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It has to be said: The process of transmigration is a nasty one. From the initial situation of death, through the whole shabang of pulling and stretching and bending of your self, to the moment of realisation of ones new situation. And let's not mention that those things are just the beginning.
You did everything you could to not crash out. You really, really tried. "Acceptance and moving on" is all you forcefully repeat in your mind as your new and gone teacher - Iruka - reads your grouping. Yes. Umino Iruka. And sure. One would say that not every japanese, brown haired (tied in a pony tail) with a scar on their nose guy is the real life manga character. Not even the propaganda-filled classroom is a sure thing of transmigration. The pain in your stomach screaming at your hunger does weigh in the feeling of realness of the situation. It's better to accept the worst ('accept' in a very loose meaning of the word and situation) than to wake up with your hand in a turd barrel.
Still. The realization of appearing in the Naruto world is too big for you. For the situation you've been just thrust upon.
You don't look around; you don't give a twitch. Outside, you hope you're portraying a normal, calm person with maybe a little too deep breaths. Maybe a little stressed with the teams placement, you know? Very normal, very explainable. Inside, you're a cage with a rabid animal, hitting every possible wall and screaming at the world. A cage that holds onto yourself to not let the feral thoughts and emotions out.
You count passing seconds to get your mind away from the smell of stale soup on your left and sweaty tomato concentrate on your right. It's awful. The subconscious knowledge of who those are. Or rather who they're supposed to be. You're thankful that nothing of theirs is touching you. Though, when orange appears in your peripherals, you stave off the panic with closing your eyes.
It's fine. You're fine.
With closed eyes, you touch your fingers in a rythm to box away the dawning information of who you've become.
Sakura.
"Team 7" you hear Iruka-sensei speak the cursed team out loud. "Haruno Sakura", your inner voice follow his words. "Uzumaki Naruto" there's a cheer on your left. "And Uchiha Sasuke." and a groan.
You clench your eyes harder. This is such a cruel situation. You'll die so hard. You can't fight; You can't heal. You're not motivated and you're definitely not a good student-
You flinch at the loudness of Naruto's young boy shout right by your ear.
This is not helping. Neither is Iruka's explanation, nor Sasuke's throw-away comment.
Your eyes fling open and you shoot up, startling people around you. With an ask to be excused to the bathroom, you leap over the desk and leave without waiting for an answer. You know all you need about what's coming so fuck the rest of the lesson. You don't care if it's a big cultural no-no.
You need to BREATHE
You take a whole break to gather yourself and be normal. Be a -eugh- preteen girl. Holy shit, this is bad. You're not gonna play a useless, starved fangirl. As important as the Sakura character is to the story, you need to get free. To get away. Konoha is a fucking landmine. The whole world is-
Fuck.
With a splash of water to your face (it's yours now, forced upon like the one before) and get ahold of yourself. You need to think. You need logic. No crash-out allowed.
The class period for today seems to end while you were busy, so thankfully most of the characters- people are out and about. You might be able to leave. You're gonna try. Most of the passersby are generic kids. No one you recognize. By the entrance to the building though, you pass by The Emo. You go on, full act of not noticing him, and walk normally, not looking behind. It should be fine. He won't stop you. He doesn't believe in teamwork. It should be fine.
You don't hear anything. Good. There are no steps following you. That means you're golden. Sweet.
You relax a little and reach the school gate. Next thing on your plan: to not get lost in the streets-
The moment your foot steps away from the school perimeter, a weird chill passes down your spine. Then a voice hits your ears. No, no. You're so close!
You don't really listen to what the teacher is saying. You want to go- No. Iruka, please. Iruka-
You're once again sitting in that classroom, smelly of food, sweat, dog and dirt. You've been stuck here for at least an hour. You did try to leave after Iruka had to go but you've been quickly turned around by a genjutsu. It was layered and your dispelling is too weak to deal with that. Who did that to you, you don't really care. It doesn't matter. What matters is you being forced to stay in that damned room, waiting who-knows-how-long for the Scarecrow. It's been long enough for you to actually aknowledge the kid disasters and world you're residing in. You can feel it weighing on your psyche. The cage is cracking, the beast is howling and banging its head in the floor. The only thing keeping you sane is you playing with your chakra flow and manipulation. Getting stuck to desks, chairs, pens and papers.
Chakra is funky.
The control Sakura had translated to you and you can easily gather enough of it in your pinky toes to pick up her book. Maybe... Before you could take a step onto a wall, Naruto goes and- oop. Yep. The chalk is now all over the third person you don't want to get involved with. Hatake Kakashi seems like a docile young adult. Bored and clearly not amused. You know better. Him being able to get percieved like that adds to how scary he actually can be.
"You're all a bunch of idiots and i don't like you."
