The girl with Pink Hair

Chapter Nine

Carver and Raiden stood in the arena of the leaf village as Sakura watched them retrain a large portion of the leaf village shinobi. Sakura stood off to the side leaning against the wall as she took another drink from her water bottle. Tsunade and Kakashi were inside the Kokage's box, where the Hokage would sit and watch the exams take place.

"Should we go talk to her?" Tsunade asked more to herself. Kakashi stood beside Tsunade with his hands in his pockets. He really wanted to talk to Sakura, he never got a chance to speak to her after that night in the forest. She was whipped away from him before he could explain his actions for randomly kissing her like he did. He let out a deep sigh, maybe he read the signs between them wrong. Sakura did kiss him back so maybe Sakura was just really busy. "I can't believe Onoki would exacerbate what happened with the Mist Village the way he did." Tsunade huffed annoyed.

"We should have expected it." Kakashi replied, "We know him and how he can be."

"As true as that may be, to try and spark up tension between villages though..."

"Onoki is not a favorite among the village leaders." Kakashi reminded.

"And to try and lead an assault against the Waterfall Village-" Tsunade shook her head.

"The other villages didn't go for it though." Kakashi tried to calm Tsunade, seeing anger leaking onto her face.

"True. Kakashi-" Tsunade called pulling his attention from Sakura and onto her.

"Hm?"

"Did you know, no one knows where the Reaper came from?"

"What do you mean?" Kakashi questioned.

"I was talking to the other village leaders and asked them about what they knew about Sakura."

"What did they have to say?"

"They didn't know who I was talking about at first."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, it wasn't until I brought up her last name that it finally clicked with them. They only know Sakura as the Reaper or Commander Haruno."

"Interesting." Kakashi muttered, "I wonder why that is."

"Apparently Sakura is not a very approachable person." Tsunade stood from her seat and walked over to where Kakashi stood. "The only time anyone sees her is when it comes time to fight, and everyone I spoke to only had war stories about her."

"War stories?" Kakashi wanted clarification on this.

"Yes, she has been a busy bee these past few years. Every village I spoke to holds her in high regards. Every time there is an issue, she is the one to respond to the threat and that is the only time she is ever seen. There isn't any of this-" Tsunade gestured to Sakura leaning against the arena wall watching Raiden and Carver. "-She is in and out and that is it. She is known to be cold and withdrawn."

"It doesn't sound like we are talking about the same person here." Kakashi said.

"That is why I was so confused." Tsunade sighed, "The things I heard Kakashi..." Tsunade trailed off rubbing her arm.

"What do you mean?"

"The stories I was told about her they..." Tsunade closed her eyes for a moment. "...they scared me Kakashi. The Reaper they spoke about was a war machine and but when I look at her, I don't see that."

"She is different when she is here." Kakashi realized.

"That is what I was thinking." Tsunade agreed. "Maybe she doesn't hate us as much as she believes she does. But..."