"So, let me see if I have understood this correctly," the Commander says, leaning back in his seat and folding his hands before him.
His gaze is stern as it sweeps over the five of them and Sakura winces a little in anticipation of his disapproval. To her right Hajime stands at attention, hands folded behind him and staring straight ahead of him. Aimi and Takeshi have taken similar poses on her left, and Tomomi stands as straight as she can whilst still supporting herself on the crutches.
Sakura tries to follow their example, taking courage in their bravery, but all she really wants to do is run away and hide somewhere where the Commander will never find her or be able to yell at her.
She really doesn't want to disappoint him as well.
"You completed your mission - which, as you might recall, was the tracking and taking down of a troublesome boar - successfully albeit with one injury. And then you were en-route back to Konoha, when you decided to return to the village and help out with an entirely different matter?"
"Yes, Commander-sama." Hajime's voice is calm.
One of Sakura's arms is in a sling, due to her injury, but she clenches the other one behind her back to prevent it from trembling. Kakashi-sensei hadn't really wanted her to begin with and so she'd ended up here, in the Genin Corps. Where is she supposed to go if the Genin Corps doesn't want her either? If the Commander decides to take her headband for insubordination? She'll be clanless, rankless, workless, homeless …
But Hajime had insisted that they weren't going to get severely punished. Punished, yes, but not severely so.
Though stripping her of her headband when she has had it for less than four months doesn't seem like that big of a stretch either.
"So even though you were down one man due to injury you decided to split up, on the words of a civilian child you had just recently met? And when you reached the village again you decided to continue to pursue these bandits, despite learning how many there were and that you would be outnumbered, especially as you decided to leave another teammate behind - alone, I might add?"
"Yes, Commander-sama. The village elder informed us there were ten of them, and that they were on horseback. And Aimi volunteered to organise the villagers to provide backup."
Next to Sakura, Aimi ducks her head. Sakura winces in sympathy. The Commander is terrifying when he talks to them like that!
"So you were aware of the odds yet you still made the decision to pursue the bandits with a freshly graduated Academy student as your backup, with another equally fresh Academy student for potential secondary backup, is that correct?"
"Yes, Commander-sama."
The Commander sighs and rubs his forehead, as if he's having a headache. Sakura takes a deep breath, mentally bracing herself for the explosion that will follow. Memories of Iruka-sensei and their other teachers yelling at Naruto or the other trouble makers in their class flashes before her mind. Back then it had been entertaining, because she had never been on the receiving end. That had only come later, when Kakashi-sensei got angry with her.
Sakura cannot bring herself to regret her actions during their mission and the later retrieval of the kidnapped children, but she still feels her eyes tearing up.
"Did the thought ever strike you to call for backup? You were less than a day's journey from Konoha, reinforcements could have been there quickly."
"With all due respect, Commander-sama, there was no time. We did not want to lose the trail."
Though the Commander is looking at Hajime, and not her, the look in his eyes is almost as hard as a physical blow to her stomach.
"More experienced trackers, such as an Inuzuka, might very well have had a much easier time tracking the bandits than you two did. But instead of calling for help you charged ahead and managed to find them yourselves. What was your plan then?"
This time Hajime hesitates. The Commander's eyes sharpen immediately, looking from Hajime to her, to Aimi, Takeshi and Tomomi before returning to her.
"We agreed on a plan, and I stole their horses to get reinforcements from the village," Hajime finally says, his words coming out a little bit rushed but truthful.
"And whose idea was it to begin with?"
Hajime opens his mouth to reply but no words come. He closes it again. The Commander doesn't take his gaze from Sakura, understanding already evident in his eyes.
"Was it yours?"
She swallows nervously around a lump in her throat. Lying to her superior is against the rules, but so are her actions in that forest. Considering how new she is, she really should have accepted Hajime's plan without protest.
"Yes, Commander-sama." Her voice is small and she finds herself unable to quite meet his eyes. Still, she forces herself to be entirely truthful and open. "Hajime wanted to do things differently, but I refused."
"I see. And are you aware that although teams of the Genin Corps usually operate without official team leaders there is a clear hierarchy when it comes to the drastically different experiences of the both of you?"
"Yes, Commander." This time her voice is little more than a whisper. Her shoulders hunch despite her attempt to stand properly at attention.
"So you knowingly committed the equivalence of insubordination. What happened next, when you were alone?"
