Hi!! I'm back ... and with a new chapter! It's time to get focusing more on the Jounin exams, romance may be a bit slow, but with Sasuke's social constipation and Sakura's quick temper, I can't think of it proceeding too fast!! XP

THANKS A MILLION FOR THE REVIEWS!! I couldn't believe it!! I had never ever even thought that I would come close to 100 reviews!!! Thank you so much! Your reviews make me all hyped to keep writing — not that I would shut up if you guys didn't review — but, it's very sweet of all of you.

Hmm, I've run out of things to say… OH! For the words with stars, the meanings -- ingredients blah, are at the end :)

CHAPTER TEN COMMENCE!!!!

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN NARUTO!!!!! But I have chocolate +choco chip + jelly ice cream… //drool//

~ChApTeR 10: CLeANiNg Up ThE MeSs~

Ino refused to continue healing me unless I gave a proper answer. I groaned, my muscles were screaming from being half healed, I tried not to look into her eyes either. It's just the fact that when Ino stares right at you, you find it hard not to crack under pressure.

"Okay, okay," I blurted out, "I —"

"Sakura-chan!!"

I almost sagged with relief when I caught sight of Naruto cheekily coming towards us. Ino turned towards the Uzumaki and let loose a long string of gruesome curses at Naruto who twitched, paled, and immediately hightailed out of here. Coward. Even Shikamaru and Sasuke shivered slightly. After three minutes of straight cussing, Ino turned back to me.

"You were saying?" She demanded furiously, red in the face. I was amazed she hadn't felt the need to draw a deep breath to make up for lack of oxygen. Naruto's little distraction allowed me to pull my common sense together. Not that I was lying to Ino — I was just ... just telling her a cover so that I could sort out my own feelings and give her a straight answer later. Yeah, that was it.

"I don't like the Uchiha."

"But you don't hate him either." Ino probed, resuming the healing. I rolled my eyes in reply.

"I don't hate him as much." I admitted, "Regrettably harder now to do so."

"Yeah," Ino agreed, "Considering how he saved your life, escorted you out in his arms. He just played the perfect role of the knight in shining armor. Apart from the fact that he made me drop my okonomiyaki*, which by the way, you owe me triple the amount. As for Shikamaru," she grimaced, "Pathetic excuse of a man. Tell me, who would just watch their date being dragged away by some dark stranger? I should have picked a more macho man."

I grinned, and then quickly glanced at the Uchiha again. I hammered down on the rising feeling. It wasn't unfamiliar; I knew exactly what it was. On the other hand, it had been a long time since I had felt it. But I wasn't in love with the Uchiha. It was a mistake. It was only because I had gotten rid of most of my spite, I'm just not used to feeling any type of warmth for the Uchiha at all. That was why.

I sighed, finally able to flex my fingers and wiggle my toes. I got up stiffly, Ino grunted as she tried to support my weight. She led me back to Shikamaru and Sasuke.

"It's going to take a while for the system to completely kick out the last few drops of drug," Ino told Sasuke cheerfully, "You might have to help her walk though." She turned back to Shikamaru, "Come on Shika-kun, let's go. You promised you'd buy me taiyaki* today!"

"Such a troublesome woman." He let Ino pull him along though; I caught a glimmer of a smile on his face while Ino's back was turned. I nodded appreciatively. Someone made a noise in the back of his throat, I looked at the Uchiha.

"What?" I asked, hobbling over to where he stood. He slung one of my arms over his shoulders and we began our walk back to the festival. It was agonizingly slow, after about ten minutes, we had only gotten about twenty meters. The crowd was getting thicker as well; people were bustling about, ignorant of anything else going on. I winced as someone stood on my foot, and some other person prodded a skewer into my back. The Uchiha just exhaled heavily. He knelt down suddenly, I almost lost my balance.

"Hey, what are you —" My feet left the ground and the world did a ninety degree turn. When I finally tilted my head the right way, I found that I was actually being carried by the Uchiha. I looked around, oh great everyone. Just the time for you to stop being ignorant eh?

