Shisui was the first to make a move, charging at Sakura with the infamous Uchiha speed she'd already grown accustomed to.
Sakura confidently reared her fist back in preparation to knock Shisui out. However, he suddenly disappeared from her sights.
Sakura rushed to look at her surroundings before concluding that he must've entered the ground beneath her. Changing the course of her fist, she created a small quake in the earth as rubble dangerously flew up from the ground, revealing Shisui amongst the debris.
"What monstrous strength for a little girl…" He muttered curiously before activating his Sharingan, hoping to capture her in his Genjustu.
Sakura collapsed on her knees as her expression turned blank. Itachi, who was initially watching the fight with curiosity, lost interest almost instantly.
"Heheh." Shisui giggled to himself as he gracefully jumped in front of Sakura, "And that's how-"
His words were interrupted with a brutal punch to the stomach, making him double over from the air escaping his body. Sakura then swept her leg under Shisui and he fell onto the ground with a dull thud before she stood up straight.
"Is that all you've got?" Sakura taunted, pulling at the collar of the shirt she was wearing.
"Mercy, I can't breathe." Shisui struggled through pained breaths, earning him a huge grin from Sakura.
Itachi looked on and wondered if he should intervene. He eventually decided against it and instead activated his Sharingan to assess the girl in front of him.
He frowned in pure disdain as his Sharingan couldn't see a thing. If he didn't witness that fight, his Sharingan would have told him that this girl was a plain civilian. She was actively blocking the Sharingan, which was something even the Hokage couldn't do. He made it his personal mission to find out more about this kunoichi.
"Let me take a look at the damage." She stated in her usual nurse-like tone. Shisui flinched away from the small girl. Not in pain, but in uncertainty of her intentions. However, his efforts of escaping her grasp were futile as he could barely move.
"Hmm." She hummed as she hovered her hands over Shisui's torso and shins. "Just a single fractured rib and a swelling on your left shin…Are you really that intolerant to pain?" She continued as she easily fixed his fractured rib with little effort.
Shisui ignored her comment about pain as he looked closely at Sakura's hand.
"Medical jutsu?" Shisui commented after regaining his breath. Sakura looked at him briefly before nodding.
"Yeah, at least one in every three shinobi are capable of Medical jutsu…I trained under Lady Tsunade too. So, I guess I'm a better medic than the average shinobi…" Sakura gloated, hoping Itachi would be listening.
"Lady Tsunade?" Shisui asked, looking to Itachi for help. Sakura followed his line of sight and noticed that Itachi's eyes had flashed a dangerous red in her direction, which only resulted in her smirking.
'Cute…He's trying to drag me into his Genjutsu.' She thought to herself before offering her hand out to Shisui.
"She means the legendary Sanin, Tsunade." Itachi clarified, closing the space between the three shinobi while keeping a harsh look on Sakura.
"Oh…oh wow! Well with that demonstration, you're going to pass the Genin and Chunin exams with no problem, we could learn a thing or two from you in fact. How old are you again?"
"Twelve."
"Only one year younger than us." He smiled brightly, patting Itachi on the shoulder.
"Age is not a measure of strength." Itachi retorted, his eyes returning to their passive onyx state.
"Why not test that Theory? You're almost suggesting that I would win in a fight if I was against you." Sakura scoffed, relaxing her stance a little.
"I don't have the luxury of time to play games with kids." Itachi bit back before carefully removing Shisui's hand from his shoulder. Sakura narrowed her eyes while taking Itachi's comment offensively.
"That's very cowardly of you. But I guess Uchiha's aren't really all what they make themselves out to be."
Shisui looked over at her with sad eyes, reminding her yet again that not all Uchiha's are like Sasuke.
"Don't push me, girl." Itachi responded in a serious tone, further agitating Sakura.
"Or what, you'll kill my clan?" Sakura clapped hands over her mouth animatedly. Before Itachi could shoot a scowl in her direction, he found himself faced with the familiar cherry blossom petals.
