DISCLAIMER: Original series belong to someone else. updated 5/24/18
* break *
NOTE: Continuing on with the rewrite, some minor stuff here - mainly trying to smooth things out and expand a bit. Cut out some contradictions that had cropped up because i do actually read comments and have trouble telling when someone is just being a troll. Which is why i usually just ignore "guest" reviews and comments since those frequently ARE trolls.
* break *
Spiral Dragon, part ten: Examining a dragon
* break *
Sakura went to the library, checked records of the last three Chunin Exams that had occurred in Konohagakure, then found a name she'd seen on a shop not too far from her house. One of the few benefits of D-Rank missions is that they interacted with civilians in her home village and they got to meet people who weren't actively trying to kill them. She'd not interacted with this particular individual, as it had been Sasuke's turn that time to meet the client, but she'd seen him and remembered the place.
"Hello?" asked Sakura, entering the tailor's shop. Nuime's Threads, for the fashionable ninja girl.
"Ah, a customer, just in time too. I was going to close up for the night," said the tailor, stopping some embroidery in order to focus on the newcomer. "That hair... you're not-"
"I'm a Haruno, but not of THAT family of Haruno," supplied Sakura, guessing what that reaction was about.
"Oh good," said the relieved tailor. "So what can I help you with?"
"You were in the last Chunin Exam, then you dropped out of the ninja program entirely," said Sakura. "I spotted your name as a participant. I figured that since you dropped out of the program, you'd be free to give some details."
"Ah, researching before the battle?" The tailor beamed at her. "Good for you. Decent intel usually improves your odds of survival."
"Yes, I... 'Survival'?" asked Sakura, already feeling some nervousness return.
"Just a moment," said the tailor, reaching around and grabbing something nearby. Then he came around the end of counter and started heading for a door on the side. "Just a moment, I'll get some tea. I must say it's nice to see not all young ninja are as battle hungry as my team was."
Sakura tried not to twitch as the slightly older ex-ninja went past on a crutch. Quite obviously one leg was mostly missing with a wooden replacement. "Nuime-san, did that -?"
"Yes, child, it was in the Chunin Exams," said Nuime, managing to carry a teaset on a tray while hobbling back to the counter. "We managed to get through the first part, but the second part is where I lost my team and got a bit mangled."
"'Mangled'?" asked Sakura.
"Oh yes," said Nuime, setting things out. "Each section of the exams is to weed out those not ready for it. I've gone through four, so I've noticed similarities. The first part is usually a straight up test of some kind. Nothing fatal. Well, not usually. I think Kiri had one that involved hot water geysers that claimed a few. Well, that's Kiri for you. It's the second part is where the deaths normally occur, because you're being put into a hostile environment and other teams from other villages will be actively trying to kill you."
"Oh," said Sakura. "Well, I'm pretty sure we're ready."
"That's not good enough," said Nuime. "Our village stresses teamwork and trickiness, and the bloodlines of course. Not that it did Hajime any good."
"One of your team?" guessed Sakura.
"Yup, Hajime got ate." Nuime brought forearms together and then jabbed out while closing curled fingers to suggest something taking a bite. "Giant centipede, bigger than an adult human and poisonous as hell. Spat something like acid. Nasty bugger. Some team made it look like another team had been killed and their remains left behind. It was a trap. Remember Ninja Rule #17: If it can be a trap, it likely is a trap and will kill you."
"Oh," said Sakura.
"So, what's your strategy?" asked Nuime. "You know the betting is pretty fierce on the results of the exam. Any inside info you can give me?"
"Well, I'm with Team Seven," said Sakura.
"Wait, you're on a team with That Boy and the Last Uchiha, and That Boy who can now summon a dragon?" asked Nuime. "I've already bet on you. Are you learning something awesome? Should I increase my bet?"
"You know about Sasuke and Naruto but not me?" asked Sakura.
"Well, nothing personal," said Nuime, "but what I heard was that That Boy was actually a real Uzumaki - which means he's the son of the Red Hot Habanero and can summon a dragon. Then there's the Last Uchiha, the proud son and heir of the Uchiha clan. And there's some girl on the team too but she's nothing special. If you actually do have something special - that's info I can use."