"Uchiha!" I raged as quietly as I could, kicking painfully, "Put me down! I don't need to be carted off like I'm incapable of doing so myself! I will hobble if that's what it takes!!"

"I for one actually want to get home within a week." But he still didn't put me down. I hit and kicked him but he just kept walking. I gave up on the lost cause, trying to command the blood to stop flowing to my head.

It's pointless, I spoke silently, I'm not even attempting a handstand right now, why don't you be good little blood cells and go back to my feet?

But then again, they were rebellious, turning my face a horrible red to match my yukata. I squirmed.

"Stop moving." The Uchiha growled, "You're heavy enough already."

I glared coldly at him, using all my strength to lift my arms up and stretch his cheeks, "Lesson One Uchiha. You call a girl fat, she'll kick your sorry ass into the next era. That's one thing for you to expect first thing at training when I can move properly again."

He smirked, "Aa."

It's just hilarious how his vocabulary just seems to switch on and off erratically, it was like his own version of mood swings. I looked around for people I knew, steering Sasuke away from all the people who would take advantage of this situation as a source of blackmail or mockery in the near future. And that's too many people to name. Orange obscured my vision.

"Naruto." I smiled, which stretched when I saw Hinata beside him in a beautiful lilac yukata, "Hinata-chan!"

"Sakura-chan!" Hinata's eyes analyzed the situation, shock evident on her face, "Are you alright? Should I call for the Hokage?"

I waved my hand offhandedly, "You like my new ride?" I grinned, ignoring the Uchiha's sarcastic noise, "I'm fine Hinata-chan."

Naruto glared at Sasuke, "You with your filthy hands on her again. You had better not done this Uchiha."

"Hn." Sasuke glared back.

"Hey Ugly. What happened to you?" Sai appeared with about three girls hanging off his arm. He looked at the Uchiha, "Mute? Did you do this?"

"Hyuuga girls." Sasuke scowled. I cursed quietly for not seeing this coming; I though the Uchiha's vocabulary was still on 'off'. Hinata had turned extremely pale.

I smiled, "Yeah, pretty nasty incident. I didn't see them coming and accidentally crashed into a stall. Stupid thing twisted my ankle, hence this situation."

Naruto frowned, "Sakura-chan, I didn't see any broken stalls."

Curse Naruto for suddenly being smart for a few minutes. Why now?! I had to grit my teeth hard to keep the smile on my face,

"Yeah. The owner was incredible, had the thing back up in a jiffy."

Sai gave me a quiet snort, just to let me know that he didn't believe a single word. But Naruto seemed to be satisfied with that. He said a quick bye before dragging Hinata away. Sai was quickly led away by the girls clinging onto his arms, as they passed, each glared at me and made eyes at Sasuke. I felt tempted to stick my tongue out in reply. I rolled my eyes.

"Baka." I said, punching him in the shoulder, watching him wince, "If you told Hinata, of course she'd be guilty. Just keep quiet about that okay?"

Sasuke blinked before he started walking again. After a while, I got the feeling he was starting to tire. The Spring Festival road was long and winding, not to mention the fact that there was a lot of people to push past. The Uchiha was being surprisingly chivalrous, making sure that I wasn't hit by anyone.

"Hey," I squirmed a little, "Put me down now. I'm fine."

"Hn." But he just kept walking. It had gone in one ear and out the other. I sighed.

"Uchiha, if you don't let me walk right now, it may take even longer to flush the paralysis drug from my system." I raised an eyebrow, "And I can see that even you are tiring. We're almost there anyway."

