Chapter Text
“This is not a punishment, Kakashi-kun.” The Sandaime stated as the silver-haired Jounin placed the worn Hound mask on the Hokage's desk. He could hear no sound from the outside, a privacy seal then. “I don’t want your mask, unless you are resigning?”
“I assumed you were removing me from the forces.” Kakashi's voice was as plain as ever, even if inside he dealing with a vast diversity of feelings.
“No.” Sandaime sighed, suddenly looking very old. Kakashi wasn't fooled, there was nothing fragile about the Third Hokage. “I, more than anyone, understand why you feel responsible for the Uchiha affair.” Orochimaru’s name remained unspoken, but ever so present. He had a scar on his left shoulder to remember, not that he needed any physical souvenirs, Obito's gift made sure of that.
Opening his drawer, the third Hokage took two files. One thick, old, and ever so familiar. The cover was brown, as it was for everyone who fought the third war. When Minato entered the office, he changed their supplier and the Sandaime never switched back, so the color of the next generations' folders was bright green. Fitting, Kakashi's mind supplied. The Sandaime opened Kakashi's file on the very first page, which detailed his short time in the Academy.
“It was never completed.” the Hatake pointed out, tracing the lines of his young face with his eyes. He was 4 years old in the picture, his first day in the Ninja Academy.
“Your graduation was quicker than anyone expected.” Sandaime agreed. He took out the other file and handed it to Kakashi, it was not only green but also shiny and new in a way that made Kakashi cringe. “Take a look, and tell me you don’t see why I'm doing this.”
Kakashi wanted to point out that the Hokage did not need to convince him. He would do as ordered. He wanted to tell Sandaime-sama that motives were irrelevant, all that mattered was the law, and to him, Sadaime's words were the law. He voiced nothing of that and opened the file. An order didn't need to be phrased as an order.
Haruno Sakura, he read, has perfect chakra control, and the highest grades in the theoretical part of her classes. Above-average results with weapons and taijutso. Good execution grades for all the ninjutsu and genjutsu taught at Konoha Academy. In wartime, she would have graduated already.
He felt his chest compress. Kakashi didn't want this. Whatever he had to pass forward to the next generation was not worth the disaster that followed him around. He didn't want this little girl's blood on his hand. He didn't want to get attached.
“She’s above average.” He agreed, ignoring the nausea. “But her numbers are all lower than mine.”
“She’s not you,” Sarutobi said easily, “She’s also from a civilian family.”
No one to fight them on this, to broadcast the absurdity of giving Friend-Killer-Kakashi a child to teach, went unspoken. No consequences for the village when she dies, his brain added.
"You have a lot of knowledge, Kakashi-kun. You are a remarrclebe shinobi," Sandaime continued "It's time to feed some of it to the next generation."
They all did their part, Sandaime didn't add. All of the Sanin, Minato, his dad... the Hokage and his predecessors. Everyone took the time to teach someone, otherwise Konoha would not be standing.
“She’s young.”
“She is.” He agreed, his voice firm.
“What of Team Ro?”
“As I said, I’m not pulling you out. I’ll inform the academy that she is to graduate, your team will be on tower patrol for the next two months, and you are on leave. After that, I expect you to balance both duties, much like Minato did when he took you in. ”
Sensei did that, true. However, Kakashi had been a very self sufficient student, and already a Chunin for over a year.
“This is an order.” He didn't ask.
“However, it's not punishment” The Hokage answered tilting his head.
“Sakura” Kakashi started, watching as his 8-year-old student took heavy breaths. “Your file ranked your stamina as average. Why are you this tired?”
“We don’t…” she breathed in and out “run that much…”
“How many laps do you usually do at the academy?” Kakashi asks, frowning.
“8, around the training ground.”
That was… not much. Kakashi had asked for 2 laps around the village, and she collapsed before finishing the first. Was that normal? How much did Genin usually run?
“Well, we’ll run every day, eventually you’ll get the two laps.” He sighed, deciding to give her a second to catch her breath. “Let’s do some meditation, so you rest a bit.”
Kakashi was vaguely reminded of Rin and Obito when they graduated. They were not that slow, were they? Watching Sakura meditate he slapped himself on the wrist. He couldn't overwhelm her like this, otherwise, she would faint and that would mean a lost day. Research, he decided. Inoichi usually trains his team in the mornings, maybe he could stop by and say Hi.
“I want to see what you can do with weapons.” He told the girl after she did around 20 minutes of meditation. Raising his left hand, he asked Sakura to come close. “But first, let’s avoid you feeling too much of that run, okay? Turn around.”