You want to leave so badly. Maybe now there's a chance to end it quickly?
You expected the guy to shunshin away onto the roof or something but it seems he's not letting us leave prematurely (fuck him) and pushes us up onto the roof.
Introductions go as you remember. Kakashi tells you nothing, Naruto is a dreamer and Sasuke is an avenger.
"And lastly the girl."
You'd rather not.
… You're gonna take a page from his own introduction.
"I'm Haruno Sakura. My likes are my own and rest of the info is for my friends." That should do it, right? He's big on trust and anyway, he's not interested in taking a team. He should fail us.
Fuck the team, you want to LEAVE.
You ignore the silence and staring to get your inner self to calm the fuck down. He doesn't probe you for more and he doesn't fail you yet. You listen only half-heartedly to the expected spiel and his improv skills. You can't wait to never show them Sakura's face again.
How you manage to get 'home', you assume it's the muscle memory. The house is decent and the Harunos are absent. Firstly: you eat. You try not to get overboard but it's a hard thing to control. The only good thing you've encountered so far: real fantasy food. Even if it is just reheated prepacked meal - lovely. Resisting such food should be a training in itself.
You pull yourself to 'reality' when your own thoughts accost you. Your situation. You bolt up to your room and start packing your shit to flee. Good bag, sleeping things, cosmetics, money, clothes- shit you might need a sealing scroll- oh wait. Missing nin is a thing. If you leave now, are you becoming one? You don't want to get hunted for sport from the get-go. Shit. You don't know enough about the potential consequences of leaving. Shit, shit, shit.
You drop the thing in your hands and start walking in circles, going through your options.
Leaving now could mean life on the run. You're not build for that... neither physically nor mentally. And potential T&I? Nope. That means staying for some time. Going for civilian is impossible in your place now. Not when you just graduated! Plus Harunos would sniff you out. Maybe if something bad happens but you're not very keen on mauling yourself. That leaves you with continuing as a shinobi, which... an awful idea. Sure, it's possible to go civilian after you work for a few years but in those years you'll be in constant danger. Not going for the exam might have a massive penalty, potentially even sent to authorities. Going for the exam and passing is a straight way to get killed in Wave… but not passing could get you scooped away by Root-
Oh shit, Root. Sakura's been №.1 Kunoichi in class. Civilian or not, bad at physical or not, Danzo would yoink her away, even if just to force other agent to kill her as hazing.
This is bad. This is bad, bad, bad-
You fall from the ceiling to the floor, barely avoiding braining yourself on the panels. You let yourself lay crumbled, your thoughts pushed to the side by a thought of 'how did i get up there??'.
Damn that chakra control. And damn your situation. There's no clear way out. You might actually have to go take that test and pray for an option to appear.
You get to the training ground on time. On time for the meeting of course, not when their 'sensei' eventually appears. No, you get there those hours early. You get yourself that time to not only find the place but also to scout the training ground. Hard ground in the clearing and semi-packed trees with a lot of foliage in the forest. Quite some amount of places to hide and make traps. The problem though: their opponent.
They're fucked either way.
You can't really observe the fauna since Naruto is yammering at you from the moment you appeared. Sasuke is probably too proud to join you on scouting.
"Ne, ne, Sakura-chan," the danger №.1 says with a poke that you swat away. "Why are we walking around?"
"I", you start, "am checking the perimeters." Your words are kinda snooty, but he doesn't seem to mind much. Not like you care of course. "What you are doing, I don't know."
Your words seem to make him turn those rusty kogs in his head. "Why?"
"I want to be prepared if 'the sensei'- " yes, you do add a finger quotation marks to the title, "-wants to fight us."
"Eh?" You can see his Anime scrunched up face in your mind. "Why would he fight us?" Naruto asks with a weird look in his eyes.
His words stop you in your tracks. With a turn, you look at him. Yup, scrunched. His face tells you he's genuine in his cluelessness.
Right. Team 7 knew nothing about Kakashi.
"Naruto. How much do you know about him?"
"Umm... Just what he told us?"
Your brows twitch.
"And you, Sasuke?" You assume he's around. You've assumed correct when you recieve a 'hn'. Again: completely clueless.
"Hatake Kakashi." you start, hoping deeply that he won't appear like Beetlejuice. "A person you know nothing about. A person, that when asked, told you nothing about themself. A person, that told you not to even eat. He didn't even keep his word and be on the time HE picked. You want to trust that person?"
"I mean-"
"No, Naruto." you're on a tangent and you won't be stopped by his belief. "We're not in Academy. He's not out teacher. He's supposed to be our team leader! This is a matter of trust! " Your voice starts to get louder. "I do not trust blindly. Not in this profession!" It's not shouting; you're above shouting.
