Chapter 08 - Pretty please, get me out of here.
(Kakashi's test, part 3 - Two weeks before the events on chapters 4 and 5)
6 seconds.
She had failed the task because of six damned seconds. It had been the time she used to put the weights in the storage scroll. She scowled.
Somehow, Pakkun was already waiting for her when she arrived, panting hard. He simply shook his head and she plopped down to the ground fishing her water bottle and taking a sip before she put the weights on her ankles again.
Now it all depended on her getting at least one point on this last task, or she'd be deemed incapable to take the chunin exam.
Great. Inner and herself said bitterly at the same time.
"Come, this way." Pakkun called her after a few minutes and she followed, silently still angry that she missed the time. If only she had been just a little faster, she could've gotten the last point she needed. Maybe Lee was right and it was about time she got heavier weights.
She was no fool, there was no way in hell she'd get two points in a tracking task, but she could've gotten the 'concluded with struggle' point.
Well, that sucked. Inner whined and Sakura rolled her eyes in a 'No shit, really?' way. Inner buffed, but simply stated that at least there was one round still.
Turning left after Pakkun, Sakura noticed that they had entered one of the village's public gardens. It was quite beautiful, but she didn't have time to appreciate it because she soon heard, then saw Naruto and Sasuke.
Sasuke was still lightly scowling (when was he not?) and Naruto was in a good mood (again, when was he not?). Her own mood soured further as she approached and sat near them.
Pakkun sat in front of them all, with Bisuki and Urushi flanking him after they barked some weird talk between them.
"Pups, here's the current score. Sakura, you still have four points, six seconds late is still a failed mission." she frowned at the grass, ignoring the way the boys were looking at her while Bisuki gave a little whine.
"Sasuke, you currently have four points as well." Sakura heard Naruto complimenting the Uchiha and only heard a grunt in response "And Naruto, you have three points total." Pakkun said and the blond set on telling that that was not fair because he had crushed the test and yada yada yada, she wasn't paying attention.
"-now. You finished, but struggled. That's a point and no more, so stop whining." Pakkun said in a 'don't test my patience' kind of tone and Naruto actually did shut up.
After a few seconds of awkward silence, a smoke cloud appeared next to Pakkun and from within came the huge black bulldog with spiked collar from Kakashi's ninken pack. Bull dropped a scroll, barked a few times and puffed away.
Sakura watched Pakkun, noticing that he was... scowling? Do dogs scowl? Well, he was scowling.
"Bisuki, Urushi." he turned to look at the other dogs who promptly stood up, ready to listen "You heard the orders. Urushi, I'll leave you in charge. Reunite the others and make sure the area stays clear." more serious than Sakura remembered seeing them in a long time, the ninken nodded and, just before they vanished, Pakkun barked what sounded like "Kakashi wants them out of here."
The interaction didn't escape any of the genin's attention and before Pakkun turned to look at them, Naruto was already talking.
"Hey, Pakkun. What was that?"
"Nothing to worry, pup."
Sakura didn't buy it and, looking towards the boys, neither did them, apparently.
"That didn't sound like nothing." she said in a low, careful tone.
The blond huffed in agreement and, surprisingly, Sasuke backed them.
"Is there someone trying to interfere?" the Uchiha asked in a way that didn't really sound like a question.
"Looks like you have too many fangirls, Sasuke-san." Pakkun deadpanned and the boy averted his eyes with a frown "But don't worry, the boys' will have a lovely time scaring them away for the time being."
Naruto frowned for a second before it somehow turned into laughter.
"Oi, teme! They're stalking you again?" the blond asked in a wheeze and the other simply huffed.
But Sakura was paying attention to Pakkun, who looked more annoyed than amused, which, after spending so much time with him and the pack, she knew could only mean that it was more than just some fangirls roaming around. She also realised that it wasn't up for discussion and decided not to press any further for the moment.
"So. What's the next assignment?" she changed the subject while Naruto teased Sasuke.
"Right. It's a two for one kind of deal." he answered, looking grateful that she had asked. That got the boys' attention back to the test and they focused on the pug again.
"Two in one? That's not fair!" Naruto whined "Can't we just do one part and get it over with?"
"It's a rescue mission, so it involves infiltration too." Pakkun ignored the blond "This task is to be completed without any outside help." he locked eyes with her and she blushed "I'll only observe from now on, you can proceed however you want." he pressed his paw on top of the scroll Bull had left "I suggest you think before acting, you all need points to pass the test." then pushed the scroll towards them with his snout.
For a few seconds they all just look at the scroll and then at each other in confusion, because there was just one scroll. With a bad feeling about this, Sakura was the first to step to catch the scroll, but as soon as she approached, Sasuke decided to unfreeze and snatched it before she could.
She could only gape at him.
"What the fuck, Sasuke?" she managed to ask in a high pitched squeak, which he pointedly ignored while opening the scroll. Naruto stepped near him to read it and, grudgingly, she did the same, staying as far as she could while still being able to read the instructions.
The scroll read:
Task #4 - Save me
Target name: Hatake Kakashi
Physical characteristics: Still good-looking.
