"Hi, Sakura-chan!" a bright voice had Sakura sighing, especially when she saw no sign of Sasuke. Again.

It wasn't fair. He wasn't even at the hospital anymore!

And Kakashi-sensei wasn't here either. For the second day in a row. Not that that was unusual, but now they didn't know whether he'd actually show up today either, and it would take at least five hours to figure that out and… that just seemed like so much wasted time to Sakura. She could be doing so many other things with her free time. A new shop had opened up and she'd wanted to browse it before Ino had the chance to take anything good and then claim Sakura was copying her if they happened to get the same things. She also had a new novel her mother had gotten her – age appropriate of course – to read as well as a couple of scrolls and textbooks she'd taken from the library…

"I don't think Kakashi-sensei or Sasuke-teme will come today," Naruto said as he ran up to her, cutting into her thoughts and unknowingly echoing some of them.

That irked her. She didn't want to be thinking like Naruto…

A vein started throbbing on her forehead.

"So I was wondering if you wanted to train with me and my new friend, Indra!"

Almost immediately, her frustration and annoyance faded and she blinked at Naruto. "You have a friend?"

Well… she hadn't quite meant for her words to sound like that… oops.

Still, she didn't feel guilty enough to take it back. She'd spoken the truth after all.

Naruto huffed and crossed his arms. "Of course I do. Besides, Indra's awesome. He's super strong."

Her question of, 'Then why would he hang out with you?' didn't quite make it to her mouth before her blond teammate turned and began to run off, gesturing for her to follow him.

"Come on, Sakura-chan!"

For a moment she considered, then looked around at the empty bridge and decided that her curiosity at this new 'friend' of Naruto's would fill the time as well as anything else.

Eight minutes later, she found herself huffing as she'd followed Naruto to the training fields. Her teammate had been in last place for a reason. She knew for a fact that he failed at many things things, but apparently running at an insane pace was not one of those failures. Worse, he could just… keep it up. What was he running on?

"Oi! Indra-nii!"

Sakura looked up and then her breath stopped in her throat, which really hurt because she hadn't quite caught it yet, causing her to cough.

The man looked so much like an older Sasuke she'd had to do a double take. (And a triple, and a quadruple…)

"Sakura-chan! Are you okay?" Naruto asked, rushing up to her and thumping her on the back. It didn't help. At all. Actually, it hurt.

"I'm fine," she managed to get out, brushing Naruto's hands off and away. "It's just…" she paused and looked back at Indra, a blush rising on her cheeks. "Nothing. It's nothing."

"If you're sure," Naruto said, not sounding like he believed her at all, but then he moved on with his normal exuberance. "In any case, Indra-nii, this is my teammate, Sakura-chan. Sakura-chan, Indra-nii."

"Nii?" she asked. They looked nothing alike.

Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Well… I call Hokage-jiji, Jiji and I'd call Iruka-sensei Iruka-nii if he weren't already Iruka-sensei… so, yeah."

She just blinked at Naruto for several seconds before turning a questioning gaze on the (very hot) man.

"I… don't mind," the man muttered softly, looking away as a slight color came to his own cheeks. Aaand his cuteness level went from 'steaming' to 'smoking'… Why couldn't Sasuke do things like that?

She immediately shook that thought from her head. No one was cuter than Sasuke. Full stop.

"A pleasure to meet you," she finally said with a polite bow.

He just nodded at her stoically.

Yeah, this was one of Naruto's best ideas yet.

(Not that he had many, but credit where credit was due.)

Speaking of, her teammate almost shouted happily (he really needed some volume control). "I was thinking, since you helped me so much, that you could help Sakura-chan too!"

Wait… they hadn't discussed this before? Sakura wanted to sigh and rub the bridge of her nose, but instead she turned to the man and bowed a little.

"If you don't mind," she said hurriedly.

He just blinked at her, then shook his head. "I don't." His one onyx eye never seemed to leave her for some reason… not that she was complaining.

"Thank you," she said softly. He was, after all, taking time out of his day to train her teammate… and now her too, apparently.

