I do not own Naruto, it belongs to Kishimoto

"Speech"

Thoughts

/Inner Sakura/

Jutsu

A/N: Rating subject to change

A Roll of the Dice

Kakashi moved at a leisurely pace as he went to meet his little genin for their first training session. He had stayed up all night debating about what to do with his new and possibly only team. He'd been up thinking about it so long that he had actually used the time he made his team wait for him to sleep!

He'd debated between doing the minimal work that was required of him or putting them through the ringer to make them an amazing team simply since they were first to pass his test.

Kakashi had turned things over and over about what he would do with this team.

Naruto and Sasuke's competitiveness could surge each forward to greatness. Sakura would be fine on her own since it wasn't like she was from any clan, most likely destined to be just an average or above average shinobi.

Besides, having them take initiative over their own training wasn't a bad idea. Why should he bother teaching them when he hadn't wanted to in the first place?

But why bother even being their sensei if he wasn't going to put all his efforts into shaping and molding them into strong shinobi? Just because Naruto and Sasuke acted like rivals didn't necessarily mean they would drive each other sometimes that backfired. It would also be shameful to ignore one student simply because they had no special abilities or weren't from a ninja clan. If he wasn't going to put the effort in to teaching them then he might as well hand them over to someone who would.

He'd turned things over and over in his head until one thought popped into his head that pretty much decided things.

What would sensei do about this?

The thought had frozen him before making him think back to his days as a genin under the Yondaime's tutelage. How his sensei had pushed him and his team to their limits, helped them further excel at what they already knew and improved their weaknesses by leaps and bounds. How he had taken the time to teach them all he knew so they could be strong, so they could survive.

While the part of him that was bitter remarked that his efforts had been for naught, the more positive part asserted that he was alive, wasn't he? So his sensei's efforts hadn't all been for nothing.

If anything his sensei's only mistake was one he been considering repeating. That mistake was not doing anything about his and Obito's rivalry or at least making them get to know each other so they had an understanding of one another.

Unfortunately, Kakashi hadn't gotten his chance to fully understand and appreciate Obito for the person and teammate he was until it was too late.

There was no way he would let such a thing happen twice. Not to mention he had no real proof that either of them was like he and Obito had been. Kakashi had only spent two days with them and read their psychological profiles. That was hardly enough information to go off of. Wasn't he always going on about 'looking underneath the underneath.' For all he knew they were totally different.

Either way he had come to the decision to train them to the best of his ability and teach them as much as he could, maybe even getting others to help teach them what he couldn't. Though if he was going to put his efforts into training them up, then he also needed to start stepping up his own training to improve himself. He could admit shamefully that he had become rather complacent in recent years, a dangerous thing for his profession.

If there was one thing Kakashi didn't want, it was more regrets. He would do his best not to have any where his team was concerned.

Sakura held in a sigh as she rested upon one of the highest branches of a tree she was perched in. Since arriving at Team 7's designated training grounds she and her team had been waiting for Kakashi-sensei to show up.

However, this time everyone had preoccupied themselves with training until he showed up, well aware now that he would be coming late.

Sakura had run her laps shortly before arriving and had only rested briefly before practicing tree walking again. Though far from mastering the technique, she had practiced for the last hour and a half and was bored.

Walking back down the tree she walked to the small bag she'd brought with her and pulled out a medical text on the basics. Might as well get started on learning what I can.

Sakura had just started reading when a loud growl of frustration reached her ears. Turing she saw Naruto cursing at his tree about how it had to be trying to stop him from reaching the top. She rolled her eyes and looked to see how Sasuke was doing.

Sasuke was steadily making his way up his tree, reaching almost halfway up only to hurriedly slash it was his kunai before falling back to the ground.

Sakura couldn't help but smile as she watched him once again run up the tree. Though not as polite as she would have liked, Sasuke had swallowed his pride and asked her civilly how tree walking was done along with any tips she had.

Her and inner Sakura had squealed with delight at his change in behavior but made sure to only do so inwardly. Outwardly, Sakura had nodded giving him a small smile and explained things to him in a calm manner. He had accepted it indifferently, but thanked her all the same for the advice.

