A/N I've been having so many ideas but not for Sakura but for Sakura Shippuden during the war. So, I have to get through this to get there.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 11

Sakura was looking in a mirror. But, she couldn't see herself. She just saw darkness. She couldn't see her pink hair. She just saw darkness. She couldn't see her emerald eyes. She just saw darkness. She couldn't see her silly Haruno clan dress. She just saw darkness.

A grey figure started to form infront of her. It took the shape of her and became her reflection, the only difference was, her reflection was Inner Sakura.

Two colours were on Inner Sakura's face. Her eyes were blue and the skin around her eyes was red.

"Sakura-chan!" The pinkette snapped out of her daydream due to her loud teammate. "You spaced out." Naruto said.

"Sorry." She replied.

"Come on! The winners are at the front!" The blond ninja grabbed his teammate's hand and they ran to the other victors.

The preliminaries were over and the victors were (in order): Sasuke Uchiha, Shino Aburame, Kankuro, Sakura Haruno, Temari, Shikamaru Nara, Naruto Uzumaki, Neji Hyuga, Gaara and Dosu Kinuta.

Sakura was happy that all of Team Seven had made it to the final round but so did all of Team Gaara along with Dosu.

To be honest, Gaara made Sakura angry for what he did to Lee. A small part of her wanted to beat the living shit out of Gaara. But she knew she couldn't.

Along with Gaara, Neji Hyuga made her angry. That explains itself.

Seriously, though, I've never seen Hinata like that. Sakura's mind flashed to the shy girl's bravery once Naruto had cheered for her. Her eyes moved to her teammate. It's the Naruto effect.

Ten genin stood where previously twenty-one had. Well, nine since Sasuke was in the hospital.

"First of all, congratulations on making it passes the preliminary round." Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, said. "But, the final exam will not be as easy. If anyone wishes to withdraw, please do so now."

Fuck no. Sakura thought. We've been through too much shit to get here. Who's going to give in now?

"No one?" Hiruzen questioned. "Just as I had thought..." He muttered. "The final exam will be on in one month from today."

"What?" Temari asked, flabbergasted. She didn't want to stay in Konoha for that long. Probably all sound and sand ninja didn't. "Why so long?"

"This is such a drag..." Shikamaru sighed.

"Today, you have battled against your fellow genin and showed your abilities to each other. We have allowed one month for you to train and learn new techniques for the final exams."

Temari stayed quiet. It made sense but that didn't mean she had to be happy about it.

Hiruzen continued. "The final exam will be a tournement." It didn't surprise the genin.

"But doesn't that mean there will only be one chunin?" Naruto asked. It's obviously going to be me but what about Sakura? ...And the other one.

"Even if you were to lose in the first round, if we believe that you are worthy of chunin level then you will be promoted."

"So, the more times we battle, the higher the chance we have of becoming a chunin?" The female sand shinobi asked and the Third Hokage nodded.

"Please, pick a slip of paper from Anko. This will determine who you will be paired up with in the final exam."

"I'll come to you." Anko said, holding a box and going up to each genin.

The first round of the final exam was: Naruto Uzumaki VS Neji Hyuga.

The second was: Sasuke Uchiha VS Gaara.

The third was: Shino Aburame VS Kankuro.

The fourth was: Shikamaru Nara VS Dosu Kinuta

The fifth was: Temari VS Sakura Haruno.

The genin were dismissed and Sakura immediately started making plans for training while walking home with Naruto.

"We're going to have to ask Kakashi-sensei for training." Naruto said.

"You think he won't be training Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked.

"He better not be!" The blond fumed.

"I think I'm going to train with my father." The pinkette said. "He should be back home from his mission."

The two friends eventually parted ways, promising to be stronger the next time they see each other. Sakura was sure Naruto and Sasuke would grow through the month, and she wasn't going to be left behind.

Sakura ran home from there. Pushing the door open, she screamed "Otou-san!"

Instead, her mother ran to her, offering a big hug which Sakura graciously accepted. No matter how much she complained about her parents, after something like the Forest of Death, she needed a hug.

"Tell us." Her mother urged once her father had come up to the door. Mebuki was smiling widely, as if she already knew.

"I'm made it to the final exam." Sakura said, feeling proud as she said so. Her mother engulfed her into another hug and her father joined. "And I can't breathe..." Sakura gasped for air, inwardly smiling.

"Sorry, I'm just so happy!" Mebuki suddenly pulled back. "Oh, wait. Are you hurt? Are you okay?" She began looking around Sakura's arms. "You're tired. Let's get you to bed." She deduced from analysing Sakura's eyes.

"Kaa-san-" Sakura began.

"No, I will not let you train. You are going straight to bed." Mebuki had put her foot down. Not even Kizashi could stop her.

Sakura tried anyway. "Otou-san..." She whined but he had already walked off to the kitchen for some instant ramen.

So, in the end, Sakura was forced to go to bed by her worry-wart of a mother and had to train the next day. Well, if Kaa-san lets me. Sakura thought sourly as Mebuki tucked her in.

In a last act of defiance, Sakura purposefully rolled off the bed.

