A loud ringing filled the air within Naruto's bedroom as he began to squirm under his duvet before smacking a hand onto the off switch on his alarm clock. Lifting his head he looked out of the window to see that the sun had yet to rise, staining the sky with countless stars on top of a pitch black background.

Letting out a loud yawn, he forced his body to rise from the warm mattress so he could make his way to the shower for his morning jump start.

He was immediately jolted into full awareness as the near freezing water pelted against his skin before he began to rinse his hair, basking in the horribly cold liquid that was waking him up better than anything else he had ever tried.

Finally satisfied with his level of awareness he finally started to wash himself, ensuring that his hair was grease free, sure it didn't change the fact his hair naturally spiked but he did prefer to have his hair feeling soft instead of grimy.

Twenty minutes after stepping into the shower the young blond emerged from it, easily drying himself off with a towel before putting his clothes on and walking out into the rest of his apartment.

Without a care in the world, the whiskered genin proceeded to start the preparations for his morning ramen by putting a pan of water on the hob to boil.

He did note that he didn't feel as tired as he did when he woke up the previous morning, contributing that fact to the idea that he was simply getting used to early mornings.

It was with a little more attentiveness that he proceeded to sit at the table and pull out 'the basics of chakra' from his pouch, immediately opening the book and skimming over what he had already read before noting that the water was now boiling.

He smiled a soft smile as he got up and poured the water into the cup of instant ramen, before taking it to his table with a pair of chopsticks ready for the noodles to be eatable.

His mind focused on the book he was reading, as he slowly ate the noodles he had prepared to start his day while he read about elemental affinities, sure he wouldn't try to do anything concerning that until his chakra control was up to scratch but he could at least learn about it so that he knew what to expect later.

Finally finishing his breakfast the spiky haired youth binned the empty cup of ramen and without any hint of concern, put on his jacket and sword, instantly feeling the extra weight that he was going to get used to sooner or later (though given how quickly he was adjusting he would assume it would be sooner).

Opening his front door he immediately started jogging at a sedate pace towards the front gate fully intending on increasing his strength and speed with his morning workout before he would meet his teammates at the usual training ground for their sensei provided training.

Like usual he reached the gate and without any further ado, he proceeded to start running along the outside of the village, fully intending on completing a lap and hopefully, he'd be just that little bit less tired than he was by the time he reached the training ground yesterday.

His muscles burned as he forced himself through the constant movement, his mind focusing on the simple fact that he needed to put in more effort if he ever wanted to become stronger.

Eventually he arrived, noting that his body was already growing used to the stress of his new morning routine. So without saying a word, he quickly proceeded to pull out his Zanbatō and start practicing his swings.

They were very simple, just practicing swinging it both horizontally and vertically, the vertical swings were proving significantly harder than the horizontal swings, with upward swings proving that going against gravity made doing a relatively simple exercise far more difficult, while swinging downwards had him attempting to stop the blades momentum from embedding it in the ground in front of him.

He kept swinging the blade, hoping to increase his arm strength by wielding the massive blade as much as possible. Eventually he reached his goal of twenty five of each set for a total of one hundred, feeling his muscles burn painfully as he overexerted them to a level that could cripple a normal person, though he knew that he didn't have to worry about that, the Kyūbi would make sure of that.

Burying the blade tip first in the ground he gasped for breath and tried to stop his heart from hammering away in his chest from his intensive exercise, hoping that he would recover enough by the time Kakashi-sensei got there that he could participate in whatever training he would give them that day.

"Are you finally done dobe?" came a calm call from behind him, making him note that he had completely missed Sasuke arrive at the training field and take his usual place leaning against a tree.

"Y-yeah," the blond answered while panting from the exertion he had undergone, "h-how… long… have you… been here?"

"A couple of minutes," the dark haired genin admitted calmly as he watched his teammate lean on the blade and continue panting for breath after his rather heavy workout. Silence reigned for several minutes as Sasuke proceeded to try and phrase his next question without making himself sound concerned, "do you have any idea where Sakura is?"

"No, it does seem weird, she's normally here by now," the spiky haired youth admitted before shaking his head clear of those thoughts, "well I guess it is possible she just slept in, let's just wait until Kakashi-sensei gets here."

"Hn," and with that the clearing was left in silence outside of Naruto's heavy breathing as he moved to sit at the base of a tree and pull out one of the books he had brought with him today.

Time seemed to pass slowly for the duo as they absently awaited their teammates arrival, convinced that their perception of time was playing tricks on them as opposed to them having actually spent that long there.

