"So, what's this team normally like?" She finally decides to prod the green boy after a few hours on the road. It's not very social, they're kind of just silently darting forward on a pre-made path. No need to go through the trees when there is a road, and that means there's not even casual tree based acrobatics to kill time.
"We strive to be the very best we can be at all times!" Gai's Mini-me's a little loud, but it's better than nothing. They're faster than her, so she can't whip out a game and play while they run like she can with her team. Her boys are stronger than her, but Naruto's the slow one in that group which normally affords her a lot of time to focus on both the game and movement, that's just not the case here at all. "We are sure to impress you once the mission really starts."
"Uh-right, but that's not really what I mean." Sakura hisses uncomfortably. "Do you uh, always just run silently while staring in the direction of your destination?
"Neji has put a ban on all unnecessary conversations." The boy explains to her. "I am Lee Rock, it is nice to meet you, beautiful golden goddess!"
"... Holy shit." That didn't just happen. That definitely didn't, was that, but-
She shoots a look to the other two visible teammates. Neji is forcefully looking as far away from them as possible, and Tenten, for the first time in their entire knowing of each-other, looks at her with pity. "Did you really just shoot your shot, right now?"
A single week ago she might have missed it, but that totally just happened! It helps that she also has a lot of experience being flirted with by boisterous guys, which means phrases like that click with her a lot faster than they should. He's a little better spoken than Naruto's old flirting, but it's the same concept.
"Yes! I believe I should approach every engagement with honesty and my full foot forward!" The boy throws a fist into the air while giving her the brightest smile she's ever seen. It reminds her of some of Naruto's fake ones, which he's admitted to her were a thing - her bad for missing them - and which stick out in memory quite well.
"That's, I mean I appreciate it, really." She's flattered, truly, no one besides Naruto has ever said anything like that, and those were more annoying to her exhausted mind of ages past than invigorating like this is. If she hadn't dyed her hair recently, and therefore it completely missed the mark and sounded like it was directed at Ino, she'd probably be a flushy mess. It seems raising her charm has made her more vulnerable, which is odd, none of her other stats work like that. She definitely doesn't remember the period after raising her constitution where she suddenly got one-tapped by everything. Though, to be fair, if that had happened, she probably wouldn't remember it from all the blacking out she would have been doing. Her healing reset upon sleeping would have fixed the brain damage, she thinks. It gave her back her freaking eyes, so, it can probably work on her brain.
On the topic of flirting - specifically the current situation -, she's also pretty used to flattery from Ino so that's another reason she's able to stay standing at this boy's random knockout attack. It's not quite as effective as a defense, because Ino's flattery is different, but, well actually now that she knows better it's probably not. She hasn't given the girl's words credit up to this point. Friends compliment each other, that's normal, that's all she thought it was, and she was too blind to realize things were right in front of her face.
She feels nothing but embarrassment. Is that normal?
What do others feel when kind words are thrown their way? What is romance, is it supposed to feel nothing but awkward and imposing? What does this boy feel? His feelings clearly motivated him to speak to her like that. "But I'm already in a relationship of sorts." Sakura lies through practically chattering teeth. She's glad she lost that trait not too long ago, maybe he'll really believe her.
It's best to lie to him than to reject him, when he's clearly a nice boy with a heart on his sleeve. Besides, by his interactions with her, he clearly already likes Tenten. Why flirt with her in front of her?
Is he playing a game?
"Really?" It's not Lee that talks, it's Tenten, looking back at her with wide eyes. "I heard about that but I didn't think it was real! You're really dating the Yamanaka heiress?"
"Uh-erm, well, she kissed me in public, that's a dating thing to do." Sakura says with as much confidence as she can manage. She didn't intend for this to become a thing, she was just trying to be nice! "Right?"
"We have so much to talk about, I've never met a lesbian before!" Tenten appears to have gotten over her aversion to her, for at least a minute, and Lee's back to quietly blushing so, maybe this is a win? Neji looks annoyed but he can sit her sword for all she cares, the stick up his ass would likely form a new sheath for her instead of cutting him.
"Ah, me neither, erm, I mean until the other day, or I guess I knew one but didn't know uhhh, I'm a bad friend." Sakura beams with tomato cheeks and a little bit of a clumsiness to her step. What has she gotten herself into…
She hopes the boys are okay, Kakashi said the training was going to get even crazier with her gone…
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"This is training ground forty-four." Kakashi says, introducing them to the massive gate in front of what is quite possibly the largest man made structure they've ever seen. The entire forest is intentional and manufactured instead of just having appeared over years. It all has that distinctive Konoha specialty vibe to it, and while he's sure Naruto's missed it, Sasuke clearly notices this place is unnatural right away. "It's otherwise known as the forest of death, and it's very good at killing genin."
"I'm pretty sure you stop getting paid if you kill us!" Naruto shouts, throwing a fist in Kakashi's direction.
"Don't be a baby." Sasuke scolds, both hands in his pockets, and a keen eye on their training ground. He spots an animal rushing around back there, something ferocious and hungry for his kunai. Sasuke is sure he'll do fine, and that's unacceptable in Kakashi's eyes.
"This will be your new home until Sakura gets back." Kakashi stresses with no small amount of dramatic flair to his demeanor. "Her mission should take her out of Konoha for a couple of weeks at the minimum, and knowing her and her ability to get into or cause trouble, I would be surprised if she's back this month."
"Wait, we're going to live here!?" Naruto points at the forest with a waving finger, shock and possibly awe written on his features for the cyclops. Kakashi can't tell exactly what he's feeling when it comes to Naruto, the boy is so used to hiding his emotions behind others that even when he's being genuine it can be difficult to figure out exactly what's going on. His face makes reflexive motions in ways he doesn't mean it to, and his indignation comes off like he's secretly happy about it.
He's possibly better at hiding his emotions than actually emotionless soldiers, Kakashi's met a few of them and he absolutely prefers trying to decipher their thoughts via their body language and subtle twitches than trying to figure out exactly what's going on with a boy who's own body doesn't display what he means accurately.
Something broke Naruto at some point, and his recovery isn't so much fixing the problem as it is making him forget about it. He wonders how Mebuki deals with it… He'll have to ask sometime. He hasn't checked in on that family since he learned that Mebuki heard about Wave.
No one wants to get yelled at by a pissed off mom, not even Kakashi.
At least he knows it could be worse, Sakura is probably completely lost at all times with the boy. "Yes, you'll be going through a cycle. You'll rely on each other to survive while trying to find hiding places from me. I'll give you an hour's head start, and then I will come find you. The consequence for being found is a beat down, followed by an hour to recover. You will then head out again, where I'll give you an hour headstart before I come and find you."
"That doesn't give us time to sleep." Sasuke says, "with how important a theme proper rest has been on this team, that feels sudden." The cocky boy tilts his head a little, taking Kakashi in anew, "is that whole thing just a show for Sakura?"
"No." Kakashi denies, "I would like you to get as much rest as you can whenever you can, because you won't always have the opportunity to get rest in the field. You never know when your next meal or wink of shut-eye is, so you find and force it. Consider matters like that a part of your training."
"How are we supposed to run from you and sleep?" Naruto growls.
"That's for me to know, and for you to figure out, my cute genin." Kakashi's lone eye smiles at them in a way that sends shivers up and down their spines in rhythm. They're certainly not ready for it.
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