Shady Trees

Chapter 1: Rotten Seeds

"You're late, Sakura."

She closed the door behind her soundlessly. Muscles and responsibility forced her feet to move her feet to stand on the edge of the rectangular table, directly across the figure that just spoke. The wooden floor creaked under her weight.

She didn't have to look up from her pink locks to see that disapproving frown crawling its way up to his face. His tone was level, with no implication of emotion whatsoever. But she knew that deep down he wasn't happy. Well, it wasn't like he was often happy in the first place, but, you know, there are just moments when he was extremely unhappy.

He pushed his round glasses up his nose with his middle finger. The glasses glinted, reflecting the light from the lonely moon that entered from the window, next to the wall he previously was leaning on. Beside that window, the room was scarce of any source of light. It felt gloomy.

A sigh escaped his lips.

"Look, I'm sorry, I was held back by Ino because she-", she tried to reason.

"Yamanaka-san shouldn't even be one of your concerns anymore, and you know that." The boy in glasses, Kabuto, interrupted.

She did know. She had gathered, and successfully delivered the information needed about Ino 6 months ago. Ino was no longer her mission anymore.

"So, what did you get from the past week?" Kabuto asked, straight down to business, as usual. It was never sentimental between the two of them. Not one of that brother-sister relationship crap she saw some people have. Sakura and Kabuto had never met up for tea, or tell each other their deepest fears and wishes in the night, and they had certainly never discussed the pro-s and con-s of life under the blanket of a thousand stars. At least that was what she presumed siblings do to each other, since she never had any before. But still, she had hope that Kabuto deep down cared for her, like, deep deep down. They've been working together for a hell of a long time, after all.

By his looks, the boy –no, man –in front of her couldn't be more than 16, or 17 years old. He had never told her his actual age, no matter how many times she begged him to. He always gave some kind of bullshit excuse like 'confidentiality', and 'privacy'. But he did imply that he was older than he looks.

He was also stronger than he looked, too. And way more dangerous.

"We did the academy graduation test today, and the team placements are going to be announced tomorrow. All of the students from prominent clans passed the exam, and surprise surprise, Sasuke Uchiha got declared as Rookie of the Year." She said, her hand unconsciously fiddling with the strands of her hair.

"What about Naruto Uzumaki?"

She was used on reporting about Naruto, although she didn't gather her information by the means of direct contact. Kabuto had specifically told her to not ever talk to the boy. Never to engage any kinds of connection with him. When she asked why, he merely shrugged. (This was a sign for her to stop asking, as other follow-up questions will only be replied by similar manner. Kabuto can be such a secretive prick sometimes.) So she spied on him. She stalked him and noted his behavior and routine. Honestly, she felt sorry for the boy for being friendless. People of the village were downright hostile towards him; and she bet some of those people taught the kids at the academy to bully him as well.

He might have pulled some pranks, but they were mostly harmless –even hilarious, at times.

He didn't deserve this kind of treatment.

"Naruto Uzumaki did not pass the exam." She said with a sad tone.

It was a pity, though. She actually grew quite fond of the prankster and his theatrics.

Kabuto nodded solemnly, as if he had expected this. His long fingers ran through his silver hair; his signature ponytail still in place.

"And what about the team compositions?"

"I… don't know about that yet. When I sneaked into the Hokage's Tower this evening, I think they were still deliberating about it."

She didn't really sneak in. She actually walked through the front door, passed the guards and the obviously overworked receptionist, and pretended she had business to attend to.

It was astounding what a hurried pace and a determined no-bullshit facial expression can get you to.

"Tch, that will not do Sakura. When you don't know, presume." He said with a snarl.

"But you said to always rely on facts." She said in a low voice.

"I did. That's why you better make sure that those presumptions do become facts."

Her fear of Kabuto pushed down her eyes' request to roll. One of the things she figured out about working with Kabuto was that she would always be wrong. Never competent enough. Hell would be frozen before Kabuto would ever say anything remotely close to good job if it was regarding espionage business to her.

"I wrote down the report in this scroll, my training results are also in here as well." She said as she waved the scroll with her right hand. She walked to the rectangular wooden table that separated them and placed the scroll on top of it. She slid it to his end so that he could take it. He unsealed the scroll and started reading.

"Hm," he pushed his glasses up with his middle finger again, "I see that you've covered the basics of the genjutsu I taught you. It's quite high-ranked, so don't be too upset if you don't master it in a couple of days. Your speed and chakra reserves have increased as well. Orochimaru-sama would be pleased."

