Chapter Text
“Kakashi?”, Gekko called out before he approached the little campsite that inhabited Training Ground Three. He could see two figures around the campfire, but he had no idea if the Jonin was one of them.
“Is that Gekko Hayate in the flesh?”, another voice asked incredulously before laughing, “It must have been awhile since I’ve last seen him, because I almost couldn’t recognize him with all those bags under his eyes.”
“Asuma.”, Kurenai’s voice was heard before the sound of a slap reached Gekko’s ears.
He got closer and was able to see Asuma rubbing the back of his head.
“Wow.”, Gekko grinned, “Kurenai totally gave you time to dodge that. Are you sure you were really one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja for the Daimyo? Your reaction time seems a little slow.”
“Very funny.”, Asuma said dryly.
“Ignore him. Someone’s just upset that he has to leave the Training Ground to try to sneak in a smoke. And has been unsuccessful this whole time”, Kurenai grinned, “Kakashi went out on a food run. We collectively decided to treat the kids to takeout today and he drew the short straw in having to go get it.”
“That’s fine, I just came to talk to him about his students.”, Gekko said while rubbing the back of his neck, “Hey, where are your students?”
Kurenai leaned in and looked around before winking at him, “Kakashi has been having all of them run some modified ANBU training. And get this, they’ve all been keeping up with it pretty well.”
Gekko felt his eyebrows raise, “For two weeks?”
Asuma shrugged, “Pretty much.”
“Every day?”, Gekko couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“No. Not everyday.”, Kurenai sounded offended, “Tomorrow is their rest day. Breaks are important to not overwork them. You should have seen them last week, they wouldn’t leave their tents unless it was to eat or use the restroom. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t think I saw one of mine the whole day last Sunday. I don’t think he even left his tent.”
“Kakashi has one of his dogs chasing them all right now. They’re finishing up their last lap.”, Asuma explained.
“Will they be able to leave tomorrow?”, Gekko questioned.
“Yeah.”, Kurenai teased, “Why are you planning on giving them Kenjutsu lessons? Don’t worry, I’m sure Kakashi won’t object to you teaching them how to use a tanto.”
His mind stalled and he looked around quickly before whispering, “Are any of your teams Pre-ANBU squads? Is that why you’ve been giving them modified ANBU training?”
Asuma shook his head, “If any of these teams are, it’s not mine. My team is slated for Strategics and Intelligence Gathering. I have the second coming of Ino-Shika-Cho so we’re going to see if this specialization suits them as well as it did their fathers.”
“Mine is either going to be a Seek and Destroy Team or a Search and Recover Team. I have to see what missions suit them best before I can do anything.”, Kurenai said, “I have an Aburame, Inuzuka, and Hyuga on my team so any kind of tracking or recon is a given.”
“Any idea what Kakashi’s team might specialize in?”, Gekko asked while trying to seem nonchalant.
“No idea. If his team actually worked together it would probably be obvious though. From what we know, Naruto Uzumaki is great at diversions and traps. He has the makings of a decent Trap Specialist if he actually decided to use it on the enemies. The old man says that Jiraiya wants to train him in Fuinjutsu, but the kid doesn’t seem to have the patience for it. He can’t even seem to want to wait three minutes for Cup Ramen. He was last in the class and so far isn’t doing much to inspire confidence. The kid wears a bright orange jumpsuit for crying out loud!”, Asuma ranted to Gekko.
Kurenai continued on from where Asuma left off, “Sasuke Uchiha on the other hand graduated as Rookie of the Year. He enjoys the training we’re having them run through. His Taijutsu and Ninjutsu are solid, but he’s a prodigy who needs an attitude adjustment. He wants to walk the path of an Avenger and has made that very clear. He’ll end up getting his team and him killed though if he doesn’t grow up.”
"And the third?”, Gekko grinned.
Sakura was a little seal happy brat who appeared in a deceptive pastel packaging. He had been her senpai for four years and without fail she would always keep him on his toes. He was pretty sure Sakura was also a prodigy too. No ordinary child picked up Kenjutsu that fast otherwise. And her knowledge of poisons was simply frightening. Plus all the seals she had in her arsenal? She was a little Terror, and Gekko still thought she might have been hiding some of her talents. Sakura liked to keep her talents hidden for whatever reason, which was good because Shinobi needed their secrets, but he’s known that kid since he was nineteen and even he didn’t know what she knew.
