Puppeteer

Itachi's brother is an idiot

The next day at the academy was no more interesting than the previous in an academic point of view, but it was certainly entertaining otherwise. Today, a duck-butt haired boy called 'Sasuke' had returned from being ill. The young boy certainly held a familiar resemblance to Itachi, and just like that Uchiha, he was quiet as well. Only, this Uchiha appeared to also be very full of himself and had an entire army of fangirls. Sakura had spent the majority of the day with Naruto and Kiba and so wasn't too bothered by the girls, but when spars began, all hell broke loose.

Today, class 2-1 had a basic taijutsu lesson where they began to learn some katas before being allowed to spar in front of the entire class to put them into action. It was all going so well until Sasuke was chosen to fight against Naruto. Of course, it was only Sakura and Kiba supporting Naruto which caused a huge uprising on the fan-girls side of things. They were disgusted by the fact we were 'disrespecting their beloved Sasuke by supporting his enemy' but Sakura just stuck her tongue out and chanted Naruto's name louder. Kiba grinned at the girl before they ended up having an unspoken competition between themselves and the fangirls on who could be louder. By the end of it, Sakura was beginning to be a bit worried she'd have no voice to support Kiba. The winner of the fight ended up being Sasuke, but Sakura and Kiba tackled a rather beaten-up Naruto into a hug anyway. Sasuke, meanwhile, looked down at the trio. The blonde boy had clearly lost, so why was he so happy about it? Yet there he was, laughing with his friends on the floor.

A couple of fights later, Sakura heard her name be called, along with a girl named Ino. The pink-haired girl stepped forwards, instantly, the fan-girls scowled before cheering for Ino. Naruto and Kiba, however, loudly shouted their best friend's name. The two girls glared at each other before turning to give Iruka their full attention. "Girls, both do the unison sign please." The two girls turned to look at one another before hesitantly offering their little fingers. The class watched with bated breath as the fingers linked and the countdown began, "3...2...1... begin" the two girls leapt back from each other before Ino raced towards Sakura. The blonde sent a wild punch towards Sakura's face who instinctively brought her arm up to protect her face. Sakura felt her body begin to drop into a familiar stance, one her father had taught her, but she shook of the feeling and instead took on the more basic academy one.

The fight dragged on for a few minutes, each girl taking turns in exchanging punches and kicks whilst the other blocked or dodged. They were almost out of time when Sakura finally got annoyed. She'd never lost a fight in her life and she was not going to let herself get beaten just yet. She felt herself pick up the pace a little bit, not noticeable to the untrained eye, but enough to confuse her opponent. She smirked to herself when she felt her clenched fist connect with the side of Ino's head, hitting her directly on the temple. Ino collapsing upon impact. "The winner of this match is Sakura Haruno." Iruka was about to tell them to form the unison sign once more but Ino's collapsed body told him that she would be unable to do so. Instead, the man told Sakura to pick the other girl up and take her to the infirmary. 

Sakura grumbled under her breath as she lifted Ino's unconscious body up from the floor. The blonde's body, whilst not too heavy, certainly was hard on Sakura's young muscles. She opted instead to lug the girl around the corner before simply attaching chakra strings to her and transporting her to the hospital that way. What she didn't notice was that she was not entirely around the bend when she did so and had been spotted by a curious Sasuke.

Almost immediately after seeing Sakura somehow lift up Ino, Sasuke gained permission from Iruka to 'go to the bathroom'. The young Uchiha quickly scampered after the pair of girls, watching in curiosity as the pink-haired girl had the blonde suspended midair through a weird glowing blue beam which connected her finger with the collar of Ino's shirt.

Sasuke ended up waiting just outside the door to the infirmary for Sakura and approached her the moment she stepped out. "What was that blue light you used?" he asked the girl as she passed by the boy. Sakura turned to look at him, a look of boredom on her face as she stared him down. "Magic." she stated blandly before wandering down the corridor, hands tucked behind her head as she whistled quietly to herself. Sasuke growled in annoyance, he would get it out of her if it was the last thing he did.

It took an entire week for Sakura to finally crack under Sasuke's constant nagging. He was clearly desperate to know the answer and wasn't just going to give up when she gave him a sarcastic response. It was the most annoying thing Sakura had ever experienced and she dealt with Naruto and Kiba on a daily basis.

"OKAY! I'll tell you, just... shut up!" She exclaimed loudly in frustration, arms suspended midair to emphasis her annoyance with the boy in front of her. Sasuke simply gave the girl a smug smile before indicating to her to continue. "It's called a chakra string, alright? It's something you can use to control other things, alive or not. Now will you just shut up?" Sasuke frowned to himself, where did he recognize that term from? He nodded slowly, more to himself than to Sakura, before turning on his heel and wandering over to the library to research it. 

Sakura scowled at the retreating boy's back. She already knew she was going to find him a pain to deal with. She turned, eager to get home and relax only to groan at the two familiar people approaching her excitedly. Naruto and Kiba.