Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters.
Thinking
‘Signs to communicate.’
“Speaking”
Inner SakuraA/N: This story will contain POVs from other characters too.
Previously,
When I reach my spot, Sensei turns to look at me and signs, ‘I’m proud of you.’
My eyes widen, but then I smile. ‘Thank you, Sensei.’ I sign back.
“Thank you for escorting me. I appreciate it, and I sincerely apologize for speaking to you in the way I did in the forest. I should not have done that. Please, forgive me.” Kazumi gives a deep bow.
“Maa, maa, its ok. We’ll be leaving now.” Kakashi says with a wave of his hand.
We were about to leave when-
“Actually, Kakashi-san, I would like to give this to you as a ‘thank you’.” Kazumi says, digging into his bag. “Someone gave them to me on one of my trades. It’s jewelry with a storage seal on it. It’s of no use to me, and it would mean a lot if you could find some use for it.” He hands a few bracelets and rings.
Kakashi-sensei eyes it suspiciously, but puts it into his pouch.
We were about to leave again, when-
“Um, Kakashi-sensei? There’s a hawk coming towards us.” I point.
“Hm?” Sensei extends his hand for the bird. It perches on his hand and Sensei takes a message out.
“It’s a message from the Hokage. We have to go as back-up for team 10. Apparently, their client lied about the mission. It’s been bumped up to A-Rank.” Kakashi-sensei says seriously. “Take off your weights. We need to be there as soon as possible.”
We take our weights off, and sensei seals them into a scroll. We run as fast as we can. Without the weights, it feels like I'm gliding. I had been expecting this, but hopefully we would have gotten the mission. At least I would've known what was going to happen.
Ino, Naruto, Choji, hang in there. We’re coming.
“Shikamaru, Sasuke, you have to protect their client as well as Sakura. She’s the medic of the team and it’s crucial to keep her safe from harm. Nothing should happen to her. And Sakura, you are not to jump into the fight unless someone attacks you. Understood?”
By the tone of Sensei’s voice, it was evident he expected us to listen to him to the letter. It was a no-nonsense tone.
“Hai, sensei!” All three of us said in unison.
I wasn’t happy about it, but I know why Sensei said it. It was a part of Tsunade’s rules, so I remember it.
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Within a few hours we had reached Wave. Sensei led us to one of the houses there, and a lady with black eyes and two bangs of her dark hair framing her face opened the door.
“Hello ma’am, I’m Kakashi Hatake and this is my team from Konoha. We are here as back up for Team 10.”
The lady’s, Tsunami I’m assuming, eyes widen and she nods.
“Please, come in. I’m Tsunami, Tazuna’s daughter.” She says with a smile.
Kakashi-sensei turns to us and tells us he’s going to see Asuma. We give him a small nod and introduce ourselves.
“Hello Tsunami-san, I’m Sakura, this is Sasuke and that is Shikamaru.”
Shikamaru had already spread himself on the couch.
“Please tell us if you need any help at all. It’s the least we can do.” I say with a slight bow.
“Thank you, Sakura-chan. I’ll let you know if I need anything.” Tsunami says with a wide smile and heads to the kitchen.
“Sasuke, I’m going to see if I can heal Asuma-san, ‘kay?”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Troublesome... I’ll join you. They’ll probably tell us what happened.” Shika adds. We head over to the room where Asuma, Kakashi-sensei, Ino, Naruto and Choji were present.
Naruto’s eyes light up when he sees me, and I wave at them. Ino’s eyes widen when she sees Sasuke, and he quickly hides behind Kakashi-sensei. I snicker but look over to Sensei,
“Um, Kakashi-sensei? Can I try healing Asuma-san?” I ask hesitantly.
“Hm? Sure, Sakura. If you have enough chakra, then go on.”
Sakura? Didn’t he call me Pinky? Is he trying to act professional in front of them?
“Wait, what? Forehead, you know how to heal?” Ino asks in surprise. I roll my eyes.
“Yes, Pig. I can heal.”
I sit next to Asuma and run a quick diagnostic jutsu on him. Thankfully, he only has minor wounds and chakra exhaustion. I can heal the wounds but I can't do anything about the chakra exhaustion. I can even wake him up, but he won't be able to use chakra.
I gather my chakra and start healing him. Since my reserves had grown significantly, I could heal him enough for him to wake up, and maybe even speed up his recovery.
I can feel sweat forming on my face. Then I heard Asuma groan. Kakashi-sensei's eye snaps up from his book, Ino’s eyes widen, Naruto has a wide smile on his face and Choji stops eating. I continue healing Asuma.
