Cherry Blossoms and Chakra Strings

[Sadguychet]

Nine-year-old Sakura Haruno was slow to wake up as usual. As she was pulled from her rest by a stray band of sunlight, the child spent several minutes just rolling around in bed, trying to sink back into the warm embrace of sleep that she had known for the past several hours, only to grumble and rise as she realized it was a futile endeavor.

The bright sun over Konoha shone through her bedroom window just a few feet away, illuminating the room as the pinkette slid from underneath her covers, planting her bare feet on the hardwood floor that had been warmed by the sun's rays.

She yawned, raising her arms high in the air in a stretch, before smacking her lips sleepily and glancing towards her alarm clock.

Her eyes widened, "It's nine already!? Why didn't anyone wake me up!?

Swiftly running out of her room, Sakura rushed down the stairs to the kitchen, only to pause slightly as she realized that she couldn't detect the usual scent or sound of breakfast being cooked wafting through the house.

"Kaa-chan? Tou-chan? Hanami? Are you guys here?" She called out as she reached the ground floor. There was no response and as the child reached the kitchen, she was met with a completely empty room.

Her eyes locked onto the piece of paper that had been taped to the refrigerator. There was writing on it that was way too small to see from across the room. Curious, Sakura made her way over to it and pulled it off of the fridge, looking it over.

Sakura, we're sorry that we couldn't say goodbye. The caravan got pushed ahead of schedule so we had to ship out extremely early this morning and we know how much you like your beauty sleep. Please do not sleep through your alarm again.

Your sister changed her mind last minute as usual and decided to come with us so make sure to tell Hana-san that she'll only be looking after you for the next few weeks.

Since Hanami isn't there to wake you up we hope you didn't sleep through your alarm again. Iruka-san may be forgiving, but being late so often isn't good for your studies if you want to be a powerful kunoichi one day.

Anyway, we need to get going. We'll make sure to bring you back a souvenir like always so please be good for your auntie!

We love you,
Kaa-chan and Tou-chan

"Aww! They already left? I wanted to say goodbye…" Sakura pouted as she finished the note, putting it back in its original place, "I hope they don't bring back colored sand like last time. It's just ink and sand! I can make that here! Kinda."

Sakura being left alone in her house was not an unusual occurrence and hadn't been since a few years ago when she fell extremely ill on her fifth birthday and couldn't travel. Her parents had left her with their neighbor, Hana (affectionately called auntie by the pinkette) and had her look after Sakura while they traveled to the Land of Tea with the caravan.

Hana hadn't minded one bit and after she got better, the two of them had a blast until her parents and sister returned. Since then it had become a regular occurrence.

Sakura didn't like the Land of Wind. It was too… windy, not to mention sand got everywhere and made her feel all gritty and grainy no matter how many baths she took. These days, any time her parents offered to bring her along on journeys to the country she always preferred to stay in the village.

Hanami, on the other hand, loved traveling with their parents. Unlike Sakura, her little sister had no issues with the arid land to the West and so was more than willing to join them in their journey.

Sakura suddenly paused, rereading that second paragraph, and paling at the realization that she made as she remembered her earlier panic that had brought her down here in the first place.

Her alarm clock said it was nine. That was three hours later than class started. She was late.

Again.

"Oh no!" She yelled, tossing the note away and rushing back up the stairs as fast as she could.

She got dressed faster than she ever had before, pulling on her shinobi pants that her aunt had gotten her and slipping on a dark red jacket with her family's merchant crest proudly displayed on the back.

She didn't bother styling her hair, simply putting it up in a messy ponytail that would keep it out of her eyes during the sparring portion of class. It wasn't like it was far off from how she usually wore it anyway so nobody would notice. Probably

She grimaced as she rushed down the stairs and out the door at record speeds, already imagining the reaction that she was going to receive for being over an hour late to class.

"Iruka-sensei is going to let me have it!"

~~~ Academy ~~~

Ten minutes of frantic running later and apologizing to anyone she ran into along the way, Sakura opened the door to her classroom panting and completely out of breath, "I'm here!" she nearly shouted, shoulders heaving with her breathing as the entire room turned to look at her, "I'm here…"

Her teacher, Iruka Umino, looked away from the sentence he was writing on the chalkboard to give her a partly-amused, partly-annoyed smile that she was all-too familiar with.

"Good morning, Sakura. It's good to see you finally decided to join us." The man said, placing the chalk back onto the board's rim as he turned to face her fully. He raised an eyebrow at her disheveled appearance, "And I see you've decided to start a new fashion trend. Inside out shirts haven't really been popular recently but I'm sure if you wear it with confidence everything will turn out just fine."

Sakura blushed, giving her sensei a sheepish smile as the other students began snickering at her blunder, "Sorry, sensei. I slept through my alarm and my parents left Konoha this morning so they couldn't wake me up. It won't happen again."

Iruka just gave her a smile that was exasperated yet somehow fond at the same time, "Yes it will, but as long as you don't do it too often and at least show up for most of my lectures, I guess I can cut you some slack."

"Hey, that's not fair!" A blonde student sitting in the back shouted, "When I'm late you always yell at me, Iruka-sensei!"

A vein pulsed on Iruka's head as he whirled around to his most troublesome student, "That's because Sakura doesn't try to sneak out in the middle of my class, Naruto! Get back inside here and close the window!"

Naruto sheepishly did as the man asked, pulling his leg back inside the classroom as his escape attempt was foiled.

Iruka sighed, "Naruto, I know your mother has taught you most of this already, but there's nothing wrong with learning something twice. Sit down and listen and you might actually get a new perspective on things."

"Yeah yeah." Naruto grumbled as he retook his seat beside Sasuke. The Uchiha gave his friend a superior look, clearly having told him that his plan was doomed to fail in the first place, "Shut up, Sasuke."

Sakura couldn't help but roll her eyes as numerous girls in the room immediately jumped upon the Uzumaki in some perceived attempt to defend Sasuke's 'honor' despite it just being friendly banter between friends.

She didn't really understand the obsession with the pretty boy

As the volume of the room increased, the vein on Iruka's head only worsened, "Enough! Everyone quiet down, NOW!" Immediately, every student in the room shut their mouths and the teacher sighed, turning to Sakura, "Go ahead and take your seat. We've mostly been going over stuff we've already covered so you should be fine. And don't let this become a habit."

Sakura gave the man a mock salute, "Yes, Iruka-sensei!"

He rolled his eyes at her antics and she gave him an unrepentant grin as she made her way to her seat in the back of the class.

Her neighbor gave her a nod as she reached him, adjusting his dark glasses as she sat down, "I am glad you are here, Sakura. I was worried I would be alone for the day."
Sakura gave her friend a grin as she sat down beside him, "Heh, yeah sorry about that, Shino. My parents went to the Land of Wind and took Hanami with them. I slept through my alarm clock."
The Aburame tilted his head at her words, "Does your alarm clock not function?"

She blushed, "Not good enough. Hanami's usually the one waking me up. Kaa-san says that the only deeper sleeper than me is the Hokage Monument."

Shino made a noise of confusion, "The monument isn't alive and therefore cannot wake up."

"Exactly."

Shino just nodded his head, accepting the joke for what it was without comment and Sakura grinned as she turned to the front as Iruka began his lecture once more.

Shino had been Sakura's first friend at the Academy. Unlike nearly all the other civilian girls, she hadn't been grossed out in the slightest by his clan's kekkei genkai and had actually found the whole 'living hive' thing extremely interesting.

A few questions and chats later, and the unlikely pair had become fast friends. They often ate together and had been seat neighbors for years, even hanging out at Sakura's house on occasion which was a rarity for any clan heir, much less an Aburame and despite being much quieter than she was, Sakura was glad to have met him.

She turned her attention back to Iruka as the man suddenly placed his chalk on the rim of the chalkboard with an oddly defining 'clack' silencing the room that had been steadily growing louder and louder as he worked.

He sighed, clearly deciding that there was no use teaching as he had been when it was clearly barely anybody was listening. Sakura felt slightly bad as she hadn't been listening either, but she already knew all about chakra natures from her studying so there really hadn't been any point.

Iruka looked out at his class who were beginning to whisper to each other once more, "Since you're all so full of energy, I guess we can start the sparring portion of class early." Cheers rang out at his words and he suddenly smirked, "But you will be graded on your performance."

Cue the groans from the students who had been cheering, "It's been a few months since I graded you all on your taijutsu abilities. I'd say it's about time to see where you all stand again."

"Aww, but sensei! That takes all the fun out of it!" Naruto complained loudly.

His words sparked a response from the kid sitting in front of him, a brunette with fang tattoos on his cheeks and a puppy sitting on his head. He turned back to Naruto with a challenging grin on his face, "You just know you're gonna get a bad grade. Guess all that training with Sasuke didn't really amount to much, did it?"

Naruto's face went red, "Shut it, dog breath! I'll kick your ass any day of the week!" He shouted, getting into the other boy's face.

Kiba grinned back, sharp teeth on full display as Akamaru yipped and growled on his head, "Oh yeah? Bring it on, blondie!"

"Break it up you two! Or at least wait until we're outside." Iruka sighed, feeling a headache make itself known.

As they all made their way out of the classroom, led by Iruka, Sakura could sense that Shino wasn't happy about this sudden turn in events.

"Cheer up, Shino. The two of us are at least in the top seven in taijutsu. I'm sure we'll get good grades!" Sakura reassured him

"That may be true, but I would still prefer not doing it." The Aburame commented, adjusting his glasses, "My clan do not specialize in hand-to-hand combat as it carries a high risk of damaging our Kikaichu. I am unsure how I will perform."

"Aww, you'll be fine." Sakura grinned, patting him on the back, "Most of these guys can't fight their way out of a paper bag. You got this."

Shino didn't respond except for a slight nod of his head. Sakura knew that meant that the boy had accepted her words, and so she grinned, turning back forward as they made their way to the yard.

Since it was going to be a graded soar and not freeform, they skipped by the large open field that they usually used and instead made their way to a large patch of dirt that had a circle drawn on the ground with chalk.

"Alright," Iruka began as they all lined up before him, "As you know, this is a graded set of spars. That means that the pairs will be mostly randomized and both male and female students will have the opportunity to have their name called."

He looked down at his clipboard, jotting something down, "The first pair is… Ino Yamanaka and Kiba Inuzuka."

Sakura winced as Kiba cheered and Ino sighed, "Ooh, that's gonna suck."

Shino nodded silently beside her as the two stepped into the ring. As the two of them took their stances, Sakura turned to her friend in order to spare herself the incoming beatdown that the blonde was about to suffer.

"You think I could sneak away to turn my shirt back the right way?" She asked, glancing towards Iruka as he did something with the clipboard in his hands.

Shino was silent for a moment, "I doubt it. Why? Because this match isn't going to last long enough for you to leave and come back in time."

As it turned out, he was right. Ino was a better fighter than most of the civilian kids but when it came to the Inuzuka, practically their entire thing was taijutsu. She didn't have a chance from the start.

She tried to put up a fight but soon enough she was sent to the ground my a hard lunch to her cheek, Kiba immediately moving to restrain her and end the match.

As the two made their way out of the ring, one of them much happier than the other, Iruka spoke up once more.

"Next pair, Sakura Haruno and Ami Hanase!"

Sakura cursed silently as her name was called. It looked like Shino was right. She'd have to wait till after to fix her clothes.

"You should give up now, Forehead!" Ami called out to her as they got into positions across from each other, smirking cockily, "You know you've got no shot at beating me!"

"If you say so." Sakura responded, more than used to those sorts of comments by now. She got into a modified academy stance, settling her limbs in a way that was more comfortable than the basic stance and waiting for her sensei to begin the match.

Ami frowned at her lackluster response, settling into her own stance and mirroring Sakura's except for a few key aspects that the pinkette had changed, "Alright then, don't say I didn't warn you!"

Iruku looked towards both of them, raising his hand in the air, "Ready…BEGIN!'

"I'll make this quick!" Ami shouted, rushing forward towards the pinkette. As she reached her, she jumped up, aiming a kick at Sakura's head which the pinkette leaned back to dodge.

As Ami landed she thrust her arm out in a palm strike aimed to knock the wind out of Sakura while she was unbalanced, but the girl just stepped around the telegraphed attack, twisting grabbing the outstretched limb and causing the girl to freeze in shock.

"Ha!" With a shout, she pivoted on her heel and pulled the girl over her head by the captured limb, letting go of her at the apex of her arc and sending her soaring out of the ring.

Ami landed on her face several feet away skidding along the dirt in what was a definite ring out and Sakura grinned as she dusted her hands off, "Well you were right. It was definitely quick."

Iruka raised his arm once more, "Enough! That's the match. Sakura, well done. That was a well performed maneuver, few wasted movements and you achieved what you wanted to. Ami, we'll have to work on your counters when we get the chance, you should have been able to do something other than freeze in panic when she grabbed you."

"Thank you, sensei." "Yes, sensei!"

"Make the seal of reconciliation." Iruka said, jotting something down on his clipboard. They did as he said, interlocking their first to fingers in a manner to show that there were no hard feelings from the spar.

Though with how fast Amy pulled her hand back after they were done, immediately turning her back on Sakura and walking away, the pinkette had a feeling it was just a formality.

Iruka shook his head at the display, writing something else down on his board before turning to address the class once more

"Alright, the next pair. Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno!" He called out, making Sakura freeze as she went to step out of the ring.

His words sparked confusion in the class, the other students muttering to themselves or each other about this decision. Naruto was, as usual, one of the loudest people questioning Iruka's decision.

"But Iruka-sensei, she just fought! Why are you having her go again." He called out, clearly upset that he and Sasuke wouldn't get their usual spar.

"It wasn't really much of a fight." The Uchiha muttered loud enough for virtually everyone to hear. The other students laughed at his words and Sakura caught sight of Ami's face turning bright red before she looked away.

"Unfortunately, Sasuke's right." Iruka said, causing Sakura to look at him in shock, "While Sakura's performance was good, the fight didn't last long enough for me to accurately grade her taijutsu abilities." He explained, only adding more fuel to the fires of Ami's embarrassment.

'So he's making me go up against the strongest fighter in class as a way to test my abilities?' Sakura thought to herself as Sasuke shrugged and made his way into the ring, Naruto shouting words of encouragement behind him. She gulped as he locked eyes with her before that signature Uchiha smirk appeared on his face, 'Oh, this is gonna suck.'

Still, her parents didn't raise a quitter, and so as Sakura gave a bow to her opponent that he returned, she resolved to at least make it a good fight.

"I don't think we've ever fought, Haruno." Sasuke commented as he settled into a stance that Sakura couldn't name but had seen him use numerous times before, "Try to make it a good one."

"I'll do my best." Was all Sakura said in response, redying herself as well.

"Are you ready?" Iruka looked at them both, hand raised in the air, "BEGIN!"

The moment that Iruka's hand dropped, Sasuke immediately rushed forward at a speed that Sakura had trouble keeping up with. She frowned and tightened her guard as the Uchiha approached, already predicting his first move.

As always, Sasuke jumped up into the air as he reached her, twisting his body around for a spin kick that had worked to end nearly every match he didn't feel like dragging out. His onyx eyes widened as Sakura dipped underneath his attack, letting it pass over her head as she moved forward, swinging out at him with all of her force as he landed on the ground.

He was quick to recover, slapping her fist away with a hand and turning to deliver a sharp punch to her solar plexus. Sakura just barely managed to get her hand in the way of his strike, allowing it to slap her palm harmlessly.

She threw it to the side, causing Sasuke to stumble slightly and immediately began her own assault. A punch thrown towards his solar plexus was blocked and the following kick to his knee was dodged as the Uchiha jumped away from her, gaining some distance in the process.

They stared at each other for a long moment, emerald eyes gazing into onyx with intensity, before they both rushed forward to continue their fight

Their next exchange was just as quick as the last, with Sakura dodging or blocking his probing strikes and blows and throwing some of her own out as well, before her eyes widened as Sasuke got into an extremely familiar stance.

The Uchiha had a habit of ending fights that he didn't feel like participating in with a particular combo that was meant to take his opponent out in just a few strikes. That was the stance that he had taken.

Luckily, Sakura had watched the Uchiha fight just enough to know how this would play out and more importantly, how to defend against it.

First up was a telegraphed but quick jab towards the face, meant to make an opponent guard followed by a palm strike to the elbow to break said guard. Sakura managed to slap the punch away, redirecting it off to the side and dodging the subsequent palm slap by simply not being there in the first place.

Sasuke's eyes widened minutely at what she had done, but he continued his combo all the same, picking up the speed just a bit in hopes that she wouldn't be able to keep up with him. Normally she wouldn't, but Sakura had seen these exact actions performed more times than she cared to admit, and so she knew exactly what was coming next.

A punch to the liver meant to stun her was met with one of her own, their knuckles clacking together loudly as both she and Sasuke winced at the noise and feeling. She jumped over his next attack, a low leg sweep meant to send his opponent to the ground and end the fight, kicking out at his head as he attempted to rise.

The Uchiha was forced to back off unless he wanted to catch a sandal to the temple, rolling to the side and springboarding to his feet a few feet away with a surprised look on his face.

"Wow. You're actually pretty good." He complimented as he faced her again. The cheers from his numerous fans and those that were just enjoying the fight went silent as he spoke, everyone wanting to hear the two combatants speak without interruptions, "I don't think anyone but the Hyuga have been able to dodge that combo. Even Naruto has trouble keeping up with it but his brain's small enough that he just eats the first punch."

"Hey!" The blonde shouted angrily, "You won't be saying that next time we fight, Sasuke! I'm gonna beat you so bad your mom won't even recognize you!"
Both of them ignored him and Sakura gave Sasuke a grin, blood pumping in her veins at the fight, "You do it too much. Any time you don't want to fight somebody anymore, those are the moves you make to end the fight as fast as possible."

Sasuke made an odd face, "Huh, I didn't think anyone noticed that. Alright then, hope you don't mind if I step it up a bit."

She did actually, but didn't let her wariness show on her face, instead giving him a grin that was full of confidence she didn't really have, "Go right ahead."

Immediately after her words exited her mouth, Sasuke rushed forward at least twice as fast as he had before. Sakura's eyes widened and she stepped back, putting her hands in front of her to block whatever he was about to do.

She grunted in pain as he suddenly blurred, kicking her in the knee and causing it to buckle. She just barely recovered fast enough to block a punch that was aimed for her jaw but wasn't fast enough to stop the one that hit her in the ribs.

And from there things fell apart. Sakura had always known that Sasuke was fast. But he was fast. Like, hit her twice before she even moved to block the first punch kinda fast, and she was soon out on the backfoot as she struggled to defend herself.

And even sooner after that, it was over. With one final sweep of his leg that she couldn't dodge, Sakura's own legs were suddenly swept out from under her and she yelped as she was sent down to the floor.

She grunted as she hit the ground before hissing in pain as Sasuke immediately got on top of her to prevent her from recovering, pressing a knee into her lower back painfully. Her arm was forced upwards against her back in a standard restraining hold, and Sakura was only able to bear it and attempt to escape for a moment before she recognized it was hopeless.

"I give! I give!" She shouted. Immediately, the pressure disappeared as Sasuke got off of her. She sighed as her arm returned to its natural position, "Owwww… that's gonna hurt all day, isn't it?"

Sasuke snorted as he leaned down, helping her to her feet, "Probably, but you'll be fine. You're stronger than these other wimps."

"...Thanks?" Sakura wasn't really sure how to respond to that. Sasuke just smirked at her before walking out of the ring towards Naruto who shouted something Sakura couldn't understand at the Uchiha.

Sakura rolled her shoulder, wincing slightly as she returned to her friend's side, "Jeez, he's fast."

"You did well, Sakura. I have no doubt you'll receive a good grade for this assignment." Shino complimented as she reached him.

Sakura grinned, rubbing the back of her head, "Think so? I'm pretty sure he was just going easy on me."

"Who cares!" Sakura was startled by a new voice and looked over to find Ino staring at her with intense eyes. One of the blonde's cheeks was bruised from her fight with Kiba, but she clearly wasn't letting that keep her down as she was filled with the same fire as she always was, "Where did you learn to fight like that!?" She demanded.

Sakura blinked, surprised at the question, "Oh uh, my parent's caravan sometimes hires ninja to guard them and when I traveled with them, they would teach me a little. I just sort of added what I learned to the academy stuff until it felt comfortable I guess."

Ino stared at her so intently that Sakura felt sweat begin to bead on the back of her neck before…

"Train with me." The blonde said.

Sakura blinked and even Shino stiffened slightly, a motion akin to dropping his jaw in shock for the Aburame.

Sakura recovered quickly, "Uhh… Why me?"

Ino gave her an odd look, "I need someone to train with and you just have Sasuke an actual fight." The Yamanaka said like she was stupid.

Sakura nodded, "Yeah, I got that. I mean why me specifically? Wouldn't you rather train with Hinata or someone?

"Clan heirs aren't allowed to train with each other unless we're being monitored by our clan heads which almost never happens and you're the best girl fighter in class besides Hinata." Ino explained, "Since you're a civilian, there won't be an issue with it as long as a member of my clan is present."

That made sense. Most clans were secretive with their training to make sure that their secrets didn't fall into the wrong hands. It would be bad if an enemy village managed to get ahold of the upcoming clan head's fighting style because they managed to sneak a peek at their training.

Sakura scratched her cheek, "I guess I wouldn't mind training with you. Are you really sure you-"

"Yes. I'm sure." Ino interrupted, before flipping her hair in a particularly sassy way and turning away, "I'll drop by your house to discuss the details tomorrow after I talk with Tou-sama. See you then."

And then she walked away leaving Sakura staring after her, mouth agape, "But you don't even know where I… live. And she's gone.

The pinkette turned to her friend who had been silent thus far, "That was weird, wasn't it? It's not just me?" She asked.

"It was."

She nodded, "Good. Just making sure I wasn't going crazy or something."

Shino went to respond but was cut off as Iruka called out the next duo to spar, "Next pair! Hinata Hyuga and Daki Shinazawa!"

"Hell yeah!" "O-Okay."

Sakura turned away from her friend to watch the new pair duke it out. With Hinata's shy nature and Daki's… not that, she had a feeling this would be an interesting fight.

~~~ Konoha Shinobi Sector ~~~

On her way back home that evening, Sakura made sure to stop by the shinobi sector, a part of Konoha specifically catering to its ninja population, to visit her favorite shop.

It was a guilty pleasure of hers, looking at the stores around this area and looking at the equipment and weapons that she would one day be able to buy, thinking about how she would use them it defend against them.

She grinned somewhat giddily as she caught sight of one particular store sign depicting a kunai slotted through a shuriken and sped up her pace, reaching the storefront very quickly.

The bell on the door alerted the owner to her entrance as Sakura made her way inside, gazing around with the same amount of awe that she had the first time she visited, staring around at the weapons lining the walls of her store.

Standard katana were hung beside tanto and chokuto and dozens of other different types of blades weapons, ranging from a kusarigama and even two chakram that looked particularly sharp. As Sakura bounded up to one of the displays giddily, a familiar voice called out to her.

"Hello, Sakura!" She turned to find the shop's owner, Tachi, with a smile on his face as he made his way over to the curious child who he often found in his store, "Are you planning to buy something today?" He asked jokingly.

Sakura's ponytail swished behind her as she shook her head, "No, Tachi, I'm just looking." She eyed a particularly shiny odachi, imagining wielding it against enemy ninja.

Tachi saw where she was looking and chuckled, "I think you're just a bit too small to be using something like that just yet." He patted her on the head.

She just gave him a grin, "I'm just planning for the future! Kaa-chan and Tou-chan said that the most important part of being a ninja was being prepared and careful planning!"

"That's very good advice. Although… Are you thinking about taking up kenjutsu when you become a kunoichi?" Tachi asked her, "If so, I've got some training blades that should fit someone your size. Never too early to start, you know."

Sakura just made an unsure noise, gazing up at the odachi as she thought, "I'm not really sure what kind of kunoichi I want to be. Genjutsu is pretty cool but I've heard it's also really hard, and I'm pretty good at taijutsu compared to all the other students but I can last more than a few seconds against Sasuke or Hinata when she's actually trying."

Her face soured, "And I don't have the chakra stores for ninjutsu right now. Iruka-sensei said that I had some of the smallest ones in class and that I needed to train my chakra more so they could grow."

She suddenly smiled, looking up at the taller man who stared at her curiously, "Maybe I could do all three? Be a jack of all trades?"

Tachi hummed, stroking his chin, "The official term for them is Generalists, ninja who don't specialize in any specific combat style and instead have filled out their skillset with all three. And yes, I suppose you could."

Sakura smiled at his words, so there were people like that? Maybe she could-"But I don't think you want to be one."

Sakura gave the man a confused look, "What do you mean?"

"Well for one, I don't strike me as the patient type." He chuckled, causing her to pout, "A good generalist puts in years upon years of effort to get to where others would be in half the time. They are an important part of our forces, yes, but it also takes a great deal of dedication to become an effective one.

"But if you want the real reason," the man smiled at her, "I can tell you have something special in your future, Sakura, could see it when you first walked into my shop. Focusing on so many things at once would be a waste of your innate talent. You should specialize."

Sakura gave him her full attention at the word, "Specialize? What do you mean?"

Tachi put a hand on his chin, thinking about how best to explain, "I mean… take the Sannin for example. Each of them are spectacular ninja in their own right and many say that even they aren't sure who would come out on top in a battle between them, but what do you think of when you imagine each of them?

She closed her eyes and thought hard, trying to remember what she knew about the legendary Shinobi.

"They all have specific things they're good at!" Sakura said in realization, "Tsunade-sama is the best healer in the world, Orochimaru-sama knows more jitsu than he can count, and Jiraiya-sama…uh…"

She was drawing a blank on that last name. She knew he was famous for something, but the only image that came to mind when she thought of him was her mother's angry face. She wondered why that was.

Tachi chuckled, "Yes well you have the gist of it. All three of the Sannin are exemplary ninja in all aspects, but they also have skills that are uniquely suited to skills that have made them known around the world and cover each other's strengths and weaknesses perfectly.

"You can still be an amazing ninja as a generalist, Sakura, but you could be something even greater once you find that one thing that truly clicks with you." Tachi finished gently,

"What kind of ninja do you want to be?"

The question rang in her ears as Tachi stepped away to go deal with another and she turned back to the sword she had been eyeing earlier. It followed out of Tachi's store, rolling over itself in the child's mind as she began to make her way back home.

What kind of ninja did she want to be? She didn't have an answer. She knew she wanted to be powerful, well known and well respected just like the Hokage, but when she actually thought about how she'd get there, she suddenly drew a blank.

She blinked as she suddenly remembered something important, breaking through the intense thoughts that had consumed her, "Oh yeah. I should probably buy some rice before I go. Hana usually cooks dinner and I think we were running low."

As she said this, she suddenly stopped, her ears perking up as she heard something coming from nearby. She strained her hearing

"...tterly hopeless! Try again!"

"Y-Yes!"

Someone was yelling at someone else. They sounded angry too and Sakura felt her curiosity grow.

For just a moment, she thought about continuing on her way and heading home. It was getting late and it would be dark in around an hour, not exactly the safest time for someone as young as her to be out and about.

But alas, Sakura was a child and an extremely curious one besides that, so it was only natural that she did a ninety degree turn from her original path in the direction of the yelling.

After only a minute of following the voices, Sakura was met with a large fence with a sign that was just as large attached to it.

'TRAINING GROUND 23' the sign read, and as Sakura processed this another shout came from just beyond the fence, "Again!"

There was a thick layer of brush that hadn't been cleaned up, preventing her from seeing inside but she knew for sure that that was where the voices were coming from.

Normally, she would see the massive dense surrounding the training ground and turn around to walk home. She had found what she was looking for after all,

Today though, Sakura's curiosity was just enough that it spurred her to find a way inside anyway.

"Just a little peek." She muttered, eying the fence as the voices continued, "And then I'll go get the rice…"

Looking around, it didn't take long for the pinkette to spoy a potential way inside of the training ground. There was a large tree growing close to the fence, tall enough that even the lower branches peeked over its top. She could use that.

The fence was there to keep any wandering civilians from blundering their way inside but Sakura wasn't a civilian. Okay, she technically still was, but she had one thing that made her different from the rest of them.

She had chakra. And a pretty good grasp on how to use it.

Placing her hands in the ram seal, Sakura closed her eyes in concentration, focusing on her chakra in the same way that she had practiced in the solitude of her bedroom. After a moment, she opened her eyes and stepped forward towards the tree. She hesitated for one moment as she reached it, before reaching up with a leg and placing her foot on the bark.

Immediately, she felt the chakra in her foot cling to the rough wooden surface and the nine-year-old grinned before planting her other foot on it as well, beginning to walk up the vertical surface like it was nothing.

Tree-climbing was a technique that Sakura by all means shouldn't have known, but just like it had mere moments ago, the child's curiosity had gotten the better of her when she had witnessed and older shinobi use the skill to scale the wall of a building to bypass foot-traffic and she just had to try it for herself.

It took weeks and several massive lumps on her head before she managed to get her chakra to consistently act in the way that she wanted to, but it had all been worth it. Her parents couldn't hide sweets from her on the top shelf ever again!
She giggled to herself as she got high enough in the tree to peer over the fence. She walked just a bit higher, climbing atop a thick branch that would make for a perfect jumping off point.

She took a moment to prepare herself, glancing down at the training ground to gauge the distance, before leaping off the branch and over the fence into the training ground.

Sakura landed on the ground with a thud, bending her knees just as she had been taught at the academy, only to yelp as her feet slipped out from under her thanks to a particularly loose weed, tripping forward and falling into a nearby bush before she could manage to recover.

She groaned, spitting leaves out of her mouth as she rose, only to immediately duck back into the bush as a voice rang throughout the training ground.

"No! Not like that you fool! Your threads are barely there, how do you expect to control anything with them like that!" The voice was angry, shouting at something or more likely something that she couldn't see.

Slowly, she peeked out of the bushes, flinching slightly at the sudden beam of light that shone right into her eyes before her vision focused on the two inhabitants of the training ground.

One of them, likely the one yelling, was an extremely old woman in a black robe with a white scarf wrapped around her neck. She currently had her arms folded in dissatisfaction, watching a much younger woman hold her hands out as she attempted to do… something to what looked like a bundle of clothes laying on the ground.

Sakura's eyes widened as she caught sight of the gleaming metal forehead protector on the younger woman's arm. The symbol on it wasn't the one that she had come to know from years living in Konoha, a swirling leaf. No, instead it was something much more simple, an hourglass shape with a single bar just floating above it.

Sakura had researched the other villages in class and so knew exactly which the symbol belonged to. These two were from Sunagakure, the Village Hidden in the Sand and Konoha's ally and trade partner for years at this point in time.

But what were they doing here, in one of Konoha's training grounds? She remembered hearing from her parents that there was a delegation from Suna that would be visiting some time this month, maybe they were a part of it?

She watched as the woman sighed, bringing a hand to her forehead in exasperation, "This isn't going to work. You barely even have the fundamentals of chakra channeling."

Her student hung her head, dropping her hands as the flow faded from her fingers, "I'm sorry Chiyo-sensei."

"Don't be sorry, be better!" The old woman chided, "You should have told me if you were having trouble creating your chakra strings because I would have had you stay in the village and focus on your training instead of bringing you all the way out here to this humid hellhole!"

Sakura's eyes widened in shock, 'Chiyo-sensei!? And they're from Sins! That means… that's Lady Chiyo!"

Lady Chiyo was a legendary kunoichi from Suns on the scale of the Sakumo Hatake or even Hanzo the Salamander. It was her poison that allowed Suna to be such a powerful force into the Second Shinobi War, decimating entire villages and rendering land inhospitable for generations afterwards.

In fact, if it wasn't for Tsunade Senju's abilities in medical ninjutsu and her skill in counteracting poisons of all types, it was extremely likely that Suna would have come out far better than Konoha in their numerous conflicts.

Sakura stared at the woman in awe and a little bit of worship as she suddenly stuck a hand out to a nearby bundle of clothing on the ground, blue strings of chakra extending from her fingertips latching onto it, "Watch and learn, girl! This is how it's done!"

The bundle began quivering and Sakura was suddenly struck with the realization that it wasn't a bundle of clothes at all! Sakura watched in amazement as it suddenly lifted off of the ground, guided by the glowing blue strings to reveal a wooden face with far too many eyes to be human.

'A puppet! Of course!' She thought in revelation.

The puppet kept rising, until it settled several feet above the ground, flowing black cloak settling around it's wooden limbs as a curtain of dark blue hair fell behind it. It made an odd clacking noise as it turned, facing a nearby section of the training ground as Chiyo guided it, before suddenly bursting into motion.

Sakura's eyes practically sparkled as she witnessed the woman's demonstration from her hiding place inside the bush, watching the clacking puppet race across the length of the field in mere seconds.

It was like watching art in motion. That was all Sakura could equate it to. The way its joints clicked together as it raced an incredible distance in mere moments, controlled only by glowing blue threads so thin they were nearly impossible to see in the evening sun, it was breathtaking.

"This is what you could do if you just keep practicing. With the right application of chakra to the right places," Chiyo lectured her student, maneuvering her fingers minutely, "You can control each of your puppet's limbs even better than you can your own, making it do things that no humans can to catch your enemy off guard."

Sakura let out a gasp of surprise as the puppet's limbs suddenly extended several meters away from its target. They shot forward at incredible speeds, small blades popping out of hidden slots along them as they wrapped around a nearby log in the fraction of a second.

The blades dug into the bark, trapping it firmly as the arms retracted to pull it back towards the puppet itself. Sakura thought that was the end, but Chiyo wasn't done.

"And when you have your enemy dead to rights, you can deal the finishing blow before they have a clue what's happening!" She said, flexing an index finger.

With a loud hiss, compartments opened up along the side of the puppet's face and a dark purple mist seeped forth, engulfing the area around the puppet in the fraction of a second.

'Poison!' Sakura realizes. Judging by the way the grass was already wilting near the puppet, it was a fast acting one too, enough to kill anyone near the cloud in only a few moments.

This was incredible! What this lady was doing was the essence of everything that a ninja should be! Her puppet was the perfect tool to capture or kill an opponent before they even knew what hit them, just like Iruka-sensei said a ninja should be!

And not only that, but there was something strangely entrancing about the way the whole sequence had played out. The puppet was clearly intricately designed and Sakura couldn't help the intense desire to see its internal mechanisms for itself, her brain working overtime to try to figure out how exactly everything worked.

Where had the poison come from? Was it just stored inside the puppet waiting to be released? No, that would be dangerous. What if the puppet broke or cracked and the poison was released prematurely, it had to be in some sort of seal.

But if that was the case, then what was the trigger to release the poison? Did it have something to do with those strings? They looked like they were made of pure chakra. She didn't even know that was possible!

Sakura looked down at her own hands, clenching her fingers. Could she do that as well?

Deciding that it couldn't hurt to try, Sakura closed her eyes in concentration even as Chiyo continued speaking to her student, focusing on the pool of energy that sat inside of her core, before attempting to move it throughout her body as if she was using a jutsu.

It was hard. Her chakra felt like syrup as it moved through her system, unguided by her usual hand seals. Chiyo hadn't used hand seals though, and neither had her student so it was likely that this technique didn't require any. Slowly but surely Sakura managed to circulate her chakra into her hands, getting it as far as channeling it into her the appendage before she had to stop as she realized she had absolutely no idea how to actually form the strings that the Suna nin had.

She furrowed her brow in thought, thinking about what she knew of the chakra system and its tenketsu. There were several in the hand and three in each finger. Perhaps she needed to move the chakra through there?

Deciding that it couldn't hurt to try, Sakura began doing just that, forcing her sluggish chakra through each of the tiny gates held in her fingers, pushing them out towards the edges.

Almost immediately thin wisps of chakra extended from her fingertips just like it had for the Suna nin in the field and she just barely held back the urge to gasp in excitement. Even as her tenketsu ached, she forced more chakra into them, wanting to make them even longer just like theirs had been.

Sakura suddenly froze as a voice came from only a few feet away, "If you keep doing that, girl, your fingers are going to go flying all over this training ground. That's not a mess that I'm in the mood to clean up right now."

Chiyo had cottoned on to the little snooper that had happened upon her training her student the moment that the girl's feet had hit the ground. She had been a little annoyed, but it wasn't like she was hiding anything so she had been content to let the girl be. After feeling the telltale signs of someone channeling chakra, as well as knowing what she was likely trying to do, she had been forced to step in.

Although now... Chiyo suddenly paused as she took a closer look at the girl. She was young, clearly not even out of the academy yet, with hair so pink it actually hurt Chiyo's eyes to look at and eyes that were just as bright.


She suddenly paused as she took a closer look at the girl. She was young, clearly not even out of the academy yet, with hair so pink it actually hurt Chiyo's eyes to look at and eyes that were just as bright.

But her hands… Chiyo had thought it was just some brat who was about to blow her fingers off by channeling chakra to the wrong places but there plain as day, were the beginnings of chakra threads extending from her digits.

'From someone so young?' Chiyo thought in shock, staring at this pink-haired child, 'Her ability to control her own chakra must be incredibly advanced for her age!'

Someone so young creating chakra strings, even just the barest threads of them, was completely unheard of! Why, Chiyo imagined if the girl had used just a bit less chakra, she would have gotten the basics of the technique in just a single try!

…Was it possible? Could she have happened upon a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here? A chance to pass on her skills to someone actually worthy instead of just some snot-nosed brat that the council picked out for her?

