[Naruto] Are You Ready? - Chapter 9
Title: Are You Ready?
Chapter: 9 - Girl Talk
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 3079
Summary: AU. Sakura gives up on Kakashi as a teacher after Team 7 falls apart. Too bad fate, enemy ninja, and sheer bad luck have other plans.
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. Part 9 of ? Unbeta’d.
Sakura chews on her lower lip and tries to decide if she wants to make Ino mad or not. It wouldn't be an issue, really, except that she definitely needs to know if Ino is staying over at her place again tonight or not.
They'd managed to hide the sleepover from her parents last night but Sakura isn't sure that that's a viable strategy for long term. Not to mention the amount of laundry she'd have to do if Ino is always wearing her clothes. And her parents would notice that, if only for the additional cost of water.
But Ino has finally relaxed into something like her normal self. She'd been edgy and anxious from the time they'd quit training and that morning had been quiet until Hatake-sensei had gotten training going. Sakura doesn't want to throw Ino into another funk, but at the same time...
"Oh, hey," Ino says brightly, tugging Sakura's shoulder so that she's looking in the right direction and dragging her out of her thoughts. "Look--it is Hinata-chan and Tenten!"
Shading her eyes with one hand, Sakura smiles. Hinata and Tenten look like they've just settled down on the patio of a cafe with drinks in hand. "They don't look busy," she notes. "Want to go bother them?"
It means putting off asking Ino the question she's going to have to ask, but Sakura doesn't mind that when Ino grins at her and, as they cross the street, dodging traffic, shouts a greeting to the other girls.
"Long time no see!" Ino calls, leaning against the patio railing. "Mind if we crash your party?"
Sakura rolls her eyes behind Ino's back--Ino elbows her--and Tenten laughs while Hinata smiles.
"As long as you're buying something, feel free to hang out," Tenten says, with a glance at Hinata, who nods her agreement. "If you're here to mooch off our drinks, though, get out and don't even think about it."
Ino laughs and heads for the door.
Sakura lingers a moment, and says, "You've just made it a challenge for her," she advises. "Watch your drink."
Then, to the sound of Hinata and Tenten's laughter, she hurries after Ino.
By the time they get back outside, each with a drink in hand, Hinata and Tenten have dragged two more chairs over to their table. Sakura takes the one closest to Hinata, while Ino kicks Tenten's feet off the other spare chair and claims it.
"Question," Sakura says, before Ino can say anything, "does anyone know why this place is called The Laughing Otter?"
"I told you," Ino said, "it's because of how terrible the owner's hair is."
The owner was a nice, older man--the man who'd made their drinks, in fact--but Sakura can't argue that his hair is terrible.
She still pretty sure that's not why the shop is named as it is.
"No idea," Tenten says.
Hinata looks thoughtful, but shakes her head. "I don't know anything for certain," she says, "though I've heard it suggested that it has something to do with a summons."
"Otter summons, huh?" Ino considers that. "That'd be pretty neat. But it's not as funny as my suggestion."
"It's probably more likely," Sakura opines. "But enough about that--how are you two doing? What have you been up to lately? It's been forever since we've seen you."
Back in the Academy, Sakura hadn't been friends with Hinata, but they'd been amicable to one another. She hadn't known Tenten at all. But after everything that had happened in the Chuunin Exam and beyond, they... weren't friends, exactly, but there was a bond there that hadn't been present before.
Something stronger than a casual friendship would've suggested.
"My parents are all 'when are you going to get promoted'?" Tenten says, laughing and swatting away Ino's hand as it reaches for her drink. "My mom's side of the family, now, they get it, but my dad? He tries, but he doesn't understand how it works. Mom's explained it to him but it's like--in one ear and out the other. It's sweet that he thinks I should be promoted, but…"
All four of them sigh.
None of them had even made it to the finals of the last exams.
"We'll get there," Ino says. "No doubt about that."
