Right, Naruto!
Honestly, Sakura had forgotten to really think about what he wanted in any real depth, because… he seems pretty open about it?

Naruto wants to be strong—though she's never been very clear on why, beyond the obvious reasons.
He's been picking fights with Sasuke lately—either he has a problem with him or he just really needs a sparring partner.
Maybe she could offer? She does have better grades than him. Hey, if he pisses her off then, she'll even have an excuse to hit him!

He wants her attention, and she'd almost want to give it to him, except he's so damn obnoxious about it!

She's still nicer to him than most of their classmates, though.
…Actually, thinking about it, that last part is a bit weird. Why are they so mean to him?
It's not just their class, either: she's definitely seen other villagers giving him the cold shoulder out of nowhere, too.

…Maybe she should ask about it?

Okay, okay, it can work with this. Sasuke sounds like he's badly off about losing most or all of his family. He's hard to help, and hard to talk to, but they mostly don't need to help him right now, because his obsession will distract him from them just fine. It sounds like he's not going to care about much other than getting stronger, which, honestly, valid, but she'll need to see him to know for sure. Low risk, though.

Naruto... Hm. If he needs a sparring partner, honestly maybe they should just give him one. Maybe they can show him how to ask for attention in a less annoying way? Maybe he's teachable.

The majority of the class and the villagers being shitty to him, though, that's weird. That's concerning. Sable's curious about Naruto now. They should definitely talk to him. What sort of annoying are they dealing with here? 

{Mostly the "relatively-harmless pranks" variety, with a bit of "attention-seeking stunts" on the side.} Wow, she hadn't really thought about it in those terms before. Maybe he's more attention-motivated than she thought?

He's... honestly, he can't be that bad, if she's already basically giving him what he wants by just talking to him, right?

In that case…
{Should we head back into the village and see if we can find him tonight? That way, we can talk to that Hyuuga girl first thing tomorrow.}

{He sounds... lonely. Yeah, I think we should. Also, at some point we should put some time into getting used to what enhancements I can give you. I'm passively enhancing your body now, and I can do better — if more invasive — enhancements if I can eat some animals.}

Images flicker through their shared mind of shooting lines of web from her wrists, or improved strength and speed, or having a perfect internal compass, or enhanced vision.

{Oh, right!} She'd gotten so distracted by their problems that she had completely forgotten about the benefits of her new situation!

{We can probably try out the passive enhancements you've already been giving me on the way home, but we might still have time to try out some of the more extensive options before we leave.}

{The better stuff will take some time. I need to eat multiple samples of different types of animals for any given upgrade, and then spend an hour or two processing how those animals do what they do, in order to modify your body to be able to do whatever it is we're aiming for. So that stuff isn't a today thing unless you just wanna get the animals and let me work on figuring out the upgrades while you sleep.}

A brief pause, then, {Oh! Also! It's not like overeating is much of a concern for a ninja-in-training, given how calorically-intensive that kind of job is, but now that you have me it is categorically impossible to overeat. Everything over and above your body's caloric needs just goes to feed my stockpile of inky goop, which I can use for things like repairing your body if you're injured, among other useful things. Also I do have some caloric needs of my own.}

Hmm… it might be a bit late for that, tonight—it's getting dark out.

…That thing about overeating sounds… really helpful, actually.
She knows she shouldn't worry about it, with how much she exercises, but she still does.
She manages to usually eat enough, but it can sometimes be difficult, with that on her mind.

{Let's just try out the stuff you can do now, then. What other differences should I be looking for?}

Yeah, dieting as a ninja trainee sounds... honestly really dumb? Anyone who expects a ninja to be a delicate waif needs their head recalibrated. Ninja, just based on its instincts, should have a gymnast's or dancer's build: strong and lithe, wiry muscle that's built for agility and speed and precision. And none of that involves trying to eat less.

Anyway. {Current passive enhancements: base muscle strength is a bit higher, reflexes are a bit faster, stamina should be higher. I'm eating lactic acid build-up and repairing muscle and ligament tears in real-time, as long as I have the spare mass for it, and I can convert some of my mass to additional energy to keep you going if you run out. The more we eat, the better/longer I can do all of that, so start doubling or tripling your serving sizes. I may have some additional dietary needs of my own in this form, but we've got plenty of time to figure that out.}

Right.

If that means she has to eat more, that… might be difficult for her? It sounds kind of terrifying, actually.
Better to solve that problem now than later. She'll have to learn to fix that habit anyway, if she's going to be a kunoichi.
Yeah, but it's still going to be uncomfortable.

…Time to think about something else. Those enhancements sound nice?

{Does that thing about repairing muscles mean she can train faster?}
She remembers learning something about muscle gain coming from tearing and repairing your muscles.

Sable is maybe a little concerned about Sakura's relationship with food. She's going to help as best she can, though. {Yeah, we'll get you through the food struggles. Don't worry, Sakura. On the plus side, I can directly tell when you've eaten enough for your body's needs, so there's no guesswork there. And yes, you absolutely can train faster. Muscle improvements happen by acquiring micro-tears during exercise and healing back stronger, to simplify a bit, and I can do that healing immediately. All of this happens because I have absolute biological control over anyone I'm bonded to.}

Well that's something.