“Asuma-san, please lie back down!” I say sharply when he starts to get up. He looks at me in surprise, but complies. I start getting tired, but I still go on. When I see that he is mostly healed and my chakra is low, I stop. I try standing up, but I get dizzy and am about to fall, when Sasuke grabs my hands and helps me stay standing.
“Thanks, ‘Ke-kun.” I say gratefully. He gives me a smile.
I take a quick glance at Ino, who is shooting daggers at me. Sasuke notices and signs, ‘You used a shortened form of my name to make Ino jealous, didn’t you?’
I flash him a grin and sign back, ‘Hell yeah. Will you please play along?’
'Sure', He matches my grin.
Then Kakashi-sensei hits the two of us on our heads, “Bad Sakura. Bad Sasuke. You don’t do that to comrades!”
“Sensei...” I whine.
I notice Sensei’s hand. ‘I’m proud of you two. Carry on.’
I grin at him. “Thank you for healing me, Sakura,” Asuma smiles at me.
“Welcome! Oh, and you’re not fully healed yet, so you will still need to rest. No exercising or using your chakra for the next two days. Other than that, you’re fine.” I say with a shrug.
“Good job, Sakura!” Kakashi-sensei says while ruffling my hair. I just give Sensei a smile.
“Alright Asuma, can you fill us in what all happened?” Kakashi-sensei asks in a serious voice. Asuma nods and starts telling us what happened. It went mostly canon style, except that Ino and Choji did nothing while Naruto tried to help.
“.... And then a Mist Hunter Nin appeared, hit him in the neck with two senbon, thanked us and took the body and left.” Asuma finished.
Kakashi-sensei and Asuma exchanged glances.
“Wait! The hunter-nin. Did you say he or she used senbon?” I ask suddenly.
“Yes, Forehead. Were you not listening?” Ino asks sarcastically. I ignore her and look at the Jounin, who for some reason have a small smile on their faces. Well, Kakashi-sensei's is more of an eye-smile.
“Zabuza’s not dead. He was only put in a death-like state. There is a point on the neck, where if you hit it with senbon, your heartbeat and pulse slow down, and you stop breathing so it seems like you’re dead.”
“And aren’t hunters supposed to seal the head and burn the body right there? I think the ‘Hunter’ is working with Zabuza.” Sasuke remarked.
“Also, there can't be any Mist hunter-nin right now. There’s a rebellion going on in Mist, so they would need all their resources.” Shika adds.
“What are you teaching your genin, Kakashi?” Asuma asks Kakashi-sensei.
Kakashi-sensei just has a look of pride on his face and he ruffles Shika’s and my hair again. All three of us grin and fist bump. Naruto, Ino and Choji just look at us in awe and jealousy.
“So, what are we goi-”
“Dinner’s ready.” Tsunami calls from outside.
Sensei looks at us and says, “Let’s decide our plan of action over dinner. That’ll give us time to tell the others too.”
Everyone nods and we all get up.
“Do you need help, Sakura-chan?” Sasuke asks with a smirk.
“Yes please, ‘Ke-kun,” I say, trying my best not to laugh.
Irritating Ino is so much fun! I see her eyes widen then narrow at me. I smirk and Sasuke swings one of my arms around his shoulders and helps me down the stairs.
Once we were almost done eating, Kakashi-sensei inquired, “Ok, Sakura, according to you, how much time will Zabuza take to recover?”
“Um, around a week.”
“Okay then. The day Zabuza is supposed to attack, Shikamaru and Choji, you both will raid Gato’s hide out. Steal all the money you can and kill the bandits. Do not go near Gato. He will likely be guarded by more missing nin, and you’re not prepared to battle them.
Ino, you will stay behind and make sure no bandits attack Tsunami-san and Inari.
Naruto and Sasuke will eliminate his assistant.
Sakura will protect Tazuna. Got it?”
I deflate, but nod. Ino smirks at me and I roll my eyes.
I’m about to look away, when I notice Ino’s plate.
What is wrong with that girl?! She’s barely having anything! She’s had a few vegetables, a little rice but that’s it! Is she still on that stupid diet?
“Why are you all even trying? Gato’s too strong! He’s just going to kill you all!” Inari shouts.
“Inari!” Tsunami scolds, “Don’t say that!”