Prodigy wasn't a work that Chiyo threw around lightly. She found the idea that some people were just innately talented to be laughable and quite frankly insane, but what else could this girl be? It had taken even Chiyo weeks to learn how to create tangible threads, and this girl had done it in just a few minutes of spying!

If she was able to learn how to create chakra threads just by watching her from the bushes, what else could she pick up with so little instruction?

Images of a certain blonde spoiled brat with a penchant for ruining her plans suddenly appeared in her mind, and Chiyo frowned.

She'd made up her mind. She would tutor this child in her art and in the process deny Konoha another Slug Princess.

And perhaps she would find someone actually worthy to be called a puppet master in the future.

Chiyo looked down at Sakura with a stern gaze, causing the girl to flinch back slightly, "Say, young lady, how would you like to learn the art of puppetry?" She asked out of nowhere.

Sakura's eyes widened massively at the elderly woman's words, "Really!? B-but I thought it was forbidden to share hidden techniques between villages even if they're in an alliance."

Ninja villages were notorious for safeguarding their respective techniques to the point of paranoia. It was unheard of for someone of Lady Chiyo's prestige to offer training even in their own village, much less someone from outside it!

Chiyo scoffed, "Bah! What those old codgers on the council don't know won't hurt them. There's exactly one person in Suna that might be worth any salt and he's a spoiled little brat so there's no telling how he'll pan out. I'll be in Konoha for another few weeks which should be more than enough time to teach you the basics."

'Old codgers? She's like eighty!' Sakura didn't voice her thoughts aloud, but some incredulity must have shown on her face because Chiyo gave her an annoyed look.

"Hey, girl! Stop giving me those eyes, I'm as ripe as a spring pear!" She said angrily, "Do you want to learn my art or not!? I don't have all day so you better answer now!"

Despite the complete and utter suddenness of the question, Sakura only had to think about it for just a moment before making a decision. There was no way she was going to pass up the chance to learn such a rare skill!

The nine-year-old bowed low to her new teacher, practically trembling with excitement at the idea of replicating such an incredible ninja art, "I'll be in your care, Chiyo-sensei!"

She thought back to the puppet and the intricate way it moved, unseen components shifting in a way that made Sakura's mind tingle with the desire to know more.

She grinned, 'I think I've found the type of ninja I want to be, Tachi!'

---

Next five chapters available for Patrons

 

[Raphiel]

you just have Sasuke and actual fight."

Click to shrink...

Small corrections cuz your typos or autocorrect
"you just gave Sasuke an actual fight."

Also good fic, like the direction it's going. Haven't seen a puppeteer Sakura fic, or at least remember one.

 

[SoralTheSol]

Always like stories that improve the underdog.

 

[Orchamus]

Huh...I think a Sakura centric fic with her being a puppet user is a first . At least it is for me. Neat
Honestly curious as to how she'll handle such a skillset, to truly excel with puppets gonna need a lot work.

 

[Sadguychet]

~~~ Week One: Day 5 ~~~

Creating chakra strings was a lot easier than Sakura imagined it would be. She had basically already gotten halfway there just from her attempt in the bushes and after a bit of instruction on how to properly thread her chakra through her fingers, the skill came easily to her.

Keeping the threads in existence was a bit harder. Being the purest form of chakra, the threads required a constant and more importantly stable flow of chakra to keep them active. The slightest wavering in the user's flow would lead to them either disappearing from too little chakra or popping from two much. It was a delicate balance and one that took Sakura nearly an entire week to get a handle on.

But she was pretty sure she finally had it. Sakura squinted, focusing her chakra to fix a fault she found in her strings, bringing them back to normal strength the instant that they began to falter. An approving noise sounded out behind her and she grinned, knowing that her sensei was pleased with her.

Chiyo, for her part, watched her student train with a critical eye. Puppetry was an art that took months to learn and years to master. To teach it to a child within four weeks was a laughable endeavor, but Chiyo was nothing if not stubborn and Sakura was nothing if not willing to learn. And learn she did.

The girl was currently using her chakra threads to manipulate several sticks and twigs independently of one another, a task that all potential members of the puppet corps were required to do. As she watched the girl practice, her eyes searched for any flaws or wavering chakra in the threads that she was currently weaving that the girl herself hadn't yet noticed.

Her eyes suddenly narrowed as she spotted something, "You are putting too much chakra into your right tertiary thread. If you keep doing that it'll fall apart! Fix it!"

"Yes, Sensei!"

Chiyo nodded approvingly as Sakura immediately corrected her mistake, dialing back on the amount of chakra that she was putting into the middle finger on her right hand. The bright blue that the string had been glowing faded back into the soft blue that it was supposed to be as it stabilized once more, "Good. Keep that up and you'll be a master in no time, girl!"

The pinkette smiled blindingly at her praise, before returning to her task, her tongue sticking out of her mouth as her brows furrowed in concentration.

Chiyo had taken many students in her relatively long life. She had taught dozens the foundations of her art and was left disappointed more often than not by the lack of passion and drive to learn the skill that she had dedicated a good portion of her life to.

But Sakura… Sakura was truly something else. The girl soaked up her lessons and knowledge like a sponge, showing a zeal and passion for learning everything that Chiyo had to teach her and displaying a burning curiosity that surpassed some of the most inquisitive of Suna's scholars.

Already she had managed to fray the ends of her chakra threads to control multiple points and if she wasn't practicing on sticks, Chiyo was positive she would be able to move a puppet. Manipulate it precisely? Probably not, but she would certainly be able to move it, and that was often the most difficult part for new practitioners.

She watched with some semblance of pride as the pink-haired child managed in a week what took some months to manage. Prodigy wasn't a word that she used often, but when faced with Sakura's astounding growth, she wasn't sure what other name to put to her.

She wasn't going to tell the child of course. Success breeds arrogance, and there was nothing more deadly to a ninja than arrogance. She would know.

Coming out of her thoughts, Chiyo clapped her hands once, getting her student's attention.

"Alright, that's enough." Chiyo called out, bringing Sakura's eyes to her, "You're as good as you're going to get at this exercise. It's time to begin the next step in your training."

Sakura gasped in excitement, her chakra threads disappearing into the ether as she turned and ran over to her sensei. She grinned massively, staring up at the woman with big, green eyes, "Are you gonna let me practice with a puppet now?!" She said excitedly.

Her face fell in slight confusion as Chiyo literally laughed out loud at her words. The woman shook her head as she calmed down, "Puppet's aren't something that are just given out willy-nilly, girl. You might be one of the first students I've had that's worth your salt, but I've got no intention of giving you a puppet."

Sakura was understandably shocked and more than a little outraged at what she was hearing, "What?! I thought that was the whole point of training me! How am I supposed to become a puppet master without a puppet?!"

Sakura yelped as a fist suddenly bopped her on the head the moment the outburst was finished, "Of course I'm not going to give you a puppet you foolish little girl!" Chiyo said angrily as Sakura looked at her with teary eyes, "That would go against everything being a puppet user stands for!"

Sakura's hurt expression twisted in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"Every single puppet that has ever been created was done so for the creator's use alone." Chiyo explained with an impatient tone, "The hidden traps and tricks that every puppet is known for is conceived during their creation. For another puppeteer to use your puppet without knowing its exact function is just asking for them to break something important! Especially a novice such as yourself!"

"B-but what about that one girl!?" Sakura demanded, "You let her practice on one of your puppets. She didn't manage to do anything with it but you still let her try!"

She whined as another fist knocked her in the head, Chiyo making her displeasure known, "That's because it was her puppet! Puppet's rarely change hands unless they're handed down or gifted to someone already proficient in the art. She got her from her father, another snot-nosed student of mine."

Chiyo sniffed, "Not a lick of talent in that one. I was hoping his daughter would be better but I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Already, you're just as good as he is with your chakra strings. Makes me wonder if we should start sourcing our puppet corps from civilians instead of established families."

She shook her head, ending the tangent before it could begin, "As I was saying, I am preparing you for all you need to utilize my art. It's up to you to create your own puppet suited to yourself which I will be teaching you how to do in the time that I have left in Konoha."

Sakura blinked in surprise, before a massive smile came over her face, all previous disappointment fading away, "So you're going to teach me how to make my own puppet!?"

"That's the plan."

Sakura immediately bowed low, ignoring the pain in her head as the blood rushed to the forming lump, "I'm sorry for my outburst, sensei! I got excited!"

Chiyo waved her off, "Bah! You're still young. You've still got that youthful naivety in your tiny head. I'll beat it out of you in time."

Ignoring the woman's words, Sakura raised herself back up, giving Chiyo a curious look, "So what are we going to do next?"

"First, I'm going to get you started on sealing." Chiyo responded, "It's best to start early in your journey so that you'll be at least a little proficient by the time you construct your puppet."

"Sealing?" Sakura had heard the phrase before but wasn't exactly sure what it was, "What's that?"

In response to her question, Chiyo stared at her in surprise.

"What's sealing!? What in the world are they teaching you in the academy, girl?" Chiyo asked, bewildered, "You were once allied with the greatest clan of seal masters in the Elemental Nations! You have their village's crest on the back of your flak jackets, and you're telling me you've never even heard of sealing?"

Sakura's face burned in embarrassment at her lack of knowledge, "I mean I've heard of it I think, but I don't really know what it is…"

Chiyo sighed, "Kami preserve me…" Her face hardened, "Listen up because I'm only going to explain this once! As a puppeteer, one of the things that will determine your abilities are your seals. With them, you can make your puppet do things that your opponent won't expect. With the right seals, you can extend the limbs of your puppet tenfold, can store one hundred times the poison in their joints or even carry the puppet itself in a scroll the size of a tin can! There's practically no limit to what you can do with the right seals and a little bit of imagination!"

"The greatest puppet masters have just as much knowledge of seals as they do of puppetry techniques." Chiyo explained, unfurling the scroll in front of Sakura's increasingly wide eyes. She placed her hand on its face and with a puff of smoke, a rather large book was left in her hand.

She held it out to her student, "This is where your next lesson begins. This is a beginners guide to the art of sealing. You'll be studying it alongside your other training in the coming weeks and I expect you to have it finished by the time I leave so you'd better get to it."

Sakura stared at the thing with a sort of reverence. This was the secret to all of the tricks that had caused her to be interested in puppetry in the first place, what allowed them to do all those incredible things that decided explanation and logic!

With great enthusiasm, Sakura flipped open the book and immediately began reading, plopping down right where she was standing to sit on the grass as Chiyo watched her with slight amusement.

She'd be sure to become just as proficient in this new art as she had with her chakra strings! No matter how difficult it was!

~~~ The Yamanaka Household ~~~

Just as she had agreed to weeks before, Sakura had been visiting the Yamanaka Household to spar with Ino at least every other day. She would say that the blonde was progressing in her fights just as much as she herself was in puppetry but well… she'd be lying.

Ino grunted in pain as Sakura's fist slammed into her stomach, sending her reeling backwards clutching the injury. As she backed away, the pinkette didn't attempt to pursue, instead dropping her stance and looking at the blonde in slight concern, "You really need to tighten your guard, Ino, and look at my eyes, not my fists. I know it hurts to get hit but you'll be able to actually predict my moves if you're looking at my face thanks to your peripheral vision."

Ino huffed, immediately wincing at the pain in her stomach, "Easy for you to say when you're not on the receiving end of those things! Jeez, Sakura, I know you're basically training me but would it kill you to hold back a bit?"

Sakura blinked, looking down at her hand, "I have been though."

"Well that doesn't make me feel better at all!" Ino cried, "How am I supposed to get better if you holding back is still enough to knock me on my ass without even trying!?"
Sakura winced at the sudden increase in volume. Why was this girl always so loud? "You just need to learn how to block properly. You're actually a pretty good fighter but you sort of fall apart when someone hits back. If you can learn where to block you might actually stand a chance against… well, not me but maybe Naruto? He just sort of throws himself at his enemy and takes the punches."

Actually, did Naruto even have a fighting style? Sakura was pretty sure that pretty much everyone in class had at least landed a hit on him. Even Ami! From what she remembered, his mother had been an accomplished kunoichi in her time so he should have been getting some good training. Maybe it just hadn't stuck?

As she mused to herself, Ino huffed, crossing her arms, "Great, I stand a chance against the lunkhead who eats fists for breakfast. We both know how durable he is and I know I can't throw him out of the ring like you can, you freakish brute!"

"Rude." Sakura frowned slightly at the blonde's attitude, "And you won't always be stronger than your enemy, Ino. In fact, I doubt you ever really will be. At least not before we graduate."

Ino's eyes narrowed dangerously and Sakura could feel she'd made a mistake, "What did you just say?"

"I meant physically, not skillfully!" She hastily corrected herself as the blonde began stomping towards her. Luckily her words saved her from Ino's wrath as the other girl froze before giving her a the motion to continue, causing Sakura to sigh in relief

"You aren't a bad fighter, Ino. From what I'm able to tell, you'd probably rank much higher in the class if you practiced more on defending and figuring out where to strike instead of attacking whatever you can hit." The pinkette explained, "You've got a much lighter build than I do thanks to your diet so you can't hit as hard. You need to aim for weak spots and try to get your opponent into a position where you can get to them."

Ino crossed her arms, "Okay, and how am I supposed to do that?"

"By controlling the flow of the fight." Ino's face twisted in confusion so Sakura explained it to her, "It's like… okay look, you saw my fight with Sasuke? The way that he was almost always moving and responding to my attacks and the way that I could barely hit him? That was because he was fighting in a way that let him choose what my next move would be. He makes me block so he can take advantage of the way my arms are placed or makes me dodge into his next attack in a way that I can't avoid."

Sakura scratched her head, "He probably learned it from his brother or something because they definitely don't teach that in class. I only figured it out because I was looking through scrolls to help me fight better and even then I can't do it a hundred percent of the time. Maybe closer to thirty percent..."

Ino stared at her for a long time after her explanation ended, blue eyes wide with incredulity at the words that just spewed out of the pinkette's mouth, "How are you not at the top of the class when you can figure that stuff out on your own?!" She demanded.

Sakura shrugged, "I don't really care about that stuff and Sasuke's really just better than me. He's faster, stronger, and better at predicting his opponents than I am. When he's actually trying, I don't think anyone in class can keep up with him except for maybe Hinata."
"Yeah well she's a Hyuga so it makes sense that taijutsu would be her forte." Ino said before a dreamy smile came over her face, "But that just means Sasuke-kun is so great that only a Hyuga can keep up with him in a fist fight!"

Sakura rolled her eyes at the girl's words, "Right. Anyway, let's continue where we left off. If you want to dictate the fight, you need speed first and foremost. If we're gonna get you up to where you want to be, you'll need to…""

From the sidelines, the other member of their group watched what was happening with critical eyes. Inoichi Yamanaka normally wouldn't have been here for his daughter's practice with her pink-haired friend but he had finished all of his work at T&I early today and had been curious so he was sitting in for his nephew who normally watched over them in his stead.

He watched curiously as Sakura lectured his daughter, an intelligent glint in her eyes that completely contrasted with her childish appearance. She suddenly extended a hand, and Inoichi's curiosity turned to shock as blue threads of chakra extended from her fingertips, sticking to Ino's clothing and causing his daughter to yelp in shock.

"These are the places people guard most so we'll focus on them first." Sakura said, causing Ino to look down at the threads. One suddenly glowed brighter than the rest, "Like here. Your liver is one of your most vital organs. You need to protect it especially hard in a fist fight because one good hit will send you down for a long time. Even with how light your punches are, you could do some real damage. Most people will know better than to leave it open though so you'll need to try hard to get their guard open for it."

As Ino poked at the strange strings attached to her body with a confused look, Inoichi stared in shock as this child who was his daughter's age demonstrated an ability that even few, if any, Konoha ninja could utilize.

The ability to create and use tangible chakra threads was a skill that took more time, effort, and most importantly, chakra control for most ninja to even attempt. Most didn't even bother with it, deeming it too difficult to learn for the little use they would get out of it.

Not to mention, it wasn't exactly a skill one could learn by themselves. Creating chakra threads was an intricate process that required at least some form of prior knowledge on how to do it. Inoichi had heard stories of cocky shinobi who thought they could mimic Suna's most secretive art only to lose the ability to weave seals as their fingers were blown off of whatever hand made the attempt.

And yet here Sakura was, with all ten fingers and chakra threads just as bright and tangible as a member of Suna's puppet corps. So that begged the question, where had the girl learned to do this?

Curiosity getting the better of him, and because it was getting pretty late, Inoichi called out to the two girls as they settled across from each other to go at it once again, "Alright, you two, that's enough for the day. Ino, dinner should be ready inside."

Both of the girls immediately dropped from their stances at his words, "Okay Tou-sama!" "Yes sir!"

As the two of them crossed the field back towards Ino's house, the blonde suddenly sighed, "Hey Sakura, are you sure this is working? We've been doing this for like two weeks and I'm still not able to handle fighting you for more than a few dozen seconds."

"That's because you've only been fighting me." Sakura responded, "I'm better than most people in class so when you're fighting me, you don't notice the change but I do. Despite what I said earlier, you aren't a bad fighter, you just don't block that well or really try to dodge."

Ino sighed, not at all comforted by her words, "Great. I'm better than the creepy bug boy who doesn't even like to fight in the first place. Yay me."

Sakura scowled as Ino called her best friend creepy, but wasn't able to say anything as Inoichi suddenly spoke up as they reached them.

"You should listen to your friend, Ino. Today's the first day I've watched you two spar but I can already see some improvement. If you keep it up, you're sure to catch the eye of that Uchiha kid you talk about so much." He said and Sakura raised an eyebrow as he blatantly played to Ino's massive crush on Sasuke. There was no way she wouldn't see right through tha-

"HELL YEAH!" Sakura whipped her head to the side, incredulous as Ino pumped a fist high in the air with a determined expression on her face, "I'll train until I can wipe the floor with everyone in class and then none of those hussies will stand a chance with Sasuke-kun!"

Inoichi shook his head as Ino's trudging gate turned into a power walk as she made her way into the house, a determined expression on her face at the thought of catching her crush's attention.

"I'll see you later, Ino! Remember what I said." Sakura called after her friend as she disappeared into her home.

"Ah, one moment Sakura." Inoichi called out to the girl, stopping her before she turned to leave.. She looked at him curiously and he gave her a disarming smile, "I was wondering where you learned to use those chakra threads you showed earlier. It's not a skill that anyone here would be able to teach you. How'd you learn it?"

Sakura blinked at the sudden question. She rubbed the back of her head, "Oh uh, it's kinda embarrassing actually. I was walking by one of the training grounds a few days ago and heard some voices. One thing led to another and I ended up in the bushes, spying on some of the Sun's ninja training."

"And I assume they caught you?" Inoichi smiled as Sakura blushed in slight embarrassment.

"Yeah they did. Or well, one of them did. I was watching them use chakra threads and wanted to try it myself so I stopped paying attention to them. I got pretty far in making my own strings when Chiyo-sensei stopped me. Scared the crap out of me too." Sakura looked down at one of her hands, "It was probably a good thing she did. She said I was about to blow my fingers off or something.

Inoichi was starting to form a picture of what was happening and he couldn't believe it, "Sensei, eh? She's training you?"

Sakura grinned brightly, completely unaware of how incredible her circumstances were, "Yep! Chiyo-sensei said that I was super talented and offered to teach me how to use puppets! I'm gonna be Konoha's greatest puppet mistress!"

Inoichi laughed lightly even though he could hardly believe that Lady Chiyo of all people would even entertain the idea of teaching someone from another village.

Still, that explained where her ability had come from. It was no wonder that Sakura was able to make chakra strings at such a young age if Lady Chiyo of all people was willing to teach her. She must really be something special to catch the woman's eye enough for her to take her on.

He'd have to inform the Hokage of course, maybe assign a squad of anbu to keep an eye on her training, but if all went well, then Konoha might just gain another powerful technique to help them against their future enemies.

"Would you like to join us for dinner?" Inoichi asked, motioning inside of his house, "I'm sure my wife made more than enough to feed all four of us. I wouldn't mind talking a bit more about your training and despite her attitude, I know Ino enjoys your company as well."

"She does?" Sakura blinked as Inoichi nodded, "She yells at me so much that I thought she didn't really like me."

Inoichi chuckled, "I can see how you might think that. Ino's always been more outspoken than children her age. She gets her personality from her mother. Believe me when I tell you that she wouldn't spend any time with you whatsoever if she didn't consider you a friend."

Sakura looked towards the door where Ino had disappeared, "Huh… Well she's pretty cool too, I guess." She looked back to him, an apologetic expression coming over her face, "Anyway, I'm sorry but I can't stay for dinner. My parents and sister are getting back from their trip tonight and I wanna eat with them."

Inoichi smiled, showing there was no harm done, "Ah, maybe next time then. Get home safe, Sakura."
She gave him a grin as she turned to leave, "Will do!"

As Inoichi entered his house once again, he happened across his daughter as she was coming down the stairs. She had changed out of her earlier outfit into something much more fitting for lounging around the house instead of sparring.

"Say, Ino." Inoichi spoke up as they both made their way to the kitchen, "Your friend, do you know where her parents are from?"

Ino gave him a confused look, "What do you mean? I'm pretty sure they're from here."

"You're sure?" He kept his voice casual, knowing how sharp his little girl could be sometimes, "They're not from say, Suna or somewhere in the Land of Wind?"

Ino shook her head, "No, they're from Konoha. They're merchants though and are pretty much always out of the village based on what Sakura told me so they probably visit places all over the continent. Actually, I think they just got back from the Land of Wind today."

Inoichi rubbed his chin in thought, "Interesting…"

"What's interesting?" Ino asked, completely confused about her father's questions.

He shook his head, "It's nothing, Ino, just thinking about something. Come on, I'm sure your mother is getting impatient. We'd better hurry and wash up before she brings out the frying pan."

Ino blinked before suddenly picking up the speed, leaving her father laughing as he watched her practically jog to the bathroom.

An up-and-coming Konoha ninja being trained personally by Lady Chiyo of all people. One who apparently had no ties to Suna in any discernible way…

"Shikaku's not going to believe this."

~~~ The Next Day ~~~

Sakura hummed in confusion as she looked over the seal she was working on with critical eyes. She was once again sitting in Training Ground 23, an unfurled sealing scroll held in front of her that her sensei had given her for practice.

Her fingers tapped on her thighs, newly painted nails glinting in the morning light as she cross referenced the seal she was working on with the open book sitting by her side, "What am I doing wrong?" She muttered, leaning over to get a closer look at what it was supposed to look like.

The seal she was currently working on could barely even be called an actual seal. It was a basic array that was meant for a beginner to practice their brush strokes with. Once it was complete, it would light up a brilliant blue to indicate that the new practitioner was ready to move on to the next step. Sakura's wasn't doing that.

Sealing was much more difficult for her than using chakra strings and even now, a full week later she still hadn't quite gotten the hang of it. Her child brain had trouble keeping up with the new terms and line of thinking that was required to learn such an art, often leaving her with a headache after a full day of practice.

She persevered though. It was necessary if she wanted to be a true puppeteer so she would learn and master it like she was going to master everything else that she needed to become the greatest puppeteer the Elemental Nations had ever seen!

…First she needed to figure out how to fix this practice array though. It was supposed to be lighting up, not smoking.

She furrowed her bow in concentration, looking over the inky black array in search of the issue. Behind her, her sensei scrutinized her from a few feet away, keeping an eye on what she was doing. As she did so, Chiyo's eyes strayed down towards the girl's hands.

They were stained black with ink but the deep red covering her fingernails shone through easily. Strangely easily in fact, and Chiyo narrowed her eyes in slight confusion as she realized something.

"Hey, girl." She called out, causing her student to turn towards her, "Where in the world did you manage to get your hands on chakra conductive nail polish?"

Sakura blinked, surprised that the woman had been able to tell, before looking down at her fingernails, "Oh, uh, my parents brought it back from their trip to the Land of Wind. I didn't even know it was chakra conductive until I used my threads but it made it a lot easier to control them!"

Chiyo raised a brow, "That stuff is very expensive even in Suna where it's made. It takes months to gather enough ingredients for even a quart and it's usually all snatched up by the puppet corps before it even hits the market. Your parents must be very successful in life to afford a vial. Are they jonin?"

Sakura shook her head, "Nah, we're a merchant clan! I think I'm the only one who has any interest in being a ninja." She said happily as she returned to her scroll, "The Haruno family isn't as famous as the ninja clans but when it comes to the village's economy, we're pretty well known. They probably managed to get a good deal on it."

Chiyo's eyes widened in surprise before darting to the large white circle on the back of her student's jacket. Now that she mentioned it, Chiyo had seen it somewhere before though she hadn't given any thought to it but she certainly recognized the name.

The Haruno family was less of an actual family and more of a joined collection of merchant clans who joined together in order to trade skills and routes. It spanned nearly the entirety of the Elemental Nations, and while it was mostly inconsequential when it came to ninja affairs, few villages hadn't seen their business reach their gates.

At the center of it all, sat a family from Konoha who the coalition was named after, marked by the simple crest of a white circle. The same one that was displayed proudly on her student's back. If the girl truly was from the family, then it was no wonder that she had managed to obtain a vial of the stuff.

"The color suits you." Chiyo finally said, causing Sakura's eyes to widen, "You forgot to close the linking matrices in your locking seal. Fix it."

Sakura immediately moved to do that, unable to keep the grin off of her face at her sensei's words as she returned to her task with renewed enthusiasm.

---

Next five chapters available for Patrons!

 

[SoralTheSol]

Yes! An update. Keep up the good work.

 

[Alpha_ræd]

When the passage says Ino's 'gate' switched to a power walk: the word is supposed to be "gait"

 

[Sadguychet]

~~~ Week Two ~~~

Sakura rubbed her head in frustration as she stared down at the problem in front of her. It was lunchtime at the Academy which basically amounted to a free period for them and she was using the opportunity to put in some more work on her training. A sealing scroll was spread out in front of her while a jar of ink and a brush sat nearby, ready for use.

Normally she would be on the roof or somewhere similar, eating lunch with Shino as opposed to sitting under a tree by herself, but Shino wasn't there and Sakura wasn't very hungry, way too focused on trying to figure out the latest roadblock in her sealing practice.

Several days ago, Chiyo had decided that her brush strokes were at an acceptable level for now and had moved the girl onto the next chapter of her training, crafting a simple but functional seal using nothing but the knowledge that she would be able to acquire in the book. No references to draw from. No hand holding.

Even with Sakura's zeal for learning about the art of puppetry, it had taken the girl much longer than usual to finish the book in the first place. As she had quickly come to find out, her sense's training didn't just include using chakra strings to move sticks or learning how to seal. Insead, she had to deal with the physical training on top of all that. Often at the same time.

Getting pelted with blunt kunai made it kind of hard to concentrate on maintaining chakra strings. Sakura could see the need for the training of course, a puppeteer who stayed in one place was often a dead one after all, but she still wished that it didn't hurt so much. It would also have been nice if her sensei bothered to blunt the edges of the kunai as well as the tips.

The pinkette scratched lightly at a thin cut on her arm as she hummed to herself, "I was sure that I did it correctly… I even cross-referenced the chakra condenser seals to make sure that I wrote them perfectly, so why isn't it working?"

She spent a long moment just staring at it as if it would reveal what exactly she had done wrong under scrutiny before groaning, "Come on! I don't want to have to start all over again! This took me forever to make!"

"Whatcha doing, Sakura?"

"Gah!" Sakura yelled in shock as a voice suddenly came from directly above her head. She looked up and found a pair of curious sapphire eyes staring down at her from behind dangling locks of blond hair. Naruto was lounging in the tree she was currently sitting under, laying on his stomach and dangling his head down towards her in clear hopes of getting a better look at what she was doing.

She stared at the boy for a second, wondering how in the world she hadn't seen or even noticed him in the time that she had been working before shaking out of it. Despite his constant need to wear bright orange, Naruto could be oddly sneaky at times.

Wordlessly, she motioned for him to come down and he immediately did so, hopping out of the tree to drop down next to her. As he settled in beside her, Sakura motioned to her scroll and sealing materials, "Hey, Naruto. My sensei is having me work on seals but I'm having a little trouble. I thought I did everything perfectly so I can't figure out why this one isn't working."

The boy looked confused as he looked at all of her stuff before said confusion turned to slight panic, "Wait, did Iruka-sensei give us sealing homework?"

Sakura laughed at his worry, "Not our sensei, my sensei. She's teaching me some stuff outside of class to help me be an awesome kunoichi!"

Naruto made an 'ahh' noise, his eyes lighting up in understanding, "Oh, so it's like me and Kakashi-nii!"
"I don't know who that is but sure." Sakura nodded before turning back to her seal, "I need to figure out why my seal isn't activating or I can't move onto the next part of my training. My sensei isn't staying in the village for very long so I need to figure it out soon."

Naruto scratched his cheek, "Well, I don't really get all that sealing stuff but if you need help, you can ask my Kaa-san for help. I sometimes see her working on seals around the house and stuff so she can definitely tell you what's wrong!"

Sakura froze, slowly turning her head to just stare at Naruto as her ears processed what he just said. That was right. Naruto was an Uzumaki, wasn't he?

When Chiyo had gotten her started on sealing, Sakura decided to do a little bit of research into the art and where it came from in hopes to get some more insight that would help her with training. What she found was both incredible, and extremely sad.

The Uzumaki were the remnants of what had once been the people of Uzushiogakure, a ninja village that had been located off of the coast between the Land of Fire and Land of Water. Their people had been renowned for their sealing capabilities, doing things that most thought impossible with just scrolls and ink alone.

With that renown had come a great deal of enemies in nearly every other hidden village across the Elemental Nations. They feared the capabilities of Uzushio as well as their alliance with Konoha, believing that together they could be a nearly unstoppable force and so they decided to do something about it.

Sakura had never heard of so many villages joining together just to fight one. Every major village apart from Konoha, along with a few minor ones all had a hand in the destruction of what had once been Konoha's greatest ally. When all was said and done, Uzushio was nothing but ruins and what was left of the village scattered across the lands, bringing their story to a horrific end.

Naruto's mother had been in Konoha when her home village had fallen and had escaped the decimation of her people. While she had not attempted to bring the Uzumaki clan back to its former glory, she still kept their name alive, owning a seat on the Council along with all of the other clan heads.

She probably had all sorts of knowledge of sealing! Either in her head or in texts that she had brought with her from her home village. She would be able to help Sakura, no problem!

…Was she an idiot? How had she not thought of this before!?

Disregarding the thought, Sakura shot to her feet, surprising Naruto as she grabbed the boy by the collar of his jacket, lifting him towards her as she gave him an excited grin, "You're right! She's exactly what I need! Let's go talk to her!"

As she went to pull him off, Sakura was forced to stop as Naruto jerked her back. She looked back at him, slightly annoyed, "What is it?"

Naruto was staring at her in confusion, "We can't go right now. Iruka-sensei will yell at me!"

At his words, Sakura froze as she suddenly remembered it was, in fact, the middle of the school day. If they left now, they'd be skipping, and Sakura Haruno did not skip class.

She puts Naruto back down, blushing sheepishly, "Sorry, I got a little excited. Do you… wanna eat lunch with me or something? Shino isn't here today cause his cousin's having a reaction to his kikaichu so it's just me today."

"You're by yourself?" Naruto said in surprise, "That's not cool! Nobody should eat alone if they don't want to! You should come hang out with me and Sasuke! He'll complain a bit but don't worry, he does that to everyone. "

Sakura hadn't ever eaten with anyone but Shino before, the Aburame being the only real close friend she had, so she was a little wary. The sight of Naruto staring at her with those earnest eyes and that massive grin though, swayed her decision almost immediately, "Alright." She said as she leaned down to gather up her stuff, "Let me grab my things real quick and then you can lead the way."

"Awesome!"

~~~ Konoha Shinobi Sector ~~~

The house that Naruto and his mother lived in wasn't nearly as fancy as Sakura thought it would be. When she had learned that the Uzumaki were a clan that used to hold the same prestige as the Uchiha or the Hyuga, she had been expecting some sort of opulent house complete with a separate, smaller house for servants or something similar.

Instead, she was left slightly confused as Naruto led her up to the door of a modest, two-story home in the Shinobi Sector. It was nice, just as nice as Sakura's own home in fact, but it was nowhere near what she had been suspecting.

As they entered the house, taking their shoes off at the door like they had been taught to do, Sakura looked around at the decor. It was well furnished, with several nice paintings hanging on the wall and some classy furniture peeking from what she could see of the sitting room. There were also quite a few pictures of Naruto and a redhead that she assumed was his mother, smiling happily at the camera.

Any sort of hint of the blonde's father was also noticeably absent which was kind of odd. From what she knew, the unnamed man had died on the night of Naruto's birth, murdered in front of both him and his mother. She would have thought that they'd want some sort of memento to remember him by.

"Kaa-chan! Are you here!?" Naruto suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs, breaking Sakura out of her thoughts and causing her to flinch back at the noise. She gave him a slightly annoyed look. What was it with these blondes and yelling all the time?

"I'm in the kitchen! And stop yelling in the house!" A voice responded back from further in the house. Sakura got a small amount of amusement at the fact that the woman was yelling just as loud as her son, making the scolding words a lot less impactful.

The two of them made their way into the kitchen and were met with a woman with bright red hair and a green apron around her waist chopping something on a cutting board. Sakura sniffed and her nose caught the scent of onions undercut by some other vegetables.

"Welcome home, honey. We're having vegetable ramen for dinner tonight." Kushina said without looking back at her son. She placed the knife aside and scooped up what she had been cutting, putting it all in a large pot that was simmering off to the side, "It should be ready in a couple hours so don't go running over to Mikoto's house, alright?"

"Aww, I wanted miso!" Naruto groaned at his mother's words.

"I've already told you, Naruto, eating ramen every day is fine because it's the greatest food on the planet but that doesn't mean that you can skip out on eating your veggies!" The woman scolded the boy.

Naruto sighed, "Yeah whatever. Do we have anything left over from last night?" He asked, blatantly ignoring his mother's words. Sakura watched with a great deal of fascination as Kushina froze, an almost visible tick mark appearing on her head as she processed his words.

She suddenly whipped around, eye twitching in anger at her son's belligerence and clutching a wooden spoon in her hand that Sakura was absolutely sure wasn't there before. She opened her mouth, no doubt ready to yell at her son for his words, only to freeze as she caught sight of Sakura standing a few feet behind her, looking slightly uncomfortable.

"Oh!" The woman broke out of her shock, "Naruto, why didn't you tell me you brought a guest over?"

"This is Sakura!" Naruto said happily, "She was having some trouble with homework or whatever and I told her you could help her!"

Sakura bowed low at the waist as the woman's curious eyes locked onto her, "It's nice to meet you, Kushina-sama."

Kushina twitched at the formal address, "Don't call me that. Makes me feel like one of those stuffy clan heads and I have to deal with that enough at the meetings."
Sakura was slightly surprised at that, knowing how serious clan heads were about respect, but nodded anyway, "Okay, Kushina. It's nice to meet you."
"And you too!" Kushina smiled widely and Sakura was suddenly struck by how similar this woman was to Naruto, "I'm glad to see that my son has some female friends! I was worried that he'd scared them all off with his constant yelling and all."

Sakura just shrugged, "I've gotten a lot of practice dealing with loud blondes here recently. I'm training with Ino and I don't think she's gone a day without yelling my ear off. I used to hate it but I've kinda gotten used to it cause she isn't really mean about it. At least I don't think so."

"You've been training with Ino?" Naruto's face twisted, "Ew! She's louder than me!"

"Debatable."

Kushina giggled at the friendly bickering, before leaning down to ruffle Sakura's hair, causing several pink strands to fall out of her ponytail, "You know, with hair like this, you could be an Uzumaki! Got any relatives from Uzu, pinkie?"

Sakura shook her head, removing Kushina's hands from her scalp and stepping back, "Maybe, but I doubt it. My family travels all over and we're not really sure where we're originally from but my dad said we've had pink hair for a long time."

"So it's possible but not very likely." Kushina sighed, "Well that's too bad. It's so hard to find anyone from Uzu these days, especially with all the nonsense happening in Kiri. I bet that's really spooking any of them who settled there wanting to be close to home and they're going into hiding."
"Why don't they just come here?" Sakura asked.

Kushina gave her a sad look, "Most of them blame Konoha for what happened to Uzushio in the first place. We were allies for a long time so Uzu expected reinforcements and when they didn't get them well… you know the story. They aren't willing to settle here because they feel like the village is responsible for everything that happened even though most don't know the full story."

"What is the full story?" Sakura asked, the scholar in her yearning to learn more about the village's history.

She was slightly disappointed as Kushina shook her head, "Maybe another time. It's not really the kind of story that you'd understand at your age. Why don't you tell me what you came here for. Naruto said you needed my help with something?"

Even at her young age, Sakura could see the blatant subject change for what it was. Despite this, she didn't say anything, instead reaching behind her and retrieving her scroll from her back, holding it up for Kushina to see, "I've been working on this seal for the past few days and it should be working but it's not. Do you think you could help me fix it? Or maybe let me borrow a book on the subject or something?"

Kushina's eyes widened, "You're interested in sealing?" Her voice was eager and Sakura wasn't given a chance to reply as Kushina suddenly leaned down, grabbing Sakura by her shoulders and looking at her with an intense gleam in her eyes, "You're so young though, I can't believe that you'd have the patience for something like that! Do you want to become a seal master?! Do I finally have someone to pass on my arts to?!"

Sakura leaned away from the woman, more than a little taken aback by her intensity, "Uhh, not right now, no. It's for the training I'm doing to become a puppet master. Chiyo-sensei said that sealing was one of the most important parts of puppetry so I need to become good at making and using them."
Kushina's face almost immediately dropped into a pout. She leaned away, turning her face to the ceiling as she groaned, "Ugh! Why isn't anybody here interested in seals?! Seals are awesome but nobody cares about learning about them! Except for him…"

Sakura watched as the woman devolved into angry grumbles about some white-haired pervert, before turning to Naruto in hopes of finding some semblance of normality in this situation. Instead of anything like that, she was met with the sight of the blond waist deep in the refrigerator, rummaging around as he looked for something. She couldn't make out much, but she was sure he was saying something particularly nasty about vegetables.

Like mother like son, she supposed.

Kushina broke out of her funk quickly, shaking her head before looking at Sakura, "Well then, go ahead bring out the seal and let me take a look at it." She said, motioning to the kitchen table. Sakura was quick to follow her instructions, retrieving her sealing scroll from the pocket of her jacket and unfurling it, laying it across the table for the woman's scrutiny.

Kushina observed the seal with critical eyes, "Hmm… Your brush strokes are pretty good but you're packing things too tightly. Density is good and all when you need to hide a seal and what it does but this is just a regular storage seal by the looks of it. There's no need to condense things so much and it'll only make it harder to figure out what's wrong with it if something messes up."

Sakura nodded at her words, making mental notes based on what the woman had said, "So do you know what's wrong with it?"

Kushina scoffed, "Pft, I got that by a glance. Your seal is fizzling out because the first half of your chakra transfer node isn't reversed like it should be." She pointed at one of the seal's outer edges, motioning for Sakura to take a closer look, "See here? It loops back into itself so the chakra doesn't have anywhere to go. It's creating a constant loop of chakra in the first ring that causes the whole thing to misfire when you activate it."

Sakura almost slapped herself as she realized the woman was right. In the place where there should have been a clockwise looping stroke was instead a counterclockwise one. She must have gotten confused on which side of the seal she had been working on at the time.

Kushina hummed to herself as she examined the rest of the seal, "That's the only issue I can see other than the spacing thing. It's really good for a beginner, honestly. I remember my first seal had all sorts of issues, especially once I tried to allow it to be activated remotely while absorbing chakra at the same time. I don't think Mito ever let me hear the end of that one till the day she died."

Sakura froze as something the woman had said stuck out in her mind. Her brain rolled the thought over continuously, working furiously with this new idea that it had been given.

Without any prompting from the woman above her, Sakura pulled out a pencil, writing a note on the side of the sealing scroll to herself. Seals couldn't be altered once the ink had dried so she would have to start all over again. That was fine though, thanks to Kushina, she had an idea that she couldn't wait to test out.

Kushina watched Sakura write with a slightly confused face. She should know that it was too late to alter her seal and pencil wouldn't do anything to help-

The Uzumaki suddenly paused as she caught sight of what the girl was doing. Her pencil rubbed against the paper furiously as she muttered to herself, drawing what looked like a conception of what a future seal was supposed to look like. It was almost exactly the same as the one that she had Kushina look over except in one key factor. One that didn't make any sense for a beginner seal maker to know.

As she watched, Sakura finally leaned back from the paper, blowing a quick burst of air across the page to get rid of any stray bits of graphite from her scribbling, "Sorry about that. I just had an idea and wanted to write it down before I forgot or something." She apologized, looking up at the redhead hovering over her.
Instead of responding, the woman just sort of… stared at her. She didn't look angry or happy, just sort of placid. Sakura stared back, growing slightly uncomfortable at the silence between them, only broken by the sounds of Naruto still rummaging through the fridge in search of something to eat that didn't contain any vegetables.

"You said your sensei was Chiyo." Kushina suddenly said after several moments, "I don't suppose you mean Lady Chiyo? From Suna?"

Sakura nodded, grinning brightly, "Yep! I'm gonna become a puppet master-no, the greatest puppet master in the whole world!"

She wasn't really sure where the declaration had come from but the moment it left her lips, she realized that it felt right. Sakura wasn't one to half-ass things so why would she be any different when it came to puppetry? If she was going to use puppets, she was going to make sure that she was the very best at doing so! Nobody would be able to stand up to her in her chosen art!

Completely unaware of the child's new and lofty goal, instead giving her a curious once over before nodding slowly, seemingly making a silent decision, "I have a book on sealing that I'll lend you but in return, why don't you join us for dinner? You can tell me all about your training and have some of the best ramen you've ever had in your life!"

Sakura tilted her head curiously, "Ramen? I don't think I've ever had that before."

She froze as two sets of eyes turned to stare at her like she had said she didn't believe in the deity that they had dedicated their lives to, as if the very idea of the words that had just left her mouth was sacrilegious at best and grounds for summary execution at worst.

Sakura was soon swept up into the manic whirlwind that was the Uzumaki family. She bounced around mentally as she tried to keep up, completely unused to the energy that the two of them showed in every waking moment of her life. As she exited the house later that night, slowly making her way back to her own home with a full stomach and a slight headache, she had come to a single conclusion from the experience.

Ramen was pretty good.

