Me: Hellooooooooooooooo

Sakura: Goodbyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

-Start-

Sakura didn't have to be a genius to know the horror Lee was facing right now. He was going to have to fight his 'to-be girlfriend'. Sakura jumped down into the ring, setting her face into a grin. She was going to fight quick and swift, without giving away her abilities. Of course, she couldn't use full power, but she could use high speed and low level chunnin jutsu.

Lee jumped down. "Sakura-san…I don't want to hurt you…"

Sakura smiled. "Lee-san, please fight seriously in this battle. I promise I am tougher than I look"

…Is that meant to be sarcasm? Because I'm not laughing. Poor Lee is not going to know what hit him…

I'm sure he will know. I mean, I will be fighting him…

You know what I mean…Idiot….

"But I can't hurt you! I want to protect you!" Lee shouted, and Sakura sighed.

Always wanting to protect me to the end, Lee…

I think we're going to have to try sway him away from that noble self sacrificing path…Never again…

"If that's the case…" Sakura looked him in the eye, putting her gloves on. She smirked at him. "Then prove it."

Lee looked conflicted, before nodding. He got into his attacking position.

Sakura smirked, getting into her fighting stance.

This time, we'll show they're the ones that need protecting.

Heh. I like your attitude.

…

Sakura quickly dodged another one of Lee's kicks at her, putting some distance between them.

"Come on Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice shouted, making Sakura smirk. Looks like he was awake. Sakura blinked as she saw Lee take off his weights.

"Sakura-san, I am very impressed with how you can keep up with my speed. It is filled with youth! As such, I think it would be a waste to keep fighting like this. Let us both use our full strength now!" Lee grinned, dropping the weights on the ground so they made a big impact.

Sakura smirked at hearing the gasps of everyone.

"He had weight on this whole time?!" Ino shouted, shocked.

Both genin disappeared in a flash, becoming a blur to most as they fought. Sakura winced as Lee punched her in the gut, sliding back a few metres even though she put her hand out to stop moving.

Sakura frowned, appearing in front of Lee and put some chakra into her attack. Lee just barely dodged, her fist hitting the wall instead. Sakura turned to Lee at the other side of the arena. There was a loud cracking noise and the wall behind Sakura collapsed inwardly, creating a huge crater. Lee's eyes widened momentarily, and Sakura smiled.

"Here I come, Lee-san." Sakura smirked, getting back into her offensive position. "If you won't hold back, then neither will I."

With that, Sakura disappeared in a flash, aiming chakra enhanced punches in quick succession. Each punch left Lee feeling either bruised from her punch, or dodging the next one narrowly.

Just be careful you don't put too much chakra into your attacks. It's the only move you can use without raising suspicion…

That, and people will think my abilities are purely physical.

Focus IDIOT!

Sakura slammed into the wall, cursing her stupidness for not taking the battle seriously. Sakura sighed inwardly. Just because she was stronger than her teammates now should not give her the right to underestimate them. Getting up, Sakura's chakra automatically went to heal her head, as Lee looked aghast at what he had done.

"Sakura-san, are you-"

Sakura moved. Lee quickly dodged as Sakura's fist fell into the ground where he had stood moments before, the ground collapsing like mud under her fist.

"I told you Lee." Sakura got up, flexing her hand as she heard Naruto cheer her on. "If you wish to protect me, show you are stronger than me, otherwise I'll be the one protecting you."

Pity it's already true.

Lee nodded, and Sakura's eyes widened when Lee was about to open the eighth gate. Quick as a flash, Sakura appeared above him. Her knee came down onto his head, and she murmured an apology to Lee.

"Sorry Lee. I don't want you straining your body." Sakura smiled, as she caught Lee's unconscious form.

Everyone was quiet until the judge announced Sakura as the winner.

Sakura nodded, as she went onto the second landing and started healing Lee.

Sakura was right to say the finalists were different. In the end, Kabuto forfeited his match against Choji, so Choji was now a finalist.

Kiba fought Haku, but Haku managed to confuse them with his ice mirrors which didn't give off a scent to where the real Haku was.

