Stream of past

Gonna break rules and hearts in twos, cause that's what the baddest do

Sakura left training ground 3 with team 7 so they could go to Ichiraku and eat. Sakura and Shikamaru had been summoned to the Hokage tower so they could be promoted to chunin. Sakura was surprised by this and after the Nara left, asked her shishō the reason. Tsunade just laughed in her face and reminded her she was already a chunin in her past life and while her skill wasn't what it was, she was still above genin level. 'You pulled off a Water Dragon Bullet that you found another use for and you expect me not to promote you? Even if I wanted to keep you as a genin I couldn't. Koharu would have had my head!'

So, team 7 decided they would celebrate her promotion by taking her out. Kakashi was paying for their meal as a reward. Once they found the ramen establishment, they each took a seat and ordered their food.

"I still can't believe you didn't tell us you already knew Tsunade! Do you have any idea how much easier it would have been to bring her back if you came with me?" exclaimed Naruto.

"Sorry Naruto, but this was exactly why shishō didn't want anyone knowing. She didn't want people using me to get to her, even if it was for a good cause." said Sakura, patting his arm.

"Still it does explain your previously unnoticed skill." said Kakashi with a thoughtful expression. "And it explains why Tsunade didn't come running to the village when the Sandaime contacted her about you."

Sakura openly gaped at Kakashi. "YOU RATTED ME OUT TO THE SANDAIME?!"

Kakashi put his hands up. "Ah, I was a bit worried about your prowess, it isn't every day you see someone wielding the powers of a Sannin, y'know. I was worried you were an enemy in disguise."

And yeah, on an objective level, Sakura could agree with him, she probably would have done the same in his shoes, but it still hurt. "Good to know you had so much faith in me, sensei..." said Sakura, stabbing her pork with the chopsticks.

Kakashi put a hand on her head. "I'm sorry to have broken your trust like that Sakura, but I had to make sure. And I did it immediately after the bell test, I didn't really know you back then. Besides, you have to admit, you didn't do the best job at breaking into your powers. I mean, you started causing earthquakes the first day after the academy. What was the point of you pretending to be a weak little girl running after Sasuke if you were going to just show what you could do the moment you became genin."

The 'weak little girl' comment stung a bit, because that was exactly what she was before, but still she could see his point. This was exactly why she didn't take infiltration missions before. "Yeah, ok I see what you mean. Also I wasn't really pretending to run after Sasuke, I did have a crush on him for a while. I just decided to go to the extreme for my cover." then she turned around and looked at Sasuke. "Sorry Sasuke, I probably made you really uncomfortable, huh?"

Sasuke looked at her with wide eyes. "Uh...It's fine. Apology accepted."

"You said for a while. Does that mean you have a crush on someone else, Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto hopefully.

"No." said Sakura and Naruto visibly deflated. "Although I do plan to have a bit of fun and get a few dates in the upcoming party. Who knows, maybe someone will even ask me to dance."

The so called party was the 'Konoha Ranks Convocation'. A party that lasted two days and happened once every 5 years, with the counter resetting every time a new Hokage was inaugurated. The tradition dates back to the Shodai Hokage, Hashirama Senju created it in order to promote closer bonds and foster good relations between the clans and the clanless shinobi. It was basically an excuse for ninjas to dress fancy, dance, drink and eat some good food. Last time, Tsunade had the party much later and Naruto and Sasuke had already left the village, but now they were still here and Sakura was excited to have all of her team for the night.