Light From Dark {A Sakura Haruno/ Sasusaku Fanfic}

17- A Mission with Team Seven (Part 1)

"Hey, Sakura-chan!" Her overenthusiastic male best friend yells, slamming right into her and causing her to stumble and fall right into Ino, who she was already talking to while shopping for groceries in the main part of town.

The pinkette gets enraged. "NARUTOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" She yells, throwing a punch right into his face and sending him flying into the nearest vegetable stand.

"E-E-eh.... sorry, Sakura-chan... But I have great news! We're going on a mission!"

"A mission! When?!" The pinkette asks as her teammate stands up and brushes the vegetables off of him.

"Right now!" Naruto responds, and the pinkette's eyes light up.

"Well, why didn't you say so?! Sorry, Ino. I'll catch you later?" The pinkette asks, turning towards her other friend.

"Of course. See you when you get back, Forehead!"

"Looking forwards to it, Pig!" The two smile, hugging each other for a brief second before the pinkette hauls Naruto over her shoulder and runs to the Hokage tower. Sakura knocks on the door, and with a 'come in!' from her teacher, she enters, immediately dropping Naruto on the floor and bowing in front of her Shishou.

"Sakura, Naruto." She acknowledges, then begins to speak. "Team Seven, I am assigning you to a S-class mission. We've been having trouble with rogues on the outskirts of town, and I want you four to deal with it. These ninja are said to be jounin rank or higher. You start tomorrow. Sakura, stay a minute. The rest of you are dismissed." Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi nod and bow before exiting the room, Kakashi disappearing in a poof of smoke.

"You wanted to talk to me, Shishou?"

"Yes, Sakura. I know that your jinchuriki powers are new to you, and I wanted to see how you've progressed."

"Hai. For starters, I have each of their respect. I've learned how to summon them, and just had a training session with Fuku the other day, where I learned to summon each and every one of his swords. He was going to teach me how to use one within the next few days."

"I see... that's a massive feat. You've progressed farther than I thought in only a day and a half."

"Thank you, Shishou. Kinryu was also going to teach me how to revive without a toll on my body, and with the help of Attor, advance my training with medicine and figure out what poison Sasori was trying to inject into me, which even I could not find out. You're welcome to join."

"You know what, I think I just might. Maybe even to just watch. Now, no training tonight. I want you at your highest chakra levels so tomorrow you're good to go, because I have a feeling that Naruto and Sasuke won't be at their highest. Dismissed."

Sakura bows, exiting the room.
~
The following morning, the pinkette arrives at the bridge first. She waits as one by one her teammates arrive; Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi.

"You're late." Sasuke unhappily grumbles.

"Ehhh... sorry. I got lost on the path of life." Kakashi responds, scratching the back of his head and closing his eye.

Sakura smiles, remembering Team Seven's first mission, in which similar events occurred.

"Let's go!" Naruto cheers, taking off. Sakura takes off after her blonde-haired teammate, excited for their mission.
~
"Let's camp here for the night." Kakashi says, stopping in a small clearing. His students agree, noticing the setting sun, and set up camp. Sakura sets up her sleeping bag, her teammates doing the same on either side, a little distance away, of course.

"Naruto, go get the firewood. Sakura and I will go hunting, Kakashi, guard the camp." Sasuke orders, and his team nods in agreement, each taking off to do their own task.

Sakura and Sasuke walk to the river in a comfortable silence. As they near the stream, the raven asks what their plan is.

"I actually have a new trick I've been wanting to try out..." The pinkette says, slightly blushing. The raven nods in agreement, knowing that he can trust his pink-haired teammate. Sakura sits on a rock, Sasuke standing a bit aways behind her. She closes her eyes, and thinks, O, come!

Immediately, a beautiful pearly white gigantic dragon appears before her.

You summoned me?

O! Sakura smiles, opening her eyes. Do you think you could do me a favor?

Of course, master. O responds, bowing his head.

Could you please go fishing for us? I only need four fish. Feel free to have any leftovers.

The dragon's eyes light up. Of course. Hunting is my specialty.

The ground trembles as the mighty dragon steps into the river, hunting. Sasuke watches in amazement as within seconds, twenty or so fish are placed before the pinkette.

Thank you, O.

My pleasure. The dragon responds, bowing his head. Sakura releases the summon and O disappears, along with a bunch of the fish, leaving four for her and her teammates.

"Now all we have to do is skin and cook them." The pinkette says as the raven nears her to help, still shocked at Sakura's power. As the pair skin the fish, the pinkette checks her chakra levels, which are still at full.

"Sakura, how did you manage to get your power?" The raven asks, the question he's been wanting to ask for a while surfacing.

The pinkette thinks, stumped. "... I don't really know. It just kind of awoke inside of me when I... when I died." Sakura responds, the reality of the situation dawning on her.

"So have you felt like it's always been a part of you?"

"Yeah, I guess. It just... something within me has connected with the dragons. There's really no way for me to figure out exactly what has been going on because my parents died in the war." The pinkette responds.

The raven's eyes widen. "I-I didn't mean-"

"It's all right. They were the first ones to die. They were trying to protect the civilians, and they were attacked by a group of shinobi. They told the civilians to run, that they'd hold the shinobi back and catch up with them. But they never did." Sakura responds, clutching the necklace her father gave her tightly, a few tears falling as she remembers when she was at the hospital, and Tsunade broke the news to her. The pinkette immediately stopped her paperwork, and in a fury went charging out the door, only to slaughter each and every last rogue shinobi with a monstrous persona. Almost like... a certain dragon helped her.

I see you've figured out that all of us have been with you this whole time.

Orichi...