“It’s true! They are acting like heroes! Heroes don’t exist! They are just going to get killed, then Gato will come after us! You all don’t know what suffering is! I bet you all just live happy lives with your family in that ninja village of yours!”
“So what? Even if Gato’s strong, we will beat him. And it doesn’t matter how much you have suffered. There are always people who have suffered more than you.” Naruto says bitterly and storms off.
Asuma apologizes and Tsunami tells us the story. At the end I decide to go look for Naruto.
I look at Sensei and sign, ‘Can I go find Naruto?’.
When he nods, I get up, “Thank you for the meal, Tsunami-san.”
I go after Naruto, and find him sparring with his clones.
“Naruto!” He stops and turns to me.
“Sakura-chan? What are you doing here?”
“I came to talk to you. You were talking about yourself back there, weren't you?” His eyes widened. “I’ve seen you in the village, y’know? How they treat you. How they glare at you. And.... I was there when Mizuki told you about your... tenant? Whatever, the point is no one cares Naruto. At least I don’t. You are Naruto, not Ku- the Kyuubi. And you are my friend. Now, how about we both blow off some steam and spar for a bit?” I finished with a grin.
“Thanks Sakura-chan.” He replies softly, “And you’re on! I’m so gonna beat you!” He said enthusiastically.
I laughed and took my stance, “Rules?”
“Hm, no lethal blows, or ninjutsu. Strictly taijutsu.”
I nod.
At the end of our spar, I was black and blue all over, had scratches and I was bleeding in different places. My t- shirt was mostly torn up, and I was panting.
Naruto, on the other hand, was panting slightly, his wounds had closed up, his face and clothes were caked with mud, and his pant was torn.
Kurama’s healing factor is so unfair! He won, but I definitely made him work for him.
“That was great, Sakura-chan! We should spar more often! Ino and Choji never spar like that! They’re slow!”
“We should! And they both are your teammates, so it’s ok. They’ll improve.” I shrug. “Damn, Naruto! Even Sasuke doesn’t make me move that fast! How much stamina do you have?!” I pant.
Once I had healed myself and rested up, I stood up with a grin. “Wanna go again?”
“Hell yeah!” Naruto cheered.
I took of my t-shirt and was in my sports bra and took my stance. “Same rules. Go!”
It was late at night when we finished. I won this time, but it was pure luck. Naruto managed to somehow trip over his own feet, and I quickly threw a kunai next to his head signaling my victory.
Turns out, I'm good at dodging and very flexible! We both were so tired at the end, we both dozed off on the ground.
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When I woke up in the morning, I saw someone in the grassy area. I start walking towards the person when I realize it’s Haku.
“Hello!” I say cautiously.
Even though he might've been harmless right now in canon, I didn’t trust him.
“Hi.” He says shyly.
“What are you doing out here right now?”
“Oh, I was just getting some herbs,”
“I see. May I help you? I know a little something about herbs, so I might be able to help you.”
“Sure, I need a little more of these.”
I nod and start picking some. I carefully add some of the poisonous ones as well.
Thankfully, I had enough knowledge about herbs to know which ones were poisonous. They could be used as a medicine or poison. And they looked the same unless you knew how to distinguish the two. Haku had some of the poisonous ones in his hand, so he didn’t know the difference. They weren’t lethal, but they would weaken Zabuza depending on how much he consumes.
I handed the herbs to him, “So, I'm assuming these are for someone close to you?”
He nodded, “Yes, he is very close to me. Thank you for your help. I have to be going now.”
“Bye!”
Just as he starts walking away, I say, “Take care of Zabuza, Haku. The next time we meet, you might not be able to.”
He stiffens and turns to me in surprise, “You knew?”
I smile at him, “Yes.”
“Why didn’t you kill me when you had the chance?” He asks confused.
“Maybe because you don’t deserve to die. Haku, if you and Zabuza survive the next fight we have, go to Mist. There is a rebellion going on and maybe you could help them. I know you will be a big help.”
Haku continues to stare at me, “How do I know you’re not lying?”
“You don’t.” I say with a smile and walk away.
I wake Naruto up and head inside. Tsunami is in the kitchen, making breakfast.
“Tsunami-san? May I be of any help?”
“Hm? Oh Sakura-chan! If you don’t mind, could you please wash your hands and chop those carrots for me?”
She eyes me and adds, “Were you outside last night? Did you not come in?”
“Oh no actually. Naruto and I were sparring last night, and we got so tired we slept outside, accidentally.” I say while laughing.
