Disclaimer: I don't own the Naruto franchise.

Kakashi called it accelerated agility training. Sakura called it target practice. Tsunade-shishou had her own version, back when Sakura had first started her apprenticeship, designed to increase Sakura's stamina in addition of her agility.

Shishou liked to throw giant boulders at her. Kakashi threw blades.

(Sakura still couldn't decide which version she preferred.)

Naruto and Sasuke sat off by the training ground posts, taking their break from extreme tree-climbing, and watched as Sakura ran for her life from Kakashi's gleefully tossed kunai. In between gasping unattractively for air and dodging extremely prejudicially targeted kunai, Sakura gave her boys beseeching expressions, wordlessly begging for some distraction. Sasuke smirked and ignored her, but Naruto eventually caved after Sakura's third set of puppy eyes and a particularly loud shriek from five consecutive blades aimed at her eyes and heart.

"Ne, ne, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto piped, waving his arms vigorously for extra emphasis. Kakashi spared him a slide of the eye, bored, while flicking another three kunai at a bent-over Sakura with particular relish. Sakura choked down on the instinct to curse him for his apparent goat mother, and dived into a somersault, nicking the bared skin of her calves by the slightest graze of one of the kunai. "Sakura-chan should get a break too! You can't just bully her like this, sensei! It's unfair and mean!"

"Good idea, Naruto," Kakashi said facetiously, curving his eye into that familiar sadistic twist of his. Sasuke blanched beside the blonde, catching on, and smacked Naruto for his troubles in resignation. "Why don't you and Sasuke come and join Sakura-chan on the field? Can't leave your teammate behind by herself, right?"

Naruto gaped a little, spluttering, and Sakura shook her head from her crouched position by some of the larger stones dotting the grounds. She made a few hand signals, and Kakashi swapped his raised kunai for Icha Icha immediately, the orange-covered erotica almost appearing out of nowhere, walking off to the trees for shade. Sakura coughed a bit, the day's activities and the swirl of dust hell on her lungs, and pulled herself up from her defensive position and made her way back to her boys. Sasuke eyed her speculatively, and Sakura raised out her hand immediately to catch the lukewarm water bottle tossed at her face.

"Aw, Sasuke-kun, you do care," Sakura teased, lips curving in thanks, and Sasuke grunted, turning his head away in a slight flush. Naruto pouted at the exclusion.

"Hey, I care too, Sakura-chan! I stuck up for you!" he complained, squinting his eyes in petulance. Sakura snickered and took a playful swipe at him, ruffling his blonde spikes, before seating herself in the small space between him and Sasuke's sprawled positions.

"Thank you for being a gentleman and saving me from Kakashi-sensei's sadistic torture," she said dutifully, eyes sparkling in good humor. Naruto hummed in satisfaction, scratching the stylistic whiskers on his cheeks. Sakura winked and took a long drink from her bottle, washing the taste of dust and remaining adrenaline coating her tongue away.

"This is a five-minute break, children," called out Kakashi from his slouched seat against the trunk of a particularly shady maple, absentmindedly flipping a page over in his book. "We'll be doing spars after."

Sakura made a face at him. "At least let us eat lunch first, slave-driver!" she called back, shaking a gloved fist. Naruto nodded besides her, yelling his own insults at their teacher, and Sasuke pulled on a scowl in solidarity. Mutual frustration at their wayward teacher had always been one of the best unifying denominators in Team Seven's relationship. Sakura hid a smile with a twist of her head; it was nice to see this sort of camaraderie again.

Kakashi heaved a sigh, as if capitulating were a difficult and arduous task on himself, and Sakura grinned, swallowing another gulp of water before sweetening the deal. She looped an arm around the shoulders of a startled Sasuke, fast enough to dodge his defensive arm twist and punch, and waved an arm in the air to catch Kakashi's attention.

"Sasuke will even let us eat dinner at his place tonight if you give us our lunch break now, sensei," Sakura said mischievously, ignoring the affronted growl from the dark-haired boy, twinkling eyes set on Kakashi's slouched, quivering shoulders. She waggled her pink brows at him, sharing in the absurdity of their situation: two battle-worn time-travelers sitting in peacetime with their old genin team, joking around with the child-versions of shinobi who would grow up locked in a never-ending battle. "I'll cook, spare you guys the diuretic genius that Naruto's been meaning to share with the rest of us."

Naruto crossed his arms, scrunching his face in childish disgruntlement. "Hey, mizu-yokan ramen with goat cheese, natto and kimchi is delicious! At least it's better than your saury and grilled tongue mix, Sakura-chan," he pouted, not noticing the greenish blanch snaking over Sasuke's expression.

Kakashi called back, calm and disinterest in his tone, "How appetizing, Sakura-chan. I think I'll have to pass on your gracious offer." Sakura snickered again, pinching Sasuke on the soft underarm skin when he tried to throw her arm off.

"I'll keep the gastronomic experimentation for another time, Kakashi. Just tomatoes and eggs, miso and eggplant, and I think maybe a nice freshwater fish if we find anything nice in the market today. And some ginger pork shogayaki for Naruto," Sakura assured him, smirking victoriously when both Sasuke and Kakashi subtly perked up at the mention of their favorite foods. Naruto was the only mulish one, muttering to himself about ramen, and Sakura reached over with her free hand to pull on a spike of hair. "Ramen another time, Naruto. You know all that sodium isn't good for your body." She turned back to Kakashi expectantly. "Twenty-minute lunch break?"

