Chapter 3
Sakura was going to be an elite of the elite.
Kakashi-sensei had told her that, after he explained teamwork, and the importance of your comrades – the true meaning of the test.
“Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash,” he had said.
Sakura had imagined sinking into the ground and letting it swallow her whole, staring resolutely at the ground, too afraid to look up less he read the secret shame in her eyes and knew what she had wanted to do.
But he told them, he told her, that they were going to be elite. Well, not in so many words, but Sakura could read in between the lines. Reading was something Sakura was good at. Kakashi had told them that they were cleared off of Home Front duty to focus on their training. That was a big investment in their future. In her future.
Intellectually, Sakura had known what it meant to be chosen for a jounin-led genin team: it was not an honor offered to just any genin. They were special, they were chosen – they were the only ones that could someday become all-around chuunin, without being stuck in any specialty area. They could even become full jounin someday, just like Kakashi-sensei.
Yet it had still been unreal, somehow, even after Kakashi-sensei’s announcement they had passed, until she received her new clearance codes the next day from the Hokage’s tower. She was authorized for full use of Training Ground 7. Full use: any day, any time.
Her mother had done some gossiping: this was the first time Kakashi-sensei had ever taken a team. Everyone knew he was ANBU. And he was going to teach her, Haruno Sakura, billboard brow, to be an elite of the elite.
Full use: any day, any time.
Even her father, a loyal ninja for over 30 years, only had training ground access on squad drilling days!
Two months later and she still had a hard time wrapping her mind around it. After training the next day, she had ended up spending the entire night at the training field. Because she could. Also because around 2300 she realized she was not sure if her training ground privileges would translate to an excuse for breaking curfew if she was stopped by Street Patrol (answer: yes, humiliation of asking: subverted, because Naruto was an idiot like always, and actually had to ask what training ground privileges even were).
So Sakura used the training ground, her mother sewed uniforms for the lucky on the frontlines, seven letters came from her father and the newspapers stuck to every other street corner updated her on Iwa’s crimes in Grass.
She was going to be an elite of the elite, and yet somehow she had never felt more useless.
Maybe if Kakashi-sensei had been there more it would have felt different, but even though he had told them to be at the training ground every day at 0500, he himself was only there rarely. He was on active duty, he had explained, and so he would come by when he was in the city. That meant he only came a few times a week, maximum, and never actually at 0500. It was not like Sakura could blame him, of course, but she still felt almost like she was on a vacation while the rest of Konoha was working.
She did Mizuki-sensei’s standard workout, plus Suzume-sensei’s Kunoichi Special once in the morning, just as she had done when she was in the Genin Corps. But in the Genin Corps, they had spent the rest of the day doing missions, or hanging out, if there was nothing to be done. Sakura was training to be an elite, so she did the entire workout again in the evening before going home for dinner (which made her mother laugh and call her an over-achiever). That still left her with nothing to do for the entire afternoon.
She had gone to the workshop her mother was assigned to, once, to help with the sewing, but all the women had shooed her away when they realized she was not Genin Corps anymore.
“You have more important things to do,” her mother had said to explain herself, when Sakura later asked why Mebuki had outed her. “I don’t want you wasting time here with us. You were chosen for a reason, and I want you to be able to take full advantage of that.”
Her friends – or acquaintances, maybe: had anyone but Ino really been her friend? – from the Genin Corps were all working on their own Home Front Duties, and told her much less politely to shove off and let them do their jobs if she tried to talk to them during the day. They also seemed to be under the impression that she had better things to be doing, anyway.
She wished someone had told her what exactly those things were.
Sakura was bored. And lonely.
The one time she had run across Ino, who was probably also spending all day in whatever training ground her team had access too, damn her, the girl was chatting loudly as she dragged her teammates behind her through the streets. Sakura knew Ino should envy her for having Sasuke on her team, and yet the sight had made her heart clench painfully.
From the very first day, Sakura had known team bonding was going to be an uphill battle. After Kakashi had told them they had passed and dismissed them, he had disappeared to the Hokage’s tower to report their success, taking Naruto with him. That had left Sakura and Sasuke alone.