She was proud of herself for not spazzing out on him or doing something that would make him doubt her as a teammate and kunoichi, especially since she had seemed to gain some of his respect.

While she read and memorized the information in the medical text Sakura idly speculated about what Team 7's first mission would be. It probably wouldn't be as exciting and dangerous as Naruto was talking about. No saving princesses, fighting bandits or rogue ninja. While the academy had prepared them for a career as a ninja, it was really just an introductory course more than anything. Otherwise, they wouldn't have a sensei if they were so prepared.

With no real experience there wasn't much they could do. What did genin ninja do for their first few missions?

Out of nowhere Sakura felt a crisp image, a distant memory appear in her mind's eye. She was about three, in her home, her mother was at the door talking to some people. Mebuki moved aside to let them in revealing what looked like a genin team and their sensei. Sakura asked her what they were doing here as she lead them out to the backyard. Her mother had replied while picking her up that they were there on a mission to weed and water her garden.

The rest of the memory was abruptly stopped as a click went off in Sakura's head, breaking her out of the trance she was in.

Oh. My. God.

/Seriously?!/

Sakura slapped a hand to her forehead in both disgust and annoyance. How the hell could she have forgotten about all those times she'd seen genin come to her home to do some kind of chores for her mother or father. Heck she even remembered seeing them around the village doing such jobs. It was so obvious now!

Sakura groaned. Now she would be doing those missions or rather chores. She hoped their first mission wasn't something really sucky like cleaning the Inuzuka dog kennels or handling garbage, another thing she remembered hearing genin complain about when she was little, though not understanding the reason for it at the time. She had thought they were complaining about extra jobs they had taken.

Sighing Sakura pushed the thought aside and instead focused on the discussion she had with her father before she left for training this morning. He had informed her that when she returned home he would begin teaching her his knowledge and some of his techniques. Sakura couldn't help but be excited about what her father possibly had to teach her. While he wasn't one of the most powerful ninja in the village, he was still a respected chunin, much like Iruka-sensei.

No doubt whatever he had to teach her would be useful for her career.

There was 'whooshing' accompanied by a white cloud of smoke as Kakashi-sensei appeared in the middle of the clearing in front of them.

"Good morning, my cute little genin," greeted Kakashi with a wave.

"Good morning Kakashi-sensei," returned Sakura.

"YOU'RE LATE AGAIN SENSEI!" screamed Naruto as he walked over.

Sasuke simply said, "Hn," as way of a greeting.

Kakashi chuckled while rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah, don't get used to that. Your sensei's just having an off week is all."

Naruto hummed in disagreement while crossing his arms with a frown on his face. Sasuke and Sakura simply had blank looks on their faces, not quite knowing how to respond to such a statement.

Kakashi dropped his hand from head as he noticed the looks on his genins faces. Already their becoming doubtful of the things I say. Though I suppose I didn't make the best of impressions.

"Anyway, today we'll be completing our first mission as a team. Once that's over I'll evaluate you all on your skills individually. This will help me to properly set up an effective training regimen for all of you. Any questions?"

"Yeah I have a question," said Naruto. "Exactly what kind of mission will we be doing? Something super cool right?"

Sakura saw Kakashi give what looked like a grin at Naruto. "No. Not quite anything like that yet, but I guarantee it'll be interesting at the least. The type of first mission you'll definitely remember for years to come," said Kakashi with what sounded like an equal mixture of amusement and glee.

Sakura frowned. She didn't like the way their sensei was looking at them, or at least the way she imagined he was. Part of her was tempted to tell Naruto exactly what it was he had to look forward to as far as missions went for new genin, but another part of her, the mischievous part, wanted to see what would definitely be an amusing reaction.

"What's that supposed to mean!" yelled Naruto angrily.

"You'll see soon enough. Come on. We should get to the mission's office before all the good D-ranks are gone." With that Kakashi took off at a run.

Team 7 hurried to catch up to him.

Fifteen minutes later they reached the mission's office, all of them except for Kakashi slightly winded. Their sensei had run the entire way their while urging them to keep up or else. He hadn't specified exactly what that else was but none them were willing to tempt fate and find out.