Kakashi sighed with exaggerated care, curving his visible eye and allowing himself a small smile under the mask. "You drive a hard bargain, Sakura-chan."

Sakura returned it, her own eyes wrinkling in humor, and held out a victory sign, reminiscent of Gai and Lee's posing, from her seat on the ground. She got up, letting go of a relieved Sasuke, and picked her way to the posts where their packs were gathered for the day, pulling out four large wrapped bento and disposable chopsticks from her pack. Naruto's eyes lit up at the sight, and Sakura grinned at him, handing over the double-layered bento, the furoshiki childishly decorated with toad caricatures, and a pair of chopsticks.

"You're the best, Sakura-chan!" Naruto crowed, eagerly taking his lunch from her and unwrapping the furoshiki holding the bento. She ruffled his hair and handed another bento to Sasuke, who blinked, expression incredulous and suspicious.

"What is this?" he asked, wary and hands clenched in his lap, ignoring the bento in front of his face to eye at Sakura. "I don't need your lunch; I didn't ask for this."

Sakura rolled her eyes, and set the bento down in front of him, regardless, chopsticks tucked into the knot of the navy blue furoshiki, and pointed an imperious finger at him. "I'm not letting an adolescent boy dictate his own nutritional needs; I've seen your diet. You don't eat balanced enough for someone who's supposed to be grooming himself to becoming an outstanding ninja, and don't tell me you can take care of yourself. I'm your teammate, Sasuke, and that means you're gonna listen to me and let me fuss over you because that's what teammates do."

Sasuke scowled, surly and hackles risen, but Naruto got there first, speaking through a mouthful of rice and egg. "Yeah, bastard, we're a team, and teammates should care about each other. Anyway, Sakura-chan's a really good cook when she's not making icky vegetables and fish; if you don't eat it, I will," he said loftily, cheeks bulging with masticated food.

Sakura held back the urge to squeeze Naruto in a hug, chest warm because her words were making a difference, her actions no longer just the self-pitying thoughts she had had back in the war. Still, she wrenched herself back to reality, nodding at the bento in front of Sasuke with a firm gaze, matching Sasuke's annoyance with her own. "I put in your favorites," she added with a challenging brow, and walked away with the last word.

Kakashi was almost beside himself with silent laughter at this point, shoulders shaking and fingers squeezing his well-worn copy of Icha Icha Paradise. Sakura rolled her eyes at him and kicked at his foot lightly, passing over a bento wrapped with a light gray furoshiki with cartoon dogs and chopsticks. He took them without protest, but she could tell he was surprised, his eye trained on her as she sat down beside him, unwrapping her own bento.

"You're making waves, Sakura-chan," he said lightly, head tilted as he gazed at her. "Should I start calling you okaa-san, too?"

Sakura jabbed her chopsticks in the direction of his face, uncaring of the rudeness, while she chewed on her own portion of egg and pork fritters. Swallowing, she scowled at him. "Don't you even think about going there, Hatake. I am nobody's mother."

"You made us lunch with our favorite foods," Kakashi deadpanned, looking pointed at her and then his opened bento of salt-broiled saury and rice. "I'm honored you consider me one of your lost ducklings too."

"Well, if you don't want it," Sakura started, reaching out to take Kakashi's bento, and Kakashi quickly snatched it away from her reach, eye curving with feigned pleasantness.

"Itadakimasu, kaa-chan," he said, weathering the painful jab of Sakura's elbow in his ribcage with humor.

The heat today was slowly inching into unbearable temperatures, with the addition of sticky humidity, and Sakura wished fervently that there were a working fan at the Mission Assignment Desk. Instead, she discreetly wiped her brow with back of her hand, patting it gently against the sweaty skin, while Sarutobi Hiruzen sat imperiously in layers of fabric. God, she felt sweaty and suffocated just looking at Sandaime, dressed in his formal robes and cloaked with the matching white hat.

A quick glance at her teammates saw similar expressions of pity and heat-suffering; only Kakashi looked cool as a cucumber, calmly reading his erotica in front of the Hokage. Sakura shook her head; if this had been Tsunade, Kakashi would've already been tossed back into the plaster wall for even fingering the book in her presence. Kakashi took advantage of Sandaime's laidback approach too much.

Or, maybe he's just trying to enjoy this like the old times. Trying to soak up their last moments with the Hokage. She scowled at the sudden thought, mentally batting it away. There was no way she was letting anything happening anywhere close to the Chunin Exams. Not on her watch.

Sandaime cleared his throat, blowing out a stream of smoke from his ever-present pipe, and gave their team a kind grandfatherly look before addressing Kakashi genially. "How is it going, Kakashi-kun? What do you think of your team so far?"

Kakashi hummed and gave Sarutobi a fake smile, disingenuous eye curve above the black mesh of his mask. "Oh, you know. They're coming along, Hokage-sama."

"Ah. Very forthcoming of you, Kakashi-kun."

Sandaime looked amused, which was more than could be said for Sakura's facial expression. If she weren't the one furthest in line from Kakashi, she'd be squishing his open toes into the ground with her heel for his lackadaisical attitude. Still, she cleared her throat and gave Kakashi a death glare before smiling sweetly up at their Sandaime and the five chunin on duty for mission assignments.

"What Kakashi-sensei means to say, Hokage-sama, is that we're slowly improving, building on our teamwork and strengthening as a group through sensei's…helpful and thorough tutelage," Sakura said, eyeteeth bared. Sasuke snorted beside her and Naruto looked bemused, and Sakura aimed a swift kick at Sasuke's shin to silence the boy. She heard a satisfying grunt of pain and felt the razor sharp glare of his retribution, but ignored it in favor of keeping up her smile at the Sandaime. "In fact, I think we're ready for something harder, all due respect, Hokage-sama."

