Assay

Belatedly, Sakura realizes that dramatically vowing to have a major-character-in-an-action-novel-esque training sequence in order to prove that you’re the ultimate Shinobi to all those who dared to doubt you while simultaneously attempting to prove that very same Shinobi system as flawed is, well, easier said than done.

This epiphany only sets in when she’s waist deep in the shallow pools by the Naka river, after another failed attempt at a B-rank water jutsu. It’s been two months since the Konoha Crush, three weeks after she stopped Sasuke’s defection attempt, and another four days since her conversation with Panther and a weak part of her considers giving up. It whispers in her ear, a near constant purr of ‘she couldn’t do this. Why even try? for acknowledgment that you know they’ll never give you?’ . Her breath comes in shallow pants as exhaustion scrapes against her bones and cold water bites at her skin. Her chakra coils scream at her, never having felt this strained as she tells the voice to shut the fuck up and raises shaky hands to form now familliar hand seals once more, just one more.

When she feels the water give in, her chakra fluidly coaxing the liquid to bend to her will as it sprung up from the water pool and shot at the rock formation next to the pond, leaving a gaping hole in the center of the boulder, Sakura throws her hands up in unbridled joy. Her nearly deranged, fatigued tinged laughter almost drowned out by the rushing sounds of the Naka River.

Her muscles ache, her bruises are bone-deep from the physical conditioning she’s been doing daily and she’s fairly sure she’s seeing spots of black form in her vision from the chakra exhaustion but for those short couple of minutes, she’s joy, excitement, satisfaction and elation personified.

Then the spots she was seeing floating around take over as her emerald eyes roll into the back of her head and she collapses into the water, her last thought being that she might be late for team practice that morning.

⋅•⦽•⋅

Sakura wakes to the sun beaming down on her face and the smell of warm Udon and - her eyebrows furrow a bit as she tries to place what the sweet scent was - Yokan sweets. She blearily opens one eye then immediately shuts it again when she sees porcelain and spots hovering above her.

“Haruno-San, I’m not sure how to tell you this but I don’t think you learn Suiton techniques by drowning yourself.”

Sakura groans as she pushes herself off of the ground -It seems Panther moved her- and against a rock, the same one she had destroyed with her water Jutsu. She judges by the position of the sun in the sky that it must be an hour or two since she collapsed. Her voice cracks when she tries to speak, shaky and rough.

“Hello, Panther-San. Fancy seeing you over at this watering hole, huh?”

Later, when she’s not under the hazy effect of post-chakra-exhaustion, she’ll cringe at that attempt at humour. But right now, all she’s thinking is panthers and panthers drink at watering holes and she thinks she’s a goddamn comedian .

Panther huffs, and as Sakura’s eyes drift over his form to the bags he was holding, he sits down next to her. He then pushes the first paper bag, larger and bulkier than the other one, into her arms.

“If you’re well enough to make terrible jokes, then you’re well enough to eat.”

Sakura sniffs at the bag, before opening it and seeing a large serving of Udon in a to-go cup.The miso broth still warm, tendrils of steam wafting from the bag as her mouth waters and her stomach kindly reminds her that she hasn’t eaten since dinner - about thirteen hours ago.

“For me, Panther-San?”

The ANBU Shinobi nods, folding his arms and resting them on his thighs.

“Hōtō Udon, noodles and squash along with potatoes, carrots and taro roots.It’s good for recovering chakra. It’s from Yamanashi-San in the western district.”

Sakura separates the disposable chopsticks included in the bag, happily murmuring her gratitude as she digs into the noodles and broth.

“How did you find me, Panther-San? I wasn’t supposed to be at practice for another four hours.”

“You were supposed to be at your training grounds two hours ago , Haruno-San.”

She squints up at the sky, still shoving noodles into her mouth.

“It’s only around 9 AM”

“Indeed. Note that Team 7 is supposed to rendezvous at 7 AM.”

“Yes, but it’s a universally acknowledged fact that SKHT, otherwise known as Standard Kakashi Hatake Time, runs five hours later than everyone else. four, on a good day.”

Panther’s laugh is deep and mellow, and she could see his shoulders following the movement.

“I suppose trying to lecture one of Kakashi-senpai’s students about the virtue of punctuality in a Shinobi is a lost cause then. At least you weren’t using the time to slack off,”

The last sentence was said with a wave toward the boulder the two Shinobi were leaning against, the glinting of metal plating on his glove slightly dulled by the scratches and grooves in the piece of armour.

The hole in the large rock was fairly big and pretty much perfectly circular, the diameter about the size of Sakura’s thigh.

“You know, Haruno-San, there are places in the capital where this could pass off as abstract art.”

“You wound me, ANBU-San. Do you find my artistic expression to be lacking? I worked very hard on it.”

“Ah, yes, of course, my sincerest apologies. I was unaware I was in the presence of such a visionary. Please, enlighten me.”

