"Beat his ass, Sakura-chan!" Naruto all but screamed at his pink haired teammate, who was currently engaged in a well heated spar with their other teammate.
Sasuke threw a well aimed punch towards her direction and Sakura barely managed to dodge before throwing a jab at his stomach and creating a distance between them both.
A pained grunt escaped the brooding pre-teen as he jumped back, before molding his hands through a string of hand signs and bringing one up to his mouth, "Fire release: Great Fireball technique!"
Sakura jumped back in alarm and went through some of her own hand signs and then slammed her palm onto the ground, "Earth release: Earth-style Wall!" She exclaimed before a few inches thick wall of earth errupted from the ground, stretching a couple of meters and towering above her in a protective shield.
Soon enough the scorching heat from beyond the wall licked her skin and she took a step back, breathing heavily. She had to wrap this up quick or she was going to loose this. Vaguely, she activated her sensory jutsu and felt for any of her kunai behind Sasuke.
It was a trick she had come up with all by herself. She had marked all of her kunai with simple fuinjutsu seals that were filled with a single drop of her chakra. It was an unextractable seal, meaning no one could extract her chakra to trace it back to her, in case of any high profile enemies. With this, she'd be able to sense the seal within 10 meters from her, in any direction.
Sakura took pride in how far she had come with training and hard work, the many techniques she had learned, all of the current jutsu she had yet to perfect and skills she managed to acquire that she thought were unreachable. It was almost surreal but now, fighting and feeling the thrilling pressure in a battle, it was, in fact, the reality.
She only wished she had started sooner.
Shaking those thoughts away, she sensed a kunai a couple of feet from Sasuke and smirked in sure victory. Focusing on the sole weapon, she did a few hand signs for a Substitution and dissapeared in a black flash.
The Substitution technique was definitely one of the most underappreciated jutsu she knew of. She had decided to master it to a great degree after she had read up on a 'Shunshin no Shisui' that had mastered the Shunshin to very scary level. With the help of her shishou, Sakura was sure she'd master substitution like Shisui too.
She appeared behind Sasuke, her chakra masked. She was about to grab a kunai from her holster when Naruto's loud shout completely ruined the serious feeling in the training ground, "Yeah Sakura-chan! That's a great plan! Amazing!"
Sasuke's eyes widened and he whirled around. In a haste to win, Sakura brought her leg up in a turning kick and it collided with his arm that Sasuke had brought forth to protect himself. He then brought his bent leg forward to prepare a knee strike, hitting her square in the lower right abdomen.
With a pained cry, Sakura was thrown a few feet back, landing on her back after having rolled even forward.
The bright light from the sun first assaulted her eyes as she tried opening them, attempting to ignore the pain around her right hip. A frown etched onto her face, her mouth forming a nasty snarl, "NARUTOOOOOO!!!"
Said boy's face paled drastically in fear and concern.
Sasuke only wiped the dirt off the side of his face and smirked.
Kakashi went back to reading his Ich Icha Paradiase after having observed the heated long drawn out battle. It was mid afternoon, and they had came back from an easy D-rank, when Naruto demanded for a training and sparring session. So, as being unable to deny the boy, Kakashi agreed.
Now, since when did Sakura learn all of those Jutsu?
She had used multiple Water and Earth release techniques and some weird substitution that looked barely like the one taught in the Academy. Some of them weren't available to read up on in the library and he surely hadn't taught her that (a part of his brain argued as to why he hadn't, but he paid it no mind), so who?
The team's friendship and teamwork had started improving drastically since Sakura decided on taking the Ninja career more seriously. It would've been better had she just waited a couple of more months but it was fine, he guessed.
He now had to fully pay attention to all of students or he'd be considered a bad teacher (if he wasn't one already)
Yet he did nothing. After that gone-wrong c-rank, which was about four months ago, Kakashi was pensive about training them to be child soldiers. Like him and the many others that now were nothing more than tools that killed for a living and served blindly under the Hokage.
He didn't want his students to end up like that.
But as he watched his sole female student, who he knew from the start was going to either end up getting killed or leave the team, almost having defeated the Rookie of the year with a fire he had never seen in her and techniques that were never taught to her, he felt doubt in his methods.
It wasn't their first spar, and Sasuke surely hadn't won all of them, surprisingly.
"Kaka-sensei!" Naruto's loud voice snapped him out of his brooding as he glanced up to meet the gazes of his three students, "Yes?"
"Naruto wanted a Ramen bonding gathering today," Sakura started, and Sasuke grumbled something about it being weird name from the side, "Unfortunately, I can't hang out today, so can you please take my place Kakashi-sensei? Just for today?"
Her big bright gleaming eyes looked up at him in a ridiculously adorable way. The girl always had the good looks, it seems as though she's starting to weaponize it for her own purposes.
