Hidden In the Stars

Haruno Sakura sometimes hated being a genin. She had long since decided that, if she ever got the ability to go back in time, she'd find a way to punch her past self's face so hard it'd scramble her brain and get it to engage. It might make her smarter. If she was lucky, she'd be smart enough to stop and think about what she was doing. Still, at least now she had an objective. It'd been worse a week ago, when she didn't know what to do with herself. At least now she had a reason to endure her mandatory term of service.

She only had to deal with it for the next six months, she'd make chunin in the exams, and then she'd be free from her teacher, free to become a medic. She'd been inspired to become one by the fact that she'd discovered all of her traits made her excellent for medical work, as well as the people she'd met that time she wound up at the hospital after training. All of them had been really nice, helpful and supportive of her. She felt it was her due to repay their niceness by joining them. Well, that, and she really liked the introductory lesson she'd been given as her wounds were disinfected and then healed.

The hospital had quickly become one of Sakura's favorite spots to hang out, given that it provided both fertile ground for gossip AND a nice atmosphere for some quiet reading. The pocket money earned from helping the nurses and doctors as best as she could was a nice incentive.

"We have to fix it AGAIN!?" Sakura nearly screeched.

How the hell did a bunch of civilians keep breaking their buildings!? It was a civilian family! How did they do it!? She could understand if it were ninja doing it, but damn…

"Yep!" their teacher, some sadistic broad by the name of Mitarashi Anko who thought covering her breasts was for civvies and prudes, remarked. "They pay very well and Hokage-sama likes them, so make sure your work is spotless! You don't wanna disappoint Hokage-sama, do ya?"

Uchiha Sasuke, once Sakura's crush, grunted.

Oh, how Sakura hated hearing that sound. It reminded her that, once upon a time, she'd swoon like a moronic twat at the very moment she heard it. After four months of monosyllabic responses, a chronic lack of respect for her and an attitude that would get him to fail kindergarten, or it would if he'd ever attended it, Sakura had already had her fill of the lone wolf avenger act. Of course, she'd tried to take out her frustrations in a spar, only to find that he could dismantle her with his hands tied behind his back. Quite literally, as he'd done exactly that. Twice. If nothing else, Sasuke could kick very, VERY hard.

A sobering thought, for sure, but what was even worse had been the class's deadlast, Inuzuka Kiba, doing the exact same thing without the aid of his ninja dog partner. At least she'd given him a black eye for his trouble, which was more than she could say about her bout with Sasuke, even if it was a free shot he'd given her…

It was amazing to find out just how horribly weak you are. Amazingly disheartening. Anko had made it a point to tell Sakura that she was quite possibly the worst graduate she'd ever seen, and wasn't shy about reminding her at every turn. Of course, Anko happened to be freaking insane, and so had taken it as a challenge to whip Sakura into shape. Sometimes almost literally, as Anko owned a bullwhip and had once made her team carry her around on a chariot. Fortunately, she hadn't actually lashed their backs, though seeing her literally strip the flesh off a giant centipede more than made up for the lack of pain.

The entire team had made a note not to piss off the sadist with a bullwhip.

But still, Sakura would endure. Soon, she'd be free… for now, though, back to the mission at hand.

Kiba grinned. He liked doing this kind of mission, 'cause he liked the owners of the house. "We'll visit Naruko-chan, then?" he asked.

Sakura sighed. Kiba's crush was visible from a mile away, really. She could admit that she didn't really blame him. At least his crush was on someone who was nice to him.

"It's… acceptable," Sasuke admitted, which was a great deal better than his usual disapproval of anything and everything they ever did that wasn't training. Of course, he'd stopped protesting as soon as Anko had told him that his opinion didn't really mean much, only she'd done so in a much more… vulgar way. Still, Sakura had to curse at the fact that she'd spent several years trying to get him to pay attention to her, and this civilian girl whom they only met every once in a while when she requested a mission got him to pay attention to her immediately!

It was unfair!

Sakura's time as a genin wasn't something she enjoyed. "Good morning, Shamal-sensei," she said, automatically, as she came across the most recent addition to Konoha's med nin corps.

"Good morning, Sakura-san," Shamal replied, as she looked at the team. "Out for a mission?"

"Actually, we're going to be the ones fixing your dojo's roof this time," Anko said, flippantly. "Say, think I can get some alone time with Zafira this time?"

