August 1st 996 — Konohagakure
Sakura has been standing in front of her mirror for a solid fifteen minutes, unable to pull her eyes from her reflection for the first time since the day Team Seven had left for Wave. Unlike then, however, she struggles not because of vanity, but because of the genuinely pleased surprise that thrills through her system at the sight of herself, haloed by the morning sunlight streaming in through her window and practically glowing for the first time in her entire life. Sakura cannot remember a time she'd felt this good about herself, not since the day she'd met her very first friend who had tied her hair back and called her beautiful.
The difference in her appearance is absolutely startling—and if it's this shocking to her, Sakura's absolutely certain everyone else will be just as surprised at the sudden change. Feeling a sudden rush of warm appreciation for Kakashi-sensei, Sakura tilts her head and drags her eyes across her new gear, pivoting on her heels to see herself from every possible angle. Absently her fingers run over her pouches and holsters, making sure they're properly fastened and filled for probably the fifth time this morning, and Sakura peers back at her bright-eyed reflection with a small smile on her lips. As where a few months ago would have had her despairing over how unfashionable and unflattering her new outfit is, Sakura is now grateful for the easily camouflaged colour scheme and the range of movement and comfort it offers. Ino would probably have a fit over how the colours do nothing for her complexion or her hair, but Sakura is grateful that she'll stick out just a little less this way.
Gone is her cute little red qipao-style dress (and she misses the red terribly, she does, because it's her favourite colour) and dark spandex shorts, instead replaced by what Kakashi-sensei had insisted on calling their new team uniform: a dark blue sleeveless turtleneck top over a mesh-armour shirt and dark grey shorts that reach about mid-way down her thighs, all made from the same heavy-duty material that Sakura recognises from the standard-issue Konoha jōnin attire. Her fingers brush over the coarse texture of her shorts as a fond smile pulls at her lips. Kakashi-sensei hadn't been very amused with her pleading for the shorts instead of the pants, his expression wholly deadpan as he stared right back at her most effective puppy eyes, but he hadn't said no or stopped her from adding a few pairs of the shorts to their growing collection of purchases.
(She'd argued it was for ease of movement, but she's sure he knows it's just because it's one small claim of her femininity she can still make, and Kakashi-sensei doesn't seem willing to deny her that.)
Kakashi-sensei had acknowledged that her outfit was already different from the boys', since he'd given her a pair of sturdy charcoal boots with a slight, chunky heel that came up to just below her knee. He'd justified his choice by their utility despite the questioning way she'd examined the heel, pointing out that not only the tops of the boots are lined with several small pouches full of senbon and shuriken, but the front and back of them being covered by slabs of dull, worn plates of thick armour. After they'd made all of their purchases yesterday, Kakashi-sensei had taught her how to fasten their leather straps properly as to keep them from jostling or making noise as she runs, and he'd been gleeful that she'd noted with no short amount of surprise that the weight wasn't as much as she'd feared. He'd also compensated for her shorts by giving her another set of leg-plates for her thighs, much to her leg muscles' protests, but Kakashi-sensei had seemed pleased with the extra protection despite her half-hearted whining. Another difference from her teammates, he'd told her, was that he'd given her matching fingerless gloves that reached below the elbow, plated just like her boots.
Sakura's favourite part of the entire ensemble has to be the harness and pouch system, which her sensei had practically preened under her praise for once he'd demonstrated it to her. Kakashi-sensei's logic had been that his team needed to retain her mobility, especially in Sakura's case as the physically weakest link, but they still needed to be able to be prepared with plenty of supplies—thus, his solution had been to equip his three genin with black leather harnesses of sorts. The harness consists of thick straps of leather stretching across her chest and winding around her shoulders, wrapped around her upper arms and stomach before it connects to the leather belt fastened around her waist. The leather straps are lined with numerous pouches, each of which she's spent hours memorising the contents of so that she'll be able to instinctively grab whatever she needs in a pinch.
Her right arm has two deep holsters, one for kunai and the other for senbon, while her left arm has a pouch for gauze and another with several medical emergency necessities like sterilised needles, threads, and countless herbs and balms to be applies to cuts and burns. Her belt is lined with trap-making kits—several lengths of wire, a literal fortune of explosive tags courtesy of Kakashi-sensei, bells, and even a small vial of mild poison that she'd bought herself from the market. Fastened to her back along her belt is a large pack filled with blood pills, soldier pills of the lowest possible grade so that Kakashi-sensei doesn't have a coronary, and several food pills. On her legs, fastened to the sides of her leg-plates, are additional kunai and senbon holsters—she'd almost argued this was overkill, but Kakashi-sensei's eerie smile as he'd handed them to her had halted any protests from leaving her lips.