Kurenai and Asuma frowned and it didn’t escape Gekko’s gaze.
Asuma answered, “You haven’t heard? Kakashi passed his Genin after they did the Bell Test and then a few minutes later he lost his third student.”
Gekko coughed, “He what?!?”
“He lost his student. He went for a fear tactic and performed the Summoning Jutsu slow enough for the kunoichi to memorize and she copied it perfectly and ended up Reverse Summoning herself. She ended up signing a Contract and everything, but picked up some traits from the Contract so she’s been there the last two weeks.”, Asuma told his friend, “Where have you been? All the Jonins, Clan Heads, and at least half of the Tokubetsu Jonin know about this.”
Gekko pinched the bridge of his nose, “I’ve been in Suna for a month. I really need to talk to Kakashi when he gets back.”
He knew his mission was too uneventful. Of course, Sakura would have gotten into this situation.
(That didn't mean he wasn't going to hold it over Kakashi's head later.)
"Wait.", Gekko felt himself go pale as all the blood drained out of him, "She's been gone for two weeks?"
Asuma nodded.
"Any news on when she'll return?", Gekko felt his mouth moving almost robotically.
"It should be any day now.", Kurenai voiced.
Shit. He was going to have to tell Kizashi and Mebuki that their daughter had been missing for two weeks and nobody told them.
"Are you alright?", Kurenai asked in concern, "You look a little pale."
He took a deep breath and smiled, "I'm going to kill Kakashi."
Ino panted with exertion as she finished up her last lap. As long as she was faster than Shikamaru she wouldn’t have to worry about getting bit by Pakkun.
She could see the tents now and was ready to collapse as soon as she got there.
Sasuke was already drinking water near the tents. He had probably finished a few minutes ago since he hadn’t even been in her field of vision since the second lap.
The only thing out of place in his appearance was his hair. It looked so unfairly windswept that Ino wanted to cry because her own hair was filled with sweat and her face was probably all red and blotchy. He was so unbothered by the training that Ino couldn’t help but think about how amazing he was.
Two weeks ago, if someone had told her she wouldn’t be on the same team as Sasuke, but still be practically living with him for Genin training, she would have hoped that was true but not gotten her hopes up. Now though, she hated how he would see her all gross and sweaty because of training.
Thinking of living with Sasuke just brought thoughts of Sakura to the forefront of her mind.
(She despised that more than anything else.)
Sakura had disappeared and everything changed in the span of a few hours. Impulsive Billboard Brow, who used a Jutsu she didn’t even know and ended up Reverse Summoning herself.
She was strong enough to get Summons, and Sasuke was visibly impressed by that news.
(That was basically a Declaration of Love from him!)
She thought she was done with Sakura the moment she declared her to be her rival and Sakura took the hint and stopped sitting next to her.
(But, could she ever truly escape her?)
Stupid Billboard Brow who smiled widely when Ino first met her in Kunoichi classes and chased away Ami for making fun of Sakura’s ginormous forehead. Sakura had declared they would be friends forever, making her a friendship bracelet the next day. It was something Ino would proudly show off to the two boys who were her brothers in all but blood, making Sakura her own bracelet the next day.
It no longer fit, but Ino still had that bracelet locked away in a box somewhere for safekeeping.
(Some part of her wondered if Sakura still had hers.)
Ignorant Billboard Brow who was stealing her brothers away without trying, and attracting the attention of the one guy that Ino actually actively chose to care for.
Shikamaru and Choji have always been hers. Their births were coordinated and they were raised as siblings, the next in a legacy aptly named Ino-Shika-Cho.
Her birthday was even a day after Shikamaru’s!
(And it hurt to know he would prefer Sakura’s company any day over her own.)
She chose Sasuke to be the only one who would stay hers no matter what. He never showed interest in anyone. Never one to be caught up with crowds or people, even before the Massacre of his Clan. He was safe for her to care for, and she had this idyllic romantic hope that he would love her and only her. He would become the only thing that was truly her own .
(But even then his gaze was eventually drawn to Sakura.)
Magnetic Billboard Brow, who drew everyone in without doing a single damn thing to make people like her.
(And wasn’t that unfair?)
Two weeks ago, she felt something in her Shatter at the possibility that Sakura might have been dead.
(The mind was a dangerous place and all Yamanaka were taught to fear their own above all else. It was their most potent double-edged sword, perfect for cutting both enemies and themselves down in one swift blow if left unchecked.)
