Cherry Blossoms and Chakra Strings: Assignment

Two Months Later

An open palm thrust through the space Sakura’s face had just been occupying as the pinkette ducked underneath a jab from her friend. She twisted on the ground, trying to sweep Hikari’s legs out from under them but they hopped over her leg easily and thrust another palm strike towards her face which she deflected off to the side, forcing them to overextend slightly, before flipping backwards to gain some distance from the other teen.

Hikari was forced to lean back to avoid Sakura’s sandal which came close to catching them on the bottom of the chin, before their pale eyes narrowed and they immediately gave chase, not willing to let the other teen get too far away. Sakura remedied this by digging into her tool pouch and tossing several shuriken at her quickly advancing friend, hoping to force them to abandon their pursuit. As easy as breathing, Hikari batted them away with a single glowing hand, sending them spinning behind them and not slowing in the slightest during the action.

‘Gotcha.’ Sakura grinned at her friend’s mistake, pulling one hand towards her while meeting the Hyuga’s eyes with a devious smirk.

The invisible threads attached to the shuriken pulled taut, diverting their trajectory into a wide arc, sending them towards the unaware teen’s back. As observant as ever, Hikari immediately picked up on the fact that the whistling of the shuriken was growing closer instead of further away, and immediately turned away, letting Sakura escape their grasp momentarily in favor of dodging the spinning stars of death.

As they passed them by, Hikari brought their hand down, the limb glowing visibly with chakra as they used it to sever the nearly invisible strings with a single swipe, sending the shuriken shooting off in random directions as they lost their guide. Landing on the ground once more, Hikari immediately began dashing towards the pinkette even faster than before as the unseen timer in both of the genin’s heads slowly ticked down.

Sakura knew that despite the large amount of ground she had managed to gain in that short time, she only had mere moments before Hikari was upon her once more. The other genin’s speed was not to be underestimated, and if she hesitated or waited for even a second, she would be caught and she would lose this bout.

This exercise was one that Sakura had thought of last month. She knew that she wouldn’t always have the distance she needed to properly operate her puppet, people would manage to get the drop on her when she thought she was hidden or just close the distance between them faster than she could get away. It was in

Hikari was one of the fastest ninja that Sakura had ever seen. When they were moving at maximum speed, Sakura literally couldn't keep up with them. That made them the perfect opponent to train against so that she could properly hone her ability to escape more determined pursuers. After all, if she could escape Hikari, even for a minute, then she wouldn’t have to worry about any bandit catching up to her any time soon.

The exercise was simple. Hikari had to catch and restrain Sakura for five seconds, or get her into a position where escape was impossible. They could use anything at their disposal except the gentle fist as both of them agreed shutting down her chakra network was probably something most people wouldn’t be able to do out in the field.

Sakura, on the other hand, had to remain free lf Hikari’s grasp for a full five minutes, and she wasn’t allowed to use her puppet, or any of her poisons to keep Hikari from chasing her. Other techniques were still on the table, including her chakra strings, but nothing that could restrain the Hyuga for an extended period of time.

Over the past several weeks, they had performed this routine several times, and each time she grew closer and closer to her goal of avoiding the Hyuga for the full time. It was difficult, especially since she wasn’t allowed to use her puppets or her poison, but she was definitely getting somewhere, that was for sure, with this being the furthest she had gotten without being caught yet. Now she was in the home stretch. Just a few more seconds to go!

The next time Sakura’s sandals hit the ground, a large burst of chakra exploded out of the bottom of her foot, sending her flying backwards much faster than before. Her hair whipped around her face, her ponytail threatening to come undone as she brought her hand down to the line of scrolls sitting on her hip. She didn’t even bother to look at them, her fingers sliding along the embossed edges of her scrolls as she searched for one in particular and pulled it out of the group.

Landing on the ground and sliding a small distance, Sakura unfurled the scroll, gazing hurriedly at the various seals delicately inscribed inside, before putting her hand on the one nearest the center.

Her chakra flared and the seal glowed a bright blue as the chakra inside of the ink was activated. Sakura had just a moment to point the seal away from her before water began to gush from the chakra-laden paper like a waterfall, veritable buckets of the cool liquid splashing on the ground in front of her as the storage seal emptied itself of its contents.