Dragging her eyes up from her outfit, Sakura's gaze finally settles on the one thing she and Kakashi-sensei had disagreed on: her hair. It was her final vanity, and even though Kakashi-sensei had gently explained that perhaps she'd be better off cutting it—even just temporarily—Sakura still cannot bring herself to cut it. Sure, she's thought about it—the distance she's put between herself now and who she's been is like a canyon, and more than once she's woken from a nightmare and wanted to take a pair of scissors to her long locks, but something seems to stay her hand every time. Is it Ino, the friendship that she'd never realised she needed until it was already gone? Is it simply that her hair is the last shred of herself she can make a claim to? Despite the shame that burns at her core as she touches her hair, Sakura cannot bring herself to let go of this final piece of Haruno Sakura—the last shred of the girl that had left for that fateful mission in Wave. Despite refusing Kakashi-sensei's suggestion, though, she'd at least tied her hair up and out of the way, her thick hair piled into a bun at the top of her head with a kunai nestled within like a warning, a single dummy explosive tag dangling down the back of her head like a dare for someone to come close enough.
(Kakashi-sensei had narrowed his eyes at her for that—"pride is often a shinobi's greatest downfall, Sakura"—but she thinks it's clever.)
"Alright!" Clapping her trembling hands to her cheeks, Sakura snags her hitai-ate from the nearby vanity and ties it in place, making sure her hair still frames it as it gleams proudly from its place on her head. Sakura takes a moment to simply breathe like her therapist instructed her, a long deep inhale before exhaling slowly through her teeth, a sort of calming method to quell the rapid beating of her heart. Her therapist had actually done wonders, really—she'd been hesitant, and not entirely open, but already Sakura has begun finding herself remaining present more and more. It's been an uphill battle, and she still hasn't told her therapist just how badly she feels she'd failed her team, but… progress is progress, right?
Opening her eyes again, Sakura smiles at her reflection—small, timid, but sill genuine—and turns on her heel to head downstairs, calling out a goodbye towards the kitchen without stopping.
Her parents had come back from another business trip a week ago, and though her father had been supportive of Sakura's training, her mother hadn't seemed thrilled that Sakura was already headed into the exams for a promotion. Kizashi had sworn to his daughter that her mother was proud of her despite it all, but Sakura wonders if Mebuki expected Sakura to resign and join the merchant business with them. After all, Kizashi was a civilian-born man, a man who had never even thought about chakra once in his life, but Mebuki had been on a genin team once. She'd never gotten far, though Sakura only really knows from vague stories her father had used to try and explain Mebuki's frosty demeanour over her career choice, and eventually she'd turned in her hitai-ate and married Kizashi, settling down to live a much more even-paced life.
Her father calls back, though her mother remains silent, and with a small sigh Sakura closes the door behind herself. She takes off in a light jog, head held high and a giddiness zinging through her veins like lightning, but her trip to the examination centre is relatively uneventful despite it all. A few people seem to do a double-take when they see her—if they even noticed her before now, she's not quite that vain—but all in all Sakura doesn't have anyone or anything to stop her from arriving somewhat early, caught staring with clammy palms and wide eyes.
Her boys are waiting for her, much to Sakura's surprise—all three of them.
Staring at them, Sakura is sure that Naruto was absolutely devastated by the colour change, probably dramatically lamenting the lack of orange in his outfit. Despite the stark contrast to how he'd dressed before, though, Sakura can't help but smile at how he'd so clearly made his uniform so distinctly Naruto even without his trademark colour palette. He wears the same dark blue turtleneck that Kakashi-sensei wears, his sleeves rolled up over his elbows to reveal a long-sleeved mesh armour shirt underneath. (Sakura's amused to see those emblems from the shoulders of his orange jacket are sewn onto this shirt, and she images he'd shouted Kakashi-sensei into submission to do it for him.) His dark grey pants are in the same fashion as Kakashi-sensei's, tucked into bandages wrapped snuggly around his ankles that disappear beneath his dark blue sandals. Like herself, Naruto's harness is littered with pouches, and Sakura wonders if he's come up with a method of memorising their contents or if, in true Naruto fashion, he's going to just wing it.
Sasuke seems completely comfortable in the dark ensemble, and Sakura's absolutely certain the Uchiha family crest remains sewn on the back of his shirt. His sleeves are rolled up like Naruto's, but instead of a mesh shirt underneath all Sakura can see is white bandages that wrap all the way down his forearm. The black bands around his wrists tell her he's wearing weights, hidden beneath his bandages, and Sakura bites back a grin at his cunning use of the uniform's elements. How very Sasuke of him. He's wearing dark grey cargo shorts that fall just above his knees, legs bandaged much the same way as Naruto and Kakashi-sensei's, though she can see the slight raise in the fabric that gives away the presence of hidden leg weights as well. Sakura doesn't doubt for a second that Sasuke has meticulously organised his numerous pouches along the leather that wraps along his body—especially since she can see his fingers twitch toward his right hip pouch in much the same way he'd always reached for his thigh-holster before.
Seeing the two of them standing side by side with Kakashi-sensei, so obviously waiting for her, causes something in Sakura's chest to squeeze almost painfully. It's her first time seeing the boys in their new uniforms, and despite how Kakashi-sensei had claimed they'd been difficult about it, Sakura only sees them looking rather proud of themselves as they stand together. They all match—they're clearly a team, a family, and suddenly she wonders why they hadn't done this sooner. The four of them had all looked so far apart, with not a single thing tying them together outside of their hitai-ate… but now, they look as if they all belong together.
Like she belongs.
