A/N: I had made a mistake in the previous chapter and re-wrote it. Thanks for all of you who pointed it out. I had completely forgotten about that fact!

CHAPTER 4

Sakura was feeling on edge as she sat in the academy classroom. She was worried. Did she have reason to be? Maybe. Today was the day that gennin teams would finally be announced. She had been very careful to get the same marks as she had in her previous life. It had been hard though, since she didn't really remember how exactly her results had been. It had been almost 7 years ago. She had a general idea and had tried to stick to it. But what if she hadn't? What if her marks had changed slightly and it resulted with her getting assigned to a different team? How would she help Sasuke when faced with Orochimaru? Sasuke had been the best rookie that year and he still was, so on that side things were going to stay the same.

However, she had become good friends with Naruto. It had slightly changed how he acted during class. He was still clueless on most subjects and was still as thickheaded as always, but he had shown slightly more interest in some topics during class since. It didn't help that Sakura had never paid him any attention on her first life. Had he also changed a bit back then? Hadn't he? She had realized her mistake a couple weeks before graduation and dread had filled her. Her friendship clearly meant a lot to him now and she hadn't had the heart to walk away from him now. She couldn't just stop talking to him after six months of a good friendship. For all she knew, that fact alone could change things.

If team 7 wasn't formed this time around, she honestly had no idea what course of action to take. Her whole plan had been based on the assumption that it would be. Also, she had come to care for Kakashi as a father or an older brother and, if she never met him, it would be borderline devastating for her.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Huh?" Sakura's thoughts were interrupted by her friend's voice.

"Teams are about to be assigned." He pointed out. "I thought you would want to hear that out."

"Yeah. Thanks." She managed a strained smile and then looked to the front of the class where Iruka started reading out the members of the different teams. Sakura was really nervous, fidgeting with her thumbs on her shirt and trying to keep her calm as much as she could.

"Team 7" Iruka's voice sounded clear in the room. "Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke."

Sakura released a small sigh that he knew she had been holding.

"Great!" Naruto cheered next to her. "Sadly we're stuck with Sasuke bastard."

On the background there were all sorts of complaints coming from Sasuke's fangirls. Sakura looked around with raised eyebrows, noticing the glares that her female classmates had been throwing her way. Her eyes moved around for a bit and she noticed that Sasuke didn't seem bothered. He hadn't seemed bothered by his assigned team last time, if she recalled correctly. It was much of a surprise though. After their good teamwork a couple weeks ago, Sasuke had seemed a little more open to her whenever they met in the training grounds. He actually looked into her eyes when he greeted her and had been giving her more advice. In return, she had also been a little friendlier to him, always being careful not to step over the invisible limit that he would have. Sakura was grateful. Even though she didn't need most of his advice - she knew exactly what she needed to work on to strengthen her body - she was glad that there were some minimal polite interactions between them.

Slowly, the members of the other team left the classroom and the three of them were left there to wait. They waited for a long time and finally ran out of everyday subjects to talk about. Naruto started bickering about how their jonin sensei dared be late and how he was going to give him a piece of his mind. How he now was a ninja as well and deserved respect. Sasuke, clearly irked by this, mentioned that he probably had a good reason to be, since he was a jonin.

"Sakura-chan. I have an idea." Naruto smiled mischievously and got up to get a board eraser. He pulled a chair to the door and stood up on it. He slightly opened the door and supported the eraser on top of it. He got off and ran back to his seat with a giggle. "That way he will learn to respect us."

"Idiot." Sasuke muttered. "Do you really think that a jonin rang shinobi will fall for such a thing? It's a child's game."

"Who are you calling an idiot, bastard?!" Naruto scowled at his raven haired teammate.

Sakura smiled as she heard the familiar nickname be used. She had to suppress the wave of memories that came with it, since she needed to focus. Yes, focus. On the door. She was so not going to miss the moment Kakashi walks into that prank. Suddenly and to her and Naruto's delight, the door opened and a masked man entered the room, the eraser falling right on top of his head. As he waved the white dust away from his face, Naruto laughed loudly and Sakura snickered, not fully managing to keep her laughter in check. Sasuke was staring at their sensei with a slight twitch on his eye, clearly taken aback by the fact that he had fallen for the prank.