He made skeptical noise to contradict that, but nevertheless he relented, gently letting my feet touch the ground again. As soon as they did, the fatigue hit me like an explosive trap. If this was four years ago, and I wasn't too busy holding onto my shredded pride, I would have most probably jumped back into the Uchiha's arms and shouted, "Forward!" But then again, four years ago, I was still in my fan girl state. I would not have gotten out of the Uchiha's arms in the first place. I shuddered to think about those years, glad that I had the monstrosity trapped somewhere in a crevice in my mind. Still having one arm over the Uchiha to support me, we returned to our snail paced journey.

I kept my head on the ground, silently checking that everything else was working. Every part of me felt stiff, but that was sure to clear up overnight. In the meantime, Sasuke's pace had slowed and stopped entirely. I looked to my side quizzically.

"Uchiha?"

His face looked downright murderous; I seriously pitied the man who he was regarding with that expression. I considered waving a hand in front of his face — you know, just to see if he was sane enough to be mad without killing someone.

"Sakura-san?" Although I love this person so very much, I had hoped at that moment he had been lost in the crowd on the other side of the festival. I wished I could have done so.

"Neji-san." I gulped, smiling weakly at Tenten, "How … convenient that we meet again."

He smiled back, not noticing that anything was amiss, "I heard of the tales you told the Council. Quite an imagination you have, I had to try to old back my smile at least. The old man went positively beetroot in the face, he mentioned the word cross dressers multiple times. I must thank you again for the help tonight." He shifted a little, bringing out a hand.

I grinned, sticking out my own hand to shake his. In a flash, the Uchiha's fingers had wrapped around my wrist, firmly stopping me.

"Don't touch her." His tone dripping with hostility, "The Hyuuga clan has done enough for one evening."

"Uchiha." My own voice sounded tight as I tried to rein in a rising temper, "Don't."

"What happened?" Neji's face had paled considerably, Tenten asked me silently with her eyes.

"Nothi—"

"She was attacked by those Hyuuga women using dirty tricks." The Uchiha drew me back to him, "No doubt for your cause."

I felt a horrified expression spread across my fast as I forcefully pulled away from him, "How can you say that? It wasn't his fault at all!"

"You are defending him. You were ambushed because of the fact that he brought you as a date." He scowled darkly, "So it is his fault."

"Excuse me, but you are not the moderator for this. I'd like it if you kept your thoughts to yourself!"

"Well, let's ask Naruto and Sai, and see their thoughts on this."

"Keep them out of this!"

Anger had painted my face red as I kept ranting at the Uchiha. His cool comments threw me off, as well as the pale complexity; it seemed that blood does not rush up to the Uchiha head at all. That proves half of Ino's old vampire theory.

Neji had blanched even further if that was possible, "Sakura-san." He bowed low, keeping his head down, "I sincerely apologize for my clan's behavior. I should not have brought you along today for that purpose; something like this should have been predicted."

"It is not your fault!" I snapped, not bothering to hide the fact that I was angry, "You do not need to apologize. Dear Kami, straighten your back will you?" I spun on my heels to stab a finger into the Uchiha's chest, "You!" I hissed coldly, not caring who heard me, "I appreciate all that you did today, but you did more than was necessary with Neji-san. You do not speak for me Uchiha; I do that well enough on my own."

My head felt hot with rage as I pushed the Uchiha back and turned to the uncomfortable looking Neji and Tenten, "Excuse me please."

My dramatic exit would have been perfect, save for the fact that I was a lumbering, stumbling fool who was still suffering from effects of the paralysis drug. The act was ruined even more when I tripped over someone's foot making the lie I told Naruto a future reality. The useless owner just sat there, eyes open, mouth agape — letting it all just happen. Just before I hit the actual stall, the Uchiha slung my arm back over his shoulders and carried my weight, letting me drag on behind him. Every time I attempted to jerk my hand away, he gripped even harder, giving me the feeling that I was about to wrench my arm right out of its socket. I had no chakra to draw on, so any attempted violence would end up breaking me instead of him.

"I did not mean to insult you." He muttered with such a quiet voice that I almost missed it. I frowned before thinking it over. Naturally, the Uchiha's insanely large ego blocked him from anything even remotely related to a proper apology. That was definitely the closest thing I was going to get. He also wasn't going to say it again.