* break *
"So, are we ready?" asked Naruto in the early morning at the test center. "I am PUMPED!"
"Just don't smash anything fragile," advised Sasuke. "You know, furniture, people, buildings..."
Naruto's eyes went wide. "Sasuke? You... made a joke?"
Sasuke's smirk vanished and was replaced with a frown. Had he gotten infected?
"Well, we're gonna kick major butt anyway," said Naruto, slamming fist into cupped hand.
Sasuke gave a thoughtful look at that, then nodded. This was an important milestone on his path, was it not? Since it was - major buttkicking was on the schedule. A chance to prove himself and with his now-re-awakened Sharingan a chance to learn new jutsu and skills.
"There's Sakura," said Naruto. "She looks kinda nervous for some reason."
* break *
"Hiryu Shrine, eh?" asked Temari. "Don't look like much." She hadn't been to many of these in the past, but it looked fairly typical from what she had seen in passing.
"This is where that shrine maiden lives, huh?" asked Kankuro, puffing up a bit. "I think she's fallen for my manly charms."
"What manly charms?" automatically responded Temari, not even looking back as she climbed the steps.
"Man, it doesn't look like anything special though," said Kankuro as he trailed behind Temari. "You seen one of these, you've seen 'em all."
"Mother is very agitated," said Gaara abruptly. "Something is here. Something dangerous."
"Something... waitaminute, you're saying IT is scared?" asked Temari, her manner indicating the level of disbelief on this was approaching maximum.
"Oh, does that mean you don't want to check your fortune before the exam?" asked a voice directly behind them.
There was a brief girlish scream. Kankuro would forever deny having made it.
By the second syllable, Gaara had summoned up a wave of sand. Temari had spun, pulled her fan out, and held it in a blocking position. Followed by both of them staring at Kankuro for a moment as they tried to process that Kankuro had just screamed like a little girl without actually having a little girl puppet to claim it was responsible.
Temari dragged her gaze off of Kankuro, though noting that he was going to be hearing about this for quite some time. She instead focussed on the shrine priestess.
Naturally, she made note of details quickly. The woman wore exactly what one would expect of a shrine priestess, even to the point of carrying one of those sticks with the paper streamers stuck to one end. Red hair. No obvious weapons other than the stick. Despite facing three prepared-for-violence foreign nin, she showed absolutely no sign of being nervous.
"What are you?" asked Gaara, being the direct sort of individual he was.
"Head priestess of Hiryu Shrine," said the woman. "If you don't want your fortunes, what about a lucky charm? I've got one for Exam Success."
"We're ninja, we make our own luck," said Temari. "Okay, we were just curious about this place. Met some shrine maiden named 'Naruko'?"
"Yes, she's apprenticed here," agreed the woman. "I am Keri, her teacher. She's currently working on her meditation."
"Oh well, sorry we missed her," lied Temari. "We need to get back to the testing center. Don't want to be late."
"Of course," agreed Keri as she watched the three genin walk off again. Odd, that the red headed boy with the gourd smelled like a raccoon or something.
* break *
"Really, there's no reason for me to attend too," said Sakura. "Kakashi-sensei said it was an individual decision."
"Yeah, but, well, we're a team," said Naruto uncertainly.
"Hmph," indicated Sasuke. "Naruto. We better get in there then."
Naruto hesitated as Sasuke walked away, looking between him and Sakura.
"You better get going," advised Sakura.
With a last look back, Naruto went after Sasuke.
Sakura let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding after Naruto disappeared. "Besides, this way I can research things and maybe feed them information."
"Waitaminute Sasuke," said Naruto. "I got an idea."
"Another lame idea?" asked Sasuke, who nonetheless DID stop.
"Kage Bunshin No Jutsu," used Naruto, making a single copy of himself.
"Henge," said the second Naruto.
Sasuke blinked and looked at the Sakura-copy. "Why?"
"Sakura could change her mind later," said Naruto. "This way she doesn't get immediately disqualified."
Sasuke shook his head. "The moment someone speaks to your copy, they're going to know this isn't Sakura."
