Time Spents

Again

The next day, Sakura was feeling much better. Her training the day before had been productive, and she had gotten a bit used to her younger body. Due to her natural skills in chakra control, it was only a little bit difficult to use her super strength at first. She had to adjust how much chakra she gathered and released, and once she got the hang of it, it presented the same destructive result. Even her healing abilities were up to par with her older self's abilities as she learned last night from healing her cuts, bruises, and sore muscles. Just a few more weeks of constant training and she should be back in her tiptop shape.

Her hair was up in a ponytail today so it would not get in the way of their training. Plus, she had short hair for years already that she was not quite used to the long hair once more. She debated about cutting it short again but decided against it. She would rather not do anything un-Sakura-like because that would cause her teammates to become suspicious.

She arrived at the training spot; a clearing with three training dummies, with the memorial right behind the posts. Sasuke and Naruto were already there, and after bidding them each a good morning, she sat down on top of one of the posts and waited for Kakashi.

Two hours later, Kakashi finally arrived to find his three students clearly agitated and bored.

"Hey guys, good morning!" Kakashi greeted, waving at them.

Sakura, for old time's sake, shouted along with Naruto, "You're LATE!"

With an apology along the lines of 'getting lost in the road of life', Kakashi settled an alarm clock on the middle post then began to explain to them the mechanics of the training.

Here are two bells," he started, producing from his pockets the two objects. "Your mission is to take these from me before noon. Those who fail to get them from me before the time runs out will get no lunch. They will be tied up to one of the posts while the rest of us eat. You only need to get one bell; therefore, one of you will definitely be tied to the post."

All three students visibly gulped.

Kakashi continued on, more serious this time. "Whoever does not get a bell fails and will be sent back to the academy. You're allowed to use whatever weapons you brought with you. Come at me with an intent to kill."

At the last word, Naruto laughed and pointed at Kakashi. "But you're so slow! You can't even dodge an eraser yesterday!"

Ignoring his taunts, Kakashi looked at the orange-clad boy with a lazy eye. "In the real world, those who have no talent are the ones who bark the loudest. Well, ignore Mr. Dead Last and begin when—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Naruto took out a kunai and aimed at Kakashi, insulted by his words. Sakura was about to stop Naruto from lunging at the older man but refrained from doing so when she sensed Kakashi behind them. The jounin appeared in a wisp of smoke, holding Naruto's hand and head with both his hands. The kunai that Naruto was holding pointed dangerously close to his nape.

"So it seems that you have finally acknowledged me," he observed with a chuckle. "Alright, I think I'm beginning to like you guys. Let's get going. Begin!"

Sakura, along with Sasuke, hopped off and went to hide. Sakura hid under a bush, out of sight, but not secluded enough that she could not see how Naruto remained in the clearing, asking Kakashi to fight him. She tried to think of what she should do in this training.

'Damn it. I would tell these two about teamwork, but we need to learn this together from Kakashi-sensei!' Sakura thought. She already knew the point of the two bells, but she did not want to be the one to tell Naruto and Sasuke about teamwork. If she told them right off the bat, then the training would be useless, and the two would probably dismiss it after. They need to go through the whole training since that would be more effective in instilling the concept of teamwork. It was like the difference of learning it by the book and actually experiencing it. It would be more compelling if someone learned it through experience.

When she looked up, she found Kakashi behind Naruto with his hands posed to form a Tiger seal. Without second thought, Sakura threw a kunai, aiming for Kakashi's hand. Consequences be damned, she would not let Naruto be hurt if Kakashi was planning to use a jutsu against him.

A faint memory of Naruto flying up the air in pain while clutching his behind fluttered in her mind.

'Crap. He wasn't really going to use a jutsu against him.'

A little regretful that she had acted so carelessly and exposed to Kakashi where she was hiding, Sakura reassured herself that at least Naruto did not get to experience immense pain the way his past self did.