'Is she aware of Danzo's plans?' Itachi thought to himself before promptly playing off his irritation.
"I need to get ready for my shift, I don't think it's wise to have her running around the village wearing our clan symbol on her back." He stated as if asking Shisui to get it from her.
"Um…I need to head out on my assigned mission today, and I need to leave at 10 the very latest. I'll be out of the village for a month." Shisui informed, knowing that Itachi wouldn't be happy with the news.
"I'll get the shirt from her then." Itachi sighed
Sakura kept herself hidden from Itachi during the wait till her exam. Cursing herself for her stupidity over and over while hoping that the Hokage didn't witness or recognise that slip up.
Thinking back to when she was in the tower with Tsunade confronting the Hokage, she wondered what made Sarutobi believe their story so easily. Sure, he found a suspicious scroll...but nothing was really backing up their story...for all Sarutobi knew, Sakura could be a spy from another village. she shook off the thought quickly, realising that it would only distract her from doing well in her exam.
The afternoon came around quite quickly, so without hesitation, Sakura had leisurely walked to the academy.
"Believe it, asshole!" A familiar blond boy shouted, catching Sakura's attention immediately.
She couldn't help but smile as she saw her old class in the middle of a sparring session.
"You couldn't even lay a finger on me if you tried." Sasuke retorted. Sakura looked over at him before sadness welled up inside her. He used to be so innocent…and to think that she had been forced to kill him in another timeline…
"Bunny Lady!" Naruto shouted, surprising his fellow class mates and his sensei. He ran up to Sakura with a huge smile on his face.
"Naruto, you can't just run out of a lesson like that…" Sakura started before ruffling his hair. "Why are you calling me bunny lady anyway?" She asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
"Because you looked like a little bunny when you jumped from the scaffolding yesterday." Naruto laughed as he scratched his head. Sakura smiled sweetly at Naruto's innocent words.
"Naruto, class isn't over yet." Iruka's voice boomed over the grounds, making Sakura flinch.
"I don't care, I'd rather learn from this lady! She's nice!" he rudely retorted, making Sakura blush.
"O-oh." She unwillingly stuttered.
"Who are you?" Iruka, clearly annoyed, sighed as he walked over to Naruto.
"I'm Sakura, I'm here to take the Genin test today." Sakura politely answered, making Iruka perk up a bit.
"Perfect! You've arrived here at an opportune moment, Sakura." He responded as he beckoned her to follow him back to the class of young shinobi. Naruto ran ahead of the two to rejoin the rest of the class.
A pang of pain shot through Sakura's heart as she looked at her former, and younger, companions. She would have to rely solely on Tsunade to offload all her troubles to in the future.
"I'll be getting Sakura here," Iruka started to speak to the class as he put both of his hands on Sakura's shoulders. "To demonstrate what kind of skills you need to work towards if you hope on becoming a Genin." Iruka finished. Sakura nervously looked at the group of kids before her eyes fell on Sasuke.
He was looking up at her with burning determination in his eyes, something that she'd not seen the positive side of for years.
"The Hokage has informed me that you're a strong Kunoichi." Iruka said out loud, snapping Sakura's focus on him.
"He's not wrong." Sakura joked halfheartedly, the class laughing comically at her comment.
"To prove you're able enough to fight on the battlefield, I'd like for you to perform your signature jutsu." He demanded while removing his hands from Sakura's shoulders before sternly crossing his arms. Sakura sweat dropped before giving Iruka a strange look.
"I'm not sure about that, Iruka…I specialise in Medical jutsu, and I can't prove my worth unless there's a severely injured shinobi lying around…and my other signature jutsu is too strong to perform here. I'd end up destroying the Academy…"
"Yeah! Destroy the academy! Do it!" Naruto cheered on before Sasuke whacked him around the head.
"Shut up, Idiot!" He scolded quietly. Sakura couldn't help but smile at the two.
Iruka relaxed his arms.
"That's hard to believe." Iruka muttered almost inaudibly…Almost. Sakura narrowed her eyes ever so slightly at Iruka.
