Two hours and a half late. Mr. Kakashi was two hours and a whole half late… again!

Honestly, what's with this guy?

It doesn't help that his excuse is super stupid and lame, too.

"Oh, well, you see, students, on my way here, I saw a black cat, and, well, you know…"

Just thinking about it again made Sakura quietly groan once more as she trudged through the trees, her eyes rolling as they circled her sockets. Kakashi was a hopeless man. A really, seriously, truly, hopeless man. "I don't hear any wedding bells in his future…" Sakura mumbled.

So, in the end, what that hopeless man Kakashi meant by "no breakfast" was essentially this: a plan to starve them in the nearby woods close enough to some training area, teasing them with small silver bells, and holding their free lunches hostage. Sakura felt the same way before as she does now, though. What was the point? And it was as Naruto said -what's the point in this so-called "mission"? At the end of the day, this felt like nothing more than an annoyance. Sakura took the stupid little mock-missions and practice exams and performance tests, what other practice should she seriously be getting in? What hasn't she learned from the academy that she can only learn here, and from him -Kakashi-in specific?

"Nothing, it's gotta be nothing…" Sakura glanced around. Trees, shrubs, bushes, tulips, more trees, more tulips, thousands of strands of grass, plenty of dirt… honestly, this felt a lot like a waste of time and talent! What's the purpose? What are they all supposed to be learning? "Nothing, nothing special, at least…" Sakura kicked a small stone in front of her. Earlier, she had been trying to save Sasuke, but in the end, she got tricked by Kakashi, and it was like waking from a daze. She had no idea where she was, so she decided to keep searching for Sasuke.

But then, she heard a rustle, and so she quickly hopped into the closest bush she saw. What's going on? Who's there? She began to look around as she wondered to herself.

… Something touched her!

"Eep!" Sakura suddenly shot up from her hiding spot, and began to glance all about. She was trembling. "What? Huh? Why?" She looked all around, but she didn't see anything. "Huh? Who? What's there? Gaah, I think I felt something -what's touching me?" Like a slob cranked up on drugs, she began to feverishly pat herself down. But then…

"Sakura…"

Something was calling her. She froze, and slowly began to look around. The trees loomed over her, and nature fell silent. Her spine rattled beneath her skin. What was happening? What's going on?

"Who's there?" She called. She wiped her hands onto her dress -sweat-and pursed her lips. She continued looking around. "Sakura…" but then, as if guided by a hand, her head forcibly whipped itself in almost a complete 180 to show her the culprit, hurting her neck a little in the process.

Kneeling beside a tree, Sasuke was battered. Not just battered, but beaten. Almost broken, even. Kunai knives impaled his body all over, and a bloody mess wasn't even the half of the image that he portrayed right then -he was a bloody pulp. Of course -someone still breathing in this state would need urgent and immediate care so that in case there's a chance they can make it, they'll be on the road straight to recovery. Instead, Sakura did Sasuke one better.

She screamed. She screamed so damn loud, the crow with the white bandages around his ears shivered. The bandages turned red…

So, naturally, Sakura then proceeded to fall to the ground unconscious.

Truth be told, there wasn't anything special that she could've done for Sasuke, anyway. Not in that very moment, not anytime in the past, and certainly not anytime soon in the future. Other than whine, scream, and faint that is.

Too bad for Sakura, though.

She didn't even get to watch this dying Sasuke poof into air, revealing Kakashi to be controlling this obvious mind-trick the whole time. Sakura studied genjutsu in school. You'd think she be able to spot and handle this.

….….

At some point the bell had rung. And Sakura couldn't get a bell. She couldn't even scrape the damn thing!

Regardless, with their stomachs singing in a rumbling harmony and mimicking the sound of a hundred whales giving birth all at once, Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto sat together before Kakashi. Or rather, she and Sasuke sat, for Naruto had been tied up to a log such a long time ago -the runt honestly was acting as if he couldn't go a few hours without food the same way she and Sasuke did. Pitiful. And then being caught so quickly into the mock-mission? Absolutely pathetic.

But then the whales in labor decided to bless everyone's ears once more with an even louder chorus. Kakashi then decided to pick at them, of course.

"Aw, stomach's growling, huh?" He mulled. "That sucks. But here's some news for you all: I decided not to send any one back to the academy." Happiness immediately settled into the minds of the three young trainees. "Really? We passed?" Naruto probed. However, before recieving any sort of answer, he began yelling in triumph. And no one can lie, Sakura joined him, too. "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! We passed, we passed!" The two hollered. But then, Sakura suddenly stopped. Confusion swept away whatever joy was originally there, and Sakura began to actually think for a second. "Wait, I passed?" She asked. Memories of the courses of action that she took throughout the day began to fill her mind.

When the assignment first began, Sakura hid, which was great and all…

But then, when she watched Naruto get hurt, she never defended him, even though he clearly needed some type of assistance.

And even when the opportunity to help Naruto came up again and he was hanging from a tree, she still didn't bother to help.

When Kakashi snuck up on her, she almost fainted. Or something happened, because she blacked out at this part.

When she came back to her senses, though, the sight of a bleeding Sasuke was enough to make her faint -again, probably. But as she thinks about it, it was a genjutsu… Sakura slapped her hand across her forehead in annoyance. Ugh, it was a stupid, silly, simple eye-trick -and she fell for such a basic trick! If she fell for something like that, her chances of being a kunoichi, or at least one that'll last a little longer than disposable chopsticks, is already falling short.

