Sakura woke up once again at quarter to four in the morning to get up for training. Though she was sleepy she dragged herself out of bed and into the bathroom without too much trouble.

Ugh… what a weird dream I had last night. At least I actually slept through the night.

It had been so vivid and detailed though. However in hindsight the memories had that fuzzy around the edges dream like quality to them. Just to put any lingering doubts at ease she looked at her eyes in the mirror. They were just her normal everyday green color. Feeling herself relax she got dressed quickly and left for the training grounds to meet Guy and Lee.

A few minutes later she arrived at her destination.

"Good morning Sakura-kun!" said Guy cheerfully.

"Good morning Sakura-ch… er -san," said Lee a little awkwardly.

"Good morning Guy-sensei, Lee-san," she said cheerfully. Surprisingly she felt like she had a lot of energy this morning. She actually felt really really good.

Her added energy didn't go unnoticed, though she did notice Guy-sensei gave her an odd look for some reason. "Well Sakura-san, it's good to see your youthful fires burning so bright this beautiful morning. Let's do some light warm ups and then I'll evaluate your taijutsu," he said to her.

'Light warm ups' with Guy were definite workouts for a lot of other people including stretching and going for a ten mile run at what seemed to her a grueling pace. Still it made Sakura a lot less exhausted than she had expected. Guess she was just lucky to be extra energetic that day.

After they were done with that Guy sent Lee to do sprints around the whole of Konoha while he gave Sakura her 'evaluation'. Now that the moment had arrived Sakura felt a lot less confident than she had before. She knew her taijutsu wasn't anything special. Guy must have sensed her hesitation because he gave her a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry young Sakura-kun. There is no right or wrong, pass or fail here. Just do your best. Your objective is just to show me your skills, let me worry about the rest," he said while sliding into that fighting stance she had seen him and Lee use.

"Hai sensei," she said, getting into her own stance. As they stared at each other for a few seconds Sakura was reluctant to attack first. Guy obliged her and made the opening move by sending a kick towards her head.

It was slow as a snail by Guy and Lee standards but it was still plenty fast to give her a challenge. Sakura parried the kick a little awkwardly and moved to close the distance with the big man given that he had quite a reach advantage on her. She aimed toward his solar plexus and launched a punch which Guy deflected with what seemed like absolutely no effort. A little miffed she aimed a kick at his midsection which he knocked to the side – gently by his standards – and threw a punch that clipped her shoulder.

Determined to at least put on a good show Sakura went all out but she had never been especially diligent in practicing taijutsu at the academy. She had been more worried about things like clothes and Sasuke and now she was regretting it. As she exchanged blows back and forth with Guy she could only feel disappointed at her own performance. Everything she was doing felt like it could have been executed better.

Eventually Guy-sensei called for them to stop. Sakura immediately broke apart breathing heavily from the exertion but not feeling too bad overall.

"First the good points. Your balance is very good and you have above average flexibility. You also seem to be aware of your own limitations as far as strength, reach and speed and made some good attempts at countering your disadvantages. Those are good skills that will serve you well in the future,"

Sakura beamed despite herself.

"However your strength and stamina are absolutely abysmal and while you are a clever fighter your form isn't nearly all it could be. You seem to have no issues in striking out but you do have some problems committing yourself fully to an offensive," he said.

Sakura wilted a little despite herself. Well it wasn't anything less than she had expected, except for the last part.

"Don't worry though. In a way it's a good thing that your Konoha Basic taijutsu isn't that good. It will make learning a new style from the ground up much easier since you haven't drilled in the academy basics to the bone."

Sakura perked up at that. "New style?"

Guy nodded sagely. "It seems that it will work out very nicely with your goals. Lee and I primarily practice a style of taijutsu known as Goken, or Strong Fist. It is generally superior to Konoha Basic in almost every way and the training builds up huge amounts of strength and endurance. Those are the two things that you said you needed to improve, isn't that right?"

Sakura smiled. Guy-sensei might be a weirdo but he was an awesome teacher. "I'd be honored to learn anything you have to teach me Guy-sensei," she said just a tad cheekily, but meaning it. She even bowed to show how much she meant it. Whatever his reasons for doing so he was doing her an enormous favor.

