Author's note:

So, I have a question. Between Katou and Hikyo, who would you kill off? It's only subjective...

Enjoy and thanks for reading.


There was something about the fire that made Sakura feel nostalgic. It made her remember the campfire her parents used to light in the middle of a new land. An undiscovered patch of land that laid untouched by humans. Which beauty ensnared her eyes. Watching the paper burn made her feel strangely tired, almost like she aged decades but so reminiscent of those times.

She watched it until the end and drenched it with the water she had gotten earlier. She wanted to burn papers, not start a great fire in the middle of the forest. She felt relieved that her team had been given a break to console themselves about the loss of their first C rank though they put all the blame on the sensei. Who did they think they were to bet on things like that?

She had little time to get to the hospital to take her exam and she should be in a hurry to go but she stayed calm. She was almost sure she would see the damn not so civilian girl in there and even the possibility of encountering her put a damp in her stabilized mood. She hoped the girl as still unconscious.

She sighed and finally got moving. Her eyebrows furrowed without her consent when she came in sight of the establishment. She observed people rushing to the emergencies. The shinobi were coming back from their mission. Some unscathed, others rushed to the operating table. She walked through the crowd and met her examiner.

She sighed in relief when she did not see the brown haired woman. For some reasons she couldn't bring herself to say her name in her head, like it would provoke something inside her to snap.

"Haruno Sakura?" The harsh voice of the man cut her out of her thoughts and she decided to observe the man more deeply.

While he was old as she predicted, he was not as old as she thought. His hair was black except for some grey strands and his shaved beard made him look more manly. His slightly muscled form suggested that he relied mostly on speed which was a great advantage for a med-nin.

"Hai."

"My name is Saichi Fuu and I'll be the one conducting your tests." Instead of judging for her looks and age, he remained silent and his eyes did not reflect any disdain which was a plus in her books. She instantly followed him and was directed to a small room with a white table in the middle.

Medical tools were scattered all around and she could see a summoning circle in the center. Someone had just gotten out and by the looks of it the woman utterly failed. The devastated look of deception looked embedded on her face. Her examiner looked baffled, or more likely exasperated.

"Nowadays….they're just getting worse." The examiner huffed and sent his co worker a look filled with meaning.

The door was closed behind them and he made her step in front of the table. He quickly told her the instructions and summoned a fish she had to reanimate. She wondered briefly if she shouldn't wash her hands but she dismissed the thought and got to work. She concentrated on pouring pure green chakra on the layer of her skin and hummed in meditation. When she saw the telling of emerald chakra coming out of her limb she got to work.

She paid no attention to the examiner and focused on the matter before hand. She would not be fit to pass the exam if she were to collapse with just a little pressure. Stress is something that teachers loved to make you undergo at a young age at the academy because they could not afford to be distracted by their emotions. A ninja shall never let his emotions control thyself.

Healing the fish was quick work. The examiner did not slip from his poker face so she had no way of knowing if she did good and she was not advanced enough to determine it by reading his body signs.

He opened the door and waited for her. She arched an eyebrow. The test could not be as simple as that. She looked back to the fish but it vanished before she could ask what to do with it. Her other eyebrow rose but she just ignored it and soundlessly obeyed the examiner's silent instructions. She was brought to another bigger place that looked more like a seal hazard than a hospital room.

After the fish was the pig which was followed by a horse. Where did they get the horse?! Let's not talk about the cow nor the platypus. She was given a huge amount of totally non related animals to heal like she knew a thing about their species. That summoning scroll was a black hole. She snapped when her last thing to heal was a human. Human coming out of the summon after all the animals.

She flipped the table and discarded the tools by stabbing them on the wall. She stomped over the patient and slapped him a good one when she saw it was a perfectly healthy humanoid that only replaced the true one out of boredom.

They stopped arguing and turned to the broom cupboard that she did not even notice when she entered as a loud bump was heard before everything went silent. The impostor was ready to bolt but Sakura laced her hand through his collar and tugged. The man fell and she delivered the final blow, a punch to the jaw. After the spectacular K.O she unlocked the cupboard and stared. She just stared.

The man behind her coughed and hid his discomfort by turning away from the horrid sight. She wasn't into bondage but the sight before her eyes stopped any interest she might have had in the future to nicht, nada, nothing, rien. Why would she be interested by bondage? The sight was messing her up.

"Whaaat? Is it an exam or the new carnival for the insane? You know the asylum is just 5 minutes away, not here. Now go!"

How do you know where the asylum is of all things?

Shut up.

Ah, I remember.

I said shut up.

She slapped her hand in the air and accidentally, not so much, scratched the man's cheek with her nail. It was the only patch of skin she could bring herself to touch. The rest of his body appeared to her in censured pixels.