Sakura waited for a moment, watching a large puddle form on the ground in front of her as the packed earth refused to swallow up any of the moisture she was dumping upon it, before deactivating the seal and closing the scroll once more. HIkari was only a few meters away now and approaching fast. They met eyes and Sakura could see the wariness there at the sudden appearance of the water, but they weren’t deterred enough to slow down.

Hopefully she could change that. She just needed a little bit longer. Sakura’s hands came up to her chest as she quickly went through several hand-seals and pulsed her chakra towards the puddle in front of her, activating her jutsu with a shout, “Water Release: Creeping Fog!”

Her chakra stores dipped noticeably as the water in front of her plumed upwards and outwards as a thick mist. It spread rapidly, filling the space in front of Sakura in less than a second and obscuring her view of Hikari, before also consuming her in its grasp as well.

Continuing to assert her will on the mist, Sakura jumped backwards out of it, Getting clear of the jutsu that she hoped Hikari was trapped in. She landed on the trunk of a tree, using her chakra to stick to it as she watched the wall of fog steadily grow towards her, draining her chakra all the while. As it grew closer, she released her hold on the jutsu, letting it drift to a stop just a few feet away from her new position and settling in to watch, keeping her gaze on the cloud as she watched intently for any movement in the slowly thinning fog.

The biggest drawback of this jutsu and one that wasn’t held by its sister, the Hidden Mist Jutsu, was that the fog wasn’t nearly as dense with chakra as its counterpart. Sakura’s chakra was merely used to transform the water into a mist and spread it around and once that was done, it basically evaporated into thin air instead of lingering inside of the mist.

That was why, when something sharp and gleaming suddenly cut through the fog, slicing its way towards her exact position high above the ground, Sakura wasn’t that surprised.

She bent backwards to dodge the shuriken, watching as the spinning metal stars passed right over her face closely enough that she could see her reflection in their shiny metal surfaces.

Just as they disappeared into the foliage behind her however, she winced as something sharp and cold bit into her right bicep, before the area around it suddenly became oddly warm.

Leaning back up, she looked down to find that she had been grazed by another shuriken that she had somehow missed. The wound wasn’t that deep, but it was deep enough that blood was welling up at a rapid pace, flowing down her arm and filling the air around her with a coppery tang.

She didn't have time to dwell on her wound. The fog split apart again, this time revealing a much larger form headed towards her at an incredible pace. The veins around Hikari's eyes were bulging in an almost painful looking fashion, and that explained how Sakura had been found so quickly.

Sakura shivered in slight disgust as Hikari grew closer, drawing a kunai from her tool pouch. The Byakugan looked so gross.

The air around them filled with sparks and the sound of rigging metal as they clashed. Sakura’s kunai bit into Hikari’s as she completely halted the Hyuga’s charge with her superior strength. They stared at one another from mere inches away, before a drop of Sakura's blood hitting the branch underneath them caught their attention.

Hikari's eyes widened as they caught sight of Sakura's wound, and Sakura used the opportunity provided by the distraction to push her friend's kunai away and kick them in the chest, using their chest to push herself away at the same time.

As Sakura launched herself backwards, she threw her kunai at Hikari and even launched several more shuriken their way for good measure. As she watched her weapons soar towards her friend, the unseen timer in Sakura's hesd ticked down steadily.

Ten, Nine, Eight…

Even as they stumbled backwards, the Hyuga didn't miss a beat. Using their own kunai, they deflected all of the projectiles, before throwing it at the still airborne Sakura. Thinking quickly, Sakura used her chakra strings to reel herself towards a nearby tree, avoiding the kunai and giving herself another platform to jump off of to continue fleeing Hikari.

Seven, Six, Five…

They were running out of forest. Sakura recognized this part of the training ground and could tell that they were nearing the border. Soon enough, she'd run straight into the fence and she wouldn't be able to go any further. Hikari was gaining on her as well, a set of footsteps that weren't her own growing closer and closer as the Hyuga closed the distance rapidly. If it were any other circumstance, it would be a bitter defeat, caught only moments away from victory. Right now though…

Four, Three, Two…

Sakura dropped from the trees, chakra softening her fall as she landed right in front of the giant metal fence that separated Training Ground 23 from the rest of Konoha proper. She turned around, grinning up at her friend as Hikari came soaring out of the treeline, headed straight for her with a determined glint in their eye.