"YOSH! No need for that Sakura-kun! Now follow me as I show you the proper Goken stance. Good. Your feet need to be a little closer together…"

After her morning training Sakura's muscles were very tired but she was still feeling oddly energetic. In fact she was feeling even better than she had when she woke up. The vigorous workout had circulated her chakra all throughout her body strongly and for some reason she felt like she was walking on cloud nine. Every part of her body had a feeling of strength and euphoria that made it very hard to be in a bad mood.

Sakura showered quickly and that day her mother was up at her usual time making breakfast for her. Her mother had been acting a little odd towards her recently, like walking on eggshells, but Sakura was too busy to really give it much thought. Aiko would tell her if it was important anyway. Sakura ate her breakfast and gave her mother a peck on the cheek goodbye before heading out the door.

The pinkette was the first to arrive at the meeting spot since she was at least an hour early for the team meeting. She was feeling so good she wanted to use the time to train. They always met on a red bridge that passed over a small river. Sakura pulled herself over the railing and landed on the water, deciding to put some time into perfecting her water walking.

It was while she was practicing Kawarimi with a log floating on the slow moving river that it occurred to her when she had felt so full of energy and felt so good in her body in the past. It had been after the fight in Wave. At the time Sakura though her amazing energy and mood had been from the joy of being alive and finding out that Sasuke really was fine, riding the high off that for a few days so to speak. Now she wasn't so sure. With some trepidation Sakura looked inwards to check her chakra stores.

They were huge. Well at least huge compared to her usual standards. Her eyes widened in as the impossible seemed to want to rear its ugly head. This was just like when she had checked her chakra stores in that dream last night and suddenly found them larger after she had…

She clamped down on that line of thought. It had just been a dream. Even if it hadn't been there was no way she could prove or disprove that at the moment. So she had more chakra – a lot more chakra today than usual. So what? It probably wasn't the strangest thing with chakra that had ever happened in the Elemental Nations. With a great deal of unease Sakura went back to practicing Kawarimi on the river.

Sakura was so focused on her practice on top of the water she lost track of time until she heard a voice yell at her from the side of the river.

"Whoa! Sakura-chan, how are you standing in the water? Can you show me how to do that?" came a familiar voice from the riverbank.

Sakura put her hands on her hip, feeling a little smug at being able to do something Naruto couldn't, even if he could kick her butt in a fight. "Maybe if you behave yourself today and work really hard on our missions I could give you a few tips on how to do it," she said teasingly.

"Pfft, I'm not surprised he hasn't figured it out. Only a dobe like him wouldn't have put it together," came Sasuke's voice. While Naruto was standing on the side of the river Sasuke was standing on the bridge looking down at them.

"What?! Teme come down here and say that to my face," shouted Naruto while pointing angrily at him.

Sasuke made a derisive sound and jumped off the bridge… landing perfectly on top of the water.

Naruto's eyes boggled. "Hey! Who taught you how to do that, bastard? Has Kakashi-sensei been teaching you behind my back?" he asked.

Sasuke snorted. "No one taught me. It was obvious. Didn't you see Kakashi and Zabuza fighting on top of the water in Wave? It made sense that water walking was the next step up from tree walking."

Sasuke really was a genius like people said. Normally Sakura would have fangirled over how amazing he was but… well she had other things on her mind. Before she had always had Sasuke in the brain all day every day. Now she had her training and she was worried about what – if anything – was really going on with her. Her priorities were being shifted around and while the realization was uncomfortable she couldn't say if it was a bad or a good thing.

But it was quite the relief for once not to feel compelled to fawn all over Sasuke like she usually did. Sakura had been starting to realize it didn't help anyway.

Besides she had more or less figured out water walking on her own too. It hadn't been that hard.

