Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Holy & The Profane ❯ Let the training begin ( Chapter 1 )

"Bakas!" Sakura sighed with exasperation. Naruto and Sasuke were at the whole competition thing again. Sad as it was it amused all three of the males she was well acquainted with to compete or at least observe competitions like this. From what she hand Ino had learned from comparing notes it was the same with all the males for miles around.

Even her Sensei was a little boy in this respect. She had at first been irritated to be saddled with a pervert who rarely seemed to be serious about anything for her Sensei. That had faded after their first mission. Now three and a half years later she knew that the only true way to impress men was with skill or with strength.

Big breasts caught momentary attention but only for just a brief glance or maybe a brief grope. Strength and skill, skill and strength. Both were things that Sakura was lacking in, or so she thought. Her Sensei had once said he believed she would find a way to realize her potential and then it would be proven the equal of her male team mates. She had to find a way. She so didn't want to disappoint her teacher anymore. She didn't want to be weakest anymore.

Like every other Shinobi before her who had ever doubted that they were good enough for the task ahead she found the same answer to her troubles. That answer was to train. Train harder or differently then before or with someone new who could teach you something beyond what you knew or what was even normal. That was most often the key to surpassing your current limit and achieving the new desired level of prowess

*Hmm...* Sakura thought. Yes! Perfect! If he didn't know some interesting, perhaps forbidden, but definitely powerful Justus and secret tricks that would help then no one she knew did! With that thought in mind she left a note to her parents and strode off in the direction of the village of sand. It took her most of they day, even after she used Chakra to speed herself along the trees until there weren't anymore. The sunset was beautiful in the canyons of the village of sand's territory.

Here on the edges of the sand's territory resided Gaara of the sand. He was untrusted even by his fellow sand Shinobi, but team seven had learned earlier that his personal loyalty once given was absolute. They had rescued his half siblings and he now considered the leaf of team 7 staunch allies. Which of course as the closest thing Gaara had to friends. Her appearance at his side shocked Gaara but he greeted the leaf Shinobi with somewhat cordial behavior.

Sakura found herself a guest in Gaara's house. Like Naruto he had lived on his own for a very long time. This was his house and his alone. It was a very soothing place surprisingly with comfortable furniture and pictures of various landscapes that involved sand, beaches and desert scenes mostly.

Gaara appreciated it when people were to the point when speaking to him. That his little pink leaf ally had sought him out without her tag along teammates or her hentai teacher made him curious. She got directly to the point of her visit swiftly enough so he need not ask.

"Gaara-kun. I need your help with something really important. Still it's only important to me so since it's not a team 7 request I'll understand if you say no right away. I need to learn some really powerful Jutsu. I need you to train me so I can get a lot stronger. I am tired of being the weak one in the group and I want to be really genuinely strong!"

Her gush over with Sakura settled down somewhat, a light blush of embarrassment coloring her cheeks. He pondered the strange effect this blush had over him for only seconds, and then he smirked. Gaara was more used to smiling now, but due to the nature of his demon he smirked more often then not.

"Hai. No problem Sakura chan. Be warned though, this will not be anything that even remotely resembles fun."

The next morning they began. Sakura was well rested. Not a single weird or scary dream had touched her in Gaara's previously unused guestroom. Her solemn looking new sensei seemed to be hardcore focused so she dropped into a ready stance and braced for attack. As he attacked Gaara explained things.

Their first task was going to be deepening the well of her Chakra reserves. She was nearly incapable of doing further advanced techniques as she was. The most she could accomplish was Naruto's favorite shadow clone Jutsu and then she could only make four copies of herself that lasted two minutes. She remebered Kakashi Sensei telling her that if she didn't use it she would loose it. So she performed the shadow clone very quickly behind a rock. She actually managed five clones in her excitement. Better already! I knew he could help! Sakura thought then the clones vaporized as Kunai thudded into their flesh. The one thrown at her missed as she poofed into smoke and reappeared behind Gaara.

The sand welled up and smacked her backwards a good thirty yards. She skidded to a stop, miraculously still standing on her feet, and then attacked again. Gaara had been wrong about this though. Somehow this training was more then fun, it was exciting!

***

The day ended at dusk. Sakura could barely stagger into the bath and then to her bed in between the black silk sheets. Multiple small cuts had needed cleaning so the sand would not cause infection. At last she dropped off. Several grains of sand that she had dislodged, still colored with her blood, had slipped unnoticed away to Gaara's side.

*

Gaara purred at the taste of her blood on the grains as he rolled them around on his tongue. His new student had a sweet flavor to her that made certain parts of his anatomy take notice like never before. He grinned, and even Shukaku within him could find no fault with the fantasies of blood and sex that flooded his mind.