Tenten versed Shikamaru, and Shikamaru being the genius he is, won in a battle of brains. Ino versed a member of Kabuto's team who sucked out chakra, but she managed to get into his mind, forcing him to suck out his own chakra until he could barely stand and then forfeit. Sakura rolled her eyes when Inner Sakura said they were teaching Ino well.

She didn't have to humiliate him with his own abilities…Do we really have that much of an influence on our friends?

Well, we have known them basically all our childhood in this timeline so I think we would have.

Kura ended up fighting Hinata, and they exchanged blows until Kura felt like it was too risky for Hinata to block her remaining chakra points. Kura won by knocking out Hinata with a powerful genjutsu.

Temari versed Kankuro, who quit instantly.

Probably to preserve Temari's and his fighting style until the invasion.

Kin versed Zaku and Kin also quit.

You know, it now does seem kind of obvious something is amiss here, doesn't it? They are acting way too suspicious. I'd be surprised if normal ninja didn't pick up how shady Sand and Sound where being.

True, but this may also force Oro-gay to act on Sasuke in the one month training. We should make sure Kakashi is alerted.

Oh! By the way! I've been thinking on having Anko teach Sasuke along with Kakashi! As much as I hate to admit it, evil Sasuke from our past did learn some decent abilities from Orochimaru and Anko is the Sannin's student…

That…is not a bad idea at all…And she can also feel the presence of Oro-gay when he is near so it's double protection for Sasuke.

Shino ended up fighting Kimimaro, and like Sakura's old timeline, Shino won by placing his bugs inside his enemy. Kimimaro was at a disadvantage due to the bugs, but once they got into his skin, they ended up wrecking his chakra networks and preventing him from using his bones.

Sakura later told Shino off, to which he apologised for making her heal them both. Kabuto's other member, Yoroi, ended up fighting Dosu, and Sakura grinned as she watched Dosu win the match quickly.

It's so much easier when we have less enemies on the battlefield.

You said it.

All in all, when Sakura saw who she was going to fight in the finals, she laughed, earning weird stares from everyone.

For the second time that day the screen with two names mocked her.

Sakura Haruno vs. Kura.

/

Sakura stretched as she finished writing down another seal.

"Hokage-sama, I've completed the next one." Sakura brought it to him. It was a nice sunny day outside Konoha, and while the Hokage spent the beautiful day inside his office doing paperwork, Sakura spent it with him learning more about seals. She was currently working on more advanced seals like sealing living creatures, per say-the kyuubi, in a living host. In other words, she was learning the sealing technique for the kyuubi.

Sarutobi nodded in approval of her seal, taking a puff of his pipe.

"How is Kura-chan going?" Sarutobi asks, as Sakura puts the scroll into her mindscape, tugging on the mind link between her and Kura.

Hey Outer. Everything's fine with Sasuke and Naruto only training. Honestly, I'm surprised Jiraiya got here so fast. But it looks like Sasuke is getting trained by Anko in the mornings and Kakashi in the afternoons.

Sakura winced, feeling sorry for the torture the psychopathic woman would put Sasuke through.

Sarutobi laughed when Sakura told him this. "It can't be helped. Anko is an excellent jounin and she can feel when Orochimaru's presence is near. Thus, Sasuke is under the best protection he can be under."

"Sasuke took it pretty well when he found out he lost…" Sakura mused. "I thought he'd be more disappointed or jealous that I made it to the finals…"

Sarutobi smiled sadly. "Sakura, they are not children and are not the ones you knew. You must remember that. They will become stronger and different here."

Sakura nodded, her eyes showing surprise. They would become stronger, wouldn't they? However, she started chuckling when Kura checked on her other teammates training.

"Maybe in a few more years." Sakura grinned, and Sarutobi laughed.

"True."

/

Sakura finished her plan, sweating slightly. It was the day before the exam, and she couldn't help but feel nervous. Her match was the first match, but both she and Kura already had their own plans-not discussed of course (even they liked the challenge of fighting each other!) for their fight tomorrow.