"Awesome! What are we doing today, Indra-nii?" Naruto asked excitedly. Honestly, if he were a puppy, his tail would wag off of his backside with those levels of excitement.

"You are going to create 100 clones and we'll go over the second academy kata."

Sakura couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment, even as Naruto nodded, determinedly. She already knew all that, although her estimation of his ability to teach went up if he knew her teammate needed help with his frankly terrible forms.

"I did the kata this morning, like you said to," the blond informed the man.

Indra nodded once. "Good. Show me."

"Um… what about me?" Sakura asked meekly, and if some annoyance crept in, well who could blame her?

Indra held up his hand and a clone appeared by his side.

"Waaaaaiiiiit!" Naruto yelled, pointing at the man accusingly. "You can use the kage bushin too?!"

The man blinked. "I'm a Jounin."

Sakura frowned. "So, every Jounin can use this technique?" she asked.

He turned his single black eye on her. "Jounin in most villages are required to have a corporeal bushin technique. Kage bushin has the most advantages, so that is the one I learned."

Oh. She glanced out of the corner of her eye at Naruto… Naruto who already had a hundred different corporeal bushins, each of them blushing and grinning, still sheepish, as if pleased. He already knew it so well…

Huh. Well, even a broken clock had to be right twice a day, right?

Still…

"Can… I learn that?" she asked hopefully.

The man's expression blanked. "If you tried, you would die."

That… hadn't been something she'd expected. "I'd… die?"

He nodded. "It requires… about a dozen times what your current chakra reserves are to make just one."

She couldn't help her eyes widening and then turning to stare in shock at her teammate who looked rather taken aback himself. Then she looked back at Indra.

"A… dozen?" she asked.

He nodded. "Naruto is a natural chakra powerhouse."

She had a very difficult time believing that.

"But then why—" she started, before cutting off and looking down, both embarrassed at losing control of her mouth and frustrated at the sudden realization.

"It's harder to control a larger amount of chakra," the man said, answering her unfinished question.

"Oh," was all she could say… whisper really.

"Really?" Naruto asked, also sounding surprised.

She looked up through her lashes and saw Indra nodding at her blond teammate… who looked thoughtful.

"That's awesome! But can we go practice now?"

Indra smiled fondly at that. It was small, difficult to see, but definitely there. "Yes. Meanwhile, my clone will help Sakura… san."

He seemed to add the honorific on as a last-minute thought, and Sakura had to wonder why. That… just seemed strange to her. Still, she thought it would be a weird question to ask someone who was about to help her train, so she decided not to.

"Um… what will I be learning today?" she asked instead.

"Well, first, we're going to spar so I know where you are in your katas. Then I'm teaching you to tree-walk."

Sakura blinked. "Tree walk?"

"It is a basic chakra control technique and you will be doing it for the rest of the day. If you want to improve your reserves enough to make a kage bushin, you'll have to drive yourself to the brink of chakra exhaustion as often as you can."

The pinkette couldn't help if she blanched a little… somehow she thought the next few days would be very difficult and wondered exactly what Naruto had gotten her into.

xXx

Ebisu checked his watch for the umpteenth time before he finally decided to give up and report back to the Hokage. He should have known that Hatake's habits would have rubbed off on his newly graduated, genin teammates. Whoever had decided letting that man anywhere near children had been drunk at the time. That was the only explanation. (He would never voice such thoughts aloud as he knew the Hokage and elders had been behind said decision… but he still had to privately question their thought process because seriously.) He also supposed he shouldn't have expected better from the demon container.

Well, either way, the Hokage would hear about this.

With an annoyed grumble, he stalked towards the Hokage tower.

xXx

Sakura groaned as she fell into bed.

Indra may be a very, very hot man, but he was also a devil in disguise – a slave driver that made Kakashi-sensei look utterly tame in comparison.