One.

“Time's up!.” Sakura said gleefully, and Hikari immediately stopped, landing on the ground a few feet away from her in a crouch. Sakura smiled giddily, planting her hands on her hips as she gave the Hyuga a superior look, “I won this one, Hikari.”

Hikari tilted their head, doing a mental count, “...So you did. Well done, Sakura; it looks like this is your win.”

Sakura knew that already, but even so, hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth brought her nothing but Elation. She pumped her fist in the air, cheering happily, “Cha! Hell yeah I did! That was intense, you nearly got me a few times there!”

“Nearly. You've gotten rather slippery, Sakura. I'm sure you'll be able to escape most people by now, especially if you are actually able to utilize your puppetry.”

Sakura grinned, “Thanks. Though I think we should keep doing this exercise. I ca always use the training and you seem like you're getting something out of it too.”

“I'll admit, it's been a novel experience having to pursue someone like that.” Hikari agreed, “Tsu isn't the type to run and Jin… well he wasn't either.”

Sakura noticed the small pause but didn't say anything about it. Though the wound wasn't as fresh, they all still felt the loss acutely and that wasn't likely to change anytime soon.

Sakura blinked as a gentle hand suddenly grabbed her arm. Hikari stepped closer, holding it up to their face and scrutinizing her cut intently. Blood covered their hand but they didn't seem concerned as they caught sight of the wound.

“... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you so deeply.” They said regretfully. Sakura was surprised by their words but shook her head.

“It's fine, Hikari. I should have been paying more attention. It's not your fault.” She reassured

Hikari hummed slowly, still not letting go of Sakura's arm, “Either way, I should have been more careful. This was a spar, and I try my best not to permanently damage my teammates for no reason. Let me fix this so it doesn't scar.”

Sakura looked at them with confusion, “Fix it? How?”

