A.N: I know it's been a while, but I had a hard time figuring out this chapter. Hope you like it anyway! I have school, so it will take some time between each chapter, but I will try my best to at least have one ready each month. Hopefully more.

Novrier Thank you so much for the constructive reviews. Hope this chapter is better!

: Yeah, tried to make this fanfic a bit different. Oh, and trust me. Kakashi will get an earful a bit later, not much in this chapter, but he will. I promise you.

Enjoy!

p.s, please review as they really help on my motivation and thank you for the fav, following the story and the reviews.

Ch. 3

Sakura woke up and rolled out of bed, to say that she was sleepy was an understatement. She was almost like a zombie rising up to seize the day. She slept walked over to the shower to get some sleep out of her eyes. Truth be told, she wasn't used to waking up five in the morning.

Cursing at herself for staying up late she dragged her feet back into her room. As she opens her closet, she almost shrieked and panicked a bit. The closet was empty except for her civil cloth. She started to look frantically around for some cloth to train in, soon enough she finds a shopping bag and yesterday comes back to her as she pushed away the urge to hit herself.

Sighing she takes out one of the new ninja cloths set she brought and puts it on. She smiles to herself in the mirror as she starts to braid her hair to make sure it didn't get in the way of her training. Her excitement shone brightly through a smile, she even hummed as she made her way down to the kitchen. She took what Aboa-san had said to heart, so she ate a healthy breakfast for the first time in forever. She had never felt so good in her life.

For once in her life, she herself had made a choice. Sakura had taken control of her life deciding to become a useful part of the team. She wasn't just a follower, no she would become a leader deciding her own fate. "I know I can do it" the young girl said to herself as she packed up and went for a jog.

Her breath was quick as she reached the training ground, no one was to be found there yet. Her emerald eyes looked up at the skies as she laid down to relax a bit after her tiny little jog, to be precise 30 minutes. Soon the girl drifted off to something like a middle stage between sleep and being awake. This peace was short lived as a loudmouth of a blond came running at full speed towards her.

"SAKURA-CHAN!" he yelled happily, even the birds flew away. Oh, Kami, take me away from here Sakura wished before she opened her eyes ready to hit his teammate. The Pinkett had to clench her fist hard to stop herself from the act of harming her annoying friend (she wasn't sure if he was a friend yet, but at least it felt like that).

"Could you please, like not yell Naruto?" she asked in an annoyed voice. She could not help, but to feel irritated. He had disturbed her peacefulness, how troublesome. As the thought manifested, she chased it out, never in her life would she sound like Nara. Lost in her own mind again Naruto had the nerve to poke he chin trying to make contact with her.

Sakura lost control of her temper and ends up hitting him in the head. "What?!" she asked looking at him intensely. He blinked before he took his hand trying to ease the pain with it. "You spaced out again Sakura-chan" he said rubbing his head. "Oh, sorry" was all he got before she rose up.

"Well anyway, I think it's time to meet up with someone right now" she said shaking off the feeling of guilt. Naruto, on the other hand, had forgotten all about the pain now. "Oh? Who are we meeting? Is it Kakashi-sensei? Or Teme? Or someone awesome?" he rambled on already excited. The boy jumped up and down, smiling with a bright smile blinding Sakura. "Calm down, it's a surprise Naruto" she said with a wicked smile.

Turning on her heel she walked slowly towards the training ground the two genins where suppose to meet up with Aboa-san. Naruto didn't protest at all and was soon walking side by side with his female teammate. A blush came across his face as he realized he was alone with his crush. Best of all was that it didn't seem like Sakura hated him anymore, she was going to train with him and maybe he got a shot at her?

Sakura, on the other hand, was thinking about training wondering what the older man would make them do. Suddenly the Pinkett sneezed feeling like someone was badmouthing her. "Are you okay Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked quickly which made Sakura smile and nod. "Yeah, don't worry Naruto" she said patting his shoulder.

The rest of the walk went with small talking as Naruto tried to make Sakura tells him who they were meeting. Her eyes sparkled, but she stood her ground and told him nothing.

It took them around ten minutes to walk over to training ground 10 from their slow pace. As they arrived the clock ticked in at 07.45 and Aboa would not meet up here before 09.00, that meant that Sakura and Naruto had some time on their own.

