So, this is what the system had meant by Sakura's chakra control… Sakura was having an incredibly easy time manipulating the amount of chakra beneath her feet. Feeling brave, Sakura strode towards the nearest tree and began climbing.
She only had to send chakra to the soles of her feet when she took a step, and then withdraw it when she needed to lift her foot! Left, right, left, right, on, off, on, off… It was kind of like a rhythm game. And before she knew it, Sakura had made it to the top of the tree, without even having to take a running start.
"This is fun!" Sakura called down to the two boys.
They looked like ants from where she was standing!
"Way to go, Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted at her, but Sasuke merely grimaced.
"Well, it looks like Sakura has the best chakra control out of all of you," Kakashi commented. "But don't get ahead of yourself, Sakura. It won't be that easy when you're in the heat of combat, so I want you to keep practising until you run out of chakra, okay? The same goes for you two, Naruto, Sasuke!"
Even though it was clear that she didn't need any more practice, Kakashi continued making Sakura perform the tree climbing exercise again and again, while Naruto and Sasuke continued trying to adhere to their own trees.
There was something Kakashi wanted to verify; when he had first met her, he had thought that Sakura would have a regular amount of chakra for a kunoichi her age. But on their very first mission together, she had effectively used the Great Fireball Jutsu on her first try. She hadn't suffered from chakra exhaustion afterwards, either. Just how much chakra did she have?
After watching the trio for a while, Kakashi detached his feet from his branch, twisted through the air and landed back on the ground. There was no point in staying here, so he might as well go do the job he had been hired to do.
"I'm going to go keep an eye on Tazuna," he said lightly. "Keep doing the exercise, but stop when you feel like you can't keep going any more."
And upon saying so, Kakashi flickered away, leaving the three of them alone in the forest.
"Psst!" Naruto hissed to Sakura, as soon as he was certain that Kakashi was well and truly gone. "Gimme a hint, how are you supposed to do this!?"
Sakura glanced at the neighbouring trees; Naruto's tree was covered in scratches at the base, while Sasuke's tree was peppered with deep footprints gradually reaching higher and higher.
"You've got to figure it out on your own, Naruto," Sakura said patiently. "Otherwise, the lesson won't stick."
Naruto clapped his hands together and tried his best sad puppy imitation.
"Aww, c'mon," Naruto said pleadingly. "Just one tiny hint…?"
Sakura sighed and shrugged her shoulders. Naruto'd never get it without her help, after all…
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
"Oh, fine, you big dummy," Sakura said with a helpless smile. "You need to focus your mind; forget everything else, concentrate on your feet. Try putting a little bit more or a little bit less chakra, and see how that works out for you. If it gets easier, keep doing that; got it?"
"Got it!"
Sakura got back to training, walking up and down her tree, up and down, up and down… As she was coming back down, she saw Sasuke whispering something to Naruto.
"Sasuke, you cherry boy," Sakura whispered to herself with a snide grin. "You could always ask me directly for advice, you know?"
Sakura conveniently chose to forget the fact that as Tsutomu, her age had equalled her time without a girlfriend. Hopefully, she'd have more luck this time around…
"Ah…" she sighed contentedly. "Tenten, my waifu. I'll make sure you get plenty of screen time…"
Sakura had only read part of the Boruto manga, which had a lot less content than the anime (which she hadn't seen). From what little she had read, adult Tenten had never seemed to get married, so maybe she would be into yuri…? Or maybe she had never got over Neji's death…
----------------------------------------------------
A few hours later, when it was time for lunch, Kakashi came back to check on them.
"Well?" he called out. "Which one of you ran out of chakra first?"
Naruto jumped up to answer, eager to put himself above Sasuke.
"Sasuke first, then Sakura, and I'm still going, Kakashi-sensei!"
Kakashi's eyes widened imperceptibly. So, Sakura had more chakra than Sasuke… that was surprising, but not impossible. As things currently stood, the academy's foremost genius was last among his peers… how very peculiar.
"Sakura, come here a moment," Kakashi said after a moment's thought, gesturing for her to come to him.
Sakura did as she was told.
"Your former sensei, Iruka, never told me you had studied Kenjutsu," Kakashi said with a neutral tone of voice. "I watched you through the Water Prison Jutsu; you seemed fairly adept at using that sword…"
Kakashi was staring at her intently. It was unusual for him to have anything other than a dead fish eye look, so Sakura was slightly unnerved. At least he wasn't staring at her with his Sharingan, that would have been too scary…
"Speaking of which, may I see it?" Kakashi suddenly asked, tilting his head towards her side. "Your sword."
Startled, Sakura suddenly found that she had unconsciously put her left hand over her katana's kashira. Realizing that she was acting suspiciously, Sakura dug her fingernails deep into her palm in order to calm herself down.
Sakura then unhitched the sageo, the cord that attached her scabbard to the cloth wrappings she used as a belt, before offering the Manyuu blade to Kakashi.
"Here you go," Sakura said with a pleasant tone of voice. "I never brought it to school, because a sword's not something you'd ever use against a fellow comrade from the Leaf…"
Kakashi took the sword gingerly, popped it free from its scabbard with his thumb, before unsheathing it completely.
"The sort of katana a samurai would use," Kakashi murmured, before reading the inscription at the base of the blade. "Ma…Nyuu? Demonic Breast?"
Sakura was born from civilian parents; the type of people who needed to be properly vetted before their child was allowed to join Konoha's ninja academy and form a team with the village's ultimate weapon. However, it wasn't unheard of for spies to slip through the net…
Kakashi didn't think Sakura was a spy, or anything like that; keeping secret techniques as an ace in the hole was fairly common for shinobi. However, he was just a little curious to learn HOW exactly she had come to learn Kenjutsu; someone must have taught her, but who could it have been? He didn't recognize Sakura's sword style.
And what if that someone had malicious intentions towards Konoha?
He then tried running his chakra through the blade in the Hatake style, but to his complete and utter shock, he felt no resistance. The katana's blade began glowing blueish-white… and Kakashi was forced to relive some painful memories…
…and then his conspiracy theory completely fell apart.
Sakura's sword was made of pure chakra metal! The Manyuu blade was beyond expensive; it was on the level of being a large clan's heirloom treasure! Who'd give away such a priceless sword to bribe a thirteen-year-old girl who held no political power and had no important responsibilities? It didn't make any sense!
"A Summoning Jutsu formula just suddenly appeared in my head one day," Sakura explained timidly. "I tried using it, and a sword came out…"
Sakura lied as naturally as she breathed!