

Sakura rolled her eyes glancing off into the surrounding trees, tuning out Kakashi breaking things down further for the two boys and explaining Chakra control. She lived and breathed Chakra control. She can control 99.6% of her overall chakra. Her control was one of the highest recorded in the shinobi history.

"Well, what are we learning today!" Naruto said loudly to Kakashi.

"Hmm?" Kakashi stroked his chin in thought before he stopped and looked at all three of them suddenly. "Tree climbing!"

"That sounds boring…." Naruto said deflating in annoyance.

"Well, this isn't normal tree climbing! You need to do it without your hands." Kakashi exclaimed. While doing the hand signs for tree walking. He then slowly walked toward the closest tree and walked up the side with the crutches still in hand until he got to the first branch, and he walked on the underside of the branch.

Naruto and Sasuke looked up in wonder at the man hanging upside down, while Sakura looked at her feet, slowly already pouring chakra into her feet to make sure there weren't any complications.

"How is this supposed to make us stronger!?" Naruto yelled up to Kakashi.

Kakashi then went into further detail about Chakra control training. She drowned him out again, attempting to stick her feet onto the ground and pull up. They were sticking properly, just as she thought they would. She really didn't understand why she was worried. She was able to do this at 12 before it shouldn't have been any different. Now she has the experience, and her control is even better than before. This would be a walk in the park.

"Well, me talking all day isn't going to accomplish anything, this is something you'll have to learn with your own bodies." Kakashi exclaimed cutting through her inner monologue. He suddenly took out three kunai. He hurled them at the boys and her. Sasuke and Naruto jumped back but she stood still and watched it thud into the ground before her. She leaned down and picked hers up, swirling it around her finger. Watching it spin around slowly.

"You'll use these Kunai to mark the tree and calculate your progress. You'll take the last mark and aim higher than that." He said as he was walking back down the trunk. He walked over to a spot where he could see all three genin and their own practice trees. He then pulled out his trusty Icha Icha book out of his pocket he leaned back against the tree.

Sakura walked over to the tree farthest from Kakashi, hoping he wouldn't pay her any mind like he did last time. Naruto and Sasuke followed along grabbing the Kunai lodged in the ground and standing before their own trees.

Sasuke and Naruto like last time ran headfirst and barely even got a quarter of the way up the tree before they made their first slash. Sasuke landed gracefully and Naruto landed on his butt. Kakashi peered over his book at the boys, eyes trained on their attempts at climbing the trees.

Sakura slowly walked up to her tree. She had her back turned to the boy's, molding chakra into her hand and placing it on the tree. Finding the right balance between her chakra and the natural chakra coursing through the trunk. When she felt it match up and her hand was sticking pretty well, she stepped back and molded chakra in her feet and took her first step up the trunk. When she was reassured that she wouldn't fall back she lifted her other foot off the ground and started walking up slowly. She didn't stop at the first branch or even the second she went all the way to the top of the tree. Knowing that the higher she went the smaller the trunk would be, making her have to change the amount of chakra coursing through her feet. She made it all the way to the tip of the tree where she could see the land of wave for miles and miles. She smiled, loving the open view of the water and forest.

Sakura glanced back down at the boys and Kakashi. None of them paying attention to her yet. She glanced at the next tree over, moving away from the boys. She looked at the jump between this tree and that trees top and gauged it was a good 20 feet apart. She decided to jump. Missing the feeling of gliding through the trees at a fast pace, with the wind blowing through her hair. She knows she can't go that fast right in this instance, but it should be normal to jump from branch to branch. She took the leap and landed perfectly. Working her way down between both trees, from branch to branch, until she landed on the lowest branch of her original tree. She slipped down into a sitting position, feet dangling off the side. She was smiling so wide and laughing internally at the joy she had felt from doing something so simple like tree hopping.