"Oh, good point," said Naruto. "Maybe have to act like she's got a headache or something?"
"Whatever, let's just get going," said Sasuke. "When someone detects the fake or figures out this isn't Sakura, they'll just dispel it."
"You really think this won't work?" asked copy-Sakura. "If it doesn't work, we can just explain we were trying to accomplish the mission in a suitably ninja manner."
"By being clever, sneaky, and tricky," said Naruto, snapping his fingers. "That might work."
Sasuke considered that, nodded once, then turned and proceeded further into the building.
Naruto hesitated for a moment, thinking there was something he'd forgotten. Still, he had other concerns at the moment, didn't he?
Kakashi Hatake saw the three coming down the hallway and raised an eyebrow. "Sakura?"
"Yes?" asked Sakura, looking a little nervous.
"So you decided to take the exam after all?" asked Kakashi.
"Of course!" said Naruto.
"Hnnn," hnnned Sasuke.
"Uh huh," said Kakashi. "You two go ahead. I want to speak to Sakura for a moment."
"Uhmmmm, we shouldn't separate, should we Sasuke?" asked Sakura. "This test is sort of like a mission, right?"
"Who cares?" asked Sasuke, shaking his head and going in.
"Uhm," said Naruto.
"Go on ahead, Naruto," said Kakashi. "Unless you want to tell me something?"
"No! Not at all!" said Naruto, going past Kakashi into the room after giving a last nervous look at Sakura.
"Did they really expect this to fool me?" asked Kakashi.
"Fool you?" asked Sakura, twiddling her fingers.
Kakashi took a toothpick out of his pocket, held it between two fingers for a moment, then flicked it at very high speeds at Sakura.
"OUCH! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"
Kakashi blinked as Sakura pulled a toothpick out of her arm. "Uhhh."
"What if this gets infected or something?" asked Sakura, reaching into a pouch and pulling out a stiptic pencil.
"Uhm, never mind, I thought you were a transformed shadow clone... but Naruto knows better than to try that. Well, I would HOPE that was the case since the last time he tried that he got a sister out of the deal," said Kakashi, turning away from the girl. He paused and drew an envelope out, then tossed it over his shoulder to her as he walked away. "Troublesome."
Sakura picked it up, then let out a deep breath. (Okay, got to get through whatever this test is and dispel before I convince myself I'm the original Sakura or something.)
* break *
Sakura stuck her head in the door, shifting the books she'd gotten under her arm to do so. "Sir?"
"Oh, you're here, so 'Team 7' won't participate?" asked the tailor. "I better change my bet."
"Uhm, no. Kakashi-sensei said that we had to individually decide to take the test or not," said Sakura.
"But the whole team has to take the test," said the tailor. "If you don't take it as a team, you automatically fail. Unless the test was in Mist or Cloud. I think they do it a bit differently."
"What?" asked Sakura.
"Right, so tell me - who do you think is going to win?" asked the tailor.
The door banged shut, leaving the owner of the shop alone again.
"I swear, young people these days have no manners at all," said Nuime the tailor.
* break *
(KA-GLOMP!)
"Well, this is familiar. And annoying. Get off, Ino."
"Sasuke-kun! It's been so long!"
Sasuke glowered quite a bit, having a blond kunoichi draping herself on him.
"Troublesome," said Shikamaru as he sauntered up alongside Choji. "You guys are in too?"
"You could say that," said Sasuke, just before Sakura began gently peeling Ino off of him.
"What? HEY! MY ARM DOESN'T BEND THAT WAY! STOP IT! OW! OUCH!"
"You guys might want to keep it down," said a glasses-wearing genin as he stepped close and noting that the pink-haired kunoichi was about to dislocate at least two of the joints of the ponytailed blonde. And was moving towards a large trashcan. "And you might want to stop that. The test givers might not understand why you stuffed one of your competitors into a trashcan." Then again, they might just approve of her planning and pro-active stance on accomplishing a mission.
"Oh right," said Sakura. "I suppose it IS bad manners."
"Damn it Sakura, when did you get so freakishly strong?" asked Ino, rubbing at sore spots.