~~~ Three Days Later, Training Ground 23 ~~~

Kushina's book had been exactly what Sakura needed to fill in the gaps in her knowledge. It was the perfect mix of knowledgeable, and easy to understand, allowing the child to get a grasp on what the book was trying to convey with astounding ease.

Her sealing had improved massively as a result, which she was currently showing her sensei as she put the finishing touches on the storage seal she had been working on for the last several days. In front of her, Sakura finished her seal with one final stroke of her brush, closing the array and readying it for activation. She wiped at her sweaty forehead, accidentally leaving a jet black mark from her ink-stained fingers, before placing her clean hand on the sealing scroll.

With a flare of chakra, the ink covering the scroll flared a bright white as it was primed for activation. Sakura felt a moment of worry that the entire array was going to collapse, knowing that it was a fair possibility for this type of seal. That worry soon turned to relief as instead of exploding or simply fizzling out, the seal stuck, the glow fading back into the scroll and leaving the seal intact.

And just like that, Sakura now had a scroll that she could use to store pretty much anything that wasn't alive, small enough to carry around with her wherever she went..

Filled with elation, Sakura snatched up the scroll and turned towards her teacher who was watching her intently as always, "Chiyo-sensei! I did it!" She cheered, holding up the results of over two weeks of hard work for the woman to view.

Chiyo rubbed at her chin, examining the scroll with a professional gaze, before nodding firmly, "So you did, girl. It's a bit basic but you can work on that later. What's most important is that it's well constructed. Well done."

Sakura preened visibly at the praise and Chiyo gestured with a hand to her sealing equipment still sitting on the grass, "Well don't take all day. Test it out."

Equal parts eager and wary, Sakura gathered her things and placed them on the scroll's surface directly above the seal that she had designed. She hesitated for just a moment, worried that it might not work, but she pushed past it, channeling chakra into the seal and watching eagerly for the results.

A plume of white smoke billowed from the seal with a sharp pop, consuming the equipment and blocking her vision for a long moment. Sakura watched with eager eyes as the smoke slowly faded, before a massive grin formed on her face as it disappeared completely to reveal that all of the equipment had completely disappeared. It worked!

Rolling up her scroll, Sakura pumped her fist in the air, " I did it!" She shouted in victory, elation filling her at her success.

Chiyo gave her an amused look but clapped politely all the same, "Yes you did. Now you've got your own personal storage seal. You should be happy about that, those things can cost a pretty penny some places."

"And that's not all!" Sakura suddenly said, causing Chiyo to raise an eyebrow.

Sakura placed her scroll back on the ground once more, keeping it open as she walked several feet away from it. She held a hand out, forming her chakra strings and sending them forth to latch onto the sealing paper.

There was another loud puff and Sakura's face nearly split in half at her massive grin as her sealing equipment was once again revealed, "It worked!" She couldn't help but shout happily as she activated the seal once more, causing her equipment to disappear.

This was the idea that had been spurred by Kushina's offhand comment. If all you needed was a bit of chakra to activate a seal, then wouldn't chakra strings work just as well? Normally there wouldn't be enough chakra contained within the threads to actually activate a seal, but with a little bit of modification and increasing the sensitivity of the seal in just the right way, she now had a seal that could be put on her future puppets and be activated with her strings. Sort of like the seal that paper bombs used!

As Sakura celebrated her success, Chiyo stared at the scroll that her student was rolling up in slight surprise. Remote activation wasn't something that was covered in the book she had given the girl. Letting a new seal maker learn how to activate their creations remotely was just asking for trouble so that lesson was normally saved until they had gotten a hang of sealing basics and had proven to be responsible enough to use them.

It seemed that Sakura had circumnavigated that purposeful handicap through a bit of creativity and intelligence though. The seal that she had created was extremely similar to the ones on the puppets of Chiyo's older students, practically tailor made for the use of a puppeteer. This girl was frightfully intelligent.

Chiyo felt a small welling of pride in her chest, "Well done. You've gone and surpassed my expectations with this one. I wasn't expecting something like this, I will admit."

Sakura carefully tied the scroll to her waist with a happy grin, "Thank you sensei! That was way harder than anything you've had me do so far but it was worth it! Sealing is awesome and I can't wait to make something else!"

She was telling the truth too. The rush of excitement that she had felt once the modified storage seal had worked was still buzzing through her veins, filling her with energy and elation that her creation had been successful. It had been hard but worth it and Sakura couldn't wait to see what else she could make with the power of seals!

She was brought out of her thoughts as her sensei spoke once more, "Well that's all well and good, girl, but we're on a time crunch here. If I'm going to teach you what you need to know before I leave in a week or two we can't spend too much time on any one subject. It's time to move on to the next stage of your training."

As she said this, Chiyo reached into her robes and pulled out a green scroll, unfurling it in one smooth motion. With a puff of smoke similar to the one that Sakura's had emitted, the woman was left holding a stack of books in one hand, "Here. These will be what you'll be studying from now until I leave." She said, literally tossing them to Sakura who just barely managed to catch them before they hit the ground.

As she recovered from the imbalance that the sudden increase in weight had caused, Sakura looked down at the spines of the books she had been given. There was one about anatomy, one about the various flora that could be found throughout all of the Elemental Nations, and one on fauna of a similar type. All of them were just as thick as the book on sealing as well, practically bursting with the knowledge that Sakura would need.

To anyone looking in from the outside, these books would have looked like they had been chosen at random, but to Sakura, they all pointed to one thing.

"We're going to be working on poisons next?" The pinkette asked. Chiyo grinned at her student's astuteness, holding out a vial of dark purple liquid that shimmered in the light.

"Indeed we are, girl! Like seals, a puppet master would be nothing without the deadly poisons in his or her arsenal. This one here is a paralyzing toxin made from one of the more common scorpions found near Suna." She tossed the vial over to Sakura who just barely managed to catch it while at the same time keeping her hands on her books, "Drink it. One small sip please, I don't have the antidote on me at the moment and I doubt you'd appreciate a visit to the hospital."

…Huh?
Sakura stared at the old woman in horror, "Why would I drink it!? Aren't we supposed to test those things on animals or something!?"
Her horror only increased as Chiyo laughed out loud, apparently finding her words extremely funny, "Why in the world would we do that? I already know how it works and once you study those books, you will too. No, you're doing this so you can build up a resistance to the toxin. Only amateurs use poisons that they aren't at least a little resistant to."

As Sakura stared at her sensei who motioned for her to go ahead and take a sip, the pinkette was suddenly struck with a realization, one that she probably should have had days ago.

This woman was actually insane.

---

Next five chapters available for Patrons!

 

[Orchamus]

Sweet, Kushina is a wonderful character who needs far more use than she gets. Can kinda guess about Minato being on the outs with her from the lack of pics or mementos? Also lol, Chiyo is a scary old woman

 

[Sadguychet]

~~~ Week Three: Day 23~~~

Poisoning yourself was just as fun as Sakura had thought it would be. That being not at all.

Her latest addition to her training was certainly taking its toll on her, giving her an almost constant fever and headaches more often than not. This latest poison was one of the worst yet, coming with tingling fingers and twitching muscles-

"ACHOO!"

And sneezes. She hated those the most. It was hard to study when you couldn't even read for more than a few minutes at the time.

Sakura sniffled at the latest expulsion from her nose, groaning miserably. Above her, her sister, Hanami, gave her a weird look.

"Why are you still sick, Nee-chan? It's been forever!" The little girl asked her, swinging her legs idly from atop Sakura's shoulders.

The two of them were walking through the village in the early morning as Sakura needed to run some errands for her training and Hanami wanted to join her. She would never turn down an opportunity to spend time with her little sister and had happily agreed to let the girl tag along.

Sakura gave the girl a miserable smile, sniffling slightly to stop the snot from leaking down her face, "I'm not sick, Hanami. It's part of my training. I have to drink some stuff that will make me feel really bad so I tcan get used to it."

Her voice was stuffy, like she had a constant film of phlegm in her sinuses and the back of her throat. She swallowed it down grimacing as her slightly raw throat spoke up at the action.

Yeah, being poisoned sucked. But she'd deal with it just like Chiyo-sensei said. It would suck more if she nicked herself with a poisoned kunai or something and died because she didn't build up a resistance.

The four-year-old clearly didn't understand the intricacies of her training, "Why? Kaa-chan says we shouldn't mess with stuff that will make us sick!"

Sakura thought for a moment on how to explain it in a way that her younger sister would understand, "Well it's like… If I feel bad now, then when I'm a real ninja and this stuff gets used on me, I won't feel as bad then!"

Hanami's eyes widened, "Ohhhh! Like when June got chicken pox and Kaa-chan let her spend the night!"

Sakura winced, remembering the week that had followed the sleepover and the constant itching that came with it, "Yeah. Like that. I'm drinking a bunch of different bad stuff so that I'll be resistant to a lot of things!"

"Can I try some?"

Sakura paled at the question, imagining her mother's reaction to that. She gave her sister a nervous smile, "Oh look! We're here! Come on, hop off my shoulders so I can talk to Tachi."

Hanami pouted but did as she asked, sliding onto the door as the two of them entered Tachi's store. Hanami's unhappiness didn't last long though, as almost immediately the little girl was gazing around at the weapons and tools lining the walls with great amounts of interest.

"Ah, Sakura! Welcome back." Tachi walked out of the back, having heard the sound of the door opening, "What's the occasion? Today isn't a weekday so I didn't expect to see you here."

Sakura walked over to the man, pulling Hanami behind her, "I'm actually here to buy stuff this time!"

Tachi laughed, "Oh really? Are you finally taking my advice and buying a training blade? Or maybe this little one would like one instead." He bent down, smiling at Hanami who looked back at him curiously.

"She's not old enough!"

Tachi laughed, "Of course, of course. You can never start too early though. So if you still don't want one of my several fine blades, what are you here for?"

"I need new clothes." Sakura said simply. While Tachi's shop was primarily a ninja outfitter, the man also sold clothing and had a basic knowledge on how to adjust them for a specific person. He didn't have as big of a selection as specialty stores, but he wasn't lacking for variety either.

It was also rather pricey. It was going to be expensive and likely eat all of her savings just for an outfit or two, but if it helped Sakura achieve her goal, then it was more than worth it!

Tachi blinked in surprise at her statement, "Really? You know, most academy students don't go shopping for more durable clothing until they graduate. You're still growing after all."

Sakura nodded, keeping an eye on her sister as she wandered off to look at some kunai, "Yeah, I know, but right now my clothes are good enough to stand up to my training so I need some better ones. I've already gone through like three pairs of pants and Kaa-chan isn't very happy."

Tachi looked her over and Sakura held her arms out to show him the various tears and scuffs in her clothing, including one rather larger gash in her jacket from a kunai that she hadn't quite managed to dodge in time.

"Hmm," Tachi stroked his chin as he thought, "I can sell you ninja grade gear, mesh undershirts, more durable fabric, maybe even come knuckles guards, but I can't give you ninja tools or anything like that. Not allowed to until you graduate or get permission from your academy sensei."

Sakura smiled brightly at his words before something off to the side caught her attention, "That's fine! I don't need any of those things for training anyways! Hanami, don't touch that!"

As Sakura went to stop her sister from cutting herself on a scary sharp looking axe, Tachi laughed lightly, "Well alright then, let's go to the back and get you fitted! Since you told me about your training, I've had some ideas that I just haven't been able to get out of my head."

Sakura gave him a sunny smile as she dragged her sister behind her, "Really? Awesome, let's go!"

Hopefully this wouldn't completely drain her wallet. She'd been saving up for a while now.

~~~

Unfortunately, after everything was said and done, Sakura's new outfit would have cost much more than the nine-year-old would have been able to afford. Between the mesh undershirt, gloves, sandals, and the fabric that the clothes themselves were made of, it would have cost a little upwards of four-hundred-thousand ryo. That was more than her parents spent during their trips out of the country!

Luckily for her, Tachi had a solution.

"And all I have to do is shop here when I become a ninja?" Sakura asked the shopkeeper as she tied her hair back up into her signature spiky ponytail.

Tachi nodded, looking her up and down as she settled into her new outfit, "That's it! As long as you buy your supplies here at least until you become chunin and tell your friends all about it, then you can have this at a massive discount!"

Massive was an understatement. Tacho had basically given the outfits to her compared to the original price, and all he wanted in return was free advertising and for her to only shop at his store if she could help it, something she was probably gonna do anyway!

"Wow! You look like a real ninja, onee-chan!" Hanami said from beside her, staring at her with awe in her eyes.

Glancing at herself in the nearby mirror, Sakura couldn't help but slightly mimic her little sister's emotions. She really did look like a real ninja, so much so that she could barely recognize herself from what she had seen earlier.

Her normal loose jacket and pants combo has been traded for something much more durable and ninja-like. A pinkish-red sleeveless shirt sat overtop a dark, long-sleeved shinobi top with flowing sleeves while similarly colored shinobi pants covered her legs, strapped to her ankles with wrapping so the hem wouldn't float unnecessarily. Fingerless gloves covered her hands, giving her a bit of protection while also ensuring she wouldn't have any trouble using her chakra strings.

Tachi hadn't been able to give her any tools,but he had been able to give her a pouch to put them in which was now strapped to her right thigh, in easy reach should she ever need anything such as her storage scroll or the poisons she was training to resist right now.

If she was just a little bit taller, Sakura would honestly think that the person in her reflection was a genin fresh out of the academy. The thought made her grin, wondering how her parents would react to her new outfit.

As she turned herself this way and that, admiring her reflection, Tachi came up behind her. He put a hand on her shoulder, nodding approvingly as she grinned up at him, "Now you're looking like a real ninja, kid. I'm sure those boys in your class will be all over you." He added teasingly.

Sakura scrunched her face, "Ew! I don't care about any of that! This is for training!"

Tachi chuckled, "Haha, I know. I was just teasing you."

Sakura pouted, turning back to her reflection as Hanami played with the hem of her shirt, "I can move a lot easier in this stuff so I should be able to dodge kunai and stuff better."

"Well I'm happy for you. Even more happy to know that I'll have a loyal customer like you in the future!" Tachi laughed, patting her on the shoulder and making her grin.

Although, as she gazed at herself in the mirror, she couldn't help but feel like something was missing. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but the more she studied her reflection, the more than she felt like something was just a little off.

Her eyes flitter over to her discarded clothing, and almost immediately, she realized what it was. She couldn't believe she forgot!

"Hey Tachi,could you make a quick modification?" Sakura asked, gazing at the crest on the back of her jacket.

"This outfit's missing one thing."

~~~

Sakura ducked into a bush as a kunai whizzed by her head, only to throw herself to the side as another slammed into the dirt where she had just been.

This was the latest part of her lessons, evasion training, and it was probably the toughest one yet. It seemed that Sakura had been doing too well recently as the intensity of this lesson had been bumped up to eleven, her sensei barely letting off for even a moment to let her rest. Combined with the poison still coursing through her bloodstream, it was all Sakura could do to stay focused on the task at hand.

She darted to the side as her ears picked up the sound of rushing wind, wincing as three dull thuds came from the bark just behind her head. She panted, trying her best to catch her breath as her sensei no doubt repositioned herself,only to freeze as a shout rang out through the training ground.

"Stay mobile, girl! A stationary ninja is a dead ninja!"

Sakura's eyes widened as three shuriken curved unnaturally around a nearby tree, guided by glowing chakra strings as they headed straight for her.She just barely managed to dodge them, sliding around the tree she was hiding behind, only to come face-to-face with another kunai that she couldn't hope to dodge in her surprised state.

The metal ring of the kunai slammed into her forehead, sending her to the ground with a painful thud. She didn't attempt to rise, instead groaning as she rubbed her forehead, "Owww… That's not fair, sensei!"

"Fair?" Chiyo scoffed as she walked over "We're ninja girl. There's no such thing as fair. You knew where I was so you should have been prepared for anything"

Sakura grumbled something unintelligible as she looked down at herself, her mood somewhat lifted as she saw that her outfit had sustained basically no damage during her training. Tachi made good stuff.

But they weren't done yet.

After taking another moment to rest, Sakura huffed, beginning to rise. As she did so, Chiyo spoke up, stopping her before she could do more than lift her upper body off of the ground, "Don't bother pushing yourself anymore. We're done with physical training today."

Or maybe they were. Sakura immediately dropped back down into the grass, relishing in the feeling of the cool plants on the back of her head. Maneuvering her hand behind her, she pulled out a scroll, unfurling it and activating the array.

With a small puff of smoke, a canteen landed on her hand which she immediately uncapped and began taking greedy gulps from, happy to finally be done with all of that.

"Don't drink on your back, you'll choke." Chiyo said idly, nodding approvingly as Sakura immediately followed her instructions and sat up, "It's good to see you're already getting use from that seal. Remember there's more space on that scroll if you ever decide to expand it. No need to buy another one until that one's full or you need a specialty seal."

Sakura didn't respond, too busy relishing the cool, refreshing liquid flowing down her throat.

As her student recovered, Chiyo looked the girl up and down, taking in the cuts on her arms and legs as well as the slight flush to her skin from the poison she'd ingested.

They were making good progress, excellent really, but Chiyo knew that she wouldn't be able to teach the girl everything that she knew before she returned to Suna. She had already skipped over several lessons that she probably shouldn't have, and the fact that Sakura was keeping up was a testament to the girl's immense talent.

She'd crammed nearly a year's worth of knowledge into a single month and still Sakura was keeping up. It was actually incredible and Chiyo wished more than anything that she had more time with the girl.

Ah well, if Chiyo got everything she wished for she would be a very unhappy woman indeed. She would teach Sakura everything that she could in the time she had left and when she finally departed back home, she would make sure that the girl had what she needed to continue her training without her. That was the best she could do for now.

Maybe one day she'd come back and check on the girl. See how she had progressed without a teacher to guide her studies. But for now, she would teach her what she could.

"Get up, girl. You'll recover faster on your feet." She said after giving Sakura another moment to catch her breath. Her student gave her a groan but hauled herself to her feet, standing slightly unsteadily.

Chiyo looked the girl over again, "You should probably think about getting yourself a weapon some time in the future. I know academy students aren't allowed to have ninja tools but you should at least get some training equipment."

Sakura pouted at her words, a little bit of life coming back into her after resting, "But sensei! I want to be the greatest puppet master, why do I need a weapon if I have a puppet?"

She yelped as Chiyo chopped her on the head at her words,"That's pure arrogance girl!" The woman chided as she rubbed her smarting scalp, "Not every opponent will conform to your style of fighting. If you really plan to be the greatest puppet user to ever take up the craft, then that means people are going to know who you are and more importantly, know how to counter your main form of combat."

She had the girl's ear now. Sakura had that glint in her eyes that indicated that she was carefully listening to everything Chiyo said, soaking up her information like a sponge.

"You need to learn how to defend against them. Close range combat is something many puppeteers fail to learn and it has always ended badly for them. You must be prepared to face your enemies with yout martial skill as well as your puppet."

Sakura made a noise of understanding, "I guess that makes sense. Do you have any ideas on what I should learn then? Should I get a sword or something cause I kinda spent all my money on my clothes."

Chiyo raised an eyebrow at that but didn't comment, "That's something you'll have to figure out for yourself. Though if you do decide to get a weapon, I'd recommend something that uses that monstrous strength to yours."

Chiyo had noticed that Sakura was much stronger than she had any right being, especially on the odd occasion that she got angry during their spars. If she had to guess, under the right circumstances, the nine-year-old could be as strong as an adult civilian male which was truly ludacris. If that strength grew as she got older, then she would be a force to be reckoned with even outside of her skills with chakra strings.

Chiyo could only imagine how things would have played out if the girl met the Slug Princess. She would be something else, that's for sure.

Chiyo shook her head, she was getting off track, "Anyway, we don't have the time to get into that right now. I leave for Suna soon and I have a bit more knowledge I need to cram into that noggin of yours before that. First, let's test you on what you've been learning. Have you finished the book yet?"

Sakura grinned, an excited look coming to her face at the prospect of a test, "Yes, sensei. I finished it last night."

Chiyo gave her a critical look, staring her in the eyes and searching for any sign of deceit and finding none. She nodded slowly, "Alright then. I'm going to quiz you on your knowledge and we'll see if you're ready to move onto the next step in your training."
Sakura nodded firmly, green eyes glinting in determination to get right whatever her sensei asked her, "I'm ready!"

Chiyo smirked, "We'll see."

Her face turned serious, "You've been assigned a mission to kidnap a noble from his home without being seen or heard. You've done your reconnaissance and realize that there's no feasible way to get to him without being seen or alerting one of his guards. You could slip into his bedroom and capture him there but he could easily wake up and manage to yell before you can silence him. What do you do in order to retrieve the objective and complete the mission?"

So it was this kind of test, huh? Sakura made a thinking face, trying to puzzle out the answer to the question with the limited amount of info she had.

"Hmm… Oh! Does he ever leave his house?" She asked suddenly as an idea came to her.

Chiyo gave her an approving look, "During your reconnaissance you've noticed that he leaves his home once every Thursday to eat at a specific restaurant in a nearby town. He always has at least a dozen guards with him that are always on alert for any suspicious activity. You have also noticed, however, that they often join him during his meals and the staff of the restaurant isn't well scheduled, with workers picking up shifts quite often."

Sakura nodded, thinking intently, "Then… I guess I'd disguise myself as one of the waiters at the restaurant he visits and slip a slow-acting poison into all of their foods or drinks made from crushed valerim and the roots of lover's embrace. That should let me grab him if I'm careful."

"And why choose those plants? And why prepare it in such a specific way?" Chiyo asked. Her voice was neutral, not giving anything away.

Sakura answered promptly, already sure of her choices, "Since it's just the roots of valerim and not the whole flower, it should be diluted enough to not take effect for a few hours, ideally when he's already fallen asleep, at which point I'd sneak into his room and take him away. The lover's embrace will keep him asleep and if he does wake up somehow, the valerim will make sure that he can't speak because his throat would be so swollen he could barely breathe."

Sakura waited slightly anxiously for her sensei's response, hoping that she had done well in the impromptu exam. Chiyo didn't say anything at first, just staring at her, but just as Sakura thought she had gotten something wrong, the woman nodded slowly.

"I would have used boiled viell root personally but I suppose that answer will suffice. Well done, girl. You passed."

A massive grin formed across Sakura's face as she heard that, and she shot her fist in the air, whooping in celebration, "Cha! I knew I'd ace that! I'm the best!"

"Don't get too cocky, now." Chiyo chided her, "You have a good jumping off point for your knowledge of poisons but I expect you to do your own research as well as continue your resistance training. It takes years to build up a proper resistance to the most common poisons and you have the advantage of starting early. Don't waste that."

Sakura blushed in slight embarrassment at the reprimand, before nodding seriously, "Understood, sensei. I won't disappoint you."

"Good. Then I guess it's finally time that we get started on our final subject. I doubt I'll be able to get through it all before I leave but I'll do what I can to-"

Chiyo cut herself off suddenly, causing Sakura to look at her in confusion. That confusion turned into surprise as a figure suddenly blurred into view right beside her sensei. She yelped, jumping backwards as a man appeared out of nowhere as he moved faster than Sakura could even see.

The man was clearly a Suna shinobi judging by the strip of metal attached to his right bicep. He was dressed in beige, flowing clothing that Sakura's studying told her was for the best airflow, and a stripe of red paint across his eyes. He looked at Sakura for just a moment, confusion evident on his face, before turning to her sensei.

Chiyo didn't look surprised at all at the man's arrival, instead giving him an annoyed look, "Hiro, what do you want? I told you all to leave me alone unless it was something important!"

"I'm very sorry to interrupt, but it is important, Chiyo-sama." Hiro bowed his head low in apology, "We've received word from the Daimyo that a village we share with the Land of Rivers has been infected with a toxin that nobody can identify. It's causing an extremely contagious sickness to spread and already we've lost several chunin who were sent to investigate."

Chiyo still looked annoyed, "Why are you telling me? I know there are dozens of people in the village who could identify a poison by sight and not all of them are worthless slackers. There's no reason to get me involved"

Hiro hesitates for a moment, "The toxin is much more advanced than anyone in the village is able to work with, Chiyo-sama." He said quietly, "The elders are starting to believe it could be the work of him. They've called you back to Suna post-haste to deal with the situation."

'Him?' Sakura turned to her sensei in confusion, ready to ask the woman what Hiro was talking about, only to pause as she saw the look on Chiyo's face. She was scowling, a serious glint in her eye that Sakura had never seen before.

"Has the affliction spread to Suna?" She asked in the most serious tone Sakura had ever heard from her. She stared at the woman in shock, wondering what had caused the sudden shift in mood.

Hiro shook his head, "We managed to quarantine the town in time once we realized what was happening. The chunin we sent are likely still there but at this point, there's nothing we can do for them."

Chiyo scoffed, "If my nephew really is responsible for this mess then there's no doubt about that. Have you at least managed to get a sample s I know what I'm working with?"

"It's waiting for you in the research department."

Chiyo nodded, "Good. Go get my things ready so I can leave as soon as possible. If it is one of his concoctions, then nobody else is going to be able to come up with an antidote and I don't want them to die trying. Nosy upstarts…"

"Understood, Chiyo-sama. Would you like for me to inform the others?"

Sakura watched with growing concern as Chiyo used her chakra strings to gather up the kunai and shuriken that were littered around the training ground, "Don't bother. If you tell them, they'll just try to send someone along with me and I don't need that. Just get my things."

"Understood." The man bowed low, before blurring away and disappearing from sight, leaving the clearing silent once more.

Sakura stared at the spot that he had disappeared from for a long moment, playing the conversation over in her head, before looking at her sensei with a slightly distraught expression on her face.

"You're leaving?" She asked quietly, before her voice quickly gained volume in her distress, "But what about my training? Y-You still haven't actually taught me how to make or use puppets yet! You said you would!"

Chiyo didn't react to her distress, instead continuing her task of cleaning up the area, "I know what I said, but I never planned to personally teach you how to make a puppet during my lessons, or at least not more than the basics. Even if I didn't have to leave early, there just wasn't enough time to actually get through more than the fundamentals of the craft. Woodworking alone would take at least a month to teach you, and you're the quickest learner I've ever seen."

She shook her head, "No, my lessons were on the core of puppetry. The things that you will take with you throughout your entire journey in the art."

Her words did little to make Sakura feel better, "But if I don't know how to make a puppet, I can't be a puppet master! I can't figure that out on my own!" She said, her voice tinged with desperation.

Chiyo gave her a look she couldn't parse, speaking in an almost inaudible voice, "I wonder about that…" Then louder, "Stop whining, girl. I told you I didn't plan to teach you how to make puppets personally. I never said I would never teach you how to at all."

From her robes, she pulled two extremely thick unlabeled scrolls. One of them was a dark green color, while the other was bright red. Chiyo held out the green one for her to take.

"It would have been stupid for me to expect to teach you everything in just a month," Chiyo said as Sakura grabbed the scroll from her, "so over the last few weeks, I've taken the time to prepare several lessons in advance."

"Inside of that scroll is everything you should need to properly begin your journey in the art of puppetry." Chiyo said, causing Sakura to look at her in shock, "Puppet crafting techniques, books on human anatomy and some of the more obscure poisons I have knowledge of as well as their antidotes, lessons on crafting traps and how best to use them in your puppet, all of things that you need to know but I didn't have time to teach you."

"And in this one," Chiyo held out the second scroll, "Are the materials you'll need to put that information to use. I took them from my own stock I use for repairs and there's probably an A-Rank mission's worth of materials in here. I expect you to use them well."

As Sakura took the second scroll, gazing down at it silently, she felt a knot form in her throat, preventing her from saying anything. Chiyo noticed this, and her eyes softened slightly.

She moved forward, placing a hand softly on the pinkette's shoulder and causing the girl to look up at her in surprise.

"You've grown fantastically in these past few weeks." Chiyo said softly, "And even though I wasn't quite able to teach you everything I wanted, I am proud to have called you my student, even if for a short time. You've got a real talent and if we were back in Suna, I wouldn't hesitate to make you my apprentice. If you continue on this path, I'm sure you'll become something special, Sakura."

Sakura stared at her sensei in shock. Throughout the weeks she had known the woman, she rarely, if ever, referred to Sakura by her name. It was always, girl or something similar.

Combined with the genuine praise coming from the normally grumpy woman, it was all Sakura could do to stay composed.

Then Chiyo's face changed back into the perpetually stern look that Sakura had become familiar with, "So that means you better not dare slack off in your training while I'm gone! The next time we meet, I expect you to be able to blow all of my previous students out of the water, understand!?" She demanded expectantly.

Sakura swallowed, pushing back her sadness and giving her sensei a serious look, her emerald eyes glinting in determination behind a film of unshed tears, "Yes, sensei! I'll make you proud! I promise!"

"Good. Maybe when you become a legendary kunoichi, I'll let you take a look at my own puppets." Chiyo smiled again, patting her on the shoulder, "I look forward to seeing how you grow without me, Sakura. Make sure you impress me."

Sakura nodded fiercely, not trusting herself to say anything and Chiyo gave her one last pat on the shoulder before stepping sway. Just like Hiro, the woman blurred in the nine-year-old's sight, before disappearing altogether, leaving nothing but ruffled grass and leaves in her wake.

As Sakura was left alone in the training ground, she sniffled slightly, the sadness that she had been holding back coming in full force the moment she was free of her sensei's scrutiny.

Or rather, her former sensei…

Sakura wiped her eyes furiously, refusing to cry. She knew this was going to happen, Chiyo couldn't stay in Konoha forever after all, but she had been hoping she'd have at least a few more days with the woman. Despite her rough demeanor, Sakura had grown fond of the old woman and was more than a little sad to see her go.

But as she stared down at the scrolls that Chiyo had given her, Sakura suddenly found herself filled with another emotion, one far more powerful than the sadness sitting inside of her.

Determination. Before now, her goal to become the best puppeteer had been a dream, a hope for the future. Now though, as the nine-year-old clenched her tiny hands around the scrolls containing her future, that goal was solidified, becoming something more.

She raised her head to the sky, emerald eyes glinting with the determination flowing through her body.

"I promise, sensei!" The child spoke with all the conviction available in her tiny body, "I will become the greatest puppet master to ever exist! I'll live up to your expectations and go even further beyond them, no matter what it takes!"

"That will be my Nindo, my ninja way!"

---

Next five chapters available at Sadguychet | Patreon

 

[BoneLeech]

It would be pretty cool if sakura created puppets that differed from suna due to having to build a different tech tree for her puppets.

 

[Sadguychet]

The next several months were a whirlwind of activity for Sakura. Her sensei had laid out a strict training regime for the girl to follow on her own for the next several, basically continuing her lessons in written format.

And just like always, it was absolutely exhausting to follow. By the end of week one, both her mind and body were practically screaming at her to stop pushing herself, yelling that this was too much, to give up or at least slow down a little before she broke.

Sakura didn't listen. Her sensei had given her a strict set of instructions, a guided path to follow that would eventually lead her to greatness and she wouldn't stray from it.

Eventually her body figured this out, and instead of breaking down or continuing its pleas for mercy, it began to work with her. Her arduous stretches turned into simple warm-ups as her flexibility increased; her muscles tightened and swelled, allowing her to run faster, jump higher and most importantly, her mind blossomed as well. She flew through her studies at a rapid pace, book after book disappearing before her hungry gaze as she absorbed all of the information held with.

Despite all of this progress though, by the time six months had passed, Sakura was barely through a quarter of her sensei's lessons. She didn't care though, she was determined to finish them. No matter how long it took.

"What are you thinking about, sweetie?"

Sakura snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of her mother's voice. She looked away from where she was staring into space, refocusing back onto the woman who was giving her a curious look that was slightly undercut by concern.

Sakura smiled it off, "Just thinking about training, Kaa-chan. May I have some more chicken, please?"

"Sure thing!" Her father answered in her mother's place, grabbing some of the meat from a nearby bowl and placing it on my plate, "You'll need all you can get to keep up with all that training you're doing!"

As Sakura dug into the meat, enjoying the slightly spicy flavor, her mother sighed, "You're building quite a bit of muscle, Sakura. Are you sure you're okay with that? Most girls your age don't really care for the muscly look."

Sakura shrugged, "I mean, I guess? I'm not really getting that big and I weigh pretty much the same so it's fine. I'm just following Chiyo-sensei's regiment."

It wasn't exactly proper to refer to the woman as her sensei when she wasn't training her personally anymore, but it just felt right to Sakura. Besides, she was technically still training her, just a country away and through pre-written letters.

"Is that why you've been buying all that stuff and staying in your room so much?" Hanami spoke up from her nearby chair. The four-year-old's face was covered in the same sticky sauce that Sakura had decided to forgo on her own meal, causing their mother to sigh and reach over to clean it off.

Sakura nodded at the question, "Yeah, that's why. I need to practice woodworking so I can make my puppet and sensei only gave me so many materials so I'm gonna save them until I'm actually ready. I'm using logs and stuff I find around right now."

She took another bit of her food, "Honestly, there's still a ton of stuff I need to do. If I'm lucky, I'll finish by the time I graduate from the Academy but I'm not sure."

Her mother's face twisted in concern, "Are you sure that isn't too much work? You still have all of your Academy work to do on top of it, you know?"

She did know. Her grades had actually suffered for a month or two while Sakura tried to get a handle on juggling the training and her studies, but she had luckily gotten the hang of it by now.

"It's fine. It's only a little more than what I had to do when Chiyo-sensei was still here." She said, before looking down at her food, a frown coming over her face, "It's kind of like she's still here, you know? I can almost hear her yelling at me when I read all the stuff she wrote."

As she grabbed another piece of chicken, she missed the way that her parents looked at each other before her Mebuki, "Well alright then. If that's how you really feel, then we'll support you. Just make sure you're being careful, alright? I don't want you coming home and passing out on the living room floor because you were training too hard."

Sakura smiled, "Of course, Kaa-chan. But I can't be too careful or I'll never get better as fast as I want to. I want to be the greatest, that means I've gotta try my hardest!"

"Haha! Well said!" Her father laughed loudly, slapping his knee. He looked to the other child at the table, "And what about you, Hanami? Any plans to be a legendary kunoichi like your big sister?"

Hanami made a thinking face, "I don't wanna be a ninja. Can I be a legendary merchant instead?"

Kizashi blinked at her words before nodding his head, "Of course you can, if that's what you want."

Hanami's face suddenly twisted into an adorably determined expression, "Then that's what I wanna do!" She said, pointing her fork at the ceiling and slinging sauce everywhere, "I'll be the bestest merchant in the whole world and make lots of money!"

A massive grin formed on Kizashi's face at his daughter's proclamation, "That's my girl! With an attitude like that, I'm sure you'll be the richest Haruno to ever hop on a cart! Just like your ancestors!"

As her father began regaling her little sister with stories of how their family became one of the most well-connected merchant clans on the planet and her sister cheered and hollered, making even more of a mess that her mother would have to clean up, Sakura smiled, happily watching the chaos unfold.