Kakashi-sensei pops up from somewhere, reading his book and he asks in an innocent tone, “Are you sure you were only sparring, Sakura? Because I saw a discarded t-shirt outside.”
I blushed, but glared at him and growled, “Yes. We were only sparring. Perverted sensei.”
“And put that book away!” Tsunami snaps, seeing her son outside.
Sensei raised his hands in surrender and poofed away.
Breakfast was ready after half an hour, so I went into the room Shikamaru, Sasuke and I were sharing. The boys would have slept on the floor, but since I was outside last night, they both were sharing the double bed.
I changed into one of my spare t-shirts and looked at the boys. Sasuke was awake, but Shikamaru was still asleep.
I grin evilly and sign, ‘Wanna wake Shika up in a different way?’
Sasuke nodded with the same grin as mine. I gave him the instructions through our hand signs and filled a cup with water and gave Sasuke a nod.
He bends down and yells, “SHIKAMARU!”
Shika jumps up, and I drench him in cold water.
“GAH!” He shouts. “What the hell?!”
Sasuke and I burst out laughing while he wipes the water off his face.
“I hate you both.” He grumbles.
“But we love you.” We both chorus.
“Troublesome bastards...” We hear him mutter.
Over the past month, the three of us had grown very close, and surprisingly, Sasuke started trusting Shikamaru pretty quick. The three of us would play as many pranks as we could on each other. The best was when we would call a temporary truce and prank Kakashi-sensei.
Sure, it would result in us having to do train extra and do extra D-Ranks, but it is worth it!
“Alright boys, get ready and come down soon, breakfast’s ready. I’m gonna see if Asuma’s fine.”
“Okay,” Shikamaru says while Sasuke nods.
I head downstairs to see if Asuma’s there.
“Morning Sakura.”
“Good morning, Naruto.” I say casually.
“Do you want to spar today too?” He asks excitedly.
I chuckle, “If we have time, sure. Kakashi-sensei told me we would be training a lot this week, so that we can handle Zabuza if needed.”
“Oh, ok.” Naruto shrugs.
I spot Asuma sitting on the table and talking to Sensei.
I walk up to them and ask, “Asuma-san, how are feeling?”
“Good, thanks to you.” He says while chuckling.
I smile at him and once everyone had come down, we had breakfast and head over to the grounds outside for training.
Asuma looks over to his genin and says, “Alright, remember when I told you about tree walking?” they nod and he continues, “So, today you will be practicing that till you get it down perfectly. Begin.”
“Asuma!” Kakashi-sensei says in mock anger, “Your genin still don’t know how to do that? Pity.” He said while placing his hands on Sasuke and Shika’s heads. I cover my mouth to smother my snicker.
Asuma glares at him but gets distracted by Ino.
“You never showed us how to do it. How are we supposed to walk up, Sensei?” Ino asks.
“Asuma-sensei, please don’t use your chakra yet! You still need to recover!” I say before he can walk up.
“Alright, alright, why don’t you show them then?” Asuma says in defeat.
I grin and casually walk up, like I would walk on the ground and stand upside down on a branch.
Ino’s jaw drops, Choji’s eyes widen and Naruto just flashes me a thumbs up.
“Your turn.” I say while flipping off the branch.
“Show off,” Ino mutters.
Team 7 stands there for a few minutes, watching how they’re doing.
Naruto can’t do it because of his excess chakra, Ino is barely trying and Choji is just sitting and eating.
“Can someone please get him to do the exercise?” Asuma begs.
Shikamaru looks at Kakashi-sensei for permission, and when he gives it, he shouts, “Choji! Asuma-sensei said you aren't going to get your meals unless you master this!”
Choji’s head snaps in Asuma’s direction, and he has a furious look on his face. He jumps to his feet and quickly starts trying to walk up.
I laugh and give Shika a high five and continue to watch them. Seeing that none of them are able to do it, I frown.
“Asuma-sensei? Do you mind if I give them a tip?”
“Not at all. Go for it.” He allows.
“Guys, try making small pointy things with your chakra. Make many of them and cover your feet with them. If you can do that, it will give you a better grip on the tree. It’s what I do.”
Suddenly, I feel killing intent aimed towards me. I turn to see it’s Sasuke who’s sending the KI (Killing Intent). I arch an eyebrow.
“You’re saying that you knew about that trick and didn’t tell me? You let me fall all those times?” He spoke slowly.
I chuckle nervously, “No...?”
“Sakura...” He spoke with an unsaid warning.