She focused again at the two before her. Naruto had been thrown to a nearby river by Kakashi who then whipped out his Icha Icha Paradise book, which only served to irritate the blonde even more. Her guard up, she rolled away just in time to dodge the same kunai she had thrown at the jounin a minute ago. Grabbing the weapon that was stuck on the ground, she swiftly stood up and chuck it back towards Kakashi to buy herself a little time.

It was just a body clone, seeing that the real Kakashi was still busy fighting Naruto's own shadow clones. If she landed a couple of good blows at the clone, it would disperse. Taijutsu is one of her specialty, and she had trained with Lee for a while before the war broke out. Sakura took her stance; she should be able to hold up against this clone fairly well.

She grabbed a couple of kunai tied with explosive tags from her weapon pouch and threw them at the direction of the clone. It exploded, creating a small cloud of smoke. Using it as a distraction, she ran towards the clone with a fist pulled back for a punch. The clone dodged it, holding her wrist and pulling it down along with the rest of her to the ground. Feeling the downward sensation, she used her free hand to prop herself upside down on the ground, bending her body backwards to swing her left leg downwards in a strong kick.

She managed to hit the ground instead, creating a small c***k because even without using her chakra, her attacks were still powerful. Now sitting on bended knees, she froze when the Kakashi clone appeared behind her, kunai aimed at her throat.

"I—!"

The clone was only able to utter a syllable after Sakura drove her elbow to his guts, effectively dispersing him. The kunai had nicked her skin due to her rash action, but it did not matter. The minuscule time frame that was provided to her when the clone opened its mouth to speak was all she needed to disperse it. Taking the kunai that was on the ground, Sakura shook her head. Leave it to Kakashi to underestimate her capabilities. Although, she supposed it was a good thing that he did not think much of her because then, only a little of her taijutsu capabilities were exposed, which left her with more cards up her sleeve. Kakashi probably even thought she was just lucky with that elbow jab.

'Or he's more likely testing my abilities.'

Sakura left her spot, intending to find a different one that was much closer to the alarm clock when she heard a rustle in front of her. Preparing for another attack, she saw Sasuke come out from behind a huge tree trunk instead. Already, she distinguished that this was a genjutsu, so she was not as affected by the illusion of a bloodied, weapon-riddled Sasuke in front of her.

"Sakura..." the illusion called faintly.

Sakura ran towards him. "Sasuke!" she called, pretending to worry over Sasuke while she scanned the area for Kakashi's presence.

A gentle breeze fluttered, and amidst the silence broken only by the fake Sasuke's heavy breathing, Sakura heard the faint sound of bells coming from her right.

'There!'

Sakura threw a kunai at the direction of the trees where the sound was coming from, satisfied when it exploded on one of the branches where she calculated Kakashi was hiding. She had hidden a second kunai underneath the shadow of the first, and it was covered with an exploding note. She hopped up to the tree to inspect it. The branch had been darkened, and there was no sign of Kakashi.

Looking up the sky, the sun was only a few minutes away from being directly above them. Time was almost up and they were nowhere near getting one bell from Kakashi. She hopped down towards the clearing, running past Sasuke, the real one this time, who was buried to the ground all the way up to his neck.

"Sasuke!" she ran towards him. "Kakashi did this to you, huh?" she asked as she helped him get unstuck. He merely grunted as a reply, looking irritated and embarrassed of his predicament. She could not really help the small smile from escaping her lips at the sight of him stuck on the ground. His pride must be severely wounded right now.

There's not much time left, judging by the sun," Sakura observed.

Sasuke dusted the dirt off his clothes. "Yeah. I'm going after it again. I was able to touch it last time."

He made a turn to leave so Sakura called after him. "Wait! If you were close to getting it last time, maybe if I helped you we'll both be able to get a bell."

"No," Sasuke said, giving her a dark look. "There's a certain man I need to kill. I need to do this on my own, to prove to myself that I can do it."

"Of course you can do it! But with my help... with others' help then you can surely—"

"I'm an avenger. I have to defeat Kakashi if I want a chance of fulfilling my ambition," Sasuke insisted. "I can't just rely on others if I want to be strong enough to kill him."