The sun peeked through the windows as a certain cherry blossom was putting on some new clothes. Sakura decided to change up her look a bit. Not a drastic change, she still wore a red shirt with the Haruno clan symbol upon it but she now wore a black-sleeved shirt underneath, covering up her arms up to her wrist. Also, she now wore dark grey trousers.

The cherry blossom happily walked to the kitchen for breakfast.

"What's got you so happy?" Kizashi asked, not looking up from his food, as Sakura skipped into the kitchen. "And what's with the new look? You have never touched these clothes I got for you." Okay, so maybe he looked up from his breakfast for a split-second.

"Felt like wearing them." Sakura replied. "Eat up, we gotta a hell of a day today." The pinkette grabbed an apple.

"What do you mean?" Kizashi asked, confused.

Sakura was a very smart girl, but sometimes she could be extremely stupid.

"I forgot to ask..." Sakura blushed in embarassment. "I wanted you to train me for the final exam."

"You sure?" Her father asked.

"I think you need more rest." Mebuki had walked into the kitchen. "The Forest of Death is a difficult place to get through."

"We also had preliminary matches." Sakura regretted saying anything.

"What?!" The elder woman shrieked. "A prelimimary round? That hasn't happened in years! You need more rest!"

"Hm... Who did you fight?" Kizashi asked.

"...Ino." Sakura said. "And I'm up against a sand shinobi one month from now in the final exam. I need to train!"

"...Fine." Kizashi agreed as Mebuki angrily began cleaning the kitchen counter. "Now let me finish eating."

Sakura was ready for a tough, grueling training experience. So when her dad had her sit on the ground in the training field and meditate, she seriously questioned her recent choices.

"When are we-" Sakura began.

"Quiet!" Kizashi silenced his daughter.

They sat there for a few more minutes before Kizashi got up and started asking Sakura a few questions.

"You saw this... Temari?" He said her name unsurely. "Battle in the preliminaries, right?" Sakura nodded. "So, you saw her attacks?"

"Not much." Sakura said. "All I know is that she keeps a fan on her back and uses wind techniques."

"And you don't know any nature releases..." Kizashi put his hand under his chin, in deep thought.

"Actually, I do. Earth." Sakura caught her father of guard.

"Since when?" He asked, baffled.

"Uh... Before the first exam." The cherry blossom answered.

"Show me something then." Her father sat on the ground once again, waiting for her to WOW him.

"...Okay." Sakura began forming hand signs. Earth style: Hiding Mole Jutsu!

The ground below Sakura turned into sand and she sunk below. Once she was underground, she moved around the training field and shot up put of the ground. Turns out, she had gone a bit too far and ended up jumping out of the ground where Neji and Tenten were training.

"Ahhh!" Tenten screamed once the jinchuriki broke out of the ground.

"Sorry." Sakura bowed her head and began to leave. The awkwardness between them annoyed her.

"I don't understand her." Tenten said to Neji as soon as Sakura had left.

"All of Team Seven are weird." Neji replied. "No wonder Kakashi is their sensei."

When Sakura got back to her father, he stood up and began clapping. "I didn't even see you come back up!" He laughed.

"So, what do we do?" Sakura asks. She was nervous. What kind of training would her dad put her through? Will it be enough for her to become chunin? Will she get more power?

"Well, fire beats wind so it would be good for you to learn a fire technique. But, it is extremely hard for genin to learn multiple, if not one, nature releases." Kizashi began thinking again. "Maybe we should start with this."

Sakura watched her father perform hand signs and a great wall made of mud shot up through the ground between her and Kizashi.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall." The pinkette's father said as he walked around it, to Sakura.

"Okay, lemme try." Sakura said.

"I have a mission tomorrow, so I'm going to get ready." Kizashi said.

"What?!" The cherry blossom shrieked, losing focus. "But your meant to be training me!"

"Hokage's orders." Kizashi shrugged and left in a poof.

Stupid Old Man. Sakura didn't know if she meant the Third Hokage or her dad.

So, Sakura spent the rest of the day perfecting the mud wall jutsu without her father's help. It wasn't extremely hard for her. She just needed enough chakra so it wouldn't crumble.

It's getting easier for me to use more Earth Release Jutsus. The kunoichi thought as her weighted boulders crashed into the mud wall but didn't break it.

Once she had perfected the jutus, she still wasn't ready to leave. Sakura's mind flashed to ger father's words about fire beating wind.

But he also said it's hard to learn multiple nature releases.

"Sakura-chan, I can help." Kokuo said.

How? Sakura asked her new friend.

"I have two nature releases. Fire and water. Using my chakra, you can use a fire release attack."

I can try. A fire style jutsu. We could use Sasuke-kun's. Sakura tried remembering the hand signs and performed them as she recalled them. Serpent, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse and Tiger.

The cherry blossom inhaled a lot of air. Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu! She blew out.

What happened was what Sakura would call pathetic. Instead of a schorching hot, orange flame, she produced a dull cloud of black smoke.

Sakura looked around her to see if anyone had seen. Luckily, no one had.

That was embarassing.

Once Sakura returned home, she had not yet mastered the jutsu. She would just have to continue tomorrow.