Why would Sakura’s death ever have an impact on her if she no longer cared whether she lived or died like every other Shinobi was destined?
Regret for a Shinobi was dangerous.
(Regret for a Yamanaka even more.)
She pushed away thoughts of Sakura and tried to focus on her run.
Shino had disappeared somewhere so he was probably in his tent already. He would probably leave in ten more minutes smelling more clean than any of them somehow.
(No matter how much she begged he wouldn’t share his secrets and Hinata couldn’t see through his tent with her Byakugan.)
She went back to admiring Sasuke when Shikamaru, in a fit of unexpected effort, ran ahead of her.
She didn’t even notice she was the last one until she felt Pakkun nip at her heels.
Kiba groaned as he collapsed on his back looking up at the darkening sky with Akamaru by his side.
Akamaru let out a nearly silent whine, and Kiba turned to face him.
“Yeah, this training is a lot. Dinner should be here soon enough though.”, Kiba said quietly as he glanced over to the lake where Shikamaru had just run in front of Ino.
Akamaru let out another whine.
“Yeah, I wonder when Sakura is going to come back too.”, Kiba said, “It should be interesting though. She’s probably not going to be around Naruto for awhile, even if she did manage to work on her senses. We’re going to have to make sure we try our best to be quiet until she gets used to everything. I remember when my mom first took me out of the Clan Compound when I was six. All the smells and noises hurt me. Some of my cousins also had to go through the same lessons with me, so it wasn’t too bad.”
Akamaru let out a soft bark.
“Yeah.”, Kiba grinned, “I wasn’t alone, so there’s no reason Sakura should be alone either. We’ll make sure to help her adjust.”
Akamaru yipped.
“Yeah, that’s a great idea! We can bring Hana to Sakura and introduce them.”, Kiba grinned. Hana had been wanting to meet Sakura for a long time now.
Sakura, regrettably, originally hadn’t been more than a blip on his radar. She was always just out of his senses to the point where he didn’t acknowledge her the first two years of the Academy despite being in the same class as him.
Sure he knew that she existed.
(How could he not notice her with hair that pink?)
But, she was more of a phantom than anything else for too long.
He mainly knew her through Shikamaru and Choji (and later through Naruto).
The first time he really saw her as more than just their friend was when he was nine years old and in between his second and third year of the Academy, he had been chased all throughout Konoha by his sister’s partners (the Haimaru Brothers) because he had said something he could no longer remember, that made Hana angry enough to sic her dogs on him.
He had managed to lose his tails in a civilian neighborhood, probably because they didn’t want to cause a disturbance there, when he heard a loud noise and felt the ground beneath his feet slightly shake.
No one seemed to pay it any mind, though there were a few whispers about “That young girl is up to it again.”, that he had heard from a pair of old women walking on the sidewalk in front of him.
He could smell the heavy scent of smoke when the door to a house a few houses down from where he was standing opened up and revealed a sheepish looking Sakura whose face was smeared with soot.
He remembered the blinding smile she gave her neighbors as she apologized.
“Sorry. This time I almost got it, but I think my math might have smudged in my calculations.”, Sakura bowed to the people who had come out of their houses to look at her in interest, “I’ll make sure to make you all something really nice though when I finally get the hang of it. I promise.”
His heart stuttered slightly at the look of pure joy that replaced the embarrassed face she had. He had never really noticed how her emotions on her face matched her eyes. He thought she looked really cute with her pink hair sticking up everywhere and soot all over her face.
He remembered thinking that he might have gotten sick and had promptly gone home, the Haimaru Brothers no longer a worry, and ran to Hana to make sure he wasn’t dying because his heart felt weird and his hands had did this weird thing where they started getting all gross and sweaty.
Hana had stared at him blankly, still mad from whatever he had did earlier that day, until he explained everything. She had laughed and laughed, but refused to let him know he wasn’t dying until after she had stopped laughing long enough to get it out.
He tried making more excuses to talk to her in the Academy, each one more ridiculous than the last and never seeming to work. Shikamaru would look at him like he was a particularly complicated Shogi game and later, after Sakura fell out with Ino, Sakura was always just out of reach to talk to.
He could never find the right time, and Hana still teased him about the way he would sneak glances at her or try to look for a splash of pink whenever he was outside of the Clan Compound.
Then one day, the girl he had thought to be cute, kicked his ass in a Taijutsu match. Twice.