-Then, when she came to once more, seeing Sasuke's head poking out of the ground sent her into another black-out.

And in the end, all she did was walk around and follow Sasuke the whole time. God, she was so useless. Sakura's small smile had already been fading, but whatever was left of it crumbled, and her arms hung loose at her sides.

She wasn't just useless, she was weak, too. Weak, and pathetic, and ignorant, and desperate. More importantly, desperate for the wrong thing. She was desperate for Sasuke. Which, isn't too bad, surely. But it's different in a situation like this. In a situation like this, where if it were real, Sakura could have lost her life; it wasn't just bad -it was absolutely horrendous. She would have been dead. She would have been killed. She wouldn't even had been blessed enough to be dead, but in a box, in the ground, with honor following her name beyond the tomb. Nor Sasuke nor love can restore life, not that she knows of. And she doubts it. If this were the case, it wouldn't have been Naruto's fault, or Kakashi's fault, or Sasuke's fault… it would've been hers. She would have been the only reason as to why she died, and maybe even the reason the could-be mission failed. All because her itty bitty insignificant little girl lovey-dovey feelings of infatuation for Sasuke had been more imparitive to her than actually putting up some sort of fight to snatch a bell and pass the test. Pass the test… the bells…!

She hadn't even grazed a bell during these past six hours straight.

Sakura wanted to bow her head in utter shame. There's no way in Hell, Heaven and back that Sakura passed this test with the performance, or lack thereof, that she displayed. "I passed? What am I getting points for? All I did was faint and fall over…"

"Well, I decided not to send you to the academy…"

The students listened to Kakashi intensely.

"Instead, I'm dropping you all from the program, permanently."

Their jaws dropped to the ground, and they caused a fit. Sasuke even ran to attack Kakashi. But Kakashi made it clear.

"Sakura, you obsessed over Sasuke the entire time, and yet even when you saw that Naruto was in need of help, you refused to lend a hand." Sakura quietly sighed, she already knew. She didn't help, and so much more. "Naruto, you do everything alone, everything! And Sasuke, you're completely filled with arrogance! You feel that your partners are so far beneath you that they were worthless! This is a three man squad: teamwork is what I was looking for. The ultimate price to pay for minuscule failures such as this would be, for example…"

Kakashi snatched Sasuke's head up from beneath his foot and held a kunai knife to the little Uchiha boy's throat. "Sakura!" Sakura refrained from squealing as she straightened up. "Kill Naruto now, or Sasuke dies!" Sakura stopped. She couldn't do that. But… but would her feelings for Sasuke ever grow so intense as to make her go through with such a thing?

She glanced over at Naruto, who had already been looking at her with wide eyes. She bit her tongue a little, and looked away.

In the end, they were all able to eat lunch. Except for Naruto, though. Kakashi had disappeared and sauntered off somewhere, but his words hadn't left with him. Sakura was pathetic. She was useless, and completely naive. She hadn't done anything ninja-like at all. As she and Sasuke ate in silence, their own thoughts continued to fill their heads. Suddenly, Naruto's stomach growled. Sakura and Sasuke stopped eating, looked up at Naruto, and then to each other, before looking back down at their bento boxes. Sakura didn't know what Sasuke was thinking, as per usual though, because honestly, who does? Nevertheless, she stared down at her brightly shining rice, blankness overtaking her mind.

Sakura hadn't done one noble thing.

"Hey, just take a few bites real fast…"

Naruto stared down at the food being offered in confusion. But Sakura looked up at him with a strong gaze, determination reeling in and leaving her content. He began to go a little red in the face, and despite trying to sound distressed, he sounded quite pleased as he made the comment, "Thanks, Sakura. But, my hands are tied…" He wiggled around a little, chuckling as he then said, "Literally, I mean." Sakura' s brow quirked at him, and he laughed sheepishly. Why, if he could, he'd certainly be rubbing his neck or scratching his cheek. "You know, I don't really like cheeky people like you," She admitted, "But this is for the both of us now. We're a team, now, so as far as I'm concerned, I eat, you eat -I doosie, you doosie-and what I doosie is eat, so you will, too. Got that, Naruto?" Naruto and Sasuke stared at this weird Sakura in bewilderment. Who is this new pink-haired little lady, and why wasn't she around when they needed her most?

But as soon as Naruto took a single bite, darkness filled the sky. Kakashi seemingly appeared from nowhere, and he screamed, "You all defied me!"

He was bluffing, though. Nothing happened. He congratulated them, actually. They passed! And their first mission together was tomorrow.

But that didn't completely fix Sakura's mood.

….….

As she walked home that day, she stopped by a tea shop. Before her sat a plate of dango and green matcha tea. She rolled the dango back and forth around her plate. She did so, so horrible. God, it was embarrassing. She didn't even put up a fight! Not even a defense mechanism at the very least!

She was a disgrace. A waste of time. A terrible use of space.

Finally, Sakura picked the stick up to take a bite of the dango. She would do better next time. No, no, no, she will do better next time. Because tomorrow is the actual mission. So who's to say that she'll ever get the chance to really show what she is capable of? Even she herself wasn't all too familiar with what she could do, aside from basic ninja tactics that just about everyone could do.

If she doesn't get herself together before she gets out there in that wild ninja world, how will even she understand what Sakura Haruno could do, as Sakura Haruno?