The swift change of focus, from the yelling she is expecting to further clarifications, causes her mind to spin. Her breath is shallow, the sound of her own heartbeat too loud in her ears.
There is a protocol for these types of situations, she reminds herself. That protocol requires her to answer her superior's questions. Not clam up.
"While I was getting help -"
The Commander holds up a hand to silence Hajime, not even looking at him as his gaze is focused on her. "Sakura, answer me." His voice is gentler this time, giving her the courage to answer him at last.
"I … waited. Watched them. And then I … set some traps, to stop them from finding the remaining horses."
"And this is when the first bandit died, correct?"
Nodding in the affirmative she briefly glances up at him before looking down at the floor again.
"And another one was injured?"
Again she nods in the affirmative.
"Did you consider the risk you were putting yourself in at the time? You still had no real idea of the enemies' strength and so no idea what you were up against."
This time Sakura can only bring herself to shrug a little bit. Did she know it was dangerous to engage the bandits like she did? Yes. However, the Commander is also very much right in that she did not know the strength of her enemies. She'd been reckless, and she'd made mistakes, and it very well could've ended up much worse.
As if to hammer that point home the Commander continues:
"You mentioned that you noticed that one of them was wearing a shinobi headband, meaning that you knew there was at least one shinobi among those bandits. Do you realise how lucky you were, that both of the shinobi present were only genin themselves?"
Sakura ducks her head, acknowledging the point.
"They could've been chunin, or even jounin. Or they simply could've been more experienced, or stronger or smarter or more lucky than you. You were lucky, Sakura!"
Her eyes burn and she struggles not to let the tears fall.
"Did you realise at the time that you had no clearance to kill anyone besides the boar that was your original mission?"
With a quiet sniffle, Sakura shakes her head. It makes sense now, looking back, but at the time she did not consider the potential bigger issues with her killing at all. She'd been focused on the children and on the fact that she was outnumbered, not on the potential political ramifications if one of those people she had killed had turned out to be someone important.
"But you are aware of the possible consequences of such unsolicited killing? Especially if you had been acting beyond the borders of Fire Country?"
Another way in which she was lucky, Sakura supposes. If that Suna genin hadn't been a missing nin, if he'd been related to someone important, if he'd been acting on orders from his Kage, if he'd carried some important kekkei genkai … Shinobi history is full of wars started for such reasons, as is the Academy curriculum. Sakura nods to the Commander. Yes, she knows what might've happened.
Of course, the problem isn't necessarily with the killing itself, just how it happens. If Konoha wants a Suna shinobi dead it'll ideally happen in a way that cannot be traced back to Konoha, or that shows Suna as the aggressor. Which requires skills and clearance that Sakura does not have, beyond that of a genin. Besides, Konoha and Suna are at peace, allied together since before Sakura was born, and so any careless killing of Suna shinobi is to be avoided altogether.
"Yes sir. I'm aware."
Nodding slowly, the Commander finally looks away from her, regarding the whole group for a few moments as he contemplates his next words. Sakura breathes a small sigh of relief at not being under his immediate scrutiny any longer.
"Understand that the issue here is not you wanting to help," he says at last, addressing them as a group. "However, the moment things escalated from boar-hunting to bandits kidnapping children you should have sent for backup, especially as you were already one person short and with so many inexperienced members on your team. This is the kind of mission I would rather have seen handled by chunin, or at the very least by more experienced genin."
Again he looks them over, meeting each of their gazes one after another as if to enforce the importance of his words like that. The tone is reproachful, but beneath that there is a hint of something else. His gaze lingers on Tomomi's injured ankle, the scratches and bruises they all have and her own bandaged arm and shoulder.
"I am especially disappointed in you two, Hajime and Tomomi. You're both experienced enough to know better. As it is, you were lucky: lucky that your opponents were civilian bandits and two genin-ranked missing nin. Lucky that none of the hostages died."
He looks first at Tomomi, then at Hajime, his gaze firm and heavy.
"Lucky that none of your teammates died."
Next to Sakura, Hajime winces at the words.
"All of you will be restricted to D-ranks for the next four months and I expect you all to write a report to me on the importance of following mission protocol, why missions are ranked the way they are, and field hierarchy when there is no obvious leader. Understood?"
They all nod in the affirmative.
"Additionally, I expect you two, Hajime and Tomomi, to write me a report on protocol when one or more of your teammates are killed in action."