“Why?” She asked suspiciously. “Are you going to do something weird?”
Questioning superiors is something he remembered Obito and Rin doing too, it's what annoyed him the most in his young years and definitely a bad habit. In this case, however, he recognized her fear for what it was and explained himself.
“I’m no medic-nin, but I can do a few of their jutsu. Your run was a little more intense than it probably should, I want to heal a little of your calves. Otherwise, tomorrow will be a very painful day for you.”
“Oh,” Sakura blushed and turned around as instructed. “Thank you, sensei.”
“You will feel it.” Kakashi warned, “Otherwise it's pointless. If I heal you all the way, your body won't build muscle."
They spent the rest of the day on weapons. On her file, she had perfect scores on both kunai and shuriken. However, her skill would not hold on the field, that seemed like a good place to start.
Kakashi ignored the part of his brain that was judging the Academy instructors, she wasn't ready to graduate from the academy, they speed-tracked her on Sandaime's orders. So it was expected Sakura would have educational holes.
After he dismissed her, the Hatake took out his notebook. He had two months to get her to a rhythm. Basing her training on Team Ro's was probably fine, right?
"You'll start with a run every day," Kakashi told Sakura, ignoring her groan. "But I don't want you running to the point of collapsing, you'll run for one hour and a half, at a speed that will challenge you but not kill you."
"Sensei..." She started but stopped when her eyes met his. "Hai."
Sakura, he realized, was extremely shy. Often she wanted to complain but would blush and look down instead. On he file, the Yamanaka heir was listed as a close bond, having a friend with such a strong personality probably made her used to standing in the background. It served him well, the girl didn't push for a closer bond and did what he asked, even when she didn't want to.
"Cool off meditating for half an hour" Kakashi continued. "Then we'll work on weapons, for now, that means kunai and shuriken. I want to see the Jutsu you learned in the academy and teach you some others. After that, we'll do some sparing and you'll be free to go home."
Sakura bit her lip but nodded.
"I have books for you." Kakashi continued, handing her the first one. "I'll give you one each Monday, and you'll have a week to read it. This one is on the history of Iwa, there will be a test of your knowledge, so make sure you study it."
"Hai." She seemed more comfortable with the prospect of reading than anything else he suggested so far. Kakashi resisted the urge to rub his eyes, instead eye smiling at the genin.
"Any questions?"
"Are..." Sakura looked away. "Are the books... Are the books related to the rest of the training?"
"Yes and no. There will be material related to the practical side of your training, so you understand it. You must know what you are doing and why, you won't always have someone to tell you how to improve. However, a lot of the material will be on other topics such as politics or history." Kakashi paused, making sure she understood the huge undertaking. "One of the important things about not only my fighting but the way I operate as a Shinobi is the knowledge. A wide range of information and a good mind to use it well, that's the start of a good ninja."
"What is the first thing you would do in a fight against someone from Sand?" Kakashi asked as he observed Sakura doing her push-ups.
"Look for shelter from the wind." She answered dutifully.
"Wrong," Kakahsi noticed from behind his book the half-second pause in her movement. "Try again."
"I guess... that before I find shelter I could make sure I have a general poison counter...."
"That's even more wrong. Explain the thought process on both answers."
"Sand-nin a big on Wind manipulation. So an open field favors them."
"Correct." Sakura stopped her push-ups and rolled to start crunches.
"And they are known for the use of poisons."
Kakashi flipped a page and nodded his assent.
"What type of fight do you want?"
"Long range," Sakura answered without missing a beat. Kakashi waited, and could almost hear the gears on her brain turning. "A field is better for long range but worse for fighting a wind user."
"Yes," Kakashi closed his book. "That's why fighting them is so annoying. You are at a disadvantage, always. When we teach you earth manipulation, you'll be able to answer this question differently. But you are not there yet. Underneath the underneath, Sakura."
"The question isn't about Sand." She said, sitting on the ground. "Is about what to do in a fight I am at a disadvantage."
Kakashi waited.
"I... have to... kill them, don't I? before they engage."
"Yes."
He continued to quiz Sakura, pleased by most of her answers, it was clear she studied the material he gave her.
"And if it's on rocks?"
"Kunai are better than." Sakura didn't pause to think. "They are more precise, and with the correct technique can break through small rocks."
"You did well." Kakashi praised, looking away from Sakura's flushed smile. "Let's get some lunch."