"Ah—! Sakura-chan!" Naruto catches sight of her before the other two, his entire face lighting up like the sun peeking out from behind thick clouds, all warm and bright against Sakura's skin. Beside him, Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke perk up and turn to look at her, and the three of them each have their own ways of greeting her with only a look. Kakashi-sensei's lone eye is curled up in that unique smile of his, Naruto's own bright eyes are wide and his smile could keep the world alight even if the sun chose this moment to go out, and even Sasuke's expression is marginally softer than before.
(He's softening up around them, she knows—realising they're good for him, probably, both emotionally and in combat as well—)
This is her team. Her family. Even after how poorly she'd treated Naruto, how badly she'd failed Sasuke, how little she'd initially tried for Kakashi-sensei, here they are… waiting for her, welcoming her.
"You look amazing, Sakura-chan! Hey… Kakashi-sensei! Why does she get to have cool armour?" Naruto is full of energy, practically overflowing as he bounces around them like an eager puppy, gesturing excitedly to the differences in her outfit with that blinding smile of his reflecting off of every surface within range. He's still smiling even as he turns to narrow his eyes at their jōnin sensei, pointing an accusatory finger in Kakashi's face. "Could it be—Kaka-sensei, are you playing favourites? For shame!"
"Sakura needs it just in case she's not fast enough to dodge an enemy, dobe." Sasuke rolls his eyes and moves to stand on Sakura's other side of his own accord, his hands in his pockets and head angled away from them, even as his body is angled towards them. Sakura can only stare in a moment of silent awe, her nostalgic mood from this morning still tinging her thoughts—months ago she'd felt like nothing but a burden and Sasuke had been so completely unreachable, but now they stand as equals in his eyes, even if he won't outwardly say so. The idea brings a small smile to her face, one that seems to bring a small quirk to Sasuke's own lips when he glances back at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Mah, Naruto… accusing your sensei of playing favourites between his cute little students. I'm hurt." Kakashi-sensei's voice and expression are completely deadpan, contradicting his words to the point of hilarity, and Sakura can't cover her snort of laughter behind her hands fast enough when he bops the top of Naruto's head with the spine of his little orange book. Naruto and Sasuke stare at her with matching looks of affronted betrayal, but Kakashi-sensei looks indescribably pleased at the sound… and once again, Sakura wonders if perhaps Kakashi-sensei somehow can sense when her thoughts start to take a turn toward darker paths.
"You're all early…" Sakura manages after a moment, fingertips still pressed to her lips to hide any lingering giggles that try to escape. "We weren't supposed to meet until ten."
"Or maybe you're late," Kakashi-sensei replies loftily, suddenly behind her with his elbow resting on her head and his little book open once again. She wonders how he so casually avoids the kunai jutting upright in her hair, but after a second thought just brushes the idea off—for all his theatrics and goofball acting, Kakashi-sensei is a legend for a reason. She'd seen him against Zabuza, seen how skilled he was, how skilled Naruto and Sasuke were, and all she could do was watch…
Something hits her square in the forehead and she jumps, eyes wide as her mind snaps back to the here and now. Her shocked gaze lands on Sasuke, glowering at her with his hand still extended and fingers poised with the threat of repeating the action, and Sakura realises with a jolt that he'd just flicked her. Indignant, Sakura's temper flares to get the better of her, but before she can even open her mouth she's cut off.
"Stop that." Naruto's tone is alarmingly solemn as he stands beside Sasuke, his expression unreadable when compared to the blatant annoyance lining Sasuke's face. She feels Kakashi shift behind her, his arm leaving her head to instead place a large hand on her shoulder, a comforting gesture that she's been becoming alarmingly familiar with recently. The way her teammates are staring at her is unnerving, because she hasn't made Sasuke snap at her for a while now, and Naruto's never looked at her like that before. What's their deal?
"We can't have you doing that." Sasuke tells her seriously, waving his hand to gesture at her as if that should magically explain everything. After a few seconds of her staring uncomprehendingly at him, Sasuke sighs bitterly and reaches up to pinch the bridge of his nose, lips moving silently as if he's talking to himself. Sakura feels a hilariously strange sort of horror when she sees Naruto mimic the action as well… though it's immediately followed by the dreadful realisation that she'd done the same thing at Kakashi-sensei multiple times just yesterday. Oh, gods—do they all do that? "This is too important, Sakura—we have to be at the top of our game for this exam, we can't have you zoning out like that."
"Sasuke's right!" Naruto's voice jumps into the energised tone she's used to hearing from him, his expression determined; he seems emboldened by Sasuke's choice to start this conversation that they've obviously been avoiding for a while, if Kakashi-sensei's reaction to it is anything to go by. He feels strangely tense behind her, his hand like stone on her shoulder, and the feeling of it has anxiety weighing in the pit of Sakura's stomach like lead. "Sometimes you zone out and look really sad, and then you talk like we hate you or like you're not part of this team! Which you are—so don't you dare forget it, dattebayo!"