After finally catching her breath Sakura looked around the mission's office. She hadn't been here since she was a little girl when her mother would hire ninja for some mission or other. At this moment the room was filled with what seemed like shinobi of all ranks, genin, chunin, and jonin alike.

There were three tables at the front of the room. The center table seemed to be for receiving missions, the one of the right for those returning from their missions and the one on the left was for collecting payment for completed missions.

Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto stood behind Kakashi as he stepped in line for the center table. After a tedious wait in line they finally made it to the front.

"Hello, how can I assist you today?" asked the table clerk.

"Yes, I'm here for my team's first D-rank. I was wondering, is the Tora mission still available?"

The clerk frowned tilting his head to look at Kakashi oddly. The other clerks on side of him briefly paused to look at Team 7, one in concern while the other was in amusement, before turning back to their clients.

Sakura instantly felt nervous at not only their reactions but those of the shinobi around them who had heard Kakashi request the mission. Their expressions were a mix of concern, amusement, sympathy or almost malicious glee. She turned to look at her teammates to see Naruto looking confused and Sasuke looking slightly tense.

The clerk searched through the many scrolls lined up on the table before picking one up. "It's still available. Are you sure you want it?" asked the clerk politely.

"Yes, I'm absolutely sure," said Kakashi happily.

The clerk shrugged and proceeded to hand over the scroll along while having Kakashi sign a form; once done the clerk wished them luck as they left to complete the mission.

Outside the mission's office Kakashi motioned for them all to gather around him.

"Alright, today's mission is a D-rank favorite of mine. One that I'm sure you'll come to appreciate as much as I did when I was a genin. The mission is to capture and return the Daiymo's wife's cat named Tora.."

Two hours later…..

"I freaking HATE that cat!" yelled Naruto as they walked away from the mission's office.

Sakura couldn't help but share Naruto's sentiments. She liked cats, truly she did, but this cat she hated. Tora had to be either demon, ninja in disguise or have been trained by some ninja or other. It's intelligence and ability to outwit and outrun them was scary.

They had spent quite a bit of time just trying to find the cat in the first place. Using headsets they had gotten from Kakashi-sensei they were able to split up while still being able to communicate with one another to better locate Tora.

Naruto first found her in an alleyway with a dozen other cats rifling through the dumpster of a nearby seafood restaurant. When they had all arrived to the location Kakashi-sensei had given then control over how they would go about capturing Tora. His only rules had been they couldn't use lethal force or harm the cat in any way.

After much arguing, mostly between Naruto and Sasuke, they'd decided on a triangle formation to more effectively catch her. For a few seconds after they executed the plan it looked like it would work. It didn't. In fact the whole thing was spectacular failure.

Before they were in arms reach, as if of one mind, all the cats scattered in a mad dash out of the alley. While she and Sasuke had been mostly safe from the fray since they approached from the sides, Naruto wasn't so lucky.

Unfortunately, he had chosen to block the entrance and only exit. The felines hadn't hesitated to attack him to make their escape, using both claw and teeth on every part of him they could reach. Luckily, the material his clothes were made of saved him from the worst of it. Though she did notice he healed from the scratches he'd gotten awfully fast, too fast even for the ointment she let him borrow to put on the cuts. It was something mentally filed away to ask him about later.

After that it had been one big wild chase to trying catch the cat in which it was winning spectacularly. Sakura sincerely doubted there was not one part of the village they hadn't been today trying to complete their mission.

The closest any of them got to actually getting ahold of Tora was Sasuke who managed to grab her by the tail. It was a mistake he paid for with three perfectly symmetrical claw marks down the middle of his face.

She actually had to stop herself from bursting out laughing at not only the marks but the affronted look on his face. Naruto of course had no such compunctions, and Sakura could have sworn that Kakashi was amused too. She had offered him the ointment she had to use but he'd stubbornly refused, his pride no doubt hurt. She was glad the most she had gotten were a couple of scratches on each arm.

However, soon after that happened she came up with a plan that helped them finally capture the infuriating cat. It was a pretty simple and straight forward. The boys lured Tora into a predetermined spot in the woods where she waited in a tree. At the base of the tree was a camouflaged cat carrier in which there was a big piece of Bluefin tuna waiting.