"I am now a kunoichi of the Leaf Village," said Sakura clearly and distinctly so that her voice carried. This was a chance to suggest she'd changed since the Academy and therefore might cover some little discrepencies of expected behavior. "Training constantly to improve and address any weaknesses just goes with the job."
"Well, I've been training too!" declared her rival, pointing and posing dramatically. "Next time you won't catch me unawares."
"So you guys made it too, but what's with Sakura being so strong now?" asked Kiba as he arrived with his team in tow.
"Th-that's the strength-sharing jutsu of Naruto's clan, isn't it?" asked Hinata, looking at Naruto and twiddling her fingers.
"Strength-sharing jutsu?" asked Kiba.
"Hah!" declared Ino. "So it IS some trick. I knew you couldn't have gotten that much stronger, forehead!"
At which point Sasuke noticed Naruto spreading his arms wide, preparing to slam his hands together. At which point Sasuke covered his ears because he had a clue what was about to happen.
Naruto brought his hands together, clapping to get the attention of the two kunoichi. Or one kunoichi and a masquerading shadow clone.
(BOOOOOM!)
Windows rattled and cracked. Ceiling tiles shook and released sprays of dust. Outside, buildings lost pieces of brick. A crack spread across several of the floor tiles. Several nearby ninja were bowled over. Sakura fell over onto Ino, ending up with her face on Ino's breasts where a momentary spurt of blood from a nosebleed marred the impact point. Ino failed to notice due to the amount of pain in her ears.
Then it was over, Naruto putting his arms down and looking around in amazement.
Sasuke straightened up and took his hands away from his ears. "Idiot."
"It worked, didn't it?" asked Naruto. (Whoa. New technique. What should I call it though?)
"Troublesome," said Shikamaru, who'd noticed Sasuke reacting and had done the same without necessarily knowing why. "I see the rumors about Naruto having a kekkei genkai are true."
"What?!" asked a number of ninja in the room. Half of whom were ready to kill Naruto for doing that, almost half of whom were wary of the ninja who HAD done that and wondering what other jutsu he might have, and a few who were wondering if they should go find a medic.
Kabuto looked at the crack in his glasses, then at Naruto, then began rummaging around in his pack for a spare pair of glasses. This was not moving according to his plan, but now he had direct evidence that the greatest moron in the village apparently also had some enormous strength.
* break *
Kakashi went over the results of his interaction, sitting in the Jonin Lounge at the Hokage Tower. Sakura was thin, very much so for an active genin. She had a somewhat noticeable forehead mainly because of her hairline being a bit higher than was usual. She typically wore a kunai pouch on her upper thigh - which really wasn't the best place for it and he'd told her so in the past.
The Sakura who had been at the Exam looked different and, when he'd used the toothpick test he'd gotten a whiff of her, smelled different. Her hair had been at least an inch longer, her frame not quite so thin but showing some muscle development, was at least a quarter-inch shorter, and she'd been more nervous than usual around him.
That last could be put off as going into a potentially dangerous situation. Things like the height were more difficult to pull off.
So, that was not Sakura Haruno. Most likely it was one of Naruto's enhanced shadow clones. He'd remarked about it before leaving specifically to remind Naruto that he had to dispel that soon or risk having a second Sakura running around.
Actually, he had to give the team a point for being sneaky. It WAS a ninja test after all.
"Who's that? I thought your team was already in the test," said Kurenai, looking across the street.
"Oh, so that's it," said Kakashi with a nod as he noticed Sakura running down the street with a large pile of books.
"What's what?" asked Gai.
"I saw a fake Sakura going into the test, and thought they were being sneaky," said Kakashi. "Now I know what the plan is. They must have uncovered something of the first test's nature and are now planning on cheating."
"Well," said Kurenai, turning back to her drink. "That IS the aim of the first test."
"We'll see if they get away with it," said Kakashi with a shrug. "Certainly can't fault them for trying."
"How youthful!" approved Gai.
"NOW I'm experiencing some concern," mused Kakashi.
* break *
"Is there anyone who STILL can't hear me?" asked Ibiki. "If so, leave now and seek medical attention. If you were incapacitated by a single technique from a new genin, then you aren't ready for this exam."