Gaining her composure, she glanced over to Sasuke's and Naruto's tree and noticed that they still hadn't moved very far from the quarter mark they had slashed on the tree. Kakashi gaze was still on Naruto and Sasuke, mostly Naruto who kept falling on his face and butt. Slightly pissed that he hadn't even glanced her way this whole time, she took his kunai she still had gripped in her hand and expertly threw it at Kakashi's feet having it land a few feet in front of him. The kunai thunked loudly into the ground, immediately his gaze turned to the direction the kunai could have come from. Gaze darting around until his gaze landed on her with a slight glare until suddenly his eye widened realizing what she had accomplished. She waved and grinned at him smugly. Legs kicking back and forth from the branch.

Wanting to tease him a little she said, "A ninja must see through deception. Nee Kakashi-sensei?" She giggled hiding it behind her hand.

Ignoring her with an exasperated look he turned back to the boys. Then grinned at the boys and stated loudly for the boys to hear, "Looks like Sakura is the best with Chakra control." He continued to goad them on, telling Naruto she would be hokage and telling Sasuke that the great Uchiha clan wasn't that great. Using her as fodder for the boy's rivalry.

Sakura's mouth turned to a frown from his comments. She knew why he was doing what he was doing but it still hurt none the less being diminished to cannon fodder for the boy's rivalry. She walked down the tree. Turning her face away from the boys and Kakashi to hide the frown on her face.

"If that was all, I'm going to head back and guard Tazuna-san." She exclaimed gritting her teeth knowing that was likely what Kakashi was going to say anyway since that was what happened last time.

"That sounds perfect Sakura-Chan!" Kakashi exclaimed loudly to her turned back.

She waved over her shoulder in a lazy goodbye. Not noticing the inquisitive eye following her every move as she left the little impromptu training area.

Once she could no longer feel the Chakra of her boys she took off. Jumping through the trees, pushing herself faster toward the bridge near the edge of town.

She let the negative emotion's roll off her shoulder, knowing there was nothing she could do about them besides prove herself and in order to do that she needed to get stronger. Right now, what she could do was focus on increasing her Chakra production. She would work on that when she reached the bridge. While on her way she snatched a handful of leaves. She stopped right outside of town, hidden in the shadows of one of the tree branches. She lifted her dress exposing her mid drift. She knew that this method would be a little unconventional and maybe a little trickier than normal, but she needed to train in plain sight without anyone knowing. She stuck about 5-6 leaves to her stomach, having them spin in place. She then let her dress fall down over top. The friction of her dress would make this training even harder. She needed to spin the leaves without anyone noticing her fabric moving and also not having them slow down due to the constriction of the dress. She figured she could do a small Genjutsu to make the unnatural movement look like the wind blowing her dress around.

So far it seemed to be working fine. She would add more as the week drew on. Hopefully sneaking away to complete more training like water walking or practicing the shunshin. She leapt down from the tree, walking slowly into town, heading where she knew the bridge builder and his crew were working.

Once she arrived at the bridge, she saw Tazuna and only a few men. Tazuna was talking to one of the men who looked slightly distressed. When she walked closer, she heard why.

"Look Tazuna-san, I appreciate everything you've done for me and my family, but I can't continue. Matsuo got attacked by some thugs the other day on his way home and he can't do any work. He's going to lose his home. I have a family, if something happens to me, they will be thrown out into the streets. I can't do this anymore… I'm so sorry." A short stocky man with tan skin and a receding hair line said sadly to Tazuna.

"Its okay Jin, I understand. We are almost finished, but if you feel that your safety and your family's safety is being impacted, I understand." Tazuna looked at Jin with a sorrowful expression.

She had forgotten Tazuna could be so empathetic, only remembering his gruff attitude and his sake covered breath. She looked on this exchange quietly.

"I pray this bridge gets completed soon so we can flourish again, but I can't be here. Again, Im sorry. My family needs me…" Jin exclaimed weakly, bowing to Tazuna before walking away from the bridge builder and his bridge.

Tazuna looked on at the man's retreating back. When suddenly his eyes turned to her.

"Oi Pinky! I thought you Ninja were training today, what they let you out early because you couldn't do it?" Tazuna said gruffly. The empathetic man being replaced instantly with his tough old man persona.