"I—" Sakura looks over her shoulder as if to ask Kakashi-sensei for confirmation, her eyes wide with shock. Had she been so completely obvious to them? She'd briefly talked about her "drifting" with her therapist after Kakashi-sensei had given them mandatory sessions, but only in the scantest of details. Dissociation, he'd told her, a completely normal defense mechanism the mind can have to extreme trauma. She hadn't explained what triggered these episodes, even when asked, so to have Naruto so confidently lay out a large factor of her self-doubt in front of her leaves her feeling oddly winded.
"It's been like that since Wave," Sasuke continues, an unreadable edge to his voice, "and we know we can't rush you… but we can't let it happen right now."
Sakura's chest feels suddenly and inexplicably tight, leaving her fingers trembling as she looks between her teammates. Naruto's expression is so earnest, so very hopeful, like he just wants to talk about it and that will make it all better. Sasuke's is carefully blank, a mask she's seen him wear many times since Wave, but there's a certain understanding that she catches in the depths of his gaze before he turns to look away. The idea of him understanding scares her. Sakura doesn't want to talk about this, not right now, she's not ready yet—
"Well, kiddos, as enlightening as this all is, you've got to go make your sensei proud!" Kakashi-sensei ruffles her hair and then reaches out to do the same to the boys, seemingly taking immense joy from their squawks of protest. "Save it for after your promotions, alright?"
"Deal. That means no zoning out until this is all over, Sakura." Sasuke's still staring at her, watching her as she struggles to grasp her composure again, and while a few months ago his gaze would have left her tittering with pleasure, all she feels now is a confusing mixture of guilt and relief. "Remember, you two: we have a goal to achieve."
"Yeah!" Naruto crows, punching the air above him with a jump. "All of us or none of us, right?"
"That's right!" Kakashi-sensei gives Sakura a little push forward and she turns around in time to see him push his fists into his pockets, eye curled in his trademark smile. Naruto and Sasuke are still grumbling beside her, but Sakura sees Naruto still smile back at him and Sasuke nod from the corner of her eyes. "Now, off you go, kiddies! I've got money on you three, so make sure I make a killing!"
He shunshins away in a hail of leaves and Sakura rolls her eyes alongside Sasuke, turning to start towards the front doors with her head held high. She feels Naruto and Sasuke flanking her and can't help but smile—that's their formation, on the battlefield and off of it, and after that talk Sakura wonders if perhaps they started doing that to make her realise she was included, a member of their team. A small part of her wonders if perhaps all her anxieties and self-doubt, all the blame she'd been putting squarely on her shoulders, was entirely obvious from the start. Did they not think she deserved it? Just before they move to open the large double-doors ahead, Sasuke's hand snakes out to pinch her elbow, a sharp bite of pain that snaps her awareness back before she can trail off too far.
Shooting him an annoyed glance, her ire only raising when he smirks right back at her, Sakura all but throws the door open for them to head inside… which, she realises in hindsight, was a terrible idea. The minute the doors open and the three of them are inside, Sakura can literally feel every eye in the room honed in on their arrival, watching the three of them make their way forward with everything ranging from annoyance to interest to blatant dislike. She notices that a few of their own fellow Konoha genin are blatantly staring at the three of them—Sakura takes care to avoid Ino's eyes, that particular regret still a bit too fresh for her to consider right now—and she has to tug on Naruto's sleeve to keep him from snapping out a challenge at every single foreign shinobi that locks eyes with him. On her other side, Sasuke is so tense that Sakura worries he might lash out at someone at even the slightest of provocations.
Biting her lip, she raises her fingers to his wrist and gently signs out a message: doing okay?
Sasuke turns sightly, elbow bumping into her own and sliding down the length of her arm before bumping again twice more: yes, target where?
Keeping her eyes trained firmly ahead of them, Sakura nods to the board hanging on the wall with the words "testing area" written clearly in white ink. She turns her attention back to their other teammate, her fingers trailing off of Naruto's sleeve to tap against his forearm: focus.
Naruto nods once, pressing his fist to his lips in a cough to mask the movement, and Sakura moves forward to press through the throng of genin around them, her boys flanking her with watchful eyes. Sakura catches the gaze of the boy from the ramen stand a little while back, the older medic named Kabuto, and part of her wonders at the idea that he's in the exams with them. Logically, Sakura knows it's not that suspicious that he's taking part, but something about the way he acts so friendly to her team bothers her—because people are respectful but distant with Sasuke unless they're a lovestruck girl, and they're nice enough to her, but no one in Kabuto's age bracket is kind to Naruto. She's snapped at enough shopkeepers and passersby to have learned this lesson well, and she knows Sasuke feels the exact same way.
If he'd ignored Naruto's presence or shunned him, Sakura thinks she may have been fooled—but even Kakashi-sensei had narrowed his eyes at Kabuto, so Sakura places him firmly in the Possible Enemy category.
Three, Sasuke signs against Sakura's arm, catching her attention once more. He rolls his shoulders and glances up at the ceiling, the movement looking completely natural and giving Sakura the context his message had been lacking. The third floor must be where they need to head, and for once, it seems Sakura seems to have not been on top of the game plan. Sasuke looks amused at her slip up, given the quirk to his lips in her peripheral, and Sakura suddenly has to smother the urge to smother him. Instead of focusing on an infuriatingly smug Uchiha walking alongside of her, Sakura directs them wordlessly towards the stairwell.
