Hidden Flames

-xpressions

Sakura heaved in a deep and long breath as Kin gripped her tightly by her pink-colored locks, holding back her hair. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and bit her bottom lip down hard. The sound nin shook her head about roughly, tugging on Sakura's silky pink hair.

The jade green-eyed koinochi fought back the tears of fear, frustration and anger that were threatening to fall from her tensed eyelids. She was the only one left, and she would have to deal with that. Naruto and Sasuke were at rest in a unconscious state (though Sasuke did have some strange chakra emitting from his neck) and were certainly in absolutely no condition to fight. Lee had battled himself to the ground fighting these sound nin. It was only her.

Her green eyes scanned the floor in front of her, trying to distract her own line of vision, struggling to hold back the tears. This, while proving almost impossibly difficult for Sakura to do, was all she could think of to actually, well, do.

She was only an average koinochi and she didn't have anything special to her at all. She wasn't the survivor of a clan massacre, she held no demon within her, she wasn't about to inherit a clan, her parents weren't ninja….no, she was about as average as they came. Apart from her unusual hair color of course, and that wasn't exactly the kind of special she wanted. It made her seem weaker.

She logically didn't stand a chance against these three sound ninjas, who had beaten Lee (an admirable ninja with much more power than Sakura herself) and were all still standing tall. This is what saddened Sakura to almost a state of extreme self-pity.

She could pretend all she liked, but she wasn't as strong as any of the other genin taking the exam. Not even close. Actually, she figured she was about last place, and without her team she'd be gone, maybe dead, for sure.

She continued to stare at the ground, only catching a few of the venomous words that dripped from the female sound ninja's mouth. "Weak…you…much time…hair…" She didn't need to hear them all to know they were filled with hatred. She looked over to Lee and his eyes were wide in…pity. He pitied her. He didn't think she was strong enough to handle this, and in reality, she wasn't.

This reality hit Sakura like a brick. No one thought she was strong. She fought back a bitter laugh. Not even her. The tears that she had been fighting back started to brim in Sakura's glassy jade eyes. They were correct in that statement.

She obviously couldn't defeat these three ninjas, she couldn't save Sasuke and Naruto…she wasn't strong enough. She never would be…

Sakura closed her eyes tight and thought to herself. She didn't want to be the weakest anymore. She wanted to be as strong as everyone else…no, actually, she wanted to be stronger than everyone else. She realized that that feeling…the one she thought was due to Sasuke's rejections and Naruto's annoyances…it wasn't either.

That heart wrenching, deeply irritating feeling deep within herself wasn't because of her male teammates…it was her frustration with herself. She deep down knew she had more power than she thought. She knew it. And now, she had to pull it out from herself. And damnitt, she would try to.

She relaxed her tensely closed eyes and looked down deep in herself. Lee had risked his life to save her, and he barely knew her. But she felt she knew him very well now…his heart was powerful…and so was he. She envied him, and that's why, she realized, she thought he was strange. Well, that and the spandex. And she absolutely couldn't, wouldn't, let his hard work go to waste. And then Sasuke and Naruto, she knew they lay helpless beside her, and yet ironically they were always protecting her…

This was her chance to protect them instead of vice versa.

Because quite frankly, she was sick of being protected, and she was absolutely, to no doubt, tired of being weak. Because she knew she could be strong.

She knew it.

Sakura's slightly damp green eyes widened as she felt something. She felt a presence of power, unimaginable chakra bursting from her chest down out through her veins. She felt it glide smoothly through her arms and legs, and all of a sudden, she felt empowered.

It was something she had never hoped or even dreamed would ever happen to her…and yet she felt like it belonged, really and truly belonged to her. She felt, like this dormant power had been with her all along…

She wasn't quite sure of her limits now, but for some reason, no longer was she afraid. No longer did she feel weak. Actually, she just about wanted to get up and punch these assholes in the face.

By now her hearing and vision were returning, but she hadn't even realized they had been gone. She let herself come to her senses, and the strange thing was, no longer did she feel the firm grip on her hair…it felt so free, and she could feel it cascade down her back.

She looked up and towards Lee again, but he was staring at her, not with pity, but he looked amazed. She wondered, quite frankly why he would look at her that way, but she had bigger problems to deal with.

She spun around to see Kin standing away from her and back next to Zaku. All three of the sound ninja were staring at her, wide-eyed. They seemed to be staring in awe…or was that…horror? Why would they be afraid of her?

She spun around once again to check nothing deadly was standing behind her, and no, it was completely empty. She saw nothing but the trees…wait, what? She peered into the trees a way and could see the edge of the forest, zooming in through the trees, as if through a giant lens. Her eyes widened as she pulled back from the sight. What was that?

She spun back to where Dosu, Kin, and Zaku were standing. She had been meaning to attack and kick their asses back to where they came from…but they looked so…well, helpless. Which was again, supremely ironic. They were afraid of her. The same girl who had been terrified of them only a few minutes ago? She knew what that felt like, and all of a sudden, she couldn't attack them. She wanted to, oh god did she ever, but it didn't seem right at all.

Letting her good judgment take over she ignored them and began to walk over to Lee. She bent down to his level as he gazed into her eyes with wonderment. "Sakura…" He started, his voice filled with nothing but pure amazement. "What happened to-"

Though he was cut off. Sakura heard a high pitch noise, sounding much like metal slicing through air. Her eyes widened as her hand reached up and caught a kunai that had been whizzing towards her head. Lee still looked at her with awe, as she was in wonderment of her herself. She had just heard it, and her reflexes had stopped it. It had happened so fast she had barely registered the kunai. She decided to dismiss this thought though, but just as she did so another kunai came whizzing towards her. She caught it in her other hand and deciding this was the final straw stood up, turning to face the three sound nin.