"Yo," came a calm call from the edge of the clearing that made the two genin look up in shock at Kakashi walking towards them while Sakura was still nowhere to be seen, "been waiting long?"

The silver haired Jōnin was actually slightly surprised to see something he didn't expect to see from his students this early, fear in their eyes.

"Sasuke! If Kakashi-sensei's already here then…" Naruto started only to trail off at the end, obvious panic in his tone at the fact Sakura still wasn't there.

"Something's happened to Sakura," the raven haired Uchiha finished for him, feeling the same fear as his blond haired teammate. Not that he'd admit it to anyone, after all he was an avenger, he didn't have time for friends… even if they did fill a small portion of the hole in his heart.

"Calm down you two," the one eyed Jōnin said in a placating manner as he watched the duo get worked up over their missing teammate, "I already sent Sakura for some… special training."

Both of the newly minted genin picked up on the hesitant pause that their sensei made before mentioning what she was doing, meaning there was only one possible explanation that came to the minds of the two genin.

"What the hell do you mean 'special training'?" Naruto asked with his teeth gritting together in anger at the thought that their sensei may be putting their teammate at risk and not tell them exactly what it was she was undergoing.

"I'll admit, I wanted to hold off on this for as long as possible but after overhearing your conversation last night," Naruto's eyes widened in shock at the fact his attempt to convince Sakura she needed to train was responsible for the current situation, "I decided that she needed to see the darker side of life as a ninja to realise exactly what is at stake."

"What do you mean by that? Where is she?" Naruto asked with his heart racing as adrenaline coursed through his body at the emotions he was feeling over his teammates predicament and how little he knew of it.

"She is currently learning exactly what happens to ninja that get captured by sitting in on T&I for the day," the silver haired man informed the boy seriously, earning widened eyes from Sasuke at the admittance.

"Huh? What's T&I?" the whiskered blond asked in confusion, making Kakashi let out a sigh upon remembering that despite his current dedication to learning and improving, Naruto had been a problem child and a regular truant from the academy. Sasuke however simply shook his head at his teammates lack of knowledge.

"He means the torture and interrogation department," the raven haired Uchiha informed his fellow orphan calmly, earning wide eyes as the blond put two and two together.

"That's right, right now Sakura is seeing first hand, exactly what sorts of methods are used to extract information from enemy ninja… and given exactly who she's watching, they're probably going to be some of the more brutal methods of information extraction," the one eyed ninja admitted with a sideways glance that looked almost like shame.

"Why are you making her see something like that?" the youngest in the clearing asked, his voice nearly cracking at the thought that currently plagued his mind.

"Naruto, don't ask questions you already know the answer to," the oldest said calmly, earning a grimace from the jinchūriki.

Because the man was right. Naruto knew why Sakura was being shown what could happen if she wasn't strong enough, he knew that Kakashi was planning on making her either put proper effort into her training… or drop out of the ninja program altogether.

And despite his reluctance to admit it, he expected the pink haired girl to drop out. She had already displayed the mentality that konoichi were weaker than shinobi and being shown what could happen would probably be enough to push her away from her current career choice and into something less dangerous.

That thought made him churn inside. He may have involuntarily caused team seven to lose a member and all because he wanted to stop them from losing one.

Of course it would be better to lose her of her own volition but he didn't want her to go at all, he wanted her to train like him and Sasuke and become an integral part of the group.

But he doubted that would happen. He doubted she wouldn't cut her loses and run after seeing the risks of being a shinobi.

"Anyway, since Sakura is currently indisposed, why don't you two continue with the tree climbing exercise you started yesterday?" the silver haired Jōnin asked the duo snapping Naruto out of his funk and earning a nod of acceptance from him, after all, he may be worried about his teammate but in the end, he was still aiming to be Hokage and he couldn't do that without getting stronger.

The day dragged on slowly for the blond as he focused his entire concentration into the exercise, his coat and cleaver already resting on the ground below, ready for him to pick up when he had finished the exercise… either to return to the village with, or restart the exercise with the added weight to worry about.

Looking to his side, he focused on the marks his raven haired teammate left on the tree, inwardly cringing when he saw that the slightly older boy was higher than him, even if they had practiced different lengths of time the previous day.

Taking a deep breath, he thought back on Kakashi's words the previous day… that chakra was harder to control when you had more of it, meaning despite his apparent lack of progress, the fact he wasn't really that far behind his teammate was actually reassuring when it came down to his growth.

