Rin stretched her limbs after she finished training with her team. Her training with Sakura-shishō was starting to pay off. Now she could finally stand alongside her teammates.
"Good job team, you guys are really improving." said Minato. "Especially you Rin."
"Thanks sensei. Training with shishō really helps." said Rin.
"Oh yeah, how's training with ba-chan going?" asked Obito.
"It's going great! I'm actually meeting her after this. You guys can join me if you have nothing better to do."
"Sure!" said Obito.
Minato shrugged. "I have nothing to do today, so I can come as well."
Kakashi just nodded.
"Great! I'm meeting shishō in training ground 23 so we should probably get going."
On the way, team Minato talked about what has been going in their life. Kakashi got a new ninken named Bull, Obito started learning one handed sign shunshin with Kushina's help, Minato and Kushina were moving in a new house and Rin met her senpai, the legendary Tsunade, last week. Once they reached the training ground, Rin led them towards a partially destroyed clearing, courtesy of her training with Sakura.
Once they were in the clearing, Sakura appeared out of nowhere and punched the ground. Several rocks got flung at Rin, but Kakashi was faster and deflected them with a kunai before she could. However what he didn't account for was Rin getting annoyed that he did so.
"Kakashi! Why the hell did you do that? That was a test for me!" said Rin.
"Uhh..." replied Kakashi eloquently.
However before anyone can say more, Sakura started approaching them. The medic was wearing the same thing she had on when she met Kakashi and Obito but this time her long hair was tied in a ponytail. Her hair and coat fluttered in the wind behind her as she approached them with a displeased look on her face.
"Oh I'm so fucked..." muttered Rin. Minato, Obito and Kakashi just stared at her, because this was the first time they heard her swear.
"What was that Rin? I expected you to dodge." said Sakura.
"I'm sorry shishō, but Kakashi moved before I co-"
"Then get faster." interrupted Sakura. "Him moving before you could is no excuse. Two hundred laps around the perimeter as punishment, now!"
Rin simply sighed and resigned to her fate but Kakashi decided to speak for his friend. "It was me who acted Sakura-sama. Please don't punish Rin for something I did."
"Eager to play the scapegoat, eh? Fine you can all join Rin in her laps, then. I'll even double them for you, mister protégé."
Team Minato stared at Sakura in mortification before they all glared at Kakashi. "Wait that's not what I me-" started the white haired boy.
"Nope, don't wanna hear it. Chop-chop team, those laps are waiting for you." said Sakura.
Team Minato groaned before getting up and walking towards the end of the clearing to start their laps. Suddenly a hand shot up and stopped Obito.
"Ah, not you lad. You're keeping me company." said Sakura.
"Really?!" exclaimed Obito at the same time Kakashi said "Why?"
"Favouritism~" said Sakura while smirking.
...
After Kakashi and Rin finished their laps (Minato cheated with the Hiraishin but Sakura let it slide this time) they dragged their feet to the tree the rest of their team was lounging on. Kakashi collapsed on the ground and used Minato's leg as a pillow but Rin wasn't as lucky. Her mentor pulled her away for more training. Sakura lined up 20 boulders in front of her and ordered her to punch through them. Rin sighed before she got to work.
Sakura smirked as she saw the terrified expressions of Team Minato. After all of the boulders were down, Sakura told Rin to rip the trees from the ground and throw them as far as she could. And to recite the Principles and Practice of medical ninjutsu while she was at it.
Then she had to do more laps while Sakura would hit her with small balloons filled with flour. She had to dodge them while also reading a medical scroll and balancing an upside down shuriken on her thumb with chakra.
”You can do it Rin!” exclaimed Obito. Rin got distracted while she glanced at him and got herself a face full of flour.
”No getting distracted! You can flirt after.” said Sakura as she threw another ballon for good measure.
”F-flirt?!” exclaimed Obito. However Rin ignored him as she jumped in the air, caught the ballon and threw it back at Sakura. The medic simply inclined her head to the side to avoid it.
Sakura smirked. ”Now that's more like it.”
...
After another hour of training, Sakura and Rin joined the rest of team Minato under the tree. Rin wiped her face with a handkerchief from Minato before taking a seat next to Obito. Sakura opened a scroll and brought out a travel tea set. She quickly boiled the water before pouring each of them a cup of mint tea.
”Thank you shishō.” said Rin.
”Maan, that was brutal. Is this how you usually train?” asked Obito.
Rin shrugged. ”More or less, yeah. Other times I simply tail Sakura-shishō at the hospital and work on patients with her.”
”Oh please, it wasn't that horrible. My shishō used to be way worse.” said Sakura. ”I had to heal dead fish while upside down on the ceiling while she hit me with rocks. Compared to that, I'm actually being nice.”
”Your shishō?” asked Rin.
Sakura hummed. ”She was a healer in the village I used to live in before coming here. A clanless shinobi that had to retire after suffering a leg injury. She taught me everything I know about healing.”
”Cool...How old were you?” asked Obito.
”About 13. It was a long time ago.”
”Thirteen? Hey that's near our age. I wonder how you looked like...” said Rin.
”Well I can show you if you're curious.” said Sakura. Obito and Rin nodded eagerly and even Kakashi cracked an eye open in curiosity. Sakura laughed as she got up and used Henge.
A poof of smoke later a much younger Sakura stood before team Minato. Baby fat clung to her young face and her short hair was pinned up in a dirty red bow. She wore a simple pink kimono with red flowers at the bottom. She was barefoot but had bandages wrapped around her feet to act as footwear.
”In all honesty, this wasn't what I was expecting.” said Obito slightly disappointed.
Sakura laughed. ”Yeah well, those were different times. The leaf village didn't exist. The land was plagued with wars and many villages suffered because of it, mine included. Poverty was the norm and if you were an orphan like me, you barely had any money to feed yourself.”
”Is that why you have no shoes?” asked Kakashi.
”That's right. It was cheaper to acquire cloth than footwear so a lot of people had to improvise. Or...You can be like Sasuke and steal shoes from the noble family.”
Minato raised an eyebrow. ”Sasuke-san stole shoes? I kinda find that hard to believe.”
Sakura laughed. ”Oh he most certainly did. He once stole from the Daimyo’s wife too.”
”You sure had an interesting life, huh ba-chan?” said Obito.
Sakura raised her head to the sky as she thought about her past life. Team 7, Ino, the war and everything she had been through. ”I sure did.”