Her stomach churned a bit at the mention of Orochimaru-sama. He might be pleased with her growth, but her last meeting with him hadn't been all that pleasant.

She sincerely hoped that she won't have to meet Orochimaru-sama again for a very long time. Honestly, the snake Sanin freaked her out a bit.

Kabuto usually handled all the meetings with Orochimaru-sama. He acted as a connection between her and the main base. He also acted as her mentor, and as a second spy as well. (Kabuto told her that Orochimaru-sama always dispatch spies in pairs. She never asked why, too used to all the weird secrets by then. She presumed it was because if the one of them died, the other could break the happy news to Orochimaru-sama, and then be killed by that snake because he was bored or something.) He pulled off the spy act better than she could ever hope to be (She had a nudging feeling that if he weren't on this particular career path, he would've done so well in infotainment, this gossipy fellow). He had this aura on him that screamed normality and averageness. He made sure to never stand out in front of any crowd. No showing off in skills, no chuunin promotions (but he always participated in the exams. Just, you know, never actually passed), no crime history, nothing.

It made him often underestimated and looked down on. When there were crime acts near where he was, shinobis often deemed that he was considered not worth the time investigating on because of his low rank and dismal skills (at least on papers). Furthermore, his excellent chakra control made it very easy for him to suppress a large portion of his reserves; his technique was so advanced that most sensors weren't able to detect his presence when he didn't want them to; for example, when he was gathering crucial intelligence.

But when they did detect him, they always ended up mysteriously dead.

Sakura herself was quite a sensor, as Kabuto told her once, and had become super familiar with his chakra signature, courtesy to the joyful hours they spent together, but even she couldn't sense him if he didn't want her to.

The approval grunting noise made by Kabuto as he resealed the scroll brought her back to reality. He slipped the scroll to his weapon pouch, and clipped the pouch securely.

"Very well, keep meditating every morning. Your reserves still aren't where I want them to be. Practice some katas too. God knows your taijutsu could always get some improvement." He said, taking a jibe at her admittedly poor skill in hand-to-hand combat. She never did like taijutsu-practice. Running was fine, because endurance and speed was needed if she had to escape capture one day. But other than that, no.

"Okay, is that all?" She replied. She was always anxious to get out when they did one of these meetings. Even when she told herself that she had triple checked to make sure that no one was following her, even though she had already taken the long route to get here just to make sure, even though she had made a perfectly reasonable reason to her (fake) parents about where she would be going, even though she had no reason whatsoever to be investigated by Anbu. She still had this feeling on the back of her head that someone –she wasn't sure who, but someone –knew that she was a spy.

And god was this feeling annoying as hell.

Kabuto closed his eyes, definitely tried to sense for any suspicious chakra besides the both of them nearby. He snapped his eyes open, and then widened with amazement for a split second. But after that his eyes were back to normal, which made her wonder, what could possibly shock him that much, or maybe if that was that just part of her imagination.

She was about to ask him when he nodded once; a sign that it was okay for her to get out of that shack.

Any curiosity she had in her head was pummeled by her need to get the fuck out of there. Which some might say made her bad spy (because, you know, thirst for information and all that jazz) but she didn't really care at that moment.

She quickly turned on her heels and made her way to the door. Her right hand had been brushing the door knob when Kabuto tossed her something. Her quick reflex reacted, and she caught the thing –a scroll, after she examined closer –with her left hand.

"I almost forgot. A present from Orochimaru-sama, for passing the graduation exams. Congratulations, Sakura. You're a genin now, a full-fledged ninja. Make this wonderful village proud." He said with a mock smile, his sarcasm impossible to miss.

She rolled her eyes at his comment, put the scroll into her pouch, before muttering a "See you later." at the boy.

And then she opened the door, and felt the cold night air enveloping her.

When Sakura arrived home, she silently creeped to her (fake) parents' bedroom and found them to be soundly asleep. Wasn't unusual though, considering it was already past eleven. She quickly made her way up to her own bedroom, locked the door, and sat on the bed. She contemplated on what happened during their meeting. She still hadn't opened the scroll that Kabuto tossed her on her way out.