Shamal laughed a little. "That's up to him, you know?" she replied.

Sakura didn't really see what Anko saw on the musclebound male that she seemed to lust after, but then again, Anko was weird. While Sakura could say that his personality was rotten, Sasuke was still the epitome of everything she considered attractive in terms of body. And he and Zafira were practically polar opposites. Sasuke was lean and svelte, having the build of a shinobi that preferred speed over physical strength, compared to the bulging muscles on Zafira's frame, and Sasuke's face was still rounded and babyish, as he hadn't quite started puberty yet, but Sakura could already tell he'd have much softer and less pronounced lines than most men would.

Sasuke was a cute boy, and would be a pretty man. For Zafira, 'pretty' was the last thing Sakura would use. Okay, he had pretty hair, but just about that was it.

"Anyway, we might as well walk together," Anko said.

Kiba cheered. "Shamal-san, is Naruko-chan home?" he asked, clearly eager to visit her.

Kiba's ninja dog, Akamaru, barked in agreement to the sentiment of the question.

"I'm afraid not, Kiba-kun, Naruko had to go to the hospital for a routine check up," Shamal said, "she'll be back later this evening, so…"

"Oh," Kiba said, clearly feeling down.

Sasuke sighed, and Sakura could detect relief mixed in with disappointment. Once again, she wondered what it was this random civilian girl had that she didn't.

"If you've gotta ask, pinky girl, I'd say that you could start by not being annoying," Anko said, grinning widely at her.

"Wha—" Sakura was cut off, however…

"You were speaking aloud, Sakura-san," Shamal said, somewhat apologetically. "And… what you said was quite rude, at that."

"Yep," Kiba agreed. 

Looking somewhat sullen, Sakura slumped her shoulders. "I'm sorry," she said.

Shamal shook her head, smiling at her.

"Insulting the client is bad practice, yanno?" Anko said, turning to look at Sakura. "'sides, why don't you just ask broody why he likes a civilian more than he likes you?" she asked, moving over and grabbing each of Sasuke's cheeks, pulling them apart. "So yeah, go ahead and tell us!"

Sasuke thrashed a little and broke out of her grasp. "She's not an annoying little girl playing ninja, for one," Sasuke said, glaring at Anko and rubbing his abused cheeks. "And for another, at least she's not and has never been one of my fangirls."

That, and… other reasons. But those were Sasuke's to tell. Even if Anko insisted he had a crush on the pink haired woman, and kept accepting those missions just so he could try to talk to her.

"Ooh, double burn," Anko said. "Hm, well, there you go. That's what she's got that you don't, pinky," Anko said. "Oh, what, it hurts knowing why he doesn't like you? You should at least be thankful that he's honest."

Sakura glared at Anko, but couldn't deny that Anko did have a point. One thing she couldn't say was that Sasuke had been dishonest, as he'd never strung along his fangirls for a relationship that'd never come true, as he'd made it quite clear that he despised them from day one. Admittedly, many of them, Sakura herself included at more than one point, were just too caught up in their idealized image of Sasuke to notice that the real one would rather see them dead than marry them. Really, she mused, if she'd seen just how boring and mean spirited Sasuke was before she spent three months with nothing but him, a sadist and Inuzuka Kiba for company, she would've requested another team.

Still… "I'm not an annoying little girl playing ninja!" Sakura replied, hotly.

"Oh, yes, you are," Anko said, simply. "Or rather, you were. After all, you're the one who got laid out with one punch from Dead Last here," she explained, patting Kiba's head, which he leaned into. "And speaking of getting laid—"

"W-Well, Ino's just as bad, and she was the best kunoichi in the year, so there!" Sakura said. "Besides, now I know genjutsu," she said, simply, as if that made all the difference.

"Hm… Kiba-kun, would you be able to knock Sakura out in less than a second?" Shamal asked, tilting her head slightly.

"Depends on starting position. If I get the drop on her or if we start in close range, then yeah, I could totally knock her out in less than a second," Kiba said. After all, Sakura's months of training didn't mean all that much when one considers Kiba was training just as intensely, and was building up from stronger blocks in the first place.

"What does that matter?" Sakura asked.

"And can you break Genjutsu?" Shamal continued.

"Depends, too. I can't counter Anko-sensei's bigger ones, but all the small stuff's easy. Failing that, Akamaru will notice and bite me if he's available," Kiba explained. "Putting a dog under a genjutsu is a lot harder, since their brain is wired differently from ours and all, so he's usually safe."