“Let's get back to the training ground and I'll show you. Judging from the way their chakra was moving, I think Tsu and Iwabi-sensei are nearly finished sparring.”

~~~

Sakura watched as Tsu and Iwabi raced across the training field a small distance away. The clashing of steel on steel sounded throughout the entire training ground as the Inuzuka slammed her odachi against their sensei's sickles again and again, swinging hard enough that even from so far away, Sakura could practically hear the whooshing of displaced air the massive sword left in its wake.

Despite the force of her strikes Tsu's face was a mask of stoic concentration, not a hint of anger to be seen as she steadily worked to break their sensei's seemingly impassable defence. Her form was a stark difference from what it had been only two months ago, more refined and formidable, but even Sakura could see that she still had a ways to go before she was anywhere near as proficient as Jin had been with the weapon

It was still an improvement though, and Sakura had a feeling Tsu wasn't going to stop until she was just as good as her former teammate with the weapon. Maybe even better.

Adjusting herself on the tree branch, Sakura looked down to watch as Hikari tended to the bleeding tear in her bicep. The Hyuga softly dabbed the area around the wound with a strip of wet cloth, cleaning the blood off and allowing them both to see the wound fully.

Sakura winced. It didn't look good. Despite not being that painful, it was a lot deeper than she thought it was and would definitely take a while to heal without Hikari's help.

Making a single hand-sign, Hikari’s hang glowed a soft green, and they placed it gently on Sakura's wound. The bloody gash hissed and the pinkette watched with morbid curiosity as her injury began to repair itself, coaxed along by the medical chakra that her friend was pumping into her body.

“That's pretty cool, Hikari. Wish I could do that.” Sakura commented idly as her friend pulled their hand back, revealing that apart from the blood it had left, her wound was almost completely gone. There was a faded pink line left where the wound had once been, and Sakura was honestly surprised that it hadn't left a bigger scar even with the medical chakra working to prevent it.

“I could teach you how to do it.” Hikari offered, moving to clean off the rest of Sakura's arm, “Truth be told, with how skilled you are at chakra control you'd probably be better than me.”

“No thanks. I've already got enough on my plate without trying to learn medical ninjutsu on top of that. I'll just keep you around so you can patch me up whenever I need it.” She winked at Hikari who laughed softly as they put the bloody cloth away.

“Well I guess I should be sure to stick close with how accident prone you are. I'm surprised you haven't poisoned yourself with how much you get cut while doing maintenance on your puppet.”

Sakura’s cheeks burned with embarrassment, “I have. I'm immune to the poison coating Teashi's weapons though so nothing happened.”

Hikari's eyes widened before they sighed, a fond but exasperated smile appearing in their face, “Of course you have. If you happen to be experimenting with any new poisons, please let me know beforehand so that I can properly prepare.”

“No promises. Sometimes my muse just takes off and bam! I'm sitting at my desk surrounded by toxic plants and poisonous animal excretions and I've got a nasty new surprise for whoever decides to cross me.” Sakura kicked her feet idly as she watched Tsu get tripped by their sensei, hitting the ground hard enough that even Sakura winced, “Last time I came up with an ingestible poison that could put you to sleep for days. Might be useful for kidnapping missions if we ever get to leave the village.”

Hikari hummed, turning to watch the fight as well, “It might be sooner than you think. You're already extremely skilled, even when compared to Tsu and I. Iwabi-sensei was right that you round out our team quite well – I just wish the cost of that discovery hadn't been quite so high…”

“Yeah…” Sakura agreed softly, “Me too.”

As she and Hikari settled in to watch Tsu and Iwabi spar, Sakura reached down into her tool pouch, retrieving a vial of aqua-colored liquid, as well as a small book. Hikari looked at her curiously as unbound the book and placed it carefully on her lap, revealing that it was filled to the brim with text so tiny that even the Hyuga had trouble making it out.

“You’re still working on that task for Anko?”

Sakura snorted humorously, “Task. More like homework. I’ve spent I don’t know how long trying to figure out what she coated that senbon with and I’m barely making any progress. Honestly I’m beginning to think she’s just pranking me.”

“And yet you’re still trying to figure it out.” Hikari observed. Sakura nodded as if that was a given.

“Well duh. My pride wouldn’t allow me to give up on a potentially useful tool just because the work to get it was a little hard. Besides, I’ll admit it’s kind of fun even if it makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes.”

“It must be difficult if it’s managed to stump you for this long.” Hikari said, watching as Sakura flipped through the small booklet to a page she had already bookmarked.

“That’s an understatement.” Sakura snorted, “Through some careful research - don’t ask - I’ve managed to parse out several of the symptoms. So far I’ve got nausea and stomach cramps, extreme dizziness, dry mouth, increased heart rate and blood pressure, and anticoagulated blood. In other words, it makes you too sick to move, gives you a heart attack and/or makes you bleed out, and dehydrates you on top of all that just for kicks. And that’s just in low amounts, I can’t imagine what it could do to someone if they were given a full dose.”