"My first though on the three of you is... you are all a bunch of idiots." He said with a monotone voice. "Meet me at the rooftop."

He disappeared right afterwards and Sasuke turned a cold stare at Naruto.

"Well done, idiot. Now our sensei thinks low of us."

"It was hilarious!" Naruto laughed again as he stood up after the Uchiha. "Even Sakura-chan thought it was funny."

"Yeah, it kinda was." Sakura answered truthfully and followed her two teammates.

They got to the rooftop two minutes later and found their sensei sitting under the shadow of a wall. The three of them sat in front of him and waited for their sensei to speak.

"Well, I guess you could start by telling me something about yourselves." He said, but only received blank stares in return. "You know, like your name, hobbies, likes, dislikes and dreams."

"Why don't you start, sensei?" Sakura pointed out.

"I guess I could." Kakashi put his hand to his chin in a thoughtful manner. "My name is Hatake Kakashi. My hobbies... I have some of them. My likes... I have a few... I don't particularly dislike anything. My dreams for the future... you don't need to know that."

"You only told us your name!" Naruto complained.

"Now you." Kakashi said waving his hand towards Naruto.

"All right! My name is Uzumaki Naruto and my hobbies are doing pranks and eating ramen. I like ramen and spending time with Sakura-chan. I dislike bastards and mean people." He threw a glance at Sasuke, who blatantly ignored him. "And my dream for the future is to become the greatest Hokage ever! That way people will learn to respect me!"

"Oooookay." Kakashi trailed off and then looked at Sakura, who was between Naruto and Sasuke. "Now you."

"My name is Haruno Sakura." She started, knowing exactly what she was going to say. "My hobbies are studying medical ninjutsu and spending time with my friends. I like training to improve as a kunoichi and reading about politics and strategy. I dislike it when people betray their closed ones and I also dislike war. My dream for the future is keeping the village save and making my closed ones happy."

"Well, that was deep." Kakashi said with a monotone voice and turned to Sasuke. "You're the last."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I don't particularly like anything and I dislike a lot of things. My dream for the future is not a dream because I will make it true. I will restore my clan and... kill a certain someone."

"You want children already? You do know that in order to do that you have to... you know?" Naruto wiggled his eyebrows and received a smack on the back of the head by Sakura.

"Naruto." She called.

"All right, all right. Sorry." He scratched the back of his head.

"I have bad news for ya." Kakashi said, interrupting the exchange and successfully getting his students attention. "Around 30% of all new genin will go back to the academy."

"What?!" Naruto demanded. "But we already graduated!"

"Graduation is only a pre-selection. The real test will be conducted by me tomorrow."

"No one informed us of this." Sasuke slightly frowned.

"Well, now you know. Tomorrow we will meet at 8 sharp at training ground 3. You better not eat breakfast; you'll throw up of you do." Kakashi waved and puffed out of there. Silence ensued afterwards and Sakura felt Sasuke slightly shift, clearly wanting to leave.

"Guys." She called. "Want to go training together? You know... since we're now a team and all."

"We might stop being one tomorrow, Sakura." Sasuke reminded her.

"Maybe. But what if the test requires us to work together? Maybe we have to face off against another team... or a stronger enemy. We could get know each others fighting style or something."

"I'm in, Sakura-chan!" Naruto called and she smiled at him. Then she moved her gaze towards Sasuke expectantly.

"Sorry, but I rather work on my own." Sasuke waved them good-bye and left. Sakura watched him with a slight frown until Naruto spoke up.

"Don't mind that bastard, Sakura-chan! We'll be better off without his bitter scowl ruining our day." Naruto grinned and took a hold of her arm, dragging her over to a training ground.

Sakura and Naruto trained together for the first time in this timeline, starting with their general shinobi skills - taijutsu and weaponry. They stayed out until it was around 8 pm. and Naruto's belly started growling in complaint, wince he couldn't go over 5 hours without proper food. He asked Sakura if she wanted to go to Ichiraku's with him, but she refused and stayed back to train some more.

Sakura started with what had become her regular agenda; two laps around the forest, 400 squints, pushups and sit-ups, and finally a couple quick sprints around the clearing. After almost two hours of pushing her muscles to their limit, Sakura started training her chakra control.