And when Ino says, Sakura believes it.
As Ino quizzes Tenten on her training regime--and arranges a training date with her in the same breath; Sakura would be envious of that, but she doesn't want to be Tenten's pincushion--Sakura turns to Hinata.
"Have you been doing alright?" she asks. "How is your team after everything? How is Kiba?"
Hinata smiles, her pale eyes lighting up. "Everyone's made a complete recovery from… from that mission," she says. "It's made training slow, but Kurenai-sensei has had us working on building our tactics and strategies instead of furthering only our physical skills. Kiba-kun complains, but… but it's been good. How, that is--I mean--"
"My new team's doing great," Sakura says, surprised at how even her voice is, as Hinata trails off, looking flustered.
"I… I heard that you could have been apprenticed to Tsunade-sama," Hinata says, after a moment, her cheeks still pink.
"I was, for a little bit," Sakura admits, since the way Hinata makes it sound, it sounds pretty special. "And I still go training with her when there's time. But healing isn't what I wanted to do with myself. I was just… tired of being left behind."
And Sasuke had Orochimaru and Naruto had Jiraiya.
Asking for Tsunade-sama to teach her had been… an easy way to level the field, in her own mind.
But while she enjoys training with Tsunade-sama, Sakura finds that with each day that passes, she's more confident in her choice. She'd liked the medical training, being good at it, and getting attention for it.
With Hatake-sensei, and Ino, though, she loves her team.
"I don't know what my strengths will turn out to be," Sakura continues. "But I'm okay with that, right now."
Somewhat to her own surprise, that's the entire truth.
Ino laughs at something Tenten says, drawing Sakura's attention away from Hinata.
"We've… we've heard some of what's going on, Ino-san," Hinata says tentatively, as the conversation takes a breather. "And we won't pry, but…"
"You need someone to shriek at, you can shriek at us," Tenten says, picking up when Hinata trails off, her words flip but her brown-eyed gaze serious. "I mean, for stress relief if nothing else."
"W-why you've decided to change teams isn't any of our business," Hinata says, stammering a bit, her hands wrapped around the edges of her jacket. "But you… you were the real top of the class, Ino-san. I think… that is, we think, if you made that decision then it was for a good reason."
Ino's smile freezes and Sakura's stomach goes all twisted and taut with anxiety.
"I'll think about it," Ino says, in a voice that would make a glacier seem hot. "Thanks."
But Sakura notices the way Ino slants a considering glance Hinata's way and her anxiety doubles. It's an ugly, really ugly, part of her that wails in incoherent envy at the very thought of Ino being able to confide in someone else when she can't talk to her due to Clan rules.
I bet Hinata could be Ino's formal ally no problem, Sakura thinks, then squashes her bitterness.
If Ino needs help, or even someone to talk to, she should have it. No matter how small and insignificant it makes Sakura feel.
"I appreciate it, Hinata-chan, Tenten-san," Ino says, though when Sakura looks up from her drink, Ino's eyes are fixed on her. "When I make decisions, I know what I'm doing and what--and who--I'm picking."
Sakura flushes, both with embarrassment at having been caught out by Ino, and with pleasure at having been chosen by Ino.
"Still, any port in a storm, right?" Tenten says.
Ino's smile twitches. "Funny," she says, "you don't look much like a boat."
That makes all of them laugh, though Sakura's is a bit uneven and Tenten kicks Ino's shin.
Ino leans back in her chair. "Seriously," she says, "enough about me. Hinata-chan, how's your heart doing? Any issues getting back to training?"
Guiltily, Sakura realizes that she's barely spared a thought for Hinata's condition after the Chuunin Exams and what her cousin had done to her. She'd been more focused on the aftermath of the mission that had finished off her original team.
Sure, Naruto and Sasuke are both alive, but that, she thinks, was where the team died.
It had just taken her longer to realize it.
