Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

There will be a few chapters before Sasuke Retrieval. Mainly because I need things to build up (and I don't want to get into that angsty place so soon. Sasuke annoys me but I cried during the scene where Sakura tried to convince him to stay in canon).

Chapter 34

Kakashi stood in the Hokage's office, conversing with the head of Konoha. He met with Tsunade weekly because he wanted updates on Sakura's training (he also did this with Jiraiya for Naruto). The Godaime spoke proudly of their student most of the time while praising her for the progress she had made in such little time.

"I mean, she is almost doing as good as I did at that age. ...Almost." Tsunade said, taking a gulp of water that was on her desk.

"Have you noticed anything unusual about her behaviour lately?" The jonin asked, utilising a leading question to get an answer out of the Hokage. Lately, Sakura had been... jumpy and out of it at times.

"A week ago, the day she got out of the hospital, she was grumbling about stupid men. I didn't know what that was about though." She replied.

Kakashi smirked. "I know about that. Naruto and Sasuke... They are both trying to force Sakura out of harms way. And show off a little too." He explained, remembering how they defeated his shadow clone.

"They both like her." The blonde laughed. "And they were already rivals, that's rich!" She slapped the table.

"I hope it doesn't prove to a be a problem later on though." Kakashi admitted, finding the idea of a love triangle forming inconvenient.

"Ah!" Tsunade suddenly exclaimed. She began to rifle through her drawers on the desk. "That reminds me! Sakura's hands getting bruised is becoming a problem." The Fifth threw a pair of black gloves onto the desk. "A gift from me."

"I'll get them to her." Kakashi collected them, bowed and then proceeded to leave.

"Don't be so worried about Sasuke and Naruto." Tsunade called after him. "It's cute that they want to protect her."

It was like any other day. Team Seven were at the Training Field, and they were training. Nothing perculiar here, everything was normal. There was no indication of anything strange in the area and nothing was out of order.

Kakashi did not go back on his promise. He began to train his genin in the areas in which they wanted. For Naruto, the blonde wanted a larger ninjutsu arsenal, aware that this was what held him back. Sasuke finally had an oppurtunity to learn genjutsu with his Sharingan and Sakura was estatic that she could learn her fifth nature release.

They trained separately. The Kyuubi's host stood near the river, attempting to control his chakra enough to learn a new jutsu. The Sharingan users were having a private discussion, no doubt about the Sharingan. The Gobi's host was trying to bring up a spark of lightning. So far, her efforts had been futile.

How am I supposed to bring out lightning? She inwardly grumbled, silently blaming her bandaged arm - and after that, she unreasonably blamed her new gloves.

Kokuo let out a loud yawn. "Are you still going on about that? Time really goes slow when I'm with you.

You're always with me. Sakura replied.

"Exactly."

The pinkette rolled her eyes at the beast. After failing to bring out lightning again, she angrily stomped her foot onto the ground. "It's the stupid gloves, it has to be!" She shrieked and began to take them off.

"How's it going, Sakura?" Kakashi asked his student, stopping her from throwing her gloves away.

Just fucking lovely. I've been standing here for an hour and have made not an ounce of improvement, so I'm just doing great.

"Fine." She responded aloud.

The jonin nodded his head. "Maybe you should give up." Sakura felt the training field grow darker, as if a grey cloud began to loom over it. "You'll never learn it. You're too weak."

"What...?" The cherry blossom began but the words died in her throat. Her lungs began to hurt suddenly.

"Sakura-san!" Naruto called out to her. "What are you doing here?! This is for the strong people!"

"Sakura." Her head whipped to Sasuke. He looked at her with such hate that she trembled before he spoke. "Why did you kill me?" Blood was gushing out of his stomache.

"Sakura-chan, are you okay?" Naruto asked, worry evident in his tone. She looked at him, confusion clouding her eyes. Where was Kakashi and Sasuke? They were just here, she was sure of it. And Naruto was far away from her, but now he was right by her? What was going on?

Sakura felt as if something was blocking her lungs. She felt like she couldn't breathe. Instinctively, she began to gasp for air. Her breathing grew deeper and quicker. She was huffing loudly, trying to take in as much oxygen as she could.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked again. His teammate was breathing rapidly and he didn't know what to do. "Sakura." She looked at him fearfully. "Focus on my breathing." He took in some air and let it out slowly. The emerald-eyed girl tried to copy him although, she was a little more rushed.

They continued calmly breathing for a while until Sakura had control over herself. Once her breathing regulated, she sighed and sank to the ground, not daring to look her teammate in the eye.

What just happened? She asked herself. I've never done that before.

"What's going on?" Kakashi and Sasuke had returned, the former's eye crinkled at his other students. "What's wrong?" He asked, crouching down to Sakura's level. Sasuke frowned at the sight of her.

"Sakura-chan had an anxiety attack." Naruto told him, earning a slightly shocked glance from the pinkette. No one would ever think this, but Naruto was observant. Not in battle or anything like that, but about how people were feeling. And, lately he had been sensing some... stress radiating off of his favourite teammate's body. Plus, he saw how she was acting before her episode and he was familar with the term anxiety. Iruka had taught him about it, the chunin said he experienced them himself.