"What?!" asked someone in the back.
Ibiki glanced at a proctor, then inclined his head. The proctor showed the team in question out of the facility. With the occasional "what" and "why" and "this isn't fair" being heard by those who didn't have a ringing noise going off in their heads. Those bleeding from the ears were already gone.
"Fine," said Ibiki, heartened a bit by all the empty chairs. "On the written test, there will be ten questions..."
"A written test?!" yelped one of the genin.
"I said 'no questions'!" said Ibiki firmly.
"More of a complaint than a question," complained that genin.
"Well then, no complaints either," said Ibiki, giving a death-glare to the boy. Who apparently shrugged it off. Amusing.
* break *
Sakura climbed the tree, lugging along the books with her as there had literally been no chance to drop them off someplace safe.
(Okay. There's the testing room. I can see Naruto from here. They're... it's a written test? Well, Naruto's doomed. He's always sucked at tests. Sasuke will pass for sure. Let's see. Why is the glass all cracked everywhere?)
Sakura got her hand-mirror out and prepared to signal Sasuke when she noticed that she was already in the room.
(What the - ?! Why am I there? How am I there? Why do I look so good?)
Sakura calmed herself after the moment of startlement. (Okay. It must be one of Naruto's shadow clones, using a henge to look like me. Except he got some details wrong, pretty typical for Naruto. Naruto looks almost panicked there.)
(They... must have figured out about the team rule and created that as a placeholder until I could rejoin them. Good. Must have been Sasuke. Now, how do I manage this? I can't just use a Substitution unless there was a major distraction.)
* break *
Ibiki noticed the girl with a mirror and a stack of books concealing herself in the tree outside the testing facility. He also noted that most chunin wouldn't spot her despite the pink hair because she was mostly concealed. If she hadn't moved that mirror around, it would have been a lot harder.
Ibiki's eyes flicked to the girl, then her copy, then checked seating arrangements. The girl's team is... ah. That boy fidgeting in his seat. So he's using his forehead protector to signal her in reply.
One of the other proctors, Tonbo, gave a hand signal of inquiry on the matter.
A slight twitch of his mouth upwards gave Ibiki's reply. (It's bold, clever, and shows superior information gathering and planning. Yes, I'll allow it. The rules are that to be called on their cheating, it has to be done in a way that most genin wouldn't pick up on it.)
(Team 7, eh? They may bear watching.)
* break *
He had gotten used to being able to use his new natural abilities to good measure against whatever life threw against him. This test was a reminder that such was not always enough. In dragon-form his eyesight at a distance was such that he could make out a single individual on the ground from a distance of over a mile. In human-form it was perhaps a third that good, superior to what it had been but not far outside normal human limitations. As he couldn't see through solid objects - it wasn't going to allow him to read other people's tests unless he had a direct line-of-sight.
In dragon-form, his strength was truly monstrous. In human-form he wasn't that strong or tough, but he was still incredibly so by normal standards. He was still working on control exercises but he mostly wasn't crushing doorknobs or ripping doors out of their frames without intending to. Answering questions on a written test didn't seem to offer any way to use either strength or durability.
His special jutsu to Fabricate MIGHT offer a way through this, but he couldn't immediately figure out how to apply that here.
"Naruto-kun."
Naruto's eyes flicked to the girl next to him.
"Y-you can copy mine, if you want," whispered Hinata.
"No," whispered back Naruto. "I'll find a way. I always do."
"Of course." Hinata smiled a little, turning her attention back to her own test.
Naruto smirked and filled out one answer, the glance to the side having shown him enough of Hinata's paper to copy that much. If she was going to offer, wouldn't it be rude to refuse completely? The dialogue was simply because he expected the proctors to be lip-reading.
Eyes that could spot a rabbit bolting on the ground from an altitude of a thousand feet caught movement to the side and Naruto blanched. Again. He'd been doing a lot of it since finding out what the test was. (What's Sakura doing in that tree?! What the heck is she thinking? She'll get us all disqualified! Someone's got to see her there and that the Sakura in the classroom is one of my clones! This is bad!)