~~~ The Next Day ~~~

If one discounted all of the horrific things that lurked in the shadows or closed doors, Konoha was a beautiful village. One of the greatest.

Even from Kakashi's current place, sitting atop the Hokage Monument, the village seemed as tranquil and serene as ever. Civilians walked along the streets and chatted with their friends, talking about inane things such as the weather or a new diet they were trying out, completely oblivious to what was going on outside of their little bubble. Oblivious to the things that people like him were responsible for keeping quiet.

If they had known what had almost occurred less than five years ago… Well, there was no reason to worry about what ifs. Everything was said and done and the situation had been dealt with. It was just a shame that so many lives had been lost in the process, even if they were traitors.

He looked out over at his home, the place he had been tasked with protecting, just taking it all in for a long moment. He wished he had more opportunities to take it all in like this, but being one of the most valuable members of the village military didn't leave one with much time to sightsee.

"Oi, Senpai! What are you doing up here all alone?"

And it looked like his time was up. Kakashi turned his eye away from the view to instead look at the smiling, black-haired man who was walking in his direction.

Kakashi's eyes strayed over his eye patch, the black fabric sticking out sharply on his pale face. He didn't seem put down by it, never had really, "Shisui." He greeted as the Uchiha reached him, "I thought you'd still be working."

"They had more staff than they thought they would, so I asked to leave early." Shisui grinned unrepentantly as he planted himself down beside his senpai, "I'm a free man for the next ten hours. Maybe. It depends on if they manage to find me or not. On a completely unrelated note, do you still have that spare room?"

So Shisui pissed someone off and Commander Bear was on his ass again. Kakashi sighed, "I do, but you're buying groceries this week. I've been taking less work because of that injury I got last month so you're gonna pick up the slack."

Shisui groaned, but didn't disagree. Kakashi knew that the man would rather be out a few thousand ryo than have to return home. Especially after what he and Itachi had done.

Kakashi closed his eye, purging his mind of that terror-filled day. The Uchiha clan was a shell of its former self without the majority of the older generation, but hopefully history wouldn't repeat itself once those left recovered from the tragedy.

He looked back over the village, eyes wandering over his home as he and Shisui sat there, just enjoying the refreshing midday breeze that was so prevalent this high up.

After a few minutes spent in silence, Shisui suddenly spoke, pointing to a building in the shadow of the monument "Hey, look over there. By the library."

Kakashi followed his fellow jonin's gaze to find the brightest, pinkest hair he had ever seen in his life. Two little girls, one clearly much older than the other, were exiting the library side-by-side. In the taller ones arms was a stack of books nearly as tall as she was, and while Kakashi could read their titles from this far away, they looked extremely thick. Clearly not assigned reading.

As the taller of the two turned to say something to the shorter, revealing emerald eyes that were set in an exasperated expression, he recognized the girl. Sakura Haruno. A bit of a hot topic in certain circles currently.

"That's the girl that Holage-sama's been talking about, hm?" Kakashi mused aloud as he watched the girl trip over herself trying to carry that many books at once. The other child, (a sister?) shouted in panic and went to help her up "She doesn't look all that impressive."

Despite his words, Kakashi didn't really believe them. Even from this far away, his practiced eyes could make out the quality of her outfit, much more practical than anything that most kids her age would wear, as well as the bandages on her fingers and cheek. She was clearly taking her training seriously unlike most her age.

"You say that, but I was on the Anbu detail sent to watch over her and Lady Chiyo. She managed to produce and use chakra strings in just a week of training. Scary stuff." Shisui commented as she got back to her feet. His point was immediately proven as, instead of simply picking her books up by hand, the pinkette used several glowing strings of pure chakra to do so, neatly stacking them atop one another before picking them up once more, "That kid's got crazy chakra control and she isn't even out of the Academy. I wonder what kind of monster she'll grow up to be."

He suddenly grinned at Kakashi, "Heh, maybe you and Itachi have a new member of your little club. That's what? A prodigy every generation now?"

Kakashi hid a grimace. He hoped not. Neither he, nor Itachi were considered 'well adjusted', even for shinobi of their generation. The labels that they had been given as children may not have been the entire reason for their state of mind, but they were certainly rather large factors. The expectations of a prodigy only ever increased.

"Hopefully she's just a hard worker." He said, watching her carefully. His eyes widened as, instead of licking the books back up, she pulled out a scroll and sealed them away in a puff of smoke, "An extremely hard worker. Seals at her age, really? I thought Kushina was just pulling my leg."

Shisui chuckled, "You know how serious she is about that stuff. I'm surprised she hasn't gone looking for the girl yet with how borderline rabid she can be."

"True enough I suppose." Kakashi ceded his point, "She'd probably be better about it if someone other than Jiraiya-sama showed an interest in sealing. Or if she was a bit less enthusiastic about it."

"Pfft, you might as well ask her to give up ramen. It's never gonna happen." Shisui sorted, standing up, "Anyway, wanna come help me get my stuff put away? I might have already brought my stuff over."

Kakashi sighed, "Of course you did. I swear, if Itachi didn't have Sasuke to worry about, I'd never agree to this. Let him deal with you."

"You know you love me."

"I can still change my mind, you know."

"...Nevermind." Shisui chuckled nervously at Kakashi's flat stare, turning to leave, "Anyway, let's get a move on. If we hurry, I can stop by the market before it closes and grab us some stuff for dinner. If I know you, you're still eating those frozen meals that taste like cardboard."

He was right, but Kakashi didn't tell him that, instead remaining silent and letting the other man sweat until he finally broke their locked gaze, looking away, "Right, well I'll go ahead and do that. See you in a bit, senpai."

Kakashi chuckled silently as he stood to follow his kohai. As he did so, he glanced back down below, and his eyes widened as he was met with the green-eyed gaze of the girl they had just been talking about, somehow having locked onto him hundreds of meters away. They stared at each other for a moment, before he gave her a small wave, unsure of what else to do.

Her eyes widened before a massive smile spread across her face and she waved back much more enthusiastically. Her sister looked at her in confusion, and she hurriedly pointed in his direction, causing him to smile slightly at her childish enthusiasm.

'Well at least I don't have to worry about her turning out like us.' Kakashi thought to himself as he turned away, following Shisui, 'I don't think I've ever smiled like that in my life'

~~~ Anko Mitarashi ~~~

"Look, all I'm saying is that you two are really shit at hiding things." Anko said around the dango shoved in her mouth, "Like, if you two were in T&I I'd have to give you remedial training or something. That's how shit you are."

"We aren't trying to hide anything, Anko." Her longtime friend, Kurenai Yuhi sighed, rolling her eyes, "We just don't advertise it for everyone to see. The last thing I want to deal with is a bunch of death threats from those lonely widows who want a piece of him."

"Of Asuma?" Anko snorted, causing Kurenai to narrow her eyes at her, "When did he become some sort of eligible bachelor? He's cute, sure, but he's always smoking like a chimney. I bet his house smells like a fire pit."

"I'm literally right here, you know?" The third person seated at the table spoke up with an annoyed look on his face, "And I'll have you know that I don't smoke in the house. It yellows the wallpaper."

"Pshh, whatever." Anko reached down to grab another skewer of dango off of her plate as she finished the first, "You smoke enough that that shit's probably permanently stuck in your clothes. Hell, I bet you wake up and your breath smells like cigarettes."

"This coming from the woman who's admitted to sleeping with snakes." Kurenai spoke up in defense of her boyfriend, "You're really living up to the stereotypes of being Orochimaru-sama's student."

"Hey, stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason." Anko shrugged, not at all bothered, "It doesn't seem to bother anyone I bring over."

"Yeah, because you're too busy shoving your tongue down their throat or your hand down their pants." Asuma muttered, only to yelp as Kurenai elbowed him for his remark.

Anko wasn't hurt by the words at all though, instead grinning at the man, "Yeah, or they're too busy playing with my tits. Have you seen these puppies? Even the ladies can't keep their hands off of me!" She shook her chest for emphasis, the whole thing made even more obscene by the fact that she had taken off her trench coat, leaving her in her mesh shirt. It didn't quite show any skin, but it definitely left little up to the imagination.

Asuma, being the taken man that he was, had done a valiant job of not staring at her tits during the last few hours, but he was still mortal and as she pressed her chest out, he couldn't help but blatantly stare at them.

"Asuma… You better watch yourself or what I can do with my genjutsu will be the least of your problems." Kurenai said warningly as her boyfriend oggle another woman. Anko knew that the woman wasn't serious but Asuma didn't, and so the fear that flashed across his face was very real.

Sharing an secret amused glance with her friend, Anko grinned, going to pile on the man, but was interrupted by a loud voice before she could

"Whoa! Onee-chan look! That lady doesn't have a shirt on!"

Anko's eyes widened while Kurenai snorted as the childish voice practically yelled that through the restaurant. Practically the entire restaurant turned to look at her, seemingly noticing her attire for the first time.

Most of them turned back to what they were doing immediately, this was a ninja business after all and they no doubt knew who she was, but a few of them gave her appreciative looks or whistles, me and women alike leering at her exposed body as they enjoyed the view she had given them all.

Anko didn't care about any of that though, that was just a regular day for her. No, she was much more interested in the brat who had made the comment in the first place.

She turned to the door to find a pair of pink-haired children, one of them much older than the other and holding her head in embarrassment while the other was pointing right at her with wide green eyes. That was weird for several reasons, and not just because they were literal children.

This restaurant was one that most civilians wouldn't even step foot in, mostly because it was in the Shinobi Sector, but also because it was practically only patrones by said shinobi. For two children to wander in here.

She scrutinized the girl's, taking in their eye-catching bright pink hair and clothing. One of them, the younger of the two, was a normal civilian girl, but the other was in the academy judging by her more practical outfit.

They looked so innocent, like regular children. They also looked very easy to screw with, and Anko felt a mischievous smile spread across her face.

"I'll be right back." Anko said to her friends as she stood from the table.

Kurenai immediately gave her a disapproving look, "Anko-"

"I'm not gonna hurt them." She reassured as she pulled her trench coat on,"I'm just gonna scare 'em a little bit. Teach the brats not to be so rude."

"I don't know why I even bother." Kurenai sighed as she rested a cheek on her hand. Asuma just shrugged, sitting back to enjoy the show.

Anko ignored them as she stalked over to the two children, one of who was looking at her like she was the most interesting thing she'd ever seen, while the other was giving her a much more wary gaze. Heh, it seemed like one of them already had some good instincts. Shame it wouldn't help them here.

She grinned as she got close to them, already imagining their reaction when she pulled out one of her scarier snakes, only to pause as she got close enough to notice something. The shorter and younger of the two looked fine and in fact, wasn't even paying attention to her anymore, looking off towards the counter in search of something to eat. The older one though, carried a distinct look about her. She looked almost sick…no. Not sick, compromised.

Immediately, Anko's well-trained mind went into diagnostic mode, trying to figure out what the issue was. Her skin was flushed and her nose was runny. The fingers on her left hand were constantly tapping against each other as if arm had fallen asleep and she was trying to get feeling back into them. Combined with the slight strain in her eyes, as if she had a headache, all of the signs pointed to one thing.

Her eyes narrowed seriously, "Oi, pinkie." She called out as she closed the last few feet between them, "Mind telling me who the hell's poisoning you?"
~~~

Sakura eyed the woman warily as she just stared at them from a foot or so away. She knew she should have just waited until they were in a more civilian oriented part of the village to find somewhere to eat but Hanami wanted dango and according to Tachi, this shop was the best place to get it.

Why her sister decided to scream at the top of her lungs, making fun of a random kunoichi the moment they walked into the building, Sakura wasn't sure. She probably should have suspected it though. Her sister was a motormouth on the best of days.

She narrowed her eyes as the purple-haired woman suddenly spoke, her voice casual but carrying an undertone of danger.

"Oi, pinkie." The woman stared at her with serious eyes and Sakura slowly pushed Hanami behind her as she stared warily at this clearly dangerous woman. Said woman raised an eyebrow at her behavior but pushed past it, shoving a piece of dango into her mouth that slightly muffled her next question, "Mind telling me who the hell's poisoning you?"

As the woman's two friends looked over at the group in surprise, Sakura gave the woman a look of shock, not at all expecting the question, "Wait what? How'd you notice I was poisoned?"

Instead of answering, the purple-haired woman just smirked, reaching into her trench coat. Sakura tensed slightly, wondering what she was doing, only to freeze in shock as the kunoichi slowly pulled out something dark, long, and hissing.

A snake with black scales and a red belly laid content in the woman's arms, slowly winding up around her shoulders and eventually her neck as she fixed the children with a smirk, "I'm guessing you've never heard of me, huh kid? My name's Anko, and my specialty happens to be the poisons that come from things like this cute little guy right here."

Sakura wouldn't call that snake cute, especially not with the way it was staring at her right now, but it was sort of pretty in a dangerous way and for a moment she couldn't help but imagine what it'd be like to have one. That thought was immediately struck down by the next words that came out of Anko's mouth.

"What I love most about him is how his venom works." Anko sighed, nuzzling the snake lovingly, "Red-bellied Adder venom gives you all the symptoms of a minor cold in small doses like the one you probably took, but if you had taken more than a few ounces, it'd cause your organs to break down in a super painful way. Like acid was poured down your throat. It's extremely popular in my circles."

As the purple-haired woman nuzzled her companion lovingly, Sakura stared at her and the beautiful snake in fascination before horror slowly crept into her expression.

Slowly, she reached into her tool pouches, pulling out a capped vial of clear liquid with small, yellow speckles inside of it. She held it up for the woman to see, "I-Is this what it looks like?"

"Yeah, that's it." Anko nodded.

'Dang it, sensei!' Sakura screamed in her mind as she stared at her poison, 'Couldn't you give me some warning next time!? That was definitely not in the book!'

Just then, a bearded man in a standard flak jacket walked up to them, followed by a short woman with dark hair and red eyes that Sakura was almost eighty percent sure wasn't an Uchiha. She just didn't have that smug aura that most of them seemed to carry around with them.

"Anko, you said you were just gonna scare them." The man sighed, "Why did you pull your snake out?"

Anko snorted at his unintentional innuendo and he just gave her an anamused look, "Oh lighten the fuck up, Asuma. I was just explaining to pinkie here what that poison she's been taking is doing to her body. Nothing bad, I promise."

Asuma went to say something in response, but he paused as he glanced over to Sakura. She tilted her head, confused at his stare, and his eyes suddenly widened, "Hey wait. You're the girl with the chakra strings, aren't you? Inoichi told me about you but I didn't think you'd be so young."

Sakura blinked, "You know Ino's dad?"

"Most of us high profile jonin know each other in one way or another." Anko piped up, "What's this I'm hearing about chakra strings? Where'd a girl like you get your hands on a technique that advanced?"

Sakura puffed her cheeks in annoyance, "What's that supposed to mean!? Chiyo-sensei said I was one of the most talented students she's ever had!"

That caught Annk off guard, "Wait, you're the brat that that old hag was teaching? Shit, you're doing resistance training, aren't you?"

Sakura carefully ignored the insult to her teacher, instead nodding firmly, "That's right! I'm training to be the greatest puppet master in the world! Chiyo-sensei left me with a bunch of lessons when she left and I have to keep training my resistance so I don't poison myself when I'm a kunoichi!"

"Smart." Anko nodded approvingly, surprising her companions, "I was probably around your age when I started my training. If you keep it up, I'm sure you'll-"

"Onee-chan!" They all flinched as a shrill voice suddenly called out to Sakura from somewhere behind her, startling them all.

Sakura looked over towards her screaming sister, ready to reprimand her, only for her face to scrunch in annoyance as she saw the girl already standing at the counter, several sticks of dango in her hands. Hanami gave her a smile, waving her arms, "Come on! Hurry up and pay! I wanna eat!"

"Hanami…" Sakura sighed, turning back to the three adults and giving them an apologetic bow, "I'm sorry, but I need to go. And I'm sorry for what Hanami said earlier, Anko."

As she tried to leave, Anko suddenly called out to her, "Hold on a second, pinkie." Sakura turned around, only to blink in surprise as a fistful of ryo was shoved against her chest. She grabbed the bills, looking down to find more than enough money to pay for her and her sister's dango.

She looked at the woman in confusion and was met with a smirk, "Take that and in return, I want you to come visit me in T&I sometimes, alright? Kids these days don't know the wonders of a good, gut-boiling poison and you're working with one of the worst. I'll give you some pointers and you'll become my little protege, okay?"

Sakura stared at Anko with wide eyes, wondering what in the world this woman was talking about. Moving her gaze to the woman's friends wasn't helpful, as they seemed to have lost interest in the conversation and we're heading back towards their table.

She looked back towards Anko who stared at her expectantly, "But I'm not allowed in there. Nobody under chunin is allowed into T&I unless they want to be put under investigation!" Sakura said, remembering what she knew about the place.

Anko just laughed, waving her words off, "Neither was I. I'm sure you'll figure it out. When you do, come find me."

With that, the purple-haired woman did an about face, heading back to her table without another word. Sakura watched her go, wondering what that whole exchange even was, before startling as her sister yelled again.

"Onee-chan!"

"I'm coming, jeez!"

---

Next five chapters available at Sadguychet | Patreon

 

[AeonForger]

By the time Sakura picks up medical jutsu (if at all) she's going to be a right terror with her poisons and resistance.
Might hear about Hanzō and start getting ideas.

 

[Sadguychet]

One Year Later

Sakura panted heavily, doing her best to keep her chakra under control even as her coils were put under some of the most intense strain they had ever endured. Somehow, Chiyo's training was even more difficult when the woman wasn't even there to yell at her.

Her hair dangled past her face as she hung from the thick limb of the tree beside her, using only her chakra to keep her from careening to the ground several meters below her. It was a task that had become more than simple for her thanks to her training, but that simplicity was somewhat overrode by the fact that she also had to concentrate on her chakra strings.

The ten bright green leaves attached to each of her threads swayed in the breeze, floating freely and only kept in place by her fluctuating chakra. It was an exercise in both concentration and chakra sensitivity to keep them there, using just enough chakra to keep them from falling yet not so much that they'd go flying away. It put an incredible strain on her chakra stores and pushed even her prodigious control to its utter limits which was entirely the point. If she could get the hang of this to the point that it became second nature, then manipulating her threads despite the distraction of outside stimuli would become even easier. That meant that even in the heat of battle, her threads wouldn't waver.

It was that thought that kept her going even while her chakra stores strained and sweat soaked into her clothing. Just a few more minutes and she would hit the hour mark that she had been striving for. Just a few more minutes…

"Arf!"

"AH!"

The sudden barking of a dog broke Sakura out of her thoughts and even more importantly, broke her concentration. Her threads dispersed into the wind alongside the leaves that they were attached to and her sandals came unstuck from the bark of the tree, sending her falling down to the ground below as she let out a shrill scream of panic.

Her arms pinwheeled as she fell, trying her best to fix her descent and get her feet underneath her before she hit the ground. From this height, she would definitely be seriously injured unless she managed to land on her feet and Sakura felt her panic build as the ground approached at a rapid pace, far too fast for her to fix the way she was falling before she hit.

She closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around her head in hopes that they would prevent her from cracking her skull or something equally horrible on impact, before awaiting the inevitable pain that was about to greet her.

A moment later, she let out a yelp as a strong pair of arms wrapped around her waist before yanking her back, pulling her into a firm embrace and halting her descent immediately.

Sakura remained frozen for a moment before she slowly removed her arms from around her head to face her rescuer. The pale sightless eyes of a Hyuga stared back at her from an androgynous face, a raised eyebrow giving their expression more emotion than Sakura had seen from any of their clan but Hinata, "Are you alright?"

Sakura's eyes were drawn to their hitai-ate, strapped to the right bicep and gleaming brightly. It looked brand new and likely hadn't seen any wear since it had been acquired. That, combined with this person's age, made Sakura realize that they weren't much older than she herself was.

And yet they were still fast enough to catch her in freefall when she hadn't even heard them approach. That was both scary, and slightly awesome. Scaresome.

Sakura nodded slowly at their question and the Hyuga looked back up at the branch that she had fallen from, "Maybe next time don't do that so high up if you can't catch yourself, alright? That fall might not have killed you but a broken spine is not something that you are likely to enjoy."

No, no she wouldn't. She couldn't be a puppet master if she was stuck in a wheelchair… actually, could she? She didn't need her legs to weave chakra strings or to create seals and puppets. It was entirely feasible that she would still be able to practice puppetry in the event that she was paralyzed, at least from the waist down.

…Though tree-climbing and taijutsu would probably be much more difficult than before without working legs. Maybe she could make prosthetics. If she could create an entire person-sized puppet and manipulate it finely, then legs shouldn't be that hard-

Sakura shook her head, derailing the train of thought before she could truly get on the tracks. She looked up at her rescuer, "R-right. Thank you for catching me."

The Hyuga nodded silently and Sakura was immediately reminded why most people in Konoha found the clan beautiful yet slightly creepy. Sakura couldn't tell the gender of this person but even she could see that they were rather attractive, their high cheekbones and striking eyes making for a statuesque visage. Their eyes both brought the whole picture together and added an air of mystique to them.

Sakura was too young and far too focused on her training to be even slightly interested in romance, but if she was anything like her peers she would admit that she might have developed a rather large crush then and there.

The thought immediately made her look away from the Hyuga, instead turning her gaze to where their arms were still wrapped around her, "Umm, do you think you could let me go now?"

"Are you sure? We're still quite high up." The Hyuga said.

Sakura nodded, "Yeah, I'm sure. I'll be fine."

"Very well then." The Hyuga let go of her, watching with curiosity as Sakura was sent careening back towards the ground once again. Now that she wasn't panicking, it was laughably easy for Sakura to push the necessary amount of chakra into her feet, softening her landing enough that it felt as if she had just stepped off a slightly high step stool instead of having fallen over eight meters to the ground.

She stood from the crouch that she had settled into as a thump came from behind her, turning around to find that the Hyuga had followed her lead and fallen to the ground as well. They were giving her a slightly impressed look, "Most academy students don't know how to tree-walk, much less how to soften falls with chakra."

Sakura grinned, puffing out her chest at the praise, "Yeah well, I'm training to be the world's greatest puppet master. I've got to master all forms of chakra channeling if I'm going to use my puppets to their full effect!"
Her words got her another raised eyebrow and an interested humm, "Is that so? I had heard that-"

"Arf!"

Sakura's eye twitched at the bark and both she and the Hyuga turned to look at the source of the noise. Two figures were making their way towards them, and immediately Sakura recognized the reason for her broken concentration in the rather large ninkin puppy on one of their shoulders. The owner, an Inuzuka with wavy brown hair, called out to them as they approached, "Dang, Hikari, you sure as hell can move when you want to! Why don't you ever move that fast when we spar, huh? Me and Tadao would like the challenge!"

The second person sighed as they approached. He was much taller than his Inuzuka teammate and had an equally massive sword on his back. His hair was a distinctive shade of crimson red that reminded Sakura of Kushina, while his eyes were a dull shade of blue made even duller by the aloof look on his face as he reached them.

"Hikari's faster than any of us and you know that, Tsu. Even your beast mode or whatever can't keep up with them when they really get going. It'd be a total wash out." The teen said, giving the Inuzuka a dry look.

Tsu gave her teammate a glare that her ninkin somehow managed to mimic, "It's called the Four-Legs Technique, jackass! If you're gonna say it, say it right because I did not spend months learning that shit just so you could call it beast mode."

The redhead rubbed the back of his neck, glancing at the clouds above, "Hmm… Nah. That's too much to say. I'm just gonna keep calling it beast mode."
"One more word is too much for you?" Tsu's voice was angry but she was smiling, making Sakura think this was something that they did often, "You're dumber than I thought you were, Jin."

Jin scoffed, "Wasn't it you who said I could be related to a Nara? What happened to that?"

"Oh, that hasn't changed. I've never seen someone as lazy as you still be so good at fighting." Tsu sniffed, scratching her partner behind the ear to the dog's immense pleasure, "It's too bad you didn't inherit their brains too cause now we're stuck with a lazy jackass who can't bother to pronounce two extra syllables."

In response to her words, Jin reached out and flicked her in the forehead. It was an extremely hard flick that Sakura could hear even from several feet away and Tsu immediately reeled back with a hiss, glaring daggers at the teen who had taken to looking away as if he hadn't done anything in the first place.

Instead of giving his irate teammate any attention, he instead turned it towards Sakura who was watching them curiously from Hikari's side, "Hey, Hikari, you've got a little munchkin creeping behind you."

Sakura scowled at being called a munchkin while Hikari just nodded simply, "I know. I saved her from falling to her death after Tadao's bark startled her out of the tree."

Tsu blinked, forgetting her anger at Jin for a moment as her face lit up in realization, "Oh! So that's what that sound was! I thought it sounded oddly like a scream but thought someone was just practicing lightning jutsu again."

"Do they do that alot?" Sakura couldn't help but ask despite how annoyed she was at the Inuzuka and her partner.

Tsu shrugged, "Eh, not really. This training ground is booked for us and sensei's the only one who knows lightning jutsu. Though I think Hikari's trying to learn some."

HIkari nodded silently as Sakura blinked in surprise, "Wait, this training ground is booked? But I've been using it pretty much every day for over a year! How come I never got kicked out?"

"Probably because we were just formed a few months ago and haven't had the chance to book one yet." Jin answered, picking his ear idly, "The whole process is a pain in the ass and I don't even know why I'm telling you this to be honest."

"Because it's polite and if she was here first, she has a right to know." Hikari answered promptly.

"Are you guys going to kick me out?" Sakura asked worriedly. She didn't want to have to find another training ground to use, especially when she wasn't even technically supposed to be using this one in the first place.

Tsu hummed, petting her ninkin as she thought, "Well, we probably should to be honest. Iwabi-sensei is pretty laid-back but I'm not sure he'd appreciate an academy student hanging around while we train."

As Sakura's heart sank, Jin snorted, "You say that, but knowing him, he probably won't give a shit unless she's loud or something. She already knows how to tree walk and if the look Hikari's been giving her is any indication, she was doing a helluva lot more than that when we showed up. He probably won't see any harm in it as long as she stays out of the way."

Sakura looked up at Hikari to find the Hyuga staring at her once again with that same interested gaze that they had taken on when she had dropped from the tree.

"Oh?" Tsu leaned forward in interest as she heard that, "Something that's got Hikari of all people interested? I've got to see that."

Not seeing any reason to keep it a secret, and slightly egged on by the way Hikari looked at her in interest, Sakura extended her fingers, grabbing onto several twigs with her chakra strings and pulling them into her hand.

She held them out for the team to see, "I was doing a chakra control exercise, hanging from the tree and holding onto some stuff with my threads. It's pretty concentration intensive so when I was startled, I stopped threading chakra through my sandals and fell down."
Jin snorted, "You're telling me those tiny little strings need that much concentration? Isn't that a bit too much for something so boring?"

Sakura scowled at his words, not liking how he was so easily dismissing a key component of the art she hoped to one day master.

Deciding to show off a little bit. She reared her hand back, before tossing the sticks up into the air as high as she possibly could. Team 3's eyes followed the sticks curiously and Sakura stuck her hand out again, sending her threads forth once more.

Though the twigs had scattered in the air, her threads still struck true, latching onto the small items and freezing them in place. Narrowing her eyes in concentration, Sakura manipulated her fingers, twitching them minutely which caused the sticks to move as well. They slammed into one another with a loud snap, several of them breaking apart and falling to the ground once more.

Sakura didn't let them land though, instead bringing up her other hand to grab these ones as well. Her fingers danced as she brought them back up towards the others, before they began moving too fast for the others to keep track of.

After a long moment, Sakura nodded in satisfaction and pulled the sticks back in once more. Only now they weren't just sticks, instead having been morphed into a solid creation thanks to Sakura's work. She held it out for Team 3 to see.

Tsu gave an excited gasp and even Jin's eyes widened in surprise as they took in the small wooden figurine that Sakura was now holding. The twigs that she had broken made up its hands, feet, and head, while the larger ones made up its body and limbs. All in all, it looked like an extremely roughly put together doll, held together only by the chakra the preteen continued to flow through it, but Sakura was still more than a little proud that she had managed to do it at all.

She gave Jin a smug look, "How's that? Still boring?"

To her immense annoyance, Jin's face immediately fell back into that dull expression that it seemed to default to. He shrugged his shoulders, "Eh, it was alright I guess. I could probably do the same thing with like five minutes and some superglue."

Sakura's face fell immediately, an annoyed expression crossing her features as she stopped channeling chakra through the doll, letting it fall to the ground where it fell apart on impact.

"Don't listen to him, he's a dick. That was totally awesome!" Tsu's cheer brought a bit of life back into Sakura and she couldn't help but smile, "How'd you even do that?"

"If the user is sufficiently skilled, chakra threads can allow someone to manipulate their own chakra in objects from far away." Hikari spoke up, answering for her, "It's what Suna nin use to control their puppets with such accuracy."
"Really? I thought they just grabbed stuff." Tsu blinked, looking back at Sakura, "And you can use them like that? At like nine?"

Sakura bristled slightly, "I'm almost eleven, actually."

Tsu snorted, "Not that big of a difference, hate to tell you but… Tell you what, you can stay and keep using the training ground but in return, you've got to teach us how to use those strings of yours."

Sakura bit her lip, a little unsure, "I don't know… Chiyo-sensei said it's super dangerous to learn how to use chakra threads without a proper teacher. You can blow your fingers off apparently."

That caught Tsu's interest even more than before and a borderline feral grin appeared on her face, "So you're saying that most people can't do that?" Sakura nodded, "Awesome. I wouldn't want to learn something that everyone can do anyway. Now you've got to teach us how to do that."

"I'll admit, I wouldn't mind learning as well." Hikari finally spoke up in a soft voice. Sakura looked back at them in surprise and they shrugged, "I'm trying to expand my arsenal. The Gentle Fist is a useful technique, but I'd be a fool to refuse to learn anything else."

"You mean like the rest of your clan?" Jin said sarcastically.

Instead of getting angry like Sakura thought they were going to do, and like she knew she would if someone insulted her family like that, Hikari simply nodded at his words, "Indeed."

As Sakura processed that, Tsu leaned forward until she was practically in the preteen's face, her hazel eyes excited at the prospect of learning the skill, "Come on! I'll even sweeten the pot! If you teach us, I'll teach you some stuff too! Do you know how to water-skate yet?"

Sakura didn't. She didn't even know that that was a thing. She knew water walking was a thing, but skating? That wasn't in any of her books.

Behind Tsu, Jin sighed, "How would she know how to do that? Hikari invented it, idiot."

Sakura shot a wide-eyed glance to Hikari who was now looking at the sticks that Sakura had been manipulating with interest. Still, she seemed to feel Sakura's gaze as she spoke, "I didn't invent it. I'm sure other people figured it out before me, I just did too."

Tsu waved a hand, "Eh, semantics. Let's say you reinvented it then." She turned back to Sakura, grinning again, "Either way, doesn't that sound fair? One rare jutsu for another? C'mon, whaddya say?" She held a hand out in askance.

Faced with the prospect of learning another rare skill, Sakura was helpless. She reached out and grabbed Tsu's hand, shaking it firmly as she agreed to the girl's proposition.

Tsu laughed, "Great! I'll run the idea by sensei and let you know his answer. Come back at the same time tomorrow and I'll tell you what he said, alright?"
Sakura nodded, slightly nervous as she realized she still needed to get the permission of a jonin, "Right. I'll do that."

Jin suddenly spoke up, an odd expression on his face. As if he was trying to hold back a smile or a smirk, "You know, Tsu, I'm not sure why you'd make a deal like that."

Tsu, sensing something was wrong, turned a glare towards her teammate, "And what's that supposed to mean?"

Jin shrugged nonchalantly, "I'm just saying, it seemed a bit stupid to agree to something like this just for the chance that you'll be able to learn something that pretty much nobody else can do. I doubt you'll even be able to use it."

The smirk that the teen was holding back came on full force as Tsu suddenly got in his face, practically growling like the ninkin on her shoulder, "Oh, and I guess you think you'd be able to?"

"Probably better than you."

"HUH!?" Tsu's eyes widened and she grabbed Jin by the front of his shirt, "YOU WANNA RUN THAT BY ME AGAIN JACKASS!?"

This girl was starting to remind her more and more of Kiba. Sakura stared at Tsu and Jin as the two of them began to argue in earnest, Tsu's eye twitching irately while Jin had a smug grin on his face as he purposefully riled the Inuzuka up by being what Sakura's dad would call a contrarian douche.

Hikari looked over at her silently as the argument became physical as Tsu literally leapt at Jin and tackled him to the ground with a roar of anger. The Hyuga's eyes were amused yet resigned, and they jerked their head to the side, mouthing silent words to Sakura that their teammate's couldn't hear. I'd get out now while you still have the chance.

As their head moved, so did their hair, allowing Sakura a small glimpse of the headband on their forehead and for a moment, the pinkette couldn't help but wonder why someone would wear a headband if they weren't going to put their forehead protector on it. Nevertheless, Sakura put it out of her mind as she gave them a grateful look, before turning to make her escape from the situation before she was dragged into it or something similarly weird. She practically jogged out of the training ground, not looking back as Jin and Tsu rolled around on the ground to the enthusiastic yipping of Tadao.