"Didn't that guy--that traitor, Yakushi--help you out?" she asks. "Did Tsunade-sama check to make sure he didn't leave anything nasty behind?"
"Yes," Hinata says. "Father insisted, of course, and Tsunade-sama cleared me herself. I'm as fit as ever for active duty, though there's a note in my file in case I'm brought back injured from a mission."
"That makes sense," Ino says, toying with her straw and, Sakura is amused to see, that she's managed to switch her drink with Tenten's and is casually drinking Tenten's. "A lot of drugs and treatments are hard on the heart. They'd want to have that information, right, Sakura?"
Sakura nods. "Yeah, the heart's a tricky thing."
"Tsunade-sama said the same thing," Hinata agrees. "I was curious about the notation myself, so I asked."
"There's a lot of poisons that take advantage of that too, isn't there?" Tenten asks, sipping her (Ino's) drink and grimacing. "You should work on your immunities. Ino, you aren't going to have teeth when you're old--and give me my iced coffee back."
Ino ignores that demand. "Tons of poisons exploit the heart," she says. "Most drugs are poisonous in large enough doses anyway--what were your immunities like the last time you got tested, Hinata-chan? If you know them, I can make suggestions so that a poisoned blade out in the field is less likely to ruin you."
Tenten leans over and wrestles her drink out of Ino's hands. "I know mine," she says mildly, after a sip of her coffee. Ino rolls her eyes and takes her own drink back. "And I dislike ruination when it comes to myself. You want to help me with mine? What are yours like, Sakura?"
Sakura laughs. "Should we turn this into a mini-seminar on immunities? Are you up for that, Ino?"
Ino rolls her shoulders, considering that. "I guess so," she says, "though it probably shouldn't be done here. The civilians are getting restless."
It's only then that Sakura realizes that all the nearby civilians have edged away from them.
"My place isn't far from here," Tenten offers. "What do you think, Hinata? Do you want to spend the afternoon on poison immunities? It's not relaxing, exactly, but it's not really training either."
"I'd count it as downtime," Ino says, "and I'm fine to teach if you're all that insistent on it. Listen, dumb ones, and I'll knock the fluff out of your brains."
Then Ino yelps, wriggling in her seat.
Sakura laughs, realizing that both she and Tenten had kicked Ino at the same time.
"I'd like that," Hinata says, smiling. "Thank you, all of you."
As they leave the café, Sakura falls into step with Ino. "Are you coming to my place tonight?" she asks, both Ino's good mood and their company making it easier to just… well, ask, rather than agonize over it.
"I'm waiting on my dad to get back to me about it," Ino says, her eyes going distant. "He's working on something he doesn't want me to see right now. I'll try again after our seminar."
Tenten turns back and calls, "Hurry up, you guys!"
They hurry until they've caught up. "If this goes well," Sakura says, "I was thinking that we could maybe do it again?"
"What?" Ino says. "Immunities?"
Sakura swats at Ino. "No, Pig, I meant this--swapping information. There's got to be things we can help each other with other than that, you know?" She hesitates. "Well, except for maybe me."
Her stomach swoops as she says it, but it's honest. Of the four of them, Sakura is the least likely to know anything useful.
"Another pity party, Forehead?" Ino says, swatting back at her. "Get over yourself."
"What?!" Sakura yelps.
"Ano… I think Ino-san has a point," Hinata says. "Of the four of us, Sakura-san, you were the best at the bookish parts of training. Tenten-san aced history, but…"
Tenten shrugs. "It interests me the most. But other things are more useful now that we're out in the field. There's got to be a lot of things you could teach us, Sakura. Don't sell yourself short."
Something hot and tight rises in her throat. Sakura swallows past it, blinking hard, and vowing that she'll remember this later, the next time she doubts herself.
(And she will doubt herself again and again, she already knows this. Years of lacking self-confidence and then the absolute fiasco that Team 7 had been had only reinforced those bad habits. Breaking them is hard.)