"Why don't I use you as a target?" Sakura suggested sarcastically.
"Not a bad Idea." Iruka agreed swiftly, making his class gasp loudly.
"Uh…I was joking, I would most definitely damage your body into something similar to a coma state…" Sakura informed.
"Okay then. On my mark, you have 3 seconds to land a hit on me. If you don't, you fail. Sound fair?" Iruka offered, confident that Sakura couldn't manage it. The children gasped in shock as they looked from Iruka to Sakura.
However, all Sakura could do was wince in pity before nodding in agreement to his terms.
"Alright, You kids get back." Sakura said. The kids excitedly ran to the wall of the academy to watch the test.
"Normally, these tests wouldn't be as informal as this, but Sakura is an exception." Iruka informed the children before he got into a defensive stance "Are you ready to go?"
"Yep."
"I believe in you Sakura!" Naruto roared happily, earning himself another hit and a firm telling off from Sasuke.
"Go." Iruka said, assuming that he had the upper hand as Sakura was looking over at her former comrades.
1
Sakura's body had dispersed into soft pink petals as she subtly performed a clone jutsu in the handy cover of her floating petal transportation jutsu.
2
Half of the petals had materialised into a clone of Sakura in front of Iruka aiming a textbook punch at his face. Iruka easily caught her wrists with the intention of opening his mouth to call off the exam as the remaining petals brushed past his body.
3
Sakura's clone had disappeared in front of Iruka's eyes while the rest of the petals materialised into Sakura's true body at Iruka's side. She landed a hit square in Iruka's jaw. There was a horrendous sound that tore through Sakura's eardrums. Iruka had let his guard down too early which in turn magnified the severity of the hit.
Luckily, Iruka instantly blacked out. His body flew through the air before landing on the ground harshly.
"Whoa! I want to be as powerful as Sakura!" Naruto commented in pure admiration.
Ignoring the stunned kids, Sakura casually rushed to Iruka's side to examine the damage she'd made.
His jaw was hanging on by the skin and joint on the right side of his face…just barely, and he was bleeding out dangerously. His eyes were rolled back in his head and his breathing was irregular. She started to hyperventilate at the wound she created and was too shocked to notice that Itachi had walked over to her.
"D-Don't come over here kids…" Sakura warned in a shaky tone as she quickly tried to work on Iruka.
"Itachi!" Sasuke shouted with a happy tone. Sakura was numb to her surroundings as she started to panic. She never meant to exert that much chakra…had her natural strength progressed that far?
Itachi looked down at the girl and Iruka before halting Sasuke back with his hand.
"Return to your classroom. We'll be with you in a few minutes." Itachi directed. Sasuke would have rebelled if it weren't for the serious look on Itachi's face. So, instead he lead the class back into the academy, dragging Naruto back by the scruff of his collar.
Itachi noticed that Sakura had completely lost her cool composure that she'd had earlier on in the day. Silently noting that her hands were shaking and she wasn't using her chakra properly, he reluctantly bent down to her height ignoring the gruesome scene underneath him and lifted Sakura's hands up.
"Take a deep breath, Sakura." He said in a clear, monotonous hum, causing Sakura to cry. "Get a hold of yourself and heal this man." He finished in a sharper tone.
Sakura nodded her head slowly before Itachi let go of her hands. She took a moment to breathe deeply, during this time, Itachi hesitantly held Iruka's dangling jaw in place with both hands in the hopes that he was helping Sakura prepare for the healing session.
"Alright…" Sakura exhaled softly before placing her hands over Itachi's. "Don't move, I'm going to heal his jaw through your hands." She instructed.
Itachi refrained from gagging as she put slight bit of pressure on one of his hands to pop Iruka's jaw back in place.
"I just need to reattach the torn muscles and rejuvenate his bone and skin structure. It should take ten minutes at a push." Sakura continued as her breathing became laboured.