So with renewed determination, he returned to the exercise, attempting to get the control down as much as possible, after all, if he really did have too much chakra then he would need to learn how to use smaller quantities if he ever wanted to learn any proper jutsu.

And so with that in mind, he let himself continue working hard in the hope that he would one day reach a level where he could be named Hokage.

XXX XXX XXX

Sakura couldn't stop herself from learning over and emptying the contents of her stomach onto the floor, the scene before her was just that gruesome.

The part that really got her though, was that the person that committed the acts that made her sick to her core, was a woman in her early twenties by the name of Mitarashi Anko.

She had been surprised when she had been called out before the crack of dawn by none other than her sensei, bright and early, his normally jovial mood non-existent in the morning breeze.

And he had brought her here.

She hadn't even been given a chance to get dressed and was currently being forced to stand and watch a full on torture session in her light red nightie.

"Stand straight," a firm voice ordered from beside her, making her stiffen and do as instructed, honestly the bear of a man that was supervising the session scared her just as much as the sadist in the cell, after all, Anko just made her think of a gender swapped Naruto with a love of blood… this man, this Morino Ibiki was just outright terrifying in his presence and mannerisms.

And the way he interrogated others was even scarier as well, after all, seeing someone break another's body was one thing, to see them systematically deconstruct and destroy their mind was another thing entirely. With a broken body the victim would still look at the captor with a hint of defiance in their eyes… with a broken mind they were just pitiful wreaks, begging to be killed as they suffered a trauma much worse than damaged organs.

And it was all because the victims were too weak to stop themselves from being caught.

That thought chilled her to the bone, that this was the fate that would await her if she continued on the path of the ninja, that she would one day be captured and broken like the people she was currently being forced to watch… just thinking about it made her want to run from this section of the village, to run back home and cry… but she didn't, not because she was being forced to stay there by the man named Ibiki but because she couldn't move.

She didn't know why she couldn't move, why she couldn't look away, the mere fact that this so called 'lesson' was making her feel so sick should've made her run like her life depended on it but she couldn't, honestly she couldn't even look away unless she was vomiting… her eyes and mind were just drawn towards the bloody scene that was happening right before her eyes.

And that disturbed her.

She didn't like the fact that she wasn't in control of her body, such a thing was terrifying for someone who had trained as a ninja after all, it did suggest that they were caught in a genjutsu… but she knew she wasn't, she knew that it wasn't someone else interfering with her actions and that she was simply glued to the scene because it was so horrifying she couldn't look away.

"Do you understand why you were sent here now?" Ibiki asked from beside her, earning a strained nod off the pink haired girl who still couldn't bring herself to look away.

"B-because that could be me if I stay in the shinobi program…" Sakura responded in a quiet voice before shivering at the thought of going through what she was currently seeing.

"If you continue the way you currently are," the bear of a man stated seriously, finally making the young girl look away from the scene and towards him.

"W-what do you mean by that M-Morino-san?" she asked him nervously, earning a stern glare off the man.

"I've heard off Kakashi that you don't take your training seriously, that you just sit down and try to look pretty," the scowl that rested on the man's face was clear to the young girl as she cowered before the interrogator, "that sort of attitude will get you into this sort of situation if you don't pull your finger out your ass and start working."

Sakura could do nothing more than try and make herself smaller when faced with the hostility of the older ninja, however that didn't change one simple fact.

"B-but I'm just a girl," she muttered piteously, earning an even harsher glare off the man as he studied her for a few moments before making his own retort.

"Then leave," he said coldly, making her blink in surprise at how easily he was telling her to go, "quit the shinobi program and live like the civilian you clearly are."

Sakura felt her mind freeze upon hearing the head of T&I's statement, why was he telling her to quit the program? Regardless of how much she tried she would never be on par with someone like Sasuke, thinking otherwise was just wishful dreaming.

"W-what do you mean quit the program?" she asked, still unable to comprehend why the older man was making his statement, surely she shouldn't quit just because she wasn't as strong as her teammates, right?

"Senju Tsunade, Uzuki Yūgao, Yūhi Kurenai, Mitarashi Anko, Inuzuka Tsume, Utatane Koharu, Uchiha Mikoto, Uzumaki Kushina and Shizune," he listed out, making the pink haired girl blink in surprise, "they either are, or all were notable Konoha Konoichi that I have personally met in my life, every one of them reached at the very least Tokubetsu Jōnin in rank with most reaching full Jōnin."

