~Bell Test~
Sakura woke up as normal the next day.
She was supposed to be at the training grounds by 8am and kakashi would surely be there there no earlier than 9 if his previous delay was anything to go off.
it was currently 7am.
She quickly showered and dressed pulling her hair into a braid that reached her lower back, she would have to cut it soon she though morosely as she walked down the stairs.
{there is no cleavage hole and its a turtle neck with no arms and leggings underneath}
She reached the kitchen and heated up the left over rice from the night prior, she sat in calm silence her eyes flickering ever so often to a note stuck on the fridge.
Sorry, littlest flower we had a last minute trip to prepare for, good luck.
Mum and dad.
She left at 7:30, her duffle strapped secure on her left shoulder.
She wandered around the village eventually finding herself at a teahouse she frequented.
The time was 7:50.
She placed an order for 6 syrup coated anko dumplings, a thought jumped out at her as she waited for the dumplings and paid.
Naruto wouldn't have eaten, she was almost 100% sure of that.
She sighed in fond exasperation, she would get him ichiraku she decided resolutely.
Once she made it to ichiraku it was 8:20, she placed an order for 1 Miso Chashu Pork Ramen with ayame, it was naruto's favourite she knew.
Sakura took the time whilst the ramen was being made to reminisce.
She recalls the first time she met naruto, small and nervous with leaps of courage but a smile braced for rejection.
"H-hey Sakura-Chan isn't it? Please be my friend!!" He had asked of the latest addition to the class.
By that point she had been mercilessly bullied and teased enough to think it was a prank, he was a known prankster of course.
But she had looked at him and his face was as sincere as she had seen anyone's.
She remembered the scorn he had been subjected to not even a few hours ago and realised with a jolt that maybe they were quite similar, at that time she had nodded much to the surprised relief of the other.
She's jolted out of her recollection by the call of her name.
She smiles at ayame and pays for the ramen.
She runs to training ground 7 at a light sprint.
It's 8:45.
She makes it there by 8:52
She's clutching the ramen takeaway bag tightly as she walks to naruto.
She hold's it out in front of him.
A silent offer.
"But sakura kakashi-sensei said we shouldn't eat!" he said defiantly refusing to take the ramen whilst eyeing it longingly.
"he was bluffing, shinobi need strength and he want's us at our weakest to easily beat us, although he may be seeing if we obey his order unfalteringly which might cause a problem." Sakura said, muttering the last part to herself.
Naruto pounced like a man denied water.
"thank you thank you thank you!!!" he said
she looked at the uchiha, she sighed as he tried not to look at naruto eating.
"do you want an anko dumpling?" she begrudgingly asked.
He nodded though less haughtily than he normally would, Improvements she thinks, she gave him 3 and she ate the other 3 before warming up and then she began to read.
Kakashi appeared out of thin air and they all jumped it was silent before naruto let loose an torrent of choice words at kakashi.
The time was 09:30
"Ma Ma, naruto your hurting my feelings. Anyways lets start the test shall we? Your objective is to get these two bells off of me, if you don't by noon you fail and thus will be sent back to the academy." Kakashi said cheerfully, gesturing at the aforementioned bells, though you couldn't really tell if he was being genuine because of the mask.
Sakura deadpanned, he was so obnoxiously blunt it gave her whiplash.
"There's only 2 bells" sakura stated the obvious after a loaded silence.
"Yes, so no matter what 1 of you will be going back to the academy." Kakashi said an devious look entered his eye before he promptly vanished no cloud of air in sight.
'that means the test has started.'
'Huh inner!? I haven't talked to you since the damn team assignments! where were you!!!'
'Somewhere'
Sakura left it at that.
Inner was random but she was her so that made a little sense.
She observed from her hiding spot among the tree's, she saw naruto who had gone straight into the heart of the fight with his shadow clones.
Evidently Kakashi was better.
Go figures.
Sakura watched Kakashi's fighting style carefully waiting for any faults she could exploit but she could see no flaws which was, admittedly, admirable if a little vexing.
