thoughts

"speaking"

Inner Sakura

Iruka brought Naruto into class tied up as punishment for vandalizing the faces of the Hokages. The class groaned when Iruka announced that they would be reviewing the transformation jutsu because of Naruto's actions. "This is all your fault Ino muttered as they all stood in line at the front of the room awaiting their turns, "whatever..." Naruto grumbled as he went to take his turn after Sasuke. He was pretty sure that Shikamaru had also said something about wasting time, but he didn't really care enough to look into it.

At the end of her turn, Sakura having gone first returned to her seat where she continued to write in the little book she carried everywhere with her. She wasn't aware that a pair of curious black eyes were glaring at her; she was too busy with her work. What could she possibly be doing? Sasuke thought to himself, she's always so focused on those books of hers. Studying them and making notes as though her life depends on it.
"Is something the matter Sasuke?" Ino asked her voice bubbly and flirty as she took her seat behind him. She noticed he was glaring and followed his gaze to Sakura, who was still completely oblivious to his presence. "Did Sakura do something to make you angry?" She asked. At the sound of her name Sakura came out of her thoughts and gave them her full attention. Sasuke looked away as though she were unimportant, but Ino just kept glaring at her. "Do you need something Ino?" She asked confused, "No, Sasuke looked mad and you appeared to be the focus of his anger."
I can't imagine why. We've never even spoken to each other before...She sighed inwardly, perhaps my lack of making conversation with him, or not even attempting to show an interest in him like the other girls do has offended him in some way. She continued to reflect on the subject until everyone had completed the review and class resumed.

The next day was the day of the graduation test, and of course Sakura passed without and problems; however the fact that she had passed and was a Genin didn't really mean that much to her. "Sakura, I've made you a snack."
"Thanks mom." She said, "I'm almost finished with this book, and I'll need to go and get another one soon."
"Perhaps you should just try and find someone who can teach you."
"That's not a bad idea, but I want to learn as much as I can by myself first." Sakura said. "we all have our preferences in the way that we learn." Her mother said leaving her alone to do her work. The day after tomorrow was orientation and she would be working with a jounin, "I could learn a lot from someone with so much skill, but will it be in contingency with my current interests?" She asked her empty room.

Ino was just leaving her own home when Sakura came walking down the street on her way to the academy for orientation as well. "Good morning Sakura."
"Good morning Ino..." She replied her thoughts elsewhere as they walked. "Is there something wrong?"
"I think I might have done something to offend Sasuke at some point, but because we've never because we've never even had a conversation before i can't figure out what I did." She sighed, "I really don't want him to hate me..."
"Does this have anything to do with you liking him?"
"No, I just don't like the thought of having an enemy...especially since we may have to go on important missions together at some point in the future." Ino nodded in both understanding and in relief "he's not very social, but he'll more than likely give you a strait answer just to get you to leave him alone."
"I suppose that it's worth a shot?" She mumbled.

"You will be placed in squads of three." Iruka said, "this will match your individual skills in a way that will make the probability of mission of mission success greater." He explained and began announcing the teams. Squad seven will be Uchia Sasuke...Haruna Sakura...Usumaci Naruto."
Naruto wasn't about being on the same team as Sasuke; in fact he started complaining about it as soon as Iruka had finished reading the rest of the teams off of his list. Sakura was worried about being on a team with Sasuke, considering he obviously had some sort of problem with her. She wasn't too worried about working with Naruto since he was a nice guy aside from the bad choices that he very frequently made. Since being around Sasuke is now completely unavoidable...I will have to speak to him. She'd meant to sigh inwardly as well, but she did it out loud and flinched when she noticed Sasuke's already annoyed glare switch over to her. She smiled at him and he went back to glaring at the front of the room.

"Hey Sakura! You want to have lunch with me?" Naruto asked running to catch up with her. Sakura thought a moment and nodded, "I just don't get it..." he groaned as they sat on a bench eating. "Get what?"
"Why all of you girls like Sasuke so much!"
"I do not have any personal feelings for him, but Ino says that she likes him because he's cool, smart, and gifted."
"Well, I'm way better than he is!" Naruto said jumping up, "I'll find him and prove it!" Sakura watched him take off and decided to study some more.

An hour later Sasuke came walking by the bench she was on looking for Naruto. "Umm...can I ask you a question?" She asked nervously, "is it important?" He asked stopping and turning to look at her with the annoyed glare that she was beginning to believe was the only expression he knew how to make. "I'm not really sure if you would think that its important, but it is very important to me."
"What?" He demanded sighing.
"Well, I have noticed you glaring at me with what looks like anger recently." She explained, "I was wondering if I had offended you or something?"
"No, how could you? This would be the first time we've ever spoken to each other." Sakura was both relieved and confused. "Then why are you always glaring at me like I've done something?"

"The way you focus..." Sasuke suddenly said as he, Naruto, and Sakura sat waiting to meet their jounin. "What?" Both she and Naruto asked, "You wanted to know why I'm always glaring at you." Naruto went back to looking outside the door. "You don't like the way that I focus?"
"No, I don't like I can't figure out what you're always so focused on in that book of yours." He said his gaze shifting from her to the little book in her hand. "Do you want to see it?" She asked holding it out to him. As Sasuke took the book from her and opened it up to the first page, Naruto was placing an eraser in the slightly opened the door and stepped back to admire his work. "Naruto! You're going to get into trouble!" She scolded.
"Our new teacher is a high ranking ninja," Sasuke muttered. "he would never fall for something that stupid."
"Sasuke is right, you don't know what this person like..." She said.

The book was filled with medical notes, drawings of herbs that she'd done herself, and very detailed diagrams. "This is a very detailed note book." He said giving it back to her. Just then the door opened, and the eraser fell on the head of the man that would be their new teacher.

After they had made the somewhat appropriate introductions; Kakashi informed them them that they would do a mission first thing the next morning, this mission would be the test to determine if they would really get the chance to be ninja. and they weren't allowed to have breakfast.

A medical journal. Sasuke thought to himself as he walked around the village. Sakura was compiling notes to make her own medical field journal. "That would be something to work on...what she lacks in combat skills can definitely be made up for if she can administer quick treatment to our injuries." He continued to talk to himself, I suppose that Naruto could be of some use too...if he can manage to pull it together when it comes time to fight. But he seriously doubted that it would ever be possible.

Sakura had taken her mother's advice and was at the hospital furiously taking notes on everything that the doctors and nurses were demonstrating for her, "Do you think I have enough to start making my own medicine?"
"I suppose I could show you the proper method today."
I'm not very good at fighting, so I want to prove myself useful to my friends and Kakashi-sama somehow.