Broken Petals {Sakura Haruno}

Recognition

     The trip back to the leaf village was long and quiet, soft whispering emitted from the rosette's and blond quite near the back of the group, Zabuza and Haku had decided to chat with Kakashi.

"So, when did you get Sakura as an apprentice?" Haku whispered to make sure the girl in question didn't hear them talking. She didn't seem like she could hear them, but he didn't like the thought of taking that risk, in case it offended her somehow.

"I got her as an apprentice a few weeks back, she was a very... interesting case." Kakashi seemed reluctant to talk about it much, they could tell, but he added onto his words. "It was immediately obvious to me that all her records were practically useless."

"Useless?" Haku looked somewhat disturbed by the knowledge. He hadn't lived in a village officially since he was very young, and even then his understanding had been limited. He had been young, and his mother had not let him or learn much, in fear of him being discovered and killed. But he knew that, for a village to have no correct information on one of their shinobi/kunoichi, that was a huge security flaw. What if the pinkette defected and became a rogue? It would be devastating.

"Maa, they're not totally useless, I suppose." Kakashi scratched the back of his head, orange book open in his hands but not the current center of his attention. He avoided looking directly at the two genin a ways ahead, but they remained in his sight at all times. Haku and Zabuza both noticed this, but didn't comment, not entirely sure he even knew he was doing it.

"So something in the files are accurate, at least?" Zabuza piped in. He looked vaguely interested, but it was hard to tell.

"Well, we know what she looks like, and her birthday," Kakashi admitted.

"That's it?" And then there was Sasuke, cropping up next to Kakashi as though he had been there all along, looking disturbed. Kakashi would have jolted if he were a lesser man, and internally scolded himself for letting his guard down. He had forgotten all about the Uchiha survivor, and hadn't sensed him approach at all.

A quick flash of green from Sakura told him she had glanced his way in response to his chakra flaring, and he couldn't help but feel inferior. Like she had somehow mocked him with that quick, cursory glance alone.

"We know almost nothing about Sakura," Kakashi says, gesturing to himself and Sasuke. Zabuza and Haku seemed doubtful, so he clarified. "During introductions, she made a show of being a fangirl for Sasuke. It didn't take long to see that she isn't a fangirl and all the information she gave us during introductions was incorrect and worthless."

"None of it was accurate? At all? Not even her skillset?" Zabuza quietly asked, he could feel the slight tension growing and it disturbed the swordsman.

"No, her grades were based off her intelligence, it shows she has an eleven out of fifteen but i'm starting to doubt that." Kakashi replied as he continued to read his book, his eyes flickering to stare at the two teens before glancing back to the rogue ninja. "It also claimed she was far below average in taijutsu when compared to the rest of her class."

"Why would she do that?" Haku murmured, not meaning for it to be a question to be answered, but something that slipped out regardless. Sasuke, who wondered the same thing, turned his gaze to his sensei in question. Kakashi frowned, his visible eye narrowing slightly as, presumably, one of his eyebrows lowered.

"I'm not sure," he said after a time. "The only explanation is that she was hiding from an enemy, or trying to trick the village as a whole into letting it's guard down." Zabuza felt prickles going up his back. It wasn't unheard of for rogue nin to make false pasts or records of themselves so they would be harder to track, but this seemed on a whole other level somehow. Sakura had been lying and tricking her village for years, and skillfully. He wondered what she had planned, because there's no way she would just... do that, right?