"I'm fine." The cherry blossom spoke before anyone else could, standing up as if she was saying she was actually fine by doing so.

"Hmm..." The jonin hummed. "It would be better if we ended training here for the day. Even better that it's your day off tomorrow."

Sakura frowned and decided that she was going to stay back and train. She needed to get lightning release down.

"Naruto, Sasuke. Both of you take Sakura home, alright?" Before they could answer, and the girl could protest, he disappeared.

But, just to make sure, he observed them from the roof of a house to see if they complied with his orders. The boys seemed adamant to do so while Sakura complained the entire way there. They wouldn't listen to any of her complaints and she eventually gave up. After explaining the situation to Mebuki, the boys glared at each other slightly before making their own way home.

Kakashi sighed. He hoped nothing bad would happen because of this protectiveness the rivals had started to feel. And he hoped Sakura would be okay...

Many days had passed since Sakura's first anxiety attack. She had gone to the doctor and they proved Naruto to be right, the pinkette had anxiety. She often felt nervous and tense. She felt danger because of her dreams. Many worries invaded her mind and she was sent into a state where she couldn't breathe and began to hyperventilate.

The doctors conducted many tests. Some were tests where she had to write how she was feeling and answer a series of questions about herself. Other tests included her giving a sample of blood or something so the doctors could rule out any physical illnesses that made her feel this way. In the end, they confirmed that she had anxiety.

It happened twice more. Two more anxiety attacks had happened. The second time was during a D-Rank mission where Team Seven were instructed to babysit children. The cherry blossom looked at the baby in the household and worry made its way into her mind as she thought about Konoha blowing up and this child not being able to live their life. After Kakashi calmed Sakura down, the parents deemed her as "too dangerous to be around the kids" and Team Seven was sent away, the mission failed. Naruto and Sasuke didn't say anything rude to her though. In fact, they even tried to cheer her up with a team dinner.

The third time she had an anxiety attack was at home in front of her mother. There were talks about a new Chunin Exams and her mother brought it up casually. Memories flooded the genin's mind of the last Chunin Exams and she began to breathe rapidly once again.

These attacks began to worry people around her so much (and herself) that she now began to take medication for anxiety.

It was a struggle. Never did she think she would need this medication. Never did she think she would have a mental disorder, especially at her age. It now made people wary of her. Not that they were scared - although there was some stigma towards mental health - but they were concerned for her. But the most concerned were Naruto and Sasuke.

They doted on her and fought with each other about what made her more comfortable, which then made her uncomfortable. They even refused to spar with her at times and she really needed to twist their arms to make them relent (figuratively and literally).

She was getting annoyed. Everyone was treating her like she was made of glass. Even Hinata and Ino were constantly asking if she was okay. It was sweet - Sakura would admit that - but, when they were asking continuously, it irritated her.

One day, after she had trained with Kurenai and Kakashi, the pinkette and her teammates were having lunch at Naruto's house. Often, the blonde would barely have any money to go out to eat so the genin in Team Seven ate food at his house (he refused to take money from them). So, they sat at his small dining table and began to eat.

"Naruto-kun, you really need to clean this place up." Sakura remarked.

"It's like a pig-sty in here." Sasuke decided to add, earning a glare from Naruto.

"What do you mean?" The Dobe asked. "I threw everything in my closet in the morning."

"Nothing..." The cherry blossom sighed, twirling around some of her noodles. "Did you guys hear about the new Chunin Exams?"

"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed at her. "This time we'll pass for sure!"

"If you want to enter. Do you?" The Uchiha asked her.

"What? Of course I do." Sakura answered. "I just... I don't know. After the last one, I wonder what villages would willingly come to Konoha."

"Maybe the exams will be hosted somewhere else." Naruto responded. "I want to go to a new, cool place! There'll be more people to fight! I'll kick their asses, believe it!"

"You'll embarrass us." Sasuke told him and the jinchuriki kicked him under the table.

"Take that back!" He cried.

"Play nice, boys." Sakura announced, her voice laced with a threatening undertone.

Slowly, they retreated, giving each other icy stares across the table. "Teme is excited to go though. He still needs to find a girl."

Sakura choked on her noodles. "What?"

"What?!" Sasuke growled.

"Remember. You need to revive your clan, you said so when we first met Kakashi-sensei. If we travel to a new area, there'll be girls who don't know how much of an ass you are. You can find a wife there! Or just someone to knock up."

"Naruto!" The pinkette admonished. "We're thirteen! Stop talking about Sasuke-kun getting someone pregnant." Her words fell upon deaf ears. Annoyed, she walked over to her teammate's kitchen and put some more noodles in her bowl, angrily throwing them in.

"I don't want to find a bride." The Sharingan user stated after a beat.

"And, pray tell, how are you going to revive your clan?" Naruto asked, his voice dripping with mockery.

It wasn't like Sasuke didn't think about this, he did sometimes. But he didn't have someone particular in mind. Okay, maybe he did but he was too young, nothing was set in stone. But, Sasuke needed to get the message across to his male teammate. She was not his to have.

"With Sakura."

Naruto choked on his noodles and Sakura dropped her bowl onto the floor.

Sasuke frowned at his teammates. What did I say that was so bad?