Chapter Six: Chunin Exams (Part Four)
Edited
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted, running up to her and slinging his arm around her shoulders. She resisted the urge to duck away, knowing it would only end up hurting him. She didn't want to do that. He quickly hugged her, which she returned. That surprised both him and Sasuke.
Especially Sasuke. He thought Sakura still hated Naruto with a passion, just like he thought she still loved him without question.
Looks like he was getting a cold dose of reality.
About damn time.
"Hey, Naruto. You ready to become a Chunin?" She asked, giving him a simple smile. She started walking towards the front doors, ready to get this show on the road.
She felt like she was on cloud nine, walking through those doors. After her morning chat with Anko-sensei, she couldn't help but feel happier. She had finally had a sensei who cared about her training, and she finally had a goal.
She refused to acknowledge her fangirl made goal. It had been petty and childish. Just like she had been.
"Does Hokage-sama wear a funny hat?" Naruto replied, making the two of them laugh. Sakura threw her arm over Naruto's shoulders and dragged him along with her. The action surprised him, but didn't stop her. She started telling him different things to remember for the exam, and she started asking him questions about battle strategy. He couldn't answer a lot of them, but the ones he did answer, she told him good job. That made him happier than getting free ramen.
"So listen, we're newbies so that means keeping a low profile."
"What's a low profile, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked once inside. Sakura led them to the stairs, since they had to go to the third floor to turn in their applications. As they walked up, Sasuke followed silently, and Sakura quickly explained.
"Low profile means no loud introductions, no loud exclamations, and nothing that will draw attention to us." She said, rounding the corner that would lead them to the second floor. She felt something tickle the back of her mind, like an itch she just couldn't reach. "Naruto, we've entered into a genjutsu." She said softly, gesturing to the number of the door in front of them. Instead of there being a 2, there was instead a 3 preceding the other two numbers. Naruto looked at her, confusion written all over his face.
"What do you mean?"
"How many flights of stairs did we just climb?" She asked, smiling at him. She decided that she would practice her patience with him.
"One?"
"So what floor are we on?" She asked, this time smirking when realization dawned on him.
"This is the second floor! Sakura-chan, you're really smart!" Naruto shouted, drawing everyone's attention to them. Sakura slapped her forehead. She had just finished telling him to keep a low profile, and here he was shouting.
Sakura grabbed Naruto's collar and began to drag him towards the stairs, hoping to get away as quickly as possible. She did not want to deal with any confrontations. However, her luck had run out apparently. While she had been occupied with getting her teammate away from the crowd, she had drawn the attention of another team; one slightly older than hers.
There were three of them; a female with brown hair in twin buns, a Hyuuga that looked like he had a stick shoved up his ass, and a green beast.
She swore this guy had to be a beast, as no one would willingly wear that green jumpsuit and hair cut.
Or those eyebrows.
"What is your name?" The green clad boy asked, appearing in front of her. She blinked. He was fast, too fast for eyes to keep up with. Sakura deduced that he had to be a taijutsu specialist. She immediately tried to sense his chakra, and found that it was almost nonexistent. She wanted to see how far she could reach out to his, to see if something was wrong with his chakra coils. She didn't reach out too far, but it was enough to get a sense of them.
They were badly damaged and underdeveloped.
Yep, definitely a taijutsu user, seeing as how that required very little chakra.
"Uh, Haruno Sakura. Nice to meet you?" She asked, as she wasn't sure if she could trust him and his team just yet. Sure, they were from the same village, but that didn't necessarily mean they could be trusted. Anko-sensei had told her more than once that trusting too many people could be dangerous. Even if they were from the same village.
Sakura didn't ask; too much darkness for her.
"Such a lovely name for such a lovely blossom!" The boy cried out. Sakura took a step back, wondering if now would be a good time to practice her disappearing skills. She turned slightly on her heel and channeled some chakra into her feet. Before she could even get away, a hand latched onto her wrist. She was just about to break the poor boy's nose when another hand held her back. She twisted around to find both the boy and his teammate holding her back.
"Let go of me." She hissed out, glaring darkly at both of them. The boy let her go, but the Hyuuga, he had other plans.
"I-I just wanted to ask you to be my girlfriend." The boy said, chuckling awkwardly. Sakura relaxed her glare, but still wanted her wrist free.
"No." She said, her tone leaving no room for argument. "I don't know you, or your teammates. You don't know me, or my team. For all I know, you could be another genjutsu set up by the village in order to weed out the weaker teams." She stated, yanking her wrist free from the Hyuuga's grasp. His touch left a burning sensation on her skin, and she wasn't sure if she liked that or not.
"My apologies! I am Rock Lee, and this is Neji Hyuuga, my eternal rival. And that is Tenten over there." Lee explained, pointing out each of his teammates with as much excitement as a fat kid seeing cake.
Bad analogy, but hey, whatever worked.
"You can't just ask Sakura-chan to be your girlfriend, Bushy Brows!" Naruto finally chimed in, catching on to the situation. Sasuke had gone halfway up the stairs before remembering that he had a team, and stood there silently. Brooding.