It took Naruto a moment to process before he jumped in place, fierce enthusiasm flooding his face and tone. "That's right, that's right, oyaji! We're sick of these D-ranks! Stop torturing us with that demon fuzzball Tora or building fences or picking weeds! We can totally handle something harder!"

"Maa, I thought we could still do another D-rank, perhaps groceries—"

"No!" The three of them shouted in unison, staring at their teacher in various expressions of horror and mutiny.

"Ah, but I've only been torturing—I mean, teaching—you kids for a month. I feel like you guys aren't ready for anything bigger yet," Kakashi said benignly, most certainly slipping in that mistake on purpose, just to see the eye twitch in his cute charges' faces.

"A month and a half, and we've been doing nothing but training every day we're not pulling weeds," Sasuke countered, brows thunderously furrowed and lips curled in a sneer.

"Yeah! We've been doing your stupid tree walking and water walking for weeks now," Naruto complained, throwing out his index finger accusatorily. "We're more than ready to take on a C-rank mission!"

"I'm surprised you even know what a C-rank is, dobe," Sasuke sniped, and Sakura gave him a sound slap to the back of his head with a disciplinary hand.

"Play nice, Sasuke," she warned. He scowled but subsided, reluctantly raising a hand to rub at the sore spot on his head. Sakura stopped holding back her punches as she gained more and more muscle, and quickly the boys learned, despite her diminutive stature, not the underestimate her disciplinarian warnings.

Naruto snickered and stuck his tongue out at Sasuke in childish satisfaction but shrunk back when Sakura gave him an assessing eye. A gravelly chuckle from the desk broke the three from their internal argument, and Sakura jumped back in line, face pink at being caught for her unprofessionalism. She'd wanted to make a good impression on Sarutobi, having missed the chance the first time around, but it seemed that it was just not meant to be for her when she was around her boys.

Sandaime sat back in his cushioned chair and puffed on his pipe for a moment before nodding, waving at the chunin on his right to pass over a file. He flipped it over perfunctorily, eyes skimming the pages, before flipping it shut and handing it over to Kakashi, who'd stepped up diligently, erotica out of sight.

"Since your team has made their request and argued quite vigorously for their case, I will assign Team Seven a C-rank courier mission." He passed over two scrolls to Kakashi and leveled a stern stare at the team. "You'll be delivering this scroll to a client in Wind Country. Details will be in the blue scroll."

Naruto pumped his fist in the air, crowing. "All right! We got a C-rank! Oyaji, you're the best!" But before he could start dancing around, Kakashi slammed a hand on his back and forced him into a bow, folding himself over languidly as well. Sakura and Sasuke followed, Sakura incredibly amused and mortified at the same time.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said gravely when he raised himself back up, Naruto grimacing and rubbing his back. Sandaime chuckled again and waved them along, and Team Seven unceremoniously shuffled out of the stuffy room.

Outside in the hallway, Kakashi gave his team a lookover and nodded. Sakura grinned now, once away from the discomfort of being in the same room as their dead Hokage, and gestured for the mission scroll. Kakashi gave her a bemused eyebrow, but humored her, passing it over after he took a look.

"So, so, so? What's it say?" asked Naruto eagerly, near bouncing on the balls of his feet. Sakura quickly skimmed over the scroll and nodded to herself, handing it back to Kakashi.

"It says we're gonna need to pack for Wind Country weather," she said smartly, grabbing a hold of Naruto's arm and dragging him away. Over her shoulder, she called back to the other two of their team. "Meet at the gates in an hour? Sasuke, remember to bring sunblock and a brimmed hat for the sun."

They stopped by Sakura's house first, Naruto confused but dragged willingly. Sakura palmed her house key and unlocked the door, certain only her mother would be in the house at this time. Pointing for Naruto to slip off his sandals, Sakura shucked off her own and padded over to the kitchen, where her mother was, starting the beginnings of lunch.

"Kaa-san? Tadaima," Sakura said gently, by the doorframe of the kitchen entrance. Her mother looked up from the cutting board, knife stilled, and greeted her.

"Okaeri, Sakura-chan. Did your teacher let you out early?"

"No, not exactly. Um, I'll be going away for a while on a mission. I'm going upstairs to pack; we'll be leaving today," said Sakura, resisting the urge to tug at her hair in nervousness. Despite the talk she and her mother had recently, her mother still wasn't the most supportive of her career, and the thought of her being away for a week would probably come as an unpleasant surprise to her mother.

There was a silent pause, her mother clearly working for something to say, but in the end, she only sighed and nodded. "Will you need to pack anything special? Do you need me to help?"

Sakura shook her head just as her mother asked, preemptively holding her hands up. "No, I can do it. But, do you mind packing lunches for four? I'm pretty sure none of my teammates will have eaten, and I'd like us to not be complaining of hunger an hour from now."

Her mother managed a weak chuckle and waved her off. "I'll pack your teammates some rice balls, then."

"Thanks, kaa-chan. You're the best," Sakura said, running up to kiss her mother on the cheek and then heading back out to the stairs. Naruto hovered awkwardly, still standing by the entrance door of the house, and Sakura waved at him impatiently to follow her up the stairs.

"Um, Sakura-chan," Naruto hedged, fingers running nervously up the staircase railing, "won't your parents be upset that I'm here. You know I'm not very well-liked, right?"