The second set of cheaters were caught and sent out of the room. Naruto grimaced at that, knowing that any moment now something would go wrong and he'd get his team thrown out. And Sasuke would kill him. And Sakura would probably use her medical stuff to bring him back so she could kill him again for making Sasuke fail.
(There has to be a way. There has to... huh. Waitaminute. That might work. Though if someone could do this, why don't you hear about people doing it? Well, it's something to try anyway.)
* break *
Sasuke used his newly awakened Sharingan to copy answers, though it took three tries before he found someone who actually knew what they were doing.
From his position he could see where both Naruto and the Sakura-clone were struggling. Naruto was fidgeting a lot. Sakura-clone was looking stumped. No help from either of them. He could pass but if either one of them failed, all three would fail.
Well, it had been a good try.
If they failed, then he would simply take it out on Naruto for being an idiot. And maybe Sakura for bowing out. And possibly Kakashi for not preparing them better.
Sasuke glanced up as he felt the air shift in the room. Something had just changed, but what?
* break *
He'd practiced with this a lot lately. Not so much this specific application but the two techniques involved.
A shadow clone was formed briefly beneath the desk, and then shifted shape and drastically lost mass.
A few moments later, a mouse made his way to a wall (using the wall-climbing jutsu that Kakashi had recently started them on), found a crack, and then wiggled into that wall. Up along a support beam, then across to a point in the ceiling.
Naruto-mouse watched carefully as one of the genin filled out part of the test. This would work!
"Eh?" asked one of the proctors, standing up and looking towards the ceiling. Directly towards him?!
It was so startling that the clone self-destructed.
Naruto blinked as the answer to one question abruptly popped into his head. (That was weird, but at least I've got two answers. Not a complete fail!)
* break *
Some things, despite the changes, remained.
"No matter what you say, I will be Hokage one day! And if I need to - I'm gonna fire your ass for making such lame rules!"
Some things, despite the similarities, were different.
"Anko Mitarashi?" asked Sasuke, flipping open a small book. "Ah. You."
"You know her, Sasuke?" asked Naruto.
"Remember the extra training Kakashi-sensei has been giving Sakura and myself? She's the one who suggested beehives, bear-traps, spike-filled pits, and the wolves to Kakashi-sensei," said Sasuke, putting the book away.
Much of the classroom looked between Sasuke to the newly arrived examiner.
"Sounds a lot like the genin training I went through," admitted someone from Grass. "No razorwire though?"
"I'd almost forgotten about that," admitted Sasuke.
"Eh? You three are Kakashi's brats?" asked Anko Mitarashi. "You're little weak wet-behind-the-ears genin. You're not nearly ready for MY test."
"Is that a challenge?" asked Naruto with a grin. His teeth didn't actually morph or anything, but those who saw it were somehow reminded of a large predator about to go hunting.
"A bet, eh? Well, how about if all of you fail - your sensei owes me a month's worth of dango," said Anko.
"And if we win?" asked Naruto.
"Oooh, confident ain't you?" Anko smirked back. "If all three of you survive the test, then I'll do something for your sensei."
"Yeah, like what?" asked Naruto innocently.
Ibiki tried to make a shushing motion to Anko. Some of the chunin winced, anticipating what was to come.
Anko began speaking. She went into details. She used hand gestures to punctuate. She apparently did not care that a small number of the genin in the room had not progressed much beyond puberty. Ninja villages tended to operate by a different moral system than in other places.
Temari was startled to find, image of herself as a tough battle-hardened kunoichi to the side, she was redder than most tomatoes and getting distinctly uncomfortable.
Ino had fainted, thereby losing a fair amount of credibility among those present.
Hinata had also fainted, but had the presence of mind to turn a tape recorder on prior to that. Just so she'd have notes for later.
Akamaru had put his forepaws over his ears and whimpered. Kiba was looking interested and shifted in his seat. Even HE was slightly embarassed though.
A kunoichi from Sound village was looking slightly bored, and immediately after Anko finished added the comment that it sounded like her first genin mission. When she was eight!
There were several looks of sympathy, even from some of the hardened older genin, towards the Sound kunoichi after that revelation.
