AN: Note that I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any of the characters from either Anime. This work is a fanfiction written out of my love for the series and not in any attempt to make a profit.
Proofread by: Me, as a result of both of my proofreaders being unavailable.
Chapter 24: The way forward, compromise
The first thing Sakura discovered while looking through the many documents was that becoming promoted to Chūnin really would help. The fact that she had now passed to participate in the third exam was a good sign as well and could be used to delay things long enough to see if she became a Chūnin before having to deal with the Council. It was an immense relief to her, but all of the laws the Council could use against her were not. The laws themselves weren't malicious in any way and technically had her best in mind. There was plenty of compensation and if she chose to give up her life as an active Shinobi, she'd be able to live comfortably, even without working. The idea irked Sakura to no end. It was like a honeyed trap, ready to spring shut and rob her of her freedom. She had goals she wanted to pursue that she wouldn't be able to achieve if she just rolled over and let the council do what she wanted. Even if she could keep training, being kept from taking any missions until there were more people with her Kekkei Genkai was not that alluring to her, for multiple reasons.
"Why do I have to suffer through this? This is my Kekkei Genkai, isn't it? Why can't I just decide to not let the village have it and continue to be a Shinobi?" Sakura growled out, asking a bored-looking Kakashi who was sorting through some files next to her.
"Actually, you can, or rather, you might be able to, depending on how your examination goes. Although I doubt it. Even if you do, your Kekkei Genkai abilities would have to be sealed with a special seal. Upon death, your Kekkei Genaki would be destroyed, to keep any other village from acquiring it off of you… This seal would end up sealing all aspects of your Kekkei Genkai." Kakashi explained, turning to give her a pointed look.
Sakura understood immediately and shuddered. She'd have to give up Inner if she wanted to do that. Naturally, Inner was completely against that idea. She wasn't willing to bet on herself being able to come back from a seal meant to seal her away, that would most definitely not end as it had with Orochimaru's curse seal.
"Then what do I do? All of these options suck!" Sakura complained, gesturing to the pile of documents, listing all the laws Kakashi could find that would end up involved in the mess or could end up involved if either Sakura or the Council tried to change things further.
Kakashi's gaze turned to one of the files he had put away as a maybe. It was by far, the easiest way to resolve the matter, but he wasn't sure Sakura would be comfortable with what it involved. On top of it all, it wasn't even possible at this time, without a certain individual present in the village. He doubted the Council would agree to the compromise, but Sakura at the very least deserved to see the option for a chance to consider it. With a sigh, Kakashi picked the file up and handed it to Sakura. "Here, take a look at this one. It could let you escape the Council completely if you propose this. Although, it is a rather big decision." Kakashi told her.
Accepting the file, Sakura looked at it curiously, her brows furrowing as she read the odd title and then continued on with the content until she understood what Kakashi had meant and her eyes went wide."Donating one of my egg sacks?!" Sakura exclaimed, shocked as she turned to look at Kakashi, wondering if he was serious. With a nod, he confirmed that he was.
"More precisely, you'll be donating the eggs from within one of your egg sacks, not the entire organ itself. A skilled enough medic-nin should be able to do it with minimal impact on your daily life, and giving this to the Council would likely satisfy them enough to leave you alone completely." Kakashi explained, studying his student's face as she went through several different expressions as she thought the possibility over.
Frowning, Sakura thought, sharing her opinions with Inner. "There really isn't going to be a way to get away from this completely, is there?" She asked her, saddened by the thought as she already knew the answer.
"No, I don't think there is. I don't like it, but… Kakashi's proposal is probably the most preferable one in the end. If we make sure they can't use our eggs until we're either dead or have decided to have children of our own, at which point they wouldn't need them anymore, then I think this would almost be perfect." Inner reasoned, while Sakura still felt hesitant about deciding on this option. Looking back up at Kakashi, hoping he'd be able to give her the out she wanted, for now, she asked him.
"I… can I think about this one?" She asked him, relieved as he nodded, before turning back to some of the other files, leaving her with the one he had handed her. Looking down at it again, she put it in the "maybe" pile and then paused. Looking up at the television again, she saw that the current match was now Chōji Akimichi versus Neji Hyūga. Kiba's match had ended in Kiba and Akamaru managing to overpower Kabuto by attacking him from multiple directions at once, although it had still bee a close battle as Kabuto had managed to dodge them multiple times before they finally managed to get a devastating hit in, that had Kabuto surrender.
Following Kiba's victory, the following fight had been between Shikamaru Nara versus Hinata Hyūga. The fight had at first looked like a clear win for Shikamaru. He had easily trapped Hinata in his Shadow possession jutsu early on. However, Hinata had apparently refused to give up, even as Shikamaru had begun strangling her with shadows. Hinata had then managed to break through his shadow possession and jutsu by using her own clan's technique. Sakura didn't know what it was called, but all of a sudden Hinata had begun to spin rapidly and a dome of chakra had sprung up around her, managing to eliminate Shikamaru's shadow. Afterward, Hinata had rapidly, and effectively approached Shikamaru, striking him in ways that made him fall over and unable to get up, forcing him to give up, handing Hinata the win.