Once he'd initially sparred with Sakura and thoroughly wiped the floor with her, he'd informed her that while she certainly had the academy forms down, she didn't utilize them well. She was too stiff and reluctant to actually flow from form to form as she needed to. Back at the academy, the teachers had always praised her for going slowly enough to actually learn the katas, but now, apparently, she needed to learn to speed them up and (and he stressed this part extremely hard) actually apply them. The katas weren't just there to be learned, they were tools and bases upon which to build a style. They had a purpose and she was not utilizing them for that purpose… or so he claimed.

She'd honestly thought learning and practicing them would be enough and everything else would fall into place. Apparently not.

Then he'd shown her how to walk on trees… with her feet… and only her feet. Not run, walk. She'd been so pleased when she'd gotten the exercise down the first time and he'd even complimented her for her superior chakra control.

Then he'd made her walk up and down the tree for hours, until she'd lost that control and crashed to the ground out of sheer exhaustion.

He'd given her a chakra pill and then told her she'd have to sleep the effects off that night.

After that, they'd had lunch – some healthy greens and fruits bought by Indra (which was super nice of him – he wasn't even their official sensei!) along side a selection of bread and meats. Sakura had initially skipped those, until Indra had noticed and asked her why she did. She'd had to explain that she was on a diet and the look he'd given her would have made anyone cower away.

What had followed was one of the harshest scoldings she'd ever heard. At least Naruto had shared a part of it, too. But Indra had outlined how not having enough food (pointed look at Sakura) or the right food (pointed look at Naruto) would stunt their growth and stop them from becoming strong ninjas. Then he'd told her blankly that if she had to be on a diet, she wasn't working hard enough to be a decent kunoichi.

Reluctantly, she'd picked up some bread and meat just to stop his stare of doom™ so she could actually breathe again. Naruto had protested and then proceeded to bargain with Indra as to when he could have Ramen. Indra had argued skillfully, seeming to know exactly what to say to get a good compromise out of the stubborn blond. It was kind of impressive. She wondered how long the two had known each other.

In the end, he'd extracted a promise from her that she would not skip the more fattening parts of her meal while Naruto could have Ramen three times a week. Indra even promised he'd go with the boy to buy tasty things, and then pointed out that one's favorite food tasted better when they didn't have it every single day. The blond didn't seem to believe him, but looked to be willing to try something that would make his Ramen taste even better than it did now. Sakura just shook her head the entire time.

Once that had concluded, they'd cleaned up and Indra had made her go through her katas, correcting little things here and there that he said would help her move into the next form better. Then he made her spar with Naruto and she couldn't help but be shocked at how much better her teammate had become since she'd seen him last. His forms looked solid (at least the ones he was using) and his speed had improved greatly without seeming to deplete his insane stamina.

That didn't even count those times she tried to use a move that he wouldn't know if they'd only gone through the second kata… and he just pulled some random move out of nowhere to completely blindside her!

She lost a lot of those fights, but then Indra would make her get up and do it again.

It sucked.

She'd only won about a fifth of their matches, but couldn't help but be proud of those few wins.

Tomorrow she would have more.

She made sure to eat something sufficiently fattening on the way home before she'd stumbled inside with a tired wave to her parents. Then she'd brushed her teeth, braided her hair and practically fallen asleep on her way to flopping onto said bed.

It had been a long day.

xXx

Sakura woke hurting.

A lot.

She groaned at the bone-deep ache that seemed to circle throughout her entire body, but her alarm going off informed her that she had to get up to meet her team… or Naruto. Maybe if they were lucky, they could get Sasuke-kun or Kakashi-sensei back.

And for the first time ever, she almost wished for Kakashi-sensei over Sasuke-kun.

Because ow.

Still, she made herself stretch (which did help) and then stumble to the bathroom where she took a long, hot shower.

It felt wonderful.

Most of the ache had left her body by the time she made it down for breakfast. Thankfully her mom was up and had her typical salad waiting for her. Sakura took one look at it and sighed. Then she explained to her mother that as a kunoichi, she had to take in more calories. Her mother had frowned, but thankfully hadn't argued. Instead, she'd agreed to fix more in the mornings, but for today they only had rice that would be ready in time. Thankfully, her mom seasoned it so it didn't taste extremely bland, but Sakura hoped that future meals would be better. This would have to do for today, though.