Sakura stopped in her steps and whirled around in a growl, grabbing onto Naruto's shoulders, expression protective. Naruto blinked back at her, startled.

"No one—not even my parents—is allowed to say anything unkind to you, Naruto. I won't let them, you hear me?" she asserted, enunciating her words so that he would hear them clearly. "I'm not standing for any of the village's bigotry and if anyone even tries, you tell me, and I will kick their asses to the Valley of the End."

"But—"

"No buts. We're going to be late if we don't hurry up and start packing," Sakura interrupted, starting up the stairs again, this time grabbing Naruto's hand and dragging him up with her. "I'll be quick here, and then we can stop by your place for your clothes and weapons."

"Okay," said Naruto, complying but bewildered, and a bit touched, and Sakura squeezed his hand gently before leading him to her room.

Once inside, she directed the blonde jinchuuriki to make himself comfortable on her bed, and proceeded to drag out her standard-issue canvas pack and began stuffing her essentials inside. In went three extra sets of clothes, a roll of underwear and a bundle of sports bras, a thick blanket for when it got cold at night in Wind, extra tarp, and camping gear. She made sure to check her first-aid kit to assure herself of its updated stock before tossing it in with the rest of her gear, and dug through her weapons drawers. She pulled out three storage scrolls, already filled, and two extra empty scrolls, which she tossed at Naruto.

"These are for you," she said shortly, before dumping her set into her pack. She then plucked out a container of sunblock and pulled out a wide-brimmed hat. She cut off Naruto's questions, dumping more stuff into his lap and made for the door. "I'm getting us water bottles; I'll be right back."

Downstairs, she filled up three canisters with water and stopped by the kitchen to check on her mother. On the kitchen table were four neatly wrapped bento, each in a different colored furoshiki to separate them. She smiled and hugged her mother, who was seated at the table, making her own plate of rice balls, and stole two for her and Naruto to eat. She scooped up the bento, juggling them precariously, ignoring her mother's exasperated advice to come back down to pick them up, and ran up the stairs, using a bit of chakra to keep the bento and water bottles from falling out of her hands.

Once inside, she handed Naruto a rice ball, shoving the other in her mouth gracelessly, and plopped herself down with the bottles and bento. Sticking an arm into one of the bottom drawers of a dresser, she plucked out another empty scroll and set it down, grabbing for the ink and brush haphazardly sitting on her desk.

"What are you gonna do, Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto curiously through a mouthful of rice and umeboshi. Sakura chewed through her own mouthful and swallowed before answering.

"Gonna seal our lunches and some extra water into a scroll so I don't have to carry more weight in my pack," she said loftily, picking off grains of rice from the corners of her mouth and sticking them in her mouth with a free hand.

"That's so cool! Can you teach me that trick?" Naruto praised, excited. Sakura laughed and jabbed her inked brush in his direction with a wink.

"This is super simple stuff, believe me. By the time I'm done with you, you'll be swimming in fuinjutsu texts. Now hush; if I mess this up, I might end up creating a dimensional-space opening scroll."

Naruto watched in silent awe as Sakura quickly inked in her seals, deftly curving her brush to elongate strokes and draw in characters; she was secure enough in herself to admit she was putting on a bit of a show just for Naruto's sake, adding a bit of extra flourish where she would usually just economically use her strokes to ink out everything in a few seconds. When she was done, she placed the brush back down, propping it against her inkbottle and blew down gently to dry the ink quicker. Once she was sure the ink had set in enough and wouldn't smudge, she stacked the bento and placed the water bottles on top of the designated area, and laid her hands on either side of the scroll, and delicately channeled chakra, activating her new storage seal.

After a moment, she palmed her forehead, muttering to herself about her idiocy, and withdrew another two storage scrolls, and wrangled out her clothes and blanket and camp gear and sealed those as well. Happy now with the freed-up space in her pack, she cheerfully tossed them in, and grabbed for another roll of razor wire and a handful of explosive tags before picking up her pack and ushering Naruto out of the room.

At Naruto's place, Sakura made Naruto meticulously go through all his equipment while she packed his clothes away into the scrolls she gave him, slipping in a bedroll and a painfully familiar Gama-chan sitting on the edge of his mattress. Naruto would probably combust from the embarrassment and maybe Sasuke would taunt him a little, but it made Sakura nostalgic to see his favorite plush doll again, whole and still a comfort to the boy.

She gave Naruto instructions to not go too overboard with his weapons and picked her way to the kitchen, giving the sink a perfunctory look and steeling herself for the fridge. She scowled at the contents, pulling out a half-molding bowl of soup and yet another carton of milk, dangerously close to expiring, and tossed out the rest of the food contents that wouldn't live to see Naruto come back in a week. Then, she gave Mr. Ukki a particularly long watering to make up for the coming neglect.

When she was done, she came back to the living room to examine Naruto's choices, and after removing an overzealous amount of kunai and a particularly large tanto that she had no idea where he'd managed to obtain, she gave her okay and took both their packs and herded Naruto out of the apartment.

They got to the meeting point at the gates a few minutes late, but only Sasuke stood there, under the shade of one of the trees, his own pack next to him, looking incredibly sullen and bored. He gave the two of them a look and snorted.

"You're late," he said, annoyed and a little smug at being the first one there, and Sakura rolled her eyes, reaching out to flick him on the nose.

"Don't complain. I brought us lunch," she said, exasperated, setting down Naruto's pack to dig through her own for the scroll holding their lunches. Sasuke watched, interest poorly disguised as she unsealed their meals, and passed over a blue furoshiki-wrapped bento to him and a yellow one to Naruto. Sealing back up the water bottles, she stuffed the scroll back into her pack and hefted up the pink and gray bento.