“Fine! Yes, I did. Do you have any idea how hilarious it is to see an Uchiha, someone who says he’s good at almost everything, falling off a tree?” I said while laughing at the memory.
He releases more KI. It didn’t affect me, since Sensei had trained us to ignore it. Sensei would release large amounts of KI till one of us are about to crumble, then he would stop it. He did it once a week till we were completely immune to it. And thanks to that, Sasuke had activated his Sharingan, and got two tomoes in each eye.
Flashback
“Alright, my little minions! Today, we’re going to be doing Killing Intent training again!” Sensei said with too much happiness for the topic.
“So just to go over everything, you three just have to stand there, and I'll slowly release my Killing Intent. Before that, take out all of your weapons. All of them. The KI is basically concentrated bloodlust. It will make you want to kill yourself. If I see one of you going to succumb to it, I'll stop. We will be doing this once a week to build up your immunity to it. Now, I don’t want a single weapon on you.”
We had already started KI training, and this was the second time we were doing it. Once all of had removed the weapons, Sensei started.
I froze as soon as it hit me. It was like a cold-blooded murderer was standing behind me. I wanted to kill myself and end it right there, but I forced myself to calm down.
Shikamaru, though, was starting to tremble. His hand crept up to his neck. Then it stopped.
It went from a cold and deathly atmosphere, to a warm, summer-y weather.
All three of us collapsed on our knees and took deep breaths. Sensei waited for a few minutes, till all of us were back to normal, before blasting us with Killing Intent.
He didn’t increase it slowly this time. It was just a blast. I froze up and tumbled down like a rag doll. Then it stopped again.
Sensei gave me some water to drink, and turned to Sasuke who was gasping.
“Duckling, channel some chakra to your eyes and look at them in a kunai.”
Sasuke was confused, till he saw his eyes, “Sharingan.” He breathed.
“How?” He asked.
“The Sharingan also activates when you're going through extreme emotions.” Sensei explained. “Anyway, back to training.”
Flashback End
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Ino, on the other hand, was not doing well against the KI. She had already pulled out a kunai!
I noticed it and smacked his head, “Stop it Sasuke! They aren’t used to KI!”
Sasuke’s eyes widen, “Oh, shit!”, then he stops emitting KI. Asuma had already walked over to her and was soothing her.
“Alright team! That was enough fun. Now for training!” Sensei says cheerfully.
All three of us shiver. Sensei only uses that voice when it's going to be something fun for him and torturous to us. The last time he used that voice was when we pranked him by stealing his Icha Icha, and made us spar against him, and he did not pull his fucking attacks! Well, technically he did, ‘cause otherwise we would have died, but he pulled it enough to hurt us, but not knock us out or kill us.
At the end of the day, the message was clear, ‘Never steal Sensei’s Icha Icha.’
“Sensei, we didn’t do anything this time! Why are you punishing us?” I whine.
“Well, Duckling almost made Ino kill herself! I can't let that go unpunished, can I?” Sensei asks in an innocent voice.
Shikamaru and I glare at Sasuke. Sasuke shrinks into himself.
Kakashi-sensei leads us into the woods and towards the river. “Now, what we are going to do is this; two of you will be sparring while the other does 100 crunches and 100 pushups. With weights on. 50 pounds should be good. We will do 3 rounds of that.”
Shikamaru and I glare at Sasuke again.
It’s funny how quickly I adapted to the Naruto world. In my previous life, even twenty pushups or crunches would have been painful. And that was without weights.
“Now, now, my minions, don’t turn on your teammate, or I might have to add a few things.” Sensei sings.
A whimper escapes my mouth. Sensei laughs evilly. Shika, Sasuke and I run to Asuma, who was coming to talk to Kakashi-sensei.
“Asuma-sensei! Kakashi-sensei’s torturing us!” I whine in my childish voice.
“Help!” Shika and Sasuke add.
Asuma simply chuckles and pushes the three of us towards Kakashi-sensei. Sensei mock-glares at us, “Do you not trust me? Well, for that you have to do the spar and exercises on the water!”
“No!” Sasuke groans.
“Troublesome...” Shikamaru grunts.
I just resign to our fate and walk towards the house. I hear Sensei say, “You have five minutes!” He let the or else go unsaid.
Two minutes later, I return to the river in a black sports bra and shorts. Sensei enjoys making us do exercises on the water, so I always keep a change of clothes in my bag along with my ‘Water Training Outfit’ as I call it.
Sasuke and Shikamaru, it appears, have changed into their shorts too.