Now that she looked past the pixels and more closely, not intentional, the man looked quite pale and ready to regurgitate the waste from his stomach. A slight cough startled her out of it but she refused to turn around. She flipped a shuriken to the middle of where the ropes met and the man fell at her feet. If it wasn't so disgusting, she might have found some amusement but now she was just disappointed.

"Kushishishi." Oh god. The impostor had woken up from her punch. She had to congratulate him since people tended to take a whole day before they opened their eyes from the assault on their jaw.

"Kondo...it was you. I should have known..." Saichi voiced with a tiredness that suggested he was used to it since a long time ago already.

Sakura swung around." You mean all this shit was not part of the test?!" At the nod she screamed." Why did you not stop it then?! No wait! Don' say it! I don't want to know!" She stopped him with her hand and rubbed her temples desperately. She felt him mumble in her hand and snatched in away from him. Seeing no spit on her skin she went back to giving him a piece of her mind wile walking away.

"Goddammit! Can't you respect the contestants?! What am I saying? What contestants?!" She shut her mouth without stopping on her stride and opened the door. Throwing one last look behind her she tore the door when her hand exerted too much strength and sweatdropped. "Oups."

"Kushishishi!" He did not see the boot coming at his face. He went back to the floor out cold while Saichi was clearly in conflict.

"Let's go tackle the requirements, shall we?" The look Sakura had on her face told him how he had a choice to make, either he followed her, either he followed the others.

He was fast to take the winning side and contacted his co workers to clean up the place. They were as happy as him at the state of it and he hushed the girl to another floor to be in peace. This time Sakura had a real patient and groaned. She could finally get rid of it and forget this day ever happened.

It was until she came face to face with a man that bear a lot of similarities to Shisui that she threw all respect to the window and punched the examiner through the wall. The poor man had no time to register her presence and yelped as he lost his footing. As he got up it was already too late to catch up to her. She wasn't gonna pay for the repairs and she plainly gave her opinion were she to be bothered with debts as a single sound was enough to convey her feelings. As inhuman as it was.

Screw being a med-nin, she'll just go with her instincts in hope her teammates would remain alive by the time she was deemed an expert in the subject.

Any person present at the hospital during her exit rose an eyebrow at seeing a man hanging out of a dainty shoulder and thrown through concrete like it was butter.

Sakura was still huffing by the time she was back home. She flopped on her messy sheets and was out like a light. However the smell of blood became too prominent to be able to stay asleep and she had to drag her tired body coupled with a tired mind to take a shower. She could not even remember if she had things to do for the day but at this point it didn't matter.

Watching the sun move higher in the sky made her realize only a day had passed and team 7 was gonna have their mission while hers was still stuck in the peaceful...in the busy village that threatened to take away her sanity the longer she was stuck in there. She longed to travel once again, to not be constricted to a land but to go farther than anyone ever dared to.

Her eyes kept riveting to the door and she knew what to do. Pulling on a relaxed outfit, she put on her boots and headed out.

It was truly a depressing matter how she found herself in the Uchiha compound nowadays. She threaded through the homogeneous crowd to pause in front of the familiar sight. As expected of the host, the entrance opened before she had the thought of lifting her hand. After a quick greeting she was ushered inside and waited in silence in the living room. She had no taken any interest in the weapon display on the walls and drank her tea in silence.

It was not long before her new teacher, Hashirama, waved enthusiastically at her and swept her in his teleportation technique. She only registered the green colour with her head spinning as she met the ground.

"Saa, let's start!" She could only thank the gods that he was not wearing the red armor or she would have fled. He looked ready to battle and she knew when she was out of her depths. Fight a hokage when you're a wet behind the ears genin? Never. She didn't give a shit about her previous rank. She was now a genin and that's it.

What he was expecting of her, she did not know but she would not lose in a battle of stare. She did.

"What are we doing?"She should stop tilting her head when she asks a question, cursed habit. Cute on children, not the rest.

"Nowadays, medics rely on control which is good but incomplete. "What?" the best has to have a certain nature affinity..."Why?" to be able to gather energy around and not waste your chakra resources." Why was she seeing a halo on his head?" Small reserves or not do not matter at this point, it's how you gather it that is important." He's a saint. Small reserves do not matter! Ha!

"Why is it not known, sensei?" She asks with skepticism. If it was this simple, it should have been taught from the beginning or appear on the medical scrolls.

"Nature affinity is something a few have, not a lot. Mokuton is an elemental release that requires water and earth but also nature. You can't master it if one is missing."

"Is it wise to give the secret to your kekkei genkai?" She was glancing around for a sign of an eavesdropper.

"Hahaha! It's not a secret." He smiled.

Dread is the only feeling she could identify as he made a tree sprout out of the ground telling her to grow a leaf out of a branch.

"Sensei, I don't have a green thumb. What you can do, I cannot."

