I'm not surprised by the higher-up's decision to use Sakura as an experiment.
Konohagakure after all must retain a face of righteousness but at the same time, new jutsu are techniques that can only be developed with tears, blood and often sacrifices.
It is only after the costs and benefits are weighed against each other that a technique is considered forbidden or not.
Fortunately, the Hokage remains very protective of all the village children. I hope he kept my secret from even Danzo.
Since I'm already in the academy the Hokage's eyes have been on me and thus Danzo can't just grab me to experiment on like most other orphans.
I'm sure if I had shown such an ability in the orphanage instead of at the academy I would be spending my life as a brainwashed drone stuck inside the ROOT base.
Instead, I am on the side of the light and things have to be done percevidly above-board.
Hinata and Ino have big clans behind them which are strongly tied to the Hokage faction.
They would of course not allow any risk to be levied on their heirs and instead would rather leave the dangers to the child of a nameless family and only swoop in at the end to gobble any reward that might exist.
Once the evening taijutsu class came around Sakura went to find me first.
"Yami-kun right? I heard about it from Iruka sensei, how do you wanna do it?
'Front, back then front again.'
I gotta start reigning in my thoughts harder, puberty is starting to hit hard despite the girls being still petite they are all unimaginably beautiful. Must be all the Chakra, they are almost no ugly ninjas, their faces are without blemishes and their skin soft and tender despite intense workouts.
"We can just practice normally, but in the end I need us to get closer to each other"
"Closer? What are you thinking?"
"Just a few minutes of talking is enough. The closer we are the stronger the effect should be, the strongest would be if we touch, by holding hands for example"
To that, Sakura takes a couple of steps back.
"Who would ever wanna hold hands with you?! I have someone else I already like."
Ohh yeah… I need to train her out of that too
"It's a very small price to pay for power, if it all works out, I can get you strong enough to stand and protect the person you like.
It's Sasuke isn't it?"
"How do you know???"
"You and Ino always made it pretty obvious."
Though their reactions weren't as comical and disruptive as in the show it was still incredibly obvious to anyone not emotional IQ, EQ deficient.
"How do you think Sasuke would feel if he got weak Sakura assigned to his team to protect when out on a mission?
He'd probably abandon you at the first sign of his enemy, that kid would never spare a thought for his team.
He's the type of person to rush ahead and do everything by himself"
"Sasuke isn't like that!!!"
She shouts a bit too loud and some heads turn our way, including Sasuke himself upon hearing his name called.
Seems like a good chance to try to fit some sense into her head, but it wouldn't never work from my words alone.
"Hey, Sasuke. Do you think we should focus on killing our enemies or protecting our allies "
His eyes sharpen but he huffs and answers.
"Huh, who cares about allies, that's just weakling talk, all that matters is how strong I am to get my revenge"
Sasuga Susuke-sama.
Couldn't have expected a more edgy answer, he has truly mastered the dao of the traumatized edge chuunibyou kid
let's dig him a bigger pit.
"What if you had to choose between killing your biggest enemy but needed to sacrifice your teammate to do so?
"I would never hesitate. That person must die no matter the cost."
"Sasu..ke…." Sakura mutters a whisper and I take advantage to inject a little cortisol and adrenaline, making the shock and agitation greater. It is a shame Ino is so far away, though she hears the answer as well and seems shocked by it I couldn't boost her hormonal reaction.
"Well said Sasuke, glad to know who I can and can't leave my back to, hope I'm never teamed up with you"
"Who needs a team, I can just work on my own and get the mission done, just like he used to… It's just easier without the dead weight."
With that attitude I'm impressed they didn't end up dead, I can think of a few times where Naruto and Sakura had to be saved by the Kakachi plot armor after Mr Edgy went on his own.
To give Sasuke credit, his reply exaggerates his true feelings. In a real battle, he would always save his allies but his thoughts grow traumatized when Itachi is brought up and he thus got baited into answering a lose-lose question due to the need to self-hypnotize himself.
Sasuke turns his back and I do the same to face Sakura.
She stares down trying to hide the tears in her eyes.
This was another trick. For Sasuke, he was sacrificing a faceless teammate he had no attachment to.
For Sakura, she was the one being sacrificed, from not returning affection, going past being ignored and straight into being actively harmed.
but if there was one thing she understood it was that without power Sasuke would never spare her a single glance.
We start some mock fights.
Practicing with Sakura wasn't very challenging but it was fun, she had a decent head on her shoulder but lacked the power, decisiveness and technique to make it work. During a fight, she ends up hesitating looking for the best move and losing any initiative.
Often a bad decision is better than no decision at all.
After practice, she asks that we at least move behind some trees in the field for the next part.
I hold both her hands and she blushes a bit but endures as I make some small talk asking what it's like to have a family to tug on her heartstrings and keep her distracted.
Now for the hormone cocktail. Girls are trickier to improve.
Growth Hormone is an obvious choice but I keep the testosterone to a minimum and add a touch of estrogen to balance it out. Not me, not anyone wants to see Sakura grow hairy…. Maybe she'd be ok with it if it was focused only on her forehead.