She thanked her mother, kissed her cheek goodbye and then left.

Sadly, she only found Naruto at the bridge, and he looked excited to be training again. If nothing had convinced her of his insanity until that point, that certainly did. He dragged her off towards the training grounds where they found Indra-san once again. She prepared herself for another grueling day, but he only had her go through the katas a couple of times, correcting her stance until he was convinced she'd fixed some problems that he claimed tended to crop up when increasing form speed.

Then he'd had her walk up and down trees again for a couple of laps before he had her come and sit across from him.

Surprised at the request, she daintily lowered herself to her knees and sat there, waiting in curiosity.

"Naruto said something about you liking your other teammate… Sasuke?"

Was it just her, or did he wince at that?

She clenched her teeth and her hands curled into fists as she looked back at the group of orange and yellow now fighting each other. "Naruto…" she hissed.

"It's kind of obvious, actually," Indra said dryly.

Sakura harrumphed quietly and turned back around, cheeks reddening.

"There's nothing wrong with liking someone," the man went on, "but I've known several Uchiha."

The pink-haired girl breathed in and looked up, eyes wide. Oh, right… he must have known many before the massacre.

"Do you know what an Uchiha finds most attractive in a potential… partner?" he asked.

Sakura's eyes lit up. "Oh, Sasuke-kun likes long hair and thin waists and—"

"No," the other man interrupted, his eye closed as if restraining himself. He took a deep breath. "You could have shaved your head and belonged to the Akamichi and he'd still find you attractive if you were strong. The Uchiha chase strength. If you want to have a chance at him, then chasing after him and telling him he's the best no matter what happens is not going to help. It's only going to annoy him."

Sasuke's words from earlier that week shot through her head. "You're annoying."

Was… Was Indra-san right?

"The problem is, you can only really get strong if you also do it for yourself. And you joined the academy before you ever met Sasuke, so tell me, Sakura: Why did you want to become a ninja?"

It had been… a long time since she'd thought of those days – the days before Ino and Sasuke, way back into her childhood.

"I wanted to be stronger," she finally answered.

Indra didn't look impressed.

"Why?" he pressed.

Because her father had told her stories of these amazing, brave and strong people who were also ninjas… When she'd been younger, she'd wanted nothing more than to be one of those women from those stories.

But she couldn't tell Indra that.

She couldn't tell anyone that.

How embarrassing.

"What do you mean, 'why'?" she finally asked, a little put out. "Why wouldn't I want to be strong?"

Indra pursed his lips to one side as he studied her (or, that's what she assumed the little twitch of his mouth was supposed to translate into, but she didn't know him well enough to really be sure). Then he nodded behind her.

"You see Naruto, over there?" he asked. "You don't seem to think too highly of him now, but I promise you that even if only due to the sheer amount of chakra he has, he will go places. His dream of being Hokage is not out of reach because he will not stop." A wry, if soft snort followed that as he stared at the young boy with an expression the pinkette couldn't decipher. "I don't think it's in his vocabulary."

Sakura felt her eyes widen in surprise and then her brow furrow in bemusement as she looked over at the loud-mouthed, noisy blond… and she just couldn't see it.

But then the image of all his kage bushin just appearing – a hundred of them, when even one would kill her twelve times over – and she had to reconsider.

"Your Sasuke probably wants revenge, and honestly, that is not the best or most stable reason to be a ninja, but it is powerful. It will drive him to do reckless things to get the kind of power he feels he needs to exact that revenge.

"And you… want to date a boy."

Sakura felt her stomach sink in shame. When he said it like that…

But she also felt that fire from her inner voice ignite. "That's not all of it!" she heard herself protest, and then wanted to sink into the ground for shouting at her current mentor.

Instead of berating her, though, he just raised his one visible eyebrow, looking skeptical.

"Oh?"

She looked away from him, down at the grass under her knees. "It's… hard to explain."

He didn't move a muscle except to say, "Try."