“Now who’s sparring first?” Sensei asks in the same cheerful voice.
I quickly raise my hand at the same time as Sasuke.
“Alright! Lazy Ass, here are your weights!” Sensei unseals three vests, six ankle weights, and six wrist weights. I carefully pick one of the vests up and almost fall over.
I look Sensei in the eye and say “Are you trying to kill us?” in a dead serious tone.
“Oh, you know the saying, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’. And I'm sure you all are strong enough! Now come on, Minions! Let’s get on with it! Also, the one who loses the spar has to spar with the next person while the winner does the exercise!”
Sasuke and I groan but put on the ankle and wrist weights. We stretch for a few minutes with Sensei’s help to get used to the weight, then start sparring.
And I speak with experience when I say, holding your concentration to maintain your chakra so that you don’t fall and drown while dodging someone who is angry at you for not telling him an easier trick for tree climbing, is excruciatingly hard. Sasuke was not pulling his attacks! And I wasn’t even wearing full clothes so it hurt even more! Getting hit by the weights don’t hurt enough to bleed, but enough to make it black instantly.
At the end of our spar, Sasuke won, by the way, we both were black and blue all over and Sensei didn’t even let me heal him or myself!
We weren't even allowed to step out of the water till the end of our three rounds. It took us more than two hours to complete it! I beat Shikamaru 2 times out of 3 and Sasuke 1 time but the third was a tie.
I hated to admit it, but Sensei’s training was effective. In the past month itself I’ve improved by leaps and bounds. My chakra reserves have grown, so I was able to stand on the water the whole time, my stamina has increased considerably, and I've even grown strong enough to beat Sasuke! Occasionally. We wiped most of our sweat off and stood in front of Sensei, like he taught us to.
“Alright Minions! How are you feeling?” Sensei asks while putting his book back in his pocket. Sensei still didn’t allow us to heal ourselves. His argument was, ‘You’ll build up the pain resistance that way’. All three of us glared at Kakashi-sensei with as much KI we could muster.
Sensei ignored it and led us to Team 10.
On the way, I tried to heal myself without Sensei noticing, but as soon as I started the jutsu, I heard Sensei say, “Don’t you dare, Sakura.” I pouted.
We had walked farther away from team 10 to reach the water, so they didn’t know what was going on. By the looks of it, Ino was the only one who had gotten it till now.
Asuma spots us and calls his genin back from the trees. “Alright, now all three of you will have a quick spar with each other.” Asuma says.
“Actually Asuma, why don’t we have a spar between both our genin?” Sensei cuts in.
Sasuke, Shika and I groan. More sparring? At least now I won't have to do it against Sasuke or Shikamaru.
“That’s a good idea. We can see how both of our genin fare against each other." Asuma agrees.
“Sensei... please give us a break,” Shikamaru groans.
“... Fine. You have half an hour. But don’t even think about healing yourselves!”
“Yes, Kakashi-sensei.” The three of us chorused.
Sasuke and I leaned against a tree with my head on his shoulder, while Shikamaru just lay down on the ground and slept.
Ino sashays to us and sits next to Sasuke. “Hi, Sasuke-kun! Do you wanna go on a date with me when we get back to Konoha?”
“No.”
I giggle, but cover it up as a cough.
“Forehead, go away! Can't you see Sasuke-kun and I are talking?” She asks irritably.
“Pig, I don’t have the strength to deal with you right now, so can we just make a deal?”
“Deal?” She asks with a confused expression.
“Yes, a deal. If you can beat me in Taijutsu, only Taijutsu, no Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, then you can go on a date with Sasuke.”
“Sakura!” Sasuke protests.
“Shush, ‘Ke.” I snap.
“Deal!” Ino exclaims.
“Let me finish, Pig. If I win, you have to ask Asuma-san for a mixed training session between Team 7 and Team 10. Now, do we have a deal?”
“Oof! Sakura, that’s just evil!” Sasuke says while snickering.
“Why would that change anything? We still have a deal.” Ino says with a bit of doubt.
“Why would that change anything, you ask? Ino, do you see the bruises on our body?” Ino’s eyes go up and down both of our bodies, before I continue, “Now think, were they here in the morning?” I ask with a smirk.
Ino’s eyes widen, “You can't be serious!”
“We are,” Sasuke and I say in unison.
“Minions! Time up!” Kakashi-sensei calls.
Sasuke and I get up, and so does Shikamaru, who’s head somehow ended up on my shin.