Which was not a good thing.
A single drop of sweat dripped from his temple to the side of his masked cheek, "Is that so? Well I have to say-"
"No! You don't get to say anything! You're coming with us!" Naruto screamed, glaring up at him with a 'deny me, I dare you' face. Sasuke dug his hands in the pockets of his pants and smirked up at him.
Oh the combined faces of his adorable little genin, how could possibly he resist that?
"....Okay, I suppose just one time is okay"
There was a chorus of 'Yay's shared among the three children before Naruto grabbed Sakura and Sasuke's hands and dragged them forward, "You can come for a little while can't you, Sakura-chan?"
"Well...," A pensive look took over her face as she looked from Naruto to Sasuke and then towards the woods, "I suppose I could follow you till the main road, I'll be leaving by then."
Naruto nodded wildly and grinned, tugging them away, "Kakashi-sensei! Come on!"
Kakashi sighed as he snapped his book shut with one hand. He stood there for some time before announcing, "I know you're there, come out."
Some ruffling of leaves later a figure dropped down from a tree. A wavy mane of blonde bobbed slightly as the person stood upright, "You caught me, Sharingan no Kakashi"
A frown etched onto the Jonin's face as he stared at the blonde lady before him, "Who are you?"
"Sakura's guardian, and mentor," a smug smile made it's way up her face, "I noticed she hasn't had any development since she joined your daily training sessions, any reason why? I had expected a powerful shinobi like you to provide valuable lessons"
Alarm bells rang in his head as he quickly grabbed a kunai, his hand in a blur, and lifted his hitai-ate. The chakra of the woman was sharp, calculated and strong. She was nothing short of a powerful shinobi and nor had he seen her in the village.
She laughed, reaching into to her trenchcoat- Kakashi tensed at the motion- and pulled out a card. It was a license for immigrants that were given after recieving full citizenship of Konoha, "Careful there, Hatake. Injure me and you'll be charged for civilian offense."
She was threatening him?
"What do you plan to do with Sakura?" It was a clear question running in his mind. It wouldn't take a toddler to put two and two together, she had trained Sakura behind his back. He only hoped she didn't have any underlying plan.
"Nothing, what could I possibly want from her?" Confusion painted her face before realization hit her, "Oh you didn't know?"
"Know what?"
A cheshire like grin from her told Kakashi that whatever he didn't know wasn't good, "Why do you think I'm her guardian? Her parents abandoned her months ago, I've been with her since May. Shouldn't you know this as her Sensei?"
Kakashi's eyes widened in disbelief, What?!
"Pathetic, how can I trust my niece with a man who can't even know such crucial information about her? Aren't sensei's supposed to check their students' official documents once every month?" She took a step forward, "You haven't helped train her at all. She didn't even know how to walk on water, and most of the techniques she knew were all by herself. She says you only taught her how to walk on trees and genjutsu dispelling."
Kakashi's frown only deepened as he gripped his Kunai tighter. He hadn't known a single thing about Sakura's homelife. The only thing he'd known was the fact that her parents were civilians that made to genin before settling back to a normal life. Is that why she never talked about her parents? He had thought she was being careful as to not make everyone uncomfortable by talking about family in front of a bunch of orphans.
Good lord, he fucked up bad. "When did that-?"
"Months ago," Isone said as she walked past him to where the three genin were, "If you really think you're doing God's work, 'protecting' them from becoming soulless child soldiers by not training them, then wake up. They became tools for the village the second they graduated from the Academy, all you're doing is purposefully sending untrained children to last a few minutes in a fight."
And with that, Isone walked away.
___________
"Kakashi-sensei...?"
"Yes, Sakura?"
"Is there some reason you called off our spar?" Sakura asked, a little annoyed with how their teacher had called off Naruto and Sasuke's spar for no apparent reason, "We're training, y'know?"
Kakashi only smiled a bit more, creeping the three out, "Today I've decided to start you three on your chakra natures, so-"
"We already know that Kaka-sensei! Mine's wind!" Naruto shouted, folding his arms with a frown on his face.
To which Sasuke added, "Lightning," and almost as a second thought, "And fire."
Sakura chirped in before he could say anything, "Mine's Earth and Water!"
Bewildered, Kakashi stared at his team, this is going to be harder than it had seemed...
________________________________
I guess i was truly dead...
But yeah, Kakashi sucks as a teacher. I feel like there's a difference between caring for a child and be willing to die for it, and a teacher that teaches a child. I mean he cares but he doesn't teach them shit, so I'm kinda mad. I'll try to incorporate him being more of a teacher but I'm not sure, its either going to be entirely off screen or I'll write a little bit. I'm just way too impatient to start the chunin exams arc right now.
Sorry for the delay!
Stay safe💕