Sasuke started to walk away, and before Sakura could say anything the alarm clock went off, signaling the end of the training. As they walked towards the post, Sakura heard Sasuke curse in annoyance that time ran out before he even got another chance to get a bell from Kakashi.

Ten minutes later, Naruto was tied to the middle post, and Sakura and Sasuke were sitting on either side of him. Kakashi stood before them, examining them one by one.

"You all look very hungry," he observed. "But first, I want to ask a question. Sakura."

Sakura jumped a little at the mention of her name. She pointed to herself. "M-me?" Inwardly, she was hoping her two fights with Kakashi's clones did not stand out enough to cause him to be suspicious. Looking back to them, all it showed was her decent taijutsu and genjutsu skills and nothing that a graduate student could not perform with enough training.

"Yes, you. Mind telling me why you threw that kunai at me, and at the same time risking your location?"

"Well... it was careless and everything, but I saw Naruto was in danger. Plus, it gave him enough time to dodge your attack and counter it," she replied with a shrug, internally grateful it was all he asked.

Kakashi nodded, satisfied with her answer. "Alright then. Let's talk about the training. All three of you do not need to worry about being sent back to the academy."

"Haha! Yes! That must mean all three of us—!" Naruto shouted, squirming in excitement from his spot on the post.

"No. You and Sasuke do not need to go back to the academy, because you should just quit as ninjas. Sakura, on the other hand, passed the test," Kakashi finished with a serious note.

"What!? But Sakura did not even get a bell! And what do you mean we should quit as ninjas!" Naruto complained. His hands were already tightening into fists as the anger rose inside him. "Fine! So we failed the stupid test and did not get any bells, but how come the bastard and I have to quit?!"

Kakashi replied, "Because the two of you are worthless people who do not need to be ninjas."

Sakura looked worriedly at the two boys. Even Sasuke was visibly upset. She concentrated her gaze down at the ground guiltily. She should not have thrown that kunai. Instead of helping Naruto, the two of them were now upset with her because she got to pass and they did not. It was definitely not a good way to start building on their teamwork if Sasuke and Naruto were both pissed at her.

She let out a small scream when Sasuke lunged at Kakashi, but the jounin was fast and had him on the ground in a blink of an eye.

"Do not underestimate ninjas. Sakura, since you seem to be the first one to grasp the concept of this training, why don't you explain to these two morons why we are divided into groups and train together?"

Sakura nodded lightly and proceeded to answer Kakashi's question. "Because, the most important concept of this training is teamwork. This is the answer to the bell test, is that correct?"

"Exactly, Sakura," Kakashi agreed. From below him, Sasuke had stopped trying to break free, and Naruto began to listen intently. "Only Sakura here tried to help Naruto when he was in an unsafe situation. A bit careless, but she tried. And she even tried to convince you, Sasuke, to work with her to try to get the bells from me, but you declined. You keep thinking that everyone will just get in the way."

Kakashi turned to Naruto. "And Naruto, all you did was run around and even abandoned the mission when you thought I was not looking. The test was designed to make you fight amongst yourselves, and Sakura was the only one to try and help you two out."

Kakashi let go of Sasuke, continuing his talk about the importance of teamwork and the consequences that could befall someone if they failed to work with a team. At one point, he sounded forlorn as he spoke about the names etched in the memorial stone.

"I will give you two another chance, so do not have hard feelings against Sakura. For now, you can all eat except for Naruto. This is your punishment for abandoning the mission and trying to eat lunch by yourself. Anyone who gives him food will fail, even you Sakura."

With that warning, Kakashi disappeared.

There was a moment of silence as Sasuke and Sakura started to eat their lunch. Sakura wanted to share her lunch with Naruto, but she did not want to initiate it. Sasuke had to realize for himself the importance of teamwork, that Naruto would only get in the way if he was hungry. So she waited, glancing at Sasuke every second to see if he would break.

