"We'll use training ground 18. It's close to our new apartment and is one of the larger training grounds that has plenty of space for Earth, Water, and Wood jutsu," Yamato stated as they made their way towards the shinobi district.

"You're moving too Sensei?"

"My current apartment is barely large enough for me. It's not normally a problem since I'm usually only there to sleep, but it's not going to work for our new arrangement. We'll collect the keys to the new place and then we'll go spar so I can see where you're at."

They were on the third floor, in a corner unit that faced the Hokage mountain and the central district where all the admin buildings were. It was fully furnished, as most shinobi apartments were. The bedrooms were large enough for a western style bed, dresser, and bookcase, and they each had their own tiny private bathrooms. The living space had two, two-seater couches and a wide square coffee table. There was no separate dining room, but the kitchen had an island that doubled as a dining table with four barstools tucked in under the lip of the counter. There was a small balcony off the living space and a laundry room that was really a laundry cupboard in the hallway next to the front door.

Sakura mentally tallied up how many security seals they'd need and asked Yamato to confirm her count.

"Those seals are expensive and you have to replace them too often, we can make do with traps,"

"I know they're expensive to buy, they're significantly more difficult to make, but I can make them so don't worry about their cost- mine also now last six months, so the cost is also becoming more manageable."

"Is there anything extra that you would like or need furniture wise? Mokuton is rather good at making things like that."

"Wall racks for drying seals, another bookcase no two bookcases, one of them that has scroll racks, and a small alter table."

"Simple enough, but do you have an example of a wall rack you can show me?"

"At Bāchan's house, you can have a look at it while I pack."

"Do you want to do that before or after we spar?"

"Before. Bāchan wont let us track dirt through her house afterwards," she grinned.

She lead him to the civilian district and into the Haruno clan compound. She glanced up at the apartment she'd shared with her parents as they passed by and knocked politely on the door to Granny Atsuko's home before entering.

Sakura showed Yamato to her room and the wall racks while she stripped the bed and threw all the linen into the wash before she started packing her belongings again. Yamato took his time to look at the racks, how they were put together, what they were made of, how they were attached to the wall, how they moved. Sakura sealed up the last of her belongings, and placed the scrolls into the box that held the contents of her parent's lives.

Atsuko shuffled them out of the house. "We've got some talking to do girl, so you come back when you can. That Master of yours seems like he's actually going to teach you something," she said not caring that that master of hers could hear every word. "If he doesn't you come back and Granny Atsuko will continue your training." Sakura smirked at the startled glance he sent to the old woman who looked like a raisin with a cane.

"I will," she promised.

Without wanting to leave her belongings unattended in the middle of a training ground where they could unintentionally get destroyed, they returned to their new apartment and sealed it with the stock Sakura had on hand.

They finally entered the training ground and Sakura methodically showed her new sensei every jutsu she knew, every chakra trick. She showed him her weights, and her journal that showed her progress since she'd started taking herself seriously. Finally they sparred with taijutsu only, the yin-yang style of the Uzumichi showing just how effective it was.

"I'm impressed," he said when they broke apart, both out of breath, Sakura much much more than Yamato, but she was pleased that she managed to make him work for it if only a little. "I'm also surprised that Kakashi-senpai didn't see your initial potential, or your growth."

"Senpai?"

"We worked together for a while before he was given his own team."

"Do you know who else was on my genin team?"

"Yes, and still, I'm surprised he didn't see it."

"Or he saw it and decided that the civilian girl was only playing shinobi," Sakura said bitterly.

"It doesn't matter now, you're no longer under his purview, you're under mine and we have a contract. A binding agreement. You will not be overlooked any longer Sakura Haruno. I promise."

She smiled shakily up at him and nodded with a sniff. She really needed to work on her self confidence. She could put on a brave face, but she was a total mess when her nerves and her doubts got to her.

"I want to see how you are after your usual run and morning workout, but we'll do that in the morning. Right now, you can go get cleaned up and start unpacking while I go and pack my apartment up. I'll bring back take-out for dinner and we'll sit down and work out a short-term plan for getting you through the third exam. Once that's over and done with we can work out our long-term goals and how we're going to get there. How does that sound?"

"That sounds really good," she said, her emotions still not under control.

"Good. Do you have any preference for dinner?"

"I like a lot of vegetables with my meat- beef, chicken, or fish rather than pork. I'm not overly fond of ramen but I'll eat it from Ichiraku's with Naruto. I like dango and green tea too. I'm not really all that fussy. Just whatever you'd like to get sensei."

"Okay then, I'll see you at... home I guess."

Sakura did a few more stretches and then headed back to the apartment. She carried her sandals into her bathroom and stripped off her dirty sweaty clothes. She padded back into her bedroom and flipped the lock on the door and started to unseal scrolls left right and centre trying to find her toiletries and some clean clothes to wear afterwards.

Setting up her her toiletries how she liked them and revealing in the fact that she had her own bathroom again, she realised that she needed towels and wash-clothes too. She'd have to dig through her parent's scrolls for those as well as the bedding.

It didn't take her long to make her new room a mess but eventually she had her towels and she finally made it into the shower.

Her clothes were being tossed in the dryer when Yamato walked in carrying three bags of food and a couple of mission bags that he placed by his bedroom door. She followed him into the kitchen where they ate directly out of the containers.

Yamato made notes and gave a commentary about the training he thought she'd need once she'd outlined her bracket in the finals. Sasuke, Temari or Shikamaru, Gaara or Naruto. She doubted their opponents would win against them, which meant at best her participation would end in the semi-finals or the finals depending on who would draw the short straw and fight four matches instead of only three. At worst, Sasuke wouldn't underestimate her and she'd be out in the opening round.

Sakura thought it would be much more likely that she'd lose her second round against either Temari or Shikamaru.

They cobbled together a plan. She needed to boost her speed and stamina while maintaining her taijutsu skills, and working on her jutsu repertoire. She'd shown off her genjutsu already, people would be looking for that. She'd save that for Naruto if she managed to face off against him. It was his worst skill.

WOO! She has a plan! She has someone to help her plan! As always Review Review, Review.

~G