***

Morning came and she lifted her aching self out of bed. Eat breakfast, train till dark, clean wounds, then crash. After three weeks of this she had lost every ounce of baby fat. Now a leaner meaner fighting machine presented herself to her sensei.

"Today we shall test the limits of your Chakra. Lets see how far you have reached beyond your old limit." He informed her. Then he began to teach her new seals.

By the end of the day the Chakra control specialist was feeling the burn for sure. She was seeing spots as she followed her Sensei back to his house. Her wounds would have remained Dirty if it hadn't been for his help. Then she collapsed into bed, knowing she was going to have to do bed linen laundry tomorrow. She was gross but she couldn't find the energy to care right now.

*

The hours of darkness inched by slowly until the lonely hour of three in the morning was upon them. Gaara still slept little even though he could now do so without fear of his beast escaping. He had finished his rest an hour previously and read the last letter his sister had sent out to him by messenger pigeon. He was sitting on his bed trying to decide what to do for the next few hours till she rose when he heard an unfamiliar sound.

At last after following it through the house he figured it out. It was the sound of someone being desperately sick. Praying to the porcelain god as his wicked lush of a brother had called it. Sakura had pushed past her limit. As sometimes happened she had come down with flu like symptoms. In this case stomach flue like symptoms. Miserable but something one had to bear in order to continue onwards.

Gaara was about to head back off to bed for a few hours more rest, to spare her dignity the dishonor of being found out. He would not want to be seen being so weak and he was going to give his student the same consideration. Then he remebered something his own teacher had taught him when he was an excruciatingly young Nin. Knowing when you are weak and need help is a true example of strength.

She needed him he supposed. After all there was no one else here to help her and ease her pain. So he walked back to the guest bathroom and opened the door. She had not locked it. He wet a washrag and cleaned her mouth before putting a second cool cloth on her forehead. She shocked him by leaning against his chest and sighing. He felt her startlingly low Chakra bottom out at near dangerous levels. She was unconscious a second after she had rested against him. He did not know how to treat someone with Chakra sickness! He realized that she might grow sicker if he did not find out what to do. Shit!

With Shukaku echoing his sentiments with even more foul oaths he walked back to his room. Sakura cuddled close to him. Her grip was surprisingly strong around his neck when he tried to let her go so he could phone his old Sensei. Finally she seemed to believe his whispered reassurances, because she reluctantly let go.

"Gaara do you know what miserable…oh well. I suppose your still not sleeping through the night yet. What's the matter boy?" His sensei had one of the most irritating habits Gaara had ever run across. He called every male under the age of forty 'Boy'. The old Gaara had nearly killed him for it once. Still his Sensei persisted.

"I have a student of my own Sensei and this person has Chakra sickness. I am concerned that they will grow even more ill. I need to know what to do to help them start recovering."

Gaara found himself blushing at what he was instructed to do. It was very similar to the emergency treatment for hypothermia when in the wilderness. He had to strip Sakura down to her undergarments and hold her while she slept. He also had to form a Chakra shield around them. This shield was supposed to allow Chakra to seep into her from his less depleted supply.

He thanked his sleepy Sensei and hung up the phone. He went back to her and carefully removed the short shorts she wore to bed. The t-shirt had to stay because it was all she wore on her top half. Sakura purred suspiciously like a great big kitten when he formed the shield and pulled her inside it.

He then set Shukaku to controlling and maintaining the shield and went to sleep. He was going to need all the energy he could muster to supply a convincing argument for why she was nearly naked and in his bed. He hoped she had at least twelve hours in her before she woke. He would need at least that long to figure out what to say.

Shukaku looked down at the top of the pink haired Shinobi's head. Her scent held familiar elements, fear, pain, sweat, vomit, and blood. All things he had wafting across his nose regularly as a killer demon. What he didn't recognize was the strange floral element. The half slumbering mind of Gaara told him it was probably her lotion or her shampoo and not to worry about it. All girls had a good smell when they were able to. It was part of their personal hygiene rituals.

The demon just shook their head and sighed. The Chakra shield warped and changed to be more of his energy. Still the Little one did not shy away. Instead she snuggled closer and with a contented purring sound wrapper her arms around their waist. It felt good. Shukaku shocked himself by liking it. This warm touching, this embracing felt very, very good.

***

Sakura woke up late; she knew she was late from her sense of the sun. Even when she was inside she could always tell what time of day it was, no clock required. Then Sakura remebered exactly why she was only waking up now. "Erg my mouth tastes like crap." She whispered near silently.

She found herself in a strange place when she bothered to look. Then the sensation of a gentle touch made her freeze up.

"Hmm? Such a dead still pose from something that was so soft and warm a moment ago. What a shame."

The scent was Gaara's but something else she couldn't define wasn't Gaara. Shukaku! For a moment her entire body urged her to move quick and kill quicker before her Sensei's demon destroyed her utterly. Then the events of the past year came back to her. Shukaku was no longer a threat to Gaara's well-being or that of anyone else. Not any more then his Shinobi counterparts ever were that is.