“Alright, Ino and Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke, and Shikamaru and Choji. You will spar for ten minutes. This is a Taijutsu spar only. No Ninjutsu or Genjutsu allowed. Clear?” Kakashi-sensei says in his ‘Sensei’ tone.
“Hai Sensei!”
“Good. Now, Ino and Sakura first. Take your stances.” I smirk and stand in front of Ino. She takes the Academy stance.
“Remember Sakura, if all three of you win, you get a free day. Begin!” Kakashi-sensei says while jumping back.
“C’mon Ino. Do it for Sasuke...” I sing.
She narrows her eyes and runs to me. She tries a punch, but I dodge it easily. I continue dodging for a few minutes. Because of the new weights, I was much slower from before, so some of her attacks connected, and I was bruised almost everywhere, so I winced every time they hit me. But soon, she gets tired, and I just kick her in the stomach, making her fall back, and throw a kunai beside her head, signaling that the match is over.
“Winner: Sakura Haruno!” Asuma calls.
Kakashi-sensei eye-smiles at me, “Good job.”
“Nice!” Shika mutters. Sasuke just fist bumps me.
“Next, Shikamaru and Choji. Take your stances. Begin.” Asuma jumps back.
Just like me, Shikamaru ends it quickly. He uses his speed to end the match.
“Winner: Lazy Ass!” Kakashi-sensei says. Sasuke and Naruto, though, took all ten minutes. While Sasuke focused on technique, Naruto did whatever he could to randomly attack. He was a stamina monster! At the end, Naruto over extended one of his attacks, and Sasuke exploited it, did a foot sweep and pointed a kunai at him.
“Winner: Duckling Uchiha!” Kakashi-sensei calls out.
I cheer, “Yes! Free day!”
Sasuke glares at Sensei, “Duckling Uchiha? Really, Sensei?”
“Would you prefer Duck-Ass Uchiha then?” Sensei asks innocently.
Sasuke just huffs, while I grin at Sensei. Kakashi-sensei then ruffles Sasuke and Shikamaru’s hair. “Sensei, can Sakura please heal us?” Shikamaru asks.
“Hmm, let me think... no.” Kakashi-sensei said in a cheerful tone.
Shikamaru, Sasuke and I exchange glances, promising to prank Sensei. Badly. Then I remembered Ino’s promise.
“Ino, didn’t you have something to ask Asuma-sensei?” Ino glares at me but asks, “Asuma-sensei? When we get back to Konoha, can Team 10 and Team 7 have a combined training session?”
“You want to train with them?” Asuma looks surprised. Ino nods hesitantly.
“Well, if its ok with Kakashi, then sure.” He shrugs.
Sensei looks at us, and we look at him expectantly, “Well... sure, why not?” He says while ruffling my hair.
“Thank you, Sensei!” I say excitedly. “Oh, Sensei, we’re still wearing the weights. Should we leave it on, or wear our old ones?” Shika inquires.
“Leave it on. You can get heavier ones once you’re used to it.” Sensei replies after a moment.
“You train them with weights?” Asuma asks. We nod.
“How heavy could they possibly be?” Ino scoffs.
I get an evil grin on my face. I remove one of my weights and hand it over to her, “See for yourself.”
She rolls her eyes but grabs it. Her hand jerks down from the weight of it.
“What the heck?! How can you even move with these?!”
Naruto frowns and picks it up. His hand doesn’t jerk as much as Ino’s but it does fall a little. He hands it back to me, and I put it on again.
“Wait, we lost to you guys while you were wearing those?” Ino shrieks.
“Yep.” I say while popping the P.
On that happy note, we end training. For now. We have lunch, then Team 10 goes back to their tree-walking, while Sensei tells us to rest for today. And he still doesn’t let me heal myself! When I ask him how I'm supposed to train in my medical jutsu, he says, “Go ask Tsunami-san or someone.” So, I do that.
“Tsunami-san, do you have any cuts or bruises?”
“Why do you ask?” She asks, confused.
“Well, I have to practice my medical jutsu, so if you have any injuries, I could heal it.”
“Oh, in that case, I do have a burn on my hand.” She pulls up her sleeve and shows me a purple patch on her forearm. I smile and start healing it. After a minute, the purple patch disappears and her skin grows back. She thanks me and I head over to our room, where I find Sasuke sitting on the floor, and Shikamaru sleeping on the bed.
I grab the books that Shizuka-sensei had given me, and plop myself on to the bed. After an hour, someone knocks on the floor and enters. It was Naruto.