The stairwell Yamanaka Ino's team is standing next to.
Sakura's stomach quivers anxiously at the sight of her former best friend, guilt lancing through her gut like a blade of ice when Ino's eyes meet her own. She remembers sunny afternoons surrounded by flowers, lacing stems together to wear the wreathes as crowns, the peaceful image becoming clouded and darkening as they split apart due to something as trivial as a boy's affections. Ino is the reason she is who she is, and Sakura knows that without Ino she wouldn't have even come far enough to have survived Wave, let alone make it here. (Sakura may have pushed herself to improve after Wave, she knows her progress with herself and her team is because of her own stubborn will, but she also knows that Ino is the one who encouraged this will of fire within Sakura in the first place.) She hears Sasuke exhale in a soft sigh beside her, probably mentally preparing himself for the inevitable screaming match that had rocked their Academy days, and Sakura can't stop herself from jabbing an elbow into his side in retaliation. Naruto chokes on his spit beside her, Sasuke cuts her with an irritated glare, Ino's teammates (Akimichi and Nara, of course, the InoShikaCho tradition remains sacred—) look like they're both surprised and amused, and Ino…
Ino looks like Sakura just kicked her favourite puppy right in front of her. Oh no.
"Just who the hell do you think you are, Forehead?!" Ino bristles like a cat and Sakura can't help the small, incredulous giggle as she recalls the very real fact that Sasuke looks distinctly feline in his annoyance as well—and that only seems to add fuel to the blonde's fire, because she's suddenly very much in Team Seven's space. "How dare you elbow Sasuke-kun like that, huh? And what's up with that lame outfit?"
"Hey, our outfits are awesome!"
"They are," Ino's teammate chirps helpfully. Akimichi… Sakura should know his name. Ino has complained about her pre-set team since they'd first become friends, but for the life of her she can't recall their given names. Without the ability to focus on recalling any one specific rant, not that she could ever hope to concentrate with Ino so loud and so close, she's simply left floundering for their names. Sakura sends him a grateful smile over the blonde's shoulder, anyway, and is pleased when he pauses to look briefly shocked before returning it.
"Shut it, Chōji!" Ino bellows, whirling on him with betrayal clear in her tone.
Ah. Chōji. Akimichi Chōji. She'll have to thank him sometime.
"Ino…" Her other teammate groans with a deep sigh, rolling his shoulders and slouching down in a position that looks downright painful. "It's too damn early for all this yelling, you troublesome woman."
"It's always too early to you, Shikamaru! This is serious! She should treat Sasuke-kun with respect!"
The plan had been so very simple: make it inside without causing too much of a scene, go up the stairs, start their test, ace said test, and then make sure to blow the rest of the genin competitors away with their awesomeness. It was fool-proof, even Naruto could not have felled this amazing plan on his absolute worst days, and yet here they stand. They're just on the edge, ready to make their first leap of many in changing the course of history as Team Seven, the strongest team Konoha has ever seen… and they're stopped by Yamanaka Ino.
Oh, irony. Sakura doesn't want to cross this bridge yet—hell, she doesn't even want to be in the same village as that bridge right now. She's not even listening to the blonde's ranting any more, too caught up in her own despair on how she could possibly avoid this confrontation and put it off for just a while longer. This is not how she'd planned to start her day, not at all, and so Sakura asks herself the one pivotal question that she often asks in time of emergencies: what would Kakashi-sensei do?
Simple. He'd do something ridiculous like tell a lie so out there that you couldn't tell if it was true or not, he'd run away with a random excuse that made absolutely no sense… or he'd do something so over-the-top that you'd be left shell-shocked while he galavanted away.
Option three it is.
She's grateful her shyness of her childhood was rather expertly and brutally murdered by Ino in their youth—another thing to thank the blonde for, really—so that she can go through with this without her face turning the same shade of pink as her hair. Channeling every ounce of her beloved sensei's theatrics, Sakura drags her palms down her cheeks in much the same fashion she's seen Kakashi-sensei do when he's being overly demanding of her patience, staring at the ceiling and screaming silently. She can feel Naruto's shoulders heaving with muffled laughter beside her, his laughter sounding strained behind his fist that he's jammed against his lips, but Sasuke is just staring at her with a bored expression. (Kakashi-sensei is such a good influence on her, really… the dramatics are such a good way to avoid confrontation.) Sasuke's expression only turns more deadpan as Sakura slumps theatrically to the floor, limp as a noodle, and Ino's team can only stare on in utterly confused silence as Sakura throws her hands up to the gods in prayer for the sweet release of death.
Naruto, bless his soul, joins in on her plan eagerly. Her blonde teammate drops to a knee beside Sakura and clutches her hand in his own, shaking his free fist at the sky as if cursing her fate of death by awkward teenage girl confrontations.
Sasuke just kicks her none too gently in the ribs and rolls his eyes, marching past the still shell-shocked Ino and her team to head up the stairs.
