Zaman

Chapter 2

The two sat together in an almost comfortable silence until Naruto came gallivanting into the training ground.

"Hi Sakura-chan, Sasuke-teme!" He said enthusiastically, "Where's Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hmmm, going from the fact that he was close to three hours late yesterday, I can assume that he won't be much earlier." Sakura surmised, putting on the façade of someone who didn't know everything about Kakashi. "We should do some team exercises in the meantime. You know, help boost our cooperation."

"Sure Sakura-chan!" Naruto agreed happily, "As long as the teme doesn't act like such an asshole."

"Naruto." Sakura reprimanded, "Sasuke's on our team, we have to work with him."

"Naruto will just hold me back." Sasuke muttered, "I'll work with Sakura, but not the dobe."

"The entire point of being on a team together is to be able to work with each other!" Sakura exclaimed, glaring at Sasuke, "We'll never be a good team if we can't get along. Now we need to put our petty differences aside and work together, goddamnit!"

Sasuke and Naruto looked taken aback at Sakura's sudden, uncharacteristic outburst.

"You're right Sakura-chan." Naruto apologized, "I'll work with the teme if you think it will boost our teamwork."

"Hn." Sasuke agreed. Well, at least Sakura thought he agreed, he tended to be rather ambiguous some times.

"Now that we've come to a consensus, we need to think about what we could possibly be doing for this test." Sakura figured that blurting out every aspect and moral of the bell test would be mighty suspicious, so she decided to just hint at it and hope her teammates caught on. "As I've been saying earlier, Konoha's strongest asset is its fierce camaraderie and powerful teams. Take the sannin for instance. They were practically unbeatable because they knew each other inside out and knew how each one of their teammates would react."

"Okay, but we hardly know anything about each other." Sasuke crossed his arms, "Especially you Sakura, what else are you hiding?"

"I thought we put that argument behind us." Sakura sighed, "Whatever, the point is, my fighting style relies heavily on close combat and chakra control. If I am going to be able to fight efficiently, I will need to get close to the enemy. I also am a healer."

"That's a contradiction." Sasuke stated, "Healers always go in the back, but you insist on being in the front. It doesn't make sense."

"When I was studying the sannin, I noticed that even though Tsunade was a healer, she was often on the front-line. Since I pretty much copied her style, I think it's appropriate for me to follow her battle strategies."

"Does that mean we're going to follow the strategies of the other two sannin?" Sasuke raised his eyebrow, "If so, how would you know which one of us corresponds with the other?"

Sakura took a deep breath. If she mentioned Orochimaru now, she might be able to warn Sasuke about his evil ways, but he may also become curious and turn to Orochimaru sooner. Stuck in a deadlock, Sakura hoped that Sasuke wouldn't turn on her. "I think you should copy Orochimaru." Sasuke's eyes widened slightly, "Mind you, I don't think you're a thing like that evil bastard. In fact, I hope no one ever goes to seek him out. I know this must sound weird, but Sasuke, promise me you'll never consider him as a sensei."

Sasuke looked at Sakura with deep confusion. She had been so strange recently, but he liked it. He liked the way she no longer obsessed over him and the way that she took her studies seriously. Out of all of the people in his graduating class, he found himself the closest to Sakura at this point. Her newly found seriousness paired with her viridity complimented his personality well; not that he'd ever admit it of course. No, he'd stay indifferent, but ask if she wanted to be his training partner. That was definitely the right course of action. But still, why on earth would she suspect him of having anything to do with the missing nin Orochimaru? "Sakura, why would I have anything to do with Orochimaru?"