Sakura groaned silently as she wiggled into her shorts. She had woken up with most of her muscles aching. She wound her bandages and pouch into place on her thigh, then rolled her shoulders as she straightened. She didn't think she had been slacking off, in her time training alone, but. . .

Her dress zipped on neatly, and Sakura picked up her hairbrush, watching herself in the mirror as she neatened her hair and fluffed her fringe absently. She hadn't even been sparring yesterday, although Kakashi-sensei had kept her working until she was all but ready to beg a break repeatedly.

Every time, though, just when she thought she would have to, even if it disappointed him, even if she fell short of what she should. . . Kakashi-sensei had called a break himself, or ordered her to change to a different, lighter exercise, or run off to get fresh water.

Tying her hitai-ate neatly on her head, Sakura grinned at herself. Perhaps she wasn't so far behind after all. And Kakashi-sensei had told her she did well, had looked like he meant it, his eye warm when it wasn't closed with his hidden smile.

Sakura trotted downstairs to make up her bento for lunch and have a light breakfast before she headed off to meet her sensei at training ground thirteen, feeling purposeful and capable and . . . hopeful.

She felt a surge of warmth towards her old sensei, not forgotten her after all, and now, it seemed, determined to train her into a proper ninja. Just the way she had hoped to be when she was a very little girl. Sakura hummed to herself and headed off on her way, breaking into an easy run a block away from her house.

Sakura hadn't brought her new book back with her this morning - it was lying safe on her nightstand, where she had put it after reading perhaps more of it than she should have last night at bedtime. Instead, she thought she would go through that new kata Kakashi-sensei had taught her yesterday while she waited for him. She was determined to prove that his praise had been right, that she was clever and she remembered everything important.

. . .that he should keep teaching her, as much and as fast as ever he could, and she would rise to it just as he asked.

Sakura ducked her head and barely slowed to hop over the fence - she realised that she didn't even know where or if there was a gate or break in it - and continued up into the training ground proper on her own this time.

"Sakura-chan."

Sakura jumped, eyes widening, as she wheeled about and saw-

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura yelped as Kakashi-sensei straightened from a graceful arch that looked like it extended too far to not be painful, looking at her with his hidden smile.

Was she late? She couldn't be late! She'd looked at the time when she got up and as she was busy in the kitchen and she wouldn't have taken so long to get here even walking, and she'd run most of the way, and-

"I've been waiting for you." Kakashi-sensei said, and Sakura heard herself make a small sound of alarm and confusion. "Come along." He tilted his head, and Sakura shook herself and ran to join him as he turned and began to walk up the hill deeper into the training ground. He rested a hand on her shoulder and Sakura sighed, relaxing a little.

"Sorry I'm- late, sensei?" Sakura said, tone uncertain despite herself.

"You aren't." Kakashi-sensei assured her, and Sakura hummed, confused. She looked up at him. Kakashi-sensei said nothing more on the topic, however, merely guided her back to the same field they had been working in the day before, then nudged her gently away and told her to get to her warm-up stretches.

"How much of your new book did you read after I sent you home?" Kakashi-sensei asked as he sank to the grass, stretching in a manner that looked almost lazy despite the extreme bow of his body. Sakura eyed him and knew it was physically possible but . . . wondered.

"Ah!" Sakura bit her lip, twisting to loosen a muscle at her waist. "A . . . few . . . chapters?" she said, glancing sideways at Kakashi-sensei.

Kakashi-sensei laughed, a soft, warm tone that made her relax again, moving easily through the warmup routine she had been using for several years. "Very good. How far, exactly?" he questioned, and before she had time to answer him- "No, not like that," Kakashi-sensei said, one hand landing on her forearm and the other splaying over her shoulder blade, "you'll tighten yourself up over here," he tapped her ribs on the opposite side, "this is better."

Sakura relaxed and let her sensei guide her movements, and pushed a bit when she hit a stiff point, and it was uncomfortable, but she could feel the easier breaths she was taking in the pose. "Thank you, sensei." Sakura said, tilting her head to smile at him as he stepped back. She continued to push in the direction he had nudged her into until she felt the strain outweigh the release in her muscles, then eased off.

"I, ah, stopped in- in chapter three." Sakura said, glancing at Kakashi-sensei and pausing before she bent into another stretch, closing her eyes and taking a breath.

"Uzu no Kuni." Kakashi-sensei said softly, and Sakura's breath caught. She'd been surprised to see it, knowing so much of Uzushiogakure had been lost. Kakashi-sensei rested a hand on her spine. "Further, but arch, here," he rubbed over her back with two fingers, "not like that. It will strain the vertebrae less. What did you think of the differences thus far?"

