A Change of Fate
By: Da Cute Snowbunny
Hello everyone! Thank you so so much for the reviews! I loved hearing from all of yous. Hehe sorry about this larte update, but see all this school stuff is starting, and I'm a bit sluggish when it comes to school, so I spend more time with my school stuff. Ahehe, oh ya, this story might be a bit Ino-basherish. I apologize to those who are a fan of Ino.
Oh ya, I also added a little votes thing. This'll help me with the pairing. So far...
ShikaSaku - 6
SasuSaku - 4
So, this little poll thing will continue until chappie 6. Ok? Ok.
"..." -talking
'...' -thoughts
Inner Self
Recap:
"Oi Sakura! There you are!" came the voice of Shikamaru. Everyone turned towards Shikamaru, who was standing in the middle of the road with his hands in his pockets. He blinked at the amount of people Sakura was with.
"It's getting late, we have to go home!" he called and started walking towards Sakura.
"You live with Shikamaru?" Naruto squawked, his eyes displaying the shock and jealousy he was currently feeling. Sasuke just stared at the pink haired girl he hardly ever knew.
"H-Hai." Sakura squeaked, a blush covering her ivory cheeks.
"It's nice meeting you again, Naruto, Sasuke-san, Konohamaru. Bye!" she said politely before running towards Shikamaru and started talking animatedly with him about all the events that had just occurred.
Naruto had a look of jealousy on his face alright.
"Man, I wish I could trade Ino for Sakura-chan." he grumbled before walking away. Sasuke didn't care for girls either way, but he's not one to complain if his fangirls are sent away.
While walking home with Shikamaru, Sakura told him all about the events that happened while he wasn't there.
"Sakura, you've got to start sticking up for yourself. You can't just let Ino or any others walk all over you." Shikamaru said, giving Sakura a look. Sakura just smiled back sheepishly.
'He is so right girl! We should be able to kick all those sorry-asses that beat us up before!' her Inner self said in a fierce voice.
'I won't do that! If I do that, I'm just going to become one of them! It's... not a nice feeling. But... I promise Shika-kun and myself that if they were to pick on me again, I'll... I'll defend myself!' Sakura thought to herself confidently.
'But then again... they're an entire mob!' Sakura inwardly wailed in despair.
'When you're done moping, come talk to me.' her Inner self grumbled before her voice faded from her mind. Sakura briefly wondered what she had meant by it, but quickly dismissed it. Was it normal to talk to yourself after sulking?
Somehow, "tomorrow" seemed to come a lot sooner than Sakura had anticipated. Asuma handed them their forms and wished them good luck. Shikamaru took his without comment, his expression not giving away anything he thought of it. Chouji was visibly more nervous, his hand almost looked like it was shaking when he received his. Sakura took hers, her face not showing how anxious she was on the inside.
'It's time for promotion.' her Inner said haughtily, feeling excited about the exam. Sentiments that Sakura herself didn't really share.
"Ne Shika-kun, are you going to enter?" Sakura asked Shikamaru, who had his arms behind his head, staring at the sky as they walked around town. He didn't answer her immediately though.
"My troublesome parents would probably make me enter. So... I don't really have a say in it." Shikamaru replied, finally looking at Sakura, who giggled slightly at his response. By now, she knew how bossy and strict his mother could get, but she knew Yoshino loves Shikamaru to death.
"What about you?" Shikamaru asked in return. Sakura put her finger to her chin and stayed quiet for a while too.
"I think I'll enter. After all, I should believe in my skills!" Sakura said confidently with a smile on her face. Shikamaru stared at Sakura bit before smiling a bit too and ruffled her hair, saying something about watching clouds together.
As you all know, the stupid genjutsu trick was put up by the Chuunin proctors, and after that Rock Lee confronts Sasuke.
"You there with the sharp eyes. Wait." came the voice of Rock Lee from the balcony. Sasuke, Ino and Naruto all turned around to see who the person was.
Naruto made a weird ooh noise.
Ino looked downright irritated and made a comment about his terrible sense of fashion under her breath.
"What do you want?" Sasuke asked, clearly not interested in what the older boy had to say.
"Will you fight me right here, right now?" Lee asked with a very serious expression on his face.
"Fight you right here, right now?" Sasuke repeated, as if thinking if Lee was for real or not. After all, he is THE Uchiha Sasuke right? Shouldn't people be intimidated by him? Even his name alone should strike some kind of bell in people's minds.