When she finally decided to head home at 11 pm, she walked across Sasuke's training spot, as usual. It shouldn't have, but it took her by surprise to see that he was there training all by himself. He didn't really give his teammates a second thought, not that he really anyone else a second thought. He had rather trained by himself than together with them. Sakura noticed that his body language slightly changed when she neared his clearing, but he didn't give her any sign of recognition, as he had been doing these past weeks. It struck her more than it should have and Sakura wondered if she would be able to make a difference in whatever future he chose for himself. She felt so shaken by the fact that whatever progress that had been made these part months had disappeared, that she even started doubting her own ability to save the future. Sakura came home feeling hopeless and with a huge lump in her throat. She tossed and turned in her bed for a long time and finally fell asleep almost as two in the morning.

The next morning, Sakura ate breakfast and came to the training ground at the appointed time. She got there after Sasuke did and greeted him with a small 'good morning', receiving only a nod in response. After ten minutes of silence, Naruto arrived with his usual cheeriness and Sakura was kind of glad. Things had felt a bit weird with Sasuke that morning and she didn't exactly know what had happened. Naruto's presence definitely made things easier and she quickly got absorbed into the conversation.

Hours later and when even Naruto had ran out of conversation topics, Kakashi finally arrived and greeted them with his usual wave.

"You're late, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled and pointed an accusing finger at him, clearly upset at having to wait for hours.

"You see, I was on my way here, but came across a black cat. So I just had to take the longest route here to avoid-"

"Liar!" Naruto yelled again and Sakura could see Sasuke's eyebrow twitch at the terrible excuse their sensei had made up. It was clear that both boys were kind of upset with their sensei and that he, at the same time, didn't really give a shit. However, seeing Kakashi alive and reliving his bad habits made Sakura feel bubbly inside. She tried at first, but in the end couldn't suppress the giggle that escaped her lips and in the end became a laugh. She could feel that the slight tension in the air was gone the moment she did. She even saw Naruto laugh a bit and even saw Sasuke's lip slightly twitch upwards.

"Okay, so today we'll begin with our test." He said and held a hand up with two bells. "Whoever gets a bell will be able to truly graduate and will gets lunch, will the losers will go back to the academy and get tied to a post as he watched the rest eat."

"But sensei, there's only two bells." Sakura asked even though she already knew the answer. "Does that mean that at least one of us will be sent back no matter what?"

"Exactly."

"That doesn't sound right. Aren't we supposed to be a team?" Sakura tried to pull the conversation into that direction to give her teammates some hints.

"Well, sometimes you have to choose the mission above your teammates." Kakashi said and then added with finality. "Enough chat now. The test will start when I say go."

Naruto made a move on Kakashi and he was pushed down to the ground by their sensei. "I said 'when I say go'. I want the three of you to come at me with the will to kill, or you will never be able to get a bell. Got it? I'm setting this alarm clock at noon, that's when your time will be up. Okay? Ready. Go!"

Kakashi had barely finished his words when Sakura jumped up into the tree foliage. She felt Sasuke hiding not far from her - obviously waiting for an opening - and almost face palmed when she saw Naruto still down in the clearing. She masked her own chakra and watched as Naruto started attacking Kakashi with his Shadow clones in a completely obvious way. Sakura almost chuckled when Kakashi caught Naruto in an easy booby trap, which left him hanging head down from a tree.

As soon as Naruto was caught, Sasuke threw a barrage of shurikens and kunai at Kakashi, who made a substitution jutsu, so the weapons got embedded into a log. Sasuke, seeing that his opponent was hiding and now knew his position, turned around and fled into the trees. Kakashi followed him, and Sakura jumped down from her hiding spot. She cut Naruto's rope in one swift motion and held his ankle just in time to avoid having him crash down head first. Naruto got on his feet and was about to say something loudly, but Sakura covered his mouth with her hand.

"Baka! Do you want to give us away?" She hissed lowly.

"Sorry." Naruto said into her hand lowly and she removed it. "Thanks, Sakura-chan."

"No problem. Naruto, I need you to follow me and promise that you won't laugh no matter what you find." She said and Naruto raised an eyebrow at her strange request. "Just promise for real."

"Err.. ok I promise."

"Good! Now come on!" Sakura said and sprinted through the forest, jumping from tree to tree and with Naruto on her heels.