She wasn't sure what just happened but she was pretty sure she had just scored a training partner or possibly even three. Not how she saw her training session going but she certainly wasn't complaining.

~~~ Later That Day: Yamanaka Household ~~~

Sakura's hands stung as Ino's sandal slammed into her palms. She grunted, her arms wavering the slightest amount at the force of the strike, before she changed her grip and grabbed onto the girl's heel and the ball of her foot. Twisting roughly, Sakura managed to unbalance her friend, sending her spinning to the ground below with a noise of surprise.

Unlike months ago however, Ino had gained enough skill to recover from such a maneuver. As she fell she managed to put a hand on the ground and catch herself before rolling away from Sakura's subsequent axe kick which slammed into the ground instead.

The blonde sprang to her feet and retreated several feet away. Sakura didn't bother to follow her, using the time granted to her to recover her stamina as Ino seemingly did the same across from her. The two girls were absolutely filthy, covered in bruises and dirt as hours of intense sparring reduced them to sweaty messes.

And it wasn't over just yet. Sakura's eyes narrowed as Ino's left leg shifted almost imperceptibly before the blonde was suddenly springing at her. She was lagging slightly thanks to her exhaustion but even then, she was moving much faster than she was months ago, crossing the distance between them in mere seconds before leaping into the air and swinging her body around for a devastating kick.

Sakura ducked the first and batted away the second that Ino threw at her the moment the girl hit the ground, ignoring the way her palms stung at the hit. A few months ago, Ino had discovered that her flexibility allowed her to use her legs to fight much more easily than practically everyone in their class, including Sakura. She had begun exploiting this aspect ruthlessly, beginning to build a fighting style that revolved almost exclusively around kicks and her flexibility.

It was a bit rough but nobody could deny its effectiveness. Ino had shot up in class rankings when it came to taijutsu, now neck and neck with Sakura herself with the blonde sometimes managing to even beat her on the occasions that they were paired up. If given the sufficient amount of space to do her work, Ino's kicks could easily pack the same punch as Sakura's well, punches.

Luckily, Sakura had managed to quickly learn and adapt to Ino's fighting style, discovering that the best way to counter it was to simply deny the other girl the space with which to use her legs.

After her first attack failed, Ino went to move backwards, hoping to gain some distance so she could shoot forward again just like before. Sakura wouldn't let her. Shooting a hand out, Sakura attached several glowing threads to Ino's shirt, gripping onto the fabric with her chakra before yanking backwards with all of her strength, hoping to pull Ino towards her once again to fight her on her terms.

Instead of that happening though, there was a loud yelp and the sound of tearing fabric, and Sakura watched with horror as Ino's top failed to withstand her strength and gave up, ripping in multiple places and revealing the body wrappings underneath. And as the scraps of bright purple were pulled back towards her instead of Ino herself, Sakura looked up at her friend, fear filling her body as Ino stared down at her newly ruined top in disbelief.

Slowly, Ino looked up at her and Sakura immediately gulped at the blazing anger that was held within those pupiless eyes, "Uh, Sorry about that. I guess I thought your clothes would be, you know… stronger…" Sakura's voice petered out at the end as Ino inhaled deeply, closing her eyes.

When they opened again, Sakura wasn't even given a chance to register the girl's movements before Ino was suddenly upon her once more, swinging out her right leg like she was trying to take the pinkett's head off with her sandals alone.

Sakura yelped, falling backwards onto her hands as she watched the limb slice through the air above her, "Waitwaitwait!" She shouted as Ino twisted on her heel and brought the same leg up into the air right above her. One of the blonde's hands came to her calf as she did what was only a few degrees of verticality away from a standing split.

Aqua eyes stared into terrified emerald as Ino prepared to land a devastating heel drop directly onto the panicking girl, held back only by Sakura's pleading. "Yes, Sakura?" Ino's voice was far too calm for someone who looked ready to murder her friend and sparring partner, and Sakura couldn't imagine how much rage was hiding underneath that calmness.

Whatever the answer was, Sakura definitely didn't want to find out, "I-I'll go shopping with you and buy you a new top tomorrow!" She promised, eying Ino's leg which was poised to slam into her stomach. Ino made a thinking face and her arm twitched as the pressure behind it increased, causing the pinkette to panic even more, "A-And I'll get you some mochi or something after! Please, Ino! I can't train with broken ribs!"

Ino stared at her for a long moment, her placid face not giving any hints as to what she was thinking. Sakura felt sweat roll down her neck as she awaited the blonde's verdict, unsure whether or not her desperate plea for life had worked or not.

Luckily, it seemed that it had. She felt an immense amount of relief as Ino nodded slowly, lowering her leg back to the ground instead of hitting Sakura in the stomach or chest, "Alright." Ino said, the same calm expression on her face as she leaned down and offered Sakura a hand, "But I'm not holding anything back. It's my cheat day so you better bring extra."

Sakura sighed in relief as she reached out and grabbed Ino's hand, allowing the girl to haul her to her feet, "Right, I'll do that. Thanks for not… you know, killing me or something."

Ino flipped her hair, turning on her heel to walk to her home, "Don't get too ahead of yourself, Sakura. I'll be killing your wallet tomorrow. Trust me on that."

Sakura sighed as she used her chakra strings to gather the scraps of Ino's shirt, "Right. Just leave me enough to last until I get my next allowance, all right?"

"No promises."

She should have expected that. Sakura shook her head at her friend's words as she inspected the fabric in her hands. The scraps of Ino's shirt had been torn in long strips but seemed clean enough. A good enough seamstress would probably be able to put the outfit back together without anybody the wiser. Her mother could probably do it.

She told Ino as such, only to be met with a raised eyebrow, "Sakura, I know you care about practicality more than fashion, but I'm not wearing a stitched together outfit. It was an old top anyway. I'll just throw it away."

Sakura stared after Ino in disbelief, holding the scraps of what she had thought was an extremely important garment in her hands as she watched the girl walk back towards her home. As if feeling her eyes on her, Ino turned around to look at Sakura again.

Upon seeing the look on the pinkette's face, Ino gave Sakura a wink, "What? You didn't think I'd actually fight you of all people in one of my good outfits, did you? That'd be crazy. Now come on, Kaa-sama's making something that smells really good and there's no way you're skipping out on us this time."

Still utterly stunned by what had just happened, Sakura automatically did what the girl asked, following behind her slowly as she tried to puzzle together how badly she'd just been had.

This girl was dangerously conniving. Though Sakura didn't know what else she expected from Ino of all people.

~~~ That Night ~~~

Sitting cross-legged in the middle of her bedroom floor, Sakura let out a silent curse, her brow furrowing in slight consternation as she noticed something wrong with the item in her hand.

"Aagh! I messed up again." She growled, turning the item over in her grip as she took in the indents in the slightly rough wood, "Maybe I can… No, it's too deep. Dang it!"

She groaned in frustration, tossing her latest attempt at creating a passable hand to the floor. The wooden limb hit hardwood with a thud, the crux of the issue she had created staring back at her in the form of a socket for a ball joint that was several centimeters too deep. If she tried to fix it she was liable to crack the wood and the same could be said for using it as well. She'd have to start over. Again.

"Why is this so hard!?" She groaned again, tossing her metal tools aside as well as she raised her head to the ceiling in questioning.

Woodworking had never seemed like it would be an easy thing to learn, especially not for someone like Sakura whose talents lie more in mental skills instead of physical ones, but this was starting to actually annoy her. She looked around, taking in all of her previous attempts today alone. Dozens of mangled wooden limbs and faces stared back at her, silent effigies of her failures thus far, and she sighed.

They were a far cry from her first attempts, even she could see that. The lumpy, messy limbs that she had made when she first started were good for nothing but firewood, but she might actually keep these for reference on what not to do at a later date.

She reached for her sealing scroll, preparing to grab another log from her nearly endless supply to start again, only to stop as her bedroom door suddenly opened with a click.

Her mom poked her head inside and opened her mouth to speak only to pause as she saw the mess that her daughter had made on her floor. Sakura gave Mebuki a nervous smile as the woman turned a stern look her way, clearly unhappy with what she had done.

"Sakura, it's time for bed. Before that though, you are going to clean up this mess and clean it up well, do I make myself clear?" The woman's voice was stern and Sakura found herself nodding automatically, slightly ashamed that she had let her work get ahead of her so much and made such a mess.

"Yes, Kaa-chan." Sakura immediately moved to grab her sealing scroll, not even entertaining the idea of disobeying the woman, "I'm sorry, I guess I got caught up in practicing."
Mebuki nodded understandingly, her face softening ever so slightly, "That's fine, sweetie. Just please remember to clean up after yourself, even while you're working. If you tripped in here, you're liable to hurt yourself."

Much more than that. Sakura hadn't quite realized just how much she had let the mess get out of hand. Sharp pieces of wood, various tools, even some screws, her floor was absolutely covered in the stuff. She had some work ahead of her even with the sealing scroll.

"I'll clean it all up, Kaa-chan." Sakura promised, moving to begin her task.

"Good. When you're done, it's straight to bed, alright?"

"Yes, ma'am. I love you."

"I love you too, sweetie. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

The door clicked shut once more and Sakura immediately began gathering up the tools that she had scattered around, cleaning up the mess that she had made as her mother's footsteps faded down the hall. It took her around thirty minutes to take care of the mess, sealing it all away in a scroll to deal with and sort out later. She left a few of her attempts out, placing them on her desk for future reference, before beginning to get ready for bed just as her mother had told her to.

As she slipped underneath the covers in her pajamas however, Sakura was suddenly struck by a very important question. One that she probably should have asked a while ago. She had been practicing crafting puppets for a few months now, but she had never actually asked herself the most important question of all.

What kind of puppet did she even want to make?

Sakura stared up at her ceiling as the thought rolled over inside of her head. The books she had been reading had given her numerous examples of different types and classifications of puppets: skirmishers, trappers, long-ranged support, heck, even some puppets that were just made to get close to people and blow up which seemed like a massive waste of resources no matter how cheaply they were made.

The preteen rolled over in her bed, gazing at her past attempts sitting silently on her desk. She stared at them, the limbs painted softly by the moonlight drifting through the window, and suddenly remembered something. An offhand comment made by her sensei before she returned to her village, something about how most puppet user's neglected their taijutsu training in favor of upgrading their puppets, leading them to being caught off guard in the event that their puppet was disabled some way.

What if she could succeed where they had failed? Instead of making a puppet that was meant to fight apart from her while she hid in the background, she could make one that she could use in conjunction with herself, using it to make up for any deficiencies or holes in her fighting style.

…like a second pair of limbs.

Almost automatically, Sakura found herself getting up from bed, her feet trailing a path to her bookshelf where several empty notebooks lay. She grabbed one at random and made her way to her desk, sitting down and cracking the book open while grabbing the pen from its spine. She immediately put it to the page as ideas flowed forth from her mind, her limited knowledge of puppet crafting surging alongside her creativity as she began to scribble them down.

She stayed like that for at least three hours, sitting at her desk with only the dim light of the moon and her imagination keeping her company.

---

Next five chapters available at Sadguychet | Patreon

 

[xThomas3]

I am watching this thread, but I do not remember watching this thread. Reading only this chapter, Sakura is in Puppets?

Is this a translation of the story where Sasori and Sakura have a connection through time? Probably not… then, is this the fanfic where Chiyo teaches her chakra strings on a whim? or is this a different fic?

Not unwatching but I need a reminder and don't have time to reread from the beginning

 

[AeonForger]

One step closer to making puppet power armor or going DocOc on some unsuspecting ninja.

 

[Redd123]

Sakura stared at the woman in awe and a little bit of worship as she suddenly stuck a hand out to a nearby bundle of clothing on the ground, blue strings of chakra extending from her fingertips latching onto it, "Watch and learn, girl! This is how it's done!"

Click to shrink...

Just found this fic and was reading up to this part and I feel like I should say that chakra strings are not normally visible. Nor are chakra techniques involving raw chakra is the chakra used visible, unless they are in an extreme concentration like the rasingan or have something forcibly making them visible like a infusion of a raw element. Otherwise dojutsu like the Byakugan would not be as useful if everyone can see chakra in small amounts.

Edit : Just caught up this is great work and I hope to see more!

 

[Sadguychet]

Four Months Later

One early afternoon, Sakura was standing in Training Ground 23 once again. Tsu had managed to get her sensei to agree to let the child use the training ground so long as she didn't bring anyone along with her and kept out of the way on the occasions that they trained. Sakura had been elated, and had more than happily held up her end of the deal, teaching Team 3 how to manifest chakra strings.

Unsurprisingly, Hikari had gotten the hang of it first. The Hyuga's natural talent for chakra control had allowed them to pick up the skill almost immediately. Much more surprisingly, Tsu had been the next one to get it only a few days later, a fact that the Inuzuka wasted exactly no time lording over Jin who took nearly two weeks to begin showing any progress. That, of course, had quickly led to another argument as Jin returned fire, soon leading to another between the two of them that Sakura had actually been there to witness.

Sakura wasn't sure how exactly the dynamic between Team 3 worked at all. In the months that she had been using Training Ground 23 with them, she had witnessed at least twenty-seven different physical fights between Jin and Tsu, with Hikari usually just sitting on the sidelines and observing or going about their own training elsewhere in the training ground. Despite how often they got into it though, they were back to talking like normal the next day, leaving Sakura scratching her head wondering how in the world people could argue that much and still be friends. If she and Shino fought that much, she wasn't sure she could take it.

Speaking of Shino, Sakura hadn't really had time to spend with him thanks to all of her training recently and she was starting to feel bad. Hmm… his birthday was coming up soon, she was pretty sure. She'd have to get him something extra good to make up for not hanging out in so long.

Maybe she could make a poison to use with his Kikaichu. She'd heard that some of his clan do that sometimes. Maybe a paralytic that would make it easier to swarm his enemies? Eh, she'd workshop it.

Back to the present, Sakura had the training ground all to herself today, which was a bit strange considering the time, but not exactly unheard of. She was using the opportunity that had presented itself to work on another aspect of her training. One that her sensei hadn't left any instruction on.

The eleven-year-old clenched her eyes shut tightly, concentrating on her chakra and hand movements and trying to shut everything else out. The large pond in front of her shifted slightly, small waves bouncing up and down as if anticipating what she was about to do.

"Dog… Ox… Horse… Dog…" Her hands moved through the signs slowly, still a little unfamiliar with the movements and intricate finger placements needed to create each seal. On the last sign, her chakra built inside of her, reaching out towards the water in front of her almost beseechingly, and emerald eyes snapped open as the child spoke, loudly and clearly.

"Water Release: Funnel!"

Her chakra drained noticeably, and the water in front of her began swirling slowly before rising shakily, a thick whirlpool of water lifting above the surface of the pond and into the air towards her. Sakura sweated, doing her best to keep her concentration on the movement of her chakra, but it faltered slightly despite her best efforts, disappearing altogether as she was suddenly interrupted from above.

"Arf!"

The funnel of water fell to the ground with a splash, soaking Sakura's sandals and the front of her clothing as she let out a groan upon seeing her jutsu fail.

"What are you doing?" A curious voice came from above.

Without looking up, Sakura answered with a slightly annoyed voice, "I'm practicing a jutsu, Tsu." She grumbled, before shooting her gaze upwards at the unexpected intruder, "Or at least I was, before Tadao interrupted me again!" She continued, glaring at the Inuzuka who was lounging in the tree above her, her ninkin laying on her belly and staring down at Sakura with sleepy eyes.

Tsu snorted at her words, "If your concentration can be broken that easily, then you have a long way to go, Sakura."

"Duh." Sakura rolled her eyes, "But I kind of have to be able to actually use the jutsu before I can practice using it under pressure."

She faced back towards the pond, bringing her hands up as she prepared to go through the seals once more, but she was interrupted again, this time by Tsu, "Why are you even practicing a lame jutsu like that?" The Inuzuka asked.

"It's the only one I was able to get a hold of." She answered, "I'm still an academy student, remember? I can't access the ninja library until I graduate. My mom managed to get a hold of this one on her last trip and it's low ranked enough that I can actually use it without passing out. That makes it good for practice."

"Huh. I forgot you're still just a baby." Tsu said as if she was just realizing the fact, causing Sakura to sigh. The Inuzuka grinned, leaning down slightly without disturbing the puppy resting on her, "Y'know, if you want some cool water jutsu, I've got a ton that I could probably teach you."

Sakura looked up at Tsu again, this time with surprise instead of annoyance, "Wait, you have a water nature too?"

"Yup. I don't really use it cause, y'know, I've got Tadao here, but I got it from my dad. Him and my mom hooked up while she was on a mission to River Country and I was the result." Tsu lounged back, holding up an arm as Tadao gave a sleepy yawn on her stomach, "It's why my skin's so dark too. I got it from him."

Huh, Sakura had been wondering about that. Inuzuka were normally pretty pale, but Tsu's skin was much more tan, similar to someone from the Land of Lightning but not quite the same. If her dad was from River, then that would explain quite a bit. Still…

"I might take you up on that offer later. Right now, I can probably only do this one." Sakura said, turning back to the pond, "I'm gonna have to grow my chakra stores more before I can use anything bigger than D-rank jutsu. Maybe C-rank at best."

Tsu watched curiously as the water began swirling again, "I still can't believe you have three chakra natures and none of them are fire. Your family really must be from all over, huh?"

Sakura just nodded, trying her best to focus on her jutsu. It had come as a surprise to everyone really. Academy students weren't really allowed to buy weapons but if they had the money for it, chakra paper wasn't off the market. That was a big if, though. A single medium quality sheet of the stuff could run as much as a whole pack of the same quality of shuriken.

Sakura had been understandably leery of spending so much money after getting her new outfit only a few months ago, but decided that since it was in the pursuit of her goals, it was fine.

An empty wallet and a short burst of chakra later, Sakura and her family were in for the surprise of a lifetime.

Before her family decided to settle in Konoha semi-permanently, the Haruno clan never stayed in one place for very long. They traveled far and wide, picking up members from wherever said travels took them. As such, they could never trace their lineage in any tangible way, and it was likely that they were from all over the Elemental Nations by this point.

That showed in Sakura's chakra paper. That small burst of chakra had caused half of it to crumble to dust and the other half to become soaked to the point of dripping. That would have been surprising enough, but then said dripping half split neatly in half, causing her to nearly drop it in shock.

Though surprising, the results were clear as day. Sakura had three chakra natures: earth and water as her primary natures, with a minor wind nature on top. Three different natures with only one of them even slightly native to the Land of Fire in the wind nature.

Once he got over his shock, her father had joked that Sakura had a little bit of all the nations inside of her, though the pinkette wasn't too sure about that herself. She just thought she got lucky, that was all. Even so, having so many chakra natures was rare and would definitely put her on the path to becoming a legendary kunoichi if she could master all three

Being the most versatile in Sakura's personal opinion, water was first on that list.

"Water Release: Funnel" Sakura shouted again, channeling her chakra into the pond. The water began swirling and rising again, this time barely wavering at all as Sakura's concentration remained solid. She grinned, focusing the funnel towards her once more.

Tsu watched with a slightly interested gaze as the funnel began to leave the pond, "So…" She said, nearly breaking Sakura's concentration before the pinkette managed to get a hold of it, "What's this jutsu even for, anyway? It doesn't look that strong."

"It's not." Sakura said, keeping her eyes on the funnel and her mind on the flow of chakra keeping it sustained. It wavered slightly and she immediately adjusted, "This jutsu is meant for filling things with water when you're out in the field. It's pretty simple and doesn't take much chakra to use so it's great for people who are training their water release. Like me."

"Ah." Tsu made a noise of understanding, "I guess that makes sense. I wish I had that. I just kept trying to use the water bullet jutsu until I could finally do it. It took forever and I was fuckin exhausted afterwards."

Sakura imagined so. The water bullet technique was a B-Rank jutsu and pretty chakra intensive if you didn't have a water source nearby. She doubted she would be able to manage the smallest dribble of actual water before she was out of chakra if she tried it herself. That was why she had started with something smaller.

Well that, and it was literally her only option right now. She desperately needed to train her coils.

The child let out a small noise of triumph as the jutsu was finally complete, water splashing on the ground to her right and soaking into the dirt and grass. From here, the scroll said that it was just a matter of keeping the chakra flow consistent until the container that you wanted to fill up was full. Since Sakura didn't have a container and didn't want to expend too much chakra, she cut the flow right there, satisfied with her accomplishment.

As the jutsu faded away, Tsu let out a loud yawn from up above her, "Fuck, this is boring. Where the hell is everyone?" The Inuzuka mused aloud. Tadao was now sleeping peacefully on her chest and she scratched the ninkin's head lightly before looking down at Sakura, a thoughtful expression crossing her face. After a moment, she nodded, a grin forming on her lips.

"Hey, Sakura, I'm bored. You wanna spar?"

Sakura was taken back at the sudden question, looking up at the Inuzuka lounging lazily in the tree, "What?"

"I said, you wanna spar?" Tsu repeated. She sat up, grabbing her snoozing ninkin softly on one hand and placing him on the branch beside her, before dropping down next to Sakura. She rose to her full height, giving the confused eleven-year-old a grin, "Everyone else is either late or just ain't coming and I don't want to be bored while I wait for them to show. So lets spar."

Sakura was slightly unsure as she took in the teen's smirking face, but she had to admit, she had been wondering how she would stand up to an actual genin.

As she debated, Tsu turned and walked out onto the pond. Chakra bubbled under her feet and her stride turned into something much more smooth as she began skating across the surface of the water. After getting a sufficient distance away, she turned back to Sakura, giving her a grin, "To make it more interesting, we'll start on water. It should be good practice for you."

Tsu cracked her neck, "You can use anything you like during the spar. Clones, substitution, whatever. I'll just stick to taijutsu."

Sakura raised an eyebrow at the blatant handicap, "Anything?"

Tsu nodded, reaching down to the pouch on her thigh, "Anything." She pulled it off, the sound of velcro ringing across the clearing, before she tossed it to the surprised pinkette, "You know how to use a tool pouch?"

Snatching the pouch out of the air, Sakura gave her a slow nod, "Yeah, I do. But are you sure about this, Tsu? What if one of us gets hurt?"

The Inuzuka scoffed, waving her hand dismissively, "Nah, it's fine. I'm good enough that even with my tool pouch, there's now way you're gonna stand a chance against me!"

Sakura blinked, registering the other girl's words, before her lips turned downwards as she registered the clear dismissal of her skills. She opened the tool pouch, taking stock of what was inside as well as where they were positioned, before closing it and attaching the pouch to her waist near her sealing scroll.

"Is that a challenge?" She finally asked, suddenly much less wary about this than before as her pride as a kunoichi was attacked so blatantly.

Tsu just grinned, "And if it is? What are you gonna do about it?"

Sakura walked confidently onto the water, trusting her chakra to keep her afloat as she came to a stop across from Tsu. She hadn't quite gotten a hold of the whole skating portion of the technique that the Inuzuka had taught her, but walking was certainly something that she could do.

She gave the Inuzuka a cocky smirk, as she got into a fighting stance, "I guess I'm gonna have to beat that smirk off of your face."

Tsu barked a loud laugh at her declaration, lowering her body into a low stance so low, her hands were almost touching the water underneath her, "Atta' girl, Sakura. Let's see what you got!" She yelled, and before Sakura could say anything in response, the Inuzuka lunged forward with a feral grin on her face.

Sakura returned the grin as she reached into the pouch and retrieved a kunai, just as eager for the fight now that her blood was pumping, "Let me show you!"

~~~

She got beaten. Badly. For all that Sakura was one of the best students in her class, Tsu was genin and had been for almost a year. She had been on actual missions and had probably fought people who were actually trying their best to kill her. Add into the fact that she was an Inuzuka, a clan only second to the Hyuga in their taijutsu prowess, and there was no way that Sakura was going to be able to beat her even while she was limiting herself to just her fists.

She'd like to say that she fought well, but it was as if she was trying to hit smoke with how quick the other girl was. She wished she was just fighting smoke. Smoke didn't punch back hard enough to make her ears ring when she got a lucky hit in. She had thought it was just unique to Kiba, but apparently the Inuzuka clan as a whole didn't really have a concept of holding back.

Lucky her.

Sakura hit the ground roughly, rolling for a moment to negate the damage of her fall, and Tsu was suddenly on top of her, straddling her waist. Sakura's eyes, which had been clenched shut from the force of the fall, opened as she attempted to sit up, but she froze as she was met with Tsu's razor-sharp claws directly in front of her face.

The Inuzuka was panting slightly, a wide grin on her face as she stared down at Sakura in victory. A stream of blood slowly ran down her cheek from where Sakura had managed to nick her with a shuriken, and her tongue darted out to lap up the liquid before it fell off of her face.

"I win." She said simply, and Sakura just nodded, letting her head fall back to the ground in defeat.

"Yeah," She groaned, her entire body feeling like a piece of well-tenderized meat, "You win."

Tsu's grin widened, before the teen got off of Sakura, standing up like she was no worse for wear. She gazed down at Sakura who was much slower to get up, "You did pretty good, Sakura. That was fun."

"Maybe for you." Sakura groaned, "And what do you mean. I did good? I couldn't even hit you."

Tsu snorted, "Well duh. I'm a taijutsu specialist and an Inuzuka besides that. There was no way you were going to be able to hit me unless I wanted you to. Despite what Jin said when you met us, between me and Hikari, I'm better at hand-to-hand."

Sakura's eyes widened slightly, "Really? I thought the Gentle Fist was the best style out there?"

Tsu scoffed, stretching as Sakura got to her feet, "Nah, they just say that cause they're basically all pompous pricks. Unless they're really stand-out ninja or jonin, it's basically just another fighting style. That's how it is for most things really. Never buy into the hype unless there's a good reason to, people like to say shit to make themselves look big."

"Huh." Sakura said, "That makes sense."

"Yep." Tsu nodded, "In the ninja world, it's all about bluffs and posturing and shit. It's the ones who don't do that who you gotta worry about. Now come on, let's go sit down. I know you can probably use a rest after that whooping I just gave you."

Though scowling slightly at the rib, Sakura didn't decline her offer, following behind the Inuzuka as she led her somewhere more comfortable.

A few minutes later, the two of them were back by the pond once more, though this time Sakura had elected to join Tsu in lounging in the tree instead of going back to practicing her nature transformation. She'd had enough training for one day.

"Hey so, what was that smoke you hit me with back there?" Tsu asked curiously as she petted her companion, "I don't have any smoke bombs in my pouch. They mess up my sense of smell."

"Oh, that was mine." Sakura said casually, causing Tsu to raise an eyebrow, "It was a sealing tag I attached to one of your kunai while you were distracted by my chakra strings. It expels an aerosolized toxin in a several meter radius when it activates. The smoke it makes is white and it smells like pine needles which is probably why you thought it was a regular smoke bomb."

She was completely oblivious to the stare that Tsu was giving her as she removed her canteen from her sealing scroll, "I was surprised that it didn't work which is how you got the jump on me so easily. That one had powdered dag stems in it so it should have paralyzed you for a solid ten minutes at least. I guess I crushed it too finely or maybe the stems just weren't ready yet."

She took a long drink from her canteen, relishing in the feeling of the cool liquid on her parched throat. Beside her, Tsu shared a look with her ninkin, before a massive grin appeared on her face and she broke out in uproarious laughter, startling Sakura into nearly dropping her canteen.

She managed to catch it at the last second, giving Tsu a confused look, "What?"

The Inuzuka shook her head, still chuckling softly, "Nothing, Sakura. I was wondering why I couldn't feel my fingers during that last bit of the spar. You sure are scary, you know that?"

Sakura was still confused, but she had a feeling that Tsu wasn't going to explain any time soon, "Thanks, I guess?" She said, not sure how to process that.

Her words made Tsu chuckle again, "No problem. Now, we should probably clean this up before sensei gets here." Tsu said, looking around at the kunai and shuriken littering the training ground, "I don't really feel like getting yelled at today."

Sakura nodded, "Sure, just give me a second to get the feeling back in my legs. And my hands. And the rest of my body too. You could probably strip the bark off of a tree with those fists."

"Get used to it." Tsu chuckled, giving her a grin, "I have a feeling this is gonna become a regular thing between us. And I know for a fact that Hikari's gonna want a piece of you once they learn that you actually managed to get a hit on me, no matter how small it was." She said, rubbing the cut on her cheek, "That trick with attaching your strings to your shuriken was smart, I'll have to try it myself some time."

Sakura didn't process the compliment, too busy paling at the thought of fighting a Hyuga in hand-to-hand combat. Especially one as fast as Hikari. She had seen them move or more accurately, hadn't. They were just that quick.

…Maybe she could find a new training ground? It couldn't be too hard, right?

~~~

Later that night, after a nice warm bath that did wonders in relieving the pain built up in her muscles, Sakura was once again up at an extremely early hour, working with metal tools and wooden body parts. Though this time, frustration was not what filled her mind. Instead, she was filled with a creative zeal unlike any before.

Her tongue poked out of her mouth slightly as she scraped away the last of the wood from the inside of the torso she was working on. Though calling it a torso was a bit generous. It looked more like multiple lumps of misshapen wood connected by metal than anything resembling a human being, but that was on purpose. Sakura didn't need the body to look human. She just needed it to function.

She reached beside her, grabbing a length of steel wire before diving back into the chest cavity, her delicate fingers going to work attaching the material to the proper places. This was probably one of, if not the most important step. If she got this wrong and didn't manage to catch it in time, she would have to completely dismantle the puppet to fix it. She needed to get it perfect on the first try.

Most puppet users wouldn't dare to try to make a puppet nearly as intricate as what she had in mind as their first, but Sakura had no desire to be like most puppet users. She wanted to be the best. That meant she wasn't going to half-ass any of her creations, not even what would likely be a prototype.

With a satisfied nod, Sakura pulled out of the chest cavity, placing the wooden torso to the side. She would check over her work in the morning and fix any imperfections and issues that she wasn't able to see under the dim light of the moon.

Moving her attention elsewhere, Sakura grabbed one of the many spindly arms that she had created, opening them with a screwdriver to reveal their hollow insides. With extreme care, she began to work on them, beginning to craft the base of the mechanisms that would make this creation more than just a macabre showpiece. She bolted together strips of metal given to her by her sensei and coiled wires in accordance to the plans that she had drawn up months ago.

She had progressed a lot since her sensei had left, and not just in woodworking. Her knowledge of poisons had increased by several orders of magnitudes and so had her capabilities with her chakra strings. The texts that her sensei had left to her were slowly but surely dwindling as she absorbed the knowledge held within them, using them to further her studies at an incredible pace that was unique to her and her alone.

Even still, she knew that she had a lot to learn when it came to mastering the art that would take her to the heights that she wished to reach. If she wished to be in the place that she wanted to be by the time she graduated and became a genin in a couple of years, she'd have to keep up the pace.

She had come so far, but she couldn't slow down now.

---

Next five chapters available at Sadguychet | Patreon

 

[Redd123]

Might hear about Hanzō and start getting ideas.

Click to shrink...

I mean, the salamander contract is up for grabs and Hanzo received his ability to resist high level poisons and breath out powerful toxic posions in equal measure by surgically implanted venom sack from a black salamander.
If she somehow learns enough medical ninjustsu then is is plausible for her to use puppet arms to perform similar surgeries like that and maybe implant puppet parts in herself but she would need to improve by leaps and bounds before she could do stuff like that and not kill herself.

 

[Sadguychet]

"That's all for today." Iruka finished up his lesson, "Don't forget to practice your hand seals tonight,, you will be quizzed on your proficiency tomorrow."

"Okay, Iruka-sensei!" The class chorused back at the man. Shino kept his mouth shut, not bothering to join in as he knew that nobody would hear his relatively soft voice among the multitude of his peers. And besides, his attention was focused elsewhere at the moment.

The Aburame turned his head to the side, gazing at the frazzled nest of bright pink currently occupying the space in the desk next to him. Once again, it seemed that Sakura had failed to properly secure her ponytail, as the majority of her hair had slipped free of her hair tie as she shifted during her nap.

As the rest of his classmates began to file out of the room, Shino reached over and gently grabbed his friend's shoulder. The moment that his fingers grazed her, Sakura shot up from her slouch, her eyes wide yet not at all alert, "Huh! Wha-I'm paying attention, Iruka-sensei! I promise!"

A few heads turned towards them, but most of their classmates didn't give them more than a passing glance as they continued out the door. Iruka himself gave Sakura an amused glance before turning to clean the chalkboard, not bothering to respond to her outburst.

Sakura blinked, apparently just realizing what was going on. She turned towards Shino and he frowned lightly as he noticed her flushed face and the deep bags underneath her eyes, "It's already time to go?"

"It is." Shino nodded, "You've been sleeping all class. I believe you missed lunch as well."

Sakura stared blankly at him, before she nodded slowly, "Huh, okay. I meant to only sleep for a few minutes but I guess I was more tired than I realized."

Before Shino could say anything, she stood up, giving him a tired smile, "Thanks for waking me up, Shino. I'm pretty sure Iruka-sensei would have just let me sleep all day but I have stuff I need to do at home."

As she stood, she paused for a moment, leaning against her desk as she blinked slowly, "Woah… I stood up way too fast. Gimme a second."

"Maybe you should take a moment to wake up?" Shino suggested, only to frown as she shook her head tiredly.

"I can't. I have so much stuff to do when I get home. I can't waste a single second or I might fall behind!"

Once again, she didn't give him the chance to respond as she turned and began making her way down the stairs towards the entrance as she hurried away from him. Shino eyed her as she went, twitching lightly as she nearly tripped over her own feet and took a tumble down the stairs. Luckily, she managed to recover just in time, bracing her hands on a nearby desk before she fell over. She took a deep breath, wiping her sweat-soaked forehead with a shaky hand, before continuing out of the room in silence.

Shino watched her leave, a deep frown under his high collar as she disappeared from view.

Sakura's behavior wasn't anything new and in fact, she had been like this for months now but even so it was beginning to make Shino concerned. He wasn't one-hundred-percent sure what was going on with his friend but he had a theory that it had something to do with her training.

She had confided in him that with graduation soon approaching, she felt the need to increase her already strict training regimen even further so that she could be prepared for becoming a genin. That was around the time that the shift had occurred. And that shift was drastic.

Her constant lateness was one part of that shift. Before, Sakura was late maybe once or twice a month and almost always had a reasonable excuse for it. Now though, she was late more often than not and for seemingly no reason at all. Their sensei had expressed some concern and so had Shino, but she simply waved them off with some excuse like she had been having trouble sleeping or something of that nature.

As ninjas-in-training, Academy students were expected to be able to handle their own issues and as such, the rules regarding sleeping in class were much less stringent. You were more than welcome to sleep through a lesson or two so long as you knew that the consequences of such an action would be your own. A sink or swim scenario.

Sakura was as brilliant as she always was despite her degrading condition; her grades hadn't dipped in the slightest and as such, her parent's hadn't been contacted at all since everything was technically fine, at least on an academic level. Understandably, that did nothing to alleviate Shino's concerns.

He wasn't the only one who could tell something was going on with her, either. Practically every student was able to tell that Sakura was far from one hundred percent, even Naruto. It was that easy to see.

For one, she almost constantly looked like she was in a constant state of sleep deprivation and physical exhaustion. Her skin was paler than usual, her eyes were baggy and bloodshot, and even her usually bright hair had lost some of its luster. She tripped over herself during spars and almost lost to Naruto of all people when he managed to catch her off guard.

Shino wasn't disparaging the blonde's skills of course; Naruto was at least in the top six students when it came to taijutsu and the Aburame himself certainly had no chance against him, but Sakura was in the top four, only having recently been surpassed by In. She should have been able to deal with him easily.

Most concerningly of all to Shino though, was that his friend almost was always suffering from some sort of physical ailment. As heir to the Aburame clan, he had been taught to recognize and detect more poisons than most even knew about. His kikaichu were among some of the best when it came to their sensory capabilities.

Out of the thirty-seven potential poisons that he had tested for, Sakura had shown symptoms of at least twenty. Apparently her resistance training had reached new heights along with the rest of it.

Combined with everything else that she was suffering from, it was clear that Sakura was pushing herself too hard. If this continue, she was going to hurt herself

As Sakura left the room, Shino turned his eyes towards the other person who had their eyes on the pinkette, her face a mix of concern and annoyance.

As if she could feel his gaze on her, Ino almost immediately turned to look at him as well. Her eyes widened in slight surprise as they met his, before an odd look crossed her face and she stood, making her way up to where he was sitting.

Shino wasn't given much time to process the girl's sudden movement beyond a twitch of surprise before she was suddenly in front of him, staring down at him with piercing blue eyes.

"You're Sakura's best friend, right?" She demanded. Shino was shocked by the question, but nodded anyway, "So you know what's going on with her?"

Another nod, and her expression somehow became even more severe, "Tell me."

Shino had no reason not to comply with the blonde's demand. He adjusted his goggles, "Though I am not entirely sure as she hasn't explicitly told me, I believe her training is to blame for her current state."

Ino's expression shifted into one of annoyance, "I should have guessed. She's been a training nut since that Suna woman started teaching her. I'm honestly surprised she hasn't ended up in the hospital yet."

Shino frowned but didn't disagree with the blonde's sentiment. "Just a few months ago, she informed me that she would be increasing the intensity of her training. The timeframe lines up with the gradual degradation of both her appearance and behavior." His frown became more severe, as did Ino's, "It is my belief that she had begun to prioritize her training over her own well-being."

Ino took in what he said, nodding slowly, before her eyes narrowed at him, "And why haven't you done anything? You knew what was going on right?"

Shino looked away, "I… am unsure how to approach the topic without angering her. I do not wish to lose my only friend to an avoidable argument."

It was a fear he had possessed for a while now. Being an Aburame made it difficult to make friends outside of his clan. Sakura was one of the only people outside of his family that he could interact with and feel like a normal person. He didn't want to lose that.

Ino scoffed, rolling her eyes, "Sakura? Get angry at you? Please, the most she's capable of is sarcasm and maybe some angry mumbling. Believe me, I've annoyed her enough to figure that out by now."

That was true. Sakura may have been a bit hot-headed at times when she got particularly excited, but she was rarely truly angry. However…

"Normally, I would agree, but she is particularly touchy about anything pertaining to her training or her goal. Have you forgotten what happened to Ami?"

Ino immediately winced, which Shino could understand. That incident had been particularly painful to watch, not in the least because of the girl's ear splitting shrieks of pain.

It had occurred only a few months ago, when sakura's physical health was just starting to degrade. Ami, apparently fed up with Sakura constantly refusing to respond to her childish taunts, had decided to strike her somewhere much more close to home, and in doing so, made a terrible mistake, though nobody knew it at the time.

She, in all of her infinite wisdom, decided to insult the art that Sakura had proudly proclaimed that she had dedicated her life to. Shino didn't remember the exact words and phrases she had used to insult the art of puppetry, but 'cowardly' and 'useless' were among them.

Needless to say, Sakura had taken exception to that. And given the fact that they had been sparring at the time, was free to enact her retribution in practically any way she desired.

Shino had no idea that chakra strings could be used like that and clearly their sensei hadn't either. It had taken him much longer than usual to call an end to the match and intervene to help Ami before Sakura caused the girl some sort of permanent damage. Though truthfully, she was extremely lucky that medical ninjutsu existed or that might have been a foregone conclusion. Knees were not supposed to bend that way.

Needless to say, nobody had imagined that someone like Sakura of all people had it in her to do something like that. Many of them began treating her much more respectfully, wary of arousing the pinkette's hidden temper.