Hajime nods again, looking grim. From the corner of her eyes, Sakura sees Tomomi do the same.
"Now, report to the hospital. It wouldn't do for you all to have survived all of this and keel over when you get back to Konoha."
Sakura breathes a sigh of relief, turning with Aimi and Takeshi to head out. Hajime and Tomomi stay however, and when Sakura gives them a confused look they just smile reassuringly back at her.
"We'll be right after you," Tomomi says. "We just need to have a few private words with the Commander."
So Sakura exchanges a look with Aimi and Takeshi, both of whom look just as confused as her, and they head for the hospital.
They'd left Konoha on Wednesday. By the time they're back in Konoha a full week has passed. Sakura still doesn't really realise how much time has passed until she comes face to face with Ino and Shikamaru in the hospital. They look almost as startled to see her as she is to see them, having almost forgotten entirely about the Chunin Exams.
"Ino. Wha-what are you doing here?" Sakura stammers, already looking them both over worriedly.
"We're visiting Choji."
"He was injured during the Exams," Shikamaru adds, eyeing Aimi and Takeshi strangely.
"Oh. I didn't know." Sakura flexes her arm a little. It's healed now, but still a little bit tender.
"We've been out of town on a mission," Aimi says, her tone unusually haughty. "A C-rank."
"We saved a bunch of kidnapped kids too." Takeshi's voice har that snooty quality that Sakura used to hate. Still sort of hate, honestly.
Confused, Sakura glances between Aimi and Takeshi, standing on either side of her, and then looks at Ino and Shikamaru and their unusually guarded expressions. Why does it feel like she's at some sort of stand off?
Deciding that she doesn't like the feeling, Sakura mentally shrugs the thought off and offers a smile at Ino and Shikamaru. "Do you mind if we come with you? To see Choji, I mean?"
Ino's agreement isn't as immediate or unreserved as Sakura has gotten used to. Instead Ino squints, eyeing Aimi and Takeshi suspiciously for another moment, before slowly agreeing.
And so all five of them make their way to Choji's hospital room in awkward silence. They find Choji gorging on a veritable buffet of hospital foods. Sakura cannot help but stare in surprise, because Choji looks thinner than she has ever seen him before.
"There were too many people that passed the second stage, so they held preliminaries for the third," Ino tells Sakura, her voice a little bit warmer now. "One-on-one matches. Choji fought this really scary guy from Suna."
"Gaara," Shikamaru adds. "The Kazekage's youngest son."
"And on a team with his older brother and sister - who, by the way, is a real bitch. You should've seen her hair. So ugly!"
Shikamaru snorts. "You're just saying that because you lost to her."
"No I'm not! She's got four pony-tails! Four! Isn't that outrageous, Sakura?"
Knowing better than to disagree with Ino on anything fashion-related Sakura nods in agreement.
"Shikamaru won his match though," Choji points out between bites of food. "He fought this strange-looking Oto-guy."
Otogakure. Hidden sound. Sakura frowns. She'd noticed them participating in the first stage of the exam, of course, but she cannot recall much at all about the village itself. It's a new one, and probably very minor if they can only send one team to participate in the exams.
They stay with Choji for a bit more, and then they all wind up going to get dinner at a nearby restaurant. Between the food and Ino regaling them all with stories of the second stage of the exams - the kind of stories that make Sakura shudder with relief that team 7 did not move on after all, since she cannot imagine spending a full week alone with Naruto and Sasuke-kun camping in something called the Forest of Death while surrounded by enemy teams that would for sure be coming after them - the earlier tension eases away.
They quizz Shikamaru about his upcoming fight in the third and final stage of the exams, which will be a public fight in the arena. Turns out he'll be fighting the female sand-shinobi that Ino lost to. Temari, her name is. Which of course has Ino that much more determined that Shikamaru has to win, which in turn has Shikamaru grumbling about how troublesome it is that he'll be fighting a girl - before realising that complaining about girls might not be a good thing in a group consisting to 60 % of girls.
When the subject of the Chunin Exams have been exhausted Aimi and Takeshi take over, sharing the tale of their latest mission. Sakura cannot help but notice that there seem to be more bandits in their story than she recalls there being, but she refrains from pointing that fact out. Ino and Shikamaru at least have the decency to look suitably impressed.
At the end of the evening they go their separate ways, Ino and Shikamaru heading back towards their respective clan compounds and Sakura heading back to the Genin Corps' dormitories with Aimi and Takeshi.