Hopeful, she had invited him to celebrate – lunch? A walk back to the center? But she was already talking to his back as he walked away without a response.
Sasuke had his own training grounds. He would come at 0500 to Training Ground 7 and wait around for exactly a half hour. When Kakashi-sensei did not come (because he had not even once arrived before 0800), he would go home, probably to train. If she tried to speak to him, he would answer, most of the time, but he always seemed preoccupied and uninterested. Besides, they were supposed to start at 0500 anyway, so Sakura normally started her warmups around then (it also let Sasuke see what a serious ninja she was, which she thought was a better impression than talking to him most of the time in any case).
On days Kakashi-sensei did arrive, if Sakura was still on the training grounds, he would send her to get Sasuke, and she would have to spend around an hour awkwardly loitering around the Uchiha compound until whatever jerk was on sentry duty finally found him. Which was so typically Uchiha, like, a compound guard – seriously? Who did they think they were? She also suspected they were as slow as possible just to be unhelpful, and so she hated going, but at the same time, she thought Kakashi-sensei might be helping her get some alone time with Sasuke, which she appreciated.
Kakashi-sensei had never sent her to find Naruto, at least. Not that she would have known where to look. If Sakura had already left, he would just come find her (not like it was hard, she was almost always at home, reading or watching TV), send her for Sasuke, and then go for Naruto himself.
At least she assumed he went for Naruto, but Kakashi-sensei often came back without him. If Kakashi-sensei was rarely at Training Ground 7, then Naruto was never there. There had even been an entire two week period where he had not bothered on coming even once.
When he did come, Sakura would slink deeper into the forested part of the training ground to do her exercises (even if Sasuke was there). She thought sometimes the boys talked a little, and she had seen Naruto doing a bit of training, but for the most part he seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time just waiting, as though he thought Kakashi-sensei was going to show up any second. She did not know what he did when he left, but he never spent too long there. Her opinion of him only got worse which each day: dead last, and he did not even try to improve. Still, she was glad that meant she mostly had the training ground to herself.
When Kakashi-sensei was in Konoha and they were gathered on Training Ground 7 together (meaning her and Sasuke, and sometimes Naruto as well), they would spend the rest of the day doing teamwork exercises and simulations. Those days were always hard, and Sakura had more than once dragged her bruised and exhausted body home only to find that the dinner laid out by her mother had long gone cold. Still, Sakura loved them best, especially when it was just her and Sasuke. That was practically a date. But even with Naruto, it was not so bad. It was worth it for the attention of the Hatake Kakashi. When Naruto would shut up and focus without picking a fight, at least.
Like the fight he had just started, for example. Sakura sighed.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”
Kakashi-sensei had interrupted the normal routine of team drills to say that he was going to start teaching them new skills. But he had begun with an evaluation of their skills, and ruffled some feathers.
“Exactly what it sounded like.” Like always, Kakashi-sensei sounded bored.
“Your taijutsu is a problem. Your form is sloppy and your instincts are non-existent. You can’t just count on your pain tolerance to let you take every blow. Any real enemy would kill you with the first good hit. Realistically, it would take too long to train you to compete equally with your teammates in close quarters. Besides, your chakra reserves are huge. It would be idiocy not to take advantage of that.”
“I’m not worse than them!” Naruto shouted, throwing out a hand to point accusingly at Sasuke.
“It’s not about being better or worse. Team’s complement each other,” Kakashi-sensei said. He snapped his book shut. “This conversation is over. This is a combat team. You will be the long distance fighter.”
Naruto spluttered: “I can get better at taijutsu! You said it’s about instincts – but how can you get those if you don’t practice them, right? I’ll have the best instincts!”
Sakura wanted to snark that he could have practiced in the Academy, like everyone else.
“How indeed?” Kakashi’s voice was dry with sarcasm, but he took a different tack.
He sighed, a bone tired sound.
“Look, don’t you want to learn elemental ninjutsu?” Kakashi-sensei asked. “There’s plenty of wind techniques I can teach you. They’re very cool. And hip. All that.”
Naruto frowned, but was silent.
“Listen, ninjutsu is one of the fundamentals of any good shinobi’s arsenal. Your chakra capacity means you have the potential to be great at it.”