"Hai." Lee answered, very determined. With that, Lee leapt off the balcony and landed onto the dojo floor.
"My name is Rock Lee." he introduced, pointing his thumb towards himself.
"You're supposed to identify yourself before you ask for someone else's, right...? Uchiha Sasuke-kun." Lee said, repeating what Sasuke had said earlier, when they had briefly met.
"So you know my name." Sasuke said, or more like stated. (Bunny: Well...isn't that what he wanted? Lol.)
"I would like to fight you." Lee stated before getting into his fighting stance.
"You already said that before!" Ino bursted out loud, quite irritated by Lee's presence, and how he kept repeating the same thing over like a broken record. Naruto nodded in agreement but Sasuke stayed silent.
"Hey Shikamaru, looks like some people are fighting down there..." Chouji pointed out while staring down below from the balcony. Sakura was looking at the floor, but she looked up at the mention of the word fight. Shikamaru also seemed a little interested but tried not to show it.
"Oh. It's that weird Lee guy." Shikamaru said lazily, letting his arms hang over the balcony. Sakura also went to take a look, out of pure curiosity of course. Ino noticed the three and called out to them.
"Hey you guys! Coming to watch Sasuke-kun win!" she asked in a cocky voice, a smirk playing on her lips. Chouji only sighed at how conceited Ino was, Shikamaru yawned, and Sakura only managed to smile meekly.
It was then Naruto, Sasuke and Lee noticed Sakura was there.
"Hey Sakura-chan!" Naruto greeted and waved his hand enthusiastically, earning a smack from Ino. Sasuke only stared at her, but she knew it was his way of saying 'hello.'
Sakura started walking down the stairs to join them, soon followed by Shikamaru and Chouji. Naruto ran excitedly over to Sakura, who greeted him back.
"Hello Naruto. It's nice to see you again." Sakura said politely while smiling sweetly. Naruto blushed a bit, scratching the back of his head nervously. Ino audibly hmphed at the attention Sakura was getting, but said nothing more.
Sasuke merely glanced at her, but also said nothing. Lee however...
Lee had a small blush on his face before walking over to where Sakura stood. Sakura looked at him with an uneasy expression. What did he want?
"So... you're Sakura right?" he asked in a polite voice.
"Uh-hai." Sakura answered, a little hesitant. To be frank, she was quite disturbed by the level of bushiness his brows have achieved, but kept the comment to herself.
'This kid has enough eyebrow for him and that Gaara kid to share.' her Inner snickered, while Sakura tried very hard to suppress the mental image it created.
"Will you go out with me? I promise to protect you with my life!" Lee proclaimed and did his good-guy pose. Sakura's expression immediately changed to a mortified one. Naruto made some weird quacking noises, Shikamaru's eye twitched, and Sasuke just looked at him funny. Ino and Chouji seemed to have zoned out or simply didn't care about the confession.
"N-N-No! Gomen Lee... but um... you're uhh... too unique for me! And I hardly know you!" Sakura managed to blurt out, though tried her best to remain polite. After all, she didn't want to make too many enemies before the Chuunin exams.
Lee's face fell and he turned around with an aura of gloom around him.
"Too... unique?" he repeated to himself, totally crestfallen. Everyone that was paying attention sweatdropped, and the ones who weren't stared at Lee and wondered what had gotten into him.
Quickly getting over it, he turned back around and resumed his challenge. Sasuke smirked... and yatta yatta. Naruto interupts, gets quickly knocked out by Lee, who had no interest in fighting Naruto whatsoever.
And so the fight with Rock Lee and Uchiha Sasuke began. The loudmouth Ino was cheering for Sasuke with unwavering confidence in him, while the other spectators just silently watched the battle. It then became clear Sasuke had underestimated his opponent's skills, which lead to him activating his newly acquired Sharingan! When he looked up, everyone was surprised when they saw his eyes.
'Sasuke's so coool!' Ino thought to herself as little glitteries floated around her. (Bunny: Like Armstrong! Lol.)
"Woahh..." Chouji said aloud. Shikamaru's eyes widened a bit, but didn't say anything.
'I-is... that the Sharingan?' Sakura thought to herself in awe.
