11 Sakura-I

Sakura looked at her teammates in confusion. Sasuke, she could understand. He didn't have his Sharingan activated yet, so he had to do things the normal way. Naruto though, Naruto confused her greatly.

It confused her even more that Kakashi wasn't telling him. She wondered whether her sensei was a sadist. He just sat atop a branch, reading his trashy book while his students were struggling. Anko was even worse, so she wasn't outraged on her teammates' behalf. But she was in no mood to go on tougher missions and get into trouble because her teammates weren't taught properly.

Sasuke would not listen to her. There was too much bad blood between them for that. Naruto was afraid of Ichigo, so he didn't bother her anymore, but he was her teammate now, and she will at least give him a small clue. Ichigo had ranted and raved about how unfair the 'cheats' of her teammates were, so she knew just the thing to help.

A part of her didn't want to. At the same time, a major part of her didn't want to get shanked in a mission by some missing-nin just because she was a petty bitch.

She would wait and watch. If he wasn't told by the end of the day, she will.

She shook her head in exasperation and continued with her kenjutsu katas. She casually inserted earth nature chakra into the chakra flow, and the blade darkened as a result. The jutsu Ichigo had given Ino had been good for their chakra flow training. Sakura still hadn't fully learned the Rock Armor jutsu, but the basics alone gave the pointers she needed. She was proficient enough with chakra flow and earth release to use the earth nature chakra flow.

That was not enough though. Her brother always said that repetition was the mother of learning, so she repeated her katas over and over, searing them into her mind and body.

She didn't have the same advantages that others had, so she had to work twice as hard.

"Okay team. That's enough for the day. Naruto and Sasuke, your training will be the same tomorrow as well. So the faster you finish it, the faster we will move on. Sakura, you're doing fine. Keep following the curriculum your brother set for you. I'll see you tomorrow. Toodles," Kakashi waved at them and disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Asshole," Sasuke grumbled and walked out of the pond, dripping wet. He picked up his tools and left without saying a word to the others.

Sakura knew enough to guess that he'd go back to practicing the moment he reached home. Sasuke's property did have a huge body of water to do so.

Naruto, on the other hand, did not stop and kept trying and failing to stay above the water. He was persistent enough, and maybe that was what Hinata saw in him.

"Naruto," she called out now that everyone was gone.

"Yes, Sakura?" he asked with a wide smile. Not as wide as it used to be. At least his silly crush had been stomped out.

"Come here just a second," she called out to him as she sheathed her wakizashi.

"What's it Sakura? I need to get back to training. I won't lose to the bastard this time," he shouted, exuberant as always.

"Just come here," she told him as she packed her things.

"Okay?" he scratched his head in confusion as he walked out of the shallow pond, dripping wet with the results of his failure.

"How long did it take for you to learn tree walking?" she asked.

"But you already know the answer to it, Sakura," he spoke, still confused.

"Humor me."

He counted his fingers and scratched his head again in confusion.

"A little less than a week?" he guessed.

"Close enough. And how long have you been trying water walking?"

"Almost a week," he scowled.

"Now what if I said that you could have done it all way sooner?"

"But how?" he jumped around and it caused the water on his clothes to scatter everywhere.

Sakura scowled as she took a step backwards, avoiding the water.

"I'll show you. Make a clone and then turn around," she commanded.

"Sure, Sakura," he beamed and crossed his fingers. At once, a shadow clone formed next to him. Both Naruto and the clone turned around at once.

Sakura sighed in exasperation and slapped her considerably large forehead. Maybe she should have been clearer with her statement.

"Clone, turn towards me. Naruto, stay put," she ordered, and the clone obeyed at once.

Without wasting time, she chucked a kunai at the clone and watched it burst into a cloud of smoke the next instant.

Naruto yelped and jumped away from his spot and turned around in horror.

"What did you do that for?" he shouted.

"What did I do?"

"You threw a kunai at my clone!"

"And how did you know that?" she asked smugly.

"I knew because… because… How did I know?" he asked, back to confusion.

Sakura once again sighed in exasperation. This was Kakashi's job.