Sakura's eyes widened at that information, the man was listing off Konoha Konoichi that had reached the rank of Jōnin, the mere thought made her feel jealous.

"And do you want to know what they all had in common?" Ibiki asked her seriously, making her look at him with expectant eyes, "they all worked themselves to the bone to reach that level."

Sakura found herself rooted to the spot as she contemplated his words.

"And do you want to know something else?" her mind wasn't even allowed the time to go over everything before the scarred man continued, "Kakashi believes you have the talent to reach the same level as those women."

And with that the pinkette was left with her mind in pieces, these women were all strong enough to be considered elite members of the village and Kakashi believed she had the potential to become their equal? But why? Why was he certain she could reach that sort of rank when she was so physically frail, when her chakra reserves were barely enough to climb a tree for ten minutes? Why did he have faith in her when she was so weak?

"B-but why? Why would he think I could be like that?" she asked the bear of a man, earning stern glare off him.

"I don't know, all I know is that for some reason he believes in you," the interrogator stated sternly, making her look down, "but I'm having trouble seeing why."

Upon hearing that Sakura could feel nothing but disappointment. She felt so disappointed in herself for being so weak despite the fact that her sensei apparently believed in her but she simply couldn't bring herself to see why he would put his faith in someone as weak as her.

Ibiki for his part, did actually understand what his senior saw in the girl, bucket loads of talent stunted by psychological issues, however the only way to make the girl understand that she had the talent would be to push her, to force her to accept that she wasn't in a career where she could slack off and still hope to get by, if she continued to slack off then she would face either death, or a fate worse than death.

Of course it was Kakashi's job to keep her in the forces, he didn't care if she left or not, without the motivation to get stronger then she was simply dead weight and therefore pushing her to leave was the best he was prepared to do, if she didn't then the chances were that she would work to get stronger.

"C-can I go now?" the pinkette asked quietly, hoping that she could get out of this place and get somewhere peaceful to think, she would also have to talk to Kakashi-sensei if she wanted to find out why he believed in her.

"Fine, leave and don't come back," the scarred interrogator said with possibly the coldest look she had ever seen in a person's eyes. Upon seeing that stare, she could do little more than try and make herself as small as possible and slink away from the bear of a man as she made her way out of the T&I department with her head held low.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto let out a grunt as he fell from the tree once again.

His progress was slow, at least as far as he was concerned, though thankfully his teammate didn't seem to be faring much better at the moment, which meant that he wasn't really as far behind as he felt. So with his determination still running strong, he faced the tree once again only to freeze upon hearing his sensei call out.

"Alright, that's enough you two," Kakashi had to admit he was impressed with the duo's determination to get the exercise down, then again he knew he shouldn't have been, both had their reasons for getting stronger, Naruto wanted to become Hokage and earn the villages recognition and Sasuke wanted to avenge his family.

While he may not have agreed with the raven haired Uchiha's motivation the fact remained that he didn't have the right to comment on the young clan heir's circumstances. His own father may have died but that had been suicide as opposed to being brutally slaughtered by someone he trusted.

"But I can still go on Kakashi-sensei," Naruto decided to say with obvious displeasure at the thought of being torn from the exercise too early. However he stopped complaining once he heard the silver haired Jōnin's next words.

"I know and you will come back and continue the exercise after we've all gotten something to eat," the cycloptic ninja stated calmly as he watched Sasuke end his latest run and turn around with a contemplative look on his face. Kakashi thought it was pretty obvious that Sasuke and Naruto didn't really dislike each other, the fact was that they were so similar that they were capable of relating to each other far better than they could with anyone else in their year… it wouldn't hurt that Sasuke's parents wouldn't have forbid him from associating with the blond when he was younger, not with how close they had been to Naruto's parents.

And for that reason, the two were probably closer to each other than anyone else and no matter how much they may deny it or scowl at each other, the fact remained that they were probably the closest thing to a friend the other had.

"Tch… I guess I should eat something before it effects my performance," the raven haired genin said calmly before walking over to the Jōnin. It was pretty obvious the boy was just using that excuse to try and keep the others at a distance, while he may have made a major leap forward in forming a true bond in the village, he still wasn't ready to accept the need for such a thing outwardly.

"Alright, so where do you want to go?" the silver haired Jōnin asked with an eye smile, earning an excited expression off the spiky haired blond.

"Ichiraku's!" Kakashi would have to remember to tell the blond to calm down when it came to wherever they would end up eating, he was pretty sure he'd end up getting a major headache if he didn't.