She was starting to get very annoyed with his standoffish nature.
Made her want to practice her techniques until her knuckles bled. Again.
"Are you her boyfriend?" Lee asked, smirking in challenge.
Ah shit, this wasn't going to end well. Sakura had to find a way to leave before things turned weird, and found her chance when she spotted Neji glaring at Sasuke.
"Hey Lee, I think your 'eternal rival' just found someone worthy of his attention," she said offhandedly. Tenten let out a bark of laughter, so Sakura knew she had said the right thing. When Lee turned around to see if this was true, Sakura grabbed Naruto's collar and quickly jumped up the stairs. She was glad that she hadn't stopped the unconscious channeling of her chakra to her feet. It made for a quick and clean getaway.
Sakura all but tackled Naruto when he made a beeline for the door that would lead them to their Exam. She smacked him lightly on the back of the head and reminded him that they were not supposed to make any type of entrance that would attract the wrong kind of attention.
He had pouted, but agreed with her nonetheless.
So, instead of kicking the door open and announcing themselves like idiots, Sakura simply pushed the door open and slid through it. Her teammates followed her example. When she saw that no one had bothered to look their way, she let out a sigh of relief. That was one confrontation they had avoided.
"Sasuke-kun!" A shrill voice shouted out, breaking Sakura's silent moment. She twitched slightly and turned around to find her old friend and old rival trying to strangle Sasuke. If it wasn't for her sudden dislike in the boy, she might've acted jealous about the situation.
Thankfully, she had grown up in the short amount of time.
Rolling her eyes, she decided to find a quieter area to think in. She had to come up with a strategy, and quickly. Anko-sensei had given her a mission earlier that morning, and she wasn't about to fail.
When she found that there was a small empty space next to Shikamaru, she quickly took it. Farther away she was from Ino, the better. She did not have the patience to argue with that girl, especially over something so stupid as a childhood crush.
Happy to be away, she leaned against the wall and focused her energy on surveying the room. She scanned over each face, over each team, each hitea. She found no team to be concerned with, and turned to scan the other side. She saw the team from Sand, the one that she had personally encountered. She narrowed her eyes.
Kankuro and Temari kept a distance between them and everyone around them. They also made sure that they had distance between them and Gaara. She was pretty sure she had heard the name Gaara. They looked on edge, but hid it well. Gaara wasn't showing any emotion, even when he caught her staring.
The old her would've been embarrassed, but the new her wasn't. She knew that if she played her cards right, she would be hidden behind a mask. And the target wouldn't even notice her.
Gaara waited for her features to turn into a mask of disgust and fear, like everyone else's. When they didn't, he became confused. He didn't like it when he was confused.
She simply raised and eyebrow at him and slowly moved her attention back to her group of old classmates.
Team eight had finally arrived.
She casually glanced over them, trying to detect any changes to them since they had graduated. She noticed that Shino was still antisocial, Kiba still had Akamaru with him, and Hinata was still fidgeting. However, they did give off the feeling that they were on better terms than her own team did, so that was a definite improvement.
Sakura decided that she would have to watch them, to see if they had been overlooked like she had been.
She filed away her observations, unaware that Shikamaru had been making his own.
The minute she had detached herself from her team and made her way over to him, he knew something was up. And it had more to do than her sudden wardrobe change.
He had heard the rumors his dad talked about; the ones where Anko Mitarashi had finally found a student worth teaching. He, much like his dad, didn't think they were true. After all, who would be crazy enough to ask Anko to mentor them?
Apparently, Sakura was crazy enough.
He noted her proud posture, her confident smile, and most importantly, her calculated walk. She kept her steps light and soft, like she was trying to not make a single noise. Her clothes barely made any noise; and when she leaned against the wall, all he could hear was her soft breathing.
Something wasn't right about her. She was being too careful, too calculated.
The way she was observing everyone was making him nervous. It was like she was trying to find a weakness, something to exploit.
This wasn't the same girl he had gone to class with; no, this was someone not to be messed with.
Shikamaru decided then and there; Sakura Haruno was someone to watch out for.
When she turned to look at him and shot him an innocent smile, he mentally cursed himself.
Ibiki-sensei sure did have a way of entering a room.
His K.I filled the area, striking fear into everyone's heart.
Well, everyone except one person.
He saw the flash of pink and gave a toothy grin that looked very mean. So, Kakashi had decided to enter his team, huh? Good for him. Ibiki could only wonder how the Copy Cat would take the news of Sakura's transfer to Anko.
He chuckled darkly.
He knew Kakashi was probably having a damn heart attack right about now.
These are the votes for who Sakura gets paired up with.
Gaara: 65
Itachi: 64
Shikamaru: 21
Neji: 16
Harem : 7
Sasori: 6
Kiba: 4
Madara: 4
Deidara: 3
Ino: 2
Kankuro: 2
Hidan: 1
Zetsu: 1
Temari x Naruto: 6
Hinata x Naruto: 15
Ino x Sai: 3
Temari x Shikamaru: 4
Sasuke x Hinata: 2
Sasuke x Karin: 2
Sasuke x Temari: 1
Tenten x Neji: 1