…

{…"Absolute biological control"?}

That sounds… potentially scary. (And potentially hot)—Nope! Do not get turned on by the alien ink-monster having control over your body!

Sable may in fact also find that idea hot.

{I can essentially do anything I want to your body, rewrite it arbitrarily, reshape any part of it. Conveniently for your cute, reckless, inkblot-pouncing ass, I only want to reshape you in ways that make you happier and safer, because I'm a sap like that.} Sable shares the entirety of its feelings on the subject: Sakura is cute, endearing, decently clever, and someone Sable is already growing rather fond of. It feels pretty lucky to have her as a host rather than someone else, and wants to ensure she not just survives, but thrives.

Oh. Wow.

Those are some very intense feelings she's suddenly feeling.

…

Those are probably the right feelings for Sable to be feeling? She is all of those things.

Alright. Yeah.

She supposes she's starting to get a bit attached to Sable, too.
This is probably fine, actually?

Yeah, ok. Sakura can actually handle this.

Sakura tries sharing some of her own feelings back.
Sakura is actually really enjoying having Sable here, so far. Sable is clearly emotionally mature enough to be handling her end of this exchange without the emotional flailing Sakura is doing, and seems to care a lot for her already, and Sakura is starting to feel pretty lucky to have it in her head, too.

There, emotions! Sakura can handle emotions properly! Go her!

Ah, but Sable's cheating at the emotional maturity. It has the advantage of age, and even so it's still going to have a breakdown at some point. It's a mess, but it's an affectionate, fiercely protective mess, at least. No one is allowed to harm its cute little ninja-in-training.

It blushes internally a bit.

Right. Weren't they gonna gonna try taking the high-intensity route home?

Right! That they were.

Sakura begins making her way back to the village, taking a more circuitous route on her way than she did leaving. She vaults over and around the rocks and trees, occasionally swinging from a branch or around a trunk.

The feeling of her increased mobility is exhilarating, and she can barely restrain her excitement enough to keep quiet.

{Woah, this is incredible! It's like the first time I chakra-boosted all over again!}

She continues to run and vault in the general direction of home, her heart thrumming with excitement.

Sakura's excitement is contagious, and Sable's cheering along in their mind with every leap and swing. She pays careful attention to the route they take, gradually assembling a mental map of the forests around Konoha.

{This is so much fun!}

{It is!}

Sakura knows this area of the forests well, and as Sable builds her mental map, it can feel connections being pulled in from Sakura's more extensive memories.

As they begin to exit the forest and near the village, Sakura slows her pace, preparing to enter quietly.

While she isn't strictly forbidden from leaving the village unsupervised, the guards might be concerned or suspicious if they saw her, and might tell her parents when they noticed.

Someone is probably watching as she enters over the south outer wall, but whoever it is must have more important things to do than get a young kunoichi-in-training in trouble with her parents.

Sable watches very carefully as Sakura sneaks in, in case it can catch something Sakura saw but didn't notice. Hopefully any observers are more worried about other villages than wandering students.

This is far from the first time she's snuck in or out like this, so she isn't worried about being stopped. They probably want to encourage students to try this sort of thing, anyway.

As she quietly drops into the village, Sakura thinks on where she might find Naruto.

She never learned where he lives, but she's seen him on top of Hokage rock before, so he might be there. It's late enough now that he's probably not off pulling some prank, but hopefully not late enough yet for him to have gone home.

{Is there anything you can do to help me find Naruto? I'm hoping we can catch him while he's still out and about.}

{I should've thought of this earlier, but if we'd grabbed a bird, I could recreate it after eating it and have it scout for us. Other than scout animals, I'm limited to your senses until I learn chakra-based sensory abilities. The one big problem I can think of with animal scouts is they're another instance of me that a Hyuuga could happen to walk by.}

{Oh! Dang, that would have been useful.} They might have to try for one of those the next time they're out.

Still, it's probably right about the Hyuuga, so maybe it's best that they hadn't done that.

Sakura begins to make her way silently across the rooftops, towards Hokage rock.

Sable keeps watch as they go, tinkering in its mind with ways to maybe highlight points of interest in Sakura's view in the future. It's not sure if it can do that, but it would sure like to find out. It also pays attention to what chakra-boosting feels like, and what Sakura's chakra use feels like in general, so it can learn to use its own chakra.

{I'll try to think of a good way to keep one hidden. We might want to come up with some kind of cover story that explains any changes you want me to make, or abilities I give you, though. And something to explain any detectable signs of my presence, in case people happen to look closely at you or wonder where you picked up a healing factor.}

{Hmmm... I'll have to think about that. I don't really have any ideas for how to explain you, yet.}

She can probably excuse some of the changes as a jutsu, once she graduates and starts having opportunities to have learned any non-basic jutsu.