You need to calm down. You take a deep breath, forcefully push your shoulders down and place your hands on your hips. Clearly an image of a girl in control. You don't have time-
"What do you know about him?" the danger №.2 asks you.
"The last Hatake." you start from the easy things whole you go back to checking around. "One of the most known ninja from Konoha in bingo books. The copy-cat ninja." you say and then turn to look the emo boy in his eyes. "The Sharingan-no Kakashi." he flinches, his eyes going wide.
You're unfair. You're aware.
You're also extremely terrified.
You look away from his scrunched up, stormy face and turn back to Naruto. You catch his sky-blue. "Also known as Friend-killer Kakashi."
There's a silence of widening eyes. He tenses and mouth open ni a gape.
It's quiet. It's cold. It shows the weight of your words.
Before you could open your big fat mouth, an adult hand claps your shoulder. There's a sting underneath a heavy hand.
"Mah, Sakura." you don't crumble only because he grips you to hold you up in place. "It's not nice to air someone else's laundry."
The bells test got changed. It's now reduced to a one bell test. It's between Naruto and Sasuke. You, Kakashi tied to the pole. The clock was placed right by your ear (a torture method, you're sure) and let them duke it out.
At least that's what you assume the danger 1 and 2 think. In reality, the danger №.3, is picking on your mind and opinions, while the two fight the clone. You've expected him to fail you all on your words alone. He is a private, PTSD-riddled asshole, which is definitely shown when you started to free yourself from the ropes.
"While untying yourself is a good skill to have, don't do that in front of the enemy." He says with a smile, which he promptly drops at his next words. "Or you'll end up worse".
But no. Apparently, he prefers to keep you both hidden under a genjutsu, while he reads and occasionally pokes at your buttons.
"Now, that you've admited to be an enemy-" You're strung up; you're tired; you'll gamble. "-why didn't you stop all that farse?"
A head tilt.
Mind player, right.
"Fighting you is redundant, even if we all 3 were working together." the rope is really chafing your wrists. "There's two of them. This exercise on teamwork is already doomed to fail."
You watch as Kakashi's clone turn into a log and Sasuke leaves his place to get deeper into the woods. Naruto is being left, dangling upside down.
This is a disaster. This alone should be a reason to fail. Why is he still playing with his food?
Kakashi will definitely fail you, which means failing of the whole team.
Well, that doesn't leave you many options. Going back to the academy is a no. Dropping out can get you kidnapped and genin-core is a thankless workplace with no way out. Also an option to be swooped away.
Suddenly, Naruto appears in front of you, startling you from your thoughts. The genjutsu around you changes, leaving you out to the open.
"Sensei is not around." He starts, obviously looking around and not seeing Kakashi leaning on the post on your right. "Let me just-" He starts to cut the ropes with his kunai.
Wasn't he supposed to go for the food? Though you guess you are in the body of his crush.
The moment the ropes fell, the clock starts to ring in your ear.
"All of you should quit. None of you deserve to be a ninja." he says calmly, ignoring the interruptions from Naruto. Even when Sasuke goes for an attack, his expression doesn't change much.
You decided not to play to your role and just wait for the magical words of dismissal. Too bad Naruto is a yapper, making Kakashi explain all your wrongdoings, the K.I.A. stone and wait-
"I'll give you one more chance." He's gotta be kidding. "After lunch it'll get tougher to get the bells. Since Sakura is out and Naruto broke the rules by freeing her, only Sasuke gets to eat."
Just fail us already.
"Sasuke, if you give any of them food, you fail immediately."
Wait.
Wait wait.
That means- But... If it's a test for only Sasuke… how did I pass in his eyes? Sure, Naruto went to 'save' Sakura. But me? I was literally refusing to cooperate and ranted in the most hurful way in a place anyone can hear! The only 'good' thing i did was checking the… wait. Underneath the underneath. Oh fuck. Checking perimeters and sharing intel to the trusting party... fuck even potential leadership. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
That can't be that, right? The headcanons were that he's either a genius or a fuck-up! Both even!
No, no. You're overthinking it all. He wouldn't!
Shit.
Sasuke, please fail.
Sasuke, in fact, does not fail. He actually shares his food with Naruto's howling stomach. I also recieve a bite but it gets swooped away (thankfully. 1 and 2's germs were on those chopsticks) by a wind from Kakashi and his dramatic ass.
"You guys-" Thunder sounds on a clear day. Intimidating pose. Everything is there.
Damn it.
"Pass~"
The guys cheer, while you put on the thousand-yard stare.
You don't have much time till Wave. You need to-
A big, heavy hand falls onto your head. This time it's not hurtful. You look up, you meet a grey eye staring into your soul. Then it curves into a smile.
You are so fucked.