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

 

[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!

 

[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!

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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.

---

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