"Well, I...," she trails off. "I guess, maybe. Ino's the first one up though."
"As if it'd ever be different," Ino says. "I'm always number one. And, if I'm not, I should be."
They all laugh, though there's an element of truth to it as well. Ino had been the number one rookie of her year in the Academy. That Sasuke had been named as such instead of her was something Ino had harped on more than once.
Now, Sakura wonders, why they'd done that.
Had it been to send a message that the last scion of a once powerful Clan was still just as strong as his Clan's reputation had demanded he be? Had it been an attempt to tie Sasuke more thoroughly to the village?
Or had it been something Ino's father had wanted?
Ino hooks her arm companionably through Sakura's and drags her forward. "Come on, we're almost there!" she says. "And we'll talk about poisoning all of you!"
Hinata makes a squeaking noise of dismay and Tenten throws her head back and laughs.
Kakashi stews over Inoichi's request that night, even as he follows his own training regime (looking after Genin is no excuse to get soft), until the only thing he can think about is the rush of blood in his head and the pleasant ache and burn and drag of exertion.
By the time he's finished with training, he's almost in a good mood. He wraps that around himself as he stops at a noodle stand to get food and heads back to his apartment. The good mood doesn't last, it's gone by the time he gets home, but the sweet heaviness of his limbs stays with him and that alone helps steady him.
If it were only his comfort to think about, he'd just go to bed. But instead he rattles around his kitchen like loose change in a can, eating takeout noodles from a box and mulling over what to do.
He doesn't want to take his team out of the village yet. They have fantastic synergy, some of the best teamwork he's ever seen, and they'll, eventually, be excellent kunoichi.
But they're not there yet.
Back to the beginning is where he's taken their training and he's done that for a reason. They need it.
He supposes taking them on a few D rank missions would be fine--and perhaps he should do that, at least a couple a week, just for a change of pace for them; as a reward for their hard work--but those are all in the village, which wouldn't take care of what Inoichi had requested.
Kakashi wishes he could ask Pakkun what he thinks. But Pakkun, and the rest of his dogs, aren't available to him in this time and there's no one he can really ask for advice. No one living, anyway.
Wait…
His noodles sitting heavily in his stomach, Kakashi pauses as a thought occurs to him. No one living, huh?
Inoichi's request to take Ino out of the village was to get her away from the gossip and in-fighting between her clan and the Nara and the Akimichi. If he could manage that without having to leave the village, then Inoichi would have nothing to complain about.
I'll still check the missions desk, he thinks virtuously, with a covert glance at the time. It's late; there's still plenty of time before morning. I said I would. There might be something there I don't mind them taking on.
He doubts it. He knows the kinds of missions that are C rank and they're not the kinds of missions he wants Ino and Sakura doing right now, no matter how little actual danger they'd be in with him around.
If he's right, however… there's a few things he wants to check first, though, and then… well. Then they'd see.
But he thinks he's found a way to make both himself and Inoichi happy.
Whether the girls will be happy about it remains to be seen but, if nothing else, he thinks they'll appreciate the variety and the chance to snoop.
They're good girls, after all, and he's never known a kunoichi who'd willingly turn down a chance to pry into someone else's life.
And if it works out the way I hope, I might just get my dogs back.
Kakashi isn't counting on that, he really isn't. He can't afford to wish that much for it, no matter how much he misses them.
But he can hope.
He drops the remnants of his supper in the trash and heads back out into the village. There's plenty of time to look into things before his girls show up, but he would like to get some sleep in the interim as well--which means rushing just a little.
To his own surprise, he finds he doesn't mind. It feels good to have to run around to arrange this. He doesn't even mind the invasion of privacy it's going to bring.
Hokage-sama might raise her eyebrows, he thinks, leaping from roof to roof. But I don't mind. If it's done this way, then it's fine. I think I can handle it, if it's them.
He trusts his girls, unruly and young as they are.