Sakura rolled her eyes looking around the bridge at all the work that needed to be completed. Maybe she could help speed things along a little… She needed the physical exercise anyway. Plus, Zabuza and Haku wouldn't recover for another 4-5 days. Maybe this time the bridge could be completed before the fight and not after. "No, I completed the training, it was fairly easy. Kakashi-Sensei sent me to guard you."

"No offense but I'm pretty sure whatever you can handle, I could handle just as well." He scoffed, probably thinking it was ridiculous to send a 12-year-old pink haired girl to be his sole guard for the day.

"Either way, I'm here." She rolled her eyes at the old man. "Since you don't trust me to guard you, at least let me help you with general labor. It looks like you could use it." Emphasizing her point by jerking her head in the direction that Jin had walked off in.

Tazuna rolled his eyes at her. "Yeah, yeah whatever. The first time you get in anyone's way I'm sending you back to the house. You can help Tsunami with dishes and housework. We don't need you making things even worse for us."

Ignoring his comment's Sakura went on to ask, "What should I do first?" looking at the men still working on the bridge behind Tazuna.

Tazuna looked around as well trying to find something she could do. Noticing a stack of wooden planks that needed to be moved closer to the men he pointed at it. "Move those boards over to the men that request it. That'll mostly be Aoto and Ren further down. Hey Aoto, Ren!" He yelled calling the two men over. Both men were in their late 40s to early 50s. They looked up at the shout from Tazuna. They were at the edge of the bridge. One had short grey hair and was small and stocky. The other had burnt orange hair pulled into a bun on the top of his head with an overgrown beard. He was a little overweight and tall but had some musculature. They both got up and came over.

"This here is Sakura; she'll be lugging over the boards to you two while you put them in place. Plus, anything else you may need." Tazuna stated to the two men. He then looked at her. "The one with orange hair is Aoto and the other is Ren. They're in charge of you today. If they complain that you are slacking off in anyway, I'm sending you back."

Ren laughed, "Tazuna no need to be a hard ass, I'm sure Sakura will be a great help no matter what she does."

Aoto kept quiet, arms crossed while he was peering down at her. She lifted an eyebrow at the two men. She then rolled her eyes and went over to the pile of boards, picking up 6 of them at once and placing them onto her shoulder. The weight equal to about 250-300 lbs. Her knees were slightly shaking but she knew she could do it. If she couldn't then she would use a little bit of Chakra to help build her strength. She looked over at the men whose jaws had dropped.

"You going to tell me where you want these? Or are you going to catch fly's all day?" She said smirking back at the men.

Aoto looked at Tazuna and grinned at him, "I like her, she can come around every day to help out."

Ren laughed shaking his head he showed her where she could set the boards, while Aoto followed behind. Tazuna just stared on still in shock at the young girl.

Around noon, Tazuna hollered to the men on the bridge letting them know that it was lunch time. Previously in her past life Sakura went with Tazuna to the one lone grocery store that provided the village with food, this time however she decided to stay back and train. She knew she wouldn't be getting any lunch anyway due to the lack of provisions the store had. Aoto and Ren bugged her to come with them, but she told them she would take a rain check and she would have lunch with them some other day this week.

Once all the men were gone and the bridge was cleared Sakura walked to the edge of the bridge. Looking back, she saw no one and felt no chakra signatures in the vicinity so she walked under the bridge sending chakra to her feet, so she was hanging upside down. Once hanging upside down, she cast a Genjutsu around herself so no one could see her mistakenly. She sat down cross legged, shifting the chakra to her thighs and calves and anywhere that touched the underside of the bridge. She lifted her dress to peer at the leaves she had attached earlier that morning that were now spinning dangerously fast against the smooth expanse of her stomach. She let the chakra holding them in place disperse and watched as the leaves slowly floated down into the water below.