"Use medical chakra. It has to be pure or else you'll transform into a tree. Don't make this face, I'll be here to stop the process." He sat with his back leaning on the tree and took a nap.

"How…." And about nature affinity, what if she did not have one? What would happen to her except shifting into a tree?

What the heck? Training or experimenting? What was she? Guinea pig or student?

She did not grow a leaf but she took the opportunity to beat the shit out of the tree which proved itself to be stronger than most with a solid and thick trunk. This training might have some redeemable qualities.

It was late in the afternoon that her team was gathered in front of the hokage to be given a new mission but instead of just being dismissed, the nidaime appeared by his student's side and regarded them with suspicion. His eyes lingered on Obito and swiftly paid more attention to Sakura.

"As there is a lack of effective to take on this mission, your team was chosen to do it." Hiruzen began before letting his sensei take the reins. " The client asked for a double to replace the priestess who's been found dead a month ago. You'll have to find the murderer and make sure the festival is a success." Wow, that' a lot to ask from a team of genin.

"New genin usually do not take on a B-rank mission before having done some C-ranks but this case has some requirements mostly unique..." Tobirama's voice was full of authority and dared you to interrupt him or go against his words."Worry not, I will also accompany you for this mission."

Sakura's eyes nearly bulged out of her sockets. Fortunately she was not the only one affected and her sensei was less inclined to just agreeing to it.

"Is it wise to take the risk to let the other villages know of their reanimation?" Obito was unfazed by the glare he received from the hokage.

"It's to make a statement that we will expose our trump card." The ninja villages were tense and some were brewing a new war. The experienced soldiers could feel the discord stir in the air. It had already begun with the ambassador from Kumo who attempted to kidnap the Hyuga heiress and those sent in the borders of the fire nation felt an increasing amount of violence between opposing countries. It was only a matter of time and they had to protect their still frail village which had just restarted to thrive after Kyuubi's attack.

They all tensed. Whereas they were too young and from a peaceful generation, they were not as clueless as their classmates and not as naive as the adults, who tended to only listen to their own, thought.

"6 am at the entrance. Later than that will not be tolerated."

Sakura heard it loud and clear. Were they not to make it there in time, they would be left behind. Skipping Katou's presence, she observed Hikyo's reaction. His expression was calm, she did not account for his stiff arms that betrayed his apprehension. He'll get better with experience. She was truly besotted when he calmed down and toned down his talk about his so called superiority. It might have been because he stopped hanging around his stuck up relatives.

Hiruzen waved his hand and they knew better than to stay put any longer. Sakura promptly tried to not feel the eyes that bore on her back. She felt like she would regret it if she were to turn her head and look behind. Only Obito-sensei stayed behind.

The next day, she deadpanned as she saw gloomy atmosphere that settled over her traveling group. It was a small relief that they all used sealing scrolls instead of bags that Hikyo had the pleasure to mention team 7 had used for their first mission out of the village but then she didn't think the nidaime would let them be so foolish. It was more likely a punishment from their sensei than a lack of knowledge but she kept her mouth shut.

No one was talking. It was just silence and it disturbed the hell out of her. She was used to the antics between Hikyo and Katou but now...The nidaime's aura was too oppressing for a mere geninor chuunin to have a talk next to his imposing figure.

Sakura blinked and frowned. She swore she heard the hokage mutter 'not an Uzumaki, please not an Uzumaki.' It puzzled even more when he said that while looking at her.

She didn't even know where they were going.

"Obito-sensei." She grabbed his sleeve.

"Hm?" He looked back at her.

"Where are we going?"

"To the land of frost."

"…" She watched her teammates stop and take their scroll.

"…" She hoped she packed enough to fight against the cold.

In the end, only the adults knew what they were gonna do. They deliberately forgot to mention what the mission was about. It was a serious lack of teamwork and organization. It was plain stupid and hazardous.

"Why?" Hikyo asked although it was rather vague and had several meanings.

"Training." Obito and Tobirama both said at the same time. They glared at each other. The genin just let them quarrel while they continued to walk.

Meanwhile…

"We'll continue the mission." Naruto yelled with determination. Sasuke and Hinata nodded and Kakashi tossed a shuriken laced with a fast acting poison and easily killed a mist ninja hiding in the mist who never saw it coming. He knew the demon brothers would not let everyone of them be caught. There would always be a scapegoat and one left behind to relay the information gathered. Not anymore.

"Sensei, what are you doing?" Kakashi looked down and gave his one eye smile.

"Just felt like stretching for a bit."

"Naruto, shut up. You'll get us caught." Sasuke snapped.


"You're no better!"

"P-pl-please st-sto-stop, t-the bo-boat..." Hinata stuttered but was ignored.

Thump. The boys both nursed their head.

"Boys, calm down." Kakashi laid back but kept an eye on them. They understood and stopped moving.

TBC