'Hm... pretty impressive. But I've seen better.' her Inner self commented. Sakura's eyes widened a bit. There was definitely something wrong with her Inner self. How the heck did she see another Sharingan? This was her first time seeing it!
'What are you talking about' she exclaimed to herself, really confused and surprised. Her inner self chuckled.
'I'll explain to you later honey, but right now you should watch the Uchiha boy a little more closely.' her Inner self said before she faded away. Sakura snapped back into reality and saw Sasuke being kicked up into the air by Rock Lee.
"Sasuke-kun?" Ino screamed in shock and concern. How could her super-cool and powerful Sasuke get beat up by Rock Lee? Who in her eyes, was a nobody!
Lee was about wrap Sasuke with his bandages when...
A PINWHEEL PINS IT TO THE WALL!
Everybody's mouths makes an 'O'. Then, Sasuke starts falling and Ino's getting all panicked and decided to drag Naruto over so he would cushion Sasuke's fall. Obviously, that was a no-brainer. Not only would Naruto get hurt, but Ino wouldn't make it in time and Sasuke would just end up landing badly on the ground.
Sakura, being the more clear-headed and smarter one, ran forward and caught Sasuke! (Bunny: SCORE!)
Sasuke was a little suprised when Sakura had caught him. He was sure that he would land quite painfully. Shakily, he got up with some help from Sakura. Ino and Naruto were bickering about the stunt she tried to pull, Lee was looking down in shame, and the others weren't really paying attention.
"Are you alright Sasuke-san? Does anywhere hurt?" Sakura asked, her eyes scanning for any serious injuries he might have. Sasuke wondered for a bit why the girl was so worried, since they weren't even on the same team and rarely had any interaction. He hoped she wasn't becoming a fan girl.
"I'm fine." Sasuke replied and gently pried Sakura's hands away from him. Sakura gave him a small smile before going back over to where Shikamaru and Chouji were, who gave her questioning looks.
"FOREHEAD-GIRL! HOW DARE YOU TOUCH MY SASUKE-KUN!" Ino screamed, who was currently trying to hug Sasuke and failing. Naruto was disgruntled looking, and pissed. Sakura sweatdropped, and before Ino could lash out at her she quickly bade everyone goodbye, she swiftly walked to the room where they have to turn in their admission slips.
'Chuunin exams, here we come!' Sakura thought determinedly as Shikamaru, Chouji and herself entered the room. Once they entered the room, they were almost completely overwhelmed by how many people were in there already. Some people turned to loo while others were just sitting there minding their own business.
Sakura felt the chilly aura once again, turning slowly towards the direction it was coming from. There, standing in the corner on the other side of the room was the boy she had met only briefly yesterday. He has once again taken a liking to staring at her with those cold pastel green eyes.
'Hmmm, what an interesting kid.' her Inner self commented.
'Interesting? More like creepy! If he wasn't a Chuunin examinee, I would request a restraining order on him.' Sakura thought to herself, whilst imagining an evil looking Gaara appearing wherever she went. Her Inner self merely laughed at Sakura's imagination.
'Hehe, he's no stalker. The kid's just.. intrigued.' her Inner self chuckled before fading away.
"Sakura, come on. You have to stop spacing out." Shikamaru told her before taking her by the arm and dragged her to an empty table. Sakura blushed a bit from embarrassment but didn't say anything.
"Shikamaru, how long will it be until the exam starts?" Chouji asked while munching on some chips. Sakura noticed that as long as Chouji had food with him, he couldn't care less about what was going on around him. She doubted he even noticed the tense atmosphere in the slightly packed room.
Shikamaru sighed. "How am I supposed to know? I guess we'll just have to wait." he replied before stifling a yawn. Sakura scanned the room to see if there were more Konoha genins. While scanning, she saw Team 7 come into the room too.
"Shika, look!" Sakura said happily and pointed in the direction of where Team 7 were.
"So they finally made it here huh?" Shikamaru said lazily before getting up to walk over to where Sasuke, Naruto and Ino were standing. Eventually, the rest of the rookie nine assembled there to boast about their skills and teamwork.
"YOOSSHHH! I'LL KICK ALL YOUR BUTTS AND PASS THE CHUUNIN EXAMS!" Naruto yelled and was immediately bonked on the head by Ino. The others had to cover their ears from the loud outburst.
Obviously, the other ninjas weren't very pleased about that and wanted to pummel Naruto for spouting out such nonsense.