Sakura had already calculated this into the plan of training. "Okay Naruto, we got some time to train a bit on our own" she announced as they entered the open field surrendered by forest. "I thought that we could train up in the trees?" her voice was a bit questing tone. Naruto just nodded smiling encouragingly "So I was reading and well, we need some survival skills, so we need to jump from tree to tree right? As I was reading I learned that you can jump pretty long and silent if you use chakra, kind of like when we were tree walking, but now we have to use the chakra to push ourselves ahead." She tried to explain to Naruto, but all she got in return was a dumbfounded look in his eyes.

"I didn't really get that" he said scratching his head "but if you think we can do this then I believe you" he said nodding. Sakura let a small smile through as she looks at the trees, she only knew it in theory, so it would be harder than just walking. It wasn't that hard to boost the jump, but the hard part was in landing gracefully. She was frowning quite a bit, trying to think about all possible ways to do it. Once again Naruto snapped her out of the train of thoughts running amok in her head. "Maa maa, Sakura-chan, let's try it" he says dragging his friend over to a tree before he starts to climb it.

Sakura follows suit with ease and soon she stood beside Naruto, first named fickle a bit nervously with her long gloves. "So, mind if I go first" Sakura question, trying to push away the uneasy feeling. Naruto nodded "Of course Sakura-chan". His voice was very enthusiastic giving his teammate a thumb up. Sakura nodded back before concentrating her chakra to her feet. She pushed and jumped, taking a leap of faith. She truly wanted to nail this on the first try, but no, that was not going to happen of course.

Before the girl knew any of it she was falling down, towards the ground. She braced herself for the impact doing her best to make sure she would land on her feet. Luckily, she did land on her feet with Naruto screaming her name, but the impact made her stumble and fall face first in the dirt. She raised a hand to say she was ok, before turning to lay on her back. "Your turn Naruto!" she yelled after a few more seconds. She herself gets up and starts to walk over to the tree again.

Naruto nodded a bit surprised, the Sakura he knew would have drawn the line, afraid that she would get hurt or dirty and Sasuke would think less of her. Naruto at that point found himself respecting Sakura a bit more. He got so surprised at all this that when Sakura told him to jump he did so without a chakra boost at all. The blond had a tad more luck and landed in a bush with a softer landing.

Sakura had watched it all happen and laughed a bit, trying to keep it in. So, she snorted, pretty unfeminine. Thank Kami that Sasuke-kun isn't here! She thought to herself Damn right girl, what would he think if he heard that! Her inner answered. The genin just shook her head before she started to brace herself for another jump. This time she got a bit closer to the next branch, almost touching it if she had reached out her hand a bit further. If only she could adjust her chakra to the perfect amount, but it was harder then she first would have thought it to be.

The two genins continued to jump, making friendly commenting here and there trying to help each other and they helped one another as best as they could. Just before the clock hits 09.00 Sakura finely made the jump and landed gracefully, or as best as she could at least. From the clearing, they could hear a clapping sound and both Naruto and Sakura looked at the man who stood there.

He didn't look very different from the day before, with his messy brown hair, black sunglasses, and his jōnin attire. Sakura walked down from the tree and saw another person, the next one surprised her. She had never in her life thought that Kakashi would willingly come this early in the morning.

The silver-haired ninja stood there giving them is a lazy salute, but if you looked really closely you could almost see the older man have a surprised look in his eyes. Kakashi didn't expect Sakura to look so dirty, but mostly he was surprised to see the fire in her eyes. He knew that sooner or later she would probably either start working on her ninja way or give up. Truth be told the silver-haired ninja expected the last statement. He never really believed the Pinkett was going to be a ninja, and when she saw someone get badly hurt or worse die, she would do like her parents and become merchants or something like that. The jōnin sensei was shocked to the core, but kind of happy really, even if he didn't know what to do with the girl. This is where Aboa came in, a perfect match for the time being. Aboa was a person who could handle almost every situation if you think about fighting at least, he wasn't that calm in other, but we all have our flaws.