(He fell even harder and couldn’t stop staring at her in class, it got to the point where he felt there was no way she didn’t notice, but she never once confronted him about it. His mom even found out about his crush from Hana.)
She was stronger than he thought, and he couldn’t help but be amazed. She was the only Civilian in their class.
(Everyone knew that with a last name like Uzumaki, Naruto had to have had some type of Shinobi heritage despite being an orphan.)
And she could take him in a Taijutsu fight despite being so small.
( All Inuzuka were attracted to someone strong.)
He would try harder to talk to her when she came back.
Sakura waved goodbye and did the signs to bring her back.
She was surprised to find herself in a tent.
A familiar tent.
It was a tent that she herself had stitched and painted on seals for perhaps the one person in the world outside of her parents and Naruto who hadn’t once wronged her.
“Shino?”, she called out in question.
His Light Seal was on, and so were the Security Seals, so he must have been in here. She would have to make some new seals though if anyone could just pop into the tent. Were there seals preventing Space-Time Ninjutsu? If not, she would have to make them.
The door to his restroom opened and he rushed out in pajamas with his hair still wet and uncombed, his glasses were off so he must have just gotten out of the shower and finished changing.
“Sakura.”, he gasped as he pulled her into a hug.
She felt water droplets hit the top of her head and smelled salt. Shino was crying because of her. Guilt welled up inside of her, she hadn’t meant to worry him.
(No one was allowed to make Shino cry, not even her.)
“I’m back.”, she smiled into the hug.
He pulled her away to check her for injuries, and she could see the exact moment his brown eyes noticed the changes to her own eyes.
“You haven’t been slacking in your training. Why? Because I can see mud on you and you smell like sweat.”, Shino joked.
Sakura laughed, “Not that I’m not overjoyed that you’re the first person I’ve seen, but how did I end up in your tent?”
“All the Genin are here training together. We’ve been here since you went missing.”, Shino glared slightly, but Sakura could see how worried he was.
“Next time I go missing I’ll be sure to inform you before it happens.”, Sakura joked lightly as she grabbed his hands in reassurance.
He rolled his eyes, but his lips had a slight upturn to show that he was amused, “I would rather that no happen at all, but I’ll be holding you to that.”
“I have so much to tell you.”, Sakura beamed.
He sighed slightly, “I’ll tell the others I’m turning in for the night. You can go shower if you want, you know where my clothes are if you need something clean. I’ll bring in some food and you can tell me everything. Set up an extra futon. You don’t have to deal with anyone until tomorrow.”
“So, you lost the kid?”, Gekko asked mockingly, “She’s a little Terror! You should have been more cautious! Did none of her teachers put it in her file? She’s Chaos Incarnate and normal rules don’t apply to her!”
Kakashi stared blankly at him before putting down the food he had brought, “Hello to you too, Gekko.”
“Sakura better be back soon or else you have to come with me to tell her parents that she’s been missing for two weeks.”, Gekko ranted, “Do you know how scary Mebuki and Kizashi are?”
“Ah, I wasn’t aware that you knew them.”, Kakashi said while feigning a nonchalant shrug, “She should be back any day now.”
“I’ll be staying here until she does.”, Gekko pointed his thumb to his own recently set up tent.
“When did you get back anyways? I haven’t seen you in awhile.”’, Kakashi commented as he moved out of the way for one of Kurenai's students who talked to her before grabbing some food and heading back to his tent, “Food?”
They made themselves comfortable as the remaining Genin grabbed food to eat. Asuma and Kurenai were definitely not flirting with each other.
Gekko was about halfway through his food before he decided to talk again.
“I just got back today.”, Gekko sighed, “Listen, something you need to know about Sakura is how fast she picks up things, and how easily she can get distracted when it comes to a new seal.”
“It sounds like you’ve known her for awhile.”, Kakashi pointed out.
“I have.”, Gekko told him.
Kakashi ran over the information in his head before saying, “Tell me about her.”
And Gekko did.
Shino brought back food, and she showered and changed into a rolled up pair of his sweats and an old shirt of his. Shino and Sakura stayed up half the night talking about her last two weeks in the Summoning Realm. He had some questions about the Pack dynamics and how she was handling her increased senses. She asked him about his last two weeks.
They fell asleep early in the morning, each curled on their separate futons, connected by their hands.
(Shino, even while asleep, couldn’t bear the thought of Sakura disappearing again.)