Of course, that wasn't what was worrying her. Sakura had been preparing for the invasion and to create the least amount of casualties as possible. Sarutobi had stopped her training with seals when she had finished sealing a fish into another fish, saying she had the seals correct to a fault. He only knew so much so he could no longer train her in the arts of finjutsu. If she really wanted to continue, she would have to take it up with Jiraiya.

"With your perfect chakra control, it will be easy for you to use seals to your advantage." The Hokage smiled at her. Sakura nodded, feeling herself beam. It was moments like these which reminded her of her training with her shisou, and Sakura closed off her memories.

She was a shinobi. A shinobi on a mission. She could not afford to let her emotions affect her ability.

So it was as she finally headed to Ichiraku ramen that Sakura allowed herself to check over her teammates. Healthy. Happy.

"Ne ne!" Naruto grinned as he shoved insane amounts of ramen into his mouth. "Wait till you see what new trick I learned!"

...Well, mostly healthy.

"Hn." Sasuke smirked, turning to Sakura. "You are both coming to my house tonight."

Sakura and Naruto grinned.

"Sasuke-teme! I never thought you swinged that way!" Naruto laughed, as Sakura wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Sasuke snorted, bopping them both on the head.

"You both are idiots." Sasuke sighed, though humour was evident in his voice.

"Hey!" Ino's voice rang out.

The team turned to see Ino, Choji and Shikamaru walk in, with loud complaints of 'troublesome' from a certain somebody.

"Ino!" Sakura smiled, as she waved team 10 over. "Are you ready for your fight against Shino tomorrow?"

Ino nodded, wincing as Naruto shouted.

"Yeah! I had to teach her the shadow clone technique Sakura-chan!" Naruto grinned, and Sakura blinked, curious.

"I look forward to your awesome display of battle tomorrow." Sakura smiled. "After all, you hate bugs very much."

Ino went pale, and lightly shoved Sakura, before team 10 joined them in eating.

Sakura looked at Sasuke and both felt ill upon the duo trying to outmatch the eating contest silently challenged between them. Choji and Naruto were devouring the ramen like it was candy.

"They. Are. Idiots." Ino huffed, turning her back on them.

"It's pretty lucky you all managed to make it to the finals though." Sakura grinned, as she turned to Shikamaru. "Ne, you're fighting that guy…Dosu, right?"

"Troublesome…" Shikamaru nodded, propping his head on his elbows and blinking at Sakura. "How have you been lately?"

"Details!" Ino wagged her fingers, while Sasuke sighed.

"We're fine." Sakura shrugged. "We've all been training with separate teachers to get stronger…"

"I'm guessing you and Naruto challenged her to a match after the chunnin exams are over?" Shikamaru turned to Sasuke, who nodded.

"So we can test our capabilities." Sasuke nodded, smirking as Naruto declared himself the king of ramen over a green looking Choji.

"I think…I'm going to be sick…" Choji muttered, as Ino yelled quickly.

"A-Ah! D-Don't throw up here! Do you want to end up in the hospital the day before the final exams?" Ino glared, making Sakura grin when Shikamaru went back to sleeping.

Sasuke looked at her, and she rolled her eyes, heading to Choji to assess the damage.

/

"Sakura-chan! It's time to wake up-"

Sakura gasped as Naruto jumped on her, throwing the both of them off her bed. Naruto gulped as Sakura's kunai pressed against his neck.

Grumbling, Sakura removed the kunai and helped her fellow teammate up. "What were you thinking, Naruto? You never do that to a ninja."

Naruto looked like a kicked puppy as Sasuke came into the room, looking questioningly between them.

Come on Saku, he's excited. And adorable. And-Gah! It's the exams today! Get ready! Come on!

It seemed as if the switch had finally turned on and Sakura quickly picked up Naruto('hey!') and pushed Sasuke ('hn') and threw them out her guest room, locking the door behind her as she got ready to change.

Today was the day.

-End-

Me: Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Sakura: Woooooooooooo

Sasuke: T_T What are you both doing?

Me: Tomatoooooooooooooooooo

Sasuke: *looks left and right quickly* WHERE. IS. IT?!

Naruto: Hey, Mearad. Did you eat all the sugar again…? Hello?

Sakura: BLAAAAAAAAAAAA