"Naruto you idiot! Don't make such a scene! Are you trying to get us killed?" Ino scolded Naruto, who was in a headlock.
"Aha... d-don't take him s-seriously! H-He's a n-nutter!" Ino laughed nervously as she apologized for him, and quickly let go of Naruto. Then she proceeded to try and glomp Sasuke. Keyword being: try.
"Naruto, I thought you were very brave back there." Sakura said, a genuine smile on her face. Naruto's face immediately lit up and then started ranting about his superiority and all that jazz.
'Idiot. Now you got him even more pumped.' her Inner self said in a dreaded voice. Sakura thought her inner self sounded like she's gotten herself a death sentence. Naruto may be lousy at times, but at least he's got guts. Sakura envies Naruto for that. Naruto is being what she could ever hope to be. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed she wasn't the only one who thought of Naruto in the same way, which made her smile widen even more.
She heard her Inner self sigh. 'Kid, the point of this 1st exam is about cheating like a first class ninja.' she said in a bored voice after Sakura has finished reading through the questions. Sakura's eyes widened at what she learned, but her surprise didn't last long.
'Oh well, these questions aren't that hard.' Sakura thought cheerfully as she started writing down all the answers. Being with Shikamaru for so long, you picked up a lot of things. But her favourite past time was studying to begin with so this exam was a breeze for her.
'I hope Chouji can figure this out.' Sakura thought hopefully as she leaned back into her seat and watched everyone else either struggle away with the questions, or cheating off someone else's page. Several times, the examiners would be calling out numbers and more and more genin would be leaving the room because they were caught cheating.
"How unprofessional. Kiddo, if you don't duck you're going to get attacked.' her Inner self said in the same bored voice. Sakura was shocked that someone would try to attack her during a written exam, but ducked nonetheless.
'Who was attacking me? Wouldn't I have sensed them? Plus, we're in the middle of an exam!' Sakura asked her inner self, who was blowing raspberries. Sakura's eye twitched at how different her inner self is. After waiting for the potential attack to pass, Sakura sat up straight again, before the examiners made a comment about her sinking into her seat.
'I lied actually. No one was really going to hurt you. That Ino-bitch was going to use her Shintenshin no Jutsu on you, and at the moment, I don't feel like moving aside so she could have room in your little head. As a matter of fact, I don't intend on letting her intrude any time soon.' her Inner self explained bluntly. Sakura slowly turned around to find Ino's body was slumped over her desk, as if she was sleeping.
'Wow, you're right. So, where is she now?' Sakura wondered and looked in front of her, wondering who Ino could have possessed.
'The guy in front of you. But look at his hands, she's cancelling the technique.' her Inner self pointed out. Indeed, the guy used a single hand sign, meaning Kai. Ino was then transferred back into her own body. Sakura could imagine a very angry Ino at the moment.
'Why that stupid Billboard-brow bitch! WHY THE HELL DID SHE DUCK?' Ino seethed mentally before pondering whether she should chance using her technique again. Biting her bottom lip, she looked a little to her right to see how Sasuke was doing. Sasuke obviously, with his Sharingan had no problem.
She looked forward and found Naruto clutching his head like it was going to explode. Ino sighed, knowing full well that Naruto wasn't going to pass this. Ino couldn't let this happen! She needed Naruto AND herself to pass so Sasuke could get stronger and finally acknowledge her as an equal!
Quickly performing the needed hand seals, she transferred her soul into some other genin, who looked pretty smug about his page. Ino was sure she'd get the right answers. After getting them onto her page, she would then transfer into Naruto and write down the answers for him. The plan was fool proof.
"You now have 5 minutes!' the Proctor called out to the remaining genins. This caused Ino to panic. She wouldn't have enough time!
SLAM
"This exam is nothing! I will never run away! If I fail this exam, I'll just keep trying! I won't give up dattebayo!" Naruto proclaimed proudly and loudly. After that, everyone who even thought about giving up suddenly got their courage back. Naruto's speeches sometimes worked like a charm.
'What a noisy brat.' Sakura's Inner self said, pretty annoyed of Naruto's voice already.
After successfully passing the written exam, came the practical part. The Forest of Death.
