Hi.
First, I know that this is a later update. I had this chapter done, but realized that I wanted it to be longer so... yeah.
I also want to give credit to my brother and my friend for reading over this chapter and the two chapters before it. They just looked over grammar and added words here and there, but I'm still grateful.
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Anyways, on with the story:
Sakura's POV:
"WHAT!" I screamed loudly as Iruka sensei announced the teams. Ino-pig got to be on Sasuke-kun's team, while I was stuck with the lazy ass and fatso. Sure, Naruto was also on her team, but Sasuke-kun! Incredibly unfair. I was told that the top kunoichi (which is me) gets paired with the top shinobi - which is Sasuke-kun.
"THEY LIED TO ME!" Inner-me roared ferociously.
Ino chose that moment to walk by saying, "Better luck next time Forehead! Oh, wait, there won't be a next time."
I seethed for a moment before a bearded man walked into the room, taking a cigarette out of one of his many vest pockets. He reached for a lighter when a beautiful dark-haired woman with red eyes stopped him.
"There are children here, so refrain from your nasty habit," she said, eyes cold, before smiling warmly at her team - Hinata Hyuga, the pale-eyed shy girl, Shino Aburame, the creep with insects, and Kiba Inuzuka, the hot-headed boy who loved his dog more than anything.
"My name is Kurenai Yuhi and it's a pleasure to meet you all."
My attention was drawn away from the kids' introduction and towards the man.
He walked over to our group and said, "I'm Asuma Sarutobi, and I'll be your jonin sensei. Join me at training ground 10 in 20 minutes."
And then he disappeared in a swirl of leaves, shocking us.
"Guys, we better get going," I told Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi. "Training ground 10 is the one on the outskirts of the village."
"Troublesome," Shikamaru complained as he got up from his seat.
Choji said nothing, but continued to munch on his chips as he followed us out of the door.
I yelled, "Bye, Sasuke-kun!" as I left, forgetting about Ino for the moment.
There was no reply, which was always Sasuke-kun's reaction to me.
"Ino-pig better not try anything," Inner-me growled, reminding me of the blonde. I took some pleasure in remembering that I didn't see a third sensei, meaning that Team 7 might have to wait awhile before he or she showed up.
"Hurry up!" I yelled at the boys as we ran through the streets.
"Chill. It's not like Sensei's going to punish us for being a little late," Choji reassured.
He was wrong.
When we got there, we had to do suicides. One suicide for every minute we were late. We were ten minutes late. My legs were burning and my breath was coming in rasps by the time we had finished.
"I want you all to introduce yourselves," Asuma-sensei said. "Tell us your likes, dislikes, and goals for the future."
Choji went first, "My name is Choji Akimichi. I like food and I don't like people who are mean to my friends. My goal for the future is to become a strong and dependable shinobi."
"Good. Pink hair, you go next."
"My name is Sakura Haruno. I like - I mean who I like -Sasuke-kun," is what I stuttered out.
"My goal is - Sasuke-kun - I dislike some people," I finished lamely.
Inner-me face-palmed at my lack of eloquence.
Asuma-sensei looked exasperated, but motioned for Shikamaru to talk.
"I'm Shikamaru. I like watching clouds. I dislike physically demanding activities and my goal is to not make my mother mad," Shikamaru drawled.
"Well, let's start your test, then," Sensei said to us.
"Test?!" Inner-me yelped.
"A test?!" all three of us chorused.
"Yep," he said, seemingly enjoying our confusion. "Your final test until you become a genin. If you fail, I will send you back to the academy."
"No… I can't go back…," Inner-me whined.
"We" can't go back, I corrected in my head.
"You have to get these two bells from me before 2pm. It is currently 11 am," he grinned at our stupefied expressions. "Only two of you will pass and the other will be sent back to the academy."
"What a drag," Shikamaru said, complaining again. I was going to punch him if he kept being a lazy ass. Choji seemed fine with anything, as long as you didn't insult him or steal his food.
Asuma-sensei yelled "Start!" and we all hid in the trees and bushes. I already knew that I had to work by myself because Shikamaru and Choji are best friends. They would gladly ditch me if it meant they could advance together. Usually, Shikamaru wouldn't try, but from what I now knew about his mother, he had some motivation.
"Okay, let's wait for them to give a distraction and then steal the bells while they're busy with Asuma-sensei," Inner-me suggested.
I didn't have to wait very long. About 30 shuriken and kunai came sailing through the air, right at Asuma-sensei. As he dodged, a shadow snaked on the ground in a line seeking out the jonin's shadow. This was the Nara clan's special jutsu. They specialized in shadows and making brilliant plans. Asuma-sensei saw the jutsu and jumped up, when a spinning, boulder-like Choji charged at the spot where he would land, leaving him without options. The jutsu caught him, but there was a poof and white smoke.
He had switched himself with a log and now they had no idea where he was. While Choji and Shikamaru recovered from their failed plan, I sprinted into the direction in which I saw Asuma-sensei.