We spent the rest of the walk home in silence, choosing to listen to the noises of everyone else around us, just taking it in. I had a nagging feeling that happy and carefree times such as these would come rarely in the near future.

The next morning, I woke up and stretched every muscle in my body for a full ten minutes. After I was satisfied that everything was back in order, I decided to take a jog. When I passed the Uchiha's room — or more correctly, my room — the bed was made and the curtains were drawn. I was almost certainthat he was at the training fields. I made a note to head there after my little warm-up also. The Jounin exams were lurking nearer and nearer, they will start in a mere week from today.

"Good morning Haruno-san." An elderly man lifted his stick in greeting, baring a toothless grin. I smiled back, waving a hand.

"Good morning to you too ojii-san."

He turned back to yell at some man who wasn't slotting wood firmly enough. Oji-san is a much respected being in Konoha. He had been a fantastic builder; most of the best architectural designs were thought up and set up by him. However, during the Third Great Shinobi War, he had been heavily damaged and his arm had to be amputated. This didn't stop him from continuing to build structures, with the help of his team of course. After the Great War with Pein, everyone was up and about, rebuilding the village to its former glory.

I grimaced when I thought of the Akatsuki. They had been lying low for a while, but even with Pein gone, they should not be trifled with; the existence of the group still had a big question mark about it. Perhaps, with the fall of their leader, they would cease to exist and split up. In that case, would the matter be more troubling or less? A hundred other questions could derive from one possibility, and our village has to be prepared for as many as we can. I could see why Tsunade-sensei needed all the sake.

I glanced towards the Hokage Tower as I passed it; no doubt preparations were going on this minute. If it were three years back, we wouldn't have had to pass a Jounin test at all, instead the rank was appointed. Unfortunately, after a long debate regarding the raising standard and power of our enemies, the allied villages decided to create the exam, since Jounin were after all, sent on A-rank missions or even S-rank at times. The rise of Orochimaru and the infamous Akatsuki had played a large part in this development.

The Jounin exam was split into three parts opposed to four as it was in the Chuunin test. The first part was a practical, to test our leadership and teamwork skills. The second was no doubt interrogation. This stage was more often than not performed by Ibiki Morino himself, one thing I was really not looking forward to, whenever Ibiki was absent, or unable to do this duty, Ino's father steps in. I'm not sure which one I'm more afraid of; the man is utterly loyal to the village and loves his daughter to bits. Yet he would treat her fairly like the rest. Each year, the exams grow increasingly harder. Less than half make it to the second stage and less than a quarter of the half walk away from the interrogation unscathed. Some of the rest move on to the next stage, while the remainder is sent to the hospital. Broken minds, broken spirits. It was horrifying watching all these familiar people getting carted in. When they regain their sanity, some even turn their backs on moving forward. The rest grit their teeth, steel their mind and keep training. Loyalty can change someone immensely.

I was worried slightly; however, I had a talent that no one else other than Tsunade-sensei has known of. Not even Kakashi or Naruto. A few years ago, I had found my own two elements.

Tsunade regarded me coolly as I lowered my head in disappointment. Thoughts raced through my head, and I found the courage inside me to voice them.

"Sakura, we can't help it," Tsunade sighed, flicking through her paperwork, "As medics, our first priority is to make sure our teammates are safe."

"But, I can't just stand around and run! I've been doing that basically for the whole of my life!" I swallowed hard, "I refuse to do that in the future!"

Tsunade looked up, I lifted a trembling chin, ready to be scolded. To my surprise, she gave a little smile and ruffled my hair, "I would've been quite disappointed if you hadn't done that. Alright, lemme tell you something. Although a medic's first priority should be to turn her back and run — even though Kami knows how many times I've broken that particular rule — it should never stop her from having another element by her side. And I think I know just what your elements are Haruno."

