"Ugh, I've been feeling so stiff lately," groaned Sakura, lightly pounding her shoulders with her closed fist as she walked. "My shoulders are killing me…"
Ino rolled her eyes.
Whenever she was around, Sakura would never miss an opportunity to humble brag about her stiff shoulders, just to drive in the point that her breasts were that much bigger than hers… like, we get it, so change the subject already!
"Tell me about it," said Ino, playing along. "I managed to avoid getting sick all winter, but just when I thought winter was over, I caught a cold!"
Winters in the Land of Fire weren't very harsh, so the last traces of snow had melted weeks ago. The trees were lush with green leaves once more, and flowers had already begun to bloom, which meant the Yamanaka Flower Shop was officially back in business! Since Ino and Sakura had already wrapped up their training at the hospital for the day, Ino's mother had roped them into helping with deliveries, which is why the two of them were out and about, ferrying flower bouquets around the village…
"I can't believe it's already been a year," sighed Sakura. "If only mum and dad could see me now…"
"Eh…? Did I miss a funeral, or something!?" said Ino in confusion. "I'm pretty sure our mums talked this morning…"
Today was the 31st of March— graduation day for the students of the ninja academy, and the anniversary of Sakura's reincarnation into this beautiful yet dangerous world. Before Sakura knew it, she had already spent twelve entire months in this world.
Little by little, she had stopped accidentally referring to herself with the pronoun 'boku.' She no longer felt embarrassed about putting on her underwear, and she had accepted Mebuki and Kizashi as her new parents— though she still remembered her past family's faces, and she often wondered what had happened to them following her death, and if she'd ever get to see her sister and her parents again.
Without realising it, Sakura had adapted to the profession of a shinobi who dances on the thin line between life and death, but she had never forgotten about the value of human life, never taking lives… unless it was an accident. Although, Sakura did a lot more saving than killing, these days…
"Sakura-chaaaan!"
Ino and Sakura turned around— Naruto was waving and running towards them.
"Anyway, as I was saying," said Ino, turning to Sakura, "Shikamaru and Chōji and Asuma-sensei left on a mission while I was stuck in bed, so now I'm stuck delivering flowers… ugh."
"Oi, don't ignore me!" cried Naruto, sticking himself between Sakura and Ino.
"…now you know how it feels to go unseen."
!!!
Startled, Naruto, Ino, and Sakura whirled around as one. Sakura turned pale the instant she saw Shino, the bug boy— she feared and hated insects more than anything!
"Don't creep up on us like that, Shino!" Naruto shouted. "I thought my heart was gonna stop, y'know!"
"Uzumaki Naruto, Yamanaka Ino," said Shino in a monotone voice. "Lady Hokage would like to see you in her office."
"Mind if I come along?" asked Sakura.
…
Ten minutes later, Sakura and company were standing in front of Tsunade's desk. As usual, Shizune and her pet pig Tonton were there, but there was also a familiar face which Sakura hadn't seen since the Chūnin exams… The lithe and curvy Mitarashi Anko!
'It's that one mission with the fish girl!' exclaimed Inner Sakura. 'I can't remember anything other than that, though!'
It had been years since she had watched Naruto filler, so she was rather iffy on the details for anything that wasn't canon, but thankfully, Shizune had prepared a puppet show to explain the mission parameters…
Basically, the Land of the Sea was composed of a bunch of islands located just south of the Land of Water and south-east of the Land of Fire. Since they had no shinobi village of their own, they usually paid a heavy fee to hire Kirigakure to protect their sea lanes, trade routes and cargo ships from pirates, but as of late, they'd been plagued by a certain sea monster sinking all their ships.
Inevitably, said monster had sunken the ship transporting the Land of the Sea's tribute for Kirigakure. Now, under ordinary circumstances, this wouldn't have been too much of a problem, since the Land of the Sea was quite rich. As long as they managed to pay their protection fees on time, they would be fine— which is why the Land of the Sea had turned to Konoha to make sure their payment actually made it to the Kiri-nin before the deadline came up.
"The Hidden Mist doesn't seem to be doing a great job protecting these people's ships," Sakura pointed out. "And they're still asking for payment?"
In its current state, the Hidden Mist was more of a mafia organisation than a shinobi village— to Sakura, the relationship between island countries and Kirigakure seemed more like a protection racket than anything else.
After all, in the Hidden Leaf, you would be lucky to even receive the client's down payment (if any) if you failed your mission…
"Pay attention, everyone," said Tsunade. "Aburame Shino, Yamanaka Ino, and Uzumaki Naruto, the three of you will accompany Anko to the Land of the Sea for this mission."
Tsunade had used a very scientific method to assign a team under Anko's command: these three were the only Genin available, so they were the ones she'd picked! Simple as.
"Eh?" said Naruto in displeasure. "How come Sakura's not coming?"
"Yeah, this roster seems a bit disjointed!" added Ino. "How come Sasuke's isn't coming?"
Sasuke was currently unavailable because he was undergoing specialised training with Kakashi to control the power of his Cursed Seal, since he was adamant about using it. The seal no longer seemed to erode his will, but the stage 2 transformation still took a toll on his body, so he needed to train some more to get used to the strain.
As for Sakura…
"Jajaan!" said Sakura, removing her forehead protector. "I completed the Yin Seal! Does that mean I can go, Lady Tsunade?"
There it was, on her forehead: a diamond-shaped blue mark!
What had taken the original Sakura four years, this Sakura had accomplished in mere months— and it would have only taken her one month, had she not been hiding the fact that she'd already mastered the Yin Seal by the time Tsunade taught it to her!
"Well," said Tsunade, chewing her lip in thought, "I suppose I can teach you how to summon Lady Katsuyu later…"