"Cha! We're winning!" Inner-me yelled triumphantly as we came to a clearing.
I was cautious here because I knew Sensei had come this way and I had no cover. I glanced up to check the trees for him when I tripped over something. I realized what had happened too late, as I was strung up by my ankles in a rope hanging from a tree branch.
Asuma-sensei materialized in front of me saying, "Be more aware of your surroundings," before taking my weapons so I couldn't cut the rope.
When he went for my weapons pouch, I stretched my arm as far as it could go in a futile attempt to touch the bells. He swiftly moved out of my reach and took off.
I heard some thumps and a yelp that sounded like Choji close by. Someone ran towards me, but a weird-looking knife with a glowing blue outline around the blade flew at them, and I heard the knife stick into a tree. I swung myself until I was able to turn all the way around, and saw Shikamaru pinned to a tree by his half-jacket.
"This is such a drag," he muttered. "My mother is going to kill me for ruining my clothes."
He tried to yank out the knife, but ended up with a long, shallow slash across his hand. Shikamaru noticed me, and threw a kunai from his pouch at the rope binding me. I figured I shouldn't just abandon him after he helped me, so I walked over to him.
"I have an idea," he whispered to me when I was close enough.
"What's up?" I questioned, getting the knife loose.
He told me the plan and we went to rescue Choji. Sensei was nowhere in sight, so we filled Choji in as well.
I screamed loudly from the clearing, while covered in a sticky red substance.
"This ought to get Sensei's attention," Inner-me smirked wickedly.
The red stuff was mashed berries from a nearby bush that was deemed safe to humans and their skin. I had also used a kunai to put "claw marks" on my clothing, even though I was reluctant to destroy an outfit I liked. We made the whole scene pretty believable. The three of us went so far as to have Choji change his appearance to that of a bear.
Sure enough, Asuma-sensei came running with his defenses significantly lowered. He looked really worried when he saw me, though I'm not sure if the concern was for me, or for the fact that he let a new genin get mauled on his first day as a jonin sensei.
It was amusing when you knew that it was fake. I could kind of see why Naruto enjoyed pulling pranks now.
As Sensei rushed towards me, he saw a brown blur running away, erasing any doubts in his mind that this was fake. In the moment before he reached me, Shikamaru dropped down from the tree I was resting against and smoothly grabbed the bells off of Asuma-sensei.
"Ha! One point to us genin!" Inner-me crowed victoriously, "If only Sasuke-kun could see me now. Wait, scratch that. I'm covered in fake blood, my clothes are torn, and my hair is dirty."
Choji, still in bear form, lumbered back to our team. His disguise faded right in front of sensei's eyes.
"Well, damn," Asuma-sensei said. "I did not expect that, and you got me. However, there are still only two bells. Shikamaru, choose who stays with you and who goes back to the academy."
"We're not falling for that, sensei," Choji said, "Shika figured out the true purpose of this test: teamwork."
Sensei looked surprised for a moment, but then nodded and said, "You all pass!"
He then told us the details of when and where to meet him for our first mission and training session tomorrow. Shikamaru and Choji lived in a different direction from me, so we said our goodbyes and split.
On the way home, I replayed the test in my mind. A couple things stood out: 1) I failed the whole idea of the test from the start, 2) I got easily caught, and 3) I was useless besides being a diversion. My first thoughts when the test began were about the best ways to use Shikamaru and Choji in order to reach my goal. Then, I ended up hanging by my feet, and needed the boys to rescue me, proving that they had planned for all of us to work with each other. Finally, my big role in the plan was pretending to be injured.
I was snapped out of my stupor when I got to my door. I went directly to my room; I didn't feel like talking with my parents.
Staring at the ceiling from my bed, I resolved to talk to Asuma-sensei tomorrow. After all, if that was how I performed compared to the others on a test, I didn't want to know how little help I'd be on a mission. Maybe Sasuke-kun would notice me if I had great ninja skills, I thought sleepily.
I left my house the next morning with a plan. I was going to make sure that I was useful to my team.
"And…," Inner-me added, "today is our first mission! This is going to be great!"
A few minutes later, I was joining my team in front of the mission desk. "Hi, Sakura!" Choji greeted me as I walked up.
Shikamaru simply nodded to say hello.
Asuma-sensei turned to the person handing out mission scrolls and said, "We'll take the –"
He was cut off by a certain pair of loud blondes.
"A runaway cat?!" shouted Ino and Naruto. I hadn't noticed that their team had been standing to my right. Apparently, they had received their mission.
Inner-me smirked,
"Look at that. Ino-pig got a lame mission. I guess she was due for some bad luck. Also, her sensei looks kind of dopey."
I fixed my attention back on Asuma-sensei, who was holding a scroll.
He unrolled it and announced: "Okay, you three will be painting a fence for your first mission."
"Huh?!" I said, confused.
Shikamaru said, "What a drag."
