Rewinding the clock a few weeks back, Yūhi Kurenai had initially been quite reluctant to take in Sakura as her student, when Asuma had first formally introduced them to each other at his BBQ party. However, Sakura had persisted in her efforts to convince the youngest Jōnin of her interest in the illusory arts— it had ended up taking the entire duration of Asuma's BBQ party, but by the time that Chōji's and Hinata's appetites had irrevocably ruined Asuma's finances, Sakura had finally convinced Kurenai to take her in as her Genjutsu disciple.
Back to the present day, today's date was the 25th of July; meaning that there were only twelve days left before the third exam began. On this day, Sakura decided to take a break from her Tenketsu training— which had begun on the 8th of July— since the arousal was driving her mad.
But how could she possibly afford to take a break with her tight schedule?
The answer was that after twenty-five days, Sakura's daily bodybuilding exercises were finally beginning to pay off. With her current stamina, she could now safely make fourteen academy-level Sakura Shadow Clones, instead of thirteen. And more Shadow Clones meant a further shortening of the duration of her accelerated training!
At her initial rate of unlocking her pressure points, Sakura would have finished her training with one day to spare— but now she had two. At her current rate, by the 4th of August, Sakura would have unlocked exactly 361 Tenketsu; which was all of them! So, having done the maths, Sakura decided to use this extra free day to give her body a break from the exercise… and exercise her brain instead!
Which was why Sakura and Kurenai were currently sitting on a park bench in Senju Park, on this sweltering summer morning. Sakura's newest sensei had chosen the verdant park as their training grounds for the day, and Sakura could imagine why; for some reason, all of Kurenai's Genjutsu illusions had something to do with plants.
"Sakura, are you really sure you're okay with me teaching you Genjutsu?" said Kurenai melancholically. "I'm not the most experienced of teachers, and it— it wouldn't be the first time I'd have failed a disciple. My own students won't even give me the time of day, and…"
Kurenai had a slight case of imposter syndrome; as a member of Kakashi's generation and being the last of her friend group to attain the rank of Jōnin, she also had somewhat of an inferiority complex— one that had been exacerbated by Yakumo's surprise visit. Kurenai had tried to do for Yakumo what Might Guy had done for Rock Lee, but lacking confidence in herself, Kurenai had just given up on trying to help the young girl, effectively stealing her future as a shinobi.
"That's not true," Sakura interrupted her. "I'm sure that Hinata, Kiba and— eurgh— Shino each care about you in their own special ways; it's just that they have trouble showing it, you know? …Besides, isn't Kiba right over there?"
Sakura pointed at Kiba, who was busy doing his rehabilitation exercises with his nin-ken Akamaru, a short distance away from them. His opponent in the preliminaries had broken all of his limbs and more than a few of his ribs, but Kiba now seemed in much better condition than when Sakura had seen him at Yakiniku Q's a little under three weeks ago.
"Should he really be exercising in his condition?" said Sakura worriedly. "He seems awfully… wobbly."
"You don't need to worry about Kiba," said Kurenai, her lips curling upwards slightly. "He might get injured quite often, but his wounds have always healed fairly quickly. I suppose it might have something to do with the Inuzuka becoming one with their inner beast…"
Kurenai's voice trailed off. Had she really just seen the rough and crude Inuzuka Kiba sneaking a bashful look at Sakura, as if he were a maiden in love? She had previously noticed that Kiba had appeared despondent when she'd seen him at the BBQ party, but back then, she'd attributed his unusual behaviour to his loss in the preliminaries…
"…Anyway," Kurenai continued distractedly, "It's a good thing that we ran into Kiba; I think he would make for a good training partner for you. Kiba's nose is as sharp as Akamaru's (the little white puppy barked upon hearing its name called out), so making him fall for a visual Genjutsu should prove somewhat challenging for a beginner like you…"
'Hang on,' cried Inner Sakura in horror. 'Does that mean that Kiba can smell when I'm on my period!? This is an incredible invasion of my privacy! I propose that each Inuzuka clan member be neutered!'
Incidentally, blood wasn't the only thing that Kiba could perceive; he could also smell the hormonal changes that occur in women during ovulation— and it just so happened that Sakura was currently at her most fertile time of the month. Furthermore, unlike regular humans, it wasn't unusual for Inuzuka clan members to go into oestrus, due to their close association with beasts— which meant that if Sakura tried using Genjutsu: Breast Illusion on him, she was going to have a bad time…
"Now, shall we begin?" said Kurenai slightly enviously, seeing how Kiba ogled Sakura's sweater puppies.
Kurenai had used to be confident in her own appearance, but seeing the younger pink-haired girl arching her back to support the mountains on her chest, which both looked the size of her head… it was making her feel inadequate.
"I'm ready, sensei!" said Sakura brightly.
Now, in theory, with Orochimaru mental imprint's teachings, Sakura didn't need any additional help honing her Genjutsu skills. But in practice… Sakura could very well use a training buddy. After all, Genjutsu wasn't like Ninjutsu, in which you sprayed and prayed; for Genjutsu, you needed to fiddle around with the chakra in your opponent's brain, and that was something that Sakura could not do on her own.
"Asuma told me that you already knew a little about Genjutsu," Kurenai began, "but I thought it'd be safer to begin with the basics. To initiate a Genjutsu, you must seize control of your opponent's chakra network, which can be done in any number of ways…"