The moment Tora got close to the area the team had stopped chasing her. Once seeing she was no longer being chased she had stopped to catch her breath which was when she no doubt smelled the fish. Sakura had to give it to Tora, she had been super cautious in approaching where the carrier was but in the end either the delicious smell or curiosity got the better of her and she went in.

The moment that Tora took her first step in the carrier Sakura quickly jumped down and before Tora could realize what was happening, pushed her in the carrier and latched it close. As soon as she realized she was trapped she began to hiss furiously and thrash around her 'cage' trying to find an escape.

The rest of her team had then appeared with Naruto cheering that their mission was finally over while simultaneously taunting Tora, Kakashi-sensei giving his congratulations at a job well done and Sasuke simply give a nod of acknowledgment.

Sakura felt elated that her plan had worked though she knew she couldn't take all the credit. Without her team's help the plan would have easily failed.

So with a carrier full of an angry feline they had returned to the mission's office to collect their pay. Since it was the Daimyo wife's cat that they had caught the pay was pretty sizable for a D-rank or so Kakashi-sensei said. Either way she was glad to be done with Tora, a sentiment the whole team shared.

Still she couldn't help feeling a little bad for her when she watched her owner practically squeeze her to death. No wonder she always ran away.

"Okay, now that that's out of the way. Tell me. What did you learn today?" asked Kakashi as they walked from mission's office, his team behind him.

"That cats are evil?" said Naruto.

"Hmm, not quite though you're not wrong. No, I'm asking what you learned from completing this mission and D-rank missions in general. Why did we have a mission like this? What is its purpose?"

"Well the cat belonged to the Daimyo's wife right? So us getting it back for her helps our relations with the Daimyo?" Naruto questioned. "And what do you mean about D-ranks in general? Are all of our missions going be boring like that? Having to catch cats and stuff?"

"Yes, retrieving the cat does help with relations, though not as much as you might think. All new genin must complete a certain amount of D-ranks before they can even attempt higher level missions. As far as the missions being boring…well that depends on what your definition of boring is. And no, very few will involve catching animals. Anything else to add? You still didn't fully answer my questions. How about you Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke scowled but answered nonetheless. "As starting genin we won't be getting any high ranked or dangerous missions. Most of our missions will consist of doing jobs requested by the villagers, basically cheap manual labor," he said with disdain. "However, these missions help portray a more positive image of the ninja within the village to the civilians."

"Very good Sasuke," remarked Kakashi. "Now why did I pick this mission? What did you learn?"

"I suppose it was for us to understand where we are as ninja. Also, to test our ninja skills, how we would go about capturing a target using non-lethal methods. At least that's what I think," he huffed, seemingly irritated he even had to speak.

"Correct again! I have such smart genin. Now it's your turn Sakura-chan. Why do we complete D-ranks besides the image it portrays? Try to think back to the missions your might have seen or heard about new genin completing."

Sakura thought hard for a minute. There were a lot of missions she'd seen genin do. They ranged from weeding gardens, painting houses or fences, covering graffiti, cleaning places, babysitting, even filling in for wait staff at restaurants. Though she didn't really know who any of that helped…...of course!

"Does it have to do with learning to blend in or rather infiltration?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yes it does. A very important reason for D-ranks is to teach young ninja skills they might someday have to utilize under a cover. How can you properly pose as waiter if you've never been one? How to take care of children? Or pretend to be a farmer? The list of things goes on and on.

Yet, instead of having to possibly cram to learn what you need to know or going into a situation blindly with no experience you get to learn it here in the safety of the village while you're still newbies. It's not fool proof and some of the things you learn aren't at all applicable or ever needed but civilian skills are picked up nonetheless. Believe me when I tell you, once you leave the village walls to take on higher ranked mission you'll appreciate the D-rank missions you had, possibly even be begging for them again."

"Pssh, no way! I can't wait to go on cool missions where I beat the crap out of the enemy."

"Well, you'll be waiting quite a while for that to happen, Naruto. Only missions C-rank and above involve leaving the village and the possibility of encountering enemies which doesn't always happen. Anyway, we can discuss this later. Right now I want to test your skills."

"Didn't you already test our skills with the Tora mission?" asked Sakura.