Kyubi had thoroughly cowed the vicious demon in a demonic realm beyond the earth where he had taken him to 'Beat some sense into him if necessary!' Now that the vicious nine tails had become part of Naruto more willingly she was glad of it. He had also healed Gaara of his plagued pain by forcing the Demon to be benign.

"Good afternoon Shukaku Sama."

Sakura wasn't going to kid herself though. Just because both demons were milder now didn't mean her death was any farther away then it would have been before. Showing respect was a wise plan. She knew he could annihilate her. Whether he would or not now depended on how she behaved.

"Hahahahaha! Sama indeed! Hahahahahaha!"

The wicked demon's laughter was surprisingly contagious. Soon they were both laughing uproariously. Then the beast in the teen boy's body carried her to the bathroom where her toothbrush awaited.

***

Sakura woke up still in the Chakra shield after a prescribed afternoon nap. Shukaku had insisted. She had wisely agreed. Considering how she was feeling she doubted she would have argued had Naruto told her to catch sack time. He had carried her back and forth while he resignedly cleaned up the mess she had made the two times before she had made it to the bathroom.

Sakura had been embarrassed but Shukaku assured her nether he nor Gaara were pissed about it. It was going to take a week for her to recover fully. So instead of direct training Shukaku produced scrolls from the void through demon magicks and taught her about some more advanced Jutsus. Scroll work had always been where she was best. Academics were easy for the bright girl.

She found that for most of that week she was dealing not with Gaara but Shukaku. Sakura was surprised by how soothing the presence of the demon was. She was at her ease with him like she had always dreamed of being at ease with Sasuke. Almost like she was with Kakashi Sensei only there was something else to it. Sakura blushed and forced her mind away from it. She did not need hormones interfering with her training regimen.

*

Gaara took over again once his student had recovered enough to resume physical training. Sakura seemed a bit happier too though he had no idea why. That is until she blasted him with a secret dark Jutsu. Ha! Shukaku had been teaching her on the sly while she recovered! Shukaku hadn't been single element oriented ether. Light , dark , water, fire, earth, and wind he had taught her all of the elemental Jutsus that her recovered Chakra would allow her to use. That and her well of Chakra was deepening. Soon she would be able to learn to control sand and small pebbles with a spirit gourd just as he did.

The training ended for the day and due to her rest Sakura was not about to pass out as usual. He spoke softly as he invited her to change and join him at the hot springs. Her answer was just as soft, almost too soft to hear. He walked towards them and she joined him a moment later. She went into the water quickly. Sakura was all the way across the pool of steaming water faster then a swimming fish.

He stripped and was in the water up to his waist before he could think what he was doing. Still the image in his head of Shukaku waving around black and red pompoms while performing acrobatic flips and jumps was very disturbing.

Shall I take that as a you are good to go? Gaara asked in his head. The demon merely laughed and disappeared. He would want his own try but since it would still be Gaara's body Gaara doubted that she would mind. Still he wasn't going to ask her. He would leave that up to Shukaku.

Sakura was sitting on a rock ledge that had been ground down into a seat on purpose many centuries ago. He watched all the worries cares and aches fade from her expressive features. She was lovely. He had taken in many sites and even destroyed many things that were nearly as lovely. Still she surpassed them all. It's because she has gotten beyond your defenses my boy. The half slumbering demon told him.

"Sakura." He breathed, barely above a whisper, but she heard him.

*

Sakura looked up when Gaara breathed her name. He was coming across the pool. He was tall enough that the water level only reached the bottom of his chest. On her the water covered her breasts while standing on the sandy bottom. In a minute he was standing over her. She held out her hands and he helped her to stand up. His stare was intense. For a moment she worried that she had screwed up somehow. Then after a quick overview she decided he had other issues far bigger then any minor mistake. Those would account for any intensity on his part.

In all this deep but quick thinking it had not occurred to her that Gaara had not released her hands. He still held them and his touch was surprisingly gentle. He placed them over his heart while still favoring her with that intense stare.

"What do you feel under your hands Sakura chan?"

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NEHEHEHE I decided to save the smuttiness and major fluff for a second chapter! I know I know everyone wants to know how Sakura is going to answer. Still this was a good spot to take a break so I could work on my KakaSaku fic.

On another note in this fic I am trying out a new way of separating things that need to be separated like POV changes and time passing and scene changes and stuff. POV will mostly be Gaara and Sakura in this one but some others will appear. One asterisk AKA this thing here->* will separate POV changes # of the same like this->*** will separate major scene changes and time passage things. Minor scene changes will not have indicators. I hope this solves the problem of some of my fics where transitions in plot progression were hard to understand. Tell me what ya think folks and please review!