Chapter Three: The Evolution of Sakura

It was approximately four o'clock in the morning.

Usually, the twelve-year-old would get up around six or seven so she could get ready to train with her team, but today was a start of something completely different for Sakura. Grunting from exertion, she tried once more. So far, she had made it up three-fourths of the tree, but her chakra usually started to waver near the last one-fourth. She muttered something under her breath and fell to the forest floor, trying to land gracefully.

Sakura sighed and glared angrily at the tree.

WE WILL CONQUER YOU! Shannaro! Inner Sakura growled menacingly.

From the side, Ai smiled. She could still remember the first time she had done this exercise with Kakashi-sensei. She was the one who accomplished it first – thanks to her excellent chakra control – but her chakra reserves were pathetic and she couldn't finish the whole tree like Naruto and Sasuke later did. They surpassed her, again, on that very day.

But Ai had plans for her 'student'. For one, she would train the girl to the verge of death – literally – and build up the basics first. This was only the first day, so she was just seeing how far her younger self could go before the real training began.

From above, Sakura growled again. She had tried to use different ways to make her chakra last longer, but it always ran out near the end. She was getting tired. The pink-haired girl remembered when Ai-sensei had shown her the technique. Her new sensei could make it to the top without breaking a sweat. To even prove her point more, Ai had 'hopped' up the tree with one foot – physically impossibly from Sakura's point of view – and then jumped down, landing gracefully in front of her bewildered pupil.

"Arg." She was slipping again.

-(x)-

When Sakura had appeared at the bridge, she was covered in scratches and bruises everywhere. Her pink hair was in disarray, and she was late. Even later than Kakashi-sensei, who came only two hours after the appointed time (She was two hours and twenty minutes late). Ai-sensei (as Sakura had taken to calling her) had insisted that Sakura do more push-ups and more laps around the training field, even though it was late. When she tried to protest, her teacher had given her a 'look' which thoroughly chilled Sakura's bones.

Naruto stared curiously at her, so did Sasuke – more subtly though – while Kakashi-sensei had only quirked one eyebrow upward in a questioning expression. Sakura smiled sheepishly. At the moment, she had no intention of telling everyone about her special training sessions, she wanted to surprise everyone later when she had achieved real results.

"I fell… down a hill when coming here… because I was in a hurry." Was that even believable? Sakura groaned as she stretched out her arm, ignoring the suspicious looks everyone was giving her. They probably wouldn't believe that she had been training anyways, given how much she hadn't cared about it before.

Sakura stole a glance at Sasuke – who was looking away, seemingly believing in her excuse - though, for some reason, she still couldn't completely forget him. She had told Ai-sensei that she wouldn't fawn over the Uchiha anymore, and she didn't. Sakura promised never to go up and ask him for a date ever again. She wouldn't stare at him continuously during the day either. But still… it wasn't like she could just decide to get over her crush.

She realized it was a crush though, one that would go away with time. So why didn't it go away already? He wasn't that cool. Her heart argued by beating furiously in her chest as she stared. Suddenly, Sakura turned away. She sighed. It wasn't going to be easy surpassing them completely…

But there was no doubt that she could try.

-(x)-

Sakura unlocked the door to the apartment she shared with Sasuke – or Takeshi, as she had been mockingly calling him for a while – and cautiously watched her ex-teammate, who was sitting casually on their couch. He didn't acknowledge her as she went in, and that was absolutely fine with her.

So what if Sasuke was ignoring her existence? Didn't he always do that with her?

There was a rapidly developing void between them – not that they'd ever been close before – and Sakura was still too angry at him to attempt to close it.

-(x)-

Sasuke watched as the white-haired female walked back in. He was a little bit curious to where she had been going in the mornings, but it didn't really matter to him. It was probably some girl thing, he'd figured. "Sakura,"

She viewed him curiously. "Yes, Takeshi-kun?" She then asked in an overly-sweet voice.

He frowned. He was starting to hate that name now. It was even more frustrating because she was still obviously very mad at him. On the last mission that they'd had, a C-ranked escort job, the charges who they were supposed to protect kept hitting on him. Did he mention that one of them was male?

And, oh, how helpful Sakura had been.

Instead to telling Koji, the only son of a wealthy merchant, to buzz off, she dropped little 'hints' that Sasuke might interested.

As if.

He so did not swing that way… (Not that he ever showed any interest in girls before, but still…)

That didn't stop Koji from trying to rub his butt numerous times throughout their journey. Sasuke shook head, trying to focus on bridging the void between him and Sakura. She had proven that her cooperation was needed for things to go smoothly for him.

"Call me Sasuke when we're not in public." He would never actually admit to her that he was getting annoyed with the name.

She smiled in response and left.

Things were obviously not going well with them.

-(x)-

"YES! Bull's-eye!"

"Don't stop moving, grab another round and try to knock off your previous kunai while still hitting the bull's-eye."

"What?!"

"Do it, or do you want to try the 'deflecting softballs' exercise again?"

"Err… I'll get right on it, Ai-sensei."

"That's what I thought."