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Originally posted on DW. Comment there. (Unless you want to comment here. That's fine too.)
Chapter: 9 - Girl Talk
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 3079
Summary: AU. Sakura gives up on Kakashi as a teacher after Team 7 falls apart. Too bad fate, enemy ninja, and sheer bad luck have other plans.
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. Part 9 of ? Unbeta’d.
Sakura chews on her lower lip and tries to decide if she wants to make Ino mad or not. It wouldn't be an issue, really, except that she definitely needs to know if Ino is staying over at her place again tonight or not.
They'd managed to hide the sleepover from her parents last night but Sakura isn't sure that that's a viable strategy for long term. Not to mention the amount of laundry she'd have to do if Ino is always wearing her clothes. And her parents would notice that, if only for the additional cost of water.
But Ino has finally relaxed into something like her normal self. She'd been edgy and anxious from the time they'd quit training and that morning had been quiet until Hatake-sensei had gotten training going. Sakura doesn't want to throw Ino into another funk, but at the same time...
"Oh, hey," Ino says brightly, tugging Sakura's shoulder so that she's looking in the right direction and dragging her out of her thoughts. "Look--it is Hinata-chan and Tenten!"
Shading her eyes with one hand, Sakura smiles. Hinata and Tenten look like they've just settled down on the patio of a cafe with drinks in hand. "They don't look busy," she notes. "Want to go bother them?"
It means putting off asking Ino the question she's going to have to ask, but Sakura doesn't mind that when Ino grins at her and, as they cross the street, dodging traffic, shouts a greeting to the other girls.
"Long time no see!" Ino calls, leaning against the patio railing. "Mind if we crash your party?"
Sakura rolls her eyes behind Ino's back--Ino elbows her--and Tenten laughs while Hinata smiles.
"As long as you're buying something, feel free to hang out," Tenten says, with a glance at Hinata, who nods her agreement. "If you're here to mooch off our drinks, though, get out and don't even think about it."
Ino laughs and heads for the door.
Sakura lingers a moment, and says, "You've just made it a challenge for her," she advises. "Watch your drink."
Then, to the sound of Hinata and Tenten's laughter, she hurries after Ino.
By the time they get back outside, each with a drink in hand, Hinata and Tenten have dragged two more chairs over to their table. Sakura takes the one closest to Hinata, while Ino kicks Tenten's feet off the other spare chair and claims it.
"Question," Sakura says, before Ino can say anything, "does anyone know why this place is called The Laughing Otter?"
"I told you," Ino said, "it's because of how terrible the owner's hair is."
The owner was a nice, older man--the man who'd made their drinks, in fact--but Sakura can't argue that his hair is terrible.
She still pretty sure that's not why the shop is named as it is.
"No idea," Tenten says.
Hinata looks thoughtful, but shakes her head. "I don't know anything for certain," she says, "though I've heard it suggested that it has something to do with a summons."
"Otter summons, huh?" Ino considers that. "That'd be pretty neat. But it's not as funny as my suggestion."
"It's probably more likely," Sakura opines. "But enough about that--how are you two doing? What have you been up to lately? It's been forever since we've seen you."
Back in the Academy, Sakura hadn't been friends with Hinata, but they'd been amicable to one another. She hadn't known Tenten at all. But after everything that had happened in the Chuunin Exam and beyond, they... weren't friends, exactly, but there was a bond there that hadn't been present before.
Something stronger than a casual friendship would've suggested.
"My parents are all 'when are you going to get promoted'?" Tenten says, laughing and swatting away Ino's hand as it reaches for her drink. "My mom's side of the family, now, they get it, but my dad? He tries, but he doesn't understand how it works. Mom's explained it to him but it's like--in one ear and out the other. It's sweet that he thinks I should be promoted, but…"
All four of them sigh.
None of them had even made it to the finals of the last exams.
"We'll get there," Ino says. "No doubt about that."