Sakura tried her almighty best to stay silent, and moved quickly. Earlier, they had managed to get the Earth scroll after knocking that team out. But they were better at tracking people than they had originally thought. Not only 20 minutes after they stole the scroll, the ninja have come back after them.
As of now, their team is temporarily separated. One of the Grass ninja had used some kind of explosion jutsu, which caused them to run away in opposite directions. Shikamaru and Chouji went one way while she went the other. She was now completely lost, direction confused and had no idea how to locate her teammates.
One thing was for sure though. She was in a lot more danger than Shikamaru and Chouji would ever be. She happened to be carrying both of her scrolls, which was a bad idea from the start. The original idea was they would make it seem like Sakura was a decoy, while Shikamaru had the real scrolls. No one would suspect Sakura to be carrying the real scrolls. But with her teammates missing, she was fair game.
And just her luck, she just happens to run into a OMFG WTF BBQ GIGANTAMUNGOUS SNAKE! Sakura was frozen to the spot. Her mind went blank at the sight of the humungous snake. What on Earth could she do? She couldn't out run the snake, and attacking it head on would be plain suicide.
'Idiot! Run while you can! Can't you see it's temporarily busy?' her Inner self yelled at her. Sakura's hands shook and she commanded her legs to move, but no matter how much she wanted to move, her legs just wouldn't budge.
Suddenly, the snake started to look more bloated. Sakura's eyes widened considerably.
'It's going to blow!' she thought, feeling horrified. She quickly ran to hide behind a tree, her legs finally obeying to her every command. Just as she went behind it, the snake exploded into a kajillion pieces. (Bunny: We all know why...)
'Thank goodness I'm not covered in snake gunk.' Sakura thought to herself. After making sure she wasn't going to be hit with flying snake chunks, she walked around the tree to see survey the area. There, she found Naruto covered in slimy snake guts and other crap.
"Naruto! Are you alright?" Sakura asked in alarm, instantly forgetting that they were enemies and quickly going to his aid.
"Sakura-chan? Why are you here?" Naruto asked, shaking his head to clear it (and shake off snake gunk) as a worried Sakura checked for any injuries.
"I was separated from my team after an attack. I was wandering around when I saw the huge snake." Sakura explained as she reached into her pouch for a band aid. Gently, she cleaned off Naruto's cut and put the band aid on his cheek. Naruto blushed slightly and gave her one of his infamous fox grins.
"Arigato Sakura-chan!" Naruto said, a faint blush on his cheeks. Sakura smiled brightly before it dropped to a small frown.
"What happened to Sasuke and Ino?" Sakura asked, now wondering why Naruto was off on his own. Naruto started explaining about how he needed to go to the washroom, when all of a sudden a huge snake had appeared and attacked him.
"Naruto, I think we should go and find your teammates. If they lured you away from them, who knows what will happen to your teammates." Sakura said urgently.
'Oi oi, what about your teammates?' her Inner tried to remind her, but was ignored.
She was prepared to leave to when Naruto stopped her. "Why are you helping me Sakura-chan? I'm your enemy, and I've never heard of an enemy wanting to help their own enemy." he said in a low voice, suspicion in his voice. Sakura stopped to think.
"I... I don't know. I never thought any of the Konoha ninjas as enemies." Sakura replied truthfully. Satisfied with her answer, Naruto accepted her help.
"Yosh! Let's go save Sasuke-teme and Ino's butts!" he shouted enthusiastically as he pumped his fist into the air. Together, the two immediately jumped up and tree-hopped to find Naruto's missing teammates.
'Hopefully we're not too late.' Sakura thought worriedly before picking up her pace to catch up with Naruto.
'I have a bad feeling about this.' Sakura's Inner self said in a grim voice. Sakura did too, but decided not to voice it.
To be continued...
Bunny: Ahh, this chappie kinda sucked to me. Anyway, please tell me what you think. Again, I'm sorry for this REALLLLYYYYY late update. I'll try and update faster once the 'fanfic writing' mode is back up. Also, my allergies are attacking me, so I'm taking Benedryl tablets. But the thing is, it's also like a sedative, so even after I wake up, I'm still a little out of it. So...that's my excuse if my chappies kinda suck.
Ideas are also accepted if you've got any!
Oh ya...before I forget-
A) Have Sakura's sealed spirit make an appearance while Orochimaru is there?
B) Have Sakura attack Orochimaru while he is giving Sasuke the cursed-seal?