Naruto was still hesitating, but Kakashi-sensei knew how to hit the final blow.
“That is,” Kakashi-sensei said, “if you’re up to the challenge.”
Sakura rolled her eyes as Naruto finally allowed himself to be led away towards the line of trees by Kakashi-sensei’s clone. He put up another token resistance at first, but was soon bouncing ahead of the clone, gesturing excitedly. Typical.
The other two clones were still standing in front of them.
“Sasuke,” one said. “You’re more versatile. As the team leader, you’re going to have to know how to fill whatever role is called for. Your progress is fine. Come show me how you’re doing with the wires.”
Then it was just Sakura.
When his eye met hers she looked down, hoping the hitae-ate would hide her forehead. A wisp of pink hair floated into her vision, and she tried to discretely blow it out of the way. Damn it.
“You,” he said.
Then there was a weight in her hands.
“...you will have to take close combat. There’s not really a choice given Naruto’s taijutsu.”
It was a katana: lightly curved, heavy, but smaller than most of the ones she had seen before.
“The weight and size should be fine,” Kakashi-sensei said. “I commissioned it this month, so be careful with it. It’s yours now.”
She looked at him in confusion. He crinkled up his eye into his usual approximation of a smile. She was not sure if he was improving, or if it had just become less intimidating because at least it meant he was not looking at her.
“Watch me,” he said.
Then he was gliding slowly into the opening forms of a kata, his own, longer, katana held lightly in both hands. Sakura watched.
The sword was heavy in her hands, but she felt giddy.
She was finally going to learn something – something tangible! Her mother would be so proud!
She imitated his grip, eyes on his feet as she watched him switch forms. She slowly began to imitate his footwork, Kakashi-sensei nudging her back into position when she fell out of the unfamiliar stances.
“Stop,” Kakashi-sensei said, suddenly.
His presence at her side no longer felt encouraging, and she cringed away from meeting his gaze. Had she done something wrong?
“Have you been running?” He asked.
“Yes?” She was not sure if it was the correct answer.
His dark, empty eye looked her up and down, once and then again. Her hands itched to adjust her ponytail to better hide her forehead.
Sakura was glad she had been doubling the Genin Corps standard, so she could tell him that with pride when he asked her daily routine.
“Do four times that.”
She could not read any signs of approval or disapproval in his empty gaze.
“Okay!” She said. “I mean, yes, sensei!”
Then Kakashi-sensei’s hand was pressing her shoulders straighter into line again. He demonstrated another downward strike. She imitated.
“I’ll give you a kenjutsu routine as well. Do it twice a day,” Kakashi-sensei said.
“Yes, sensei!”
He slid into the next step. Sakura was not stupid; she understood that she had disappointed. She would do it three times a day. Taijutsu had never been her best, but she was better than Naruto, at least. If Sasuke was not going to specialize in close combat, she was the only option. And she would be the best option, so he could count on her (it would give her something to do during the afternoons).
Kakashi-sensei dismissed them earlier than normal, probably around five, based on the sun.
“I’m in town for the week. Don’t be late tomorrow,” he said before disappearing into a body flicker.
Sakura wanted to talk to Sasuke about what he and Kakashi-sensei had worked on together, wanted him to ask her about what she had worked on, to look at her sword, the sword that Kakashi-sensei had given to her and ask –
Sasuke grunted a late acknowledgement and turned away for home.
Sakura slumped in defeat, depressed. But that meant looking at her katana, which cheered her up in its own way. Kakashi-sensei had given her a scabbard, but she needed to figure out how to attach it to her uniform. Her mother probably had some standard belts laying around somewhere, or could probably get some from the workshop. But would it be better to buy some? Or put in a request to Supply for a uniform addition?
“I’m learning how to split leaves,” Naruto said.
His faced was scrunched up into a smile so big it seemed painful, forcing his eyes closed into little slits, but he was not looking straight at Sakura anyway, more like over her shoulder.
“With just chakra, I mean, isn’t that cool? It’s gonna be awesome when I get it down, you better believe it! My chakra’s gonna be, like, super sharp or something, and any time you cut someone up with your sword – which is cool, by the way, when did you get that? – it’ll be right there, like, slash! and they’ll be cut twice!”