It took Sakura a moment to realise that he was asking about her book, and not the stretches he was guiding her through altering. "Ah! The, well, the jutsu are so . . . similar? But the styles. . ."

"Konohagakure is the largest and oldest of the hidden villages," Kakashi-sensei told her, nodding approvingly as she settled on the grass and stretched out her legs, almost mirroring her, "and," he paused, his eye dark and for once not heavy-lidded, though he wasn't looking at her, "we were the home of the Uchiha Clan for . . . a long time."

Sakura stilled for a moment, toes curling and muscles tensing unhappily. ". . .ah."

"Many clans came to join Konohagakure, and from further than any later village can boast." Kakashi-sensei's voice was low and steady. Sakura listened, and kept her eyes on his hands rather than his face, solid but bony and thin, and, Sakura knew - thinking of battles in which Kakashi-sensei had fought hard to protect . . . all three of them, then - incredibly fast. He was always fast when he shaped jutsu, no matter how simple they were. "It gave our village a broader range of styles, and affinities, though of course katon has always been most common."

"Hi no Kuni." Sakura said, nodding understanding.

"Precisely." Kakashi-sensei nodded, folding his legs and arching backwards. "The Uchiha with their Sharingan . . . brought back new jutsu for their clan, and once they signed the accords with Konohagakure, to share with their comrades, their students."

Sakura swallowed and tried not to think of dark, dark eyes, narrow and sharp and closed off. Broken, she had begun to think quietly over the past weeks.

Kakashi-sensei rose again in a neat, twisting motion and Sakura followed suit with slightly less grace. He caught her by the shoulder as she began to move again, and showed her a new stretch she had never used before. Sakura was a bit wobbly as she began, but she trusted her sensei's hands to keep her steady until she had the trick of it.

She looked up at his masked chin, all she could see of his face as she bent. "As- As you do, Kakashi-sensei?" she asked tentatively. "The jutsu?"

Kakashi-sensei made a grumbling sort of noise in his throat, and Sakura blinked. "I do. At times . . . when there are those worth sharing, and those who wish to learn them. Many ninja, Sakura-chan, sort out their personal styles and do not wish to vary them once they have settled into the framework."

Sakura frowned as she straightened again, and braced her hands on her hips. "That's foolish. Doesn't it weaken you, not to consider diversifying? Adding new things? To change your style and widen your base as you hone your abilities can only make you more effective, can't it? Harder to figure out? To counter? How can it be considered-" she broke off, blushing, and bowed her head, as she heard herself. "Sorry, I-"

A light touch brushed her hair. "Don't be sorry." Kakashi-sensei laughed. "Clever. It is. It is also difficult, constantly re-evaluating your own style and strengths, slotting new things into your abilities, figuring out the best way to work them together."

". . .it's what you do. Not just the Sharingan, it's. . ." Sakura hesitated, running through her mind battles both serious and silly, the spars she had seen Kakashi-sensei participate in with his contemporaries and the way he had faced off against them, singly or grouped together, when they had been a team, and. . . "Improvisation. Is your. . ."

"Being unpredictable can keep you alive." Kakashi-sensei said softly, his knuckles brushing her cheek. "The unexpected is hard for your enemies to guard against. As I believe you have found. And used." He gave her an arch look and Sakura blinked, then grinned. She had, hadn't she? It had sometimes been when she was most pressed, and frightened, and thought herself sure to die regardless of what she did . . . but she had fought, and she had kept herself together, putting together new ideas and surprising her opponents.

And she had kept herself alive, even when she didn't win.

Kakashi-sensei smiled at her, his eye creasing, and Sakura hummed happily, nodding.

Kakashi-sensei squeezed her shoulder. "Don't hold back what you think with me." he told her, and Sakura blinked up at him. "You're smart, Sakura-chan, and it's the best tool you have. And," his eye closed again, "it's my duty to hone that as well as everything else."

Sakura nodded slowly. Kakashi-sensei never had been upset with questions, she thought, not that she could really think of a time he had been irritated with them in general. Not-

Not except when the boys had seriously fought one another, or ignored his warnings entirely. Sakura shuddered, but put them both out of her mind resolutely, raising her gaze to Kakashi-sensei's face again. "Yes, sensei."

Kakashi-sensei patted her shoulder, then nudged her away to guide her through an exercise that left her a little achy and breathless. While she was coming down from the exertion, he quizzed her on what she had learned from the book thus far, and as soon as she was steady again, it was back up and being put through accuracy drills. And he was still asking her questions about jutsu, and theory, and affinities and styles and-

Sakura struggled a little to focus, to keep it all straight in her head even as she kept moving - and she was determined not to falter, not in either task.