Once Naruto had been acceptably beat down kakashi had absconded the area and with minimum effort found sasuke, who admittedly faired far better in the fight but ultimately failed spectacularly and was buried underground by their sensei's head hunter jutsu.
Meanwhile, Naruto had been trying to steal the three bento's near the training post but had been ensnared into a trap.
It was game on now.
With both the guy's preoccupied she was ready to try her hand at what would likely be a heavily uneven match but still she would try her damnest.
Her plan was to use a shadow clone, it couldn't be that hard right? she thought, after all naruto had created loads and hardly even broke a sweat, then her clone's chakra would flare as if uncertain but trying to minimise smaller.
She felt her pride take a hit, she wouldn't be stumped by something as simple as hiding her chakra thankyouverymuch.
When Kakashi eventually came he would try to fight the clone and she would engage in a fight or try to steal the bell, which ever came first.
'and people say I'm the masochist.'
Sakura spluttered but remained silent.
~
It went nothing like that
Sakura gasped as Kakashi backhanded her, she had almost grabbed a bell!
He knew fuck it!
She fell into the academy kata stance and grabbed 3 kunai they rested in the crooks of her fingers.
She leapt into a tree establishing distance and threw them at kakashi who dodged them laughably easily.
Sakura jumped back just in time to miss Kakashi's Katon, she felt flickers reach her but they were hardly hot not hot enough to cause severe burns.
"Fuuton Reppu-Ookami"((Wind Style: Gale Wolf)) she did hand signs quietly and efficiently as she jumped backwards, tree to tree.
Wind gathered and then it transformed into a wolf which lunged at kakashi with all the vengefulness of a real rabid wolf.
Kakashi's was shocked, not that sakura could tell but his eyes widened ever so fractionally and the tight leash kakashi implemented on his emotions had cracked ever so slightly, how could a geni- no an academy student know a b-rank jutsu.
He jumped away and only sustained a small claw mark barely deeper than a paper cut on his face.
Sakura grimaced she was going to have to explain how she has knowledge of b-rank nin-jutsu.
In hindsight that was quite stupid.
The jutsu died away as soon as it landed a hit, shallow as it was.
Just in that moment a bell rang signifying that the test was done.
Sakura faltered and almost crashed straight into the ground, as fate would have it her fast reflexes were good for something, she grabbed hold of the nearest tree branch and attached herself with chakra.
She made her way to the clearing the test had started in, the guy's and Kakashi waiting for her.
"you all fail did you even realise what the point of that exercise was?" he broke the silence to ask, coolly, dangerously even.
"teamwork" Kakashi's uncovered eye whipped to sakura.
"If you knew that why didn't you come at me like a team instead of coming at me one at a time?" he said directing his statement at all of team 7 though they could tell he was more asking it rhetorically
"Kakashi-sensei why do you have a cut on your cheek?" Naruto asked from the wooden post he was tied to.
"Ma ma Sakura-Chan managed to land a jutsu on me, but that's not the point.
you failed to work together in any meaningful way, however since I'm feeling particularly nice today you may have another attempt after lunch but you cannot feed naruto." kakashi explained before again poofing out of sight.
Two sets of eyes turned to sakura as kakashi disappeared.
'what a way to leave me here with these wide eyed idiots'
'I know right'
They sat in silence until naruto's stomach grumbled, sakura sighed and gave him some of her bento.
"thank y-" Naruto was cut of by a seemingly infuriated kakashi, even sakura flinched at the sight of him, her face set into a grim line.
"YOU ALL" he said menacingly "pass well done guys."
They all deadpanned
"how?" they all chorused, equally confused.
"Shinobi who break the rules are scum but Shinobi who abandon there teammates are even worse than scum, if you wish to be a part of my team then you will never put the mission in front of your life or that of your teams." kakashi said philosophically adding the last part as a sort of warning.
"Meet here tomorrow 7am for training. tootles." He said abruptly demeanour shifting in an instant.
Then he poofed.