"So much for a united front," Naruto laughs with ill-contained glee, pulling Sakura up to her feet and shrugging off the incredulous stares in a way that leaves Sakura filled with awe. She wishes she could shrug off the way she can feel the entire room's gaze on her, memories of her childhood bullies' sneers and taunts suddenly creeping up the back of her neck. Before she can shrink in on herself and let the old shyness of years past creep up on her, however, Naruto just tugs her along and up the stairs with a cheerful see ya! to the trio still standing in two-thirds-amused-one-third-shocked silence.
They catch up with Sasuke easily enough, Naruto still guffawing under his breath, and Sakura notes with a pleased grin that Sasuke didn't even get that far ahead of them. He'd totally waited for his team despite being annoyed with their antics. She shares a conspiratorial look with Naruto behind Sasuke's back and they two of them snicker silently into their hands. He can't fool them.
The three of them reach the testing area with no real difficulty, the halls actually relatively empty, but once they enter the room Sakura's left to raise her eyebrows at the sheer number of genin cramming into the room. There were still so many people downstairs, though! Just how many teams signed up for this thing, she wonders as she glances around the room with confusion pulling her lips into a frown. It's a large room, completely void of any furniture minus a single desk at the front of the room. What could be the purpose of having them all just stand in here?
And why hadn't everyone from downstairs come up here yet?
Sakura realises her error with a lurch of her heart, remembering the large billboard that had been hanging in the entryway. It had said the testing room was on the first floor when she'd looked at it… but Sasuke had told her it was the third floor, steering them up the stairs so that they could take the test. Genjutsu, she realises with a slight pang of disappointment in herself. The sign must have had a genjutsu cast over it, and Sasuke had managed to see through it despite the fact that Sakura hadn't even suspected they'd be tested for the chance to even enter the exams in the first place. he's supposed to be training as the genjutsu expert of their team, but she hadn't even caught on to the possibility of one. How the hell does she protect her team, watch their backs, when she can't even catch something so simple as—
Stop it. Sasuke's firm hand on her shoulder doesn't have to even be in their code. The message rings loud and clear between them, loud enough that Naruto's shoulder resting against her own tells her he'd heard it, too. Sasuke's fingers twitch against the mesh armour on her shoulder before it drops, his message leaving her heart fluttering: need you here.
She needs to focus. She can't let herself get distracted right now, not when they all need to keep their heads in the game. Taking in a deep shuddering breath, Sakura focuses inward. So, the reason so many people were still downstairs was because there was a genjutsu in place—meaning they were trying to cull the numbers of the participants, weed out the genin that couldn't see through a low-grade genjutsu such as that. The exam had started from the minute they'd walked in, and Sakura realises she'd been far too complacent, relying on shinobi to treat this like a paper exam in the academy. She'll have to be much, much more aware in the future. She'd gotten too content, too lax… that could cost her dearly out in the field. It could cost them all.
Sakura spends the next several minutes of anxious waiting making mental tabs on all the teams currently in the room, as well as cataloguing who else comes in and which village they're from. She notices right away that not all of the Konoha genin make it in—she'd seen more Konohagakure hitai-ates downstairs, but she only counts five teams including her own—but that she sees plenty of Suna and Ame participants in the room alongside them. There are also two Kusa teams and a single team from Oto (surprising, because Sakura didn't realise the still very new, very small village had been invited to participate) as well, sprinkling the room with several people with no loyalty or camaraderie with her or her teammates. Sakura worries her bottom lip, shifting closer to her boys as the crushing realisation that she's essentially surrounded by enemies—because they are, even with their flimsy alliances in place allowing them to be here, everyone in Konoha knows just how tremulous those treaties are—weighs heavily on her shoulders.
"Time's up," a gravely voice declares from the front of the room, startling the entire crowd into silence. More than one team reaches for their weapons on instinct, and this only seems to amuse the source of the voice: a tall, dark-skinned man who hadn't been there before stands behind the heavy desk, watching them all with cold, calculating eyes. The walls are suddenly lined with other Konoha ninja, all looking to be of mixed chūnin and jōnin rank, and Sakura can actually feel the tension from the foreign shinobi in the room skyrocket, mirroring her own from just moments ago. "To those of you who made it here, congratulations. You passed the first trial of this exam. I am your proctor for this trial, Morino Ibiki."
He doesn't sound at all congratulatory. In fact, he sounds rather condescending.
"The easy portion's over, kids. This is your last shot to back out, so take it or leave it." His dark eyes scan over the entire room, roving each face and expression as if he can somehow possibly read every single thought in their heads. His scarred lips twist into a cruel smirk and he tilts his head, hand reaching up to undo his own hitai-ate that's twisted around his head like a bandana—
Scars. So many scars, all littered across his skull and around his ears, knives and burns and jagged lines that look as if someone pulled on the strings stitching a wound together for fun. Sakura's stomach rolls and she feels Sasuke and Naruto both freeze beside her as well, twin sharp intakes of breath the only sounds either of them make. The entire room seems to have simultaneously tensed up at the sight, the collective temperature dropping several degrees in the span of a single heartbeat at the realisation of just the kind of person who's standing at the front of the room… and just as suddenly, Sakura knows exactly what his idea of a test will be, because those scars are very clearly not battle wounds.
Those are from torture. Interrogation.