And when Ino says, Sakura believes it.
As Ino quizzes Tenten on her training regime--and arranges a training date with her in the same breath; Sakura would be envious of that, but she doesn't want to be Tenten's pincushion--Sakura turns to Hinata.
"Have you been doing alright?" she asks. "How is your team after everything? How is Kiba?"
Hinata smiles, her pale eyes lighting up. "Everyone's made a complete recovery from… from that mission," she says. "It's made training slow, but Kurenai-sensei has had us working on building our tactics and strategies instead of furthering only our physical skills. Kiba-kun complains, but… but it's been good. How, that is--I mean--"
"My new team's doing great," Sakura says, surprised at how even her voice is, as Hinata trails off, looking flustered.
"I… I heard that you could have been apprenticed to Tsunade-sama," Hinata says, after a moment, her cheeks still pink.
"I was, for a little bit," Sakura admits, since the way Hinata makes it sound, it sounds pretty special. "And I still go training with her when there's time. But healing isn't what I wanted to do with myself. I was just… tired of being left behind."
And Sasuke had Orochimaru and Naruto had Jiraiya.
Asking for Tsunade-sama to teach her had been… an easy way to level the field, in her own mind.
But while she enjoys training with Tsunade-sama, Sakura finds that with each day that passes, she's more confident in her choice. She'd liked the medical training, being good at it, and getting attention for it.
With Hatake-sensei, and Ino, though, she loves her team.
"I don't know what my strengths will turn out to be," Sakura continues. "But I'm okay with that, right now."
Somewhat to her own surprise, that's the entire truth.
Ino laughs at something Tenten says, drawing Sakura's attention away from Hinata.
"We've… we've heard some of what's going on, Ino-san," Hinata says tentatively, as the conversation takes a breather. "And we won't pry, but…"
"You need someone to shriek at, you can shriek at us," Tenten says, picking up when Hinata trails off, her words flip but her brown-eyed gaze serious. "I mean, for stress relief if nothing else."
"W-why you've decided to change teams isn't any of our business," Hinata says, stammering a bit, her hands wrapped around the edges of her jacket. "But you… you were the real top of the class, Ino-san. I think… that is, we think, if you made that decision then it was for a good reason."
Ino's smile freezes and Sakura's stomach goes all twisted and taut with anxiety.
"I'll think about it," Ino says, in a voice that would make a glacier seem hot. "Thanks."
But Sakura notices the way Ino slants a considering glance Hinata's way and her anxiety doubles. It's an ugly, really ugly, part of her that wails in incoherent envy at the very thought of Ino being able to confide in someone else when she can't talk to her due to Clan rules.
I bet Hinata could be Ino's formal ally no problem, Sakura thinks, then squashes her bitterness.
If Ino needs help, or even someone to talk to, she should have it. No matter how small and insignificant it makes Sakura feel.
"I appreciate it, Hinata-chan, Tenten-san," Ino says, though when Sakura looks up from her drink, Ino's eyes are fixed on her. "When I make decisions, I know what I'm doing and what--and who--I'm picking."
Sakura flushes, both with embarrassment at having been caught out by Ino, and with pleasure at having been chosen by Ino.
"Still, any port in a storm, right?" Tenten says.
Ino's smile twitches. "Funny," she says, "you don't look much like a boat."
That makes all of them laugh, though Sakura's is a bit uneven and Tenten kicks Ino's shin.
Ino leans back in her chair. "Seriously," she says, "enough about me. Hinata-chan, how's your heart doing? Any issues getting back to training?"
Guiltily, Sakura realizes that she's barely spared a thought for Hinata's condition after the Chuunin Exams and what her cousin had done to her. She'd been more focused on the aftermath of the mission that had finished off her original team.
Sure, Naruto and Sasuke are both alive, but that, she thinks, was where the team died.
It had just taken her longer to realize it.
