Chapter 10:
Unexpectedly unpleasant.
Well Sakura must admit that shock is an understatement for what she's feeling now.
She makes her way back home, through the window and into bed… fully dressed.
Sakura closes her eyes. She understands what it is that Tsunade expects from her but Sakura is doubting in herself.
Not that she would be able to do it but to actually go through with what is expected from her till the end. Lying is not exactly her forte. And if she were to do this (as if she has much choice) there would be a hell of a lot of lying involved.
XXX
Sakura woke up bright and early just as sensei told them to. She went about breakfast and even made small talk with her family. She seemed fine, but if you looked close enough one would notice the tightness to her eyes and the corners of her mouth.
On her way towards training ground 3 Sakura was lost in her own world, for once not primarily focused on training, but instead lost in her thoughts. So much so that for a while she just stood there. In the middle of the road staring blankly ahead of her.
She was drawing a blank on even how to start her mission. But first she had to get trough the chunin exams she knew was coming.
She already had the encounter with the sand siblings after meeting up with Naruto on her way to the market district. She was surprised that she had forgotten how harsh Tamari were to them on their first encounter. Sakura could only remember the snarky yet good friend that Tamari turned out to be. Sakura was actually happy to see Tamari for a second.
After that drama she had split from the boys to get herself some better shinobi gear. She wouldn't have the time tomorrow.
She first got herself black shorts that came to mid thigh and a magenta shirt with long flared sleeves to hide her hands from view and also to hide small blades and her newly acquired senbon launcher. She also got new holsters attached to a belt. The belt was slung around her hips containing multiple salves and solutions ( poisons mostly) and the pouches attached by belts around her exposed thighs contained explosive tags, kunai and shuriken.
She contemplated for a while if she should get her heeled sandals similar to Tsunade-sama's but another pair of knee high black lace up boots caught her attention. She immediately thought of everything she could hide in them… then laughed at herself when she realized that she couldn't even wield the short swords that she wanted to store there. She decided to get the boots and short swords anyways.
Having decided she wasted enough money for the day Sakura made her way towards training ground 3.
XXX
Sakura arrived at training ground 3 to find Sasuke and Naruto sitting at opposite ends both clearly annoyed with each other, about what she did not know, nor could she find herself to care.
Knowing sensei was going to be late as per usual she decided to ask them if they would like to spar.
Her request was answered with a whoop from one and a non committal noise from the other. You guess what she got from whom.
Sakura was obviously a drastic difference from her original young self. She was honestly surprised by how much she has developed in such little time. In the matter of 5 months she went from useless weakling to frightfully deadly.
She has managed to re-perfect her chakra control and can once again perform most if not all her medical procedures as well as her monstrous strength. Her speed had quadrupled even with her weights on at half her weight.
She must admit though her dodging could use a little work, her reflexes are only at chunin level and she needs much better than that. Though if only she could perfect her invulnerability technique she wouldn't have to worry about that. She also had no time to work on her ninjutsu.
So basically she's going into this exam with genin ninjutsu and jonin taijutsu and medical jutsu. Not that bad but could be better.
At least genjutsu is no worry for her, she may only know a few weak genjutsu but at least Sakura knows that she won't get stuck in one thanks to inner-Sakura.
"CHA! DON'T WORRY I'VE GOT YOU COVERD NO WORRIES! CHA!"
Rolling her eyes at inner-Sakura, Sakura continued with her observations on her teammates.
Even with her being in much better condition both Sasuke and Naruto managed to keep her on her toes. Even though they were in a three way fight (that eventually turned into a tussle between the two boys), in the beginning where they were serious she could also see drastic improvement in them both.
Naruto obviously has much better control over the Kyubi's chakra and his original unpredictability paired with improved and personalized taijutsu was quite painful.
Sasuke though strictly kept to taijutsu and would rarely use his fire ninjutsu and would completely abstain from even using his genjutsu or his sharingan.
After the boys broke apart Sakura decided to ask Sasuke why he didn't use his sharingan.
He answered with a glare, "I don't need my sharingan to beat either of you nor do I need it to prove I'm strong."
Sakura was baffled. Sasuke apparently had some beef with the Uchiha that she was not interested in finding what exactly about.
Leaving it for now Sakura made herself comfortable to start meditating in the while that they had to wait for sensei to show up.
During the entire fight Sakura never once used her monstrous strength nor her medical chakra.
The boys know she can perform a tiny bit of medical chakra but not to what extent. And she never used her monstrous strength especially around Naruto because she wouldn't know how to explain how she could do that whilst not being apprenticed to the woman who trademarks it without raising suspicion.
She wasn't even lying just omitting her abilities and she felt bad for 'lying' to them. She won't know what to do once she started her mission that Tsunade-samma gave her.
XXX
Sakura has been meditating for at least an hour before she felt the tickle. The tickles of eyes watching her from afar.
Without opening her eyes she released her chakra like tentacles, tentatively feeling her surroundings. She could feel three chakra signatures. One very tiny but evil feeling, another that is muffled (obviously trying to hide) and the last one is rather large but at a distance not nearly close enough to watch her. Beside she recognized the last as Kakashi-sensei's chakra.
Sakura opened her eyes and looked towards the tiny signature, catching glinting cat eyes.
It was Tora the demon cat. Sakura frowned she could not understand what that cat's problem was with her. And she kept bumping into the cat when she wasn't on a mission to find him. But if she were to be assigned the horrible task of finding and returning Tora the Horrible to his rightful owner she would look high and low and won't see him anywhere.
Scowling Sakura focused on the other signature she could barely sense.
They were doing an outstanding job of hiding physically though since she couldn't see anything. But if she looked just south-east of Tora the Demon she could sense the shock from the shinobi hiding there. She didn't know why someone was watching her, but they definitely did not expect her to be able to spot them.
Of course she didn't actually see anybody but soon she felt the person flicker away when sensei showed up. Sighing Sakura got up with the thought that she was starting to sound like a Nara when inner-Sakura said something about "troublesome stalkers".
Sensei proceeded to hand us the paperwork for the chunin exams, told us it's tomorrow and we can go if we like.
Then sensei flipped out his dirty book, gave a creepy ass giggle then poofed out of sight. Why does he always have to be so weird Sakura bemoaned to herself sagging.
Sakura looked to the boy's bewildered little faces and couldn't help but laugh. "Who wants lunch? My treat." Sakura kinda felt bad for them. They should be used to Kakashi-sensei's weirdness by now.
Her ears were met by an "uhn" followed by a "yeah ramen!"
XXX
NEXT TIME THE CHUNIN EXAMS YEAH!