After that things settle back into a routine again. True to the Commander's words they're given continued D-ranked missions - painting a house, tiling a bathroom, picking trash, mowing grass, babysitting, searching for missing pets and so on. After their adventure with the bandits and the kidnapped children, Sakura cannot help but feel a little bit relieved.
The medics have healed both Tomomi's and Sakura's injuries, but they are still required not to strain themselves too much over the next few days. As such their little group don't do much physical training, opting instead to spend the evenings in the Genin Corps' Library writing their reports for the Commander in silent camaraderie. As one might expect, Sakura, Aimi and Takeshi finish first - having less to write - and they spend the rest of the evening playing card-games while Hajime and Tomomi finish up their additional report. By the time they're finished, both of the adults are pale faced and not quite meeting Sakura's eyes.
Saturday morning Sakura plans to sleep in, enjoying the luxury of a bed and having nothing planned for the day, but is awakened mid-morning by someone knocking on the door. Suddenly recalling Hiroshi's prank she hesitantly gets up to answer it, relieved and a little bit worried to find the Commander outside.
"Get dressed and meet me outside on the training field in ten minutes," is all that he tells her.
Worried, she gets dressed quickly in her uniform and is outside in even less than ten minutes. She finds him waiting for her, sitting beneath the tree next to the river that passes by the training field. He gestures for her to sit down and she does, glancing around. This early in the day they're alone, with the light bustle of the village a distant background noise.
"What's going on?"
"I just wanted to take this opportunity to catch up with you. See how you were doing, how you like being with the Genin Corps."
"Oh. Well, I like it."
He asks her about working with Tomomi and Hajime, about how she's getting along with Aimi and Takeshi, how she likes her accomodations and if she's lacking anything. Sakura answers as honestly as she can; Tomomi and Hajime are great to work with, yes she's getting along with Aimi and Takeshi, she's more than happy with her room and no, she's not really lacking anything.
"Good," the Commander says with a smile. "Your teammates have been telling me good things about you, and I'd hate for you to dislike it here."
At the thought of her teammates talking to the Commander about her, Sakura feels a horrified blush rise on her cheeks. What kind of things have they been telling him? Who has been telling him things? Hajime and Tomomi had stayed to talk to him after their return, did that mean that they'd wanted to talk to him about her without her being there?
"They've only told me good things, I assure you." The Commander pats her on the knee comfortingly, as if he's able to read her mind. "For example, they mentioned that you've got good chakra control. Do you mind showing me?"
"How?"
"Show me a jutsu?"
Weary, but unable to see a reason not to, Sakura brings her hands together in the ram, snake, tiger combination, producing two clones of herself. When the Commander continues to give her an expectant look she brings her hands together again - her clones copying her - in the dog, boar, ram sequence that allows her to transform into a copy of him. Her clones stay true to her original appearance, of course, though making them transform is easy enough as well.
"Swift, precise hand seals, minimal chakra output and excellent results," the Commander states. "Are you equally good with other techniques?"
Rather than answering - because what can she really say to that without sounding either conceited or coy? - she swiftly moves through the tiger, boar, ox, dog, snake combination, replacing herself with a log.
"Are those the jutsu that you know?" he asks, tilting his head back to look up at her where she's now sitting in the tree above him.
"I know how to walk in trees and on water."
"Show me."
Obligingly she does, and when he gestures for her to join him again she sits down opposite of him, giving him a curious look. What are all of these tests really about?
"I have a trick I like to use sometimes," the Commander tells her.
He tosses his cane away and then brings his hands together in a snake-seal, before lashing out with his hand as if throwing something towards the dropped cane. A thin, blue line flies through the air, connecting to the cane, and with a twist of his hand the cane comes flying back straight into his hand.
"Takes a decent bit of chakra control, but I'll be the first to say it has come in useful over the years. Would you like to learn?"
Gaping - both at the display itself and the offer to teach her - Sakura nods eagerly before managing to produce a high-pitched "Yes please!". Thankfully the Commander does not seem to mind, as he just chuckles understandingly before showing her a short sequence of hand seals. Sakura repeats it dutifully - rat, ox, dragon, horse, monkey, dog, snake - a couple of times without using any chakra, making sure that she won't stumble halfway through.
"It's easier to start with something less heavy than a cane. I'd suggest starting with this." The Commander places a pebble on the ground in front of her. "Try at first to just reach out to it. A couple of centimetres is more than enough to begin with, and you can work yourself up from there."
