Ch. 2
Sakura was just in time for training because no sooner than she had greeted her teammates did their sensei appear. Kakashi looked lazily at his genin team and notice the Pinkett change of looks, he raised a brow and smirked unknown to his students. Just maybe his cute little genin girl would start to train? "Sorry I was late, I got lost on the road to life," the Jōnin said as an excuse. The Uchiha just raised a brow and "tch'ed", while Naruto and Sakura yelled/said "Lier!". Kakashi raised his hand before he grew a bit more serious.
"Anyway, I have some news I believe you all will like to hear," he said as his eyes lingered a bit longer on Sakura before he continued. "This may be sudden, but I nominated you guys for the chūnin selection examine," he said in a lazy voice. He handed out the applications to each one of his genii. "Wait for what!" Sakura said surprised that Kakashi-sensei had done this, but before the Pinkett could say anything more Naruto hug attacked Kakashi-sensei. Sprouting nonsense like "I love you" and all that.
Sakura stood there trying to pick herself together, maybe this was what she needed? Maybe she could prove herself and get some training in beforehand, some maybe, just maybe she could be useful to the team. "You have two weeks before the exam if you wish to train I will be reachable, but I want you all to rest today, dismissed" Kakashi's voice said startling Sakura out of her thoughts. She could feel a small smile appear on her mouth before it disappeared with the puff of smoke left behind by their sensei. "Ouch," Naruto said before he gains his unstoppable energy. "I won't lose to you teme" he said before his clear blue eyes turned over looking at Sakura. "Hey, Sakura-chan! Do you want to go and have some ramen as a celebration?" his tone was hopeful, but his eyes told Sakura that he was expecting a no. Before she regrets her decision, she said one word she rarely said to Naruto. «Yes, Sasuke-kun…would you like to join? » she questions shyly playing with her new outfit. Sasuke shook his head "No, I am going to train" he said before he walked away.
Sakura looked down in defeat before she swallowed and turned to Naruto, who was looking shocked and surprised. "You want to go to Ramen Ichiraku?" he questions looking a bit nervous even. Sakura nodded slowly and added a tiny smile. "Sure, and Naruto, oh never mind" before she went ahead of herself she started to walk fast. What was wrong with her? You can use Naruto as a training partner! Is that a good idea? You can do this girl, chaaa!
Lost in her own tiny mindscape she didn't notice that Naruto was talking to her, not before he waved his hand right in front of her face. "Hey, Sakura-chan, you there?" he questions ready to poke her in the shoulder. Sakura shoots him a glare "What?!" she said in an irritated voice. The orange-clad of color's eyes flickered before he smiled a giant smile. "Maa maa Sakura-chan, don't be so mean" he teased, testing the water. Sakura sigh trying her best to keep her cool. "What did you say before Naruto?" she questions looking at the incoming stall. "I was wondering if maybe you wanted to, I don't know, train together?" he said scratching the back of his head laughing nervously. "It's not that I think you need to train or anything, is just that it would be nice to train with someone, and work on the teamwork?" he tried to explain babbling on.
Sakura was surprised, more than surprised, she was shocked right to the core. She halted in her tracks, blinking at Naruto, an idiot. Her old self would have hit Naruto right in the head, but she closed her eyes. This was her chance, and even if Naruto was an airhead he was stronger then her. So maybe, just maybe she could learn something from him. "I need to think about it, how about I answer after we eat?" she said in a low voice, surprising herself. She couldn't ignore Naruto like she used to, nor could she be mean just because everyone else was mean and that Naruto was an idiot at all time. She could swear she even saw a tiny tear in Naruto's eyes "Believe it!" he said giving her a thumb up before running over to the stall grinning to the old man standing there making food. The Pinkett walked over in a daze.
Never had she ever believed she would be eating Ramen with Naruto, willingly. Somehow, she felt content with it, it felt like she finally was walking in the right direction. Soon they had consumed all the food the dared to eat and was chatting happily. Unknown to both, was a mysterious character watching them from afar. "Maybe the team isn't so lost" Sakura felt like someone was watching them, so her eyes swiped the surrounding. Her green eyes saw a lot of people casting hateful eyes towards them, mostly the civil. "Ne, Naruto, so I was thinking" the blond looked at her with his head tilted a bit toward her. "I was thinking about training" she said, pressing herself to continue before she lost all her courage. "I think, I would like to train with you" she said looking down at her hands. Before Naruto could cheer and all Sakura continued. "I need to become stronger so that I can help Sasuke-kun and you Naruto, I don't want to be useless anymore. So please help me grow stronger" She said, never once did she look up from her hands, she didn't dare to look at Naruto. Biting her bottom lip, she knew that Naruto would help her, but she was afraid of the tears that were trying to escape.
"Maa maa, Sakura-chan, of course, I will help you, but only if you help me too!" he said grinning a blinding optimistic smile. Her emerald eyes meet his, and a knot inside Sakura was untied. How come she had never seen Naruto as the person he was? The orange-clad was way too kind, and energic for his own best, maybe this blooming friendship wasn't so bad? She smiled "Thank you so much!" she squeaked even blushing a bit, embarrassed at her sudden burst of happiness.