Sakura sighed and grabbed ten more kunai from her weapons pouch. How on earth was she supposed to knock off all her previously thrown kunai while still hitting the bull's-eye?

One-

Two-

Three-

A variety of thunks filled the air. "Dammit!" The pink-haired genin had developed quite a vocabulary, courtesy of her shishou, among other things. "Only two?" She had hit off six of the previous kunai but only two of them made the bull's-eye.

"That's good enough, Sakura, take a break from target practice, I want to discuss something else with you."

"HAI!"

"While I'm talking to you, give me one-hundred and fifty push-ups."

"Err… okay."

"Sakura, your form had gotten much better than I started teaching you. Your taijutsu is much better than when you started. Your chakra reserves are as large as the average chunin's, and you can utilize weapons much better now."

Sakura smiled faintly to herself; Ai-sensei rarely complimented her.

"Thank y-"

"BUT."

Sighing softly, Sakura quickened her push-ups, waiting for the inevitable criticism. "What is it, Ai-sensei?"

"I think it is time I taught you some ninjutsu and something else I've been saving especially for you."

Stopping instantly, Sakura's mouth fell open. "WHAT?"

"You don't want to?"

"Of course I do!"

The sixteen-year old smiled. "Okay, stop the push-ups and pay attention to what I'm about to show you."

-(x)-

A very large woman clutched her little cat tightly. "OH! Tora-chan, I was SO worried about you." The cat struggled harder, but failed to escape from its owner's grasp.

Off to the side, Naruto smiled triumphantly, 'Take that you stupid cat!'

Sakura giggled softly and secretly pitied to the cat. How terrible it must be to have that woman as an owner.

It was another boring mission, one to capture a runaway cat. Sakura was getting restless; she had almost perfected Ai-sensei's technique. Other than a few simple medical jutsus, the 'technique' was all she had learned in the past couple of days, but she had managed to grasp it quite well in such a short amount of time, even her sensei was impressed.

According to the looks of it, Naruto was getting frustrated with the number of low level missions they were getting assigned.

The hokage sat calmly at his desk, reading off various missions that their team would be allowed to do.

"NO! NO! I WANT A HARDER MISSION!"

Iruka-sensei sighed while Naruto continued to yell loudly.

Finally, the hokage spoke up calmly. "Fine, I'll assign you guys a C-ranked mission."

"REALLY?!"

'Really…? This could be a great opportunity to test out my new skills.'

"This is a body guarding mission. In fact, let me introduce you to him right now." A man holding a sake bottle walked in nonchalantly.

'This is who we're protecting? In the end, it's just another boring mission…'

-(x)-

The team departed the next day. Not one minute into it, Naruto started arguing with their charge.

'I know Ai-sensei told us to be nicer to Naruto, but he really can be annoying.'

'DAMN STRAIGHT! IF HE DOESN'T SHUT UP, I'M GOING TO KICK HIS FACE IN!'

They started to walk out of the gates, passing a puddle of water on their way. Curiously, Sakura eyed it. 'That's…?'

Instead of saying anything, she continued on her way. '… Shinobi must see underneath the underneath, right, Ai-sensei? Tazuna-san didn't tell us all the details of this mission…'

Right…

There!

A shinobi appeared suddenly behind the silver-haired jonin, wrapping a metal chain around Kakashi's body and slicing it apart. Sakura's eyes widened, and then slowly narrowed. 'A jonin couldn't have been defeated that easily… is Kakashi-sensei testing us? Fine. Let's show him what we've got.'

'CHA!'

-(x)-

Back in Konoha:

"Hokage-sama, you called for me?" Sakura (the sixteen-year-old one) bowed respectfully in front of Sarutobi's desk. The old man sat quietly as he smoked.

Exhaling a puff of white smoke, he made a gesture, and the two chunin stationed at his door left quickly. "I am aware that you have been training Haruno Sakura from Team 7, currently under the jonin Kakashi. Is this correct?"

"… Yes, Hokage-sama."

"What are your intentions?"

"I merely wish to instruct her… Sakura-chan is a smart girl," It was awkward to talk about herself like this, the white-haired female observed, "She can make something of herself if she tries. I meant nothing bad by it."

"I see," Sighing, the third hokage leaned forward hesitantly, "I have some questions about the techniques you've been teaching her. These… techniques are very unique to someone I knew… might I inquire as to where you've learned them?"

"I taught them to myself."

"… I see. One more thing, I have a mission for you and your friend, Takeshi-kun."

Sakura frowned.

"What is the mission?"

"This is a regular C-ranked mission. It should be no problem to chunins such as yourselves. This is a simple observation mission. I wish for you to trail after Team 7, the one Haruno Sakura's on, and make sure nothing happens to them on their mission."

"I understand. Where is the mission taking place?"

"The wave country. Gather your friend Takeshi and depart soon, they are already on their way. All the information you need is in the mission scroll. Do not interfere with the mission unless absolutely needed. You may not notify anyone on Team 7 that you are trailing after them. I am sure Kakashi might notice, but he will not bother you."

"I understand, Hokage-sama."

Bowing one more time, Sakura left, gripping the mission scroll tightly in her left hand.

"Now… let's see who you really are, Ai."

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.