"Partially, but not fully." Kakashi stopped walking as they reached a wall of the village. "Let's see how long it'll take you to run around the perimeter of the village wall back to this spot. I want to see how your endurance and speed hold up under pressure."

Sakura felt a wave of déjà vu come over her. Well he did say he knew Gai-sensei.

"Pressure?" Naruto asked confused.

"Yup," said Kakashi as he reached into his pouch pulling out three kunai. "At the count of three you'll keep running alongside the wall until you reach this spot again. Slow down and you'll pay for it. 1…"

Naruto chuckled nervously while rubbing the back of his head. "You're kidding, right Kakashi-sensei?"

"2…" Sasuke expression changed from stoic to alarmed before he turned getting ready to run. Sakura hurriedly did the same.

"Kakashi-sensei…."

"3!" Kakashi launched a kunai straight at Naruto barely an inch above his head parting his hair. Sakura only paused long enough to see that Naruto was okay before she hightailed it away from their crazy sensei. Sasuke was already ahead, having begun running the moment "3" left Kakashi's mouth. Naruto was soon running with them passing her by easily with a frantic look on his face.

Sakura didn't bother to conserve her energy instead running for all that she was worth since their sensei hadn't said anything about completing laps around the village, just running back to their original starting spot as fast as they could. She intended to do just that. No way was she giving him a reason to throw kunai at her like he did Naruto.

She managed to run fast enough that while she was nowhere as fast or close to Naruto and Sasuke, she could still see them as they ran ahead of her. Part of her was tempted to look back and see if Kakashi-sensei was really behind them but thought better of it. It might slow her down.

Almost twenty minutes later they made it back to their starting point. As they stopped to catch their breath Kakashi stood in front observing them.

"Not bad. Not good either but not the worst I've seen. Come on, your test continues at the training grounds. Make sure you keep up," he ordered as he took off.

They all obediently followed making sure to only keep a short distance between them.

Kakashi stopped at the same training ground they had met in this morning. "Alright, let's see your taijutsu skill. Sasuke and Sakura pair up. Naruto you'll spar with me after they finish."

Sakura nodded getting into position in front of Sasuke. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't nervous. Sasuke was the best at taijutsu in their class, there was no way she could win. Still it was just a spar so Kakashi-sensei could see her skill so she didn't have to win. With this in mind she assumed the stances of the Strong Fist style and put on a determined face. She'd give it all she had!

Sasuke simple gave her a bored if not annoyed look with his hands in his pockets. He even scoffed when he noticed her unfamiliar stance. Sakura couldn't help but be a little pissed off.

/What the hell? I thought he had come to respect us a little. I mean he asked for our help!/

Sakura could only agree with Inner. Just when it looked like he could be less of a jerk, he went and reverted back to his usual self.

"Show me what you've got. When I say stop you stop. Begin!"

Sasuke suddenly charged at her with a punch aimed at her stomach. She managed to dodge out of the way only to have to block a follow up punch headed for her jaw. This was the tone set for most of the fight. Sasuke on the offensive while she was on the defensive. He was much quicker than Naruto and his form wasn't sloppy at all. While she managed to get one or two punches in she took more damage than he did though with her nimbleness, flexibility and reflexes she was able to avoid the worst of his attacks. When she received a well-aimed kick to the sternum that knocked the wind of out of her Kakashi finally called the match to a stop.

"Sasuke your form was very good, you attacks were strong and well-aimed and you were very quick. I'd put your skill level at low chunin." Sasuke gave an arrogant smirk at the praise. "However, you were far too aggressive. Had Sakura been at the same strength and speed you would have lost. Quite a few times you left yourself wide open as you prepared to attack." Sasuke's smirk quickly turned into a scowl.

"Sakura, your form was great along with your defense. However, we need to work on increasing your speed and strength. I'm sure Gai has probably already told you the same." Sakura nodded. "I'd put your skill low genin but that's to be expected since you've just started learning a new style of fighting."

Sakura had expected as much though she couldn't help being a little miffed she wasn't a little stronger.

"Come on Naruto, it's your turn."

Sakura watched as Kakashi-sensei and Naruto sparred as she rubbed ointment on the bruises that littered her arms. Gessh, did Sasuke really have to hit so hard? The fight had barely gone on for more than two minutes when Kakashi called it to an end.