A minute later, and Sakura silently sighed in relief when Sasuke extended his hand that was holding the lunch box. Naruto stared open-mouthed at Sasuke.

"If you do not eat, then you will just get in the way. We will work together to get the bells after this," Sasuke explained, his eyes searching for any hints of Kakashi's presence nearby.

"B-but..."

"It's okay, Naruto!" Sakura chirped in, holding out her lunchbox as well. "Besides, we can't sense Kakashi-sensei anywhere, so he wouldn't know. Right, Sasuke?"

Sasuke nodded.

Naruto felt tears in his eyes at their thoughtfulness. This had been the first time, aside from Iruka, that someone had been nice to him.

Just as Sakura was about to feed Naruto, Kakashi appeared before them, surrounded with an ominous aura.

"YOU GUYS...!"

Naruto shrunk back in fear, but both Sasuke and Sakura managed to stand their ground and pose defensively.

Kakashi's one visible eye closed with a crinkle, indicating that he was smiling underneath his mask.

"...pass!"

threw a kunai at one of them while Sasuke took care of the other. The man simply blocked the kunai with one movement of his armored hand. Quickly, she pushed Tazuna farther behind her, a little peeved that she had to hold back on her speed and strength as she dodged the attack from the same enemy who blocked her kunai.

Kakashi chose that time to appear, holding the two attackers in a tight chokehold. Knowing that Kakashi now had everything under control, Sakura turned around to check on their charge.

"Are you alright, Mr. Tazuna?" she inquired, "I apologize for pushing you back so suddenly."

The old man merely grunted, holding on to his stomach where Sakura had pushed him. "I'm okay, although that push was pretty brawny."

Sakura laughed awkwardly, apologizing again. "Sorry. I'm stronger than I look," she explained.

Kakashi applauded Sasuke and Sakura's handling of the situation while he expressed his regret that Naruto got injured. Upon hearing this, Sakura's medic instincts took over and she rushed to Naruto.

"Hey. Are you alright, Mr. Scaredy Cat?" Sasuke taunted, smirking.

"Oh stop it Sasuke," Sakura reprimanded lightly. She turned to Naruto, holding his injured hand gently to examine it. He was shaken, and regret and self-loathing shone brightly in his blue eyes. "Everyone is bound to react differently on their first time facing an enemy," she explained in an attempt to make Naruto feel better. She gave her injured teammate an encouraging smile, although Naruto still looked dejected.

"Naruto, don't worry about it. Also, their claws are laced with poison, it will spread faster if you move too much," Kakashi spoke. He turned to Tazuna, intending to question him why there were ninjas targeting him.

While Kakashi was busy asking their charge for more information that he refrained to disclose when he first asked for Konoha's assistance, Sakura coaxed Naruto to sit down under the shade of a tree.

"Here Naruto, we'll open up your wound to release the poisoned blood," Sakura offered, taking out a basic first aid kit from her backpack. She inspected the wound, noticing that the Kyuubi was already doing its part and healing the cut. His hand was still shaking as it lay on top of hers, and she knew he was still upset that he was unable to do anything on their first real mission outside the village.

"Mr. Tazuna, it causes a lot of problem when you lie about the mission details. My students are not prepared for this kind of mission; we are now operating outside of our duties," Kakashi explained as he and Tazuna approached the three younger members of the party. "One of my students is injured. He will need to be taken back to the village for proper medical treatment."

"It's alright, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura interjected, "I know basic medical treatment and-!"

Sakura, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Tazuna stopped dead as Naruto took a kunai and stabbed his injured hand with it.

"We'll continue the mission!" Naruto insisted. His face was painted with determination.

Kakashi sighed. If the boy was determined, then he had no choice but to continue with the mission. Sakura seemed to be doing a good job of extracting the poison, a feat that was quite impressive for her rookie status, and she was just about finished with wrapping the wound with bandage. "Alright, then. If you guys insist, we will escort Mr. Tazuna until he gets back to his village."