She had gotten used on receiving gifts from Orochimaru-sama. He always gave her something on her birthday, and every time she begin another year in the academy

The gifts were always in a scroll; sealing scrolls, to be exact, marked by a symbol of a lone slithering snake. They carried different things though, but these things were always for practical reasons. (She never got frilly dresses or tiaras or magical unicorns like typical growing adolescent girls. She remembered sometimes she couldn't help but feel slightly jealous when Ami or Ino showed off their new, stylish, pink dress or something. She knew she outgrew those thoughts now, all 'mature' at the age of 12. But still…) On her birthdays she usually got battle-dresses, or different sets of weaponry. When she begun another year in the academy, she was given textbooks about genjutsu and medicine.

She debated with herself if she should open the scroll tonight. She glanced at the snake symbol once more, brushing her thumb across it. Opening scrolls from the the Snake Sannin had always been kind of nerve-wrecking for some reason. She steeled her will, and did the hand sign that Kabuto had told her long ago to unseal the scroll. The black markings that previously were imprinted all over the scroll receded onto a small tag. She plucked the tag open, and the scroll unsealed with a puff of smoke.

It was an Otokagure headband.

Her hands ran over the black leather, brushed over the steel plate which was marked by a solitary musical note. At the back of the headband attached a hand-written memo:

Cogratulations, Sakura-chan, for being a true genin.

Are you ready to come home?

At first she wanted to burn the whole thing –both the memo and the headband.

But she figured that if Kabuto knew what she did, not only would she get punished, but it might fuck up the bizarre plan Orochimaru-sama might have in store for her. He won't give her stuff just because he felt like it. They always had a purpose, a function, a part of a bigger scheme that she was consequently a part of.

Plus, burning things inside her room would surely attract all kinds of unwanted attention.

So instead, she jumped outside, tore the note into small tiny pieces and let them dissolve in the river. And then she dug a hole near her house, tossed the headband in, and buried it with dirt.

On her way up to her room, she mulled over the content of the note. Orochimaru-sama had never openly discussed any long term plans with her. The only things he gave her are assignments and missions to complete.

But the thing was, she didn't know what Orochimaru-sama meant –she didn't have any home. Her home vanished a long, long, time ago.

She arrived in the academy early the next morning, earlier than usual. Her (fake) mom thought that she was having jitters from anticipating her new team. Her (fake) dad said that he was very proud of her for the twelve thousandth time on her way out. Their usual classroom was deserted except for Hinata –which Sakura found to always arrive first every single day, so it was no surprise when she saw her already sitting –and two other nameless kids. She recalled in her mind that the other two kids were sons of merchants. Minimally talented, which meant that they were nobody important enough to report on. She did a lazy wave to Hinata, which the heiress timidly responded, and dutifully ignored the other two. They always ignored her anyways, so she ignored the back. She sat on her usual seat, designated on the second row. Hinata was on the second to last row. She never did understand why the Hyuga heiress never sat in front. She obviously had first pick, and if Sakura always arrived that early, she would definitely sit on the front.

But she wasn't one to judge. Maybe Hinata deliberately arrived that early, precisely so that she could have first pick and sit on the back. Sakura didn't know the Hyuga very well –even though they were technically on a first name basis, at least on her part –but she did recall from her sources that a lot of academy teachers and clansmen felt that Hinata's timidity got in the way of her achieving her fullest potential.

And Sakura couldn't help but agree, it was a shame that someone with such a strong bloodline ended up being so shy.

More students came rushing into the class, and after some time chatter began to buzz in the room. Someone was laughing in the back, paper balls were thrown across the room. She spotted Ino. Her platinum blonde swaying as she was cheerfully making a way to Sakura. Thankfully, she was stopped by a crowd of girls who distracted her by some menial talk about a new brand of nail polish ("It's on sale, Ino. 50% off." "Oh my God!")

Sakura could say that she was quite close with Ino, at least compared to her other classmates. Under command, a few months ago, she had deliberately made herself likeable in a way that would guarantee to catch the interest of the Yamanaka. Sakura paid more attention to her physical appearance –and not necessarily in the muscle department –became slightly more vocal in her reaction towards everything, and started to express interest towards flower arranging. (It did take quite a toll on her taijutsu training regimen. But Sakura had never liked taijutsu training anyway, so it was all good.)

And then, 6 days after she began her change, Ino initiated a conversation with her on lunch break.

And the two had gotten along better than she expected.

Despite being vain and sometimes shallow, Ino did not just blab her clan's secret to Sakura like she originally expected her to. She was clever enough not to tell on the Yamanaka's treasure to a new friend with pink hair. But on the days that came after that, Ino did give her scoops about the politics of the village, even though it was given in a messy 11-year-old-like manner. Although Ino was proven not to give a damn about the clan politics of Konoha, her father seemed to be hell-bent on making sure that her only daughter was kept up with all the news. Which meant that Sakura also was kept up with all the clan gossip around the village; and clan gossip was always a welcome on her book.