"What do you say about that Sasuke?" the one eyed ninja asked, earning a grunt and a shrug off the avenger, making him sweatdrop at the fact the boy was that unresponsive to a mere question, "then Ichiraku's it is, come on, I guess I'll pay for your meals."

It wouldn't take long for the man to regret his decision.

XXX XXX XXX

The three male members of team seven were soon walking into Ichiraku's ramen stand, their minds set on eating their fill and spending a little more time with the rest of the team, the only problem any of them felt there was, was the lack of the fourth member of the team.

Kakashi hoped that Sakura would return soon, he didn't want her to spend too much time in T&I, just enough for her to realise the danger of not working to better yourself. Sure it may be hypocritical of him to talk of his student working to better herself, he didn't bother doing that anymore, then again he was already an S-rank ninja as far as the other countries bingo books were concerned, sure he may not have the raw power of the Yondaime Raikage, the Jinton or flight of the Sandaime Tsuchikage or the gold dust of the Yondaime Kazekage, but he had diversity.

While most of the Kages possessed a single skill that they trained to a point where they could rely almost exclusively on them, he made up for that lack of a single skill by having so many that he usually had some form of counter for any technique sent his way… he was like the Sandaime Hokage in that respect, though he would admit that he wasn't anywhere near the man's level even if he took the Hokage's advanced age into account.

And that was mostly a difference in experience and raw power.

He was certain that if the man was in his prime, then he would've been a match for any of the previous Hokage's or even Uchiha Madara, that reputation was probably the reason why Konoha hadn't been thrown into another war after the Kyūbi attacked twelve years ago.

Then again, he didn't intend on taking the mantle of Hokage so why bother gaining the strength to be one?

"Hey Oji-san! Can I get a large miso ramen with roasted pork fillet!" Kakashi had to look at his sword using genin with a blank expression at the far too casual way he had ordered his food.

"Sure thing Naruto," the cook said without even looking up, telling the Jōnin that Naruto was such a regular here that the owner didn't even need to look to know it was him.

"And I think I'll have a large miso ramen with eggplant," the masked Jōnin said through his mask, making the chef look up to see that Naruto wasn't alone.

"One medium vegetable ramen," Sasuke said with a disinterested tone as he looked around the small stand and quickly dismissed everything as unimportant.

"Of course, coming right up," Teuchi would definitely be happy at the extra custom, sure he may do well enough as is but this was a chance to win over two new regulars so he would definitely go out of his way to make their orders as good as possible.

"So, I take it you're a regular here Naruto," Kakashi started, deciding to make a little conversation since he was sure his two genin wouldn't start without something else to set them off.

"Yeah, I come here pretty much every day," the spiky haired youth admitted without shame as he waited on his order with obvious impatience.

"And what about you Sasuke?" the one eyed Jōnin asked with an eye smile, earning a small 'tsk' off the raven haired boy.

"It's my first time here," he admitted, earning a nod of acceptance from the oldest of the trio.

"Ah, so have you ever tried ramen before?" the most experienced of the group asked with his typical eye smile.

"No," came the raven haired genin's response, making his blond teammate splutter in shock at his quick dismissal of what he considered the 'food of the gods'.

"What do you mean no?! how can you have never had ramen before?" the whiskered child asked in disbelief, earning a blank look off his teammate.

"Quite easily," Sasuke's response was short, sweet and void of emotion as he simply waited for the bowls of noodles to come.

Naruto for his part, didn't know how to react to that response and was just left gaping jawed at his teammate, unable to believe that he hadn't so much as tasted ramen before.

"Well, here are your orders," Teuchi finally called as he placed three bowls of steaming hot ramen in front of the trio, earning a loud 'Itadakimasu' from the regular and a pair of much more subdued statements of the word from the other two males.

And with that the trio started eating… well two started eating and the third simply imitated a vacuum cleaner and cleared his bowl in a matter of seconds.

"That… is probably the fastest I've ever seen anyone outside of an Akimichi eat," Kakashi stated dumbfounded at his blond haired students monstrous appetite as Sasuke watched on in disbelief himself.

"Seconds please," and without any waiting, another bowl was placed in front of the whiskered genin, "thanks ojisan… Itadakimasu!"

And once again the blond devoured the bowl before ordering another one, making the Jōnin pale because of one simple fact… he had already said he would pay for the food.

"Remind me never to pay for Naruto's meal again," was all he managed to get out as the blond continued his destruction of the ramen stands stock.

XXX XXX XXX

Kakashi was nearly crying as he felt his now significantly lighter wallet resting in his hands.