"I'll show you bastard! Bet I can learn it faster than you did," said Naruto and with a running leap he jumped straight into the middle of the river. Sakura backed up as she felt Naruto gathering up an absolutely insane amount of chakra at the bottom of his feet. The pinkette was glad she's backed up as much as she could because when Naruto's feet hit the water it looked like someone had set off a bomb just under the surface. A huge volume of water splashed high into the air and everywhere in all directions. She caught a glimpse of Naruto himself falling like a stone to the bottom of the river.

"Baka," she muttered, half aggravated and half amused. There was never a dull day with Naruto around.

Two D-Ranked missions and three hours being drilled on the finer points of trap making later and Team 7 was dismissed for the day.

Sakura rushed home. She had been thinking about her 'dream' and how her suddenly increased chakra stores had made her think maybe it hadn't been a dream after all. The thought made her queasy so she chose not to focus on it until she could get confirmation so she could stop doubting herself.

Her chakra had been weird. Whatever the extra chakra she'd had was all about as she used it up during the day it felt like it left her for good. Normally chakra would restore itself to peak levels after enough rest. To Sakura it felt like the extra chakra she had was more a one time use deal and then her stores would be more or less back to normal. With all the weird things happening to her lately she really needed to get checked out at the hospital. It was probably close enough to her annual check up that she could go without arousing suspicion. She should probably see about setting that up.

When she got home she noticed both her parents were gone so she headed upstairs. There was one easy way to figure out if she had been dreaming or if it really was something else.

She 'remembered' what she had worn in her dream and that she had thrown it in her dirty laundry basket before she had gone to sleep the night before. Pushing the door to her room open she approached the covered basket with some trepidation. Taking a deep breath she opened the basket and looked inside.

Staring back at her were the exact same pants and shirt she had worn in her 'dream'. Sakura's mouth went dry as she stared at the clothes uncomprehendingly. It had been a dream right? Because nothing else made sense. People's eyes don't just change color unless they had the Sharingan or something. She would never have really thought the way she had done in her dream or done the things she remembered doing. There was no other possible explanation.

Then again the clothes were staring back at her from the hamper. Sakura worried her lip. Had she put them in there for some reason and just forgot? Did her mom put them in there? Or… did she sleep walk or something?

Feeling disturbed Sakura headed out the door and headed to the one place that would for sure tell her if she just had a very vivid dream or if she was indeed losing her mind. At this point she was starting to feel like she was going bonkers anyway. Things had been getting way too strange and troubling.

Sakura stood outside Konoha Hospice, fidgeting nervously and wondering if she really was going bonkers. Part of her wanted to just turn around and walk away. She didn't really want to know. Sakura always had a talent for ignoring inconvenient truths when it suited her. But as she stood in front of the squat building she knew she couldn't just walk away.

Because what if something like that happens again?

With a great deal of trepidation Sakura used Henge to turn herself into a nondescript civilian woman in her mid-twenties. Holding her head high she walked into the facility with all the courage she could muster. Sakura wasted no time in heading over to the front desk.

An middle aged woman with glasses gave her a friendly professional smile. "Hello Miss, how can I help you?"

"Hi, I'm visiting family from out of town and I wanted to stop by and see my great uncle. Would it possible for me to go see him?" she asked.

The receptionist seemed pleased with that. "Of course dear. Just tell me who you want to talk to and I'll send someone to tell him he has a visitor."

Sakura nodded, "Great. His name is Ikeda Yoshiro," she said remembering the name from the chart she had 'seen'.

The receptionist's face fell and her expression turned to one of pity. "I'm sorry to tell you this dear but Ikeda-san died last night in his sleep. The doctors didn't think he would go for a few months still but these things are never predictable. I'm sorry," she said with genuine sympathy.

Sakura didn't have to fake her distressed look at these words. Without another word she turned and fled the building.

(Hours Later)

Sakura had run as deep into the woods as she dared before finding a branch high up in the canopy and doing her best to hide herself. For the last few hours she had been huddled by the tree crying. She was both wracked with guilt and terrified of what was happening to her and the possible consequences of what she had done.

Eventually Sakura managed to calm down enough to do what she thought of as her best skill, the ability to sit back and think intelligently, calmly and rationally about a problem. She had to figure out what was going on and what she was going to do since she was potentially in a dangerous amount of trouble.

