"Where is he?" I ask as soon as I run inside the tent. People look at me worriedly, they heads bowed down. Behind them, I see him. Lying on the bed, motionless, blooded. I run towards him, tears streaming down my face, hands trembling. "Don't you dare die on me." I whisper through gritted teeth.
"Sa-Ku-Ra." He whispers my name in syllables. I shake my head and put my hand over his wound.
"Just stay quiet." I whisper once again, fear creeping up in my body. "I will not let you die."
"Thank you, Ugly."
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto-baka runs in my bedroom, jumping straight on me, while waking me up. I crack my eyes open, ready to punch him in the face, when he starts waving his hands in surrender in front of me. "We are going to be late, believe it!" He shouts quivering and hops out of my bed. "Old man told me to wake you up." He adds, nodding his head off.
I sigh, my eyes wandering towards the clock. With loud and audible grunt, I push the blanket away from me, I rub my eyes to sober myself up a bit more and turn towards Naruto. who is looking through my books.
"Naruto." I call out, tiredly. I have gone to sleep late at night, reading everything about different jutsus and attacks. I have decided to postpone my medic studies, until I meet Tsunade-sama. I don't want to raise any more suspicious around me.
"Hm?" He turns towards me, tilting his head. He has learnt that from Anko-san. She has been rubbing off on both of us.
"I need to change." I sigh and he nods, leaving my books and study table alone. He turns around and slowly stomps towards the door, turning just before he was to close the door.
"Don't take too long, Sakura-chan." He grins at me and shuts the door behind. With loud sigh, I take my clothes and head towards the shower.
***
"He is late." Naruto states irritated as we approach the training grounds. Only Sasuke is there and he is fuming from anger. Usually, I am the first one to arrive anywhere, but knowing that Kakashi sensei is always late, I let myself oversleep.
"Dobe." Sasuke mumbles and looks back at the horizon. I sigh as my eyes linger on him. The only difference between this Sasuke and previous one is that now, he is not driven my revenge. And aside from it, he is pretty much the same. He still usually labels me as annoying, but now we are friends. I think he wanted to befriend Naruto, but I just came along.
"Teme." Naruto barfs back and sits next to me on the grass. I smile at the duo and lay back. I look up at the sky with serene smile resting on my face. Clouds lazily float above us. I raise my hands up, as if trying to grab the cloud above.
"What do you miss the most, Shika-chan?" I turn to the lazy genius and look back up at the sky.
"Clouds."
I tear up at the memory, but blink them away. Instead, I sit up and take a book out of my backpack, I always carry around. Well, usually Naruto carries it everywhere as he decided that he needed ramen anywhere he went. And only one of my books is in the bag and rest of the space is taken by his food, he gets to carry it.
"What are you reading, Sakura-chan?" Naruto scoops closer to me, trying to have a glimpse of what is written in the book.
"Naruto." I sigh and let him look inside. "You can't perform it, yet. And nevertheless, Earth is not your chakra element." I add a bit annoyed. Naruto puffs.
"Why is not old man training me as well?" He asks irritated.
"Because you can barely make clones and throw kunai." I add agitated. "And he is training you, only in different level." I add pointing out the obvious and going back to my book.
"Sorry, I am late." Kakashi appears in front of us. Naruto starts shouting loudly, while I only smirk at him. "I got lost on the path of life." Kakashi adds and chuckles, rubbing his head. I shrug at his excuse and put the book away. "Also, I overheard your conversation." Kakashi adds and smiles down at Naruto, patting his head. "The reason Sakura is trained more is because she is..." Prodigy. I know that he wants to say it. He told me it already for several times, when he was Hound. He could never understand, why I did not accept my fate. "Gifted." He finishes with a shrug and looks at me.
No one says anything. I know, in fact, that Naruto and Sasuke, both have certain theories about me. And I know that they have heard rumors about me. Especially, Sasuke, as I am always welcomed warm in Uchiha district. And even I have heard when they were talking about me, praising my abilities and courage. But what they don't know is that I am not brave, but coward. I did not do it to save Konoha from disaster. I did it to save Sasuke from despair. I did it to save specifically Shisui from his death.