"Itadakimasu," Naruto said cheerfully, clapping his hands, before digging into his lunch, Sasuke nodding his thanks to Sakura before more tamely saying his own thanks and opening his lunch. She smiled at them both and ruffled both their heads, relishing the grunts and cries of dismay.

"I'll be back, boys. You got maybe an hour to eat and relax, maybe thirty minutes more if I don't manage to get Kakashi-sensei up and moving," she said with a wave, and left in a shunshin, swirling leaves in her wake.

Kakashi didn't move from his standing position in front of the Cenotaph, but Sakura quieted her steps anyway, walking up until she was a few meters away from him. She wondered for a moment, considering her words, and then spoke, a little hesitant.

"I used to come here a lot. After you, um, passed." She swallowed, sudden lump in her throat even though Kakashi stood before her, healthy and alive, blood pumping through his veins as strong as the Will of Fire in his soul.

He didn't reply, shoulders tight, and Sakura thought to leave, ready to set down his lunch on the ground, and then his voice filtered into the air, creaky and rough.

"It used to be a comforting thing, coming here," he said slowly, reluctant. Sakura stayed, caught off-balance by his sudden admission. "And then, when I woke up, back in my twenty-three-year-old body, I kept coming here, expecting to see my name on that grave stone, for some sort of proof that I was actually dead."

Sakura blinked, unsure of what to say. Kakashi made the decision for her, turning around, face in its usual fake smile, and Sakura frowned back.

"Kakashi." Her voice was steady, and she gazed at him, intent, promise in her tone. "We're going to talk about this soon. You can't push this off forever."

"Hm, is that your medical opinion, doctor?" Kakashi asked lightly, eye curved up pleasantly, and Sakura scowled, walking up and pushing the gray bento into his hands.

"Shut up. You know I'm right. As your medical examiner and as your friend." She hesitated, hands still holding the bento, and then looked up, cursing the height difference. "For what it's worth, Kakashi. I'm glad that I don't have to see your name on the gravestone. I'm—I'm glad you're still alive and with us." She swallowed back the tears suddenly threatening to fill her eyes. "It was hard enough, visiting the first time around."

Kakashi's hands settled warmly over Sakura's own for a moment, his expression somber and sincere. "Thank you, Sakura-chan. I know I haven't been the best teacher to you, back when you really needed it the most. Thank you for mourning me."

Sakura barked out a weak laugh, quickly wiping over her eyes with the back of her hand, and then punched Kakashi in the chest, which he allowed. "Shut up. Don't get all mushy on me, sensei. Of course I would mourn you." She sniffed and shook herself briskly, and grabbed onto his arm. "Now, let's go eat lunch and leave before the boys have your head for making them wait over another two hours before leaving."

Kakashi pouted, but let her drag him, easily stepping into place next to her. "But that would ruin the fun, Sakura-chan."

"You're a grown man, Kakashi. Find your jollies elsewhere."

Their timeline seemed to accelerate a little, although to Sakura's knowledge, Wave wouldn't come for another two months, at least. Still, with her intervening and Naruto's predictable thirst to prove himself, they managed to land themselves on a C-rank mission well in advance of the original timeline. It wasn't a major concern to Sakura, content to know that they would be at least more prepared for Wave this time (even if she had to finagle the situations to land them the same mission again), but it was still a bit disconcerting because she wasn't prepared for it.

Team Seven headed out around late noon, the heavy sun beating down on their backs. Sakura was glad for the momentary shade from the forestry customary to Fire Country because there would be very little vegetation once they crossed borders. Kakashi led their group, deciding to set a fairly good pace, leaping through the trees for leverage. She followed behind, amused as Naruto and Sasuke finally put their hard-earned chakra control to the test, flanking her on either side. It wouldn't be long before they outstripped her, their reserves much larger than Sakura's, but for now, Sakura contented herself with being in the lead of her boys.

Naruto stumbled and yelped, his footing slipping on a particularly weak branch, and Sakura turned back, ready to grab for him, but Sasuke got there first, using the trunks of nearby trees to zigzag his way down, catching Naruto by the leg and sealing himself sideways to a large tree trunk for traction. Sakura hid a smile, but signaled over to Kakashi to stop for a bit to let the boys catch up.

"Good going, Sasuke-kun," she called out, eyes twinkling. "You've really gotten the hang of tree walking, huh?"

Sasuke smirked and shook his captive a little, dangling Naruto above the ground like a rag doll, much to Naruto's displeasure. "Better than the loser here," he agreed, taunting.

Naruto squawked, waving his arms furiously, uncaring of his precarious position. "Why don't you come over here and say that to my face, bastard! I'll beat you into the ground!"

"You might wanna challenge him when you're not dangling in his hand, Naruto," Sakura said wryly, giggling a little. She gave Sasuke a look and jerked her head towards the ground. "Put him down, Sasuke. And if you drop him on his head, I'll drop you over a cliff."

Sasuke sneered, but complied. Sakura's empty threats weren't so much as empty as promises these days. Once he set Naruto down, Sasuke quickly leaped back to higher ground, avoiding the right hook Naruto aimed at him.

"Now, now, Naruto, is that any way to treat your savior?" admonished Kakashi in a dry tone, a few branches above Sakura's tree. He eyed Sasuke's smug expression and gave an eye smile. "No matter how much he deserves it."