She couldn't help her blooming smile before she turned serious. "So, we should make a training plan for the next week" she said thinking over what they could do in two weeks. "We won't just miraculous become super strong, but if we work hard, I believe we can achieve our goals" Sakura said slowly. Naruto, on the other hand, was a bit dazed by Sakura being nice to him, and she even said yes to train with him. "Believe it!" he said with a big smile "I know you can do it Sakura-chan" he said nodding grinning like an idiot. "Oh, and as a celebration, I will pay for the food" the boy added on at which Sakura almost choked on the glass of water. "Are you sure about that Naruto?" she questions slowly, a bit uncertain if she could accept the offer. "Yeah, don't worry dattebayo!" he said before turning to pay. Sakura rose from her chair looking a bit uncomfortable.
As Naruto turned towards Sakura, she bowed a bit and thanked him for the food. "Then, I will see you tomorrow at the training ground at 7 in the morning? I must run to the library to study up on what we need and should be able to learn as genin in two weeks" Sakura said with hope blooming up, making her truly believe she could become strong. Naruto frowned before he waved goodbye, the young blond skipped happily home. Sakura was just as happy and chipper as she went to the library to read, it was after all her strong point. She went inside deep in thought's, flashed her ID and walked right towards chakra control section to see what she could learn.
She was so consumed with all the books, scrolls and knowledge that before she knew it one of the people working there came over. "Hey kid, you sure read a lot, huh?" The older man said, probably around Kakashi-sensei age the young girl though. Sakura blinked and had to cough a bit from the dust that all the scrolls and books had collected. "well, I am preparing for the chūnin selection examine" she said in a low voice" The man raised a brow. As Sakura looked closer she notices the man was wearing sunglasses and his brown hair was just as messy as her sensei. Suddenly Sakura got a train of thoughts that all ninja at some point got a crazy hairstyle.
The man looked at the young girl, looking like a fresh out of the academy kid. He couldn't help but frown a tiny bit at this. "You learned something interesting girl?" he questions on. The girl had gotten his attention with her pink hair and crazy reading. Sakura could only nod, a bit scared and surprised with the sudden attention she got from a stranger. The man nodded approvingly. "You should get some survival books to kid" he said giving her a smile. "Oh, and you should also eat healthy kid". Sakura blinked once, then twice a bit dumbfounded. "Umh, sir, my name is Sakura, and thank you?" she said a bit questing in her tone. Never had anyone really taken an interest in her, unless it was of course to tease her or something. The sunglass man laughed a warm tiny laugh surprising Sakura even more "Well, Sakura-san my name is Aoba" he said with a nod before he looked at her scrolls again "Oh and one more thing, if you are good at chakra control you can do a lot of things, but I guess you already know that from your sensei?" he tilted his head, as to dare Sakura into telling him more about herself. Sakura couldn't help but smile a bit "It's nice to meet you Aoba-san" she said. She looked at her hands when he had finished speaking, somehow, she felt safe or at least she felt like she could trust him. This new Shinobi she just had met. "Well, not really," she said slowly, and it was true, she hadn't learned much from their sensei, but she blamed herself for that. After all, was it herself that had ignored training and most of her responsibility in favor of making Sasuke notice her. "But it's not Kakashi-sensei's fault, I haven't been very serious with this whole thing and all, but now I want to show them that I can be useful" She said with a fire in her eyes.
This fire and innocent didn't go unnoticed by the Jōnin, and he couldn't help but feel bad for the young girl. "Oh?" was his answer "Well, since you are so determent on learning things, I could help you, if your sensei is busy or anything" he said even giving the girl a smile. Sakura lit up like a candle, happy to receive all the help she could get. "But just so you know Sakura-san, I am not going easy on you if you end up saying yes, and you will have to train with all you got" he said very seriously. Aoba liked to help people, especially cute little Genin like this one. Sakura nodded eagerly at this "Of course Aoba-san but is it okay if I bring with me one from my team, I promised him that we would train together. He is kind of annoying, and I am not sure why, but a lot of people hate him, maybe because he is so loud? Anyway, he is a lot stronger than me but really dumb, so I really need some help to get something into his head, so he won't die" she said almost keeping her breath, the last part came out as a whisper. Aoba couldn't help but smile once again "Yeah sure, meet me at training ground 10 around 9 in the morning, and remember to eat a healthy breakfast" he said with a stern look before he rose from his seat. "But know I believe you should head home before your parents get worried" he said in a kind manner. Sakura jumped up and looked out, the sun was already setting she realized only after Aoba-san had mentioned it. "Oh, yeah, I better hurry home" She said bowing to her new-found trainer "thank you so much Aoba-san" she managed to say before she sprinted off, forgetting to put everything back where it belonged.
The man who was left behind just shook his head and started to clean up, noticing the presence of one particular silver-haired man approaching he felt shivers down his spine.