"Now..." Kakashi starts awkwardly, sensing the tensed atmosphere. "We are going to start a survival test." Kakashi takes out two bells. "The one, who will be left without the bell, will be sent back in academy." He states flatly. Naruto gapes, Sasuke nods, while I only smirk.
Naruto, much like the last time attacks him without waiting for the start. Kakashi easily manages to neutralize him and looks down at him, disappointed.
"Tch, Naruto." Kakashi shakes his head and sighs. "I did not say start." He pushes Naruto towards us and I manage to catch him. "Now...Start." As soon as word start leaves his mouth, I grab Naruto and jump away with Sasuke.
I conceal my Chakra, but sigh, knowing that Kakashi would be able to feel Sasuke's and Naruto's chakras.
"We have to do Naru-Sasu-Saku attack." Boys nod to me and we all spy on Kakashi, who is standing in the middle, reading his perverted book. We jump together, startling Kakashi.
Sasuke is the first one to attack. He throws, Uchiha's famous fire ball towards Kakashi. As soon as the fire ball disappears Naruto's Shadow Clones appear, attacking Kakashi at the same time. Kakashi sensei is twisting, trying to avoid Naruto's clones. But before he is able to jump away, I grab his foot from the ground, putting him down with me. One of the clones take away the bells just before Kakashi is sloughed in the ground, with only his head visible.
"Team Naru-Sasu-Saku is ready to take down whoever it is, believe it!" Naruto Shouts loudly, earning chuckle from all of us. Kakashi sighs, digging himself out of the ground and standing in front of us.
"So, Naruto..." Kakashi starts in dead serious tone. "Who are you going to give the spare bell to?" Kakashi asks and looks more carefully at the blonde.
"Ne, I don't have the bells." Naruto shrugs his shoulders and looks at me. "I gave them to Sakura-chan." He grins at us.
"So, Sakura?" Kakashi turns to me and tilts his head. "What are you going to do with the bells?"
"I don't want to pass the test if any of them are going to fail." I shrug my shoulders and throw the bells to his feet. He looks at boys, and both of them nod, angrily.
"I am not going to leave either Sakura-chan or teme." Naruto states angrily.
"Hn." Sasuke mumbles, indicating that he is siding with us. Kakashi laughs. Loudly. I can see happiness and surprise glittering in his eyes.
"You all pass." He states and turns around. "The aim of the test was teamwork." He shrugs his shoulders and turn his head to us. "And you three have perfect teamwork." He states before disappearing. His chakra appears near us, spying on us.
"I am hungry." I start whinnying." Come guys, let eat something." I grab their hands and start dragging them away.
***
"What do you think, Kakashi-san?" Shisui appears in front of him. Kakashi looks at Uchiha and shrugs.
"They work good together." Kakashi adds with a sigh. His new team is nothing like his own. Yes, Kakashi and Sasuke resembled one another, while Naruto acted painfully like Obito Uchiha, but... Sakura and Rin... Yes, they both love their teammates and they both acted like the moderators between their two teammates. But... Rin was not a prodigy. That title was owned by Kakashi and now... In their team, Rin was usually the one, that needed help, needed to be saved. Now, in new Team 7, Sakura seemed like one, who would save everyone. After all, it was her motivation of becoming Shinobi.
"Sakura seems to like them a lot." Shisui starts talking, observing older man. "She cares about them a lot. She would not let any harm to come on their way."
"I know." Kakashi nods. "Their formation though and how Naruto stated the name later. As if they have been training for years together." Kakashi looks at Shisui. He knows that Sakura has been training ever since she turned three. But after Danzo incident, Third gave him other, long termed missions rather than to make him look after the girl.
"They have been training together ever since the second year in the academy." Shisui shrugs his shoulders. "Sakura asked permission to Fugaku-san and they usually end up training in Uchiha compound. Sakura has been straightening their teamwork."
"As if she knew, they would end up together...?" Kakashi looks at younger boy, who nods.
"She asked it, at the beginning of Second Year." Shisui shrugs his shoulders. "She wanted her, Naruto and Sasuke to be together in one team. And no one was against it." Shisui smiles at Kakashi, who nods in understanding.