The old memory of that made me smile again, the memory of her training me in those elements did not. Those memories in particular made me want to lie down and have a panic attack.

As I passed the Hyuuga compound, I couldn't help but pause in my tracks. I should go inside and properly apologize to Neji for the way Sasuke acted, because the Uchiha had made it blatantly obvious that he would not do that himself. I didn't want to lose Neji as a friend, or have him eating himself up with guilt.

I walked up to the towering compound and checked thoroughly for the seal on the bamboo gates. When I was satisfied that the seal had been removed, I gingerly stepped through into the compound. My first thought was that everything was so clean. I bowed to the few Hyuuga's who were strolling around the middle; they merely inclined their heads before continuing their walk. In a way I was slightly relieved, I had hoped that they weren't too insulted by my rambling — hopefully I could blame it on the influence of sake. I saw Neji closing the sliding door to one of the rooms.

"Neji-san!" I called, ignoring the looks of Hyuuga's around me. When I had reached him, I bowed deeply and said, "I apologize for the way Uchiha acted towards you. It was highly unnecessary."

A second of silence passed, I'm guessing it was from the shock of seeing me within Hyuuga grounds.

"If I am not allowed to do the same to you, then you must not do it either." A wry smile spread across his face, "There is nothing to be forgiven for Sakura-san. It is a lesson for me to handle problems such as that personally in the future, rather than digging someone else's grave instead of my own."

"Nonsense." I protested, "If you need anything like that done again, please don't hesitate to ask me! It was real fun."

He chuckled lightly, walking me over to another room. "I'll consider it. It's a good thing you're here; I was just about to go find you. If you don't mind, Hiashi-sama would like to speak to you."

I felt the color drain out of my face. The words that I said had undoubtedly reached his ears, more or less, I was pretty much screwed.

"Oh, you aren't in any trouble." Neji said, relieving me slightly, the door slid open with a quiet hiss. Hiashi sat quietly with his thighs folded under him, taking a sip from the delicate tea cup in his hand. Neji and I bowed, and he nodded his head briefly before taking another sip. His face was serene as his eyes were lowered to the cup. The room looked like a typical tea ceremony room, a tokomono scroll dangling from the walls and a tatami floor. My first step made a loud cracking sound as I accidentally put my weight on the fragile rice straw. Hiashi's eyes snapped up. Fortunately nothing was broken. I considered just sitting down where I stood, but Neji had already stepped soundlessly in front of Hiashi's tiny tea table and sat down in the same manner. I tried to remember what my mother had taught me about tea ceremony and shuffled along the mat, keeping my body posture straight and formal. Once I had reached the area beside Neji, I sat down on my thighs as well, feet placed uncomfortably under my rear. For a long time, Hiashi did not speak, only took sips from his cup. After a while, he looked up, cup still cradled in his hand, while the other rested in his lap.

"Haruno-san." He acknowledged in his emotionless voice, "Neji informed me of some … incidents which occurred during the Spring festival regarding some Hyuuga females. Is what I was told true?"

I thought about lying, Hiashi's punishment would no way be sweet and understanding. But Neji's eyes warned me not to. "Yes." I said, trying not to flinch under Hiashi's gaze, "But there is no need to take any action, it was just a minor issue."

Hiashi placed the cup on the table in front of him with a small thunk, "I'm afraid then, you underestimate the values of my clan Haruno-san." He said, "But I would like to hear the whole encounter if you please. The truth of it. You need not worry about protecting the girls' pride. The punishment given will be just."

I hesitated for a moment, before telling him everything that had happened. At some points, I could have sworn to have seen a slight scowl on his face, but it was gone in a blink.

"I see." He folded his hands on his lap, and then in a louder voice, "You can come in now!"

My head swerved towards the door. The nine girls of yesterday night walked in, heads bowed. A few of them shot me a nasty glare before sitting down.

"Is what she speaks of true? Suzuku?"