Sakura finished tending Naruto's wound, all the while receiving praises from him, which she answered with, "This is just the simple stuff. It only requires basic knowledge which you can read from a medical scroll and a little training."

After that Naruto was back to his bouncy self, even unnecessarily throwing shuriken at anything that moved as his way of being on guard. Sasuke had fallen into steps next to Sakura, and she took this opportunity to inquire about his condition.

"Are you okay, Sasuke? You're not hurt?" she asked, her eyes checking if he has any injury that needed attention.

"Yeah," he answered nonchalantly without so much as a glance on her direction.

"Everyone, get down!"

At Kakashi's warning, Sakura quickly dropped to the ground just as a huge sword went swirling past where her neck would have been. As she regained her footing, she looked up at the direction where the blade wedged itself on a tree... with Zabuza standing on its handle.

was the disposal of his body and the weapons used to terminate him. It was such a dead giveaway then, but, as embarrassing as it was, there was no blaming her younger self for not knowing any better. Now, aside from those bases, Sakura had a much more solid evidence to infer that Zabuza was still alive and that the hunter-nin was on his side. After all, the senbons she hurled towards the missing-nin were deflected by the hunter-nin himself; not that those proofs were really necessary considering that she was from the future.

Sakura bit her lip, determining that her action may have complicated things for her. She supposed that her failed attempt was a blessing in disguise; had she succeeded, she would have risked exposing her secret and even if that did not become a problem, she did not have any explanation at the ready if ever her team interrogated her about her unfounded skills. For now, she must play along with Kakashi's assumptions—she knew that a ninja of Kakashi's caliber noticed the peculiar behavior of the hunter-nin—and hoped that the silver-haired jounin was also distracted enough to fail to notice that she had thrown senbons towards the enemy with great accuracy and an intent to kill.

"Eh?! Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura's head snapped up from her thoughts at Naruto's worried clamor. The group only managed to take a few steps away from the temporary battleground before Kakashi passed out and fell straight on the solid ground face-first.

In a small clearing, the Mist hunter-nin decided that the little bed of grass surrounded by trees was suitable enough to perform his next course of action. Gently, he laid down the larger body he was carrying and stabbed the soft earth with the giant sword. He pulled out a roll of thick fabric from his weapon pouch and unrolled it to reveal surgical supplies. Choosing a scissor among the tools, he was just about to cut the bandage that wrapped around Zabuza's face when the older man's hand shot up, grabbing his wrist and keeping it in place.

Zabuza pried down the bandages covering his mouth with his fingers and said, "That is all right, Haku. I'll do it myself."

The younger of the two sighed. "If you insist." He silently watched as Zabuza firmly wrapped his fingers at the first senbon that pierced through his neck, dully grunting as he rashly pulled it off.

"Damn. You sure are rough." Zabuza grabbed another senbon, peering sideways at the noiseless boy beside him. "And your interference was quite early. I still could have handled myself pretty well against that copycat ninja even with those brats' help." Once more, he hastily pulled the needle in his hand off.

"I'm sorry, but I had to do it or you would have been killed." Haku's voice was absolute, to which he received a chuckle from Zabuza.

"The fight was just getting started. All Sharingan Kakashi can do is copy me," Zabuza snarled. His sharp teeth were exposed as he bared his teeth in annoyance.

Haku was quiet once more. However, the frown on his lips indicated that he was in deep thought. "On the contrary," he finally said. The dark look the sword-wielding ninja gave Haku did not even faze him. Instead, he returned the sullen gaze with a definite look of his own.

"The fight would have been over if I did not interfere," Haku explained. He watched intently as Zabuza reached for another senbon on his left shoulder. "That," he indicated with an upward tilt of his head, "is not mine. And two other would have fatally pierced your jugular and your heart if my other senbons failed to deflect them on time."

Zabuza's grip on the third senbon intensified to the point that he almost snapped it in half. Brusquely, he pulled it out without a word. He could feel Haku's gaze on him once more, probably wondering what he was thinking about.