"Well, well—nice to see some gears turning." Sakura's jaw clicks shut, teeth grinding together painfully, as she locks gazes with Ibiki. He seems pleased with whatever he sees, because the corners of his deformed face twist up even further and he nods once, the movement short and concise. "The second trial will be this: you will each be given a random number on a piece of paper. You are not to tell anyone the number. Once we have released you from this room, you are to use any methods at your disposal to get another shinobi's name and number from them. Each team of three must get three different numbers in the allotted time to pass—so no, you can't share. If all three of you are picked off by someone, you fail. Got it? Good. Come up, then."
Any methods at your disposal. Those words seem to hang in the air like a guillotine over everyone in the room, foreboding and shocking them all into place, and it's only when a boy with a shock of red hair from Suna steps up that Sakura remembers how to breathe again. Her blood is ice in her veins, splintering within her with every rapid beat of her heart, and Sakura turns wife panicked eyes to look at her teammates, the message in them as clear as day: let's back out. For a moment, it looks like Sasuke is actually entertaining the idea, but when she turns her eyes back to Naruto's face…
"I'm not backing down, dattebayo!" He declares loudly, fist in the air and eyes lit by wildfires within. "My team's gonna breeze through this in no time!"
Naruto's voice rings out like someone's put their fist through one of the windows lining the walls, loud and clear and practically gutting Sakura on the spot. Her shoulders sag at the confidence in his voice, a warmth radiating from somewhere deep within her, and she can see that the tense lines in Sasuke's expression have eased as well. His cocky grin is back in place, directed at the incredulous expressions staring at the three of them, and when he flicks his eyes to Sakura and Naruto nudges her arm with his own, she can't help but return it. She's sure she looks half-manic, with trembling fists and a smile stretching across her face, but there's just something about Naruto that makes her feel positively invincible, the looming threat of interrogation be damned.
So, head up and spine straight, Sakura marches forward and has to keep herself from smiling when she feels Sasuke and Naruto trailing behind her. They can do this. They're team fucking seven, after all—their sensei is a prodigy, a man in the bingo books and a legend from the war, so why on earth should they be scared for even a moment? Throw hesitation out the window and go all in! That's the Uzumaki Naruto way… no, it's the Team Seven way!
Mind already whirling with ideas and strategies, Sakura takes her paper and is led out of a door she didn't even see by a chūnin she doesn't recognise. So, they're probably using genjutsu to give people a chance and not let them immediately see who is going outside of what door… which is good on one hand, but on the other it totally kills her entire first plan of waiting outside the door for her first chance. She looks back at Sasuke and Naruto, finding them doing the same as they're led to their own exits, and with a firm nod she decides that she can't make this easy. She glances at her paper, the number 3 and her full name right below it, and then quickly crumples it into a ball and swallows it before the door is even open.
The instant she realises she's left the door, the after-effects of whatever genjutsu they used—obviously very subtle, effective too—wears off and leaves Sakura standing in the middle of a hallway. One moment she'd been passing the threshold of the door, and the next she's just standing here, empty hallway on both sides, mind racing at a dizzying pace to keep up with all the different plans she has in place. Sakura knows her best chance is to lay a trap for the first person to come down this hallway and then to make a beeline for her team as quickly as possible. In and out, just like Kakashi-sensei taught her, just like how he'd instructed her to use her shunshin for.
She doesn't have a multitude of chakra at her disposal, so she has to be efficient; if she underestimates her opponent, she may be caught in a long-lasting fight that she'll lose, but if she overestimates herself she could wind up exhausting her chakra supply and losing out altogether. Sakura quickly lays down a Magen: Nijū Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu and sets to work, snagging a kunai from her holster on her arm and setting her fingers into place to quickly form a tiger seal, the exact amount of chakra necessary buzzing in place in preparation to be released. It feels as if time stretches on for an eternity, but Sakura doesn't budge even an inch, muscles poised for a quick strike, chakra humming beneath her skin and behind her eyes for what she hopes will be a quick hit and run.
The jōnin leading his genin charge down the hallway—she's obviously still caught in whatever genjutsu the proctors were using—sees Sakura's genjutsu in place, surprise flickering over his face, but says nothing as he shunshins away and leaves the girl at Sakura's mercy. All Sakura sees is a Kusa headband and a shock of red hair before she explodes into motion, her chakra singing as she shunshins right into the girl at full speed. The redhead is foolishly clutching her paper to her chest in a loose grip, and that makes it all the much easier for Sakura to snatch it with one hand and shove with all her strength. The girl hits the wall with a startled, bitten-off cry that makes Sakura feel a little guilty as she takes off down the hallway, nothing but a blur to eyes trained enough to spot her.
She knows her teammate's chakra signals like the back of her hands, and so the instant she feels Sasuke's flare once, twice, and then a third time in their S.O.S. signal, she spins on her heel and races for Sasuke at top speed, mindful of exactly how much chakra she's using as she goes. She's preparing for a fight with everything she is, mentally tallying her weapons, her Kunai gripped in a white-knuckle grip, but Sakura comes up short as she shoots by the blonde kunoichi from Suna crumpled against the wall and clearly unconscious, Sasuke standing further down the hallway with Naruto and looking poised for a fight.