Itachi looked plainly at the girl in front of him, growing more suspicious of her power the longer she worked on Iruka. He could feel that Iruka's skin beneath his hands were plumping up and he could only assume that she was healing him successfully, without the aid of medicinal tools. This girl is definitely strange, and Itachi wondered if she was even born in this village...considering he had no recollection of ever seeing her before yesterday.
He looked down at Iruka and slightly winced at the amount of blood that surrounded his face.
'The pain must have been excruciating...probably the reason to why he's out cold...' Itachi mused inwardly.
"Won't he feel an unbearable amount of pain when he regains consciousness?" Itachi spoke his thoughts, earning a short glance from Sakura.
"No. I've inserted some of my chakra to remain in Iruka's face for at least three days, which will constantly numb his Jaw until my stored chakra has burned out…He'll barely be able to feel a thing once that happens." Sakura explained.
Itachi narrowed his eyes at her. He was no expert when it came to medical jutsu…But he was certain that the jutsu she was performing was way more advanced than she should know, being from a clan with no name or formidable talents, even if she did train under Tsunade…he held no trust in Sakura.
A few minutes of tense silence passed before Sakura slid her hands gently off of Itachi's and leaned back on her legs.
"He's…he's fine." She panted as she wiped the sweat away from her brow. "Thank you…Itachi." She reluctantly thanked before feeling a rush of dizziness enter her head.
A few seconds of greyness had passed Sakura's sight before she felt a cold sting to her cheek. A few splatters of blood had flew off Itachi's hand due to the force of the slap..
Itachi had backhanded her to reality.
"Sorry." Sakura muttered before reaching into her pouch to pop a solider pill in her mouth.
"Where did you get those? Only Jonin level shinobi are permitted to buy them from the market..." Itachi questioned, not failing to notice the brief look of worry that shot across Sakura's face.
"I made these." She answered plainly, trying to act tough. Itachi ignored her answer as he looked back down to Iruka.
"What were you trying to do, attacking a member of the village like that?" Itachi interrogated before standing up to look down at her. Sakura scrunched her nose up before standing up straight.
"I was doing what was necessary to pass my Genin test."
"And you thought you'd kill him to pass?"
"I wasn't supposed to punch him that hard...he let his guard down too." Sakura almost whimpered in regret, causing Itachi to sigh before picking Iruka up.
"I'm going to check him in at the hospital...You need to report this to the hokage." Itachi said in a blunt tone before leaving.
Sakura sighed in defeat as she slumped her shoulders, knowing that Itachi was right. She'd have to learn how to control her power one way or another.
She went to Iruka's classroom first, to inform the kids that the day was over, before she dragged herself to the Hokage Tower.
The hokage wasn't too surprised at Sakura's report. When Sakura asked him about his lack of concern, he simply told her that He and Tsunade had been speaking for a long time before and after he'd seen her in his office. Which didn't necessarily put her mind at ease, but she accepted his reaction nevertheless.
He then informed her that she would be placed in a temporary team in correspondence to the fast approaching Chunin exams. He informed her that it wouldn't be with people that she knew, as he'd spoke with the council to sort the team out previously in the day. However, she was to get acquainted with them over dinner at one of the fancy restaurants...Although he also informed her that he'd assign two strong shinobi to accompany her, as the two team mates which would fight beside her were Danzo's choice...Sakura's quick understanding of Sarutobi's suspicions had unsettled him deeply.
So now a very formally dressed Sakura was standing outside of the fancy restaurant in tight fitting red dress that complimented her hair and her figure. However, she was slightly shivering at the cold temperature of the evening.
"Oh, it's you." A grey haired shinobi spoke out, catching Sakura completely off-guard. She was about to retort but she was just struck with sudden speech loss as she took in Kakashi's appearance with innocently wide eyes.
He was dressed up in a clean navy blue suit with a grey tie to match. Sakura couldn't help the light dusting of pink on her cheeks as she took in his outfit, noting that some of his muscles had complimented his figure quite generously and dangerously in some places...
'Kakashi sure can dress to impress when he's putting the effort in...' Sakura mused happily to herself.