The girl beside me tensed, a quavering mouth indicating her indecision. It was the proud girl who never raised a finger in our match yesterday night. I met Hiashi's eyes. As soon as I did, I knew that he already knew the exact truth. Judging from the outraged look the girl had on, she knew it as well.

"It is true," she bit out, her glare never letting up. "Everything you said is true."

The air shifted, the temperature seemed to have dropped a few degrees, and I couldn't wait to get out of here.

"You will apologize immediately." Hiashi growled harshly, "Your families have been informed, and how shamed they are of you. Nine grown ladies of the Hyuuga clan do not act like this, whatever reason. As a consequence, all of you are to be temporarily stripped of your rank and you will take the place of all the maids and servants for two weeks. You will clean, cook, wash as they do. If you are to act like commoners, you will work like commoners." He turned his gaze to Suzuku, "As for Suzuku, your punishment will commence after your participation in the Jounin exams are complete."

I froze, looking at her. She had a grim look on her face, and tilted her chin. "Yes Hiashi-sama."

The girls one by one, muttered a formal apology. I awkwardly accepted them, not quite knowing what to do.

"One more thing, Haruno. I would advise you not to get caught up in Neji's plans; your little tales will go unheeded just this once."

I gulped, bowing low. Hiashi had a shadow of amusement on his face, before his clipped voice issued his next instruction.

"That is all. Haruno Sakura, Neji, you may leave. I wish to have one final word with the girls."

I stood up, trying to ignore the utter soreness in my legs and trudged out with Neji. Despite my feeling of relief for clearing up any misunderstandings during the festival, I couldn't help but feel a little astounded by the power of a clan leader. Sure, Ino's father leaked authority, but something was different about Hiashi. Neji appeared to be completely unfazed.

"That went well," he remarked casually, "The punishment could have been worse."

"He knew?" I gaped, ignoring what Neji was saying, "He knew!"

Neji shook his head, "I should have expected it. Very little escapes Hiashi-sama unnoticed."

"I just don't understand how," I glanced at Neji as I limped along, "Just a question, aren't your legs feeling numb or sore?

Neji looked surprised for a minute, "No, are they supposed to be?"

I shrugged; it was probably the social status of the clan. The upper class clans (a.k.a Uchiha and Hyuuga) had to sit through ceremonies for hours, they were all used to this feeling. Meanwhile lower class people (a.k.a Naruto and I) normally sit on the floor laughing over a trivial matter.

However inside the room, Hiashi had unnerved me immensely. Although it had seemed that he was disappointed in the ladies, the emotion in his eyes when he looked at me definitely held some contempt, as if he blamed me entirely for having to give out punishment. It was as though he wasn't telling them off for attacking me, but rather for being less discreet about it. I would have to weary of him and his clan next time we met.

"Whereabouts are you planning on going?" Neji asked, "I will escort you there."

I covered a smile with my hand, knowing that it was hard to turn down Neji's chivalrous act; the Hyuuga's probably did not take well to being rejected.

We talked for a bit about weaponry, I questioned him about ANBU and what it was like. The answers I received were vague and did not reveal much. We heard the match long before we saw it. A crowd had gathered at the front of the practice arena, squabbling energetically to another. I grinned; no doubt my teammates were giving them the show of a lifetime. I stood onto the branch of a nearby tree to watch, hoping that I wouldn't be shot down by a stray kunai. It had always been interesting watching the two spar. But as soon as I laid eyes on them, the enthusiasm vanished. The match was far from playful as I had initially thought. Both of them were bleeding profusely, up till the point that it would be considered a serious blood loss case in the hospital. It was as though they were going in for the kill. I watched sharply as Naruto bared his teeth at Sasuke, his eyes were starting to become slanted like his Sage Mode, they were being mindless. I gripped the trunk of the tree until the blood had bled out of my hand. No, I must let them handle this; they will know when to stop. I felt my forehead furrow as I continued to watch. I was an inch away from turning away when a sudden chirping filled my ears. Chidori. I quickly flicked my eyes over to Naruto; he had made two bunshins, preparing for an all out Rasengan. Are those two allowing their oversized egos to overrun their common sense? Such an attack would render a normal person hospitalized for a month, but two of these insanely powerful attacks colliding would be disastrous. Maybe even to the crowd gathered around them. Although the Uchiha bloodline and the Kyuubi within Naruto enables the two to rehabilitate remarkably quickly, the Jounin exams are a week away; they would miss out on vital training, even if they were only bedridden for a few days. I couldn't let that happen. I will not even consider the possibility of being eliminated during the first round.

