As the last slots were filled up, mainly from UA students, some Konoha, and the rest from the other schools, Sakura abruptly stood up. She had felt something, a familiar signature. One that belonged to a villain.
The pinkette roamed the room, trying to find that same feeling again. And just when she felt she was on a trail, a hand on her shoulder made her jump in surprise. Sakura turned around to see Midoriya staring questioningly at her.
" Looking for something?" The boy asked with a warm smile.
Sakura shook her head as her mask translated her thoughts. " Not something, someone."
Midoriya suddenly flinched and grabbed the pinkette by the arm, causing Sakura to look to where he was looking at. Off to the side with the Shiketsu students was the same girl in the catsuit from before who had waved to her when she fell into the warp.
" What? Scared?" Sakura asked with a raised eyebrow. " Weird thing to fear."
" No, just a bit tense with her." Midoriya informed. " That girl, she can transform into other people, I'm guessing she's the same one Kacchan had met as well."
" Something about her is bothering me. She seems familiar but in a bad way." The pinkette turned the volume of her gadget down so no one else could hear her. " It's on the tip of my tongue."
Suddenly, from across the room, Kaminari shouted for Mineta. " I found him Mineta, he's with Haruno!"
With that said, Midoriya excused himself from the girl.
As the pinkette watched Kaminari and Mineta chased the poor boy around, Naruto walked over to the girl and grinned widely. However, Sakura only gave the boy a blank look in return, as if she couldn't think of any other face to give him.
" What's wrong?" Naruto asked.
The pinkette shook her head and plopped down on a bench. As the hyper blonde bragged about how he got his last point to continue on in the exam, Sakura's eyes darted around the room in search for something, anything.
Unfortunately, her eyes landed on the only Uchiha in the room. Sasuke noticed her stare and walked over.
" Yeah?" The boy asked, crossing his arms.
Sakura frowned and stood up so that Sasuke wasn't staring down on her. " Nothing, I just happened to see you alone. You can go back now."
" Look, Sakura, I don't understand why you're still so cold to me, it was years ago." Sasuke sighed as if talking to her was tiring. The Uchiha may have thought his action was acceptable, but it didn't sit well with the pinkette.
Sakura's face scrunched up in a crooked sneer as her mask did all the talking. " Excuse me, sorry if our relationship had meant more to me then it ever did for you."
Naruto stood up and tried to smooth the tension down. He wasn't always the bright bulb but it didn't take a genius to figure out that Sakura and Sasuke just didn't fall apart within one night and resumed being normal friends the very next.
" M-Maybe Teme's right, it was years ago, Sakura-chan." Naruto stuttered before wincing at the glare thrown his way. " Yeah, I deserved that."
" What's going on here?" Kiba asked as he walked over with the rest of the Konoha students.
Soon after, Class A walked over with curious eyes. They stood next to the Konoha group, more use to them now then they were before. Ever since they had allied themselves, they had grown somewhat closer. Although some in particular were still uneasy with specifically others.
It was a stand off at this point between Sakura and Sasuke. The dark haired boy with his uncaring icy eyes and the girl with the eyes that sent sparks flying everywhere. Ino came forward, pulling on Sakura's arm.
" Come you, you can't do this here." The blonde hissed. " You'll regret it later."
Suddenly, a gentle but firm voice spoke up from the back. " No, Sakura-chan needs to get it off her chest. It obviously had been eating away at her for two years, and it's not healthy to keep things bubbled up like this."
Ino stared at Uraraka, hands on her hips. Despite her nervous expression at standing in front of someone as dominating as Ino, Uraraka didn't back down and firmly stood by Sakura's side.
" She can fight through it." Ino insisted. " Trust me, I've known her before she even recognized her own Quirk."
Urarka stayed quiet and puffed up her cheeks in a stubborn way, unable to find a counter statement. But she didn't need to, the pinkette turned to Ino before addressing the whole Konoha group.
" Ochaco's right, It's time to stop running from this." The pinkette rubbed her temples, hearing her own thoughts being projected was causing a headache. " Sasuke Uchiha, I don't know if i'll ever be able to treat you the same as before, but I do know this. We're both planning on becoming heroes, so lets start over with this simple connection."
" Hn." Was all that Sasuke said before turning on his heel. Shortly after, he turned back and glanced at Sakura. "...sorry for everything."
" Why am I liking that bastard less and less?" Bakugou grumbled from the back row as he watched Sasuke stalk off before walking after him." Hey, Freak Eyes!"
Ino huffed as she scanned Uraraka over one last time before walking away with Hinata and Tenten following by closely. As the Konoha student went on their own path, what was left of Class A crowded around, a breeze of silence passing by them.