-
Kakashi congratulated himself on hiding his scent from the Inuzuka on Team 3, and her partner. His luck they were so green, he never managed against the older Inuzuka Jounin.
The Aburames were easy to hide from if you knew how. Kakashi was one of the few who had the technique and was bound to several laws to never pass it forward. Of course, he had Hokage's permission to teach anything he wanted to Sakura, which overruled any law, so he would add that to the list.
"Sensei..." The Inuzuka complained as they performed their warm-ups. "Can't we skip this today? I'm sore from yesterday."
"You know you can't." The blonde man answered sighing. He looked like this was a recurring topic of conversation.
Kakashi watched their biker and training for half of the morning, his clone keeping his own student company. As he finally decided he had seen enough, he disappeared with a puff of smoke, making sure his presence would remain undetected.
He repeated the process with three other teams, before writing down three observations:
- Sakura should probably socialize with this generation of Genin;
- He was training his student three times harder than the other teams were being trained;
- Sakura was responding well to the heavy training, there was no reason to stop.
Despite all his reservations, Kakashi grinned under his mask. They asked him to train Sakura, he would make her in an absolute terror.
The month passed slowly, and Kakashi could see Sakura's progress. Her main struggle was physical power, strength, and stamina. That was something he had trouble with at her age, so resources to help the situation were not a problem. Sandaime was correct in his assessment, their skills were a match. He even took her in a few D-ranks, so she understood how they worked, as she soon would have to take missions by herself.
"Do I need to take those often?" Sakura complained, and Kakashi's eye smiled.
"You know you do, all active ninja need to do their part."
She groaned. Slowly, Sakura started to become more confident around him. She was still shy but could hold a conversation. Sometimes, Kakashi noticed her watching him from the corner of her eye, with some sort of emotion that looked a little too much like admiration for his likes.
He also introduced Sakura to both tree walking and water walking. As predicted, she got both exercises down in a few minutes.
"Elemental manipulation is the next step in your training." Kakashi admited. "Do you know what it is?"
"Yes. I... Ino-chan and I tested our affinities, mine is Earth."
"Uhm. That's why we are learning fire today!."
Sakura frowned at him.
"Isn't it super hard to learn secondary affinities?"
"Yes. And according to your blood tests, your second affinity is water." Kakashi raised his hand before she could say anything. "It's hard, it will take a long time, but you'll get it. If we start with Earth, it will be even harder to learn the others as you grow older. We want to avoid your comfort zone at all costs, Earth will be the last one you'll learn."
"I didn't know you could use all elements," Sakura admitted, tilting her head. "Isn't that like.... super rare?"
"Yes," Kakashi answered, not bothering with fake modesty. "And the goal is for you to do that too, but that will take a little longer."
Sakura sighed, already familiar with his methods, and nodded. She looked resigned but determined and Kakashi tried hard to squish the warmth growing in his chest. The strategy he used when training the 5 elements had been brilliant. Kakashi was a very young chunin, 6 years old, so he didn't have the chakra to rely on high-ranking ninjutsu. Back then, he didn't have a team with a sensei to help solve the problem. So he went to the library and took everything he could on D and C rank ninjutsu. He spent a year training to master all elements, so he could apply the lower-ranked ninjutsu in battle.
When Minato took him, he was mastering his 4th element, the blonde had been very impressed. Kakashi hadn't realized that most jounin could only use two elements, the Yellow Flash himself could only do 3. Minato theorized that learning at a young age made that possible, and even easier in some degree, because his chakra hadn't settled completely yet. 8 was older than 6, but Kakashi was hoping to do the same with Sakura, even if she took a little longer.
"Great! So the first exercise is to burn...."
Sakura took a bite of her Dango and frowned at the book in hand. She understood it perfectly, but executing it was impossible.
No matter what she tried, the leaf wouldn't burn.
"Sakura-chan?" A familiar male voice called, and she peeked above her book to see Ino's dad.
"Hi, Inochi-san!" Sekura greated, with a smile.
"Ino told me you graduated." He said, eyes on the forehead protector on top of her head, holding her hair away from her face. "How is it going?"
Kakashi-sensei had asked her to avoid giving too much information on what they were doing. She knew Inoichi was an important person, but she didn't want to disappoint Sensei.
"It's well!" She smiled at him, making sure to tilt her head to the right. "Are you here to get Dango for Ino? I remember she likes matcha."
"Yes." He answered, scratching the back of his head. "She does. You should come visit someday."