"When a shadow clone is popped, its memories return to the creator," she told him.

"Wait what? How is that possible?" he asked.

"I'm not going over theory with you," she said, not entirely being truthful. She didn't know how it worked that way. The inner workings of Lord Tobirama's creation were beyond her understanding just yet.

"Do you truly understand what this means?" she asked.

"Umm, not really?"

"It means that if you create a clone and both of you train at the same time, it is twice the training," she said.

Naruto stood stock still for a moment and then his hands immediately went in front of him, forming the seal.

"Stop!" she shouted, interrupting him from doing the jutsu.

"Why, Sakura?" he whined.

"How many clones can you make Naruto?" she asked tersely.

"A lot," he shrugged.

"Yeah. Your brain will be fried if hundreds of clones went off at the same time, pumping all that information into your mind. You are close with the Hokage right?" she asked.

"Of course I am," he said proudly while pointing at his forehead protector pointlessly.

"Then ask him first whether it is safe for you to do this or not. Normally Kakashi would have been the person to go to, but well, he hasn't really been paying attention," she said.

"I'll immediately go and ask the old man! I learned it from his scroll anyway. He should know!" Naruto shouted and quickly went to pack his things.

"All the best then," she said as she prepared to shunshin out of the training ground. She had a dinner to go to, and dawdling around would make her late.

"Sakura, how did you know all this though?" he asked her before she could leave.

"I know the Shadow Clone jutsu. My brother taught me," she smirked as Naruto paled at the mention of her brother. "I can't do the Multi Clone variant though. Don't have the chakra. You do, so it is stupid not to use it to train. Don't do it in front of the princess though. He'll get more insufferable than usual."

"But-"

"Once he activates his eyes, he'll copy all the jutsu you worked hard for. This is the one true advantage you have over him. Don't piss all over it due to your misguided machismo," she snorted and disappeared from the training ground, leaving behind a baffled Naruto.

"Misgui- what?" he muttered loud enough for her to hear right before she went out of range.

##################

A couple of hours later, she walked into Yakiniku Q and found Ino and Hinata seated at a table on the far right.

"Where's Tenten?" Sakura asked as she sat down beside Ino.

"Dunno, maybe their training went on a bit late. Can't say for sure, knowing their sensei," commented Ino.

The past week had been hard on all of them. Kakashi had always been lazy since the beginning. He only taught Naruto and Sasuke tree walking right after team formation because Sakura already knew it.

But something had happened, and it had kicked up all the jonin senseis into a frenzy. Each team's training regimen had increased twofold, and most of them were running ragged due to it.

"You think it has anything to do with it?" asked Sakura, pointing at the window, towards the humongous tree out in the distance.

"Most likely. They still haven't told us what happened," scowled Ino.

"Ugh, Ichigo came back that day looking drained. Apparently, he almost used up all his chakra in whatever happened there. He didn't say anything due to stuff being classified, but he did say that we'll get an announcement soon enough," said Sakura.

"I'll look at the silver lining. We are modifying our formations taking into account that I have offensive options. And I'm almost done with the Rock Armor jutsu due to Asuma sensei's help with the chakra flow," said Ino.

Sakura just nodded in response and looked at Hinata. The girl had been silent as usual.

"What about you Hinata? How are things going?" Sakura asked.

"Ah. Umm… it's going well," she said demurely and began fiddling with her jacket.

"And how are things with Naruto going, hmm?" asked Ino with a mischievous look on her face.

Hinata squeaked in response and hid her face behind her palms.

Sakura shook her head at her best friend's antics. Ino should learn to stop teasing Hinata that way. The poor girl was stressed as it was from all fronts. It didn't help that Naruto was oblivious to her existence.

They had tried steering Hinata in other directions, but the girl was steadfast in her affection for the knucklehead.

"Did you ask your sensei about any genjutsu?" asked Sakura, trying to steer the topic away from a direction that would make Hinata faint.

"Not really. I am still lacking in my taijutsu, so I am practicing that," she responded slowly.