"And I'm perverted one." Kakashi chuckled, softly elbowing his companion which Sakura didn't notice until now...It was Itachi.
Itachi was in a slimmer fitted pure black suit with a deep red tie, not even humouring Sakura with a second glance. Sakura simply ignored him back in a childish manner.
"I-I wasn't thinking about you in a perverted way or anything!" Sakura waved her hands around as she defended herself, her face growing redder with each word.
"I didn't suggest that you were." Kakashi responded sharply, thoroughly enjoying the Pinkette squirming.
"That guy you almost killed is doing fine by the way." Itachi interjected the fun with what he thought would be a hard hitting comment.
"Iruka shouldn't have let his guard down then, Uchiha." Sakura hissed in response, hitting a small nerve as she refused to call him by his first name.
"Iruka? What happened?" Kakashi questioned as he looked over to Itachi.
"This girl decided that it would be appropriate to attempt a brutal murder in front of Sasuke's class." Itachi answered smoothly, the words falling out of his mouth easily.
"Actually," Sakura started matter-of-factually. "Iruka wanted me to show him my signature move as my physical part in the test. I informed him that my strongest element is my Medical jutsu so I couldn't show him that...And my second strongest is my taijutsu...however, I said I'd end up demolishing the school in the process..." Sakura relaxed her posture as she continued explaining. Kakashi keeping an amused look on his face as he listened closely. "So then I sarcastically suggested that I use him as a target, as he doubted my abilities. he seemed all for it... Even after I warned him of the dangers and he didn't listen so he gave me 3 seconds to land a punch on him..." Sakura leaned to the side and delicately brushed back some of her hair behind her ears. "It turned out to be really easy to punch him because he let his guard down and I kinda tore apart half of his jaw..."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow while glancing over at his companion. Itachi's face twitched in disgust, making Kakashi grow more curious about the Pinkette.
"But, I did fix his jaw better than the hospital would have been able to manage and everything seems to be in check." Sakura said, locking eyes with Itachi briefly, trying to show what little amount of gratitude as she could manage.
"Now I'm just itching for a battle." Kakashi chuckled softly.
"I watched her fighting skills this morning. She's nothing special." Itachi stated bluntly, causing Sakura's eyebrow to twitch in irritation.
"Listen here you little shit-" Sakura started in a dangerous tone before a familiar man caught her eye. "...Sai?" Sakura breathed as she looked past Itachi.
Sai was in a dark grey suit with a black tie. Walking next to him in sync was what Sakura could only assume to be Sai's close friend that he considered to be a brother...Shin.
Shin was dressed in a lighter grey suit with a white tie. Sakura looked at him cautiously, remembering the story that Sai had once told her.
"I'm taking a wild guess in saying that you're the pink-haired girl who we have to team up with." Sai stated, keeping emotionless as he locked eyes with Sakura.
"That's right...And you two are?" Sakura probed, just in case Sai was set a different name.
"I'm Kezune and this is Kai." Shin spoke up cheerfully as he pointed to himself and Sai in turn, causing Sakura to frown. An action that didn't go unnoticed.
"Is there something the matter?" Sai spoke up, snapping Sakura out of her daydream.
"Uh...I don't mean to be rude when I say." Sakura started before looking over at Shin. "Kezune looks like he's sick."
The sudden observation seemed to surprise Shin. However, it seemed like only Sakura noticed the flicker of shock that crossed his features.
"Don't fret Sakura, I am just light-skinned. I get that comment all the time." Shin dismissed her comment easily before offering his arm to her. "Shall we?" He asked gentlemanly. Catching Sakura completely off-guard. She smiled sweetly at him before gently taking his arm.
"Why, Of Course. I do look forward to getting to know you." Sakura giggled before they all entered the restaurant.
A/N: Another chapter up finally! ;_; I couldn't find out the age when Shin died so I'm simply just keeping him alive for ease of team building .
Thank you for reading and thank you guys so much for reviewing! :D I hope to update with a new chapter soon ^_^
Please excuse any spelling mistakes!