For a moment, she considered not doing so – just getting up and walking away, but then she remembered that Indra had gone out of his way to help them; to help her specifically, two days in a row.

He was still trying to help her.

So she took a deep breath and tried to put her thoughts into actions.

"I've… always known that my family was… not the type to fight. They're civilian and… in the stories, ninja have to protect them. I… guess I wanted to be one of those who, you know… fought."

Indra's expression fell to a deadpan. "You guess?"

She grit her teeth again. "Fine. I know I want to be one of those."

"One of those people who protects those they love – who are strong enough to protect them?"

Sakura blinked. Huh. Now that she thought about it…

"Yes," she finally said, nodding her head firmly.

Indra returned the nod, looking thoughtful again (and how he could do so without moving his facial muscles was beyond her).

"Hn. Well, I won't lie to you, Sakura: You have very small chakra reserves. You make up for it by wielding your chakra so precisely, but I doubt you will be able to get to a point where you can create a kage bushin before you're fifteen or sixteen – and that's if you work hard at increasing your reserves every single day."

The more he spoke, the more Sakura felt her heart sink.

"Oh," she finally whispered, feeling more ashamed than ever. Why hadn't she worked harder on expanding her chakra reserves in the academy?

"However, there are other options."

Sakura perked up and looked back up at the dark-haired man. "Options?" she asked.

He nodded. "Genjutsu is one path you can take. It requires immense control of one's chakra and deals more with manipulating your opponent's chakra than drawing on your own. I think you could excel at it. The other that I can see is to become a healer like Lady Tsunade of the Sanin. Being a healer is far more physically demanding, though. Currently, I would recommend you choose one to focus on and you can dabble in the other as necessary."

Then he fell into silence, seeming to expect her to choose.

But how could she? She didn't know which would be best! She could see herself standing next to Sasuke, throwing out elaborate illusions while he shot out fireballs, but she also loved the idea of nursing him back to health…

She opened her mouth to ask which path Sasuke would like more, but then realized that Indra probably wouldn't appreciate that. So she closed her mouth and tried to figure how to reword that.

"Which option would let me help my teammates the most?" she finally said slowly.

Indra smiled ever so slightly, but it still felt like a win to her.

"Eventually Sasuke will awaken his Sharingan. The dojutsu can see through most genjutsu and can copy and cast them near perfectly. Naruto has a… factor that lets him heal at a faster rate."

Sakura blinked. "He does?"

Indra shrugged and fell back into silence, staring intently at her. She swallowed and thought back on his words (a little annoyed that he hadn't answered her question), but forced herself to think through the situation. Well, if Sasuke could cast and see through genjutsu, then her being able to do something like that to a point of focusing explicitly on it may not be such a good idea. It would give their team extra coverage in one area while leaving them open in another… especially Sasuke. Sasuke who couldn't heal like Naruto supposedly could…

"I… think I'd like to learn medical jutsu," she finally said slowly.

And the deadpan expression came back. "You think?"

She opened her mouth to say that of course she knew, but then she realized that she didn't know. This was the entire course of her future life. That wasn't just something she could decide on a dime.

"Um… can I do some research?" she finally asked meekly, bordering on sheepish.

To her surprise, Indra smiled – an actual smile, not the twitches she'd been interpreting as smiles. "Good answer."

Sakura felt herself relax and smiled up at the man in front of her. She always loved giving the right answer.

"Take the rest of the day. Go to the library and do research. This is an important decision."

The pinkette nodded firmly, then rose to her feet before bowing lowly. "Thank you for your help and guidance again today, Indra-san."

He just smiled again, nodded and said nothing but, "Hn."

xXx

AN: Yeah, I know Quathis and I aren't the only ones who think Sakura was massively under-utilized, but hey. All she needed was a little guidance and some perspective given by someone she respects, imo. *eyes Kakashi* Might have helped if her sensei hadn't had a guilt complex the size of Jupiter who hadn't taken the most hands-off approach he could so as to try and not create bonds with people. But hey, we'll be addressing that too. :)

IN any case, we hope you enjoy it! (Especially you, Kuroi)