Soon she felt Sasuke's chakra signature and headed his way. When she landed on the ground she had to suppress the urge to laugh at him; he had been buried on the ground so deep that only his head was poking out of it. She looked back at Naruto who was about to mock Sasuke and threw him a glare that had him shutting up. He rolled his eyes and mumbled something about Sakura being too serious. Sakura turned her attention back to the Uchiha in front of her and noticed that he was looking at her with a slight blush on his cheeks, clearly feeling embarrassed by him situation. Sakura kneeled down next to him and leveled her eyes with his.

"Sasuke. I'm going to get you out of here." Sakura said and he nodded at her. She thought about it for a while and gathered as little chakra a possible around her fists and slammed them on the floor on either side of the raved haired boy. She ground cracked around him, allowing him to get out of it just before the hole cramped in on itself. Sakura was glad that she had used the minimum amount of chakra, because otherwise she would've hurt Sasuke.

"Wow! Cool, Sakura-chan!" Naruto cheered.

"How did you do that?" Sasuke eyed her curiously, his raised eyebrows almost disappearing behind his bangs.

"Ahhh, well. I've been training a lot so I picked up a thing or two." She smiled sheepishly and then put on a straight face. "Now listen to me. We have to work as a team. We will never be able to defeat Kakashi if we go on our own."

"But Sakura-chan, there's only two bells." Naruto said.

"Don't worry. I'll give the bell to you if I get one." Sakura said and Sasuke, who was right next to her, snorted. He clearly didn't believe her.

"No way! I'm not letting you fail like that! Much less because of this bastard!" Naruto complained.

"Don't worry, I'm not interested in letting you drag me down, dobe." Sasuke said standing up. "I'm all right with working with Sakura, but not with you. So I will work on my own."

"Stop! The only way for us to pass-"

"Ha! You think I want to work together with you? You should know that I would rather work on my own too."

"Good."

"Good."

"Guys!" Sakura was going to say something else, but she had been left alone in the forest in the blink of an eye. Her eye twitched at her teammate's antics and then she sighed heavily, running a hand over her tied up hair. In the end she decided to find Naruto first and talk him into working together. As she headed towards where he had left to, she sensed Kakashi nearing her. She acted oblivious until he was close enough to be sensed by and experienced genin and then turned around to face him.

"I know you are there, Kakashi-sensei." She said firmly and getting into a defensive stance.

"I have to say I surprised. I didn't expect you to feel my presence." He said and then she immediately launched at him with a medium level attack, which he obviously dodged. Sakura inwardly sighed, knowing that she couldn't reveal her real strength and that there was no use in trying to get a bell on her own. He raised a lone eyebrow at her slightly higher ability and then made a couple hand signs.

Sakura allowed herself to be pulled into the genjutsu and stared at the place where a bloody person stood. It surprised her that the person was not Sasuke like last time, but Naruto instead. Apparently she had done well when hiding her feelings for the Uchiha and Kakashi had obviously known about her friendship with Naruto. The genjutsu was a low level one and she was on a complete different level, but seeing him there filled her with dread. It reminded her of the day that she had helplessly held Naruto's corpse in her hands. All of his cold blood and his dull blue eyes.

"S-Sakura-chan." The fake Naruto spoke and she dispelled the jutsu without a second thought.

Sakura had to crouch down for a moment and breathe in deeply a couple of time to clear her head. She could feel her hands trembling a bit and cold sweat running down her neck. When she was finally regaining her senses, she heard a loud ring, which meant that their time to get the bells was over.

Sakura got to the rendezvous point and was met with a familiar sight. Naruto was tied on a post with a frown on his face and Sasuke was not far from him sitting on the ground. Sakura approached quickly and then turned to Kakashi, who was standing in front of them with his arms crossed.

"Naruto was tied to the post because he tried to steal his lunch." Kakashi answered Sakura's silent question. "And, now that you are all here I have to say the following. You've all… failed."

"Noooo!" Naruto wailed and Sasuke scowled. Sakura tried to look upset, but wasn't sure if she actually managed to.

