note.

No apologies on the timeskip.

Try As Me

Chapter 3

[ Breaking ]

3 years later...

.

The leaves were blown softly over their heads as they stopped in front of majestic wooden gates that were hidden within the old trees of the deep forest. But it all seemed anticlimactic and overly sublime in comparison to what they were currently experiencing as they followed Sakura to someone they held no particular affection for.

"Saku-chan, why are we returning to some place that you left so long ago? There's no point. Don't you like traveling with us?" The blue haired boy teenager muttered, his twin peering over his shoulder behind him to observe her reaction.

"I thought that they said that you were weak?" His brother continued. More bluntly. Saying exactly what the other was curious about.

"To prove them all wrong." She answered. Wiping her unscratched forehead protector against the sleeves of the dark cape she was wearing, with it's oversized hood over her head. Before she handed it over to the guards at the border who wanted to test whether they were 'safe' to send into their village. "You'll understand when you're older. Put the hoods on," She ordered the other who complied unquestionably.

"Tadaima."

.

..

...

..

.

"There is a team that wishes to meet you privately after lunch." Her assistant said in a formal manner. Tsunade raised an eyebrow, questioning. This stuff usually came with prior notice.

"It used your private messenger bird." Shizune explained hesitantly, but shrugging her shoulders as if it explained everything.

"I am getting too old for this kind of excitement," Rubbing her temples, before slowly guiding her hands over her eyes, rubbing them with the cushion of her palm. "Just send them straight in when you see them."

"Hai!" Shizune placed Tonton on the floor before walking out the door to prepare.

.

..

...

..

.

The seven hooded figures sat down at what was one of the most well known places of Konoha after it's rebuilding process. The stand was a modest size. It was enough to fit them all, but they had taken up quite a lot of space.

"Itadakimasu!" Shouted Sakura as she clasped her hands together melodramatically pronouncing each syllable.

"Eat," she told them, as the savory smell of tonkutsu and miso waftly gently from under their noses. The people that were with her followed suite.

"Ah! The was nice!" the female said with a bubbly and happy voice as she starting hopping out of the shop in an cute manner.

"Teme!"

"Dobe"

The people on the streets all turned to the famed owner of the voices, staying closer to the edges to make way for the two.

"Ahhh! You bastard!" Two boys were arguing as they walked down the streets of Konoha towards the ramen stand for the 'best lunch after training' as the blond endearingly named it.

Bystanders who had recognized the girl looked around to try to find her as they saw the remnants of Team 7 sit at the stand, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke had a certain aura to them that cleared the stand making no one else visit the shop while they were there. The only reason the old shopkeeper made enough was because Naruto inhaled ramen. But as they looked left and right, the mass of hooded travellers had somehow disappeared, leaving not even the slight tilt of chairs by the stand. They could only deduce that it had been their imagination.

"Saku-chan! Why'd you do that!" one asked. His black hood flying off.

"I was eating!" the other one complained, green hair seeping through his hood as he yanked at it violently.

Both looked at their twin, studying each other before they swivelled their heads back at Sakura.

"And it hurt!"

Sakura happened to have thrown all of them to one of the wider alleys of Konoha when she heard Sasuke and Naruto. The identical twins just happened to have accidentally been subjected to the attack of ramen broth when that happened. The darkened stain among their robes providing evidence to support their case.

A red head sighed as he began to speak, "Guys, calm down. Sakura must have had a good reason. Right Sakura?" he said as he raised a eyebrow at Sakura, gently placing his hand on her shoulder.

"I. They-" Sakura tried to find the words to say. "They were my original teammates." She paused, hoping to find the right words to describe them.

The person I thought was my best friend? My brother in all but blood?

My first love?

"They're Naruto and Sasuke. I've told you about them before right?" One of the taller hooded figures 'tsk'ed and glared at the direction of the ramen stand.

"Damn, you mean they actually called you all those things? Bastards. Just forget about them. You have us now." Sakura smiled, nodding as she felt him pat her head.

She had already moved on without them. She didn't need those two in her life.

"I can't wait for you guys to meet Tsunade-shishou, she is the nicest person you could ever meet!" The others all knew about her past and her family. They had heard from Sakura that Tsunade was 'really nice'. But knowing Sakura, 'really nice' could be interpreted in a multitude of ways.

They had all wondered what Tsunade could be like. But they all knew one thing for sure.

'She going to have a temper of a bull to have trained Sakura... in such a way... so obediently.'

They didn't know how right they were.

.

..

...

..

.

"Tsunade-sama, the visitors should be here any second." Shizune informed the Godaime.

Tsunade, who was snoring on her pile of paperwork, woke up lazily at that. She now had a print of black on her left cheek; which she was sleeping on. Scrambling around her work as she woke up, and casually drinking sake when she was done, Shizune noticing this had understood that it was her own unique way of saying she was ready.

"Let them in." Tsunade said, annoyed with all her work. To say that she was not in the mood for visitors was an understatement.

"Shishou! You slept on your paperwork again haven't you?" Sakura said as she lifted up the dark hood from her head.

"Who are you to say anyth- Sakura! How, when, what? My baby's finally returned!" Sakura and her friends could only sweat drop comically as Tsunade descended into her own little world.

"Um."

Tsunade cleared her throat.

"Right. Well, Haruno Sakura I see you have returned from your extended training outside of Konoha. But as Godaime I must assign you to a security clearance... hmm... along with... " She shuffled through the papers on her desk before looking up again. "These are?"

"Oh it's Ryuu-kun, Ryou-kun." She gestured towards the grinning boys. "They're twins."

"Kohaku-kun." With red eyes and blazing red hair, Tsunade thought that his name fit him well.

"Seiya-kun." This one gave a polite short dip of his orange head. Tsunade was very glad for their different hair colors at this point.

"Akira-kun." Akira looked the most plain out of the all, black hair and brown eyes. But the way that he stumbled a bit in nervousness as he attempted a 90 degree bow made the Hokage and her secretary decide that they liked him the most out of the group.

"and this is Kaito-kun" Sakura just poking the one who stood possessively over Sakura, glaring at them. Tsunade would have said something first if Sakura hadn't nudged the man a bit with her elbow to prompt a bow.

"How about their surnames?" the Hokage just stated as she rubbed her temples.

"They. Um." Sakura started.

"We are all orphans so Sakura let us use her last name. You can put us down as Harunos." Seiya said. They others of the group didn't seem a bit distracted by this at all. So Tsunade took it as a fact that it was agreed unanimously amongst them.

"Well, you will all have to stay at Sakura's tonight since I still need to give you all security clearance. Unless you receive persmission from one of the other clans to be guests at their abodes, I suggest that you just do as I say." The Hokage instructed.

"Hai shishou. I shall arrange their sleeping arrangements." Sakura said sincerely.

"Well, we'll see you tomorrow at the trails!" Sakura chirped. As the group walked out the door another question was heard.

"Hey, 'well' and 'we'll' put together in one sentence and next to each other sounds funny ne?" Ryou laughed, waiting for his twin to say something witty of funny back at him.

"Shut up idiot." A new voice snapped, he seemed pretty annoyed even with the monotonous way it was spoken. Tsunade rose an eyebrow at how familiar his voice was and how he seemed to speak.

Sakura... What did you get yourself into this time?