"Aaa" Sakura blushed. She hadn't talked to Ino in a few weeks, things between them had become complicated when Sakura graduated. "I've been busy, so I'm prioritizing my parents on downtime."
That was also, a lie. If she truly was worried about spending time with her parents, she would have stayed at home instead of taking her hard-earned D-rank wages and sitting by herself in a Dango shop. Being around her parents was hard, they didn't understand what she was doing, and she didn't want to explain. They hadn't noticed the strain in their relationship yet, but it was all Sakura could see.
"Hatake is running you to the ground?" He asked. She cursed herself and giggled.
"No way! That lazy old man? He's late to training every day." She could tell that Inoichi was not fooled, but if she went down, it would be due to poor performance, not lack of trying. That counted for something in Kakashi-sensei's book, she knew. "I have been helping to walk his dogs. He has 8!"
"I don't know why Hatake thinks you need subterfuge inside the village." He answered unimpressed. Sakura just tilted her head again in fake confusion and smiled at him.
"I don't know what you mean." She made sure to open her book, the same way she had seen her teacher do several times. The blonde jounin sighed, but let her be.
"We are going on a C-rank mission," Sensei informed her in the middle of her second month as a genin, as they walked to the mission desk. Sakura blinked. "I'll request it, just wanted to let you know so you don't act surprised."
"Hai, sensei," Sakura answered dutifully, watching as he pulled his orange book out of his vest. It was unusual for him to warn her of any changes, he preferred to let her figure things out. That meant he wanted her to act in a certain way, but would not tell her directly. Sakura wouldn't disappoint.
Iruka-sensei had not been amused.
"Sakura has been a genin for a month and a half." He exploded, and Sakura took a deep breath. She needed to look ready, not afraid, and not surprised. However, Iruka-sensei had been her teacher for 3 years and he didn't think she was ready...
"She did very intense training during that time," Sensei answered, seeming unconcerned. "A C-rank mission is skill-appropriate for Team Kakashi."
Iruka opened his mouth, but the Hokage raised his hand, so he fell silent. Kakashi placed his hand on Sakura's head, and she immediately straightened her posture, looking far more confident than she felt.
Jounin had their own codes, and Sakura did not doubt that Kakashi-sensei had been communicating with the Hokage the entire time. She would play her role.
"I understand your reasoning." The Hokage said, looking at Kakashi-sensei. "Granted."
"Hokage-sama, Sakura is eight...." Iruka started. Kakashi's hand moved to her shoulder and squeezed lightly. Another warning, he was about to do something.
"Stand down, chunin," Kakashi-sensei's voice was firm and commanding, she hadn't heard that tone before. Iruka was taken aback by it and froze. Sakura made sure to keep her posture, "The Hokage made his decision. Haruno Sakura is my soldier, not your student."
An uncomfortable silence filled the room, as Sandaime shufled through Mission scrolls, ignoring the confrontation between his subordinates. He let Kakashi reprimand Iruka, Sakura realized. Maybe he even asked him to do it.
"Escort mission from the capital, there is no one to spare and meet you halfway, so you'll need to get all the way there." He said, tossing it to Kakashi. "Think you can run there in less than two days?." Both Sakura and Kakashi nodded together. She had been running every day, and both her speed and her stamina had increased a lot.
"By your leave, Hokage-sama," Kakashi-sensei said, and the Hokage nodded.
"Good hunting, Team Kakashi."
Sakura didn't look at Iruka-sensei when she turned around.
"Sakura" Kakashi called as they left the office. "You know I wouldn't choose a mission above our team capacity?"
"Yes, sensei."
"So why are you worried?" Sakura sighed but didn't look down. Kakashi-sensei didn't like it when she did that. It was useless to lie to him and tell she wasn't worried, knowing sensei, he might have a weird skill like being able to smell the fear out of her, who knew?
"I know you're overqualified for a C-rank. I just don't know if I'm strong enough."
"For a C-rank? No. Not by yourself." Sakura's eyes widened. "But I'm there, and we are a team. No genin can take care of a C-rank alone. Even most Chunin, probably can't. That's why we work on a team."
"Won't... I hold you back?"
Kakashi crunched so he was eye-level with her, his hand on her left shoulder.
"Yes, but that's okay. The point of this is to give you field experience. It's not about me. One day I was also a young genin in a C-rank with a Jounin. Everyone goes through it."
Sakura nodded and took a deep breath. She knew he was right, field experience was only gained by going on missions.
"Sensei..." She made a face. "I need you to talk to my parents about this."