"Yo guys, having fun?" Kakashi-sensei asked them as he opened his orange book. Naruto was the first one to speak out "What the?! Why are you here? Sakura-chan you didn't tell me Kakashi-sensei was coming!" he spoke loud and fast, pointing fingers everywhere. "And who is the creepy guy with sunglasses on, ne ne Sakura?" Naruto added on.

Sakura could barely think straight as she herself felt how bad the tension was between them, even if both the Jōnin tried to hide it. Her first reflex was to hit Naruto in the head "Stop and think for a moment will you" she said as a vein popped up.

She drew her breath deep to clam herself trying to think a bit. "Yeah Sensei, we are, why are you here? And hello Aboa-san thank you for coming" she said giving both of the older man a small smile.

"Oh, I just happen to pass by Sakura-chan and then I saw you two and I meet him on his way over to you. As your sensei, I wanted to see what you two where up to~" Kakashi answered first. Everyone except for Naruto knew that Kakashi lied, it was way too obvious with the cheerful voice he used. Sakura sweat dropped Naruto looked confused and Aboa just shrugged hiding an irritated look in his eyes.

"Maa maa, Kakashi, I think you have an Uchiha to reach" Aboa said as Sakura smiled sweetly to her old sensei "Yeah, you really need to help Sasuke-kun, that's why I asked Aboa to help with training. After all Sensei, you have the sharingan, so only you can help Sasuke-kun to train it" she said in a matter of fact voice, but truth be told it was Sakura who felt like she didn't deserve Kakashi's teaching. The young girl felt nervous around him, she trusted him with her life, but she knew that no one could trust her like that right now.

Kakashi raised a brow, a bit disappointed, but at the same time, a bit reviled. The man truly didn't know what he would do if the girl had said anything else. So, he nodded "I am guessing that you have gotten a sensei to help you then?" As he got a nod his eyes sadden before he puffed away.

Sakura let out her breath she didn't know she had been holding in. "So, shall we train?" Aboa question trying to give them both an encouraging smile. Naruto forgot all the tension and nodded grinning. "Can we learn a super cool jutsu, like something that I can go on with a BOOM and a BANG and then POFF and I win?" he said with sparkling blue eyes. This made the other two sweet drop before taking the grip back.

"Ehm, no, we have to train the basic, but first I will put you through a series of tests beforehand. I need to decide where you are on different levels" he said giving them a tiny smile. He tried his best to sound sure of himself and relaxed, which he mostly succeeds at if you missed the point where he scratched his chin. "Anyway, I can see that both of you have gotten the basic tree walking in, and Sakura-san amazing work with the chakra leap, oh and N-you…" he suddenly stopped in the middle of his sentence. Once again, he scratched his chin looking a bit awkward.

"What is it Aboa-sensei?" Sakura question, not realizing that neither Naruto nor Aboa-sensei knew each other. You see the young girl was beaming with pride, after all, she had been praised the first day of training.

"I believe I have forgotten to introduce myself to you boy, and I don't know your name either" Aboa asked, he already knew the name, really, but he didn't want to start that way. "I am Aboa, oh and Sakura, Aboa-san will be fine, really for both of you. It feels weird being called sensei. Makes me feel old" he said with a hint of humor. Sakura nodded, but Naruto went with his usual loudmouth introduction. "I am Naruto Uzumaki, believe it! I am going to be a Hokage someday Dattebayo! But why are you wearing glasses?" The blonde's voice was serious and overly cheerful. Sakura just shook her head, a bit too used to Naruto boosting around and asking a weird question. Sakura winced a bit at the last part. "Show some respect Naruto" she said as a hiss, how dumb can he be? A one-year-old is probably smarter than him. Her inner snickered back at her making Sakura snort as she tried to hold in her laughter.

"What? It is weird to walk around in glasses!" Naruto resorted a bit confused by Sakura snorting, another unusual thing for her to do. In Naruto's head Sakura had turned over a leaf, and he somehow didn't know what to think, but he liked that she was a lot less mean to him even going as far as to eat with him and speak with him. His first steps towards acknowledgment and becoming a Hokage. "Nha, don't worry about it Sakura-san, Naruto-san is just envying my awesomeness" The Jōnin resorted to. To say that Sakura was speechless with this friendliness for Aboa-san was an understatement, she was shocked at how nice he was to them.