"I'm surprised she came back, honestly." Ino commented idly, "Most people wouldn't want to after getting their knee inverted like that."

"I imagine that Saskue's presence played a large factor in her return. His fangirls tend to put their obsession before their own well-being at times."

Ino's eyes narrowed at his words, but she didn't argue with him, instead turning to look at where Sakura had been sleeping. She didn't say anything, just staring at the desk with an odd look on her face, thinking intently.

Eventually, she nodded, reaching a decision that Shino himself was not privy to. She turned to him, her eyes questioning, "Alright. I'm going over to her house to knock some sense into her. Do you want to come with me?"

Shino froze, surprised that she had offered him the option to join her. Ino noticed this and rolled her eyes, "You're her friend too, and she's learned how to tune me out by now. Maybe you'll be able to help me put her head on straight."

Shino didn't have to think too hard about it before coming to a decision. He had already sat by long enough while his friend hurt herself with her training.

"Alright." He said quietly, trying not to imagine the ways that this could go wrong, "I'll come with you."

Ino gave him a thankful look before immediately turning away to march out of the room, steely determination in her every step as she followed after their wayward friend. Shino was left sitting there in surprise for a moment before he stood and trailed after her, following along silently down the stairs towards the classroom door.

Iruka gave them a smile as they passed his desk, their sensei easily reading their intentions and apparently approving of what they were about to do. Ino ignored him in favor of following after Sakura while Shino gave the man a small nod as he passed him by.

"Come on." Ino said as they exited the building, "She's probably at home. She likes to check in with her family before going off to train."

Shino nodded, "If she isn't there, I believe I know where her preferred training ground is. She's mentioned it in conversation once or twice. Training Ground 23."

"Perfect. We'll check there afterwards." She smiled, before her grin turned sharp, "And when we find her, I'm going to give her more than just a piece of my mind. I'd say deserves it for making me worry like this, wouldn't you?"

Shino didn't object to her words, which she apparently took as an agreement. She gave him another sharp grin, before beginning to walk in the direction of Sakura's house. Shino was half a step behind her, listening silently as she muttered angrily to herself about what she was going to do to Sakura for worrying her.

The Aburame could tell that her heart wasn't in it, though. Ino was just as worried about Sakura as he was, if not more, and it made Shino happy to know that he wasn't alone in his concern for the girl.

They may not have been friends themselves, but neither of them were going to continue to sit by while Sakura withered away under her own training regime.

---

Next six chapters available at Sadguychet | Patreon

 

[Sadguychet]

Ino's face was more than a little irritated as she practically banged on the front door of Sakura's house. The blonde's expression was set into an irate scowl, her blue eyes flashing with anger so prominent that even Shino kept a respectable distance from her, watching the scene unfold.

The reason for her anger was mostly concern for her friend's well-being, true, but she was still angry and had no intention of letting Sakura escape her wrath for making her this way.

She growled lightly, making Shino lean away from her in discomfort. As wary as he was of her though, Ino could still see the subtle tension in his shoulders, the feelings that he couldn't quite show thanks to his clan's monotonous language leaking through into his body language. Most people wouldn't have been able to detect it, but Ino was the daughter of the head of T&I and could see through him like he was made of glass. Shino was worried about Sakura, just like she was.

Ino didn't really interact with her fellow clan heir outside of the specific circumstances that Sakura happened to bring them together, but she knew that Shino cared about their friend just as much as she did, as proven by the fact that he hadn't hesitated to follow her on her little mission today.

Now if only Sakura would open up Ino she could give her a piece of her mind!

"Argh! DANG IT SAKURA! OPEN THE DOOR, I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!" Ino raised her fist higher to pound on the door even harder, only to pause as it suddenly swung open. Only the person on the other side of the door was not the one that Ino wanted to see.

Mebuki Haruno stared down at Ino with unimpressed eyes. Ino's anger faded into deep embarrassment as she realized what she had just been doing. Her face beginning to burn, she gave the woman a sheepish smile, "H-Hello, Mrs Haruno."

Mebuki didn't say anything, just continuing to stare down at her. Her eyes flitted between Ino and Shino who had begun to shift awkwardly behind her, before she raised an eyebrow, "Hello, Ino, Shino. It's nice to see you again. Would you mind telling me why you're trying to break down my door?"

"I-uh," Ino sweated at the look in the woman's eyes. It reminded her of her mother, "We're looking for Sakura…? We need to talk to her."

Mebuki didn't say anything for a long moment, making Ino sweat harder, before the woman moved out of the way, gesturing for them to come inside, "She's up in her room. Please keep the volume down. Hanami is napping."

There was a bit of danger hidden beneath her tone and Ino didn't want to know what the consequences would be for disobeying.

"Yes ma'am." She said quietly, not looking at the intimidating woman as she made her way inside. Shino followed after her, giving Mebuki a silent nod, before the two of them began to make their way into the house.

As the door closed behind them and Mebuki walked away to do something in the kitchen, Shino gave the blonde a look, "She is oddly frightening for a civilian."

Ino shuddered, nodding in agreement, "I think that's just a thing with moms. Kaa-sama is the same way when she's mad at me."
Shino tilted his head, "Interesting. My own mother has never acted like that before."

Ino couldn't hold back the snort at the Aburame's words, "No, I bet she hasn't. You were probably more well-behaved than me and Sakura combined."

"That is true."

Together, they ascended the staircase to the second floor, heading to where they knew their friend was waiting. Having already been over to Sakura's house a few times before, they both knew where the girl's room was. They made their way to the end of the hall to a large cherry wood door that looked just like all of the others except for the sakura tree that had been painted delicately on its dark surface.

Ino turned to look at Shino who was standing a few feet away, already knowing what she was about to do. He gave her a nod which she returned, before reaching down and grabbed the doorknob, wrenching the door open angrily.

"Sakura! We need to talk right no-OH MY GOD!"

Ino's words were cut short by a shocked scream at what she saw inside of the room. Startled by her exclamation, Shino walked up behind her, wanting to know what had caused the reaction within the Yamanaka, only to pause as well at what he saw.

Sakura was sitting in the middle of her bedroom floor, cross-legged with her ink-stained fingers fiddling with something in her hands as she stared at them with wide eyes. Scattered all around her were random materials, bits of wood and gears and springs, as well as dozens of papers covered in complicated drawings that Ino could barely make out, much less understand. A scroll was unraveled right next to her, the same drawings covering its surface though they seemed even more complicated, if that were even possible.

The biggest attention catcher though, and what caused Ino's surprise in the first place, was what looked like the severed head of a woman sitting on the pinkette's desk just a few feet away, the face framed by a curtain of disheveled black hair.

Ino's mouth opened, a scream building in her throat, but as her eyes focused on the disembodied head, she realized that something was off. The skin on the face was extremely rough, with a grainy texture, on top of being an extremely odd color. She studied it closer and could just barely make out a seam extending from the lower edge of the mouth down the chin. It was a hinge, just like the ones you would see on a… puppet.

It was a puppet head. Right. The key component to the profession that Sakura had been touting that she would master for the past two and a half years. That thing.

As Ino berated herself for not seeing something so obvious, Sakura broke out of her shock, her tired mind just now realizing that she had visitors.

"Oh, hey guys. What are you doing here?" She asked curiously even as she turned her attention back to the thing in her hand which, as she moved it around, Ino realized was a prosthetic hand. Ino watched, still too stunned to speak as Sakura manually articulated the fingers and thin needles popped out of the fingertips for a quick moment before retracting back inside, leaving no sign that they had been there in the first place.

Sharing a look with Shino, the anger Ino had been feeling reignited inside of her chest and she quickly remembered why she was here. Scowling angrily, she stepped into her friend's room, careful not to step on any of the probably dangerous things that were scattered around the floor.

"What do you mean, 'what are we doing here'? This is the only way we're able to see you outside of class anymore!" Ino said, careful to keep her voice down so Mebuki didn't come up and throw her out, while also making sure that Sakura knew exactly how angry she was with her.

The pinkette was either oblivious to her ire or completely ignoring it though, as Sakura made no effort to acknowledge Ino's anger, "That doesn't really explain much, Ino. You see me all the time when I come over to your house.

"You haven't been over to my house in over a month! Hell, we don't even spar anymore!" Ino yelled, raising her hands high into the air in her frustration, causing Shino to take a small step back at the sudden movement.

Sakura blinked, "Wait really? I could have sworn I was there last Thursday."

"That was five weeks ago." Ino growled as she and Shino walked into the room, careful not to step on anything as they did so, "I tried to get you to spar with me and you said there was no point."

Sakura gave her a look like she was the weird one which made Ino's eyes twitch, "Well yeah, why would we need to? You're pretty much better than me now when I'm not using my chakra strings. There's not really anything I can teach you so there's no reason for us to spar anymore."

The sleep deprivation was clearly lowering Sakura's mental facilities because there was no other way she wouldn't have heard the implications of what she had just said. That was the only reason that Ino hadn't marched over there and wrung her neck for basically saying that they didn't need to be friends just because Ino was good at taijutsu now.

Even so, Ino growled, glaring at the pink-haired girl who continued to work on her wooden limb as if they weren't even there, "That's not what this is about! I don't care if you don't want to spar anymore, but you haven't even visited! My mom has been asking where you've been and I couldn't tell her because I didn't even know! You're constantly disappearing from class the moment it's over and don't even eat lunch! We haven't spoken more than three words to her in a week!"

Ino's words finally seemed to work their way into Sakura's thick skull as the pinkette began to look somewhat apologetic, "Oh. Sorry, Ino, I guess I've just been so busy that I haven't really thought about it."

"That is why we are worried, Sakura." Shino said, "It is clear that your training is having adverse effects on your health. Perhaps it is time to take a step back and take a break. You are already set to graduate near the top of the class. You can take a little bit of time off to rest before exams."
Sakura shook her head stubbornly, turning her attention inside of the arm, "That's not what it's about, Shino. I know I'm going to graduate near the top, that's not a question, but I'm not where I want to be. There's still so much that I want to get done before I become a genin."

"And that's worth working yourself to the point of exhaustion?" Ino asked, "There are some ninja who do that, but they're all crazy and you're not even a ninja yet. You can afford to take a little time off."

"I'll be fine if I-"

"Sakura, you almost lost to Naruto during class. Naruto."

Sakura scowled lightly, her jaw clenching in remembrance, "I wasn't expecting him to come up from the ground with a headbutt. Who does that?"

"Naruto does, and that's the problem, Sakura." Shino said as Ino huffed at the girl's stubbornness, "Normally, you would have expected and easily been able to dodge something like that. Your reaction times have slowed with your exhaustion, as have your reflexes and coordination. You are slipping."

"I'm not-"

"Don't even try to argue." Ino interrupted her friend again. Sakura glared at her and Ino glared right back, "Don't. You know it's true. I'm pretty sure even Ami could get a lucky hit in on you with the state you're in."

"That's too far!" Sakura immediately shot back, her green eyes angry at the idea that someone like Ami could ever land a hit on her, "She can't even keep up with Akamaru!"

"And you could?" Ino challenged, putting a hand on her hip, "I saw you trip over your own feet on the way to the bathroom, Sakura. You're lucky you didn't bruise that massive forehead on the door frame."

As Sakura growled at her friend's jab, Shino held his hands up placatingly, "We aren't asking you to stop training altogether, Sakura. We would just like you to cut back a bit before you hurt yourself in a way that forces you to. I understand that you want to be the best kunoichi that you can be, but I bet you have begun to see diminishing returns on your training, right?"

Sakura didn't say anything, but the look on her face was all Shino needed to see. He nodded, putting his hands into his pockets, "You need to rest. It would be best to spend some time away from training and focus on one thing at a time instead of running yourself into the ground. It would be best to let yourself recover before you do something foolish like take the wrong poison while working on your resistance."

At the Aburame's words, Sakura's expression suddenly went blank, and Ino watched with disbelief as her cheeks and ears began to slowly turn red.

"Seriously Sakura?" She asked, staring at her friend as she blushed in embarrassment, "Really?"

"It wasn't my fault!" Sakura protested, mortified by the way her friends were looking at her, "Hanami messed with my vials and the poisons looked similar. I was only sick for a few days!"

Ino's face told her exactly how much that mattered to her and Sakura looked back down at her project, turning it over in her hands as she thought. Ino went to say something else but Shino put a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head. Huffing lightly, Ino shut her mouth, letting Sakura think in silence.

After a minute, Sakura gave a small sigh, putting down her wooden hand and looking up at them apologetically, "...You guys are right. I've been going a little too crazy on the training, recently. I guess I got so focused on it that I didn't notice. I'm sorry."

"There is no reason to be sorry, Sakura." Shino reassured her while Ino carefully held her tongue, "We both understand that you are serious about your goals. Just please remember not to forget your own needs in pursuit of your goals."

"I'll try not to." Sakura said with a small smile, "But you'll help remind me if I do, right?"

"Well duh. What kind of friends would we be if we didn't?" Ino said with a hiff,before a light smile appeared on her face as well, "Glad to see we managed to get through that thick skull of yours, Sakura. Took a little work but we finally did it."

Ino held out her hand to Shino. It took the Aburame a moment to understand what she wanted but he hesitantly reached out, slapping her hand with his own and causing her to grin.

Sakura raised an eyebrow as her friend's high-fived, "Was that a forehead joke?"

"It could be." Ino shrugged, "Now hurry up and get all of that stuff put away. We're getting you out of this room. There's a yakisoba place near the clan compounds that I've been wanting to try forever so we can go there and see what happens after, I guess."

"Yakisoba?" Sakura asked as she reached down to the scroll at her side, "That sounds good but I thought you didn't eat noodles."

Ino scoffed, "That was forever ago, Sakura. I haven't been on a diet for a while now. Taijutsu and chakra exercises take way too much energy so I'm able to eat as much as I want and still keep my figure!" She turned to Shino, "Tou-sama says this place was really good when he, Choji, and Shikamaru's dad went there and I got my allowance early so I can pay for all of us."

Shino gave her a nod, "That sounds agreeable. I've never had Yakisoba before."

"You're in for a treat. It's super good." Ino said, before her grin turned slightly evil as she turned back to Sakura as the girl began sealing the mess away into her scroll, "And when we're done, you're coming back to my house to explain to my mom where you've been. She's been worried, you know?"

Ino would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy the way Sakura's skin immediately turned pale at her words. It served the girl right for making her worry.

---

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[Epitome of Eccentricity]

That was fun. I'm looking forward to you exploring the differences in your au and canon

 

[Sadguychet]

"So what is it that has been demanding your attention at night, Sakura?" Shino asked her curiously as the three of them wandered around the village for lack of anything better to do. The food had been good and now they were just doing their best to walk off the bloated feeling in their stomachs, "It must be important if you're willing to go without sleep for so long."

Suppressing a burp, Sakura shrugged idly, "Well honestly, here recently I've been working almost exclusively on my puppet at night. It's gotten to the point that it requires my full attention so it might is the best time for me to do it because there are less distractions. Less chance I'm going to accidentally trip the seals or the hair-trigger springs that keep the blades locked."

Though with how exhausted she had been recently, there had still been a few close calls. She very carefully didn't look at her hands, her fingers littered with random cuts from where she hadn't quite been careful enough.

"Wait, you already have weapons for it? How? You said your sensei didn't give you any." Ino said, looking confused. Shino tilted his head, also curious as to how his friend had managed to acquire bladed weaponry despite their pending graduation.

"My parents got them for me." Sakura explained, "Or well, sort of. Sometimes when their caravan is attacked, there's stuff left over from the battle that they usually try to sell. Kunai, daggers, even swords sometimes. If the stuff's not in good enough condition though, they'll toss it. I just asked if I could have whatever they were going to throw away."

"You're using broken weapons to create your puppet?"

Sakura gave Shino an offended look, "Of course not, I'm not an idiot and my sensei would literally kill me if she ever found out I used damaged weapons to make my first puppet! I'm repairing them! Tachi can't sell me weapons but I'm still allowed to rent out his forge. I spent a lot of time fixing bent senbon and other junk just to get it in working condition. When I become a kunoichi though, I'm definitely getting some more high quality stuff."

Ino gave her a disbelieving look, "Wow. No wonder you've been so freaking tired all the time, Sakura! You're telling me you've been training, working on your puppet, going to the Academy, and learning how to blacksmith all at the same time, not to mention whatever else you've been getting up to!?"

Sakura blushed. When she had been doing it, it hadn't sounded that absurd. Now that she was hearing it in context though, she could see why her friends had been so concerned for her, "Yeah… I may have gone a bit overboard."

"You think!?" Ino actually looked a bit pissed off, "I'm surprised you didn't fall asleep on your feet!"

That actually had happened a few times over the last few months. Not for long, she usually woke up when she lost her balance and began to fall over, but she had still managed to catch a few minutes of shut-eye standing up.

She wasn't going to tell Ino that, of course. With how the blonde was glaring at her right now, she was pretty sure that wouldn't go well for her in the slightest. She looked away, avoiding her friend's eyes as she stared at some interesting potted plants sitting on the windowsill of a store they were passing by, "Yeah, I'm surprised too…"

Ino narrowed her eyes but Sakura stubbornly didn't look at the other girl for fear of having her ear screamed off. The three friends spent the next minute or so in an awkward silence as they wandered through the busy streets of Konoha and all the while Sakura could feel Ino's eyes on her, trying to bore a hole into the side of her head.

Luckily, Shino saw her discomfort and saved her from the agony of being visually dissected by a Yamanaka, "Do you believe that your puppet will be ready by the time that we graduate, Sakura?" He asked inquisitively.

Trying not to look too relieved by the topic change, Sakura nodded, "Definitely. She's pretty much almost finished already, I just have to go over the seals and internal mechanisms so I can make sure that nothing goes wrong when I finally put her into action. There are a ton of things that could go wrong if even one spring or gear is out of place, but I'm positive that I'll have everything done by then."

"Well I can't wait to see what the finished product looks like." Ino's gaze became much less piercing as she apparently gave up trying to read Sakura's mind, much to the pinkette's relief, "If you're already that good with your chakra strings without the freaking puppet, then you'll probably be the best in class with it."

Sakura grinned, elbowing the girl teasingly, "Yeah. Maybe I'll be even better than Sasuke, huh?"

To her eternal surprise, Ino just shrugged instead of getting angry, "Maybe."

The lack of response caused Sakura to share a look of shock with Shino. That hadn't been what she had been expecting at all. Ino seemingly noticed their shock and raised an eyebrow at their reaction, "What?"

"I guess I was just expecting a bit more of a reaction than that." Sakura answered, eyeing her friend, "I definitely didn't think you'd agree with me. Usually you'd yell my ear off for implying that I'm better than Sasuke."

Ino snorted, "Yeah well, that was before I started ranking higher in taijutsu. You can only have a crush on a guy for so long after he punches you in the stomach hard enough to make you throw up. Like, don't get me wrong, I'd date him in a second, but I still think about that punch." She flipped her hair over her shoulder, "Sasuke's good, but if you've been training hard enough to pass out every day, then you're probably just as good as he is."

Sakura wasn't really sure how to respond. Ino's fangirl crush on Sasuke had been borderline fanatical ever since they had started hanging out, and even if she was apparently over it by now, being so favorably compared to the Uchiha was still extremely high praise.

She decided to take the compliment for what it was, giving her friend a smile, "Thanks, Ino. Now I kind of want to see how I'd stack up to him with my puppet."

She was telling the truth too. Sasuke was extremely fast, faster than her for sure, but it wouldn't matter against what she had created, not in the slightest. Even so, he was still an extremely good fighter besides that and she couldn't help but wonder how the fight would go if they were allowed to go all out.

"It'd certainly be an entertaining battle." Shino chimed in, "Though in a battle without restrictions, Sasuke would have the ability to utilize ninjutsu as well and wood is highly flammable. Your puppet might not survive such an encounter."

Though the thought of her puppet going up in cinders made her fingers twitch in barely suppressed rage, Sakura shook her head, "All of the wood I used in my puppet's creation is coated in a fire-resistant lacquer. It would be pretty much impossible for even someone like Sasuke to set it on fire." She grinned darkly, "And even if he could, I have ninjutsu too and water beats fire every day of the week. I'd drown him on his feet if he ever tried to burn my puppet."

Ino's head sapped towards her, "Okay, and when the hell did you have time to do elemental training on top of all that other stuff?" She demanded, looking somewhat resigned despite her tone. It was clear that she was beginning to become less and less surprised at the absurdity of Sakura's training regime the more she heard.

Sakura shrugged, "Who knows? It all sort of blends together after enough time without sleep."

"If you were that exhausted, then how are you sure you retained the information?" Shino asked.

"Oh, I retained it." Sakura said confidently. Even now, her fingers twitched with the desire to go through the hand seals needed to perform the jutsu she practiced and her chakra jumped in their coils with the same anticipation, "I retain pretty much everything I learn no matter how tired I am. Otherwise there wouldn't be a point to all of it."
"Yeah, Shino, there's no way she doesn't remember everything." Ino had an annoying grin on her face and Sakura narrowed her eyes as the blonde gestured to her face, "I mean, just look at the size of that forehead! There's probably enough space up there to fit the entire Konoha Library!"

Sharing a look with Shino as Ino laughed at her own joke, Sakura slipped a hand behind her back. With a tiny amount of effort, she created a thin chakra threat that she then began to sneakily stretch out towards the Yamanaka.

Keeping half of her concentration on it, she kept her expression as natural as possible so that Ino wouldn't notice anything was amiss as her chakra crept up towards the girl's head, "So who do you guys think will be on your teams? They're teams of three, right? That means we could all be out together right?"

Ino shook her head, "It's possible, but I doubt it. I know I'm probably going to be stuck with Shikamaru and Choji because our dads asked for it or something."

"They can do that?"

Ino shrugged, "Probably. They're clan heads so they have some pull with the Hokage. Since all of us are in the same class, it's basically guaranteed that we're going to be on the same team."

Shino nodded, "I believe my father has been speaking to the head of the Inuzuka Clan for something similar. It is unlikely I will be on the same team as you, Sakura."

"Well that sucks." Sakura frowned, actually disappointed. She had been hoping that she might be able to be on the same team as one or even both of her friends.

To relieve herself of the disappointment, Sakura put her plan into action. Her chakra thread has been steadily sneaking its way towards Ino's hair tie and just a moment ago she had made contact. From there it was just a waiting game as she used her chakra to slowly and unnoticeably cut through the thin fabric until finally…

*Snap*

Ino yelped as her carefully maintained ponytail fell around her face, obscuring her vision. Sakura had made sure to time it so that she wasn't in danger of tripping over something on the street so instead of falling on her face, she only stumbled a little while Sakura snickered at her misfortunes.

"What the hell, Sakura!?" Ino demanded as she recovered, immediately figuring out who was responsible for her sudden wardrobe malfunction.

"What?" Sakura's face was the picture of innocence but she didn't bother hiding the chakra string that was fading into thin air.

"You know what!" Ino huffed as she pushed her hair out of her face with an annoyed look, "Do you have any idea how long it takes me to do my hair? We can't all just wake up and put it in a ponytail and look good like you do! This takes actual effort!"

"That sounds like a you problem. You shouldn't have made fun of my forehead." Sakura said smugly, only to balk as Ino turned a demonic glare onto her.

"Yeah? Well I'm about to make it a you problem!" Ino growled, stalking towards Sakura like an angry bear. The pinkette flinched as Ino suddenly teached a hand out, grabbing her by the wrist and beginning to pull her down the street, "Come on, we're going to my house. It's been too long since we spared and I think you need a refresher!"

Paling at her friend's tone, Sakura pulled against Ino's grip as she was dragged along, "W-wait! I thought I was supposed to take it easy today!" She cried.

"That was before you messed with my hair!"

"Shino, help me!" She turned towards the Aburame as she was dragged away against her will.

To her horror, Shino made absolutely no attempt to save her from her fate, shaking his head, "I'm sorry, Sakura, but I have a feeling that trying to stop her would be a detriment to my health. You are going to have to deal with this on your own."

Despite the apologetic time to his words, Sakura could hear him hiding a smile underneath the collar of his jacket as he walked after her and Ino. She let out a whimper, wondering how badly this fight was going to go with her as full and as tired as she was right now.