Much as she had expected their sensei remarked on how poor his forms were and that he needed remedial training. Though he complimented him on the level of speed and strength he had.

After that they moved on to showing him what jutsu they knew. He had them each perform the three academy jutsu one at a time before asking them to combine them. It was tough but she completed the task by creating a clone which she substituted with while henging into Kakashi. He gave her a pass on her performance.

Naruto's had been more interesting since he had solid clones. He created four clones, one of which was henged as a kunai that he threw along with the other clones and substituted with midair.

Sasuke created a clone in which both henged into Kakashi and ran to attack him. Kakashi quickly dealt with the clone but the real Sasuke substituted himself with a log before he could get hit. He also performed the Grand Fireball Jutsu which seemed to impress Kakashi.

While he didn't seem thrilled by their performances, he didn't seem totally disappointed either.

"Alright that's all for today. Meet me here again tomorrow, six o'clock sharp. And I mean that, I won't be late tomorrow so you better not be." With an eye smile and a wave he was about to disappear when Sakura suddenly remembered something.

"Hey, wait!"

Kakashi stopped to look at Sakura questioningly.

She nervously played with her hands. "Uh, yeah, so my mom wants to have you guys over for dinner tomorrow, so. It'd be cool if you all could make it."

Kakashi hummed. "That sounds like an excellent idea Sakura. I'll be sure to be there. All of us will." He directed is gaze in Sasuke's direction who simply gave 'hn' in response. Kakshi turned back towards Sakura. "Is that all?"

"Yeah that's it."

"Well I'll see you all tomorrow then." With that he was gone in a puff of smoke.

As with all the other times before, Sasuke was the first to take off before even a word could be exchanged.

"Hey Sakura-chan, you wanna grab dinner?" asked Naruto.

Sakura shook her head with an apologetic smile. "Sorry Naruto. I have to get home to do some training with my dad. But we'll be having dinner together tomorrow, right?"

"Sure! It'll be cool to meet your parents! See you later Sakura-chan!" Naruto waved as he made his way, no doubt to Ichiraku's.

Sakura waved in return before making her way home.

She arrived home to the delicious smell of her mom's cooking. Walking into the kitchen she greeted her mother with a hug.

"What are you cooking today?"

"Tempura udon with curry rice and anpan for desert."

"It smells wonderful. Where's dad at?"

"He went to run some errand or other. Help set the table for me dear?"

Sakura nodded as she got the plates from the cabinet. As she set the table Sakura couldn't help but glance at her mother's stomach. In another month she would start showing, then in five more months she'd birth to a boy or girl, her little brother or sister. She couldn't help but grin at the prospect.

Just as dinner was finished cooking her father showed up, his normally cheery self. After greeting him they all sat down to dinner. She listened as they told her about their day before she recounted hers.

As she suspected they would, they both laughed as she described her and her team's efforts to capture Tora, though they did congratulate her on her first successful mission. They also seemed to approve of the testing Kakashi-sensei had them do before dismissing them. Her mother was definitely glad she remembered to invite her team to dinner tomorrow.

After dinner her father told her to meet him outside in the backyard where they would begin her training with him.

Stepping out into the yard Sakura took a moment to admire how large their yard was and the huge flower garden that occupied it. Her father was seated on the ground with his legs crossed at the area that was set aside for meditation.

It was paved in stones with some of them arranged and decorated to look like the Haruno crest. Set in the middle of the area was a Zen Garden that they all took turns maintaining. Looking at the garden brought back memories of when she used to spend some hours here with her mother and father and they would either garden or meditate together.

This caused a pang of guilt to flare up in her chest. About a year after she'd started the academy she had stopped being interested in meditating even though it had been a great bonding experience with them. Maybe her father was trying to revive that?

She walked over and sat down next time returning the grin that he gave her.

Her father dropped the grin and began to assume his 'serious' face. "The time I warned you about has finally come about. You're officially a ninja now, which means you're also legally an adult. You'll have a lot more responsibility now and things will only be getting more dangerous for you from here on out." He paused to give her a measuring look which she unflinchingly returned.