"I'll continue to do the leaf exercise every morning while also physically training my body. During breakfast, lunch, and dinner I'll focus my chakra on micro healing and tearing my muscles and giving my metabolism a jump start. That way my body can handle the influx of stress that's coming its way. I need to test my medical ninjutsu though. If I don't have that, I'm fucked. I can't wait another two years to practice using medical ninjutsu before I make a move to fix the timeline." She brought a hand up to her hair ruffling it in aggravation.

"No use stressing about it until I test it out… I'll do that first thing after I figure out the rest of my training. I'll also try to steal an extra portion of food during breakfast and dinner for a boost of energy, hopefully no one will notice that I'm eating more... During the afternoons I'll use the Bunshin no Jutsu and create a shadow clone and use that to continue the manual labor on the bridge while I cast a Genjutsu on myself while I'm under the bridge and practice water walking. I'll move onto Shunshin once water walking is completed. It shouldn't take more than an evening if that."

The plan had been settled. She created the shadow clone and sent it up on to the bridge to sit around and wait for the men to come back so she could begin her manual labor again. She took out a kunai from her pouch and lightly cut her arm, drawing a thin line of blood. She took her hand and flooded it with medical Chakra, testing her healing capabilities on the cut. Letting out a sigh of relief, she was able to heal it but what used to only take her a second to heal now took 5 minutes. She would need to practice. At least she would be able to heal her muscles and micro tear them over and over again building up her muscles and natural strength.

With that completed, she dropped to the ground and landed in a crouch on the beachy sand directly below where she was hanging upside down. She maintained the Genjutsu and stood and walked to the water's edge. She crouched back down to the water and placed her hand above the water level, gauging the amount of chakra that would be necessary to hold herself up. Once that had been accomplished, she moved the chakra into her feet and took a step onto the surface of the water. It held. She took tentative steps forward, not really wanting to take a dip yet in the water below.

After a few moments of tentative steps and jumping up and down to make sure there was no break in her control, she took off in a run. Not using Chakra to increase her speed. She needed to push herself. To the point where she would be passing out before her head hit the pillow tonight. So far, she could feel that she had used roughly 40% of her Chakra reserves (excluding the reserves from her seal).

This is how the remainder of the evening went, her running laps on the water near the bridge hidden by her Genjutsu, building her stamina, and exhausting her chakra reserves. She completed the Substitution Jutsu with her clone when she heard Tazuna yell that they were finished for the day. The sun just starting to dip under the horizon.

She dispelled her substitution and the Genjutsu simultaneously. As soon as her clone popped, she felt even more weary, and retained the memories of Ren and Aoto joking around with her and treating her like a younger sister throughout the evening. She even had memories of Tazuna coming up to her and giving her a small onigiri ball and a bottle of water since she missed lunch.

"Sakura-san are you coming tomorrow to help us as well?" Ren asked excitedly next to her while they were walking back towards the beginning of the bridge. Aoto stared at her from the other side of Ren, waiting quietly for her to answer.

Sakura being so exhausted could only muster out a "Hai." Ren smiled and nodded happily to himself. Once they reached the end of the bridge, Ren and Aoto waved goodbye to Sakura and Tazuna. They walked side by side back toward the house. As they were walking Tazuna kept glancing at her out the corner of his eye looking like he wanted to say something, but she didn't care to know or ask. She was so tired her feet were practically dragging and her eyes were dropping closed as they were nearing the house. His steps faltered when the house came into view. She paused with him, looking him in the eye finally.

"Is there something I can help you with Tazuna-san?" She said tiredly.

"I… I just want to thank you for everything you did today. You didn't have to, and I know it's not anything a ninja would normally do outside of the mission parameters." He said looking down at his feet, "We've been losing men every day, and I feared today losing Jin would have set the production schedule back by weeks if not months." He looked back up at her with a small smile on his face, rubbing the back of his head. "With your help today, you were the equivalent of 3 men, not only were we able to catch up but we are ahead of schedule and if you help us the rest of the week while Kakashi-san is healing, we may even finish by the end of this week. I wish there was some way I could repay your kindness."