"Yes. The goal of this exercise was to get the three of you to work as a team." Kakashi explained. "There is a reason why shinobi work as a team; you have to always work together no matter what. If you want to accomplish things on your own at the expense of your teammate, you probably will die out there in the field on your first mission. Even rouge nin and criminals work in teams. There are enemies stronger than me that you will face in the future and you will need to work together to defeat them. For example." Kakashi appeared behind Sakura, who tensed but remained still at the feeling of Kakashi's kunai on the throat. "Sasuke, kill Naruto or Sakura dies."

Sasuke looked at Sakura in the eye and then glanced back at the ground, understanding that his course of action had been wrong and that he should've listened to her. Naruto was quiet too and looked at Sakura with an apologetic glance. Kakashi disappeared in a poof and went back to his previous spot.

"Do you understand? Now, I will go away for a while now and allow the two of you to eat lunch. When I come back, you will all try to pass the test again. However, Naruto is being punished, so if you give him food, you will all definitely fail." He waved at them and left.

Sakura opened her lunch box and her nostrils immediately filled with the smell of the delicious food in front of her. She heard Naruto's stomach grumble next to her and she moved to give him some food, but Sasuke's hand caught her wrist.

"Stop. Do you want us to fail?" Sasuke said looking into her eyes. "I know that you take his profession seriously like I do, so don't throw it all away."

"Sasuke, if Naruto doesn't get any food he won't have any energy to fight at all."

"Well, if he doesn't pass it's not our fault. You and I will pass together - I know you're stronger than you seem - and find another teammate to fill in for him." Sasuke's words towards her would have made her feel glad in a different situation, but the knowledge that he was willing to ditch Naruto made her feel disappointed and angry.

"No! Sasuke, didn't you just hear Kakashi out? We need to look after each other to survive out there. We will have to trust our lives to our teammates!" Sakura complained and locked eyes with the raven haired boy in front of her. She firmly held his gaze for a couple seconds, while he seemed to contemplate her words. "If we can't risk going back to the academy for one another, how are we supposed to risk our lives?"

"Whatever. You give him some of your lunch. He's your friend, isn't he?"

Sakura frowned and gave Naruto some of her lunch, who accepted it with a smile. However, Sakura could tell that Naruto was angry at Sasuke, since he kept looking at him darkly.

Everything afterwards happened the way she remembered; Kakashi came in, asked them why they had disobeyed, they had answered that they were looking after eachother, Kakashi had passed them and told them his motto. 'Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.'

When he left, Sakura cut the ropes tying Naruto to the post and he stood up. He stretched his body and massaged the sore spots left by the tight rope. Sakura could feel that things were not as peaceful as last time and it was all due to Sasuke's reluctance to feeding Naruto. Why had Sasuke reacted that way? What had changed in his mind?

"Hey, I totally feel like training now. You guys want to train together this time?" Sakura asked with a smile, trying to ease the tension in the air.

"Ok." Sasuke said as he stood up. Clearly the previous lesson had taught him about teamwork and he had opened up to the idea.

"Ha! There's no way I'm training with that bastard!" Naruto growled and glared at Sasuke. "Besides, that little amount of food is barely a fraction of what I need. I will go to Ichuraku's now. Sakura are you coming with me?"

Sakura gulped at the lack of 'chan'. Naruto was really pissed at Sasuke and no wonder. She looked at Naruto and then back at Sasuke, noting that both were watching her expectantly. Naruto was Sakura's best friend, but she couldn't really let this chance to get Sasuke open up pass just like that.

"Naruto, I really want to train. If you want, we can go grab something to eat tomorrow."

"Tss... whatever. I'll see you in the morning." Naruto waved back at her and left.

Sakura looked at his retreating back until he disappeared and felt a little worried. Sasuke and Naruto had not been friends in the beginning, but they had definitely not acted like this; it had always been more of a rivalry between them. Somehow, Sakura becoming friends with Naruto - and him growing out of his crush for her - and her improved abilities had changed everything. Now, Naruto didn't feel like competing against Sasuke and Sasuke didn't ignore her as much as he had used to.

Sakura wondered how this slight change in the way they related to one another would change their team dynamics.

A/N: Well, that was it. Tell me what you think about it!

I want to thank all of you who have been reviewing and following my story! – NarutoXHonoka, anan, m4530657, multipass22, Uchiha Misaki, Lucifer, Just Peachy 1236, Sophiebybophie, PapaOwl.

I also am grateful for any constructive criticism and input. I love your support! Thank you so much!