"That makes absolutely no sense," said Gaara, who'd remained impassive through the whole thing. "Why would anyone do such a thing anyway?"
At which point one of the other Konoha youths clapped Gaara on the shoulder, removing it a moment later at a glare from the younger genin, and promised to take him somewhere he knew where the Sand youth could truly experience what made the ninja life worth living.
A few glares were sent at that Konoha boy by a few kunoichi, but Gaara's expression turned... thoughtful.
* break *
Sakura waited patiently as the test-takers filed out of the building. Well, for a relative value of patience at least.
Unfortunately, Ino was still trying to get close to Sasuke. If only...
The Sakura walking a little behind Sasuke apparently lost her patience, grabbed Ino by the back of her shirt and her belt, and then flung her in the direction of...
(SPLASH!)
...a large fountain.
Five of the visiting genin gave polite little golf-clap applause at the manuever. Three from Konoha held up score cards. (7.5, 5.5, and 8.5)
(Okay. I can see a few uses for that duplicate-Sakura jutsu.) Sakura-original nodded to herself as she waited for the inevitable.
A now-sopping-wet Ino charged Sakura, hands out to cheek pull or something else. It didn't work out that way though, as the fake Sakura grabbed Ino's hands, shifted weight, and ended up with Ino's neck tucked in between one elbow and waist while the other Sakura's other hand came up to begin a noogie.
(I can definitely see some uses for that jutsu. Maybe when I'm in a fight we can use it to substitute me out so that they're suddenly dealing with that one.)
Sakura's eyes flicked to Sasuke. Whose face was showing signs of amusement and approval before he wiped it away.
Sakura's own eyes narrowed a bit as she considered this new data.
Naruto considered things and tried it again. Shadow clone. Shapeshift while looking like it was a henge to mouse form. Go off and spy.
"What was that for?" asked Sasuke, who hadn't missed it.
"Practice," said Naruto, it being the honest answer. "Might be useful for spying."
"A little mouse wearing a Leaf headband and happiko (happi coat)?" asked Sasuke. "Kind of obvious."
"Don't know where the clothes came from," admitted Naruto. "Just sort of happened."
Sasuke hmphed, whether that was agreement or condemnation or just acknowledgement was unclear.
"At least Ino gave up," said the Sakura clone. "I don't remember her being that persistent."
"I do," said Sasuke simply.
"Well, how did you two do on the test?" asked Sakura. "I'm sure Sasuke-kun did well, but some of those questions were tricky."
"You managed to do well?" asked Sasuke, a suspicion forming.
"You didn't fail, did you?" asked a voice from nearby.
"Yo, Sakura," said Naruto, turning towards the partially hidden girl. "What are you -"
(WHACK! KA-THUD!)
Sakura was very intelligent. She remembered not to hit Naruto with her hand, as that would hurt her hand. She used a large wooden board. Unfortunately she used one that was slightly springy so it hit Naruto then rebounded and thumped her.
"Oh, THAT went well," said fake-Sakura as the real one went sprawling backwards from the impact.
"You didn't fail me on a written test, did you?" Sakura pointed at her copy as soon as the little stars faded from view. "If you gave me a low score, I know where to find a big hammer!"
"Me?" asked fake-Sakura. "Oh, I admit I had a few hard moments. Like that code-breaker problem. It was a substitution cipher with a numeric progression adjustment. Difficult, but certainly within my capabilities."
"Oh," said Sasuke, eyes narrowed. "The shuriken question?"
"There were three potential answers in that one," said fake-Sakura, waving it off. "Child's play."
"Naruto, when you made this Sakura, you made a Sakura based on what you think of as Sakura, didn't you?" asked Sasuke.
"How so?" asked Naruto.
"She's smarter, stronger, more confident, and not watching me constantly," said Sasuke. "Instead she's constantly looking around, analyzing her surroundings and assessing threats. Her body language reads completely different. Just look at the two together."
"I'm also better looking," said fake-Sakura.
"You're asking to be popped aren't you?" asked real-Sakura.
"Well, I guess," said Naruto, answering Sasuke's question because the idea of getting stuck between two combative Sakura Haruno was frightening.