Sakura held up the vial, shaking it slowly and watching the small particulates swirl around in the liquid, “I’ve already managed to single out one of the ingredients as Belladonna, a type of nightshade that grows in select parts of the country. That explains the odd color as well as the increased blood pressure and heart rate as those are common side-effects of the flower, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten.”

She looked down and flipped through her booklet, slowly reading through the extremely condensed text, “By my estimates, there could be more than six completely different ingredients in a poison this complex, but for them to work together like this… Anko must be a very accomplished toxicologist.”

“Well she is the apprentice of Orochimaru-sama.” Hikari agreed, “I imagine this isn't even the most complex poison in her arsenal.”

Sakura nodded in agreement, “True. I wonder if she's ever worked with-.”

“Hey, Hikari, Sakura!” The two genin looked over to find Tsu shouting up at them from the ground
The Inuzuka's clothes were dirty and her face was bruised from repeated meetings with the ground, but that didn't diminish her smirk as she called up to her teammates. “We're having a team meeting so stop flirting and get down here! Sensei has something he wants to tell us!”

Sakura's face bloomed red and a vein pulsed in her head at Tsu's insinuation as the Inuzuka walked away, cackling to herself.

“I'm so spiking her food with laxatives next time we eat out together.” Sakura grumbled as she put her things away and dropped to the ground beside Hikari. The Hyuga’s expression was stoic and slightly annoyed, but there was a small flush to their cheeks.

“I don't think that would be possible.” Hikari said, “She would definitely smell it unless it was something strong like curry, and Tsu hates spicy food.”

Sakura smirked, “Oh don't worry about that. There are hundreds of plants that can create the same effects that are completely odorless. She wouldn't notice anything was wrong until she was running to the bathroom.”

“In that case, I will provide a distraction while you do the deed. Just promise to tell me when you plan to do it so I may bring my camera.”

“Deal.”

“You guys know I can hear you, right?” Tsu said as they reached her and their sensei. The Inuzuka gave them a look as she scratched Tadao behind his ears, the ninkin panting happily in the collar of her shirt, “I'm not eating with you guys for at least two weeks now.”

Sakura shared a look with Hikari, “We can be patient.”

“Four weeks now.” Tsu stuck her tongue out at them, before turning to their sensei who was watching them with a dully amused expression, “Anyway, what did you need us all here for, sensei? We got another mission?”

“Better not be weeding the gardens again. For someone with a field that big, that old lady doesn't even know the difference between the flowers in her bed and the weeds infesting it.” Sakura grumbled.

“Dandelions are a type of weed, Sakura.” Hikari deadpanned.

“A pretty one!” Sakura protested, “Ino agrees with me, the orange adds a great splash of autumn color even in spring! You just have to be careful and the other flowers will be fine.”

“I’d say she's probably the expert considering she lives in a flower shop.” Tsu agreed.

“Right!?”

“If we could get back on track,” Iwabi interrupted before they could enter a debate on what actually constituted a flower (a debate Sakura totally would have won), “We do have a mission Sakura, and you'll be happy to hear it's not weeding gardens or even painting fences.”

“Oh thank god.” Sakura sighed, “Getting paint out of my clothes is a pain in the ass. Seriously, how does blood come out easier than lead?”

“So what is the mission, Iwabi-sensei?” Tsu asked as Sakura grumbled quietly to herself.

Iwabi sighed, “Normally, we'd wait a little bit longer before doing this, but given the circumstances of how this team was reformed as well as Sakura's admittedly impressive abilities… I've decided to assign us a C-Rank mission.”

Surprise crossed all of their faces, “A C-Rank? Already? But it's only been a couple months!” Sakura said, shocked.

“And in that time you've easily caught up to both Tsu and Hikari, and you've already completed your required fifty D-Rank missions. You're more than qualified for a C-Rank. All three of you are.”

Sakura shared a look with her teammates, and a grin slowly slid across her face as she realized that this was finally it. She was finally done with chores and getting on to the real ninja stuff.

“So what's the mission?”

Iwabi crossed his arms, “All things considered, this mission barely even qualifies for its rank. If it were in the village, it would be a regular D-Rank. Our mission will be to deliver a scroll to the Land of Rice. It's simple, but it should be more than enough to get us back into the swing of things and gauge your guys’ readiness for more dangerous missions.”

Sakura’s excitement diminished slightly, replaced by confusion, “Wait, just one scroll? Why can't they just hire a civilian courier to do it? Caravans are coming and going between here and Rice Country all the time. Heck, my parents made the trip a few weeks ago!”

“The scroll contains important information on the trade alliance between us and them.” Iwabi explained, “New safer trade routes, the updated import and export taxes, things that normally wouldn't be sought after, but if they were to go missing, it would cause a lot of headaches for the people at the top.”

“So it's an escort mission without the client.” Hikari surmised. Iwabi shrugged.

“If you want to treat it like that, then you're more than welcome to. We're just there as assurance that it gets from point A to point B without being stolen by some idiot bandits who thought they were getting more than they actually were. There might be some fighting, but nothing you can't handle.” Iwabi’s face shifted slightly, “I'll be there too, and I'm not letting you guys out of my sight this time.”

“Make sure to pack for a week-long trip and meet at the Eastern gate first thing tomorrow morning. And don't forget your tent this time, Tsuyoka.”