Sakura re-adjusts her legs, grin wide as she put on the air of a snooty artist.

“The rock symbolizes society-”

The older Shinobi lets out a snort, then raises his hands placatingly as Sakura shoots him a look, still in the middle of her performance.

“And how rigid it is with its laws and traditions. The space in the middle, perfectly circular, reflects the circle of life-”

This time it’s a full-on, belly laugh from her audience and her lips quirk up a bit, unable to hide her amusement.

“And how it is an endless cycle. Life, then Death. Again and again. The emptiness inside the circle showcases the emptiness one finds when one tries to reject society and it’s standing principles-”
“Profound.”

“ Because knowing is something particular to the soul. To know is to understand and the question is already answered in its asking.”

The Kunoichi barely holds it together until the end, dissolving into a fit of giggles as the two laugh almost manically at their mutual bastardization of the contemporary artists typically found deep in the heart of the capital of Fire Country.

The two sit together in comfortable silence as she finishes her Udon, mind mulling over her new technique and how she could incorporate it into combat. At the rate she was burning through her chakra, implementing Ninjutsu into her fighting style was going to be finicky at best, her chakra pools simply weren’t large enough to facilitate a full-on Ninjutsu battle.

She makes a mental note to work on increasing her reserves, along with her knowledge about Chakra as a whole. The bookworm part of her found it almost disturbing that when she first started training Ninjutsu no more than a week ago, there were a myriad of questions she didn’t know the answer to about Chakra, one of the most fundamental aspects of being a Shinobi.

The Genin bit into a piece of Yokan, the dessert in the smaller bag the ANBU was carrying, closing her eyes as the sweet taste filled her mouth. Panther turned to her, his tone firm.

“Haruno-San, I must implore you to be careful next time you train. Had I not been here to remove you from the water after you collapsed, you could have drowned. Chakra exhaustion is a very real threat in our field.”

Sakura bows her head, feeling ashamed at the reprimand. Her hands wrung together in nervousness and her throat felt dry, not knowing what to say. The sweet treat in her mouth felt tasteless and she forced herself to swallow. When he didn’t receive a response, Panther sighed and continued in a decidedly more light-hearted tone.

“You were also being assaulted by about a dozen leeches, by the way. Luckily I was here to heroically fend them off for you, and I don’t even receive a thank yo-”

“Lee-leeches?!”

Sakura chokes, shuddering as she looked herself over for bite marks. Facts ran through her head, of potential death from blood loss and infection and how many it would have taken to kill her and how one might have contained some kind of flesh-eating bacteria-

The ANBU laughs, offering her a hand to stand up as she frantically squashes one of the vampire worms close to her supply pack under her foot, repressing her shudders.

“I think it’s time for you to go meet up with your team, Haruno-San.”

Thick mist, almost more like smoke, suddenly surrounds them. The dense haze reminded her of the Demon of the Mist and her first ever C Rank, the fateful mission that ended up a lot better than her Team could have hoped for. As the fog recedes, she realizes that she’s at the entrance of Training Ground 3, Panther nowhere in sight.

She jogs to her team’s regular meeting spot, expecting to see three Genin and not her teacher. When she sees the familiar head of spiky silver hair, she freezes. The one time she was late. It seemed like she arrived only seconds after him. The Jounin snapped his copy of Icha-Icha shut, placing his hands in his pockets.

“You’re late, Sakura-Chan.”

The irony wasn’t lost on her.

“I-I’m very sorry, Kakashi-Sensei!”

The silver-haired man gave one of his signature eye-smiles.

“Mah, Sakura-Chan, don’t worry about it! Just remember that punctuality is a virtue!”

Sakura gapes. The audacity of this man. She sees that Naruto is almost dying trying not to laugh, Sasuke just shoots a smirk at her and Sai has one of his trademark creepy grins on his face. If she tries hard enough, she can probably hear some of the ANBU laughing at her misery.

“Now then! Here are the missions you need to get done by this afternoon! My ninken will supervise you while I attend the Jounin meeting that started an hour ago. Bye!”

He disappears in a puff of smoke, and the second the last of the smoke clears, Naruto bursts out laughing.

“Man, Sakura-chan, you should have seen the look on your face! Priceless!”

Sakura rolls her eyes heavenward, trying to think of what she might have done in her past life to merit these idiots being her teammates.

“Hn. Let’s get on with the mission.”

They spend the rest of the day delivering groceries, pasting advertisements to walls and catching the canine version of Tora the cat, Okami. It’s only at the end of the day when they’re collecting their mission pay and fatigued seems to be their permanent state of being when Sai decides to extend her suffering.

“Oi, Ugly, you’ve had a dead leech or slug in your hair the entire day. Is it a fashion trend amongst prepubescent girls to have segmented parasitic worms in their hair?”

She imagines that the boulder is his pasty face next time she practices her Suiton jutsu and is deeply satisfied when the half-ton rock explodes into tiny bits of rock and dirt.