"Good to know. Now, Anko-san, what would you qualify Kiba-kun as?" Shamal asked, turning to Anko.

"Maybe a mid tier genin. Rank C at the most," Anko said, nodding to herself. "So yeah, think about this, pinky. A single Rank C ninja can lay you out with one or two punches, can outmaneuver you and can block anything you throw at him. See what I mean? You're still not out of the red zone in terms of ability."

"Well these D ranks sure aren't helping!" Sakura countered, her temper piqued and her anger exploding. "If you trained us instead of torturing us all the time, maybe I'd—"

"Still suck," Sasuke said, with an air of finality that caused Sakura to flinch. "Because you still aren't putting in any real effort. You're just doing what you're told, and leaving it at that. You never study anything that wasn't assigned to you, and you don't train outside of what Anko-sensei teaches us. That is why I think you're just a little girl playing ninja, Sakura."

"That's a lie!" Sakura roared, because she DID study outside of what was assigned to them! However, medicinal theory at the level she was at wasn't quite combat-conductive yet. In a few years, she'd start learning how to hurt just as easily as she could heal, but she was still learning about the human body.

"And I'm half-waiting for our first C rank to come along only for you to get spooked and choose to retire from field duty," Anko said, grinning and crossing her arms, totally ignoring Sakura and bringing up her already impressive chest even more. "Which is why I'm not teaching you anything more advanced than the basics. See, while I'm interested in seeing how far you can go, when it comes down to it, I'm not willing to put in so much work for someone who's not really worth it."

Sakura slumped again. "But… but…" she seemed to be completely at a loss, and couldn't figure out a way to counter that. Her anger was gone, leaving a feeling of defeat that reminded her of how pathetic she really was compared to the people around her. Her hair, often the source of taunts due to its bright pink color, covered her face.

"But then again, those are just words," Shamal said, startling Sakura. "That doesn't mean it's the truth, right? At least, it doesn't have to be the truth if you don't want it to be," she added, using her free hand to tilt Sakura's head up so they were looking at each other. There were tears threatening to spill from Sakura's eyes. "After all… if you gave up just like that, you'd be proving them right, wouldn't you? And you don't want them to be right, do you?"

"You're right," Sakura said, nodding her head, wiping away her tears. "Just because I'm not as strong as them yet doesn't mean I'm worthless!" she stated.

"That's the spirit," Shamal said. "Now, Anko-sensei, that was quite mean of you. I know Sakura-chan has her flaws, but that's no reason to tear down her self confidence."

Anko grinned and scratched the back of her neck, laughing nervously. "I was waiting for a chance like this, actually," she admitted, freely. "I'm good at tearing people down, but no good at building them back up, so I thought that I could use maybe you or Signum-san to give Sakura her confidence back, and maybe light the Will of Fire in her."

Shamal laughed. "Even though you like to pretend you're cruel, you're a nice girl underneath that spiked exterior, aren't you?" she asked.

"S-Sensei…" Sakura said, looking at Anko warily.

"You think I'd sink so much effort into a worthless pursuit? I know there's talent in you, girly, that's why I'm trying to get you to see that you're wasting it," Anko said.

"I was being honest, though," Kiba said, shaking his head and looking at Sasuke. "What about you, man?"

Sasuke nodded. "I have no interest in you," he said, "nor do I believe you have any real talent."

"Well then, Sakura-chan, there it stands. They're doubting you. And from their perspective, I can see why. So… what are you going to do about it?" Shamal asked, challengingly.

"I'm going to prove the both of you wrong!" Sakura yelled, pointing her finger at Sasuke first and then at Kiba. "And when I'm done, you two will apologize!"

"That'll be the day," Kiba said, laughing. "I'll apologize for calling you worthless if you can beat me in a fight," Kiba said.

"Oh, by the way? We're here," Shamal interrupted. She fished in her pockets for the key and, once she found it, opened the outer gates that lead to the Uzumaki Estate. "Now, do get to work. I'll get some refreshments," she said, smiling at them.

"Aye aye, Sensei!" Anko called, grinning. She gave a scroll to Sakura, containing the tools the mission office had loaned them, and calmly walked away.

All three of them knew she'd gone to see if she could find the estate's sole male occupant, in order to try and seduce him.