Nodding he continued. "No matter what happens from now on you'll always be my little cherry blossom and I'll love you regardless of whatever you decide to do with your life. I can't be on your missions with to ensure your safety but I can make sure you have as much knowledge and skills as I'm able to give you to help you survive.

Starting today you'll be doing your meditations twice a day again. I'll help guide you into reaching the beginning level and all the ones after that."

Sakura furrowed her brow in confusion. She knew the meditation was coming, her father often said it helped to calm him and learn to better control his emotions. However, she'd never heard him mention different levels of meditation. "What do you mean by different levels?"

"It's something I thought I would have discussed with you already but when you stopped meditating…"

Sakura couldn't help blushing in embarrassment. "I know I must have disappointed you and mom when…"

"Sakura, it's okay. You were growing up and learning to do your own thing. I would never begrudge you wanting to pursue your own interests; neither would your mother, even if we didn't particularly like them." Kizashi gave her a warm smile.

She returned it, glad that they hadn't been as upset as she thought.

"As I was saying it was something I was trying to prepare you for. The meditation wasn't just to strength you mentally. The techniques that your mother and I use, that you soon will too, were passed down through the Haruno Clan. Each level, besides strengthening and fortifying your mind, also connect one to nature in deeply intense ways. Ways that have given our clan a little know but extremely useful power. Watch."

Sakura watched as her father stood up and moved a few feet away from her. There was a look of concentration on his face as he closed his eyes. A second later there as a small flash of pink with a sound she couldn't decipher and her father was gone.

Stunned Sakura stood up looking around until she spotted him 15 feet away in front of the glass backdoor of the house. Sakura saw her mother inside looking at her with a grin on her face.

Sakura was speechless, barely aware of her feet carrying her towards her father. "Dad? Wha—what was that?! Did you just—?!"

He grinned back at her his eyes alight with mischief. "If your asking did I just teleport? Yes, yes I did."

She just stared back at him a bit dumbly still not quite believing what she had seen or heard.

"Sakura besides teaching and drilling into your head the rules every good shinobi should to stay alive. I'm also going to be teaching you some of the skills and jutsu I picked up over the years. But most importantly, I'm going to help you unlock and learn to use the Haruno family bloodline, though technically it's not really a bloodline."

Sakura finally snapped out of her stupor to look at her father in shock and disbelief. "We have a bloodline?!"

A/N: My sincerest apologies to all you that have been patiently waiting for this story to update. I have no excuses, all I can say is life got in the way and I had a bit of writers block for this story even though I have most of it already planned. Just writing it right was difficult. I'm still not sure of how well I did this chapter.

Anyway, thank you for bearing with me, especially all of you who fav, followed and reviewed. I hope to be doing a lot of updating since it's the summer and though I'm going to summer school for two classes, I'll have more time to write than I would during the regular semesters where I have up to six and seven classes.

With the bloodline, that's technically not a bloodline (it'll be explained later), it isn't a Sakura suddenly becomes stronger thing, nor is it a quick path to power. The thing I wanted to do was explore in-depth how she comes to unlock, learn and wield the power. As with great power comes responsibility, I know cliché, there is also dangers in choosing to use it, particularly this one. It was something I wanted to try and do differently from others since this power gave me part of the inspiration to write this fic. Sorry to Guest and those who were expecting no powers, hopefully you'll still read and see how it goes.

The 'bloodline' I'm using is a power used by two comic book characters I like from Marvel. Points to whoever knows how they are. Hint: Both are related and connected to a well-loved team of Marvel heroes.

Thank you to those who pointed out errors in some of the chapters in the story. I went back and fixed them. If you see any other things that don't make sense don't hesitate to let me know.

Thank you to those who reviewed: killingperfectionXD, Conan-Ai, leafstone, SakuraCherryBlossomDancer, Regin, impromptumelody95, ZilverWolf, Gremlin Jack, shannaros98, deathgeonous, moodymel, Toreh, mickaylee, BriEva, SamusOlderBrother, Hexal, StarKiss666, Cersesi, AstroKity, KyaNika, 10th Squad 3rd Seat, dark-wolf-howl, and Memory25.

Please Read and Review. Reviews are love and let me know how you feel about the story.

Next Chapter: Training from Hell Part 2