My brain whirred; I had to stop the two attacks from meeting. I flashed back to that time when I was still genin and had run between the two. Neither had been able to call off the attack, Kakashi had to step in the intervene. At that time, he had stopped it, but only because both attacks were still weak. Maybe now that they were stronger, they would be able to call it off.

I leapt off the branch to land lightly on the training ground. Ignoring the gasps of the crowd behind me, I charged into the middle of the battle holding my arms out.

"Enough!" I said fiercely, "Have you both lost your minds?!" Naruto and Sasuke had kept charging, both their eyes had widened as if they had woken up from a daze. They looked around as if only just realizing what they were doing.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled desperately, his bunshins wriggled as if trying to disappear, "Get out of the way!"

"I can't stop it." Even the Uchiha sounded frantic, as he tried to snuff the Chidori in his hand. I suddenly realized how foolhardy I had been to step into the match like this, now that I was involved, my only choice to stop this was to use my element.

I gritted my teeth, "Both of you are going to pay dearly for making me bring out my best trump card now."

I breathed deeply, knelt and quickly placed both palms on the earth beneath me, injecting chakra into every inch of the soil beneath me. I snapped my arms straight, concentrating on my breathing and shaping a picture into my mind. Two thick walls erupted on both sides of me, just in front of Uchiha and Naruto. I poured more chakra into them; if they weren't strong enough they would break on contact. The villagers had become conscious of the fact that something was wrong, and had started quickly moving away from the training area.

Chidori and Rasengan hit the two walls square in the middle. As soon as I felt the walls starting to crumble, I made more earth rise up to form another layer at the back. It had to be done swiftly, and was rapidly depleting my chakra tank. Finally, the attacks ceased and disappeared. The earth shields crumpled down burnt.

"Woah," Naruto blinked, falling into a sitting position, "That was epic."

The Uchiha just eyed me wearily, as if I was an unsolvable puzzle.

"What were you thinking?" I wheezed, waving a hand to get rid of the debris, "You could have killed everyone here! The exams are in a week, and you thought you could just tear up your bodies in advance?"

"There was some other chakra." Sasuke said quietly, looking around, "It was —"

"Influencing their judgment and control." Neji finished, stepping beside me with his Byakugan activated.

"You brought the Hyuuga along." Sasuke remarked coldly, glaring openly at Neji. In my opinion, he was just pissed off that he was interrupted.

I ignored him, "Where is it coming from? Do we need to hunt this person down?"

"No need." Neji narrowed his eyes, moving into a fighting stance, "They are approaching."

My neck snapped around as I followed his gaze. Sure enough, three tanned shinobis were grinning from a tree — a popular place to observe it would seem. There were two males, one with spiky red hair, another with short bluish locks, both were looking extremely proud of themselves. The female had long black hair up to her waist, a crazy maniacal look in her gray eyes, she was laughing hysterically while clapping. All three were wearing the headband with four diagonal lines. Mist shinobi.

"Well, well," She sneered, a hand under her chin as she swung her legs "Looks like the Leaf Shinobis aren't as great as you say." She leaned in closer to scrutinize Sasuke and Naruto, "Pretty boys, but no brawn."

I painfully got to my feet; everyone else was doing the same. The spiky haired shinobi pointed at me gleefully, "See Daigo? I told ya that there was somethin' else bout that female kunoichi. Told ya so didn't I?"