As such, with Hinata passing onto the next exam, the next match began, resulting in another fight between a member of team 10 and another Hyūga. Due to the lack of sound, Sakura couldn't hear what was said between Neji and Chōji, but whatever Neji had said, it resulted in Chōji entering an absolute rage. Sakura watched, wide-eyed as Chōji turned himself into the equivalent of an enlarged, human boulder. He was deceptively nimble in that form and nearly ran Neji over multiple times. Even with his Byakugan, Neji found it hard to do much against Chōji, as what weaknesses he could spot, kept moving as Chōji kept spinning, or were simply not reachable, due to how he would have to penetrate much further than on a usual person. This meant that Neji quickly found himself on the losing side. However, even so, he refused to give up, drawing the match out until they were both exhausted. However, in the end, Neji was the one who lost as Chōji finally managed to catch him in between a wall and himself, breaking his defense and squishing him into the wall, revealing Neji to have fallen unconscious once Chōji returned to normal.
Comparing herself to the other teams, Sakura just saw even more of a difference between how much more effort everyone else seemed to be putting into their careers. All of them seemed to have their own special techniques. Sure, most of them were clan techniques, but still, Sakura could now see the gap between herself and the other rookies quite clearly. With the match over and the next matchup benign randomized, Sakura took the brief pause to check the last few files before putting them down, sighing as she picked up the ones she had put in the maybe pile and went over them again. The only one that after all that seemed even the slightest bit appealing being the one Kakashi had handed her.
Looking back at the television, Sakura saw that the next matchup was Temari versus Sasuke Uchiha. "Oh, it's Sasuke's turn now!" Sakura exclaimed happily, deciding that talking with Kakashi concerning her training could wait for a bit.
"Um, yes. I suppose that since we're mostly done here, you can go back and watch his fight. Just make sure you come back afterward." Kakashi allowed her.
"Thank you, Sensei." Sakura thanked him happily as she stood up and hurried out to watch Sasuke's fight. Chuckling, Kakashi shook his head and finished cleaning up the files, leaving Sakura's choices for consideration be. Sitting down on the couch, he sighed and considered Sakura's earlier fight and what he had learned about her Kekkei Genkai. He hoped that things would work out. Hopefully mentioning Orochimaru being involved would be enough to get Jiraiya to accept Sakura as his student for practicing with her new abilities. Perhaps he'd also be able to help them find the whereabouts of Tsunade. She would be required for a surgery like the one in the proposal he had given Sakura, at least, if they wanted her to recover from it without any scarring or complications. Turns out, that Sakura's life was just as troubled as the rest of her team's now. Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi himself, they all had troubled pasts and issues they had to deal with. Sakura had up until recently been the only normal one out of them all. She had reminded him so much of Rin, and somewhere, deep inside, he had selfishly wished for her to remain as she was. He should have expected her to evolve and become better, stronger. She had overcome his expectations and given his hopes the middle finger. It made Kakashi smile. Hopefully, this time he would get it right, this time, his team wouldn't die under his lead.
Excited, Sakura hurried into the room, immediately seeing the battle between Sasuke and Tamari taking place in the middle of the room. Scattered around them were kunai and shuriken, ones Sasuke was pulling back up with wires, launching them at Tamari who lazily blew them back with her fan, smirking confidently as she did so.
"Is this all the Uchiha can do? I'm not impressed." She taunted him, while Sasuke grit his teeth and sent another volley of pointy metal at her, before letting go of the wire in favor of performing a rapid set of seals. Forming the Ram, Snake and finally Tiger seals, two clones suddenly appeared on either side of Sasuke, before fanning out to attack Tamari from different directions.
"Hah, that won't help you." She told him, opening her fan up wider, before swinging it in an arc, hitting all three of them, resulting in two of the Sasuke clones to dispel in puffs of smoke, while the real one was blown backward, tumbling along the ground before he managed to land upright and remain standing up, using the wall walking technique.
"I'll show you not to underestimate me," Sasuke responded, before putting his hands together to form new seals, his hands forming the Rat, Tiger, Ox, Rabbit and finally Tiger seals again, before releasing his technique. Spitting balls of fire, Sasuke, simultaneously hid shuriken inside of the projectiles, hiding them from plain sight. He had made sure to overcharge his fire with chakra to allow his shuriken to continue through the wind, even as the fire was blown out, having already dealt with a similar technique when fighting Kazu back in the forest of death.
Temari, still confident as ever, once again swung her fan to extinguish Sasuke's jutsu, smiling smugly as she saw the fire extinguish, only for the shuriken inside of the flames to continue flying at her, or rather, at her fan. In a panicked attempt to save her fan from being damaged, Temari closed the fan all the way, letting the outer metal part take the brunt of the attack. Relieved that she had managed to save her fan, she was too late to react to the sudden explosion tag going off, having been attached to one of the shuriken, ignited by the fire as it had been blown onto the tag, while originally protected from it during the attack.
With a yelp, Tamari was engulfed in a ball of flames, while Sasuke took the moment to throw another hail of shuriken at the resulting cloud of smoke. It seemed that Sasuke had managed to win this fight.
AN: Well, this chapter was surprisingly easy to write. I originally planned to write the full fights out, but as I kept writing, I realized that Sakura is the primary target of the story, so by following her and giving her a way to see the fights indirectly, I could summarize them without too much of a disruption. Of course, I expect some people to not agree with the results of the fights, but from what I know of the character's capabilities, personalities and intentions, this was the most likely outcome I could see from those matchups. Mind you, I used a randomizer for all but one match, which I decided I just had to ensure happens, so none of the outcomes in this chapter were predetermined.