Dangerous Bond: Clan of Peace

Part 1

A sunny summer day shone brightly over Konoha. The most recent batch of genin has just graduated and are waiting for their Sensei's to pick them up. The rookie 9 were no longer rookies and now known, respectively, amongst their peers as unique individuals who have their own set of skills. Skills that could cause serious damage to an enemy but vast enough to be able to protect the village from all that face it.

It's been three years since team 7 left the village and since anyone had heard from them. All except Sakura Haruno, that is, who returned a year and a half ago - just as she'd promised.

The rest of the rookie 9 celebrated all night when they heard the pinkette had returned. They'd asked her help on their training whilst she, herself, had been promoted to Jounin and continued her training with the Fifth Hokage.

Sakura learned many jutsu's, techniques, and copious amounts of knowledge on different subjects whilst she was out of the village and training with an Earth Sage who turned out to be a kind, soft-spoken woman, who has never taken on a student as they never shared her dream of peace - Until Sakura, that is.

Training to become a sage was the hardest training the pinkette had ever received. Instead of meditating as the toads do, experimenting and forcefully acquiring it, or passing the trials and being bitten by the white snake sage, the self-proclaimed, Defender of Nations Sage had Sakura go through a serious of physical trials in order to truly understand the works of nature.

Focusing on the sage chakra, Sakura was forced to endure days of living underground in the soil. She had literally dug her own grave and crawled in before moving the earth over her again.

It took a long time and even now, Sakura still trains to get better. Her sage mode could last for a while thanks to her storage of chakra but her muscles always ached intensely afterward. It felt like she was opening the gates of the chakra pathways.

"Oi!" Sakura turns to Ino, Shikamaru and Choji rushing after her. Well, Ino was. Shikamaru walked at a lazy pace with Choji.

"Ohayo" Sakura smiled as she met them halfway.

"Ne, Sakura. What are you up to today? We could use some tips on our formation" Ino suggested with a smirk.

Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes "You and I both know you don't need any more help on that. What do you really want?" The pinkette got straight to the point causing Ino to scowl.

"Why you nosy-"

"Reports have come back that someone from team 7 will be returning soon. She wanted to keep you busy until then" Shikamaru sighed as he revealed his teammate's true intention.

Ino slowly turned around with a murderous glare pointed at Shikamaru, who seemed unfazed.

Sakura shook her head as she took in the information.

'It's finally time.' Sakura smiled softly. She could only hope that their Sensei was included in that return. Over the years, no news of what happened had reached them nor had it reached the village.

It was like he had simply disappeared from existence.

"Ne, are you listening billboard brow?" Ino pulled her from her thoughts.

Growing an irk mark, Sakura gave her a light glare "Who can listen to that loud mouth of yours all the time? I've got to go" With that, the Jounin gave a quick wave to the boys and teleported away.

"EH!?" She could hear Ino screech all the way from the Hokage's office.

Sakura shook her head with a smile before climbing the steps of the Hokage building, ready to begin her training for the day.