Slowly running through the hand seals, using chakra this time, Sakura then reaches out with her hand to hover just above the pebble, imagining her chakra dropping like a thread from her palm, reaching for the pebble.
Apart from a light itch in her palm, nothing happens.
"Try again. Think of it like an extension of the leaf-sticking technique if you will, except the focal point for your chakra is further away."
Frowning at the pebble Sakura tries again. And again. And again, again and again. Still no result, only an increased itch in the palm of her hand. With a sigh she scratches the itch, pondering the dilemma.
"It's not the easiest technique," the Commander says, massaging his bad leg. "Don't be discouraged if you can't get it today."
Taking a deep breath Sakura runs through the hand seals again, slower this time, focusing on the way her chakra feels. It doesn't feel right, for some reason.
"Like the leaf-sticking exercise," she mutters to herself, poking at the pebble.
Just picking it up like that, by focusing a little bit of chakra to the tip of her finger, is easy enough. Distinctly heavier than a leaf but easily within her capability, and her chakra feels distinctly right when she does. So what if she were to just use a little bit less chakra? Not enough to drop the pebble but-
The pebble drops.
Sakura picks it up with the tip of her finger again. Ok, so not less chakra then. Or at least not that much less. What about if she uses just a tiny little bit less and-
The pebble drops.
So she's already using the minimum amount of chakra needed to keep the pebble attached to her finger. What about if she pushes more chakra into her finger tip, filling the space between her and the pebble?
The pebble shoots away, tumbling away out of reach. With an annoyed huff she gets up to retrieve it.
If she can't use less chakra the answer has to be more chakra, to cover the distance between her and the pebble. But somehow she has to keep it perfectly even, just like the Commander's thin string of chakra, without actually losing contact with the pebble. So, what about if she tries to focus on a much smaller part of the pebble, making her point of focus that much thinner?
"You're not using the hand seals," the Commander comments.
"They weren't working," she tells him absentmindedly, still focused on the pebble at the tip of her finger and the now needle-thin point of chakra-focus keeping it there.
"Most people find it easier to master a jutsu before removing seals."
Sakura doesn't answer - though a part of her is horrified at the rudeness of it - too focused on thinning her own chakra. She has to make it denser, forcing her chakra into the most narrow focus she can manage, and-
The pebble drops.
Not that narrow then. Not less chakra, not too much more, but a perfectly even stretch of chakra should-
The pebble drops, just a hair's-breadth, but Sakura finds herself frozen in place, barely daring to breathe for fear of dropping it entirely again. When she's reasonably sure that the pebble won't just spontaneously drop she tries to remember the feeling, her chakra stretching while still staying focused.
It drops again, just a little bit further. Barely more than wiggle at the top of her finger, but she can feel the difference. Encouraged, she stretches her chakra further, aiming to have the pebble drop another centimetre, but a door slams somewhere and her concentration is broken.
The pebble falls to the ground again.
"Excellent first try!"
The Commander grins at her, his smile wide and open and almost proud. Sakura swallows, averting her gaze.
"I dropped it."
"But you held it there. It's a good start, and you'll get better with practice. Just keep practising and you'll get there. And do think about using the hand seals, they should help focus your chakra."
He sits with her for another half hour as she practises, encouraging her as her chakra thread grows one centimetre long. Two centimetres. Almost three centimetres.
"Time for lunch, I think," he groans at last, standing stiffly.
Sakura's stomach growls in agreement, and she reluctantly follows him inside.
The only reason Sakura doesn't spend the entirety of the remaining weekend practising is because although the jutsu does not require a whole lot of chakra it does eventually take a decent toll on her reserves. As it is, she only spends most of the weekend practising, eating and napping whenever her reserves get too low to continue.
By Monday morning she's reliably able to keep the pebble on a chakra string a couple of decimetres long for extended periods of time. Picking it up, however, is an endeavour that still evades her.
That evening, after another run with the others, Sakura sits down by the side of the Genin Corps' training field as the others work on their kata. Hajime and Tomomi give her curious looks, clearly wanting to draw her into their training, but she waves their concern away. Sitting cross legged she brings her hands together, slowly forming the jutsu's seals.
Rat, an auspicious seal, inspired by the rat that brought humanity the first rice.