Naruto, on the other hand, was fell right into the trap "What, no way!" he said or rather yelled at Aboa. Aboa just hummed, but other wised ignored the small bickering. "I was thinking that we would have started easy, like tree walking and shuriken/kunai throwing, but I guess I should throw you into the water for water walking instead of tree walking" he said nodding to himself, stratified with this simple task.

Sakura nodded too, but Naruto frowned about to open his mouth to complain about how uncool and boring that would be. Sakura used her elbow driving it on the side of Naruto, not hard but enough to make him look at her as she shook her head. "What will we start with Aboa-san?" Sakura asked, she already knew the answer or was at least almost 100% certain. Aboa confirmed her belief "We are to start with a throwing game, I am going to make some crows and your goal is to hit as many as you can" he said looking at them both "ready, set go!" his hand went Rat - Boar - Tiger before neither Naruto nor Sakura had a chance to rethink it all.

With a puff of smoke, the crows appeared, maybe around 15 of them in total Sakura was the first one to try and shoot one of them. She missed the one she was aiming at, but she hit another one half a meter away, with pure luck. Naruto didn't wait for an invitation either, but he was no better off than Sakura. The blond missed the one he was aiming for, but he was closer than Sakura. The Pinkett bites her bottom lip, feeling a bit sad that she couldn't hit the one she was aiming for, but she wouldn't give up yet.

So, she took out another kunai and aimed again, trying her best to remember what she had learned in the academy as well as she cursed herself for never training. This time she was a tiny bit closer to hitting her target, but still pretty far off. Sakura could feel the heat in her chins out of embarrassment, but still, she had to continue. The young kunoichi had to get stronger, so she could help Sasuke-kun and be a part of the team she was on.

Snapping out of the little bubble she tried again and again and again. She really tried her best to hit the target, but those stupid crows kept flying around and were impossible to hit. Clenching her fist, she tried one more time and instead of a crow she almost hit Aboa-san who had studied them all this time. Ducked and scolded a bit before he dismissed the crows looking at the skies he knew that the time was around noon.

"I believe that is enough throwing for both of you" he said looking neither looking disappointed nor surprised, he looked rather neutral. "Naruto, your aim is pretty decent, but you need to think more, not just throw as many as you can. Even if you hit the target, one precise hit is deadlier than a few scratches" He turns to look at Sakura. She felt small under his gaze, but she was proud of Naruto even if she never would admit it. "Sakura your aim is in pretty poor shape, but I can see that you have a good eye. If you learn where to hit and how to cooperate your mind and body as one." He had to take a small pause looking straight into her eyes "You will become one of the best kunoichis. You need to train hard and believe in yourself if you would want to reach that goal, but I believe that you can do it" He finished giving them both a smile. "Both of you did good in your own way"

Sakura couldn't help but smile proudly, even giving Naruto a thumb up. Naruto, on the other hand, was cheering "Yey, see Sakura-chan! We are much better than Teme, that idiot!" he himself couldn't help, but glow up. Sakura looked away, she wondered what Sasuke-kun would think of her, would he even think about her? She feels a sting in her chest but at the same time a burst of motivation. We can win over Sasuke-kun before Ino-pig or any other girl do it inner cheered. Sakura nodded to herself, she could do it. After all, she was going to help Sasuke-kun with *squick* even thinking about it made her blush.

Naruto and Aboa who was looking at Sakura were both confused. Sakura was totally lost, unaware of those around her. "Sakura-chan/san" both Aboa and Naruto said a few times before she answered them with a simple yes and a confused look. Naruto just shook his head and Aboa was thinking about what could make her soon out like that, acting all girly with giggles.

"What's next Aboa-san?" Sakura asked when it seemed that both males quiet down. Unknown to her she had zoomed out, giggling and blushing a bit too much as she was thinking about Sasuke-kun. "Oh, yeah right," Aboa-san said nodding. "It's lunchtime, and after that, we shall continue on with aiming lessons. I will make sure you can survive the exams coming up." He said with a smile humming to himself. "Ready to eat something healthy?" he said jokingly before starting to walk. Naruto gave a confused look to Sakura, which she returned with a shrug before walking after Aboa-san. Right now Sakura couldn't feel any more happiness, everything was almost perfect.