Sakura laughed, propping her hands on her hips. "Sensei, you're just as childish as the rest of them. Come on, guys, we got at least another three hours to go before we reach a village to stay out in. If we go at this pace, we should be able to reach the border in a little over two days, which is good since we would usually take about four days just walking."

"Hai, hai, taichou," said Kakashi, a mock salute gracing his forehead. Sakura stuck her tongue out at him, indulging in her own immaturity, but at least she had the excuse of being twelve again. Kakashi was still twenty-six in this timeline.

"Why don't the boys scout ahead, sensei? Give them a chance to get used to the terrain since it's probably the first time either of them left the village," Sakura suggested, assessing her teammates. Sasuke glared sharply at her, and even Naruto gave her a weird look.

"What about you, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, frowning. "Did you leave Konoha before?"

"More importantly, when did you become team leader?" Sasuke spat, hackles raised. "I don't remember any of us nominating you." Sakura bit her lip, remembering who she was again, just twelve-year-old Sakura without the credence of being the Hokage's apprentice or a damn good medic in her own right just yet.

"Hey, Sakura-chan's a good leader!" Naruto defended. He blinked and added hesitantly, "Even though we never chose or anything, I don't mind Sakura-chan being in charge of us. She knows what she's doing."

Sasuke sneered, folding his arms, and Sakura felt her own hackles rise a little. She kicked them back down, not ready to give up control just yet. "Oh, of course Sakura-chan would be a good leader in your eyes, dobe. You're just biased because you're in love with her!"

Naruto turned maroon, eyes wide. "No, I'm not!" He dared a look at Sakura, forcing himself to hold her gaze. "I'm not, I swear," he said a second time, as if trying to convince her. Like he had something to lose if she didn't believe him. Sakura felt her heart crack a bit.

They were still just children. Time and time again, she was confronted with the fact that the boys she was teammates with were not her boys, and were still just rough sketches of the men she knew they would grow into being. They were so similar and so different, and not for the first time, Sakura questioned the dying 'gift' Naruto had forced on her.

But, that was neither here nor there. She drew herself up to her full height, ignoring that she was still quite tiny at this age, and gave Sasuke a steely-eyed look. Kakashi only watched, offering a steady but non-intervening presence, content to let the kids sort out the squabble by themselves. Really great hands-on teaching; Sakura made a note to chew him out on it later.

"I'm sorry that I made you feel undermined, Sasuke, but I'm not trying to take over any leader position in this team. I offered a suggestion because I thought it would be good practice for you guys since I know you want to ascend to higher ranks faster, and this was a good way for you to experience more skills." Sasuke scowled and opened his mouth again, but Sakura held out a hand, narrowing her eyes.

"But regardless of your feelings, this is not the time to be airing out your grievances. We're on a mission, Sasuke, and that means we can't afford to let any feelings get in the way of the objective. We waste time like this, standing around to argue over things that can be easily resolved at another time, and we put ourselves at risk for enemy attacks because we're not vigilant enough," Sakura lectured, grim and voice growing in volume as she settled into chewing out her teammate.

Kakashi clapped a hand on her shoulder, pulling Sakura out of her speech, and she stepped back, a little sheepish. He looked down at Sasuke sternly and waited a beat for speaking. "Sakura-chan's right. This isn't the right time to bring up petty squabbles. As your commanding officer, I could have you incapacitated for slowing down the mission and possibly court-martialed if you insist on disobeying orders."

Sasuke flushed red, expression spasming and Sakura cursed her soft heart for what she said next.

"I'll go and scout with Sasuke, sensei. You and Naruto can follow behind, give Naruto some one-on-one time with his favorite teacher," she joked, winking at Naruto.

"What—that's not true, Iruka-sensei's my favorite!"

"I'm hurt, Naruto," said Kakashi dryly, but he kept his eyes on Sakura and a slouching Sasuke, barely reining in his temper. "I would say something about how I'm the team leader in this mission, given that I'm both the highest ranked and your teacher, but in this case, Sakura-chan, I do think it would be good for you and Sasuke-kun to air out your differences. Don't go too far ahead though."

Sakura smiled and nodded, jumping down to meet Sasuke by the ground. Sasuke barely spared her a glance, but she gave him a polite smile anyway. "We'll take care of this, Kakashi-sensei." She gave Naruto a mock-stern look. "Don't drive our teacher too crazy, Naruto. We still need him for at least another two months."

Naruto grinned widely, eyes closing with the force of his expression. "Don't worry about it, Sakura-chan! You go and beat up that bastard and show him who's boss."

"Naruto! We're just going to talk things out," Sakura admonished, while Sasuke scoffed beside her. She caught his eye and nodded in the direction they'd been heading. "Race you to the nearest clearing?"

He didn't reply, just took off, making for the overhead branches. She rolled her eyes at his pettiness and shared a look with the rest of her teammates.

"Boys," she sighed, exasperated. Kakashi shrugged, erotica already in grasp, and waved her off.

"Go on, then, Sakura-chan. Make sure to bring Sasuke-kun back with a full set of teeth, at least," he said blandly, but the twinkle in his eye belied his humor. She snorted and waved a quick goodbye at Naruto before heading off after her wayward teammate.

Sasuke was definitely their year's Number One Rookie for a reason. He left no trail of where he'd went, taking care to use the most efficient route that would also hide his tracks, and Sakura marveled at how quickly he'd taken their newest lesson on chakra control and applied it to his footwork.