" You forgot this." Todoroki brought the red ribbon in his hand to everyone's attention. " Found it on the bench."
The pinkette nodded and and took it from the boy. As she tied it around her head, she noticed Uraraka staring at her, and when she raised an eyebrow, the brunette's face parted into a smile.
" Nothing, I was just thinking how cool you were." Uraraka replied, earning an embarrassed look from the pinkette.
Suddenly, the screen of the arena called for everyone's attention.
" Watch out everyone, villains have launched a large-scale attack on the city." Mera explained, introducing the next and final part of the exam. " Many citizens are injured due to the falling buildings and the rescue teams are delayed because of the roads, until they arrive, you heroes will lead the rescuing."
The room they were in started opening up from the top, causing Sakura to question the whole arena. However, the pinkette's attention was brought back to her surroundings as she notice everyone around her was getting read to run.
" It's your job to save as many people as possible." Mera declared. " And now...start!"
Everyone ran forward and into the damaged city setting, including Sakura who ran in with Uraraka and Todoroki. However, the pinkette departed from them and went solo before taking a stand in the middle of a road.
She pressed her hands against a swaying building and closed her eyes as she tried to concentrate. It came at her in a rush, the presence she had been unable to sense showed up in her mind like heat images.
On a normal basis, she was able to locate people who were only a few feet from her, but if she was to concentrate, she could sense those farther away. Sakura's eyes shot open and instantly she ran over to a pile of debris and lifted it up.
Underneath, the pinkette found an old woman who trembled when the sunlight shined on her. Sakura threw the debris off to the side and jumped when she turned back to the old woman. Or in this case, who she had thought to be a woman was a man in a wig.
" What're you looking at girlie?!" The man shouted, and Sakura could only sit with a neutral expression when she felt spit being spray on her face. " Minus points!"
" Hey! What do you mean, minus points?!" Sakura argued back when she registered the words.
The man sat up and smacked her on the head before putting on a knowing face. " You're suppose to make sure I'm okay first, not gawk at me. Look at my leg, it looks pretty bang up, right? What about my arm?"
Sakura sighed and reached for the elderly man's arm, her palm glowing blue, but to only be stop once more.
" Minus points!" The man announced, proceeding to smack the girl on the head again. " There's other injured people out there probably drawing their last breath. And what are you doing?! You can heal me afterwards, right now just get me to the safety zone."
The pinkette rubbed the place she had been hit before picking up the man in her arms. However, she couldn't help but glance around nervously, the old man was right. There was other people out there, she had sensed it herself.
If only she could get the injured people she found to the safe zone right away without wasting time.
" Want more points taken off or something, little girl?" The elderly man asked. " I'm hurting over here, ya know!"
" Right, right, sorry." Sakura mumbled as she started running. On the way she saw multiple people still searching and decided to lend a hand. " Off to your right there's someone! You, continue a few more steps!"
When Sakura reached the safe zone she handed the old man off to a boy who seemed to be making sure the citizens were okay. She turned to leave, but then she stopped, realizing she had a solution for her problem from earlier.
" Everyone, step back!" Sakura warned as she bent down so that her palm was flat up against the ground.
She had been preparing for this for so long and now was the time to finally use it. It had to work, it just had to. The pinkette made sure everyone who she deemed was too close got to a safer distance before inhaling and exhaling.
" Summoning: Katsuyu Of Shikkotsu Forest!" Sakura called, mustering all the Quirk energy in her from her seal.
The seal spread throughout her body with a mild burning sensation as the energy was focussed on creating a creature of healing. All the Chakra Sakura had been storing for the past few years were being suppress to the outside world, before finally, Sakura felt air traveling through her hair as she was brought up to the sky.
When she opened her eyes again, she had a clear outlook of the arena, although the shocked look on the student's face was a bit blurry as the pinkette felt a bit faint. She had done it, she had summon Katsuyu.
" You okay, Sakura-chan?" The slug asked, surprising the pinkette.
" Y-Yeah. You can talk?" Sakura regretted her choice of words the moment the mask projected them, she felt so stupid asking that.
Underneath her, Katsuyu slightly wiggled. " Sakura-chan, having me by your side means you can communicate with those I'm with, and there's no need for vocal words. We are linked. What are you going to do now?"
The pinkette slipped her mask down to her neck, her fingers trembling. It still felt unreal as she watched the students below her run around like little ants, but she had no time to stare aimlessly. Sakura closed her eyes as she determined her next move.
What was the best current option?
