It was 10 minutes into Tactics, and Neji hadn't hunted her down yet. So far, so good.

She straightened up as Shikamaru brought the mission scroll over. Each scroll contained a description of a scenario encountered by Konoha-nin in the past. She loved recreating mission scenarios in her mind, and creating plans that would lead her team to victory.

"You are a member of a four-man squad. It is currently nighttime, and you are on the edge of a forest. Your team consists of a taijutsu specialist, a ninjutsu specialist, a weapons specialist, and a medic-nin with sensory capabilities. Iwa-nin are in pursuit," Shikamaru read aloud.

Sakura furiously scribbled down notes as they hammered out a plan. Shikamaru was one of the smartest people she knew. His attention to detail helped him concoct plans that were unorthodox, yet effective. Things like the time of day, or the terrain, were usually overlooked by other Academy students, but Shikamaru took it all in, spinning an entire web of plans and backup plans that would lead to the fulfillment of the objective of the mission.

There were a few downsides to working with him. She was always the de facto scribe, as Shikamaru's handwriting was an utterly undecipherable scrawl of characters. There were also more than a few instances where Shikamaru thought so far ahead that she could barely keep up with his plans. Nonetheless, Sakura found that she rather enjoyed working with him. Shikamaru could always point out factors that she was ignoring, while she could determine which of his plans had the highest level of success. Sakura liked to think that some of his genius would eventually rub off on her, even though he still trounced her whenever they played Go at his house.

"It would be best to get the enemies away from the ground. The effectiveness of any earth jutsu would immediately be decreased."

She nodded thoughtfully. "If they're unused to navigating through the forest, taking the fight to the trees would definitely give our team an advantage, especially since it's nighttime."

They continued working out the details until they were both satisfied, at which point Sakura handed in their plan, and took another scroll. This scroll gave more details about the situation, testing their ability to adjust their plans on the fly.

She quickly scanned over the scroll as she walked back to her desk. After a few confrontations, it was known that the Iwa team consisted of a genjutsu specialist, a taijutsu specialist, a long-range weapons specialist, and a ninjutsu specialist, who also doubled as a medic.

She relayed these details to Shikamaru.

"If possible, we should take out their medic first. On the other hand, we could also injure one of the other members, and wait for the medic-nin to attend to the injured, at which point we could take them both out at the same time," she added.

"I don't think option two is a good idea. There's really no guarantee that the enemy's medic will stop to heal their injured. Iwa nin tend to place the mission first, above the lives of their teammates. Therefore, their medics usually heal after an encounter in combat, not during combat. If one of their members were injured, they would likely leave that member behind. We should stick with the first option. The medic might actually be the toughest to take down, since medics usually receive extra training in evading attacks."

Their plans were cut off by Iruka-sensei's announcement.

"We're switching to PA in three minutes!"

-X-

Sakura suppressed the urge to groan as she began organizing her papers. Shikamaru had no such compunctions.

"Why do we even have PA? That class is so troublesome."

PA, short for Physical Arts, was Sakura's most hated class. PA was equivalent to physical conditioning. It involved anything from push-ups to rope-climbing. She preferred Weaponry, or even Taijutsu. Those were the two other classes occasionally held during fourth period. Unfortunately, she had PA three days a week. Taijutsu was only taught one day a week, as was Weaponry.

A few minutes later, she was standing in the field next to the track. The wind was refreshing, carrying with it the scent of wildflowers. Perhaps this class wouldn't be so bad after all.

"You're going to run the 1500m today, so it's best to warm up thoroughly."

Her least favorite activity. Go figure.

Wallowing in self-pity wouldn't help her at this point, though. She went through the motions of the typical warm-up drills as her mind wandered.

It wasn't so much that she disliked the conditioning itself. If she wanted to be a kunoichi, she needed to have strength and stamina, and she performed the exercises willingly. It was just that she didn't seem to be improving. Every day, her classmates would be able to race through the obstacle course faster, or complete more push-ups, but she only ended up with sore muscles day in and day out. During the first couple weeks of school, she had used chakra to ease the soreness, but she had stopped after Mizuki-sensei had warned that it was dangerous.

Speaking of her PA teacher, Mizuki-sensei displayed blatant favoritism. He would always give the clan children extra help when they faltered, and handed out excessive praise when they performed well. Not to mention, he seemed to harbor an irrational resentment toward certain students. After suffering for so long, Sakura had assumed that she was one of those certain students. She wondered if he actually enjoyed seeing them suffer. There weren't many occasions when it happened, but she knew that Mizuki-sensei smiled much too widely when some of the civilian students were struggling with their exercises. All of these factors contributed to her dislike for the class.

She resolved to pace herself as she began the 1500m. She lagged far behind the majority of her classmates.

"Go Sakura! You're almost there!" Ino cheered from her position near the finish line.

Sakura made the final step, and slowed down to a walk. She glanced sideways at Ino, who was talking animatedly. She sighed. She had never been as good as Ino, and, at this rate, she never would be. Maybe Neji was right.

Sakura released a growl of frustration as Mizuki-sensei announced that they would continue with upper-body exercises. The only thing good about PA was that it was immediately followed by lunch.