She should have stayed at home!

~~~

A few weeks later, Sakura just barely kept herself from fidgeting nervously as she stood in front of Iruka-sensei and two of her other teachers. This was her final test, the exam that would determine whether or not she graduated or had to retry again next year so she was understandably nervous.

Seemingly sensing said nervousness, Iruka gave her a reassuring smile, "First of all, I believe congratulations are in order, Sakura. You finished as the third highest ranked in class academics. That's a real feat and definitely one to be proud of."

Sakura wasn't able to keep the smile off of her face at the acknowledgement of her efforts and she gave the man a deep bow, "Thank you, sensei!"

"You deserve it, Sakura." Iruka said with a smile, before his face became more serious, "Now then, let's begin the exam."

"I'm ready." Sakura straightened, her face twisting in determination. This was it, she was nearly there. One last test and she would finally be a full-fledged kunoichi!

Iruka looked down at the papers in front of him, "For this exam, you will need to prove to us that you've retained the knowledge that we have gone over in class."

Sakura nodded. So this was an oral exam? That explained why the other teachers were here. She wasn't sure how well she'd do because she absolutely was not prepared for something like this, but she was pretty good at improvising. She'd be fine.

Just as she began to hype herself up, her mind flashing back to the most important lessons that she had participated in over the past several years, Iruka suddenly and abruptly took all of the wind out of her sails.

"Your test is to prove sufficient mastery over the Academy Three." He said, making her blink, "Please perform the transformation, clone, and substitute jutsus in any order you like. You will be graded on several factors including quickness, stability, and accuracy."

Sakura waited for the catch, only to blink as she was met with three expectant gazed instead of more information on her task, "Uhh… is that it?"

Iruka raised an eyebrow at her confusion, "Well, if you'd like, you can earn some extra credit by showing proficiency in another jutsu that isn't a part of the Academy Three."

Still somewhat believing that she was being pranked or something, Sakura did as she was ordered to. Maneuvering her fingers into a Ram seal, she glanced at a chair sitting in the corner of the room and pulsed her chakra in a way that she had practiced a million times before.

In a puff of smoke, she and the chair had switched places. She looked towards her examiners watching as they nodded happily at her display, before performing the task again and appearing where she had started.

Hidden from her instructors in the smoke, she performed another set of hand seals and when the smoke finally cleared, there were two of her standing there instead of one.

The examiners clapped politely at the show and Sakura gave a small bow as the clone disappeared without a sound.

Iruka marked something down on the paper in front of him, "Well done, Sakura. Now all that's left is the-"

He was interrupted by another puff of smoke, and he looked up and his words died in his throat as he was met with the stern gaze of a middle-aged mother staring him down. Sakura had been on the receiving end of that stare more times than she could count and so could completely understand the slight fear that appeared on Iruka's face.

Deciding to grant him the mercy of not having to look into her mom's disappointed eyes for any longer, Sakura canceled the jutsu, returning to her original form in an instant.

The examiners breathed simultaneous sighs of relief and Iruka coughed as he regained his composure, "Ahem. V-very well done, Sakura. The details on your henge were… very lifelike."

Sakura smirked, recognizing the nervousness in his face for what it was. She had seen it on her dad often enough, after all, "Thank you, sensei. May I do my extra credit, now ? I've got some jutsu that I can show off."

Iruka nodded, gesturing for her to go ahead, "Be my guest. Just please keep it to non-destructive jutsu if you can."

"Will do!" Turning around to face the far wall, Sakura brought her hands in front of her chest as she debated which jutsu she should showcase.

'Hmm… I need something easy that looks impressive but also won't break anything… That should work.'

Searching her mind for the correct seals for the technique, Sakura began to sign at a moderate but steady pace. There was no reason to rush and screw up here, after all. Slow and steady wins the race.

A moment later, Sakura's hands landed on the last seal and she inhaled deeply, feeling the chakra build inside of her lungs and throat. It was light and cool, like the air just after a spring rain, and she kept it there for just a moment before announcing the name of her technique.

"Water Release: Creeping Fog!"

Sakura opened her mouth and expelled a stream of white mist that quickly blanketed the area in front of her. It shot out of her mouth and immediately spread several feet in either direction, stopping only once it hit the walls of the room and couldn't spread any further.

It wasn't quite as thick as she would have liked but it was thick enough that she couldn't quite make out the seams in the floorboards nor the finer details on the far wall. Still, she'd have to work on it. She couldn't hide anything in fog this thin.

After expelling a sufficient amount for the demonstration, she closed her mouth and cut off the technique. Her chakra felt slightly drained which made sense considering this was a high C-rank jutsu, but that just made her happy at how much she'd grown over the past few years.

Smiling slightly, she turned around to face her examiners once more. Two of them were staring at her in wide-eyed surprise while Iruka was giving her a proud smile, "Wonderful job, Sakura. That's quite a useful jutsu you've managed to learn. I think you've more than earned the right to your headband."

He gestured to the box full of gleaming metal attached to dark blue cloth. Practically shaking with excitement, Sakura moved forward picking one up with gentle fingers. She gazed at her reflection in the polished metal, running her fingers along the cool surface as her digits traced the leaf symbol etched into the metal.

With the sensation of the engraving underneath her fingers, came a feeling of joy that welled up from deep inside. She had done it. Years of hard work and training had paid off! She was finally a kunoichi!

She'd have to replace that ribbon because blue was so not her color, but other than that, everything was exactly what she had dreamed of!

Smiling at her joy, Iruka gave Sakura a small bow, "I am proud to have called you my student, Sakura. Now wear that headband with pride and welcome to our shinobi forces."

Returning her sensei's bow, Sakura practically strutted out of the testing room with a bright grin, her brand new hitai-ate shining brightly as she tied it securely onto her right bicep.

As she walked into the classroom, both Shino and Ino were there to meet her. The Yamanaka took one glance at her before smirking.

"Looks like you made the cut too." Ino said as Sakura reached the two of them, holding her hand in the air.

Sakura slapped it happily, "Duh. Don't you know who you're talking to, of course I did!" She lowered her voice, "That test was barely even a test at all. I'd be surprised if someone actually managed to fail it."

"It did seem oddly simple." Shino agreed, "If anyone was paying attention in class at all, there's no reason that they should fail."

"You say that, but I've seen like, six people leave without a headband so far." Ino said.

Sakura gave her a disbelieving look, "Seriously?"

"I know right? Like, why even bother coming to graduation if you can't even use substitution?" Ino scoffed, before glancing down to the brand new scroll hanging from Sakura's hip. It was slightly thicker than the other ones, bright red with a green edge, and it didn't take a genius to guess what it was for.

"So is your puppet in there?" Ino asked, interest plain in her voice as she pointed at the scroll.

Sakura grinned, reaching down to caress the scroll holding years worth of hard work. It felt a little surreal to finally have her finished puppet on her person and Sakura was filled with a giddy excitement every time that she glanced down to see the scroll testing on her hip. "It is! I did the final tests last night. She's officially ready to go! I can't wait to finally put her into action in a real fight!"

Both of her friends smiled at the eagerness in her voice and Ino leaned forward, eying the scroll, "Well don't keep us in suspense! Bring her out! I want to see what almost made you flunk out of the academy!"

"I didn't nearly flunk out! My grades were fine!" Sakura defended herself, "And I can't show you in here. I'm still getting used to controlling all of the hidden mechanisms in her body. If I twitch my finger wrong, I could fill this entire room with poisonous fog."

Ino groaned, "Ugh, really? You spent all that time on that freaking puppet and we can't even see it? Lame…"

"I'm so sorry I don't want to possibly poison the entire graduating class, Ino." Sakura deadpanned, "If you really want to see it, I'll just come by your house after we're done here and show you there. Should make for good entertainment for the party!"

Ino's demeanor immediately brightened, "That's true. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Hey Shino, do you want to come over to my place after we're done here?" She asked, looking at the Aburame who stiffened in surprise, "Shikamaru and Choji are coming over with their families and we're all gonna celebrate with a big barbeque. I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you came too."

Shino's shock was plain to see, and Sakura quickly reinforced Ino's offer , "You don't want to miss it, Shino. It's kind of a given, but any barbeque with the Akimichi is gonna be a good one."

Faced with his friend's hopeful gazed, Shino nodded slowly, "I'll have to speak to my parents first, but I believe I can attend. Should… I show up with gifts?" He asked, seeming unsure.

"Just bring yourself." Sakura grinned, clapping him on the shoulder solidly, "Oh and uh, if you could help keep the bugs away from the food, I'm sure nobody will complain."

Shino nodded, "I can do that. I'm sure my kikaichu will enjoy the taste of insects scented with the fragrance of spiced meat. It will be a treat for them as well."

"Ooh, barbeque mosquitos. Yum." Ino made a face and Sakura giggled.

"Alright everyone, take your seats!" The three of them turned their attention to the testing room as Iruka came walking out, followed closely by Naruto who was sporting a smile just as large as the one Sakura had been wearing earlier.

"Huh. I'm gonna be honest, I didn't expect him to pass. Doesn't he usually have trouble making clones?" Sakura asked Shino as they sat in their usual seats.

"It's possible he found some other form of clone with which to pass the test." Shino postulated "Sensei said we had to make a clone but he didn't specify what kind. Maybe he learned how to create elemental clones instead of a regular bunshin."

That was true. Naruto's mom used to be a ninja so maybe she actually managed to teach him how to make a clone that didn't look like it belonged in hospice.

Mystery solved, Sakura turned her attention towards the front of the room as Iruka took his place at the podium. He gestured for them all to quiet down waiting until the room was at least somewhat quiet before beginning to speak

Sakura almost immediately tuned out the speech, quickly realizing that it was just general congratulations and him espousing about how proud he was of all of them. Instead, she turned her attention onwards, focusing on all of the things she would need to take care of once she was out of here.

Like she had told her friends earlier, her puppet was almost finished, but it was still missing a few critical pieces. Namely kunai, shuriken, senbon, the sorts of things that were needed in a much larger quantity than anything she had managed to get from her parents.

'Lets see… I'll also need to get a few spools of ninja wire too. Good quality stuff that won't break when I use it. That'll cost… a lot." She sighed, already feeling her wallet practically crying out in pain. She was gonna be broke again, wasn't she?

'Who would have thought being a ninja was so expensive?' She mused sullenly as she turned her attention back to the front of the room. Iruka had finished his speech and was now holding up a clipboard.

"I will now begin reading off the team compositions." He cleared his throat, "Several teams are still in rotation so we'll begin with…"

Sakura waited patiently for her name to be called as the teams were listed. Groans and cheers rang out in the room as people were sorted with those they liked or hated, and Sakura held back her disappointment as both Ino and Shino were sorted into teams without her.

At least they didn't seem happy about it either. Ino looked mostly resigned, having been right about being forced onto a team with both Choji and Shikamaru, while Shino actually seemed somewhat content being placed on a team with Kiba and Hinata.

Naruto and Sasuke were paired up which came as less of a surprise than it probably should have. Despite how much Naruto claimed to dislike the Uchiha, the two of them were practically joined at the hip. Hopefully they wouldn't mind Ami crashing their little rivalry because judging by the girls scream when her name was called, she still hadn't gotten over her crush.

At least it wasn't Sakura. She wasn't sure she could stomach Naruto's yelling more than she already had to.

She turned her attention back to the front, eager to hear who she would be paired up with. As more names were listed off though, Sakura's never seemed to come. More and more people were called, more and more teams were assigned but never her. And by the time that the last unassigned person had been given their team of three, Sakura was practically biting her nails with worry and confusion.

And then Iruka turned to her, and something in his eyes took her aback. They weren't like anything that Sakura had ever seen from the man, deep and solemn with an undertone of something that she couldn't identify.

"And finally…" He gave a deep sigh, "Sakura Haruno will be joining Team 3 to replace a recent vacancy in their numbers."

What.

Sakura's face went blank and she stiffened at her sensei's words and beside her, Shino noticed this, giving her a curious glance as he wondered what had caused the reaction

She only had eyes for Iruka though. The man was still staring at her and now as she looked into his brown eyes, she had a name for the feeling she couldn't place. Sorrow.

"Sakura, your sensei is waiting for you on the roof. You may leave when ready." He told her in a soft voice, before turning to address the rest of the class, "Everyone else, your senseis will be here shortly so please be patient."

Feeling oddly numb, Sakura stood up and began to leave the classroom. As she passed him, Shino watched her worriedly but didn't speak up, not really sure what to say.

Ino on the other hand, wasn't nearly as shy. Just as Sakura passed the other girl's seat, Ino's hand shot out and grabbed onto her wrist, forcing her to stop and look at her.

"Sakura?" The Yamanaka asked, her eyes staring into Sakura and searching for what had caused her friend's sudden shift in mood, "What's going on?"

Sakura just shook her head, not saying a word. Her ears were still ringing with Iruka's proclamation and she was having trouble getting her thoughts in order. She had to get to the roof.

She slipped her hand out of Ino's, ignoring the worried look that the blonde gave her as she made her way towards the front of the classroom. Around her, her classmates seemingly picked up on her mood as the happy chatter of the teams getting acquainted with each other faded into an uneasy silence.

The moment she stepped out of the classroom, the noise returned, but Sakura ignored it in favor of making her way towards the staircase that would take her to the roof, her mind racing a mile a minute behind her eyes.

Team 3 was missing a member? How? When!?

Since her friends had managed to talk her out of breaking herself with her training, Sakura hadn't visited the usual training ground nearly as often as she had before. She only went there now to practice ninjutsu or test out some of the more volatile functions of her puppet. She was there maybe two or three times a week at this point, and rarely for more than a few hours.

Now that she thought about it though, the few times that she went there, none of Team 3 had shown up. She had just figured that maybe their times hadn't been lining up or something but now…

She picked up the pace slightly, her heart beginning to beat faster in her chest as she ascended the stairs and her mind spiraled.

What if something had happened to one of them? Sure, people could technically leave a team and retire from the shinobi forces early but they needed proof of significant injury or an actual, credible reason to do so. It was a military occupation, you couldn't just quit. That meant that something had to have happened to one of them, and Sakura's hands shook with worry as she opened the door to the roof, praying that she was wrong and her friends were fine.

Standing on the edge of the roof a few feet away was a man in a jonin flak jacket. He was tall and had dark blue hair and a cigarette in his mouth, the smoke curling lazily above his head. He didn't turn around as she opened the door, and just as Sakura opened her mouth to ask if he was the one she was supposed to meet, he spoke.

"Are you Sakura?" He asked, still not turning to face her. His voice was slightly gravely, a deep baritone that she could practically feel even from several feet away.

"...I am." The newly-minted-genin said in a small voice. Her words finally made the man turn around to face her.

Bright orange eyes stared at her from an aloof face. Running overtop one of said eyes was a thick and almost grotesque line of scar tissue that ran vertically down his face towards his chin, narrowly missing the ocular organ itself. Sakura tried not to stare at the scar as he looked her up and down, seeming utterly unimpressed by what he saw, "So you're the kid who's been using my training ground, huh? You don't look like much."

Sakura ignored the comment with practiced ease, instead getting straight towards the question that was practically eating her alive, "What happened?"

Iwabi raised an eyebrow at her question, "Well now, you don't beat around the bush, do you?"

Sakura's fists clenched and she took a step forward, glaring angrily while trying not to seem too desperate, "Tell me what happened." She demanded, her voice much stronger this time as it rose with her anger.

The man took another drag of his cigarette, looking unconcerned, "What do you think, kid? What all sensei's fear might happen the first time they take their genin out of the village. I failed to teach them and they got in over their heads and paid the price for it."

Sakura swallowed heavily at his words, her worst fears coming true, "Hikari, Tsu… Are they…?" She couldn't finish the sentence, the words catching in her throat and choking her up.

Iwabi raised an eyebrow at the specific mention but shook his head all the same, "Hikari and Tsuyoka are fine, physically at least. They aren't the ones you're replacing."

Then that meant…

"Jin was the one who didn't make it back from the mission." Iwabi finished her thought for her. She watched as the man practically inhaled the rest of his cigarette, bright embers falling from the burnt stub onto the concrete below his feet. He exhaled a long stream of smoke and as he did so, the lines on his face deepened and made him look much less unbothered than it had only a few seconds ago.

That was good. Sakura was beginning to think that he didn't care at all that one of his students were gone.

"It was my fault." Sakura's gaze snapped to his, shock written all over her face as the man outright confessed, "I thought that they could handle themselves and I was wrong. In the battle, I took my eyes off of them to go deal with someone who I thought would be too much for them to handle and missed the second ninja who caught Jin's attention. I couldn't get back to them in time to save him before it was too late and by that point, Hikari and Tsuyoka were too injured to continue fighting. The only thing we were able to recover was his sword."

That was… Sakura didn't even have words. She wasn't sure how to feel either. She hadn't really known Jin all that well, usually spending time with the other two when they happened to be training at the same time, but even so, the knowledge that someone her age had been cut down so early in his shinobi career rattled her.

If she was reacting like this, how would Tsu and Hikari feel? Though he and Tsu argued all the time, it was lighthearted and almost routine, even bordering on playful sometimes. It was clear that they had been extremely close, probably even closer than what Sakura had seen. She was probably taking this much harder than Hikari was.

"...How are Tsu and Hikari?" Sakura asked, worried about her friends.

Iwabi's jaw clenched and that was all that Sakura needed to know what he was about to say. "About as well as you could expect. It's been rough, which is why I hope a familiar face might do a little to fix things."

"Was that why I was assigned to Team 3? To help them?" Sakura asked uncertainly.

To her surprise, Iwabi shook his head, "No. You're being assigned to Team 3 because your skill set meshes almost perfectly with both Hikari and Tsuyoka's. I wouldn't request you to be the team therapist and they wouldn't want you to be. You're a genin, not therapist."

Iwabi flicked his cigarette off of the roof, blowing the last of the smoke into the air, "Anyway, that's enough talking about that. I came here to take your measure and I've got it. I'll see you at Training Ground 3 at twelve o'clock sharp tomorrow afternoon. Eat a light lunch."

He then disappeared in a gust of wind and swirling leaves before Sakura had the chance to say anything else, leaving her staring at the tiny pieces of green foliage as they were caught by the wind and began to soar off of the roof.

And as Sakura was left alone with the wind whistling in her ears, staring out across the vast sprawl of Konoha, the glow of her recent achievements faded quite a bit.

---

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[Definition-Plane]

Well cannon is dead with a somber note.

 

[Sadguychet]

Sakura was slightly nervous as she walked onto the familiar green field of Training Ground 23. She was a little bit early since it was only eleven-forty or so, but she was buzzing with so much nervous energy that she simply couldn't wait any longer.

The air was cooler than usual this time of year, but that was easily offset by the glaring sun hanging high in the cloudless sky. Sakura fiddled with the scroll at her hip, her mind filled with worry for her friends.

As she neared the large lake in the center of the training ground, she was met with her new teammates gathered around it. Or well, Hikari and Iwabi were gathered around it, Tsu was on top of it.

The Inuzuka was skating on top of the water, sliding back and forth along the surface of the lake as she swung a sword at an invisible foe. There was an intensely angry look on her face, and Sakura was shocked as she recognized the odachi in her hands as the same one she had often seen Jin use.

Iwabi was standing on the shore of the lake, smoking while watching Tsu train with her new weapon, while Hikari was sitting on their knees beside him, eyes closed in a peaceful meditation. Tadao was snoozing on their lap, apparently ignorant to his master's turmoil.

They noticed her almost immediately, though Sakura wasn't really making any attempt to hide her presence. Tadao's head raised as he either heard her or smelled her on the wind, and he let out an excited bark as his eyes locked onto her, drawing the others' attention as well.

"Sakura. You're early." Iwabi commented as he tossed his cigarette on the ground, "Good. I like to see that kind of initiative in a new genin."

Sakura smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head, "Eh, I'm gonna be honest, I just didn't want to wait any longer. I was going crazy with nerves back home."

Iwabi nodded, "I see, that's understandable. Well whatever the reason, it's good you're here. We can go ahead and get started and if everything goes well, we might even get some other stuff done today."

"Get started? What do you mean, sensei?" Hikari asked, practically reading Sakura's mind. Trying not to be too obvious about it, the pinkette studied the Hyuga, trying to see if she couldn't glean any insight into the teen's current mental state.

Unfortunately, it seemed that just like the rest of their clan, Hikari had mastered the ability to keep up a polite, almost emotionless mask that completely hid what they were thinking. They were basically impossible to read.

The slash of sandals on water came from behind them, and Sakura turned to find that Tsu was standing near the bank, resting Jin's sword on her shoulder as she eyed them in confusion, "What are you doing here, Sakura? You graduated right? Why aren't you with your team?"

"She is. Depending on how her test goes." Iwabi answered for them, confusing them all.

He saw this and sighed, "I guess I should explain. To start with, while you may have passed your graduation exam, Sakura, you still technically aren't an active genin. Not yet at least."

His words left Sakura dumbfounded, "Wait, what? B-but I've got a hitai-ate!"

"You do, but that just indicates you've managed the bare minimum to join Konoha's shinobi forces. I'm sure you noticed how easy your exam was?" Sakura nodded, "That's to weed out those who have little to no business actually being ninja. If they can't pass such a simple test,then there's no doubt they'd fail their actual exam. We have a limited number of jonin capable of leading teams, so we can't waste everyone's time making them test students who are destined to fail."

That… made sense. There were less than a hundred Jonin in Konoha and a good portion of them were in specialized careers. Ino's dad was just one example. If you took all of them and weeded out the ones who already had jobs that were integral to the village, you'd probably be left with thirty people capable of teaching Genin. Probably less of you factored in the ones who were actually willing to.

"Wait, Sakura's joining the team?" Tsu asked, an odd inflection in her words.

"If she passes her test, then yes." Iwabi said, "Her familiarity with the two of you means you're much more willing to work together and her abilities cover your weaknesses perfectly. She'll fit in nicely."

Though Hikari nodded in agreement with his words, Tsu didn't look nearly as satisfied. In fact, she looked kind of angry, "What the hell? We just lost Jin and now you're trying to replace him!?

Iwabi sighed, "Tsuyoka, that's not-."

"We don't need another teammate!" Tsu interrupted, "Me and Hikari are fine by ourselves!"

Sakura frowned at her words and the implication that Tsu didn't want her on her team. She tried not to let it bother her too much, though. She knew that Tsu was still hurting from Jin's loss and was just lashing out.

It still hurt though. Just a bit.

"Genin cells cannot operate in teams of two, Tsu." Hikari said softly, trying to calm their friend down, "If we wish to start taking missions again, we'll need a third member."

"Exactly." Iwabi agrees, "I understand that you may not like it, but the fact of the matter is that without a third member, we'll be delegated to D-Rank until the Chunin Exams. Assuming I even allow you to enter."

Tsu growled, clutching Jin's sword tightly, "But Sensei! Sakura can barely keep up with me when I hold back! She isn't strong enough to come with us on missions! She'd just get hurt!"

Sakura's eyes widened slightly at her words. Was that what this was about? Was Tsu worried that what happened to Jin might happen to her?

That made her feel a bit better, but it also annoyed her quite a bit. She and Tsu hadn't sparred in nearly a year and the last time they had, Sakura hadn't done too badly at all. She was underestimating her.

"Which is exactly what the test is for." Iwabi took on a lecturing tone. He turned towards Sakura, "I've heard from your Academy Sensei that you're a rather exemplary student so I'll save some time and just stick to the athletic portion. You're going to be fighting one of these two and based on your performance, I'll decide whether or not you can join Team 3, or go back to the Academy."

"Back to the… WHAT!?" Sakura was horrified by the man's words, "What do you mean go back to the Academy!?"

"Well if you can't pass my test, I can't exactly let you join the team, now can I?" Iwabi eyes sparkled with dull amusement, "If you don't live up to my standards, then that means you'll be hurt or worse on our first real mission. I don't have the time, nor the patience to train a fresh genin up to the level of these two so if you don't cut it, it's back to school for more training."

Though the prospect of being sent back to the Academy shook her, Sakura took a deep breath, trying to calm down, "...Okay. yeah, that makes sense, I guess. Am I allowed to use anything during the spar or is it just taijutsu?"

Iwabi smirked at her question, "Well considering the types of techniques you've been proclaiming to master, I don't think it'd be fair to handicap you like that, especially not against these two."

Yeah, that'd suck. Fighting an Inuzuka or a Hyuga in pure taijutsu when you weren't from one of those clans was just asking for a bad time.

Sakura smiled, feeling much better about this whole thing, "Great! Then this'll be a good test run for my baby!"

Hikari tilted their head, giving her a curious look, "You've finally finished it, have you?"

"Of course! I said it'd be done by the time I graduated and I'm not a liar!" Sakura smirked, grabbing her scroll off of her hip and unfurling it eagerly, "Here, have a look!"

With a flare of chakra and a puff of smoke, Sakura unsealed years worth of diligent work. Raising one hand, her chakra strings automatically attached themselves to the proper places on her creation's body, and it didn't even fall an inch towards the ground before it was floating in front of her, held aloft by her chakra.

And then the smoke cleared, revealing her creation in all of its glory.

Sakura's puppet took the appearance of a woman wearing a long robe with Sakura's family symbol in the center of the back. Her lips were painted a deep shade of red and she had long, flowing black hair that fell around her picturesque face, covering her eyes. She looked regal, like royalty. At least upon first glance

If one looked any closer than was readily apparent though, they would begin to realize just how wrong that assumption was. For one, her 'skin' was far too pale, with the little amount that was visible underneath her cloak practically gleaming in the light. And as the wind picked up, blowing her hair to the side and revealing her face, it showed her for the danger that she truly was as six eyes rolled in their sockets, each of them staring straight forward as if she were trying to pierce the very soul of whoever was in front of her.

"Team 3, meet Teashi." Sakura couldn't keep the giddy grin off of her face as she had her puppet do a little bow, eager to finally put her baby into action.

"Teashi… Limbs?" Hikari asked, looking her creation up and down, "Why the odd name?"

"Just wait for the demonstration and you'll find out~!" Sakura grinned secretly. Teashi's limbs rattled with wooden clicks as she pulled the puppet closer to her, "Now come on and let's get started! Who's gonna test me?"

"I will." Tsu finally stepped off the lake, clutching her sword tightly. Sakura's enthusiasm dimmed slightly as she stared into the girl's angry eyes, "I won't use Tadao so you'll just be fighting me. If you can't handle me by myself, then you aren't strong enough to join the team."

Sakura hesitated at her tone and words, turning to Iwabi questioningly. The man just nodded his head, "I'll allow it."

Her opponent decided, Sakura swallowed lightly, once again feeling the pressure of the situation as Tsu moved to stand across the clearing. If she lost her, she'd be sent back to the Academy, forced to go through another year of school just to get the chance to do it all again. All of her efforts for the past year would have been for nothing.

She couldn't let that happen. The world's greatest puppet master couldn't lose before her career even began. That would be embarrassing.

Sakura's eyes narrowed in determination as conviction filled her. She couldn't lose here. Wouldn't lose here.

Teashi's joints clicked as Sakura brought her creation in front of her, interposing the puppet between herself and the girl across from her. Tsu narrowed her eyes at her actions and brought her own weapon to bear, holding Jin's odachi in front of her, blunt edge thankfully pointed outwards. Seems Sakura didn't have to worry about being sliced to ribbons during her test.

"Are you both ready?" Iwabi stood off to the side beside Hikari who had abandoned their meditation in favor of watching the battle that was about to commence.

Sakura nodded silently, her fingers twitching in preparation for the coming fight, while Tsu didn't also say anything, just staring at her intently. Iwabi took their silence as confirmation, "Begin!"

The moment the word left her sensei's mouth, Tsu launched towards Sakura, blade held aloft as she began to eat up the distance between them in mere moments. She was looking to end this quickly. How unfortunate for her.

Before Tsu could make it more than a few steps, Teashi was right in front of her. With a deliberate twitch of Sakura's fingers, sharpened sickles popped out of her puppet's forearms, sliding the hem of her robes out of the way as they swung towards the Inuzuka in an instant.

Tsu's eyes widened and she deflected the first strike with her sword, abandoning her offence in favor of defence as the puppet engaged her in close combat. Teashi's limbs were double jointed allowed for an extremely unorthodox style of fighting, an attribute that Sakura used to great effect as she had the limbs bend in unnatural ways as she searched for an opening.

Tsu was out on the back foot as she tried to get past the puppet and to its master, but Sakura grinned just grinned as she began running backwards towards the treeline, keeping her eyes on the battle she was engaged in by proxy, "Did you really think it'd be that easy?" She called mockingly.

Tsu didn't appreciate that in the slightest, and she growled as she struggled against Sakura's creation, "Damnit, Sakura! Get back here and fight me like a real ninja!"

"I am! You're the one fighting like a meathead! You have fun with Teashi, I'm gonna hang back and have some fun of my own!" As she reached the treeline, leapt upwards into the thick canopy, before substituting herself with a branch from another nearby. Sitting on a thick branch with an ample view of the battlefield, her chakra strings lost a bit of their glow, obscuring her new position so that Tsu can't easily make her out as she settled in for the fight ahead.

Though calling it a fight was stretching it. Tsu clearly didn't know how to use Jin's sword, a fact that only became more apparent as the battle continued. Sakura had seen Jin fight a few times and the way he used the weapon was practiced, methodical sweeps and slashes that were meant to cut through bone and tear through flesh. He hadn't mentioned getting formal training, but it was clear that he had known what he was doing.

Tsu, by comparison, used the odachi like a club instead of the dangerous blade it actually was. She swung it around with no rhyme or reason, as if she was trying to use the weight alone to bludgeon Sakura's puppet to death with it. It actually kind of hurt to watch, and Sakura would prefer it if she didn't have to do so for much longer.

"You wanted to know why she's named Teashi, right, Hikari?" Sakura muttered as she pulled her puppet away from the raging Inuzuka, gaining some distance for just a moment, "Well just watch and learn!"

With an excited motion, Sakura unveiled what made her puppet special. Teashi's cloak burst open, hidden buttons along the front being forced apart as a second pair of arms emerged just below the first. They were thicker than the original pair and even on the first appearance, they looked much sturder as well. Just as she had designed them.

Tsu was left shocked by the arms' sudden appearance, and as such she wasn't able to react as Teashi's hands opened, revealing two small holes in her palms.

With a soft click and a puff of smoke, two lines of ninja wire attached to spinning shuriken were launched straight towards the unprepared Inuzuka. They crossed the distance between girl and puppet in an instant, and Tsu was just barely able to get her sword in between her body and the wires as the shuriken curved around her, wrapping her in several feet of tempered steel.

With a loud click, Teashi's arms locked and the wires began to retract, attempting to tighten around the Inuzuka. The girl grunted, the muscles in her arms bulging and the sword visibly shaking with the effort required to keep the wires from going taut. She managed it, but it was clear that the effort was such that she had to concentrate completely on the task to do so.

Sakura was silently impressed that she had managed at all really. The mechanisms inside of Teashi's arms were specifically designed to restrain adult shinobi. The gears she was fighting against spun with enough torque to pull a cart. Fighting against that, even struggling as much as she was, was no easy feat.

Unfortunately, it was futile. Sakura made a gesture and with an almost silent click, Teashi's internal mechanisms shifted deliberately. Continuing to keep the pressure on the wires, a second pair of gears began to turn inside of her arms, and with a hydraulic hiss, the puppet's body lifted off the ground.

Looking up at the noise, Tsu's eyes widened as she was met with nearly two hundred pounds of wood and metal soaring straight towards her, guided by the wires she was currently fighting against. Teashi's primary limbs reemerged from underneath her cloak and long, thin needles emerged from her knuckles, aiming to inject the Inuzuka while she was captive and helpless.

Not willing to let the fight end like this, Tsu let out an enraged roar, adrenaline allowing her to force her sword forward with nothing but pure strength and determination. The blade sliced through the wires and freed her, and Tsu immediately jumped away before she could be trapped again, dodging Teashi's needles which fell just short of her chest.

'Where do you think you're going? You aren't getting away!' Sakura was undaunted by her failure, the adrenaline of having her creation finally put to the test causing her to practically vibrate with excitement.

She gestured, pulling her chakra strings towards her and then pushing out, while at the same time manipulating several fingers on her right hand. Teashi spun in place, her secondary limbs disappearing under her cloak as the wires reel back inside her arms. Her primary arms rotated, the sickles popping out once more as Sakura had her spring forward. She was on Tsu in an instant, not allowing the Inuzuka any chance to recover or gather herself as the ringing of steel on steel began to sound through the training ground once more.

Tsu growled as she was forced on the defensive, unused to wielding such a large weapon at this range. Sakura's eyes narrowed in concentration as he tried to score a hit on the other girl. She just needed one cut. Just one, and then the poison on her blades would do its work.

They were in a stalemate, and it seemed that Tsu realized this as the Inuzuka let out a frustrated growl after their latest exchange, hopping further away so that she could size up her opponent.

Sakura could see the anger on her face and in her posture. Tsu had been expecting an easy fight, but now that the fight wasn't going in her favor, she wasn't sure what to do. Hoping to catch her slipping, Sakura had Teashi rush forward again, aiming to skewer the girl in her middle..

The pinkette's eyes widened as Tsu made no attempt to defend herself, allowing the puppet's blades to sink into her stomach, and her heart dropped at the sound of tearing flesh and snapping bone as her blades tore through her friend's body with little-to-no resistance…

Only for Tsu's body to burst into smoke, a log suddenly appearing in her place, skewered on Teashi's sickles. Sakura sighed in relief as she realized that she hadn't accidentally killed one of her friends, before that relief quickly soured as she realized that Tsu had escaped her puppet.

Looking around for where her opponent had reappeared, Sakura found Tsu standing several feet behind Teashi, near the edge of the lake. As the puppet turned to face her, Tsu brought one hand up to her face and put two fingers in her mouth whistling sharply.

Off on the sidelines, Tadao perked up in Hikari's lap, before jumping up and racing to join his master. The Hyuga watched him go, and tilted their head, wondering how Sakura would handle this development.

Sakura scowled as Tsu reached down to scratch the ninkin's chin. Looked like Tsu had decided to go back on her word and make this a two in one situation. Iwabi didn't say anything so she assumed he didn't have an issue with it. Looked like she was just gonna have to fight both of them now.

Sakura prepared to send Teashi forward once more, only to pause as Tsu reached into her pouch and pulled out a small pill, tossing it up into the air above her partner.

Tadao leaped up, snapping the pill out of the air with practiced ease. The moment his paws were back on the ground, a drastic change overcame the tiny ninkin. His fur bristled, growing darker while at the same time his muscles bulged outwards, making him seem much larger than normal.

His whole personality seemingly changed as well. Tadao's gentle yet easily-excited demeanor gave way to something much more vicious and primal, and he was practically frothing at the mouth as he vibrated in place.

There was a puff of smoke, and when it cleared Sakura was left staring at two Tsu's instead of just one. Somehow, Tadao had done the transformation jutsu on his own, taking the form of his master, although slightly more bestial in appearance.

Without a word from his master, Tadao rushed forward towards Teashi, moving twice as fast on all fours as Tsu had on two. The transformed ninkin was upon the puppet in an instant, swinging out with clawed hands to cut Sakura's creation to pieces.

Sakura automatically had Teashi block the attack with her sickles, but Tadao was undaunted, keeping up the assault as he beat against the puppet's guard with an animalistic ferocity. Sakura was forced on the back foot, unsure if she should or even could fight back against the transformed puppy. She didn't want to hurt him.

Tadao had no such issues though, and neither did his master. Tsu followed after her partner as he began to force Teashi to retreat, moving to fight alongside him as she swung her sword at the puppet during the lulls in which Tadao wasn't attacking.

Together, they pushed her puppet back, not letting up as her sickles slammed into sharpened claws and blunt steel again and again. Slowly but surely, the three of them grew close to the tree Sakura was hidden in, drawer nearer and nearer until they were practically right underneath her hiding place.

Sakura froze as Tsu suddenly looked directly at her, locking eyes with her despite the fact that she should have been well hidden behind the thick leaves around her.

The Inuzuka smirked, lagging back from her ninkin who was still fighting Teashi, "You should know better than to hide from my nose, Sakura!"

Before Sakura could make any move to stop her, Tsu jumped upwards, aiming straight at her as she reared a leg back With Teashi being kept busy by Tadao, Sakura had no way to defend herself and was forced to drop her chakra strings, letting her puppet fall to the ground as she leapt from her hiding place.

The sound of splintering wood caught the pinkette's attention, and she paled significantly as she looked down to find that Tsu's kick had actually cut straight through the thick branch that she had been crouching on.

'That could have killed me!' She thought, completely horrified. A sound below her made Sakura look down, her eyes widened as she was met with Tadao jumping up towards her, claws extended to grab her and pull her down to the ground. Caught off guard, Sakura did the only thing that came to her mind in the half-second she had to process the threat…

She kicked him in the face as hard as she could.

There was a crunch as her sandal connected with the transformed ninkin's nose, and Tadao yelped as blood began to gush from the wound, moments before the henge came undone with a puff of smoke and he fell back towards the ground.

Sakura winced as she landed on the branches of a nearby tree, watching as the injured puppy hit the ground. She didn't mean to do that, she had just reacted on instinct!

There was no time to be regretful about her actions though, as a roar of anger brought her eyes back towards Tsu and she looked down to find the Inuzuka lunging at her with an enraged expression on her face and her sword pulled back, clearly aiming to hit her especially hard with the blunt end of the sword..

Panicking, Sakura's chakra propelled her off of the tree and away from the angry girl, while at the same time the pinkette pulled two kunai out of her tool pouch, ready to defend herself if need be.

And it was a good thing she did, because Tsu wasted exactly zero time before following after her. Sakura deflected her first sword strike with her kunai, sparks flying as the tempered steel scraped against one another. They fell to the lake below, continuing to exchange blows as Tsu tried her best to break Sakura's guard, and for the first time the pinkette actually thanked her genetics for her unnatural strength, because this girl could hit hard.

They landed on the lake, neither of them skipping a beat as they began water walking the moment their feet touched the water. Sakura ducked under a swipe of the sword, and as she deflected another strike, the pinkette couldn't help but think she was extremely glad Tsu was so bad with that sword. She might have been in real trouble otherwise.

Though, she actually still might be in trouble. Sakura was holding her own right now, but prolonged fights weren't her thing, and she could already feel her muscles beginning to strain as that massive weapon slammed into her guard again and again. She needed to bring things back in her favor.

With that thought in mind, the next time Tsu's weapon approached her head, Sakura parried it with as much force as she could muster, sending the unprepared Inuzuka's arms to the side as she stumbled backwards.

Sakura then jumped upwards, kicking Tsu dead in the chest while at the same time launching herself away from the other girl with a burst of chakra. As she flew through the air, Sakura flipped herself around, stretching her arm to the nearby shore.

Her chakra threads surged forth and latched onto Teashi where she had fallen by the shore, and as she landed and Tsu began to approach her again, Sakura reeled the puppet back in, interposing it between herself in her opponent like she had at the beginning of the fight.

Seeing this,Tsu growled, skidding to a stop before she got in range of Teashi's remembering sickles. She glared at Sakura who peeked out from behind her puppet cheekily, "Getting real tired of that thing, Sakura. I was having a little fun fighting one on one."

Sakura stuck her tongue out, "Well get used to it! Once we're a team, you're gonna be seeing it every single day! You know, before I make another one. Can't be a puppet master with only one puppet, after all."

Tsu smirked, and Sakura raised an eyebrow as she suddenly sheathed her sword, "We'll see about that. You haven't passed this test yet." She said, making a hand seal.

Her chakra flared, and Sakura flinched slightly as the water around the lake began to move. It bubbled around them in three distinct spots,, swirling and thrashing, before beginning to rise and take a familiar shape.

When the jutsu was complete, Sakura was left staring at four Tsu's standing around her instead of just one. All of them bore the same smug smirk, and as one, they unsheathed their swords.

Sakura looked around her in slight panic, realizing how bad things had just gotten. These were water clones, solid and fully capable of hitting her back. She couldn't fight against them all at once!

…Or could she?

Oblivious to Sakura's forming plan, Tsu pointed her sword at the pinkette, a thin film of sweat soaking her forehead from the amount of chakra that was required to make three water clones, "It's over, Sakura. You and your puppet can't fight against all of me at once.

Sakura looked at the original Tsu, taking in her slightly labored breathing, "Don't you think you're taking this a bit too far?"

"What do you mean? It's a test. And besides," Her smirk turned a bit colder, "You hurt Tadao."

Sakura still felt a bit bad about that, but she wasn't going to let it get to her, "It was a reflex, and you were the one who said you could beat me by yourself. Him getting hurt is your fault."

Tsu's lips curled in a silent snarl but she didn't refute her words, "Either way, it doesn't matter. This fight over now, give it up, Sakura. You've lost."

Sakura just scoffed at her words, "You're really cocky today, huh Tsu? You've spent this entire fight underestimating me, fighting me with a weapon you can't even use and saying that you don't even need your ninkin. We saw how well you stuck to that one."

Tsu scowled, "Yeah well, I'll admit you're stronger than I thought you'd be, but you still can't beat me. Even with your puppet, you can't fight this many of me at once. Like I said, its over."

"Man you really are feeling arrogant right now." Sakura shook her head, a look of mock disappointment on her face, "You should know by now that I'm never out of tricks. You made a mistake trying to corner me like this."

Before Tsu could parse her words, Sakura made a hand seal, activating several hidden mechanisms inside of her puppet with a flare of chakra.

Teashi's lower body immediately locked in place, keeping her lower half immoble while her secondary arms emerged from underneath her cloak once more. Tsu and her clones tensed, expecting more wires, but were instead left shocked as Teashi's arms flipped upwards at the elbows revealing a hollow interior and two small, metal nozzles.

"Puppet Performance: Silent Swamp!" Sakura shouted, sending another flare of chakra through her chakra strings, powering the seals inside of the arms.

Before the clones could do more than widen their eyes, Teashi's upper body suddenly began to spin rapidly, rotating around on an axle as a thin mist spewed from the seals inside of her joints. The puppet's mouth clicked open as well, even more fog seeping from her unhinged jaw to join the growing cloud.

Expulsion seals were probably one of the hardest things that Sakura had ever had to figure out. They took the relatively simple nature of storage seals and added three times the complexity to their matrix. Figuring out how to store an object was one thing, but shooting it out with a high enough pressure to make it move a good distance was a massive headache.

And don't even get her started on sealing what basically amounted to slightly heavier air, that was a bitch in and of itself. But she managed it eventually, and the result was absolutely glorious and oh-so worth it.

The cloud of deadly toxins spread so fast that nobody, not even Sakura, had time to react, covering the entire lake in a thin fog in only a few seconds and obscuring all of them inside.

Sakura smiled gleefully as her technique was executed. This performance was the amalgamation of all of Sakura's training, of all of the work she had put in over the last three years. It was the perfect blend of all of the skills she had needed to learn puppetry, utilized in a single technique that could devastate a battlefield in mere moments.

She was sure her sensei would be proud to see how far she'd come.

Tsu and her clones immediately realized that the fog wasn't as benign as it looked and made to jump away. Sakura didn't bother to tell them it was too late. They had already breathed in more than enough for the toxins to take effect.

Their body's locked up in mid-air, their muscles spasming and clenching in a completely uncoordinated manner that sent them spiraling back down to earth. Two of them landed on the bank, bursting into water as the clone jutsu lost structure from the force of the impact, while another wasn't so lucky. The last clone couldn't quite manage to clear the lake in time and was sent hurtling into the water with a splash.

Sakura winced as bubbles emerged after the clone's disappearance, before ceasing altogether moments later as it inhaled enough water to dispel. That probably wasn't a fun way to go.

Tsu was lucky enough not to land in the water. She crashed down on the bank, landing roughly and rolling as she failed to get her feet under her in time. Her sword landed point-first in the ground near her, sinking deeply into the dirt as she left it behind.

Unlike her clones, Tsu somehow managed to regain control of her uncoordinated tumble. She put her hands underneath her and used them to flip to her feet, stumbling slightly as the momentum attempted to keep carrying her forward.

She turned towards Sakura, an angry glare on her face at the trick, and the pinkette tensed preparing to send Teashi forth once more as she wondered if the poison somehow hadn't had any effect on the girl.

Tsu then went to take a step towards her sword, only for her entire body to lock up underneath her. She grit her teeth as she fell to one knee, trying to get her body to respond to her orders, "W-What that hell!?"

Sakura sighed in relief, all of the tension leaving her as her poison finally took effect. Tsu continued to try and struggle, but all she could manage were angry grunts and some small finger twitches. She was completely frozen.

Knowing the fight was over, Sakura pulled Teashi back towards her and sealed her creation away, stowing it back in its scroll on her hip, before making her way towards the immobilized Inuzuka at a leisurely pace.

Tsu glared at her as she approached, "What'd you do to me? Why can't I move?"

"I poisoned you." Sakura answered simply, "That fog you inhaled was full of a paralytic numbing toxin that I made myself. You won't be able to move for at least an hour without the antidote."

Tsu's eyes widened, before she smirked, "Of course. You and your damn poisons… That was pretty good, Sakura, but it won't stop me." She grunted, actually managing to struggle to one knee, impressing Sakura at the sheer amo anunt of stubborn determination that must've been required for such an action.

It also made her realize she had to adjust the amount of Lover's Embrace in her concoction because she should not have been able to do that. Sakura must have diluted the poison too much in the aerosolization process.

Making a mental reminder to adjust her recipe, Sakura stepped forward towards Tsu who was still trying to fight against her paralysis. She pulled out a kunai and held it to the girl's throat in one smooth motion, causing Tsu to freeze at the feeling of cold metal against her neck.

"That poison also slows down blood clotting, by the way." She said, "A large enough cut right here on your carotid artery would cause you to bleed out before you drowned from the blood in your lungs. It's over, Tsu."

Tsu eyed the kunai, visibly mulling over the pinkette's words, "...How come you're not on the ground too? You inhaled just as much of that stuff as I did."

Sakura raised an eyebrow, "A puppet master who isn't resistant to their own poisons is a dead one. My sensei taught me that. I'm pretty much immune to all of the ingredients in that mist thanks to my resistance training. It hardly makes my fingers twitch now."

Tsu stared at her in quiet disbelief, and that was when Iwabi came in from the sidelines, content with what he had seen.

He clapped his hands once, the sound ringing out in the silence, "Alright, I'd say that's more than enough. I'm calling the match."

Tsu's head shot towards him, disbelief written all over her face, "But sensei, I can still fight!"

Iwabi gave her an unimpressed look as Hikari came to stand by his side. The Hyuga was once again holding Tadao, and Sakura was relieved to see that he didn't look too injured from her kick and was wagging his tail happily, "Is that so? By all means then, continue. If you can even manage to stand, I'll let you keep going."

Grunting, Tsu tried to do just that. Her body shook as she tried to force it to respond to her, a being bulging on her neck as she trembled in place. Sakura took a step forward, concerned, "Tsu, stop. You're gonna hurt yourself. You can't just shake off poison through willpower."

For a moment, she didn't think Tsu was going to listen to her, but eventually the Inuzuka gave up, settling down with a frustrated sigh.

"Fine." She said, her voice devoid of the fire it had had a little bit ago, "You win. Give me the damn antidote, now."

Putting her kunai away, Sakura wordlessly reached into her pouch, pulling out a vial of silvery liquid and holding it up to her friend's lips, "Here. Drink the whole thing. You'll get a stomach ache but you'll be able to move in a minute or two."

Tsu grunted in acknowledgement as she drained the vial, gulping down the antidote in only a few swallows. As it emptied, Sakura capped the vial, "It'll take a second to kick in. Don't try to stand just yet or you might fall on your face."

Tsu avoided her eyes, "Right. Got it."

As Sakura stepped away, Iwabi clapped her on the shoulder, "Well done, Sakura. That was a fantastic match. Tsu, we're going to have a talk about the appropriate amount of force to use against a teammate."

As Tsu slowly got to her feet, Sakura's eyes widened at the man's word usage, looking back at the man, "Teammate? Then…?" Sakura smiled hopefully, and Iwabi returned it with one of his own.

"That's right, Sakura, you passed." He ruffled her hair, "You're officially a member of team 3."

Sakura pumped a fist in the air excitedly, "Hell yeah! No going back to the Academy for this genin! Thank you sensei!"

"You did well. I've never had the pleasure of seeing a puppeteer in action but I can tell you really knew what you were doing out there. You may actually have a chance of achieving that goal of yours one day."

Sakura grinned, "Thank you Iwab-sorry, sensei. I've still got a few things to work on but that was really fun. I'm glad Teashi performed so well during her first actual fight."

A shuffling noise suddenly caught her attention, and she looked over to find Tsu making her way over to Hikari, holding her arms out. Tadao immediately jumped into her arms, licking her face excitedly, and Tsu gently grabbed his face, looking him over.

Sakura's guilt returned full force at the sight, and she took a small step towards the Inuzuka, "I'm super sorry about kicking him, Tsu. It really was just a reflex."

Tsu didn't respond at first, making Sakura's heart sink, before she let out a small sigh, "I know it was. I shouldn't have gotten so pissed at you when I'm the one who brought him into the fight in the first place. I just…"

She went silent, and Sakura smiled gently, "I get it. Don't worry."

Tsu smiled slightly, though it wasn't very happy, "Thanks… Welcome to the team, Sakura."

She disappeared before Sakura could respond, jumping away into the trees and leaving the pinkette staring after her.

Iwabi sighed, rubbing his head, "I'll have to have a talk with her. You two are free for the day. Sakura, team meetings are at six o'clock. I expect to see you here at that time tomorrow so don't celebrate too hard, understood?"

Sakura nodded, not really sure what that meant, "Understood, sensei. I'll be here."

Iwabi gave a satisfied nod, before disappearing in a swirl of leaves, leaving Sakura and Hikari as the only two left in the training grounds.

"Don't worry about Tsu, Sakura." Hikari said softly as they walked up to the pinkette, "She is…"

"Grieving. Yeah, I know. Don't worry, I'll give her some space. I don't want to make her uncomfortable or mad at me when we just became teammates." Sakura looked at the Hyuga, "How are you holding up with… you know?"

Hikari's emotionless mask broke slightly, a surprised expression coming over their face for an instant, before it was gone just as quickly. They looked down, "I am… coping. I've never had to mourn someone I cared about so this is a new experience for me. I'm unsure what to do."

"Talking about it usually helps." Sakura said softly. She knew that Iwabi said she wasn't on this team to be a therapist, but she wanted to help her friends if she could, "I didn't really know him that well, but I could be an ear to listen it you need it ."

Hikari didn't say anything for a long moment, "I'll keep that in mind. Thank you, Sakura."

Sakura smiled, "Anytime."

"Congratulations on your victory, by the way. Your performance with your puppet was very interesting. It seems especially complex from what little I know about the craft."

Sakura preened with pride at the compliment, "Trust me, you haven't even seen half of what Teashi can do yet! I couldn't use it all on Tsu because I might have seriously hurt her, but Teashi has a whole other set of arms under that cloak."

Hikari's eyes widened slightly, "Truly? I'll definitely have to test my own mettle against you then. It sounds like it would make for a challenging experience."

"Sure! I'd love to have a match with you! Though it'll have to be later. I need to go tell Shino and Ino that I passed my exam."

"Do you mind if I come along with you?" Hikari asked.

Sakura was surprised that they had asked but didn't see an issue with it. She shrugged, "I don't see why not. We might grab something to eat to celebrate afterwards if you're interested."

Hikari smiled softly, making Sakura glad that their placid mask had finally been broken, "I might be."

"Then follow me. Shino shouldn't be too far and Ino's probably at her house or Choji's. His mom's been wanting her and Shikamaru over all the time these days. Something about them being too skinny or something."

"That sounds familiar. Is he an Akimichi?"

"His dad is. Don't know about his mom. It's kind of weird, honestly. I don't know about Shikamaru, but Ino eats just as much as I do, if not more. Though you wouldn't know it with all that fat her training burns. I think she wants to be a taijutsu specialist or something."

Hikari blinked, "A taijutsu specialist Yamanaka heir? That would be interesting to say the least."

Sakura laughed, "Right? She can already kick my ass though. I'd love to see how far she could go. Maybe she could give you a run for your money one day."

"Hmm… I wouldn't go that far."

As she and Hikari settled into comfortable conversation, Sakura caressed the scroll holding her creation, a deep sense of pride filling her at her victory. Her first real battle with her puppet had gone perfectly. Teashi had performed exactly as designed and had been a wonderful show of the skills that Sakura hoped to one day master.

And yet, she could still see ways to improve on the design. Her mind was already spinning with ideas, imagining different seals that might make Teashi more effective or even alternate components. Teashi was far from perfect, and yet Sakura wasn't disheartened by that fact, actually looking forward to making it so.

Improve, improve, improve. That was the way of a true puppet master.

---

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[Sadguychet]

Teashi (Limbs)
Style: Harasser/Living weapon
The thought behind this puppet is Sakura realizing that puppets aren't limited by the same things that hold back humans. Such as the number of limbs they have.
Number of arms: 6

Primary set: Poisoned sickles extend from both sides of her forearms for close combat. Her joints are completely reversible, allowing for unorthodox attacks. Inside of her knuckles are thin needles coated in even more poison.

Secondary set: This set is hidden inside of the cloak and can be revealed at any time. They are much thicker to allow for more room to put the hydraulic mechanisms inside of them for he wire launches

Wire launchers are implanted in both palms, meant to bring people in close and inside of her elbows are seals that emit a poisonous fog in a large area directly in front of them. The fog is thin but potent and anyone caught inside becomes extremely numb very quickly and their muscles lock up. The poison also slows clotting so it's easy to bleed out.

Tertiary set: These limbs carry a set of rotating blades meant to shred anybody who gets close or is pulled in with the second set. The blades aren't poisoned because it would be a pain in the ass to do that.

The first and most mechanically complex of Sakura's puppets, Teashi resembles a beautiful lady with black hair wearing a red robe that obscures her entire body underneath her neck. The robe has a large seam in the middle and Sakura's clan symbol on the back. Teashi's face is a picturesque beauty, with perfect features and painted lips. This image is ruined by the multitude of eyes where only two should be, often hidden by her hair. Each of these eyes are small explosive tags.

Underneath the robe are six arms attached to a wooden body and a waist made of rotating axles, allowing her to turn her upper body three hundred and sixty degrees without any issue.

Teashi's primary function is to restrain and poison enemies or simply keep them occupied. Though she is capable of actual prolonged combat, it is not her specialty as she relies on quick strikes to poison her opponents. To make up for this, her reinforced joints can lock and make it much harder to break her hold.

 

[Sadguychet]

Two weeks later

When you think of a ninja, what image pops into your head? A protector, an assassin, maybe just someone with a headband and the ability to bend nature to their whim? All of the above?

Sakura had a special image come to mind when she thought of the word ninja, one inspired by her sensei and the kunoichi she one day hoped to be. A lone figure wielding a forest of glowing chakra strings, each connected to a puppet as intricate and powerful as what Sakura saw in her dreams. It was an image that drove her towards her goal, drove her to be the absolute best in her chosen field, and she doubted that it would change any time soon.

What was not included in this image, and indeed, in any image most people would have, was painting a fence a different shade of white because the previous shade was quote, 'too bright for summer'.

"I don't even know what that means. How can a fence be too bright?" Sakura asked aloud as she dipped her brush back into the can of paint. It was about halfway empty now, the majority of its insides having been splattered across the several meter long wall of wood before her. And they were only halfway done.

Their sensei was off somewhere else, Sakura wasn't really sure where. He apparently trusted them enough to take care of what amounted to chores by themselves.

Sakura sighed, wiping her forehead free of sweat. Now she understood why most people wore their hitai-ate on their head. She looked to the side, "Tsu, can't you make some clones or something so we can do this faster?"

A few feet away, Tsu shook her head, focusing on her own section of the fence, "Nope. Sensei says no clones on D-ranks. They're supposed to 'build character' or something, I don't know. You gotta do it yourself."

Though she was still extremely moody, the Inuzuka's mood was a marked improvement from what it had been a couple weeks ago. Those first few days, all Sakura could get from her was grunts and short sentences. She was glad to see her friend slowly returning to her normal self.

"Yeah well, the only thing I'm building is the sprain in my wrist from all this brushing." Sakura groaned, "I thought being a ninja would be more fun! Why aren't we like, fighting bandits or protecting clients or something?"

"All genin must complete an allotted amount of D-rank missions before they are allowed to leave the village." Hikari answered in Tsu's place. The Hyuga didn't take their eyes off of the fence, painting it in slow, methodical strokes, "I believe it's to allow the sensei proper time to train them and ensure they are ready for the dangers outside."

"But that's stupid! I don't need training! I'm already strong enough to beat Tsu!"

Tsu gave her a sidelong glance, "So was Jin."

That shut Sakura up. Her face fell and she turned back to her fence, not sure what to say to that. The three of them continued to paint in silence, only occasionally broken up by the sounds of their paint brushes bumping against the rims of their cans.

As the silence stretched, Sakura spared a look down towards Hikari, taking in the Hyuga's nearly finished section of fence and comparing it to her own. She frowned at what she saw.

"Hey, Hikari. How are you doing this so much faster than us?" She called out to her friend. Hikari looked towards her, taking in Sakura's fence which was barely even halfway finished. They tilted their head, before putting their paintbrush down and making their way over to Sakura.

Sakura moved out of the way as her friend crouched down right beside her. Hikari held a hand out and gently pulled her paintbrush from her hand, and Sakura didn't resist, "There's a trick to it. Let me show you. Watch my hands."

Sakura did as instructed, watching the Hyuga's pale hands drag the paintbrush along the sanded wood in front of them. The way they did it was methodical, clearly meant to cover the largest area with the littlest effort possible. Effortlessly efficient yet elegant. Just like the Hyuga doing the painting.

Sakura broke out of her silent admiration of her friend's technique as Hikari held the brush out to her, "Here. Now you try."

As Sakura took the brush from Hikari's hand, their fingers brushed together, allowing her to feel the rigid calluses on her friend's hand. Guess the Gentle Fist wasn't quite as gentle as described. She gave Hikari an apologetic smile for the touch and thankfully, they seemed unbothered by it. She then turned to place her brush to the fence, doing her best to replicate what she had seen.

Hikari hummed in approval as she painted the fence in even strokes, "Good, just keep doing it like that. Remember not to let your brush dry out too much. Even coatings help the brush glide much easier."
Sakura glanced at Hikari, "You've done this a lot, huh?"

Their pale eyes twinkled in amusement, "You aren't the only one with hobbies, Sakura."

Sakura giggled, turning back to the fence. Hikari stayed by her side, silently watching, which Sakura was fine with. It wasn't like the Hyuga hadn't already done more than their fair share of the work already.

"Tsu's getting better." Hikari said softly as Sakura continued painting with the new technique, "She still might bite your head off if you get on her nerves too much, but she isn't as bad as she was before. I'm glad. I was worried she'd be in a slump for the rest of the year."

Sakura nodded, "And you? How are you doing?"

Hikari exhaled softly, "I'm coping. Jin's loss is still fresh, but I know I can't dwell on it forever. I…" The Hyuga went silent for a moment, thinking to themselves. Sakura didn't press, waiting patiently as they got their thoughts in order.

This was a common occurrence between the two of them by this point. Hikari needed someone to spill their feelings to and Tsu was still too prickly and her family was… Sakura wasn't exactly sure actually, but she knew they weren't on the best terms. That meant that the task fell to Sakura. She didn't mind as much as she thought she would. She was glad that Hikari trusted her enough to tell her these things.

After a minute, Hikari spoke again, their voice barely audible, "I visited his grave yesterday."

Sakura paused in her painting as the words registered, before continuing her task, "How did it go?"
Hikari smiled weakly, "Terrible. I didn't know what to say. I just… stood there, staring at his gravestone, wondering what would have happened if I got to him in time. If I was faster, would he still be alive? Was it my fault?"

Sakura hadn't been told the exact details of the mission, but she knew that Hikari felt some form of responsibility for what had happened. As team leader, they were technically the one calling the shots while Iwabi was away, and they believed that it was their fault that Jin had been overwhelmed like he had. Sakura had a feeling that wasn't the case, but didn't say anything just yet, letting the Hyuga vent their feelings in silence.

Hikari looked up at the sky, a pained expression coming over their face, "They never found his body, you know? The grave is completely empty. There isn't even a casket underneath the headstone."

Sakura didn't know that, and her eyes widened in surprise as she looked at her friend, "They didn't send anybody to retrieve it?"

Hikari laughed humorlessly, "Of course they didn't. Jin was an orphan. His foster family couldn't even pay for a D-rank mission, much less one requiring retrieving a body from hostile territory." Their fists clenched, "He's probably still out there. Just… lying in the dirt or tossed into whatever shallow grave they had the courtesy to dig for him."

"That's…" Sakura didn't know what to say.

"It's fucking horrible is what it is." Sakura and Hikari looked over to find Tsu had drawn closer to them as they conversed. She was staring at her unpainted section of fence with a stony expression on her face, and Sakura could tell by the set of her jaw that she was clenching her teeth, "If he was anyone else, they'd send a jonin to bring his body back. But because he was a clanless orphan, he was expendable. They didn't even pay for the goddamn headstone."

"The village already paid his family the allotted amount for the mission. Which we failed, I might add." Hikari said, though they didn't sound happy in the slightest either, "They can't afford to cover all the expenses of every genin who dies in the field."

"And that barely covered the funeral." Tsu huffed, dipping her paintbrush into the bucket with more force than necessary. Paint splattered on the grass beside her feet, "If they really gave a shit, they'd send an anbu or something to get his body back. It would take a few hours for them, tops. And maybe they'd even wipe out those fucking bandits while they're at it."

Hikari didn't say anything, but Sakura got the feeling that they silently agreed with Tsu's words. They sighed quietly, turning back to Sakura and patting her on the shoulder.

"Come on, if we hurry, we can probably paint the rest before the hour is up. Maybe after this, we can pick up a fun mission." HIkari tilted their head in thought, before shrugging, "Well maybe not fun. But at least one that's not as boring."

Sakura groaned but turned back to the fence to begin painting again. As Tsu stood and returned to their own section of the fence, she glanced at Tsu, finding the Inuzuka working in silence. Sakura bit her lip, before calling out to the other girl.

"Tsu?" Tsu looked at her, and Sakura was taken aback at the mix of emotions in her eyes. She swallowed lightly, giving her friend a reassuring look, "Maybe we could save up some money and get him back. It shouldn't take too long between the two of us to pay for a B-rank at least, right? That should be enough to get his body back."

Tsu snorted, "Longer than you'd think. And I'm way ahead of you, Sakura. There's no way I'm just going to leave him out there. Inuzuka don't abandon their friends, no matter what."

"Well then I'll help." Sakura said stubbornly.

"I will as well." Hikari chimed in, "We can all put a little bit aside every mission to pool together. We should be able to save much more if we do it that way."

Tsu looked between them both with an unreadable expression on her face, before she nodded slowly, "Alright, let's do it."

Sakura and Hikari smiled at her agreement, before turning back to their respective fences. They continued painting in silence, each of them knowing that the sooner they got done with this mission, the sooner they could move on to the next, and hopefully more fun, one.

"Hey Sakura." Sakura looked at Tsu who was stubbornly looking away from her, focusing on her brush, "Thanks."

Sakura blinked in surprise, before smiling softly, "No problem."