But, while Sasuke was certainly impressive, Sakura had over a decade's worth of experience on him—even if it wasn't physical anymore. Sasuke's chakra signature flared brightly, ablaze with heavy emotion, and Sakura could only steel herself to deal with the brunt of it. She hopped over a branch and landed into a small clearing, a few kilometers away from where Kakashi and Naruto were. The distance wasn't the most ideal, given how separated they were from the rest of the team, but Sakura could understand, given how emotional Sasuke was.

The boy stood in the middle of the clearing, his pack tossed carelessly to the side, arms out and fists clenched tightly. Sakura approached slowly, checking the surroundings subtly for any other life forms besides themselves until she was satisfied they were alone.

"Sasuke, look—"

"Fight me," Sasuke bit out, interrupting her. Sakura stopped, snapping her mouth shut, taken aback. She really should've expected this, given how competitive he was. But she'd hoped for at least another month before he'd break and challenge her. This was a bad time.

"Look, Sasuke-kun, I'm—"

"You always do that, you know," he said suddenly. Sakura raised an eyebrow at him, a little annoyed at being interrupted now.

"Do what? What am I doing?"

"You switch between 'Sasuke-kun' and 'Sasuke' whenever you change. Like you're playing some other personality when you say 'Sasuke-kun' instead of just my name." He sneered, clenching his fingers in tighter, knuckles leeching of color. "I'm not stupid, Sakura. You're different."

Sakura blew out her breath, mind racing for a way to get out of this. She didn't want a confrontation with him; she still wasn't anywhere near her old fighting standards, and engaging Sasuke in battle right now would end up bloody for both of them. But she also didn't want to tell him the truth because she wasn't stupid either, and the idea of time travel was outlandish even to her. She needed something that would satisfy Sasuke's inopportune curiosity, but also keep from breaking their team apart.

"Sasuke, I—" Instead of finishing her sentence, and irritated now because this was the third time she'd been interrupted, she slammed into Sasuke, ignoring the grunt of surprise, and shunshined out of the clearing just as a wave of kunai sunk into the ground where they'd been standing.

"What the hell—"

"Shut up, dumbass, we're under attack, don't talk," she hissed, viciously cutting Sasuke's question off. He stiffened in her arms, but she kept a tight hold, bounding from tree to tree to get some distance between them and their attackers. "What do you see?"

"…the direction of the kunai came from overhead from two different angles. We have at least two enemy nin," said Sasuke after a moment, mind working. "If it's just two, we can take them, Sakura. Put me down; I can take them down."

She pinched him on the soft skin of his underarm until he hissed, squirming away. "Are you an idiot? Just because you only saw two different directions of kunai doesn't mean there's only two people! And even if there were, you're a goddamn genin. You don't go up against anyone until you've assessed them long enough."

Sasuke scoffed angrily and squirmed even more, causing Sakura to adjust her hold on him. God, was the boy heavy. When they got back to Konoha, Sakura was going to have to approach Gai-sensei for weight training. Her muscle mass just wasn't growing as fast as she'd liked. But while she was lost in her thoughts of her return home, Sasuke pulled a quick slip, sliding out of her hold like a greased pig, dodging her snarled swipe, and headed back for the clearing.

The fucking idiot.

"Sasuke, you goddamn string-bean motherfucker, I'm gonna kill you!" she shouted after him as she reversed her direction and pushed off an oak with particular force, the imprints of her sandals digging into the tree bark, running after her teammate.

She was angry as fuck. But more than at Sasuke's pigheadedness, she was angry at herself for missing the signatures dotting around the clearing because how could she have missed them? They hid incredibly well, even to Sakura's senses, although she had to remind herself that she wasn't twenty-two in this timeline, and her body didn't go through a war-and-a-half; those instincts weren't part of this adolescent body. Nonetheless, the idea of her negligence burned at her, and she shoved on gloves as she ran through the forest, promising death to the ones who dared attack her teammate and her.

Masking her chakra signature, Sakura slowed down her steps and leapt for high ground, choosing to have a bird's-eye-view. Now that she was focused, she could pinpoint exactly where the enemy nin were, two perched in similar positions up above in the trees, and three more scattered in the bushes, waiting for Sasuke's arrival. She cursed fiercely internally, palming out four explosive-tagged kunai, a finger in each end ring, and waited until she could get a clear shot of the signatures on the trees. Once she spotted unfamiliar orange and dark blue hair, she sheathed her kunai in a layer of chakra and flicked her hands, aiming for their carotids.

Immediately after, she jumped down and picked out shuriken from her leg holster and headed for the chakra signature closest by the bushes. The man turned, anticipating her appearance, kunai in hand, and free hand in a half tiger seal, and Sakura attacked, cutting him off from a katon. She flung chakra-coated shuriken at him, aiming for vital arteries, and then swept her body into the fluid motion of a dropkick, blue chakra blazing from her foot. The nin blocked off her shuriken with easy motions of his kunai, but he underestimated the kick, lazily pulling up an arm to block it.

Sakura grinned as his forearm cracked neatly in half and the man flew out of the bushes into the clearing from the force of her kick, chest caved in. But rather than pursue, she slid back into the shadows, masking her chakra once more, and made to move to the remaining nin. Stealth was not her best asset, but she thought it would be better than making an open target of herself.

Of course, Sasuke chose to show up at that point, making himself the open target, eyes ablaze with battle fever and hands clutching kunai. Sakura could slap herself in the face.

Immediately, the remaining two enemy-nin burst out from their hiding spaces, smug and smirking at each other over the measly genin. Sasuke threw his kunai, aimed to incapacitate, and then jumped back, hands blurring in the signs for a katon jutsu.