'Those damn brats…'

The silence between the two stretched as Haku broke from his musing and began to quietly pack away his supplies. Zabuza had gone eerily still. As he rolled the fabric and slid it back into his weapon pouch, he heard Zabuza emit a low chuckle that escalated into a full-blown laughter.

"What is it, Mr. Zabuza?"

Zabuza did not even cast him a glance, instead his laughter continued as though the boy did not ask a question. It took him a minute to calm down, and by then the darkness in his eyes had returned.

"It seems that I have not given those ninja-wannabes enough credit." He pushed the upper half of body off the ground using his elbows.

Haku fought the urge to help the taller ninja as this would just result in rejection. "You will not be able to move for a week until your full strength has returned. Will you be alright next time?" he asked instead.

"Next time, I will defeat the Sharingan. And I will kill those brats."

Kakashi's only visible eye snapped open. When he did, he tried to move to no avail; his whole body was aching. He had passed out after their fight with Zabuza.

"YOU'RE AWAKE!" There was no mistaking that the voice belonged to Naruto. Kakashi swore that the dull thudding in his head evolved to a full-blown headache.

"Not so loud, Naruto!" Sakura gently smacked the blonde up his head which, considering her strength, was still pretty hard. She turned her attention to their freshly awoken teacher, assessing his condition. "You must be feeling very sore Kakashi-sensei. You did overtaxed yourself during your fight against Zabuza." When Kakashi nodded in affirmation, she picked up the teapot that was by her side and poured some of its content into a cup. "Here, I made you some herbal tea with the help of Miss Tsunami. It will help you feel better." She handed the clay teacup to Kakashi while motioning at the dark-haired woman in the room, omitting the fact that Tazuna's daughter had only helped locate the herbs and that she herself did all the preparations.

Kakashi gazed at his rippled image on the surface of the tea, lost in his own thoughts. Something did not sit right inside him. Something was out of place, and it had something to do with the hunter-nin.

"Is something wrong, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto's curious voice snapped him out of his reverie.

He turned towards his students, who were all seated at the spot next to his feet. "Huh? Well… did you notice something odd with the way that boy disposed of Zabuza's body?"

Sakura was the first to speak. "By that, you meant that he left with the body right? Hunter-nins are supposed to get rid of their target's body at the very same spot where they killed their target." At the odd look her two teammates gave her, she added, "Read it on a scroll."

Kakashi nodded in agreement. "That is correct. Also, the boy's use of senbons as killing weapons is suspicious. It is not very lethal unless a vital organ has been hit." He paused, letting the new information sink in amongst his three students.

"It means that Zabuza may still be alive," Sasuke concluded.

There were gasps, and Naruto's shout, of surprise in the room at the possibility that their opponent may have faked his death and that the hunter-nin was truly Zabuza's accomplice rather than pursuer.

"How is that possible Kakashi-sensei?! You checked him yourself!" Naruto shouted in protest. There was a supporting nod from their client, Tazuna.

A mere shake of his head was Kakashi's reply. "It may have been that instead of killing Zabuza, the hunter-nin pierced various points in his neck that will cause momentary death."

Sakura added, "And because he's a hunter-nin, he will most likely know which points to zero in on."

"Correct again, Sakura." Kakashi sighed. "Because of these two suspicions, we must assume that the enemy is still alive. Momentary death will delay a person's full recovery for as long as a week. In the mean time, while I recover, we will use the time we have to train."

"Ha! That sounds like a lot of fun!" Excitement was evident in Naruto's voice as he threw a fist in the air.

A child entered the room just then, seeming to have heard the last bit of the conversation. "That's not fun," he said.

Sakura had to hold back Naruto once more, this time from pouncing on the little kid who was introduced to be Inari, Tazuna's grandson. The child refused to greet the visitors and pointed to them instead, announcing that they will meet their certain death. Naruto was obviously angry at the child's pessimistic views, declaring that he will defeat Gatou to prove Inari wrong. A few more bickering and the child left for his room, claiming that he was going to his room to view the ocean instead.