"Didn't that guy--that traitor, Yakushi--help you out?" she asks. "Did Tsunade-sama check to make sure he didn't leave anything nasty behind?"
"Yes," Hinata says. "Father insisted, of course, and Tsunade-sama cleared me herself. I'm as fit as ever for active duty, though there's a note in my file in case I'm brought back injured from a mission."
"That makes sense," Ino says, toying with her straw and, Sakura is amused to see, that she's managed to switch her drink with Tenten's and is casually drinking Tenten's. "A lot of drugs and treatments are hard on the heart. They'd want to have that information, right, Sakura?"
Sakura nods. "Yeah, the heart's a tricky thing."
"Tsunade-sama said the same thing," Hinata agrees. "I was curious about the notation myself, so I asked."
"There's a lot of poisons that take advantage of that too, isn't there?" Tenten asks, sipping her (Ino's) drink and grimacing. "You should work on your immunities. Ino, you aren't going to have teeth when you're old--and give me my iced coffee back."
Ino ignores that demand. "Tons of poisons exploit the heart," she says. "Most drugs are poisonous in large enough doses anyway--what were your immunities like the last time you got tested, Hinata-chan? If you know them, I can make suggestions so that a poisoned blade out in the field is less likely to ruin you."
Tenten leans over and wrestles her drink out of Ino's hands. "I know mine," she says mildly, after a sip of her coffee. Ino rolls her eyes and takes her own drink back. "And I dislike ruination when it comes to myself. You want to help me with mine? What are yours like, Sakura?"
Sakura laughs. "Should we turn this into a mini-seminar on immunities? Are you up for that, Ino?"
Ino rolls her shoulders, considering that. "I guess so," she says, "though it probably shouldn't be done here. The civilians are getting restless."
It's only then that Sakura realizes that all the nearby civilians have edged away from them.
"My place isn't far from here," Tenten offers. "What do you think, Hinata? Do you want to spend the afternoon on poison immunities? It's not relaxing, exactly, but it's not really training either."
"I'd count it as downtime," Ino says, "and I'm fine to teach if you're all that insistent on it. Listen, dumb ones, and I'll knock the fluff out of your brains."
Then Ino yelps, wriggling in her seat.
Sakura laughs, realizing that both she and Tenten had kicked Ino at the same time.
"I'd like that," Hinata says, smiling. "Thank you, all of you."
As they leave the café, Sakura falls into step with Ino. "Are you coming to my place tonight?" she asks, both Ino's good mood and their company making it easier to just… well, ask, rather than agonize over it.
"I'm waiting on my dad to get back to me about it," Ino says, her eyes going distant. "He's working on something he doesn't want me to see right now. I'll try again after our seminar."
Tenten turns back and calls, "Hurry up, you guys!"
They hurry until they've caught up. "If this goes well," Sakura says, "I was thinking that we could maybe do it again?"
"What?" Ino says. "Immunities?"
Sakura swats at Ino. "No, Pig, I meant this--swapping information. There's got to be things we can help each other with other than that, you know?" She hesitates. "Well, except for maybe me."
Her stomach swoops as she says it, but it's honest. Of the four of them, Sakura is the least likely to know anything useful.
"Another pity party, Forehead?" Ino says, swatting back at her. "Get over yourself."
"What?!" Sakura yelps.
"Ano… I think Ino-san has a point," Hinata says. "Of the four of us, Sakura-san, you were the best at the bookish parts of training. Tenten-san aced history, but…"
Tenten shrugs. "It interests me the most. But other things are more useful now that we're out in the field. There's got to be a lot of things you could teach us, Sakura. Don't sell yourself short."
Something hot and tight rises in her throat. Sakura swallows past it, blinking hard, and vowing that she'll remember this later, the next time she doubts herself.
(And she will doubt herself again and again, she already knows this. Years of lacking self-confidence and then the absolute fiasco that Team 7 had been had only reinforced those bad habits. Breaking them is hard.)