That...was not how elemental chakra worked.
Sakura was torn between correcting him and telling him to get the hell away from her. She was not brave enough to do either, not when they were completely alone. With a buffer, like Sasuke or Kakashi-sensei or any of the teachers at the Academy, you knew you were safe. Naruto was lousy at taijutsu, but Sakura was new with the sword. And besides, it was not really the taijutsu she was worried about.
“You gonna go back home? I’m headed to the center,” Naruto said, still smiling blindly in Sakura’s very general direction.
“Kakashi-sensei told me I have to train more,” she answered. “I think I’ll stay and work on it.”
“Oh,” Naruto’s smile dimmed. “Well, it’s pretty early. I’m still not tired at all, you know! That elemental work is hard, but it’s like a brain thingy – doesn’t really tire you out, well, not Uzumaki Naruto!”
Sakura interrupted his rambling: “I’m going to go work on my forms. I need quiet to focus, so I’m just going to go to the forest, okay? Don’t mind me, you can keep working here if you want.”
Ten minutes later, she peaked back into the clearing (a much better place to practice the drills Kakashi-sensei had shown her). Naruto was gone, so she had space to practice.
.
.
.
Kakashi-sensei came late. He had promised that he would be back in a week to look at Sakura’s progress, but it had been almost two. Well, he had not promised, not exactly, but he had said he would be back in a week, and teachers were supposed to take their deadlines seriously. She was kind of starting to think that being late was a habit of his.
Sakura knew it was unfair to be upset, what with the offensive on Rain to help liberate Grass coming up, but she really wanted to get his feedback on the latest kata she was still having trouble with.
Kakashi-sensei did not really explain things, but he was good with physical instruction, and besides, you could only learn so much working by yourself. He was good at slowing himself down to her speed in their practice spars, and dragging them out until she collapsed with exhaustion – the first time she had even vomited! – and she felt like each session was worth days of her single practice. She had tried to get Sasuke to spar with her, but he had coldly refused. He probably thought she wanted it as a date, which she did, but it was still unfair, because she did really need to practice. She had barely been working with the katana for a month, and she was worried that too long without feedback could teach her bad instincts.
She was lying on the couch watching a trashy biopic romance about the First Hokage and his gorgeous wife while massaging her aching ankles when Kakashi-sensei finally came back. She did not have nearly as much free time now that she was spending so much of her day training, but it was Kakashi-sensei’s schedule, so it was not like she had complaints. She was less bored now, anyway.
That did not mean she was going to miss an episode of Saga of the Founders if she could help it, though. It might be trash, but it was her show anyway. That was why despite her impatience in waiting for Kakashi-sensei, she still felt a wave of bitterness when he appeared in her living room with a puff of smoke, blocking the TV just as Senju Hashirama reached out to the foreign princess to invite her to help him make a new world.
She knew the dialogue by heart.
“Together, you and I will be the builders of a better world!” The First Hokage called out.
Before Uzumaki Mito could answer that any world would be better as long as they were together, Kakashi switched off the TV with a flick of the remote.
Sakura considered growling. It was really unfair that he always came to find her first; otherwise, she might have had a chance to finish.
But instead of sending her off for Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei surprised her.
“Get gear together to leave Konoha. Duration unknown. Bags at the gate in an hour.”
“What?” She asked reflexively. “Are we going on a mission? Where? Already? What should I bring?”
She started to pull herself up into a sitting position, wincing at the pain in her abdomen as she did. She thought you were supposed to have warning before missions specifically so that you would not over-train.
Kakashi shot her the empty, judgmental gaze she had realized might be amusement.
“Not quite a mission,” he said. “I’ll explain on the way; just pack standard.”
Then he dispelled with another puff of smoke.
She waved it away with a slight cough. What did not quite a mission even mean? She felt like he took secrecy way beyond attractively-mysterious levels and well into creepy-and-will-never-get-a-girlfriend levels. She wondered if she should point it out. Then she remembered that that book he was always reading had turned out to be porn. Discretion was a shinobi virtue, she decided.