In the end Naruto had eaten seventeen bowls of the noodles and only stopped because Sasuke and Kakashi had decided it was time to leave and get back to training… Naruto had quietly protested before the Jōnin paid the owner and swore never to treat his student to ramen ever again.

At least Sasuke only had two medium bowls… though it was a surprise that the usually stoic avenger seemed to like the food… then again it really was the best ramen in Konoha, if not all of Hi No Kuni. He would admit it wasn't the healthiest diet for a person to live off but it was certainly nice… not quite as nice as Naruto made it out to be but still very good despite being one of the cheaper types of meal a person could buy.

But it was only cheep if you ate normal quantities and Naruto didn't eat normal quantities.

He had to admit, that his two genin didn't seem to talk much at all when together, it was almost as if neither felt the need to talk about anything… it certainly made his goal of bringing the team together more awkward, especially if his new guess that Sakura was the instigator of conversation in the team was right.

He briefly wondered if he would've been better off not giving her to Ibiki for the day before shaking his head. It wouldn't do to regret that decision, if she dropped out of the shinobi program then at the very least her death wouldn't be on his conscience.

It would just make keeping the team together more difficult.

The trio walked at a reasonable pace back towards their training grounds, after all, they were going to continue their attempts at the tree climbing exercise regardless of their female teammates absence…then they stopped upon seeing a familiar head of cherry blossom coloured hair.

"Sakura-chan!" Kakashi nearly winced upon hearing his sword carrying student call out her name, however his wince was less to do with the blond and more to do with the look on the pinkette's face… he knew he had asked Ibiki to go easy on her but he didn't know if the man had decided to take his request on board and even if he did take it easy on her, he was still a master of getting under his victims skin and tearing away at their mental defences.

"Uh… hello Naruto," her call was anything but enthusiastic, it was clear to the one eyed Jōnin that she had been damaged by the scarred interrogator but in the end, he wasn't certain whether she had been damaged like muscles, capable of repairing themselves to better cope with the strain put on them, or a china vase that could never truly be fixed no matter how hard you tried.

"Are you alright?" the whiskered blond asked with concern clear in his tone as he looked at the girl that was normally so happy and bright as if she had lost a limb, earning a sad smile off her as she tried to reassure him.

"Sorry, I'm just thinking about some things," she said with a sad smile adorning her face before she looked at her sensei, mostly ignoring Sasuke in the process, "Kakashi-sensei, I need to speak with you… in private."

Kakashi let out a small sigh as he noted the expressions of shock on his other students faces, he understood what she was wanting to talk about, after all, she was either going to ask him to remove her from the shinobi program or ask his opinion on the prospect of if she should remain before using what he told her as a base for her future decision.

"Alright then, Naruto, Sasuke, go on ahead and continue with the tree climbing exercise," the one eyed teacher ordered them in a friendly manner, making the blond glance at his pink haired teammate with a concerned expression before letting out a sigh and making his way towards the training grounds with Sasuke not far behind him.

"Well then, let's go somewhere more private for our talk okay?" and with that said, the masked ninja put his hand on the young teens shoulder and with a quick shunshin, reappeared on top of the Hokage monument.

He idly noted that she was obviously disorientated from the sudden change in surroundings and most likely, the pressure placed on her body from moving at such speed but she quickly shook herself out of her spell and looked at him seriously.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" he asked her without any particular inflection in his tone as he looked at the pink haired genin who looked down nervously before opening her mouth to speak.

"Morino-san said that you believed I could become a good Konoichi," she told him with obvious nervousness in her tone, earning a nod off the silver haired Jōnin, "why? What do I have that could make me a good Konoichi?"

Kakashi found himself letting out a sigh at her question as he decided to explain the matter to her clearly and simply, "what don't you have that would stop you from becoming a good Konoichi?"

Sakura blinked at her sensei's response to her question before he decided to continue his analysis of her abilities.

"You have excellent chakra control, you are obviously very bright when you apply yourself and you obviously care for your teammates," he stated calmly as she looked at him with a scrutinising expression adorning her face, "the fact is that as far as Konoichi go, all you lack is motivation to train properly."

"The fact is that Konoichi are usually better at precision asks while shinobi are better at large scale destruction… there are exceptions but they're just that, exceptions," the one eyed Jōnin stated calmly as his student looked down to the side as she obviously thought over what he was telling her, "the fact is that all you lack as far as being a ninja goes, is the ability to work hard to improve your skills, if you manage to find motivation and work hard, I think you could become one of the villages greatest ninja full stop, let alone one of its greatest Konoichi."