The blue-guy just smirked, "If it wasn't for me, we would have never found out what that something was."

The girl waved a hand, "Oh shut up," She answered irritatingly, "Both of you. Let me introduce ourselves," she pointed to herself, "Juri." She pointed to the blue-guy, "Daigo." And jerked a thumb to the red spiked guy, "Tai." She paused for a moment, before she smiled mockingly, "It's very nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you to." I forced a grin, stamping a foot. Cracks ran along a line from my foot all the way to the roots of the tree. The three barely got off the tree in time as it sunk to the ground. "You may be new here, but whilst you are here, you follow Konoha's rules, and treat the villagers with respect." My eyes flashed, "You used chakra to fuel the other two's chakra correct? That way, their chakra magnifies, causing each attack to be more dangerous and, because it was their first time experiencing such a rush, they couldn't control themselves! You could have killed villagers today!"

Juri shrugged, "So what? Getting rid of opposition before the exam starts is acceptable as long as it's done discreetly. Who cares if a few casualties occur along the way? Makes the whole natural-disaster thing seem more believable." She tossed a lot of headbands onto the floor from her bag, "See? We're good at making disasters happen."

"They're here for the exam," Naruto ranted, "They aren't playing by the rules."

"Haruno Sakura, pink haired medic." Daigo said slowly, eyes looking up from the cracks on the ground, "The Hokage's apprentice."

"This will be interesting," Tai grinned, "Let's kill them first in the exam."

They all laughed, and poofed away. The four of us were speechless, even the villagers at the side were lost for words.

"This is dangerous," Neji murmured, "Their chakra levels were unusually high. Perhaps you should leave the exam for next spring."

"No." All three of us retorted. I stared at the spot they had disappeared in.

"The Jounin competitors are coming in now," I said, picking up a fallen headband and brushing my thumb over the three vertical lines, "We're not going to back down after we've trained so hard."

Naruto folded his arms behind his head, "So what?" he asked, "We're just gonna have to kick their butts. And it's not like we can't do it. Teme and I won't fall for the same trick again. Right teme?"

Sasuke grunted. But I wasn't as sure as them. I scooped up the rest of the headbands; they had blood tainted on the fabrics. Not all these shinobi had the luxury of going back to their home village. I felt a bitter taste in my mouth as I turned to face my teammates. Even though I had tried to put on the good ol' emotionless expression, a bit of it must have slipped through. Naruto grinned, slinging an arm around my shoulders.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan," He beamed, giving off his Good-guy-pose, "We're going to pass the exam. Believe it!"

~NeXt uP: ChApTeR 11: BaCk iN The ForEsT~

~Japanese Foods — All I could think of was ramen, ramen, and ramen, so here's so variety!~

*Okonomiyaki — grilled/cooked savory pancake containing various ingredients e.g. Pork/Bacon, octopus, shrimp, veges, spring onion, etc. etc. Basically, the name means "What you like" "What you want" and "cooked/grilled"

*Taiyaki —Japanese fish-shaped cake, filled with red bean paste. Made with waffle or pancake mix *yum*

~Author's blah~

CHAPTER *TEN* COMPLETE! Yes folks, I actually did my homework. Haha. Now that would be a first — I'm normally too lazy do research. So, how are your holidays going? Well, one word for me, two actually. ABSOLUTELY BORING. It's been the pits. Everyday same routine. Get up. Eat. Comp. Eat. TV. Eat. Sleep. LOL, I think I might have to start exercising :S

Well, unfortunately, I was signed into a sort of school thing, from nine a.m. to three p.m., so I won't get as much time to write. But I would never wait an entire month to update, don't worry about that. Er, month and a half. Hehe.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS. THEY ARE MUCH APPRECIATED, THEY REALLY ARE. Don't look at me; I'm crying tears of joy.

If you spot any mistakes, please tell me! I'll change them pronto

Until the next chapter,

Au revoir ;)

~CaNdY~