She was not sure what to write on the note for her mother, since she was not even sure what she was leaving for. She settled for: “Outside of city for a while. Don’t know how long. Will write if I can!” and signed with a heart next to her name.
After taping it to the fridge, she headed upstairs and got her bags. Kakashi-sensei might make a habit of lateness, but Sakura was going to have to rush if she wanted to be on time.
Sakura had gotten faster, so she managed to make it to the main gate 48 minutes after being summoned, using the roof access granted to genin-teams for missions or mission-related transportation.
Kakashi-sensei was already there, leaning casually against the tall brick gates. He had a small rucksack on his back, but looked the same as always, dressed in his normal jounin blues. Sakura’s bag was bigger, and she felt self-conscious, wondering if she had packed too much.
Naruto’s bag was smaller than hers too, which only made her feel worse. He was shuffling awkwardly in the shadow of the gate, standing beside the familiar figure of Uchiha Itachi. He had not been to the training ground in at least three days. It reminded Sakura of her time in the Academy, when Itachi would politely knock on the door and ask if Uzumaki Naruto-kun could please be excused for the day.
Sakura jogged up to the group and shot him a shy smile. Sasuke’s brother was handsome, and had always seemed so kind, but his reputation still made him somewhat intimidating.
He answered her smile with a soft one of his own, then floated away from Naruto toward where Kakashi-sensei was slouching. The two began to talk quietly amongst themselves, and so Sakura thought it only polite to address Naruto.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hi.”
“You know what’s going on? Sensei wasn’t really clear when he came by for me,” she laughed nervously, patting down the top of her head to make sure her hair was tightly bound.
“No, haven’t been around. He caught us at the gates.”
“Um, okay, well he told me it was ‘not quite’ a mission, which was kinda weird; I didn’t really know what to tell my mom. So. I was just wondering, because it was weird.” Sakura found herself blabbering.
She expected Naruto to say something in response, but he seemed subdued and just nodded. Unsure of what more to do, she nodded back, and let the awkward silence sweep over them.
She had counted to 130 (after losing her place and restarting twice, so it probably was closer to five minutes) before Sasuke arrived.
“Hey!” She greeted him. “You excited, Sasuke-kun?”
He ignored her, glaring out of the gates. It seemed like Naruto was not the only one in a bad mood.
But with Sasuke finally arrived, Kakashi-sensei pulled himself away from the wall, approaching the three of them.
“Hope you’re not too tired, kiddies,” He said. “I know there wasn’t much warning, but I needed to get all three of you at a good time. We’ll go slow today just in case. Anyway, we’ll debrief mostly when we get there – why’s that, Sasuke?”
“OPSEC.”
Sakura expected Naruto to ask what that meant, but apparently he was not completely retarded and she was spared.
“That’s right. But for now, we can talk about the basics. We’re going to be out of the village for a while, but don’t worry, we’re not going to the front. We’ll be staying well within our territory, in the Land of Fire. You can consider this a training trip, I guess. We’re headed Southwest, in the direction of River.”
Itachi had returned to stand by Kakashi-sensei’s side, and as Kakashi-sensei finished speaking the two exchanged a glance. Kakashi-sensei gave him a lazy one-handed salute that Itachi returned by means of a respectful nod, before turning to Sasuke.
“Be safe, little brother. I’ll see you soon,” Itachi said.
Sasuke did not respond, turning his head empathically away, but Sakura thought she saw hints of red creeping across his face. How cute!
Kakashi gave a low snort, then motioned them into position behind him. She fell naturally into her place on the right wing.
Without a second of hesitation, Kakashi began to move forward. Letting the momentum of the team formation carry her forward, Sakura did too. And then they were past the gates, past Konoha. She put one foot in front of the next, walking on foreign soil.
“Pop quiz – what do you know about River Country, Sakura?”
She tried not to look back but could not restrain herself. The gates loomed tall and dark and the familiar chuunin manning them were hidden out of sight.
“The Land of Rivers is a client state of the Land of Fire. It served as Konoha’s buffer in the earlier wars, before the Suna-Konoha alliance was secured at the end of the Third Shinobi War...”