Sakura for her part simply stood there, her head downcast as she thought over his words, he knew that she would probably have a hard time accepting them, he was her sensei after all so it was obvious that she would think he would show some form of favouritism towards his own students… even if such a thought was wrong, he wouldn't dare hype up a student's potential unless he truly believed it was there, doing so with anyone could obviously result in them getting a big head and dying because they were cocky.

He knew Sakura wasn't cocky, more than that, he knew she had immense potential courtesy of her level of knowledge comprehension and chakra control, both vital parts of both Genjutsu and Iryōjutsu… though admittedly the question of Sakura's attention to detail wasn't entirely answered yet… still, even without that it was possible for her to become a second Tsunade if she put effort into her training.

"Do you really think that or are you just saying it because I'm your student?" yes, that was the question he was expecting to come from her lips, one that he answered with a smile.

"Sakura, if I didn't think you had the potential then I would have advised you to quit the ninja program," he told her calmly, earning a couple of blinks of surprise from the young girl, "my first lesson to the team was important, 'those that break the rules are trash but those that abandon their comrades are worse than trash', if I tried to trick you into staying in the shinobi program when I didn't think you had it in you then I wouldn't simply be abandoning a comrade but actively betraying them… and that is something I refuse to do no matter what."

It was clear that the pinkette found his words shocking but they were true, he really did feel that putting a student at risk like that was a betrayal and he refused to act like that.

"What would you suggest I do to get stronger?" her question made him smile slightly, apparently she wanted to get an idea of how she could improve before making her final decision, honestly he was perfectly happy with that decision and decided to give her a basic list of what she could do to improve herself.

"There are four main things I would suggest you work on if you want to stay in the shinobi program," he started as her eyes glued to him with a look of concentration on her face, "one, work on your physical conditioning, two, work on your chakra reserves, three, start learning genjutsu and four, start learning Iryōjutsu."

Sakura started to frown upon hearing his list of things she could do to improve before she opened her mouth to voice her dissatisfaction at his suggestions, "those all seem vague and basic at best."

"That is because right now you are essentially a blank slate," Kakashi decided to explain seriously, making her face twist into a minor frown, "you have no skills worth mentioning outside of your impressive chakra control so I can't narrow down ways for you to improve because there are just too many right now."

It was obvious that the young girl found his explanation depressing, after all, she had apparently prided herself on being one of the top scorers in the academy, even if most of those scores did come from her book smarts as opposed to the physical examinations like taijutsu (though apparently her forms were good, she just lacked the strength to challenge most of the males in her class).

"So, do you want to take a little more time to make your decision?" he asked her seriously, causing the young girl to shake her head in the negative.

"No thank you," she said as calmly as she could manage, though he could still pick up on undercurrents of nervousness in her tone, "I wish to remain in the shinobi forces… please teach me how to become strong."

"Alright then, just remember if you ever feel like you can't cope then you're free to change your mind," the silver haired ninja stated with an eye smile, making her smile widen slightly, "well then, I guess it's time to get back to your teammates."

Sakura simply nodded her head in affirmation as he once again put his hand on her shoulder before using a simple shunshin to transport them both to the training grounds where the two male genin were still running up their trees and marking their progress with their kunai.

That progress soon halted as both members of the team proceeded to turn to face their returning member, who despite the conviction she had managed to muster, was still clearly uncertain about her decision.

"Sakura-chan? Are you alright?" and once again it was Naruto that immediately decided to check on the pink haired teammate, though he noticed that Sasuke was obviously holding his piece not so much out of callousness but more likely, a desire to keep everyone at arm's length.

"Y-yeah, thanks Naruto," the lack of confidence in the young girls tone was obvious to anyone that heard her, obviously she still felt uncertain about how to feel concerning what she was exposed to in T&I but at least she wasn't treating being a shinobi like a game anymore.

"Alright, Naruto, Sasuke, you can talk to Sakura later if you want to, for now, focus on the tree climbing exercise," the silver haired ninja stated bluntly, earning a small scowl off the blond, obviously he wasn't happy about being told to leave his teammate who obviously wasn't in the best condition alone, "look, I understand you're concerned about Sakura but the fact remains that she is alright, just a little uncertain after her tour of T&I, outside of that she's fine."

Naruto quickly looked at the pink haired girl, who meekly nodded to confirm her sensei's words, earning a frown off the blond who glanced at the teacher before returning to the exercise he had been given previously.