Their friendship weren't special or any kind. It wasn't an intense rivalry or anything. They had never trained together because Ino was afraid her nails would break and her platinum blonde hair would be an intangible mess, on which Sakura was grateful for. Mostly, it was just her asking Ino stuff that common 11-year-olds shouldn't be asking, and Ino asking her to listen while she went on a rant about everything she has in mind. (Sakura won't lie and say that often times she wasn't amused by the blonde's antics) In the end, even though it was hard –harder than usual, at least –she managed to steal a basic scroll of Mind Transfer justu on a sleepover that Ino declared was due. She noticed that the scroll itself was never used, since they passed on that technique in a parent-to-child way, verbally. She also gathered enough information about the state of the Yamanaka clan, and the state of Ino individually. She collected information about Ino's test scores, mental and physical assessments, list of Justus she was able to perform well, aspirations, likes and dislikes, allergies, medical condition, relationship with teachers, families, and fellow classmates.

Just the usual stuff.

She never knew what all of these information were for. She just did what she was told. She hung out with the people she was told to hang out with, befriended people who she was told to spy on. And then promptly broke the connection off in a subtle way, so that they won't even wonder what happened. They'd just accept it, and move on.

Of course, in order for the relationship to come to that peaceful end, the relationship itself must not be so tight.

Theoretically, she should've broken her connection with Ino by now, just like she did with all the other people she spied on just to get intel.

But one crucial information she knew about Ino, she was persistent. And stubborn as a motherfucking rock.

Which made it even harder to shake her off.

So she stopped trying, and calmly said to assure herself that Ino would get bored with her and find a new friend. But Ino didn't, and she kept on pestering the pink haired girl onto menial activities like shopping and scouting on Uchiha Sasuke.

Which, after she has gathered the intel needed, she started declining every time by using some shitty excuse.

"I'm so sorry, Ino, but I need to go home early, my mom is sick."

"Not today, Ino, daddy wanted me to help him fix the roof."

"Maybe next time? I didn't sleep last night because I was studying for today's test. Gotta catch some sleep now."

It did take a toll on their friendship, just not as big as Sakura wanted it to be.

Ino was about to continue making a beeline towards Sakura's seat when Iruka-sensei entered the class, carrying a piece of scroll in his right hand. His signature ponytail still securely tight. Mizuki-sensei was noticeably absent. Iruka-sensei huffed, his expression worn out. The chuunin cleared his throat to catch the attention of the class as they settle down on their seats, anxious anticipating energy radiating off the whole room.

"First of all, I'd like to congratulate you all again for passing the graduation exam." Iruka-sensei began with a firm smile.

The class erupted into loud cheers and high-fives.

"Now settle down, I'm going to announce the team placements. After your name is called I want you to-"

Her homeroom sensei was interrupted by the sound of the door being banged open.

And Naruto Uzumaki entered the room.

She, like everyone else, stared at him, hard. And she, like everyone else, was thinking the same thing. What the hell was he doing here? She was sure that she didn't see him leave the examination room with a headband. In fact, she saw him sat alone on the swing under the big tree of the Academy. His expression was devastated; like he lost something and he could never get it back. She wanted to go there and put her arms around him and mutter encouraging words.

But she didn't. Her job came first before all her wants.

And her job description unfortunately did not include hugging sad estranged boys.

"Ah, Naruto, so glad you could finally join us. Go take a seat. I was about to announce the team placements."

He didn't say anything, he just grinned his usual aloof grin. But something was different on this one, this one felt brighter, like he was surer with himself. Sakura thought she went blind for a moment there, like she just stared at the sun.

Iruka-sensei smiled back, although his was much softer compared to Naruto's. But it was only for a split second and then he started reading the teams. The blonde walked in with confident strides, before settling on an empty seat in front of her.

Sakura was anxious. The members of the team that she was going to be in would definitely affect her job. If she got teammates like, say, the two talentless kids she met this morning, it would definitely help keeping her profile low. But that would make it harder for her to get her hands on some dirt worth reporting.

"Team Four…" Iruka-sensei's voice could be heard throughout the class.

But if she got a member the few major clans in her team, (there was a ground-breaking seven genins who came from one of the few major Konoha clans in her class. Lucky her.), she could get crucial information easily, especially about the drama between the clans. But scrutiny will definitely increase.