Ox, a versatile seal used in many different jutsu
Dragon, a rather unusual but versatile seal, which tends to draw a lot of energy.
Sakura fumbles with the seal, as it's quite impractical in a sequence, and she shivers as the seal pulls on her chakra.
Horse, the same seal used to dispel genjutsu. Coincidentally - or, probably not coincidentally actually - Sasuke-kun uses the horse seal in his fire ball jutsu, Sakura recalls.
Monkey, representing trickery. I have a trick I like to use sometimes, the Commander had said.
Dog, a seal connected with water and representing adaptability and change. One of Sakura's favourite seals, her chakra flowing easily through it.
Snake, a seal connected with water or lightning, suggesting precision. Because she needs that precision when reaching out with her chakra?
Frowning to herself, Sakura repeats the seals again. Rat, ox - she fumbles a little with the dragon seal, but not enough to cause a disruption in the jutsu - horse, monkey -
Why both the dragon and the horse? The dragon is such an unusual seal, usually paired with an elemental seal and representing power and/or movement. It's not even commonly used in lower-ranked jutsu.
And the horse, what does it do? Usually she uses it in order to dispel genjutsu, but in this sequence it rather suggests movement, as if to carry something. But then why the movement of the dragon or the trickery of the monkey? Shouldn't the monkey pair better with the rat and the ox without the dragon and horse in between?
It doesn't make sense.
Take the transformation technique. The signs there make sense, actually helping to focus her chakra. Slowly Sakura forms the seal. Dog for water, representing change. Boar, for the space, the body. Ram, to stabilise it all.
Or the clone technique. Ram to stabilise. Snake, representing earth and the physical, her bones, muscle and tissue. And Tiger, for fire, the intention and the materialisation of something visible.
Even the body replacement technique makes more sense. Tiger for fire, representing the moving things in the world. Boar, for the space, ox for versatility. Dog for water, adaptability and defence. Snake for precision, for reaching out and -
Sakura sits up a little straighter. That's it! For the body replacement technique her chakra reaches out to find something to replace herself with, usually a log of wood since those are common enough in Konoha's forests and easy enough for one's chakra to grab on to. It is however possible to replace oneself with other things, such as rocks or just about anything that is of similar size and weight as oneself. It's even possible to replace oneself with someone else, changing places, though that requires the other person's chakra not to fight the exchange. So maybe if she were to combine -
"You're hard at work, Sakura. How's it going?"
Startling, having lost herself in thought, Sakura looks up at the Commander, standing next to her. She probably needs to work on her spatial awareness, she laments.
"I'm working on the jutsu you gave me," she tells him.
"Mind showing me your progress?"
Obligingly she does, picking up a pebble before dropping it, letting it hang a couple of decimetres beneath her finger. The Commander's eyes grow large.
"You've made great progress, I see. Still not using the hand seals?"
Sakura shakes her head, releasing her chakra and catching the pebble before it reaches the ground.
"They weren't working. I was just trying to figure out why."
"Aha. And what conclusions have you come to?"
With a groan he sits down on the ground, opposite of her, giving her a look as if he's very interested in hearing what she has to say. She - a genin. Sakura averts her gaze, fighting a blush.
"Nothing important really. I was just trying to make sense of the seals."
"They don't make sense to you?"
Again she shakes her head. He must think her stupid. Even if the jutsu requires great chakra control she should at least be able to grasp the hand seals. Even Naruto is usually able to learn the hand seals pretty quickly, even if his signing is really sloppy. Like, really sloppy.
"Tell me why they don't make sense."
At the Commander's calm voice she glances up at him, seeing no trace of derision or impatience.
Quietly, and as respectfully as she can, she shares her earlier thoughts with him. Dragon is rarely used in lower-level jutsu or without an elemental seal to form it, and it pairs badly with the horse and both of them pair badly with the monkey. Or at least the dragon should pair with the dog for its water-connection, but then that would suggest a water-jutsu of some kind.
All while Sakura talks the Commander nods understandingly, as if he finds her confusion very interesting. When she's finished, he asks:
"What seals do you think would make sense? Or maybe which seals would help you guide your chakra?"
"I was just thinking about that actually!"
The Commander gives her an encouraging nod, and so Sakura throws herself into explaining her thought process.
"I was comparing this jutsu to the body replacement technique and I realised that both jutsu requires you to reach out with your chakra, except the body replacement technique means that you're replacing yourself with the object and this jutsu just connects your chakra to the object."