"Zaku!" Kin hissed to her male teammate in fear and reprimand. He ignored Kin and smirked daringly at Sakura, as if challenging her to attack him. She furrowed her brow in thought and then nodded slowly, quickly sending the two kunais speeding right towards him. His eyes widened slightly as he barely dodged, getting away with a slight scrape to his shoulder.

She had accepted his challenge. And she would not back down. Sakura would win this time, she would win it for everyone who had ever shown her what a true ninja is.

She ran towards the young ninja, punching him square in the gut with a chakra-reinforced punch. He flew back and hit the tree behind him, flying through that and into the tree behind that. He appeared to be unconscious. Sakura stared in awe at her own hand, it was ablaze in green chakra. And it had appeared so suddenly.

Sakura finally registered everything. These ninjas were afraid of her, and she was just able to gather up a massive amount of chakra to her hand without even thinking about it. She started to feel dizzy with everything that was going on and put a steady hand to her forehead to soothe a throbbing pain beginning to form there.

She turned to Dosu and Kin unsteadily, who of which appeared to be trembling slightly. Dosu walked carefully over to her with slow…steady…steps and placed a heaven scroll down before her, backing away. "You may have our scroll," He said with forced calamity. "Just spare our lives this time." He gave her a fleeting glance while cautiously backing away further.

Sakura continued to grab her head as the world gradually started spinning faster and faster. She watched the sound ninja back away and the last thing she heard was Ino's voice. "Oh my god Shikamaru, what happened to her?"

Sakura awoke only to hear the soft murmuring voices of familiar ninja. She felt the soft green grass beneath her and lay there for a while, coming to her senses. What happened? Where did she get that power? It felt as if her whole body had been chakra reinforced, her eyes, ears, and as she discovered in battle, her fists. One loud and awfully familiar voice hit her first.

"What happened to Sakura-Chan?! Is she okay?! Tell me what happened you lazy bum!" She heard Naruto exclaim with worry and frustration.

"Shut it Naruto, she trying to rest!" She heard Ino snap back to the blonde. At this Sakura slowly opened her eyes, and blinked them twice.

"Oh my god, she's waking up!" She looked up, only to see Ino with tears in her light blue eyes. Sakura blinked again and slowly sat up, all of a sudden feeling the dizziness rush back to her head and flood through her entire body. She grabbed her head in agony and drew in several gasps.

Ino looked at her with intense worry before doing something Sakura would have never expected her to do ever again. She threw her arms around Sakura, enveloping her into a hug. She felt hot tears on her shoulder as Ino began to sob slightly. "Oh my…my god for-forehead girl, I-I thought th-that y-you were go-gone."

Sakura's head was still pounding. She felt herself becoming weaker, she felt like she would break down any second.

Everything was becoming more and more blurry, and the dizziness overwhelmed her. She brought the hand back down from her head and to the floor to keep herself from falling back. She didn't know what to say to the weeping girl on her shoulder, so all she mustered out was, "Ino…I'm okay."

And hearing her own voice was a shock. It sounded completely and utterly weak. Sakura was disgusted at the idea. She had just proved herself to be anything of the sort; and there was no going back now.

"Ino, I'm fine, I'm here, you can let go now." She stated calmly to Ino, even though she felt nothing of the sort. Ino drew away from her and rubbed the remainder of tears from her eyes, while Sakura slowly started to stand up. She felt herself becoming dizzier as she ascended, but that only reminded her of how very weak she had felt.

She sucked in a breath and stood up slowly, he legs threatening to crash down below her at any second. She pushed away all of the help offered to her, and she could feel all eyes on her as she stood, knees shaking. As she ascended slowly she felt her legs buckle below her and almost fell down, but brought a hand to the floor to steady herself.

She could hear Ino complaining. "Damnitt Sakura, just let me help you."

Sakura shook her head. "No Ino, I have to do this."

She could hear Ino huff and then mutter something about always having to do it her own way and then she heard Shikamaru's voice come into question. "Let her do this Ino." He said firmly but kindly, and Sakura mentally thanked him.

She had all this power, now she was just going to have to deal with it. Well if she was so powerful why was it taking her so damn long to get of the floor?! Sakura frowned to herself and felt the determination in her body cover all of the dizziness. She shot up with determination and then slowly steadied herself, looking around.

She saw five pairs of eyes rested upon her. One pair of which belonged to Naruto, who was watching her intently, and had stayed pretty much silent this whole time. He looked so worried, she just wanted to prove to him she was fine. She would have to do that when she felt of the sort.

Then there was Sasuke who was watching her with his usual stoic expression although his moth was turned into a slight frown, as if he were trying to calculate something. The mark on his neck was glowing slightly and he would occasionally bring a hand up to it.

Then there was a girl with brown hair tied up into two neat buns who was holding Lee, who were also both studying Sakura carefully. Then a strange pair of chakra pumped white eyes was watching her, trying to what looked like 'evaluate' her. Shikamaru and Chouji were trying to comfort Ino, who was on the verge of breaking into tears again.

Sakura looked at all of them and gazed glassily back, almost as confused as they were, if not more. She slowly slipped her hand from her head and took a few deep breaths, trying to breathe away the spinning sensation she felt everywhere in her body.

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

She heaved out her last breath and forced out all the rest of the spinning sensation she felt. She stood up as straight as she could and studied the area, still feeling most of the eyes on her form. She frowned slightly, eyeing the area. And then, she saw it.

There were burn marks, they were almost everywhere.

Everywhere she had stepped anyways.

Yea, so this is my fist ever fic on fanfiction. I hope you guys liked it and whatnot, so please review!