Choji barely spared us a glance and continued to eat his chips. I wondered if he hadn't registered what Asuma-sensei had just said or if he didn't care.
"Well, you didn't think that your first mission would be taking down bandits or even outside of the village, did you?" Sensei said in reply to me.
Feeling sheepish, I put my hands behind my back, ducked my head and said, "No…?" in a rather unconvincing way.
Asuma-sensei sighed and gave us the scroll, saying, "I trust you can figure this out by yourselves. I have some business that I have to deal with. I'll be back by the end of this mission."
A swoosh sound and a swirl of leaves later, Sensei was gone.
I was already halfway out of the door by the time he disappeared, urging my team to hurry up.
The fence painting went as expected. We returned to the Tower and Asuma-sensei handed us another scroll labeled with the words "D-rank". This time, we were working in a garden and Asuma-sensei stayed to watch, but didn't do any work. We got another mission from the people at the Tower.
The process repeated itself, my team doing menial tasks until lunchtime. No one except Choji really cared to choose a specific place for lunch, so we ended up in a barbeque restaurant. I learned not to grab food before Choji when he was hungry. And Sensei told us that he was never paying for our lunch again.
After lunch, Asuma-sensei told us that we were going to be training for the rest of the day. I perked up slightly.
"We can ask our question and observe the other two's skills," Inner-me said.
-On training ground 10-
The training was pretty simple. Three spars with only weapons. Three spars with jutsu. And then, a lot of physical training like pushups, running, squats, etc.
There was very little observing on my part and more intensely focusing on not getting hit.
When all of that was over, I waved goodbye to my two teammates (I may not be a fan of them, but I'm not going to be outright rude, either) and approached Sensei.
"Sensei?"
"Yes, Sakura?"
Oh, no. I wasn't sure how to begin. "Let's start with the obvious facts and background, shall we?"
"So… I'm from a civilian family and I don't have any clan techniques. I was wondering if you could teach me any jutsu to help me on missions?" I somehow managed to say it in a steady way.
Surprise flitted across his face for a second, before he said, "I'm not sure about jutsu, but I can definitely find some way to help you. How about tomorrow after the missions?"
"Sounds good," I replied.
Why had I been so worried that he would refuse? He's a sensei, after all. My sensei, at that. It's his job.
I began walking home, enjoying the color the setting sun turned the sky.
I'd like to say that the next day went by in a blur, but it felt more drawn-out than before.
Anyways, I eventually met up with Asuma-sensei on training ground 10 after he gave Choji and Shikamaru some exercises to practice.
"Okay. First, hold this and conduct some chakra into it," he said, holding out a small square of paper.
I opted to hold my questions for now. I held the paper and concentrated for a second. I watched curiously as one half of the paper turned soggy and the other half crumbled like dirt.
"What was that for?" I asked Sensei.
"It was a test to see which chakra nature or natures you have," he replied. "The paper is special, from a ninja shop. It's just called chakra paper."
"Was that all?"
"No. Did you do any chakra control exercises while in the academy?"
"Yes," I said. "We had to get a leaf to stick to our foreheads."
"Hmm. I want you to try to walk up this tree," Asuma-sensei gestured to the tree they were standing under. "Like this."
He turned and began to walk up the trunk easily, as if he wasn't breaking the rules of gravity.
Sensei came back down and explained that this exercise required a perfect amount of chakra concentrated on the soles of my feet. Too much and it would shatter the bark, too little and I would fall.
I decided to immediately take a stab at it in order to gauge what was close and what was not.
My first attempt ended quickly, with me not using enough chakra. I had to work my way up, gradually using more chakra, instead of down, gradually using less chakra, because my reserves were below average.
Asuma-sensei had decided to watch the boys, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. Around my eighth attempt, I managed to walk to the 3rd branch.
I sat down and yelled,
"Asuma-sensei!"
He turned, only for his eyes to go wide briefly. "Can you walk back down?"
I did so. It was actually kind of easy when you knew the exact amount of chakra to use.
I started coughing a bit when I got close to the ground.
"That stupid cigarette," Inner-me scowled. I decided not to repeat that aloud.
Sensei appeared to be mulling something over.
"Sensei?"
He focused on me and said, "You have great chakra control. Much better than average. I know someone who specializes in techniques that require great chakra control. I can talk to her, if you would be interested."
"Cha!" Inner-me cheered.
I nodded. "I'm definitely interested!"
"Now that we have this figured out, go join Choji and Shikamaru. They're doing a workout without chakra." I swear I saw a mischievous glint in his eyes.
They give jonin who don't want genin teams genin and the jonin take it out on us. I groaned internally. I am excited to meet this new instructor, regardless if they let me train under them.
"Haha. You wish. We're both going to be super disappointed if they don't agree. You can't lie to me!" Inner-me chuckled slightly.
Inner! You're supposed to be on my side here!
Thanks for reading and happy thanksgiving!
I'm grateful to all of y'all for reading this story.
See you next chapter!