" I need you to split and scatter. Go in search of those who have yet to be rescue, but also hang around those in the safe zone." Sakura passed on. " Our job is to scout and heal starting now."
It was also now that Sakura was going to have the biggest role during this exercise. Healing people had always been her weakest ability when she only had two since it required using her own energy to heal, but now, it was time for the table to be turned.
The pinkette kept her eyes closed in focus as she guided the Chakra in her to Katsuyu who begun to divide into smaller parts. In the end, the girl was on top of the biggest Katsuyu while the smaller ones who were the size of an average person. It was all a network with Sakura being in the center of it all, working out the details as she oversaw the events.
" Sakura-chan, there's a problem." Katsuyu suddenly reported. " On the left, a single Shiketsu student is having trouble carrying four wounded across the river."
Sakura went over the facts on her classmates before going over the facts on the Konoha students. " Send Tsu, Shouto, and Kiba over there. With Akamaru, he'll be able to carry those they can't."
" On it." Katsuyu replied, and after some time, she alerted her summoner once more. " Straight ahead, Sero is having trouble lifting a large rubble off of a victim."
" Get the message to Choji, he'll be able to help."
Sakura could feel her energy slowly drain out of her, and it was only now did she realized this was exactly how Tsunade felt when she was evacuating a whole city as well as search at the same time. It was exhausting, but the fact that she was the main stream of healing gave her a surge of determination.
Through Katsuyu, she could tell where everyone was and what they were doing, and how far the people who were hurt were from full recovery.
" Midoriya wants to let you know there's a problem at the west wing. There seems to be a villain attack. And it's not just there, it's all around." Katsuyu stressed, causing Sakura to open her eyes to survey the area.
And true to what Katsuyu had told her, she could see smoke, but what made her realize the danger the injured were in was when she noticed that there was a group of pros dressed as villain advancing toward the safe zone specifically.
" Help the citizens get away by using the emergency plan, and once they're at a safe distance, I'll continue on with scouting." Sakura informed through her thoughts. By the emergency plan, the pinkette meant for Katsuyu to attach herself to the citizens, that way the creature could help those who wouldn't walk get away safely.
" Anything else?" Katsuyu asked, hinting that the pinkette may be missing something.
Sakura nodded as she passed her thoughts on. " And get Naruto, Sasuke, and Todoroki to the front lines if possible. However, make sure their injured are brought to the new safe zone first, we can't risk their safety."
The pinkette needed to concentrate more then ever right now. She remembered what Tsunade had once told her about wielding Katsuyu, she was to prioritize her patients at all times if she was on the medical field, and that time was now.
As time passed by, Sakura discovered that they had found everyone that was hidden under the wreckage, and her only job now was to make sure they stayed out of the danger zone.
But something was happening in the front lines, the students were having trouble holding back the supposed villains. The pinkette bit her lips as she registered what she should do in this situation. The safe zone had plenty of students protecting it, and the search and rescue was complete.
" Alright, it's time to join the fight." Sakura had slipped her mask back on, and immediately the mask spoke for her.
She easily cancelled the summoning, but she didn't wait for Katsuyu to fully regather and instead jumped off the slug without any warning. She landed with full power, causing her surroundings to be blown back from the wind capacity of her land.
The dust that had rose to form clumpy clouds didn't have time to settle down as the pinkette leapt out from it, zipping from the left to the right at a pace that made the debris in her way crumble when she came in contact with it.
She wasn't worrying about having control over her Quirk at the moment, all she had in mind was that she needed to be out there. On her way to the front lines, she could see her classmates fend off some villains from reaching the haven.
" It's best to help out on the way."
Those were Sakura's thoughts second before she went in for a mob of villains. Her fist collided against the abdomen of one of the minor villain, and when she went all the way through, the villain was flung back into the others that was behind him.
The group of darkly clothed villains all broke through the wall that they had crashed into, and continuing to skid across the ground until coming to a halt.
" Sakura, we've got it covered here. Hurry on!" Ashido reassured.
The said girl nodded her head in understanding and off she went once more. When Gang Orca, the pro playing the boss villain came into view, Sakura launched into the sky, her fist pulled back.
She wasn't planning on a full on frontal approach since she knew full well she wouldn't be able to leave a scratch on a hero like him, so instead, the girl was hoping to waver his defense of minions who stuck close to him.
" Watch out!" Sakura called, the voice of the mask was cut off a little by the static, but the students heard her loud and clear.
They formed an area for her to target, knowing full well the kind of impact she would have on their current enemies. This was the distraction they needed, the support they were waiting for when Gang Orca and his sidekick had started to pick them off one by one.
Sakura's fist pulverized the ground, and all hell broke loose.