"Team Seven, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki, under Jonin Kakashi Hatake."

Naruto's hand immediately shot up, "Hey, how come I'm paired with a chicken-haired bastard? So unfair, Iruka-sensei! And who's this Sakura girl anyway?" Sakura glanced to where Sasuke was sitting. He muttered, "Useless idiot" with a little sneer, before his face turned impassive. All in all, not exactly the ideal enthusiastic reaction.

But to say that Sakura was excited would be an understatement. She was paired up with two of Konoha's most controversial genins –definitely lots of gossips for Kabuto there. Not to mention that she was going to be taught under the Kakashi Hatake.

She heard a lot of rumors revolving the Jonin. Mostly bad, some are downright horrible. But no doubt all of them spoke of him with a certain amount of respect. He was definitely a capable ninja. It was both thrilling and terrifying to be under the tutelage of such strong figure. Thrilling, because the Jonin would undoubtedly be a good influence for boosting her skills as a ninja. Kakashi Hatake was known to have copied at least one hundred techniques with his (rumored to be stolen) Sharingan. Surely he could at least teach her a thing or two.

And then it came to the terrifying part. She was mostly terrified because one, she was a fucking spy. One wrong move in front of him and bam, her head would be chopped. Two, by being the student of such a famed figure would definitely bring way more unwanted attention, which was bad because see point number one. And three, he was fiercely loyal to the village, and the village was fiercely loyal to him. He was one of the most trusted shinobi the Sandaime had. She remembered a couple of years ago, when she first started learning medical ninjutsu, Kabuto had made some remarks about how the Hatake had made his job harder.

That kinda spooked her a little bit.

Kabuto, the supreme, the great, the ultimate spy, thought that Kakashi Hatake was a hindrance to his job.

She had seen how Kabuto worked. And to say that she was amazed by how talented he was at this job did not even cover half of what she felt. Kabuto was good, damn good. And if this masked guy actually prevented a spy on Kabuto's caliber from doing their job, what would happen to her?

She wasn't a bad spy, by any means. (She was literally born for this job, after all.) And in twelve years of her being one, she had never been caught. That for sure made her better than some people out there. But still, the idea that a person with this high of a reputation will be her teacher scared her shitless. Of course, none of these fears would have mattered she didn't pass the next test –the one that was given by the Jonin-senseis to freshly graduated, aspiring genins.

And she had learned, when she was conversing with a drunk Jonin last year while gathering intelligence about Asuma Sarutobi, that no student of Kakashi Hatake had ever passed his test.

Sakura and the other two genins had been waiting for exactly one hundred and twenty five minutes. That was one hundred and fifteen minutes longer than the amount of time that they actually had to wait. The academy chair she had been sitting on for the last one hundred and twenty five minutes creaked as she shifted her weight.

Have she mentioned that they had been waiting for one hundred and twenty five minutes? Well even if she did, she had to mention it again.

They had been waiting for one hundred and twenty six minutes now.

This sucked. Waiting sucked.

On the first thirty minutes or so of their wait, Naruto tried to initiate some form of conversation between the three of them, keywords being tried to. Sakura had no interest of talking to the blond at that moment, so she merely nodded and forced a smile whenever he said something, hoping he'd get her point which was I don't wanna talk right now please go away. Unfortunately he didn't get the memo, and kept on babbling his dreams and ambitions of becoming the Hokage for the seven hundredth time. That, and how new flavors of ramen were long overdue. Unlike Sakura though, the Uchiha heir didn't even bother to listen. He just said how stupid the blond was and moved to the other side of the room.

Unfortunately, Naruto took that personally as a blatant sign of major disrespect and threw out some colorful profanities at the Uchiha. Sasuke pretended he didn't listen and kept his gaze outside to the academy playground.

To be ignored, apparently, was another no-no in Naruto's books. So he showed Sasuke what he really thought by sticking out his tongue like a toad.

"Right, real mature." The raven remarked, rolling his eyes.

"Well, the same thing can't be said to you!" Naruto exclaimed, loudly. His finger pointed at Sasuke

"Sarcasm just seems to fly over your head now, doesn't it?" Sasuke remarked, his tone somehow got even more disinterested.

Sakura glanced at Sasuke, then back at Naruto, then back at Sasuke, and the she resolved to just slam her head to the table, and tried to feign sleep.

"Gah! Whatever. You two are so boring, why can't I get stuck with in a team with Ino-chan? I bet the both of us would be a perfect match! Our team would be so much better if Ino-chan was –"

Sakura stopped listening by then, and finally fell into a blissful slumber.