Sakura blinked in confusion when Hinata talked about lacking in taijutsu. She turned towards Ino and saw that her friend was in a similar state.

"Hinata, you are way ahead of us in terms of plain taijutsu. You don't have to worry about it," soothed Ino.

"I'm not good enough," she replied resolutely and went back to fiddling with her jacket.

Hinata was a relatively newer addition to their group, so they didn't know how to placate the girl with her self-esteem issues. They had tried their best to tell her the objective truth, but the girl refused to listen and was too quick to put herself down. They quickly learned that it was due to her family. Something down in the Hyuga clan really stunk if this was how they were treating their heiress.

Maybe she could get Ichigo to do something with that Cage Bird Seal. A little bit of anarchy wouldn't hurt that stupid clan. It might even turn out for the better.

"Speaking of genjutsu, what happened to you? Finished with the reading material they gifted you?" asked Ino, changing the topic before Hinata went too deep into a spiral.

"Yeah, I finished reading alright. Ichigo already spoke to Yakumo, and she is eager to start teaching me. We will be starting with simple genjutsu next week," said Sakura.

Unexpectedly, Hinata perked up at the mention of Yakumo and turned towards Sakura.

"Ummm, Sakura… can you tell me more about Yakumo?" she asked.

"What do you want to know?"

"I met her recently… with my whole team. She seemed hostile," her voice almost disappeared near the end. They had to strain hard to hear what she was saying.

"Oh now this ought to be interesting," said Ino as her smile widened, like the cat that ate the canary.

No matter how much they threw themselves into training, gossip-mongering was something that Ino could never steer away from.

They sat and listened as Hinata recounted her team's encounter with Ichigo's team.

"That ought to do it. Yeah, Yakumo has bad blood with your sensei. Kurenai gave up on her, told her to give up on being a ninja, and then went and sealed her powers. It was done with the Hokage's permission, yes. But it was a really bad judgment on everyone's part. Turns out that there was a cure, and now Yakumo is a tokubetsu jonin. So yeah, she hates your sensei's guts," said Ino.

Hinata almost flinched at that, and Sakura felt like bashing her head into the wall. Whatever they did, whatever topic they talked about, they just kept making it worse. It looked like they were on a roll.

"Is that… is that why she didn't come here?" asked Hinata.

"Oh, you sweet summer child. Yakumo is not a people person. She doesn't come out on principle. All she does is go on missions, train like a maniac, then sleep," Ino immediately disabused Hinata of that notion.

Before they could talk further, Tenten ran into the restaurant like someone set rabid dogs after her.

"Tsunade!" she shouted and everyone winced at the volume. Silence took over the restaurant at that statement as well.

"What?" asked Sakura.

"Lady Tsunade is in the village," said Tenten right as she reached their table.

Everyone around them began murmuring loudly at that proclamation.

"Come, let's go," she said and Sakura pounced on her at once when it seemed like Tenten was about to run off again.

"Where did you see her?" asked Ino.

"I came back from a mission, and saw her entering the Hokage's office," said Tenten.

"Okay fangirl, and what are you planning to do? Barge into the Hokage's office?" asked Ino.

Tenten scowled at the moniker and immediately settled down.

"Don't call me that," she hissed.

"Fine. Let's eat first. Then we'll go and camp out near the tower," laughed Ino as she called the waitress.

Sakura couldn't help but burst out in laughter as Tenten nodded with fervor. Even Hinata couldn't hold herself and she began giggling at the antics.

Looking back at her life, Sakura would often say that the dinner was the last carefree moment she had before the shitshow that followed in the coming weeks.

##################

A.N: So, I am late. I got a new job, relocated to a new city, and it took me a while to get settled. Even now, the requirements of my job have increased and I have more responsibilities. So, less time to write. I do get paid more so that's a silver lining.

I'll soon start writing the final arc of Six Paths, my HP story, so look out for that.

As for this story, all I have to say is that the coming chapters are going to be fun. It'll take a while to write them though. With the new job and the end of the HP story and all.

If you want to talk to me on discord, please find the invite in the auxiliary chapter.