Try, Try Again

They quickly decide Sasuke’s home will be the best for planning since he has it to himself and rarely has anyone stopping by. Naruko may live alone but the Sandaime still drops in unannounced sometimes to check on her and give her money for the month. She’s excited to see Jii-chan again. It’s been far too long since she saw him alive. She doesn’t count the Edo Tensei.

“Sasuke, I need a kunai,” Sakura is quick to request the weapon after they’ve decided on a basic course of action, already yanking her hair down and figuring out exactly how much she wants to cut off.

“For what? And why don’t you have any?” Sasuke grumbles but still stands and moves to get her one.

“Because I need to chop some of this hair off, it’s ridiculous. And I don’t have any because unlike you I live in a civilian household. I don’t think my parents started letting me keep them in the house until I graduated, and I couldn’t find any in my usual hiding spots.”

“Naruko, where are yours?” Sasuke asks, handing a kunai over to their pink-haired teammate.

“I didn’t actually grab them on my way out. I’m so used to sleeping with them I didn’t even realize,” Naruko suddenly feels very naked without her weapons pouch at her hip. How the hell did she forget that?

Sakura snorts, already hacking away at her hair, “Funny what peace makes you forget.”

“I didn’t think I remembered what peace even was after so long,” Naruko mumbles, tracing patterns on the table in front of her. She can still smell ashes on the wind and hear the screams of her friends dying around her. It's surreal to be back in a world where none of that has happened. Where her friends are alive and happy even. She can hardly remember what most of them looked like without the constant fear and stress of a war on their shoulders. 

Sakura’s hand covers Naruko’s and squeezes gently, “We’ll make sure it lasts this time.”

Naruko looks up and meets Sakura’s earnest and determined eyes and smiles, “You’re right. If we do this right, our friends won’t have to ever know the future we did.”

“Exactly.”

Sasuke shifts awkwardly, looking distinctly uncomfortable. Naruko places her hand over Sasuke’s now and wait until he looks up to speak, “We’re all going to do better this time, yeah?”

Sasuke seems to relax slightly and he nods, “I promise.”

“Good,” Naruko squeezes his hand once and pulls away, “So, how about we start that training already? I’m ready to get strong again.”

Sakura slices the kunai through her hair one final time and breathes a sigh of relief. Her hair is shoulder length and a little choppy at the ends but she already looks more like the Sakura Naruko remembers, “Let’s do this. I can’t let Tsunade-sensei down!”

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They use one of the old Uchiha training grounds, thankful to have somewhere they can train in relative privacy. Naruko can still feel her ANBU guards all around, hiding in trees and bushes and keeping a close watch on the village monster. She sighs, almost wishing she could go back to not realizing they were there.

“So, what first then?” Sakura asks, stretching and cracking her knuckles. She looks more alive now, ready to take on the world and win this time. It’s a reminder of how much they can accomplish now. How much they can fix and make better.

“Well, we can spar or we can work on chakra control. After all, what’s the first lesson Kaka-sensei gave us?” Naruko grins in remembrance at their younger selves and their sensei on that wave mission.

“Tree walking,” Sakura’s grin is wolfish now, “As I recall, I was the best last time. Care to see if that’s still true?”

Naruko glances at Sasuke who is smirking in challenge at their friend, “Bring it on.”

Naruko laughs and races for the nearest copse of trees, “I’m going to win this time, believe it!”

“We’ll see dead-last.”

“I haven’t been dead last in a long time, teme,” Naruko winks at her friend with a grin.

The three of them grow silent and focus on their chakra, working to concentrate it into their feet. Naruko can already tell her control is shit compared to what she remembers, and this is going to take practice. God, how did she survive the first time around?

Next to her, Sakura is already trying to take her first tentative steps. Her friend’s face is hardened in intense concentration, her eyebrows twitching sporadically. After another minute of focusing she places her foot firmly on the trunk and it seems to almost adhere to the wood. A small smirk flicks over her face as she opens her eyes and takes another step, this one also sticking firmly to the tree. Sakura glances over at Naruko and winks, “Told you I would be first again. You two may be powerhouses but control has always been my strong suit.”

And with that, Sakura takes off up the tree without so much as a slip and Naruko is left in the dust. She glances over as Sasuke who looks just as disgruntled by the development as she feels. At least she isn’t the only one struggling with this. Chakra has never been an issue for her, control is a completely different story. The sheer amount of charka she has flowing through her makes control even harder and took her years of training to master. She just hopes this time will be easier since her mind knows how she just needs to teach her body.

She takes a steadying breath and tries again, remembering everything she learned from her sensei over the years. All the tips and tricks to help keep her chakra under control. It takes another few minutes before she’s confident enough to place one foot on the trunk, trying very hard not to let too much chakra slip out too much but also needing to make sure enough gathers in her feet to be useful.

The loud splintering of wood makes her wince and she pulls back some of her chakra. She cracks an eye open and slowly takes another step, satisfied when she doesn’t splinter the wood this time. This was easier the second time around when she knew what she was doing. She barely even knew what chakra was the first time around, and it was years before she learned her nature. She was excited to see how much faster things came to her. It would be nice to be one of the top students and not the dead-last.

Next to her, Sasuke was making progress as well. He faced the opposite problem from her on his first step though, his foot slipping off the trunk abruptly. On his third attempt he managed to find the balance and his foot stuck. Refusing to let him beat her again Naruko took off running up the tree, only slipping slightly and casing a couple of foot-shaped indents in the trunk before she reached the top. She was satisfied to see Sasuke still making his way up when she settled on a wide branch across from Sakura.

“You’re getting slow in your old age, Teme,” she teases with a shit-eating grin, kicking her feet lazily.

Sasuke throws her a mock glare, “As if, Dobe. I let you win so you wouldn’t cry about losing for the rest of the day.”

Naruko barks out a short laugh and shakes her head while Sakura chuckles next to her, “I’m sure it has nothing to do with how amazing I am.”

“Not at all.”

Sakura rolls her eyes at the two of them, muttering an affectionate “idiots” under her breath before dropping back to the ground on silent feet, “Come on. We should spar a bit too. All the chakra control in the world won’t mean anything if we can’t even fight properly.”

Naruko hops down next to her, Sasuke landing on her other side and they all make their way to the middle of the clearing they chose for their training session. There’s a large pond off to the side with a small pier jutting out on one side and Naruko sees Sasuke’s eyes linger on it for a long moment. She bumps his shoulder with hers, “You okay?”

Sasuke seems to remember he isn’t alone and blinks away the wistfulness in his eyes, “Fine.”

“You know you can talk to us. I’m pretty sure you not talking to anyone is part of the reason you went all batshit crazy.”

“I did not go crazy,” Sasuke huffs, but even he doesn’t sound like he believes it.

“Uh huh, then what would you call it then?”

“Driven.”

“Driven to craziness,” Naruko smirks and bumps his shoulder again with a wink, “Come on, I’m sure some physical activity will help get your mind off whatever’s bothering you. And then later, after I’ve pummeled you into the ground a few times and you’re worn down I’ll bug you to talk some more.”

Sasuke huffs out a semblance of a laugh, “Tch. We’ll see about that.”

“Are you two done flirting or should I wait?” Sakura calls, looking pointedly at them from the center of the clearing.

Naruko feels her cheeks heat up instantly and splutters out some form of response even she can’t understand while Sasuke goes still next to her. When she glances at him she’s pretty sure she can see pink in his cheeks as well before he clears his throat, rolls his eyes and walks toward Sakura, “As if I would be flirting with dead-last over there.”

“Hey! I already told you, I’m not dead-last anymore!”