She woke up because of the sound of something falling, hitting a head. She lifted her head to see her supposed sensei, standing by the door with a chalkboard eraser resting on top of his head, and a blank expression on his face. His eyes scanned to rest on Sasuke, and then Sakura, before resting a second longer on Naruto.

"My first impression of you three is, I hate you all." He said with a smile. "Meet me on the roof in a minute." And then he poofed out of existence.

Sakura and her teammates glanced at each other, before Naruto spoke out what each of them had in mind, "What the heck was that!?"

"So, tell us a bit about you. Your likes, your dislikes, your ambitions, whatever you think we should know."

All three of them looked at him with expecting stares. When he failed to elaborate, Naruto opened his mouth. "How about you go first, sensei?"

"Well, my name had already been said by your Academy Sensei, so I see no point in repeating it. I don't like many things, and I'm no hater. My ambitions aren't something that I like share about." He smiled. Sakura thought he smiled a bit too much, not as much as Naruto though.

"Ah, now that we've got that out of the way, who wants to go first?"

Naruto, that spotlight whore, of course stood up first.

"Yeah, my name is Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki. Unlike you, I actually like a lot of things. I like ramen, gardening, and ninja …stuff. I hate getting ignored and bastards with poles so deep up their asses that they couldn't help but be a prick to everybody," the blond gestured his head towards Sasuke, "and I'm going to be the most respected Hokage ever. Believe it!" He finished with a fist-pump.

If there was one thing she knew about Naruto, he was always passionate. In everything he said.

There was a glint of something in Kakashi-sensei's eyes after Naruto finished his speech. But it was gone after when she blinked. She wondered if it was even there in the first place.

"Hm, very nice. Now you go, pinkie." The Jonin said dismissively.

She stood up, her hands brushing her pants to clean the dust from her dress. As she lifted her head to talk, she was met by expectants stares not only from her sensei, but also from her two teammates. She wasn't too surprised if they were curious with her. She had never flaunted herself and her skills in the academy, and she was never one to attract attention. There were no real benefits from doing so, so she simply didn't do it. This, of course, made the boys know minimal information about her. Good.

"Okay, uh, my name is Sakura Haruno. I like flowers and the smell of fresh mowed grass. I hate bugs, especially spiders. And I dream to be a renowned Jonin someday." She finished with a confident nod.

Simple, average, unmemorable. Just like how Kabuto taught her. Kakashi did a lazy smile, and quickly moved on to the last member of the team.

"And finally you, broody, go."

Sasuke's eyes went dark, as in darker than it already was. He made his hands cross in front of his mouth and his shoulder hunched a little. His face did a nasty scowl to perfect the whole I'm trying to look cool and mysterious demeanor.

"Hn, I'm Sasuke Uchiha. I don't have any likings, and I hate stupid people. As for my ambitions… I want to kill a certain someone, someday."

….okay talk about dark.

Kakashi nodded. Maybe he could read minds and agree with her.

"Now, I want you all to be in training ground seven at seven sharp, tomorrow. Don't be late."

"Awesome, are we training already?" Naruto said (or yelled. With him she could never tell the difference).

"Well, not necessarily. But I'll explain everything to you tomorrow. It'll be a fun survival exercise for the four of us. I suggest you guys to not eat breakfast, you'll just puke it out tomorrow. See ya."

And with that, he puffed out.

She glanced to take a look at the boys' expression. Naruto certainly looked pumped. While Sasuke merely shrugged, and then began to calmly walked to the stairs, leaving her and Naruto behind.

Naruto, who seemed to forget all about the incidents in the classroom earlier, ran after him while yelling out some stuff she wouldn't bother to care about.

Because she too, was excited about tomorrow.

She wouldn't lose to the boys.

She couldn't.

SO, this is my take at juggling Friendship, Action, and a bit of Humor, if you squint.

Yeah I like Sakura, and this fic will focus on the awesome internal drama she'll face as a spy of a village she had grown to love, and the people she had interacted consequently. AND ALSO, STRONG TEAM SEVEN! TEAM SEVEN BONDING! LOVE THAT SHIT.

I HOPE YOU GUYS ARE AS EXCITED AS I AM FOR THIS RIDE.

This is un-betaed, so if anyone is interested on becoming my beta, and if you guys detect any grammatical or spelling mistakes, just let me know. Through the review or PM, both ways are fine.

AND ALSO, leave a review so I'll know what works, and what sucks.

See ya.