"Alright Sakura, what would you like to do first?" he asked her with a soft tone, earning a small frown off the young pinkette.

"Iryōjutsu, at least if I learn that I can help the team if they ever get hurt," she decided, obviously thinking over where she would be most useful as far as the team went… sure she would be good as a support member with genjutsu skills but Iryōjutsu was probably a better choice, after all, while genjutsu could help her teammates avoid injury, it wouldn't guarantee that they would and knowing how to heal them would prove beneficial.

"Alright, then I'll assign you a bit of reading for later," he told her calmly, "after all, you need to know anatomy inside and out if you want to become a skilled medic."

"So it'll take a long time to learn Iryōjutsu?" the pink haired genin asked with a frown, earning a sigh off the Jōnin.

"It isn't the jutsu that take a long time to learn, it's the knowledge associated with it, plus I'm not the best person to ask about Iryōjutsu if I'm honest with you," with admitted with a shrug, earning another frown off the young konoichi.

"What do you mean you're not the best person to ask about it?" the long haired girl asked, earning a sigh off the more experienced ninja.

"Well, you see I have a few disadvantages when it comes down to chakra control," he admitted with a shrug as Sakura's eyes narrowed in confusion, "you see, my left eye isn't my own, it was given to me by a teammate who lost his life in the third shinobi war," he noted that her eyes widened in shock at that admittance, "his body was crushed during a cave in and he asked our other teammate to give me his eye after I lost my own to an Iwa Jōnin, unfortunately the eye he gave me is… chakra extensive, resulting in me having to cover it to minimize the strain it places on my reserves."

"On top of that my reserves were large enough that I managed to attain the rank of Jōnin by the time I was thirteen years old," he noted that his student was once again shocked by his admittance but he decided to carry on anyway, "because of that, while my chakra control may be good, it isn't smooth enough to use Iryōjutsu without putting the patient at risk, it's a bit like how I need to use my left eye if I want to use any advanced genjutsu."

He noted that Sakura was obviously shocked at his explanation, then again it was likely that she had never thought about how long he had been a Jōnin, let alone considered the fact that by the time she had become a genin, he was already preparing himself for the highest rank available in the Konoha military forces outside of Hokage itself.

"W-when did you graduate?" she asked him, clearly shocked at the thought of someone having such a rank at such a young age.

"When I was five years old," and he could see the look of disbelief in her eyes upon hearing his admittance, then again, the academy was a different institute during peace to what it was during war, in times of peace it paced the students with the intention of giving them time to develop the musculature to fight properly, during war time, it worked the students hard to maximise their skills as early as possible.

Kakashi was simply one of those that succeeded in learning everything in record time.

"H-how?" she started only for the one eyed ninja to cut her off with a smile.

"Because I was trained during war time," he stated simply before expanding on that statement, "the academy has different approaches to training ninja during war than it does during peace, it is rare for someone to graduate the academy before the age of ten during times of peace but during war it was rare for someone to graduate after the age of ten, with most ninja graduating at around eight years old."

Sakura found herself staring in disbelief as he explained the difference war could make to a graduating class, well, not so much disbelief but she was definitely shocked by what her teacher told her.

"Now, are you finished asking questions? If so then I would like to start teaching you the most basic Iryōjutsu I know," and with that, the silver haired Jōnin started the pinkettes lessons on medical techniques.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto flopped down on his bed as his mind went over the events of the day, more specifically, the fact that Sakura was beginning to learn something special off their sensei… he didn't mind that the man was teaching her something, it wasn't like he was jealous, he still had his own training to finish after all.

If anything he was happy that she was now starting to take her training seriously, even if it took her seeing something as cruel as T&I to get her to do it.

He just hoped she wouldn't be too damaged by what she experienced there, after all, he had heard all sorts of stories about that department when he was younger and merely thinking of going there gave him the creeps.

But at least now he knew that she would work to make herself strong enough to not need him or Sasuke to protect her, that was a plus.

He just hoped she would keep working hard and learn enough to protect herself from whatever happens during any of the higher ranked missions they would eventually take… at least he had enough to do till Kakashi-sensei decided they were ready for a higher ranked mission, he didn't know what he'd do if they weren't getting trained like they currently were and he hadn't decided to ask for help back when he started his time as a genin.

Maybe he would've gotten tired of D-ranks and demanded a C-rank when they weren't ready for it?

With that thought in his head, he allowed himself to drift off to a dreamless slumber.