"Well, I...," she trails off. "I guess, maybe. Ino's the first one up though."
"As if it'd ever be different," Ino says. "I'm always number one. And, if I'm not, I should be."
They all laugh, though there's an element of truth to it as well. Ino had been the number one rookie of her year in the Academy. That Sasuke had been named as such instead of her was something Ino had harped on more than once.
Now, Sakura wonders, why they'd done that.
Had it been to send a message that the last scion of a once powerful Clan was still just as strong as his Clan's reputation had demanded he be? Had it been an attempt to tie Sasuke more thoroughly to the village?
Or had it been something Ino's father had wanted?
Ino hooks her arm companionably through Sakura's and drags her forward. "Come on, we're almost there!" she says. "And we'll talk about poisoning all of you!"
Hinata makes a squeaking noise of dismay and Tenten throws her head back and laughs.
Kakashi stews over Inoichi's request that night, even as he follows his own training regime (looking after Genin is no excuse to get soft), until the only thing he can think about is the rush of blood in his head and the pleasant ache and burn and drag of exertion.
By the time he's finished with training, he's almost in a good mood. He wraps that around himself as he stops at a noodle stand to get food and heads back to his apartment. The good mood doesn't last, it's gone by the time he gets home, but the sweet heaviness of his limbs stays with him and that alone helps steady him.
If it were only his comfort to think about, he'd just go to bed. But instead he rattles around his kitchen like loose change in a can, eating takeout noodles from a box and mulling over what to do.
He doesn't want to take his team out of the village yet. They have fantastic synergy, some of the best teamwork he's ever seen, and they'll, eventually, be excellent kunoichi.
But they're not there yet.
Back to the beginning is where he's taken their training and he's done that for a reason. They need it.
He supposes taking them on a few D rank missions would be fine--and perhaps he should do that, at least a couple a week, just for a change of pace for them; as a reward for their hard work--but those are all in the village, which wouldn't take care of what Inoichi had requested.
Kakashi wishes he could ask Pakkun what he thinks. But Pakkun, and the rest of his dogs, aren't available to him in this time and there's no one he can really ask for advice. No one living, anyway.
Wait…
His noodles sitting heavily in his stomach, Kakashi pauses as a thought occurs to him. No one living, huh?
Inoichi's request to take Ino out of the village was to get her away from the gossip and in-fighting between her clan and the Nara and the Akimichi. If he could manage that without having to leave the village, then Inoichi would have nothing to complain about.
I'll still check the missions desk, he thinks virtuously, with a covert glance at the time. It's late; there's still plenty of time before morning. I said I would. There might be something there I don't mind them taking on.
He doubts it. He knows the kinds of missions that are C rank and they're not the kinds of missions he wants Ino and Sakura doing right now, no matter how little actual danger they'd be in with him around.
If he's right, however… there's a few things he wants to check first, though, and then… well. Then they'd see.
But he thinks he's found a way to make both himself and Inoichi happy.
Whether the girls will be happy about it remains to be seen but, if nothing else, he thinks they'll appreciate the variety and the chance to snoop.
They're good girls, after all, and he's never known a kunoichi who'd willingly turn down a chance to pry into someone else's life.
And if it works out the way I hope, I might just get my dogs back.
Kakashi isn't counting on that, he really isn't. He can't afford to wish that much for it, no matter how much he misses them.
But he can hope.
He drops the remnants of his supper in the trash and heads back out into the village. There's plenty of time to look into things before his girls show up, but he would like to get some sleep in the interim as well--which means rushing just a little.
To his own surprise, he finds he doesn't mind. It feels good to have to run around to arrange this. He doesn't even mind the invasion of privacy it's going to bring.
Hokage-sama might raise her eyebrows, he thinks, leaping from roof to roof. But I don't mind. If it's done this way, then it's fine. I think I can handle it, if it's them.
He trusts his girls, unruly and young as they are.
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