She gave him a small smile, even though the exhaustion was clearly written on her face. "Tazuna-san, its okay. You can pay me back by making sure the bridge gets finished and making sure hope comes back to the land of wave." She looked back at the house and then back toward Tazuna, "Actually…... could you also do me a small favor?"

"Anything as long as its within my means," he said sincerely.

"Don't mention this to the boys or Kakashi-sensei. Sensei is a stickler for rules, and he would be upset that I was working instead of guarding you and I would get in trouble. The boys would probably mention something to him too." She said earnestly, hoping he would say yes and not ask any further questions.

He laughed and nodded his head eagerly, "That's easy, I thought you would have asked for new clothes or makeup."

She frowned up at him, "Tazuna-san… I would never ask that of you when wave is struggling to even put food on the table of their villagers."

He smiled sadly down at her. He then placed his hand gently on her head and ruffled it lightly. "You are a very kind girl Sakura-san. You remind me of tsunami when she was younger. She always took care of everyone else, but never took care of herself. Even now I worry she pushes herself too much. Please make sure you take care of yourself as well." He then began walking away, back toward the house to continue their previous trek.

Sakura smiled sadly to herself. She then followed behind him toward the house. She caught up to him as soon as he tugged the door to the house open. She peered into the house around him and saw the table was set with food and everyone was already seated and eating. Naruto and Sasuke racing to finish their bowls of rice.

"Tadaima," Tazuna said, announcing their presence to the room.

"Okaeri!" Tsunami and Kakashi said simultaneously. Inari stayed mute quietly eating his rice. Sasuke and Naruto were too busy with their eating competition to even notice their arrival.

Sakura trudged past Tazuna toward the kitchenette to wash up before she sat down.

"How did today go?" Tsunami said to Tazuna.

"We lost Jin, but we were able to get a few other men to help out today. Putting us back on schedule, we may even finish early." Tazuna said.

"That's great!" Tsunami said excitedly.

Sakura plopped down at the head of the table. Grabbing a bowl quietly and digging in. She ignored the boys' grabbing thirds and zoned out to the rest of the table's chit chat. She started using her medical chakra to heal the tears in her muscles and speed up her metabolism. Pushing energy to the areas that needed more energy and focus. Once she finished her first bowl of rice with little pieces of veggie and small pieces of fish in it, she mindlessly grabbed a second and then a third. When she was close to finishing her third a voice cut through the haze surrounding her consciousness.

"Sakura," Kakashi stated loudly. She looked up from her bowl and looked him in the eye.

"Huh?" She stated. From what she could see from his one exposed eye he looked concerned.

"Are you okay? We've been calling your name for a few moments now." He said concern more evident in his voice.

She then took the time to look at the other occupants at the table, who were all looking at her. All with differing expressions of emotion, even Inari. Naruto looked confused. Inari and Sasuke looked annoyed. Tsunami looked concerned like Kakashi. Tazuna was sympathetic, understanding she was probably exhausted from all the lifting today.

"I'm fine Sensei, maybe just a little tired…. Is it alright if I excuse myself and head to bed early?" She stated softly, looking into her bowl. Not wanting the irritation, she had at herself and her weak body to come across her face. She could feel chakra exhaustion creeping up on her from using the little bit needed to increase her metabolism and help with her muscles. She knew she would pass out soon.

"Sure, I'll have the boys help clean up tonight. But I expect you to be up bright and early tomorrow to help with breakfast. You'll also be guarding Tazuna-san again tomorrow." Kakashi stated firmly.

"Hai Sensei. Goodnight, everyone." She finished her bowl and rose slowly with it and took it to the sink. She placed it in the sink and headed toward the stairs, ignoring the boys squabbling over who would wash and dry, and ignoring the goodnights they came from the other members sitting at the table.

She trudged up the stairs slowly, heading to the room she shared with Naruto and Sasuke. She opened the door, leaning against the frame before pushing herself off. Leaving the door cracked open. She fell onto her cot, not even changing her clothes. She was out before her head even hit her pillow.