"Katon: Goukakyu no jutsu!" he shouted, as he gathered air and expelled a giant fireball at the nin.

Sakura smiled to herself and shunshined to the space where one of the nin escaped, though not without third-degree burns marring the left side of his body. He growled at her, moving into a right hook, but Sakura used the momentum to grab his arm and ground her feet against the dirt and swung the nin, flinging him into the ground, cracking the dirt floor. Before he could recover, she aimed a well-placed jab at his neck, snapping it cleanly. Then she made for the other remaining nin, ready to end the skirmish, but the sight of a captured and unconscious Sasuke in the nin's arms stopped her.

"Easy there, little girl," the nin rasped, and Sakura could see Sasuke managed to get a good few moves in, injuring his windpipe enough for the rasp. The enemy nin also held off an arm at a stiff angle, and Sakura could tell Sasuke popped him in the shoulder, possibly dislocating the entire arm. She bared her teeth in fierce pride.

"Put him down, and I'll let you live," she warned, hand moving slowly to the pouch strapped to her back. The nin tutted, and rattled Sasuke's limp body in front of him.

"I don't think so, girly. You're gonna let us leave with this brat, and maybe we won't kill you for attacking our comrades," he threatened, shaking Sasuke again. Sakura narrowed her eyes and spat at the ground, a direct response of how she felt about that.

"I'm gonna bash your skull in," she promised, raising a gloved fist.

The nin smiled.

"Why don't you take a nap?" he said, and Sakura whirled around, instincts flaring up to block the ninja behind her. The ninja, a kunoichi just a head taller than her with dark blue hair, bared bloody teeth at her and threw up her forearm to block Sakura's right cross. It cracked audibly under the burst of chakra from Sakura's fist, but the kunoichi threw out her other hand, undeterred, and Sakura dodged, leaning in with a roundhouse knee. The kunoichi jerked away, Sakura skimming over the side of her abdomen, and threw out senbon that Sakura hadn't noticed her take out.

She flipped back, using her hands on the ground to pivot her body away from the needles, but one grazed the side of her thigh. Sakura hissed and threw herself back onto her feet, drawing out kunai and immediately tossing them at the kunoichi, who blocked them with her own kunai in hand. Sakura took a step, ready to rush into the girl with a flying knee kick, and then the wooziness registered, staggering her.

"Oh, you little—" She managed to hiss before her world turned black, the poison setting in faster than she could burn it away.

AN: What's this? A second update within the month? Say it ain't so!

I got super hyped after posting my last chapter and decided to keep the momentum going, starting immediately on the next chapter. I kept forgetting to say things in my end notes, so I'm gonna try and list everything so it's easier to remember.

1. I'm stretching out the canon timeline so that we don't head immediately into Wave mission territory. It's gonna feel a little slow-going because of that, but in the mean time, have Team Seven learning to bond and going on other missions! Also, I've mentioned this before in the earlier chapters and in the summary, but I'm not following the canon timeline. After a certain point in the manga, I've moved away from source material, and so, while some things may remain consistent with canon, other things aren't going to mesh. Just throwing that out there.

2. I know a lot of people say this, but I seriously suck at writing fight scenes. You can tell with how much I try not to go in detail about particular moves. I'm trying my best, and I do believe in the adage 'practice makes perfect', but in my case, it's gonna be a Lot of Practice before I get anywhere near decent.

3. I've been supplementing my knowledge of Naruto with wiki articles because it's actually been a long time since I've read this series LOL. And so, I keep finding out all these things about Sakura, like her strength level and her abilities that don't coincide with how I've written her here, and I'm just like whoops. I hope you don't take this as an excuse—even though it is—but my idea of Sakura as a genin was of a girl who had mostly mediocre skills in all areas beside the theoretical. Her strength and jutsu beyond Academy-taught material didn't come until she both trained enough with Team Seven and Tsunade, so my approach is to write her development as slow as I see her.

4. I probably don't have the strongest grasp on Sasuke as a character, and you'll probably see from how I've written him in this chapter. It's hard because I'm trying to see him as the twelve-year-old pissbaby that he is but also as the genin who's proven himself as the Number One Rookie of their generation, and I keep failing to reconcile the two. Mostly because he's a giant pissbaby in my eyes, and that bias keeps getting in my way. But I'm also trying to address the changing relationship between him and Sakura because Sasuke's not stupid. He's going to notice these changes and he's definitely the kind of bullheaded who would immediately confront her about it if it meant he was slowing down in his quest for power, teammates be damned.

5. On the other side of the spectrum, I love Naruto, and I have to occasionally rein back my impulses to baby him via Sakura's actions because he's not an infant either. It's definitely gonna take me some time to get the characters down right.

6. I've been reading this super awesome fic on AO3 by aoutrance called 'How Long is Forever?' which actually is another version of a Sakura-centric time travel story, except the author is literally doing all the things I wanted to do in my own story—only better. It's super great, and I'm super hyped about it because they literally chose the same unorthodox timeline-style writing as I originally did—even though I didn't really capitalize on that in this fic BUT I WILL—and it's just so much fun. You guys should definitely give it a read if you get the chance.

7. I wish I could write more per chapter, but I'm seriously one of those 'write-and-post-immediately' people who are super impatient and post when they get down key ideas. I've upped the word count for these last two chapters, but don't expect this to last. I'm definitely going to be capitalizing on the 'ficlets/snippets' warning I left in the summary.

I'm sorry this author's note is almost 1k in itself. Thank you for reading and please leave me your thoughts in the reviews! See you in the next chapter!