By the time Kakashi-sensei called a break, Sakura felt a little like her head was spinning, and she hadn't realised how tired her muscles were until she began to tremble. Kakashi-sensei handed her a bottle of water, and she found herself draining it perhaps a little too quickly as she settled cross-legged on the ground.

After a moment she groaned and began to stretch, unfolding her legs and bending forwards over them, knowing that if she didn't she would only regret it. She was a little startled when Kakashi-sensei patted her back, and glanced up at him, but he was already walking away, moving into a complex kata she didn't recognise.

Sakura watched him while she finished her stretches, then flopped down on her back gracelessly.

"Take another ten minutes," Kakashi-sensei said, and Sakura's eyes snapped open to find him standing over her, slouched lazily as though he hadn't just been going through poses Sakura wasn't sure she could ever duplicate, "and then we'll go for a run."

Sakura swallowed a groan and nodded. "Yes, Kakashi-sensei."

He gave her a smile as he sat down nearby. "After that we'll start some practical work with your new jutsu knowledge." he warned her, and Sakura grinned.

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi-sensei was as good as his word - and as demanding as Sakura had anticipated. He kept her working hard with breaks just long enough to catch her breath and ease her muscles between tasks, right up to lunch and a longer break . . . somewhat. As she was resting after eating, Kakashi-sensei not only quizzed her again on everything she knew about jutsu and chakra usage, he branched off into things she had never even considered.

Sakura focused on committing everything to memory, asking questions when Kakashi-sensei paused and applying the new lessons to what she already knew, trying to make deeper sense of it all.

After half an hour's rest he had her up again, and they went for another run. This time Kakashi-sensei kept talking while they were running, and Sakura, struggling to keep up with him while he wasn't even a little out of breath, set yet another marker for how far she had to go.

It wasn't exactly discouraging - Kakashi-sensei was a jounin, and Sakura had learned enough now to know that he was one of the best - but it was exhausting . . . and a little daunting. Sakura swore to herself she'd get there.

Kakashi-sensei definitely seemed to be expecting her to, and Sakura was determined to live up to his expectations and her own dreams.

Her legs were weak by the time she made her way home in the gathering dusk, and she fell asleep before dinner. She smiled and assured her mother she was fine over the meal, helped with the dishes, then went back upstairs to make notes on what she had learned from Kakashi-sensei today, then read another chapter of her new book before she went to sleep.

The day set the tone for the rest of the week. Sakura wasn't so surprised the next morning when Kakashi-sensei was waiting for her - and no matter how early she arrived, he was waiting when she got to training ground thirteen every day.

The first surprise was on the fifth day, when Sakura pulled out her bento for lunch, but before she could open it, Kakashi-sensei plonked another on top of it. Sakura protested - she always brought her own lunch, and Kakashi-sensei knew that - but Kakashi-sensei insisted, and she finally opened it to find it held at least thrice as much food as she had made for herself. While it was piled with vegetables, there was also a solid helping of rice - at least twice or more what she would have served herself - and meat.

Kakashi-sensei waited expectantly and prompted her until she finished all of it, which was far more than she should have eaten, Sakura thought, but. . .

But she had wolfed it all down in about the same time she'd been eating the bento she packed herself, all the same, and almost felt like she could have eaten more. But she wasn't starving, as she had been every afternoon.

"Back to work, Sakura-chan!" Kakashi-sensei instructed, and Sakura climbed to her feet and followed him obediently, as she did every day.

By the end of the week she wasn't quite so shaky when she was running home after training, though she still barely managed to bathe, read another chapter - Kakashi-sensei always quizzed her and worked through it with her the next day - eat dinner, and help out a little at home before she collapsed into bed.

She was happy, though - she was learning, and she knew she was already getting better, and would have even without Kakashi-sensei telling her so . . . but Kakashi-sensei telling her she was learning well made her even more determined to live up to his praise. To earn more of it.

Sakura tucked herself up cosily in her bed and determined to reread some of the earlier chapters in her book before reading on, tonight. Kakashi-sensei had been told to report in to the Hokage tomorrow, and sent her home early this afternoon with orders to sleep late in the morning, so she had a little more time, and for now she could think of no better way to use it.

Announcement: As I have ceased posting my new works here on FFN (there are a range of oneshots with a similar theme to this story I have written recently, among other things that have not been posted to FFN) further updates to this story may not make it to FFN. It will be continued, on AO3, as it has been, either way.