Because Shinobi relied on civilians for pretty much all goods and services outside of those of a military nature the rules were very strict in order to keep good relations with them. Any violence or exploitation against civilians by ninja was punished swiftly and brutally.

She remembered one time in the academy Mizuki had mentioned that the previous week the Hokage had ordered the execution of a Chunnin for killing a civilian in a drunken rage. Iruka-sensei had scolded him for mentioning that in front of kids but the point had been well made. Civilians were off limits.

What would happen to her if anyone was to find out she'd killed someone? Not in an adrenaline and alcohol fueled craze but a cold and premeditated murder? If the Hokage had been willing to execute a Chunnin for something like that there was no way he'd spare a mere Genin with no ninja clan to support her. If what she'd done became public knowledge it might well be the executioner's block for her.

As much as what had happened sickened her she wasn't prepared to die for what she'd done. She'd have to keep it a secret. If no one had come to drag her off to T&I yet she was pretty sure she was in the clear. Now all she had to do was make sure it never happened again.

And that was the crux of the problem. What the hell had happened? If she didn't figure it out she might out and kill someone again while looking at the world like some kind of psychopath. What she had done had felt so right and logical at the time, nothing like the pain and confusion she was feeling now.

She could already feel the extra chakra in her system having largely been drained with her training and the rest that was left was leaving in a slow trickle. Forcing herself to replay all the events that had happened objectively Sakura realized that once that chakra ran out, the 'hunger' would very likely start again. If she had to make a hypothesis it would be that when she got 'hungry' enough something overrode those things that made it so she didn't 'feed' or whatever. If those feelings came back and Sakura didn't do anything about them chances were she would eventually be compelled to kill again. She had no proof but it seemed safest to assume the worst.

When thinking back to when this had all started she realized that maybe she didn't need to kill someone herself to deal with the problem. When at Wave that first time the people who had died had been near her but she wasn't the one who had killed any of them. So maybe it's possible she just needed to be near someone dying so whatever it was that was going on with her would work.

While part of Sakura wanted to think she was cursed or dammed the truth was she didn't believe in any of those things. If she looked at it objectively what she had experienced could possibly be a Kekkei Genkai of some sort. The thought made a little thrill of excitement in her chest in spite of everything else. Killing someone and gaining chakra from it sounded exactly like the sort of Kekkei Genkai a ninja would want.

Sakura felt a little sick at that thought. Though she had killed she somehow felt a little disconnected from the experience because what she had been thinking during that time had been so completely alien to her. The fact however was that the more experienced ninja killed and killed often. Even Genin had to sometimes take lives. She didn't really like the thought of it and was thus both somewhat pleased and disturbed that she might have an ability like that.

Where had this come from? She knew there were no ninja in her family. Her father's family was the Haruno clan who were a moderate sized clan of merchants and her mother had been a civilian in northern Fire Country before marrying her dad. Sakura knew these abilities had to be genetic unless by some miracle she developed some brand new ability. She thought the chances of that would be ridiculously slim.

Thinking about it Sakura realized that the place where the most people die on a regular basis was the hospital. It would be suspicious for her to hang out there without a good reason so she couldn't just loiter. There was a small park behind the hospital for small children and patients who wanted to get a bit of fresh air. Maybe she could train there a couple of hours a day as long as she didn't draw too much attention to herself. She didn't think that would be too suspicious. The last thing she needed was to get people to start asking her questions that she didn't have good answers to.

For the first time Konoha did not seem entirely like a place of wonder, safety and protection to her. She was now feeling somewhat uncomfortable and uneasy being in the village. The knowledge that if anyone in the village found out what she had done could well lead to them killing her left Sakura feeling cold with dread. Though she knew it was patently ridiculous part of her couldn't help but worry that someone would take one look at her face and just somehow know what it was that she had done.

She needed to find out more about what was happening to her. The idea to go to the hospital for a checkup was out for now because if they found something strange with her they would start digging and that could lead to all her secrets getting out. No, first chance she got she was going to go to the library and research all the Kekkei Genkai she could. Maybe she'd get lucky and read about something like what had been happening to her.