She hurries to them as silently as she can, careful that the girl doesn't notice them, and takes in their appearances with a critical eye. Sasuke has a cut across his cheekbone and Naruto's cheek is swelling from what looks like a nasty blow, but otherwise they seem in high spirits, twin pieces of folded paper clutched in their hands.
"Who?" She asks curiously, already recalling the floor layout to get back to the classroom—hopefully without passing by the surely furious redhead. Or the other redhead. Or anyone else, really, if she could have her way.
"Temari," Sasuke answers with still-spinning sharingan eyes locked on his target and gesturing down the hall at the unconscious kunoichi she'd passed, "she apparently wasn't expecting a kunai to the throat as soon as she came out of whatever genjutsu that was."
"I beat the snot outta that jerk, Kiba!" Naruto is whisper-shouting, clearly aware of the need for stealth but unable to contain his glee, and he folds his arms behind his head with a wild grin. "I used a chili bomb on him and then hit him with all the clones I could until I managed to grab it and take off!"
"What about you, Sakura?"
"Ah, a girl from Grass," Sakura rubs the back of her head with an uneasy chuckle, her paper clutched in her hand. She unfolds it and glances at the characters written there, blinking in surprise. "Karin, it seems. I caught her off guard with a genjutsu—just snagged it and took off. I figured the faster I went, the better chance I had."
"Hell yeah! Team Seven is gonna dominate this thing!" Naruto cheers, dashing forward for the closest entrance to the room with his teammates by his side. Surprisingly, no one intercepts them on the way, and Sakura finds herself wondering how everyone's doing with this part of the exam.
They're actually not the first ones back to the room, Sakura notes with no short amount of shock. It had felt like their encounters had gone by so swiftly, as if they were over in the blink of an eye, and yet there are several people already here and done as well. The red-haired boy that had gone up first is there, grinning in a way that sends a shiver of fear down her spine, his notes in his hands very noticeably splattered with blood. Notes. Plural. He'd taken more than one… and apparently he'd used methods much less passive than her own team's in order to get them. The knowledge makes her stomach roll unpleasantly. She'd known people might have more forceful methods, but she'd still thought it'd be relatively bloodless.
Shikamaru's also there, leaning back against the far wall with a slip of paper in his hand, too. Ino and Chōji are sitting on the ground beside him, looking haggard but still in good health. Ino's cradling her rapidly swelling cheek, but she's stubbornly clinging to a piece of paper in her hands, expression determined. Choji's forehead is bleeding from a shallow cut as well, but he looks rather proud of himself, twiddling his note in his hands with a tiny, pleased smile creasing his lips.
As more time passes more teams filter in, and Sakura is pleased that every single Konoha team has managed to make it back in one piece. They all seem rather good-natured with one another despite clearly having targeted fellow Konoha teams in the fray, and even Kiba seems less irate with Naruto and more amused, a challenging grin on his lips as he looks over at her blonde teammate. The girl she'd caught in the hallway—Karin, she reminds herself—returns with her team, glaring daggers directly at Sakura as she settles in a corner, trembling fists barely concealing a piece of paper. Sakura blinks, surprised that the girl had even caught a glimpse of her due to the speed of their encounter, but turns her gaze toward the proctor instead before the girl can get any more riled up. Had she already made an enemy?
After several agonising moments spent in silence, the only sounds being occasional genin entering from the hallway, an invisible force seems to shift the entire room. As if on some unspoken cue, the chūnin and jōnin move from their lines against the far wall of the room to instead stand in front of the doors, blocking anyone from entering or leaving. The entire atmosphere becomes almost oppressive, and Sakura glances to see Sasuke and Naruto's gazes flickering around the room as if searching for a threat.
The "threat" comes in the form of a purple-haired woman barreling through the windows with an earth-shattering crash, laughing maniacally as if she's not surrounded by a cacophony of raining glass and surprised shouts. The woman is more or less wearing only a mesh armour body suit with a dark skirt beneath a long trench coat, and Sakura can't help but scowl at the way many of the boys in the room stare, her own teammates included. That's obviously the intended effect, but still… how unprofessional!
"Congratulations, kiddies!" The woman declares, her smirk stretching across her face with edges so sharp Sakura's sure she could slit someone's throat with them. "You passed the second trial—which means it's my turn. My name is Anko Mitarashi; welcome to hell!"
01/08/19: You'll notice I'm reposting this chapter, but that's because I wanted to make sure everyone saw that I've officially finished the chapter revisions / rewrites! I've added several scenes, changed some aspects, and all around these changes in all of the chapters were enough to warrant me wanting to use this post as a way to let people know to re-read everything and prepare for things to pick up next chapter! I am resuming my weekly updates, so I'll be posting the next chapter next Tuesday! Remember: the Chūnin Exams are going to be where the game changes... so I hope you're all strapped in and ready for a ride!
Now that I'm back, I thought it might be a good idea to ask my readers for their opinions: romantically speaking, what kind of endgame would you like me to consider? It doesn't matter how crackship you think it is, please feel free to leave some recommendations! Just... be prepared for a slowburn all around. This is definitely gonna be a while.
The original word count on this chapter was 5,546. This revision's word count is now 8,928.