“Naruto! What are you doing here?” I ask.
“I was wondering if we could spar for a while?” He replies while bouncing up and down.
“Sorry Naruto, but Sensei has told us to rest today. If I spar with you, he’s gonna be really angry!” I wasn’t bluffing about that. The last time I trained when Sensei told us to rest, he made us train double of what we usually do, for two fucking weeks!
“Oh, ok.” Naruto looks disappointed at that.
“Don’t worry, Naruto. I’ll spar with you either tomorrow, or when we’re back in Konoha.” I reassure him.
“Okay!”
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The next few days, I would spar with either Sasuke, Shika or Naruto as much as I could. It was mostly Taijutsu, since none of us knew many Jutsu, except Sasuke.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A week passed with Kakashi-sensei training us hard, and all of us waiting in anticipation for the coming attack. There had been a change of plans, and I was the one staying back. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to train extra the night before. Because of exhaustion, I fainted, and Sasuke found me outside. No doubt, Kakashi-sensei was furious and he promised my punishment would be in Konoha. And I'm not even mad at him for that! I know I shouldn’t have trained that much. So, Sensei told me to stay here instead of Ino, and she has to protect Tazuna.
Early in the morning, Shikamaru and Choji left for Gato’s hideout, henged as some of the thugs we had killed. I was waiting in the house, while Naruto’s shadow clone was Henged as me, to make it look like Tsunami and Inari were unprotected. Even Tsunami and Inari themselves didn’t know I was there!
After waiting for an hour, I hear voices coming from downstairs. I Henge as a kitten and see what was happening from the stairs. Inari and Tsunami were both being held captive by three bandits.
“Well, what do we do with the kid? Do we kill him now or make him watch as we taste the woman?” Bandit One says while looking at Tsunami lecherously.
I release the henge and shout, “Inari! Tsunami-san! Close your eyes, now!”
As soon as they heard me, they thankfully did as I told them. I didn’t want them to watch people getting killed. They didn’t need to see the bandits getting killed. They had already had to watch their family member being executed.
I take out a kunai and throw it right into Bandit One’s neck. He mutters, “Bitch...” right before his eyes roll back into his head. Bandit Two and Three attack me at the same time and I dodge them both while impaling Bandit Three in the chest with a throwing knife. I cast a strong genjutsu on the last bandit and slit his throat.
I run towards Inari and Tsunami, turn them away from the dead bodies. I could feel both of them tense when I touched them, but when I said, “You can open your eyes now,” I felt both of them relax.
They both look at me with fear in their eyes.
“W-What happened to the b-bandits?” Inari asks.
“Dead.” I say grimly, “The bodies are behind you, so do not look at them. I don’t want you to see them die. The best thing for you to do right now would be go to one of the rooms on top and hide. I'm not sure if there will be more coming, so you have to make sure you don’t make any noise. Inari, since I won't be here, you have to protect your mother, ok?”
I give them a smile, “We’ll be back in a while, so stay here. I’ll be going now. Stay safe.”
I take off my weights and sprint to the bridge. It wasn’t very far away, so I got there quickly.
I saw Sasuke and Naruto in the Ice dome, Asuma and Kakashi-sensei were fighting Zabuza, and Ino was protecting Tazuna.
Shit! There were bandits coming towards Ino and Tazuna! If she hasn’t killed yet, she might not be able to protect him! I sprint forward and stand in front of Ino.
“Ino, stay back and protect Tazuna. I’ll take care of the bandits. If any of them come towards you, kill them. Got it?”
“Yes.” She replies confidently.
I give her a nod and start attacking the bandits. I cast a quick but strong genjutsu over four of them, throw shuriken at their necks, dodge an attack from two of them, impale one with a kunai, slit another one’s throat, knock two out and crack one’s neck.
Unfortunately, there were too many, so two of them got away and started heading towards Ino.
She throws a few kunai at one of them, instantly killing him then tries to kill the other, but she freezes up, and leaves herself and Tazuna open for an attack.
“No!” I scream. In a moment of panic, I throw a kunai at the one heading for Ino. I don’t see where it hit, or whether it hit at all, but I was distracted by someone slashing a knife at me. It missed my neck, but it cut my arm instead.
I heard myself scream in pain, making some of the men laugh as they close in on me. I could feel the cut was deep, but I tried my best to prevent myself from getting any more wounds. My arm is burning like hell. I still keep at it, and kill a few more people, before one of them kicks me back and makes me hit my head on the ground. I throw one last kunai, before everything goes black.