"So how would you go about creating the seals for this jutsu, drawing upon the knowledge that you currently have?"
Sakura frowns, staring intently at her hands as she considers her options. The Commander doesn't hurry her along. A glance around her tells her that the others are still sparring; Hajime against Takeshi, Tomomi against Aimi.
"Rat and ox made sense," she finally says. "Dragon and horse don't, so I guess I'd leave those out."
"So, rat-ox-monkey-dog-snake then?"
Tilting her head, Sakura considers the seal-sequence for a moment before shaking her head again.
"Ox and monkey pair well together, but I don't think they'd work for this jutsu. Maybe for a genjutsu."
"So what would you do then?"
Slowly bringing her hands together again, forming her chakra, Sakura tries to feel for which seals would make sense.
"Rat and ox, for versatility, then … snake I think, for precision?"
"Good thought. And then?"
"Maybe boar, for space? Or Tiger, for moving things?"
"Which one do you think?"
Closing her eyes Sakura forms her hands into the seal for boar first, then tiger. Both could work for the jutsu, for moving things, but neither feels quite right. Even with snake for precision they're not precise enough to pick up something small like a specific pebble, or in the Commander's case a cane.
"Maybe … rooster?" She forms the seal with her hands, feeling her chakra change, making it strong and thin and able to generate displacement. It feels right.
"So that's it then? Rat-ox-snake-rooster?"
There is a strange tone to the Commander's voice but Sakura ignores it in favour of experimentally running her hands through the sequence. Rat, ox, snake, rooster. It flows easily enough and feels pretty good, but somehow it still feels incomplete. Rat, ox, snake …
She needs something to stabilise it all. Rat and ox are versatile, snake and rooster for precision and displacement, and to connect it all-
"Rat, ox, snake, ram and rooster."
Opening her eyes she confidently runs through the seals, reaching out towards the pebble on the ground.
And a thin string of chakra obediently reaches out for the pebble, attaching to it before a flick of her wrist sends it flying back to her hand. Sakura barely catches it, shocked by her own success. She stares at the pebble in her hand, the proof that she'd done it.
Slowly the Commander claps his hands.
"Very well done, Sakura! I'm very impressed."
"I didn't even think it'd work."
Her hand clenches around the pebble, causing it to dig almost painfully into her palm.
"Do you want to try again?"
Still shocked, Sakura gently places the rock on the ground before repeating the seal-sequence, with the same results. The pebble slams obediently into her palm. She has to resist the urge to gape at it, and instead she gives the Commander a confused look.
"Why is it working when I'm using the wrong seals?"
"A better question would be, why was it working before, when you were using the wrong seals?"
Sakura blinks at him, processing the meaning.
"You gave me the wrong seals?"
Smiling, the Commander nods his head.
"Why?"
She thinks of all of those hours, most of her weekend, spent trying to figure out how to stretch her chakra, how to make it attach itself to something outside of her body, questioning herself because the bloody hand seals won't work for her - and all of it because he'd given her the wrong seals?
"A little test of mine."
"That's not fair," she grumbles, giving him a weak glare and crossing her arms.
"If it's any comfort, you more than passed."
"I did?" Sakura sits up straighter again, unfolding her arms. "But it took me days to figure it out!"
"Ah, but it took you much less time to figure out the basics."
The commander picks up a pebble, letting it drop a couple of centimetres before catching it with a string of chakra, to demonstrate his point.
"Without any hand seals, no less. And then you spent the weekend building upon that, improving."
"But I still didn't know how to pick it up with my chakra without also touching it."
"But you did know that something was wrong with the seals that I gave you, and you were already today figuring out why."
"But why did you give me the wrong seals to begin with?"
"Two reasons."
The Commander holds up two fingers, grinning at her. Despite herself she feels the corners of her own mouth turn upwards.
"Number one, because I wanted to see how long it would take you to figure it out and what you would do once you did. And two, because it's always wise for a shinobi to question information that they are given."
Sakura pouts, because nothing about the whole test seems fair, but then she's also happy to have an adult actually caring enough to test her to begin with.
"Are those the seals then?" she asks. "No other seals that are supposed to be in there?"
"No, those are exactly the right ones. Congratulations for figuring it out. And like I said, very well done!"
Sakura ducks her head, pleased with the praise. A warm, comfortable feeling blooms in her chest. She did something right. Something good.
She made the Commander proud!