She needed to find out because as much as she wished it would all go away, she knew it was not going to be that easy.

In the back of her mind, she could still feel the 'door' that was back there. It was pretty clear to her that if she were to 'open' it again chakra would flood her brain and she would change to the yellow eyed version of herself she had seen in the mirror last night. She wanted to convince herself that wasn't her but on a deeply instinctual level she knew that would be a lie. White-and-yellow eyed Sakura was still her but in that state her mind worked in terrifying different ways.

The pinkette stood up and readied herself to return before she would be missed doing her best to wipe away any signs of distress. For now she was in the clear even if she suddenly felt a lot older than her thirteen years would suggest. What she needed to do was some research, she needed to monitor the situation to get more data and she needed to not kill anyone again. She could do this. As long and no one noticed anything was wrong she would be fine.

Though Kakashi liked to advertise that his only hobbies were to read porn and be chronically late wherever he went truth was he was still human underneath the caricature he portrayed to the world. He was still human and had other needs besides tardiness and the works of Jiraiya-sama. One of the things he had to occasionally do as a human was find food and drink to keep his body functioning. That is why he was sitting on the counter in a small hole in the wall restaurant frequented by many of the Jounin of Konoha. Sake and a simple bowl of noodles were slowly consumed as Kakashi re-read his latest book, Icha Icha Step Mother and Sister Paradise. Somehow he managed to both eat slowly and never show his face at the same time.

Kakashi felt someone slide into the seat next to him but he ignored their presence. Still it was a surprise. Rarely did Might Guy find him without screaming and talk about 'rivals' and 'youth'. Whenever he didn't act in his typical overbearing way it usually meant there was some important business afoot. Kakashi kept his peace and waited for the other man to make the first move.

Guy ordered a bowl of noodles for himself before speaking. "Just thought it would be common courtesy to let you know I've taken to training your student early in the mornings."

Kakashi thought about that for a second and then the pieces clicked together. "Ah, Sakura. That's why she's been so sore she could hardly hold a hammer for the last couple of days." He said nothing more as he had no problem with Sakura seeking additional help. He was actually a bit surprised that she had both taken him seriously and found somebody to help her improve in the areas he'd 'told' her she needed work on. There might be more to her than a fangirl who didn't take being a ninja seriously after all. He had seen something of a change in her since the mission to Wave.

Guy correctly interpreted Kakashi's silence as unspoken consent and left the other Jounin to his thoughts while waiting for his own food. Despite popular opinion Guy did know discretion and knew his youthful spirit would not help in this environment or in his conversation with Kakashi. After receiving his noodles Guy brought up something else that had been puzzling him.

"Today Sakura-kun had much more chakra than she did the day before. It seemed most unusual. Is that something you've encountered with her before?"

"Maybe she was just feeling extra youthful this morning," replied Kakashi in a patronizing way.

"Tsk, so hip and youthful. But you must have noticed it as well," pressed Guy.

Kakashi debated how much to tell him and decided it wouldn't hurt to give him the whole story. "There was an incident on the mission in Wave. She collapsed during the fighting and for a few days afterwards had a marked increase in her levels of chakra. There were deaths involved. After a few days her levels returned to normal," he said leaving unsaid he didn't know what to make of it.

"You don't think she's taking any kinds of performance enhancers do you?" asked Guy with some worry. There were drugs that could temporarily boost a person's chakra but they usually came with short and long term complications. Using something like that regularly was a terrible idea.

"She doesn't seem the type and none of the symptoms of that kind of usage are there. So far there doesn't seem to be any harm. I'll keep close eye on her and see what, if anything, comes of it."

"Hm. Well, I'm sure it's nothing," Guy said, though both of them knew they would keep their eyes open for anything. In the Shinobi world knowledge was life, and lack of it was death. There was no way two veteran Jounin could just let it be.

"So Kakashi…"

"Hmm?"

"I challenge you to a ramen eating contest!"

"Hmm.. no."

"What? Is the great Sharingan no Kakashi afraid he will lose?"

"Yup."

"Tsk. So hip."

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