~~~

Okay, so D-ranks might have been the new bane of Sakura's existence, but she would admit there was at least one upside to the extremely boring chores that she was forced to do.

Sakura looked down at her wallet for the fourth time in the last half-hour, grinning happily as she saw the thousands of ryo she had managed to make in just a few hours worth of labor. It wasn't much, but it was a nice chunk of change when compared to what she normally got for doing chores at home, even with what she had put towards the pool to get Jin back.

As she made her way towards her home, her eyes caught something off to the side and she stopped in her tracks, debating with herself. Eventually, she shrugged, making her way towards the dango shop that had caught her attention. It had been a while since she had anything sweet, and she deserved a reward for all of her hard work today. Maybe she'd get Hanami something too.

The bell over the door dinged as she made her way inside, before immediately heading over to the counter to order. Since she had a bit of money to spare and more importantly, a stable source of income, she decided to splurge just a little bit and ordered a dozen sticks instead of the usual three. She could share them with her whole family.

As she pulled her wallet out and paid, Sakura froze as a familiar voice called out to her from behind, "Oi, pinkie. Long time no see."

Sakura turned slowly and gulped as she was met with a familiar purple-haired woman standing just a few feet behind her, chewing angrily on a stick of dango. Amber eyes stared her down, like a cat eyeing a field mouse. Not wanting to show weakness - she had a feeling that would be a really bad idea in front of this woman - Sakura did her best not to be intimidated, giving her a smile, "Oh, hey! Uh… Anko, right? How have you been?"

Anko smiled, and Sakura didn't like the look of it one bit, "It's been great, pinkie, But I can't help but wonder why a certain pink-haired brat hasn't been caught trying to sneak into my work yet." She tilted her head, chewing on her dango thoughtfully, "You wouldn't happen to know what's been keeping her occupied for so long? Do you think she caught a cold?"

Sakura sweated as Anko stared her down, "Uh, maybe she just forgot? People are super busy these days, you know? A-And graduation just happened so maybe she was focusing on preparing for that instead of trying something that might get her court marshaled by the Hokage or her best friend's dad?"

Anko nodded slowly, "I guess that's a possibility. It's too bad though, T&I has been chock full of people to play with these past few weeks so I've had the chance to test out quite a few of my more experimental poisons on those sad sacks. They would have been useful test subjects for a student of mine." She hummed, "The ones who don't have any useful information are my favorite. They're expendable, you see? So I don't have to hold back."

Sakura shivered at the look in Anko's eyes as she said that, "That's… cool. Hey uh, if that pink-haired girl wanted to apologize for totally not forgetting about you and focusing on her training, how would she go about doing that?"

Anko hummed, popping another stick of dango in her mouth, "Well I guess she'd have to buy me a lot of dango, to start. You can't apologize without some sort of treat. And she'll also have to show me that she hasn't been slacking off in her poison training."

Sakura eyed the crazy woman, not liking the sound of that, "And uh, how is she gonna do that?"

Anko flicked her wrist and Sakura only had a second to process the silvery blur heading towards her face before her hand snapped out on reflex, snatching the object out of the air. She blinked, looking down at her newly acquired senbon in confusion. It was coated in something, a pale blue substance that slicked the metal surface just enough to make it gleam in the light.

"Good catch, pinkie." Sakura looked up to find Anko grinning at her, "And to answer your question, her job will be to replicate the poison on that senbon. It's a fun little concoction I made myself so she won't be able to find it in any scrolls or books so that means no cheating."

The pinkette's eyes widened at the information. She threw a poison-coated senbon at her face!? This woman was crazier than Sakura thought!

Sakura studied the senbon in her hand warily, trying to identify what it was covered in. The substance was oddly greasy, slick like oil, and its color was unique too. Few things in the wild were blue, and Sakura could count on one hand the amount of said things that were poisonous enough to interest the woman in front of her.

"And what do I get out of this?" She finally asked, looking up at the jonin challengingly. "Recreating a poison from an amount this tiny seems like a lot of work for no pay. It'll take weeks, if it's even possible at all."

"What do you get out of it?" Anko seemed amused, "Well for one, you get a brand new poison, an Anko Mitarashi original. Not many people can say they've got some of my personal shit in their arsenal. And if you're lucky, I might throw in a little surprise on top of that, depending on how much you impress me."

A surprise? Sakura wasn't sure she wanted anything to do with whatever a surprise from this woman would entail.

Still, the pinkette had a hard time turning away from an academic challenge like this. Especially one that pertained to her chosen field. Sakura ran her finger along the senbon, her mind already going through the vast list of poisonous ingredients she already had knowledge of. She came up blank, and that only made her more curious.

"Alright. I agree."

Anko's grin widened massively at her words, slinging an arm around the girl's neck and pulling her in. Sakura yelped as she was squished against the woman's torso, shifting in embarrassment and discomfort as something round and soft pressed against the top of her head, "Good to hear! Now about that other part of my demand. I was thinking I'd do a Sampler's Course and maybe two of the mitarashi dango too. Oh! And also…"

As Anko continued listing off the different types of dango she wanted Sakura to buy for her, the pinkette's wallet screamed out in preemptive pain, and Sakura let out a sad sigh.

She was about to be broke again, wasn't she?

---

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[Sadguychet]

Two Months Later

An open palm thrust through the space Sakura's face had just been occupying as the pinkette ducked underneath a jab from her friend. She twisted on the ground, trying to sweep Hikari's legs out from under them but they hopped over her leg easily and thrust another palm strike towards her face which she deflected off to the side, forcing them to overextend slightly, before flipping backwards to gain some distance from the other teen.

Hikari was forced to lean back to avoid Sakura's sandal which came close to catching them on the bottom of the chin, before their pale eyes narrowed and they immediately gave chase, not willing to let the other teen get too far away. Sakura remedied this by digging into her tool pouch and tossing several shuriken at her quickly advancing friend, hoping to force them to abandon their pursuit. As easy as breathing, Hikari batted them away with a single glowing hand, sending them spinning behind them and not slowing in the slightest during the action.

'Gotcha.' Sakura grinned at her friend's mistake, pulling one hand towards her while meeting the Hyuga's eyes with a devious smirk.

The invisible threads attached to the shuriken pulled taut, diverting their trajectory into a wide arc, sending them towards the unaware teen's back. As observant as ever, Hikari immediately picked up on the fact that the whistling of the shuriken was growing closer instead of further away, and immediately turned away, letting Sakura escape their grasp momentarily in favor of dodging the spinning stars of death.

As they passed them by, Hikari brought their hand down, the limb glowing visibly with chakra as they used it to sever the nearly invisible strings with a single swipe, sending the shuriken shooting off in random directions as they lost their guide. Landing on the ground once more, Hikari immediately began dashing towards the pinkette even faster than before as the unseen timer in both of the genin's heads slowly ticked down.

Sakura knew that despite the large amount of ground she had managed to gain in that short time, she only had mere moments before Hikari was upon her once more. The other genin's speed was not to be underestimated, and if she hesitated or waited for even a second, she would be caught and she would lose this bout.

This exercise was one that Sakura had thought of last month. She knew that she wouldn't always have the distance she needed to properly operate her puppet, people would manage to get the drop on her when she thought she was hidden or just close the distance between them faster than she could get away. It was in

Hikari was one of the fastest ninja that Sakura had ever seen. When they were moving at maximum speed, Sakura literally couldn't keep up with them. That made them the perfect opponent to train against so that she could properly hone her ability to escape more determined pursuers. After all, if she could escape Hikari, even for a minute, then she wouldn't have to worry about any bandit catching up to her any time soon.

The exercise was simple. Hikari had to catch and restrain Sakura for five seconds, or get her into a position where escape was impossible. They could use anything at their disposal except the gentle fist as both of them agreed shutting down her chakra network was probably something most people wouldn't be able to do out in the field.

Sakura, on the other hand, had to remain free of Hikari's grasp for a full five minutes, and she wasn't allowed to use her puppet, or any of her poisons to keep Hikari from chasing her. Other techniques were still on the table, including her chakra strings, but nothing that could restrain the Hyuga for an extended period of time.

Over the past several weeks, they had performed this routine several times, and each time she grew closer and closer to her goal of avoiding the Hyuga for the full time. It was difficult, especially since she wasn't allowed to use her puppets or her poison, but she was definitely getting somewhere, that was for sure, with this being the furthest she had gotten without being caught yet. Now she was in the home stretch. Just a few more seconds to go!

The next time Sakura's sandals hit the ground, a large burst of chakra exploded out of the bottom of her foot, sending her flying backwards much faster than before. Her hair whipped around her face, her ponytail threatening to come undone as she brought her hand down to the line of scrolls sitting on her hip. She didn't even bother to look at them, her fingers sliding along the embossed edges of her scrolls as she searched for one in particular and pulled it out of the group.

Landing on the ground and sliding a small distance, Sakura unfurled the scroll, gazing hurriedly at the various seals delicately inscribed inside, before putting her hand on the one nearest the center.

Her chakra flared and the seal glowed a bright blue as the chakra inside of the ink was activated. Sakura had just a moment to point the seal away from her before water began to gush from the chakra-laden paper like a waterfall, veritable buckets of the cool liquid splashing on the ground in front of her as the storage seal emptied itself of its contents.

Sakura waited for a moment, watching a large puddle form on the ground in front of her as the packed earth refused to swallow up any of the moisture she was dumping upon it, before deactivating the seal and closing the scroll once more. HIkari was only a few meters away now and approaching fast. They met eyes and Sakura could see the wariness there at the sudden appearance of the water, but they weren't deterred enough to slow down.

Hopefully she could change that. She just needed a little bit longer. Sakura's hands came up to her chest as she quickly went through several hand-seals and pulsed her chakra towards the puddle in front of her, activating her jutsu with a shout, "Water Release: Creeping Fog!"

Her chakra stores dipped noticeably as the water in front of her plumed upwards and outwards as a thick mist. It spread rapidly, filling the space in front of Sakura in less than a second and obscuring her view of Hikari, before also consuming her in its grasp as well.

Continuing to assert her will on the mist, Sakura jumped backwards out of it, Getting clear of the jutsu that she hoped Hikari was trapped in. She landed on the trunk of a tree, using her chakra to stick to it as she watched the wall of fog steadily grow towards her, draining her chakra all the while. As it grew closer, she released her hold on the jutsu, letting it drift to a stop just a few feet away from her new position and settling in to watch, keeping her gaze on the cloud as she watched intently for any movement in the slowly thinning fog.

The biggest drawback of this jutsu and one that wasn't held by its sister, the Hidden Mist Jutsu, was that the fog wasn't nearly as dense with chakra as its counterpart. Sakura's chakra was merely used to transform the water into a mist and spread it around and once that was done, it basically evaporated into thin air instead of lingering inside of the mist.

That was why, when something sharp and gleaming suddenly cut through the fog, slicing its way towards her exact position high above the ground, Sakura wasn't that surprised.

She bent backwards to dodge the shuriken, watching as the spinning metal stars passed right over her face closely enough that she could see her reflection in their shiny metal surfaces.

Just as they disappeared into the foliage behind her however, she winced as something sharp and cold bit into her right bicep, before the area around it suddenly became oddly warm.

Leaning back up, she looked down to find that she had been grazed by another shuriken that she had somehow missed. The wound wasn't that deep, but it was deep enough that blood was welling up at a rapid pace, flowing down her arm and filling the air around her with a coppery tang.

She didn't have time to dwell on her wound. The fog split apart again, this time revealing a much larger form headed towards her at an incredible pace. The veins around Hikari's eyes were bulging in an almost painful looking fashion, and that explained how Sakura had been found so quickly.

Sakura shivered in slight disgust as Hikari grew closer, drawing a kunai from her tool pouch. The Byakugan looked so gross.

The air around them filled with sparks and the sound of rigging metal as they clashed. Sakura's kunai bit into Hikari's as she completely halted the Hyuga's charge with her superior strength. They stared at one another from mere inches away, before a drop of Sakura's blood hitting the branch underneath them caught their attention.

Hikari's eyes widened as they caught sight of Sakura's wound, and Sakura used the opportunity provided by the distraction to push her friend's kunai away and kick them in the chest, using their chest to push herself away at the same time.

As Sakura launched herself backwards, she threw her kunai at Hikari and even launched several more shuriken their way for good measure. As she watched her weapons soar towards her friend, the unseen timer in Sakura's head ticked down steadily.

Ten, Nine, Eight…

Even as they stumbled backwards, the Hyuga didn't miss a beat. Using their own kunai, they deflected all of the projectiles, before throwing it at the still airborne Sakura. Thinking quickly, Sakura used her chakra strings to reel herself towards a nearby tree, avoiding the kunai and giving herself another platform to jump off of to continue fleeing Hikari as it lodged itself in the wood and stuck there.

Seven, Six, Five…

They were running out of forest. Sakura recognized this part of the training ground and could tell that they were nearing the border. Soon enough, she'd run straight into the fence and she wouldn't be able to go any further. Hikari was gaining on her as well, a set of footsteps that weren't her own growing closer and closer as the Hyuga closed the distance rapidly. If it were any other circumstance, it would be a bitter defeat, caught only moments away from victory. Right now though…

Four, Three, Two…

Sakura dropped from the trees, chakra softening her fall as she landed right in front of the giant metal fence that separated Training Ground 23 from the rest of Konoha proper. She turned around, grinning up at her friend as Hikari came soaring out of the treeline, headed straight for her with a determined glint in their eye.

One.

"Time's up!" Sakura said gleefully, and Hikari immediately stopped, landing on the ground a few feet away from her in a crouch. Sakura smiled giddily, planting her hands on her hips as she gave the Hyuga a superior look, "I won this one, Hikari."

Hikari tilted their head, doing a mental count, "...So you did. Well done, Sakura; it looks like this is your win."

Sakura knew that already, but even so, hearing it straight from the horse's mouth brought her nothing but Elation. She pumped her fist in the air, cheering happily, "Cha! Hell yeah I did! That was intense, you nearly got me a few times there!"

"Nearly. You've gotten rather slippery, Sakura. I'm sure you'll be able to escape most people by now, especially if you are actually able to utilize your puppetry."

Sakura grinned, "Thanks. Though I think we should keep doing this exercise. I can always use the training and you seem like you're getting something out of it too."

"I'll admit, it's been a novel experience having to pursue someone like that." Hikari agreed, "Tsu isn't the type to run and Jin… well he wasn't either."

Sakura noticed the small pause but didn't say anything about it. Though the wound wasn't as fresh, they all still felt the loss acutely and that wasn't likely to change anytime soon.

Sakura blinked as a gentle hand suddenly grabbed her arm. Hikari stepped closer, holding it up to their face and scrutinizing her cut intently. Blood covered their hand but they didn't seem concerned as they caught sight of the wound.

"... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you so deeply." They said regretfully. Sakura was surprised by their words but shook her head.

"It's fine, Hikari. I should have been paying more attention. It's not your fault." She reassured

Hikari hummed slowly, still not letting go of Sakura's arm, "Either way, I should have been more careful. This was a spar, and I try my best not to permanently damage my teammates for no reason. Let me fix this so it doesn't scar."

Sakura looked at them with confusion, "Fix it? How?"

"Let's get back to the training ground and I'll show you. Judging from the way their chakra was moving, I think Tsu and Iwabi-sensei are nearly finished sparring."

~~~

Sakura watched as Tsu and Iwabi raced across the training field a small distance away. The clashing of steel on steel sounded throughout the entire training ground as the Inuzuka slammed her odachi against their sensei's sickles again and again, swinging hard enough that even from so far away, Sakura could practically hear the whooshing of displaced air the massive sword left in its wake.

Despite the force of her strikes Tsu's face was a mask of stoic concentration, not a hint of anger to be seen as she steadily worked to break their sensei's seemingly impassable defence. Her form was a stark difference from what it had been only two months ago, more refined and formidable, but even Sakura could see that she still had a ways to go before she was anywhere near as proficient as Jin had been with the weapon

It was still an improvement though, and Sakura had a feeling Tsu wasn't going to stop until she was just as good as her former teammate with the weapon. Maybe even better.

Adjusting herself on the tree branch, Sakura looked down to watch as Hikari tended to the bleeding tear in her bicep. The Hyuga softly dabbed the area around the wound with a strip of wet cloth, cleaning the blood off and allowing them both to see the wound fully.

Sakura winced. It didn't look good. Despite not being that painful, it was a lot deeper than she thought it was and would definitely take a while to heal without Hikari's help.

Making a single hand-sign, Hikari's hand glowed a soft green, and they placed it gently on Sakura's wound. The bloody gash hissed and the pinkette watched with morbid curiosity as her injury began to repair itself, coaxed along by the medical chakra that her friend was pumping into her body.

"That's pretty cool, Hikari. Wish I could do that." Sakura commented idly as her friend pulled their hand back, revealing that apart from the blood it had left, her wound was almost completely gone. There was a faded pink line left where the wound had once been, and Sakura was honestly surprised that it hadn't left a bigger scar even with the medical chakra working to prevent it.

"I could teach you how to do it." Hikari offered, moving to clean off the rest of Sakura's arm, "Truth be told, with how skilled you are at chakra control you'd probably be better than me."

"No thanks. I've already got enough on my plate without trying to learn medical ninjutsu on top of that. I'll just keep you around so you can patch me up whenever I need it." She winked at Hikari who laughed softly as they put the bloody cloth away.

"Well I guess I should be sure to stick close with how accident prone you are. I'm surprised you haven't poisoned yourself with how much you get cut while doing maintenance on your puppet."

Sakura's cheeks burned with embarrassment, "I have. I'm immune to the poison coating Teashi's weapons though so nothing happened."

Hikari's eyes widened before they sighed, a fond but exasperated smile appearing in their face, "Of course you have. If you happen to be experimenting with any new poisons, please let me know beforehand so that I can properly prepare."

"No promises. Sometimes my muse just takes off and bam! I'm sitting at my desk surrounded by toxic plants and poisonous animal excretions and I've got a nasty new surprise for whoever decides to cross me." Sakura kicked her feet idly as she watched Tsu get tripped by their sensei, hitting the ground hard enough that even Sakura winced, "Last time I came up with an ingestible poison that could put you to sleep for days. Might be useful for kidnapping missions if we ever get to leave the village."

Hikari hummed, turning to watch the fight as well, "It might be sooner than you think. You're already extremely skilled, even when compared to Tsu and I. Iwabi-sensei was right that you round out our team quite well – I just wish the cost of that discovery hadn't been quite so high…"

"Yeah…" Sakura agreed softly, "Me too."

As she and Hikari settled in to watch Tsu and Iwabi spar, Sakura reached down into her tool pouch, retrieving a vial of aqua-colored liquid, as well as a small book. Hikari looked at her curiously as unbound the book and placed it carefully on her lap, revealing that it was filled to the brim with text so tiny that even the Hyuga had trouble making it out.

"You're still working on that task for Anko?"
Sakura snorted humorously, "Task. More like homework. I've spent I don't know how long trying to figure out what she coated that senbon with and I'm barely making any progress. Honestly I'm beginning to think she's just pranking me."

"And yet you're still trying to figure it out." Hikari observed. Sakura nodded as if that was a given.

"Well duh. My pride wouldn't allow me to give up on a potentially useful tool just because the work to get it was a little hard. Besides, I'll admit it's kind of fun even if it makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes."

"It must be difficult if it's managed to stump you for this long." Hikari said, watching as Sakura flipped through the small booklet to a page she had already bookmarked.

"That's an understatement." Sakura snorted, "Through some careful research - don't ask - I've managed to parse out several of the symptoms. So far I've got nausea and stomach cramps, extreme dizziness, dry mouth, increased heart rate and blood pressure, and anticoagulated blood. In other words, it makes you too sick to move, gives you a heart attack and/or makes you bleed out, and dehydrates you on top of all that just for kicks. And that's just in low amounts, I can't imagine what it could do to someone if they were given a full dose."

Sakura held up the vial, shaking it slowly and watching the small particulates swirl around in the liquid, "I've already managed to single out one of the ingredients as Belladonna, a type of nightshade that grows in select parts of the country. That explains the odd color as well as the increased blood pressure and heart rate as those are common side-effects of the flower, but that's as far as I've gotten."

She looked down and flipped through her booklet, slowly reading through the extremely condensed text, "By my estimates, there could be more than six completely different ingredients in a poison this complex, but for them to work together like this… Anko must be a very accomplished toxicologist."

"Well she is the apprentice of Orochimaru-sama." Hikari agreed, "I imagine this isn't even the most complex poison in her arsenal."

Sakura nodded in agreement, "True. I wonder if she's ever worked with-."

"Hey, Hikari, Sakura!" The two genin looked over to find Tsu shouting up at them from the ground. The Inuzuka's clothes were dirty and her face was bruised from repeated meetings with the ground, but that didn't diminish her smirk as she called up to her teammates. "We're having a team meeting so stop flirting and get down here! Sensei has something he wants to tell us!"

Sakura's face bloomed red and a vein pulsed in her head at Tsu's insinuation as the Inuzuka walked away, cackling to herself.

"I'm so spiking her food with laxatives next time we eat out together." Sakura grumbled as she put her things away and dropped to the ground beside Hikari. The Hyuga's expression was stoic and slightly annoyed, but there was a small flush to their cheeks.

"I don't think that would be possible." Hikari said, "She would definitely smell it unless it was something strong like curry, and Tsu hates spicy food."

Sakura smirked, "Oh don't worry about that. There are hundreds of plants that can create the same effects that are completely odorless. She wouldn't notice anything was wrong until she was running to the bathroom."

"In that case, I will provide a distraction while you do the deed. Just promise to tell me when you plan to do it so I may bring my camera."

"Deal."

"You guys know I can hear you, right?" Tsu said as they reached her and their sensei. The Inuzuka gave them a look as she scratched Tadao behind his ears, the ninkin panting happily in the collar of her shirt, "I'm not eating with you guys for at least two weeks now."

Sakura shared a look with Hikari, "We can be patient."

"Four weeks now." Tsu stuck her tongue out at them, before turning to their sensei who was watching them with a dully amused expression, "Anyway, what did you need us all here for, sensei? We got another mission?"

"Better not be weeding the gardens again. For someone with a field that big, that old lady doesn't even know the difference between the flowers in her bed and the weeds infesting it." Sakura grumbled.

"Dandelions are a type of weed, Sakura." Hikari deadpanned.

"A pretty one!" Sakura protested, "Ino agrees with me, the orange adds a great splash of autumn color even in spring! You just have to be careful and the other flowers will be fine."

"I'd say she's probably the expert considering she lives in a flower shop." Tsu agreed.

"Right!?"

"If we could get back on track," Iwabi interrupted before they could enter a debate on what actually constituted a flower (a debate Sakura totally would have won), "We do have a mission Sakura, and you'll be happy to hear it's not weeding gardens or even painting fences."

"Oh thank god." Sakura sighed, "Getting paint out of my clothes is a pain in the ass. Seriously, how does blood come out easier than lead?"

"So what is the mission, Iwabi-sensei?" Tsu asked as Sakura grumbled quietly to herself.

Iwabi sighed, "Normally, we'd wait a little bit longer before doing this, but given the circumstances of how this team was reformed as well as Sakura's admittedly impressive abilities… I've decided to assign us a C-Rank mission."

Surprise crossed all of their faces, "A C-Rank? Already? But it's only been a couple months!" Sakura said, shocked.

"And in that time you've easily caught up to both Tsu and Hikari, and you've already completed your required fifty D-Rank missions. You're more than qualified for a C-Rank. All three of you are."

Sakura shared a look with her teammates, and a grin slowly slid across her face as she realized that this was finally it. She was finally done with chores and getting on to the real ninja stuff.

"So what's the mission?"

Iwabi crossed his arms, "All things considered, this mission barely even qualifies for its rank. If it were in the village, it would be a regular D-Rank. Our mission will be to deliver a scroll to the Land of Rice. It's simple, but it should be more than enough to get us back into the swing of things and gauge your guys' readiness for more dangerous missions."

Sakura's excitement diminished slightly, replaced by confusion, "Wait, just one scroll? Why can't they just hire a civilian courier to do it? Caravans are coming and going between here and Rice Country all the time. Heck, my parents made the trip a few weeks ago!"

"The scroll contains important information on the trade alliance between us and them." Iwabi explained, "New safer trade routes, the updated import and export taxes, things that normally wouldn't be sought after, but if they were to go missing, it would cause a lot of headaches for the people at the top."

"So it's an escort mission without the client." Hikari surmised. Iwabi shrugged.

"If you want to treat it like that, then you're more than welcome to. We're just there as assurance that it gets from point A to point B without being stolen by some idiot bandits who thought they were getting more than they actually were. There might be some fighting, but nothing you can't handle." Iwabi's face shifted slightly, "I'll be there too, and I'm not letting you guys out of my sight this time."

"Make sure to pack for a week-long trip and meet at the Eastern gate first thing tomorrow morning. And don't forget your tent this time, Tsuyoka."

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