Last known location: With any luck, now you know. (Of course they know, your dogs were supposed to guide them even if they failed, remember? -A) Oh, yeah. Sweet! Now, get moving, pups. (If I roll my eyes any harder, I think they'll end up permanently turned inwards. Really. I'm losing my patience, Kakashi. - A)
Mission briefing: A is keeping me hostage! Pretty please, get me out of here. (Rush it, kids. Or I'll be forced to beat this idiot into a coma because I can't stand listening to his voice much longer. -A)
Time limit: 30 minutes seems about right. (I said RUSH IT, kids. Or you won't have a sensei left to save. Are you listening to me, Kakashi? Goddammit! -A)
There were no doodles or anything of the sort. It was clear that whoever 'A' was, they were losing the patience with the tests and the waiting. So she needed to move fast to avoid a harsher resistance. She stepped away from the boys as Naruto began to complain about something she didn't bother paying attention to, she took a few steps back, but stopped when she felt that she was missing something important.
Taking a few seconds to go over the information she had, the previous tasks, the place they were and the reason behind the test. Soon enough she was frowning. Damned Kakashi. She refrained from rolling her eyes, of course he'd do something like that. She took another moment to try to think her way out of the situation, only to find herself metaphorically backed to a wall.
Sighing, she turned to Naruto and Sasuke, who were bickering, but luckily they hadn't disappeared yet.
"Boys." she called, but was completely ignored, so she took a step closer and tried again "Hey!" they ignored her again.
Sakura huffed. They were losing time with nothing productive!
"Sasuke." she called, because he was usually the rational one, but was ignored once more, so she tried calling her other teammate "Naruto!" nothing changed, except that now they were yelling ever louder at each other.
That was it.
She was fed up with their bickering. She had thought she would be the only one responsible to hold back the team, but she could now see that they held each other back.
It wasn't her fault alone.
She wasn't team seven's burden.
They all were.
Her isolation in order to get stronger, Naruto's stubbornness and inability to actually act like a shinobi, as well as Sasuke's arrogance. It wasn't just her fault that they couldn't work like a team.
"Shut up!" she yelled at them, finally succeeding in gaining their attention. How long had it been since she intentionally spoke to them instead of just nodding and huffing? "Can't you two see that there's only one freaking way to pass this last task and that we're just losing time?" she asked before they could say anything else. They looked at her in stunned silence,
"What do you mean, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, blushing a little as she scowled.
"Sasuke and I need just a point to reach the goal. But that clearly doesn't matter anymore." she hissed. Of course Kakashi had planned the tests to, one way or another, get to this very result. Damn.
Sasuke was grimacing at her words, probably understanding what she meant, but Naruto was just there gaping at her, looking rather lost.
"Even if we both get the points we need, we can't participate in the exam if you don't pass as well, dobe." Sasuke mumbled.
"Yes, either the whole team participates on the exam or neither of us do." she scowled. It sucked that she was so close to prove she was good enough to take the exam only to end up depending on Naruto's result. "You need two points, so we have to complete this task flawlessly, otherwise, we get stuck as genins for another year."
"I can't have that." Sasuke said quietly, while Naruto grimaced, but nodded.
"So what do we do now, teme?" the blond turned to the Uchiha and Sakura held her sigh, of course he would ask directions from him instead of her, even if it was clear he had just figured it out as well.
"We work together." she answered before the brunet could "That's the whole point of this task anyway." she shrugged at their surprised expressions.
"But you never work with us." the blond pointed out.
"We won't be able to function well together." the Uchiha deadpanned.
"I've watched you two enough to understand how to work with you if needed and better divide the plan's assignments. The problem is if you can trust me long enough for it to actually work."
She did have a plan. Well, in truth, considering their current skill sets, there was only one real good option in this situation.
Kakashi had planned it all the way through, down to the smallest details. How did he know about her strengths and weaknesses in order to plan this test the way he did?
Not the time! Inner slapped some sense into her.
"Plan?" Sasuke broke the silence.
"Yes, if you stop to think about it, there's really just one good way out of this situation and it involves us working together."
He paused. Then frowned.
"I can't see it." he mumbled so low that she barely caught his words, but she just smirked.
"That's because you're not counting me in, are you?"
He opened and closed his mouth several times before he resigned to staying silent.
"That's because we know nothing about you anymore, Sakura-chan." Naruto pouted.
She wanted to say some hard truths to them, but now was not the time for that. And we aren't blameless either… Inner shrugged while Sakura shook the thought away. They were already wasting precious time.
"Hn, the only thing you need to know is that I can handle my own end in this plan. As I know you can hold yours."
"Wha-" the blond began asking, but Sasuke interrupted him.
"Kakashi planned the test in a way that all of our strengths are required in order to achieve the goal, dobe." his voice was both annoyed and impressed at the same time.
"What strengths?"
Sasuke opened his mouth and Sakura cut him.
"We don't have time to make him understand." both boys frowned and Naruto began protesting, but she ignored him, she was annoyed enough already "We have limited time. I need you two to either hear me out or get the hell out of my way so I can find a different option to finish the task." she spat, her temper getting the best of her. She had forgotten just how exhausting it was to deal with those two.
After a few seconds of stunned silence, Naruto's voice sounded rather loud.
"You said the test was made to need all of us, Sakura-chan. You'll need us as much as we'll need you."
At that statement, they all frowned.
Damned Kakashi.
"I don't care! If you're not capable of getting over your freaking disgust against me long enough to finish the task, then I will find a way to finish it on my own." and she would. She needed to. To hell with them.
Both boys gaped at her for a few heartbeats, looking the most stunned they had until now. Sasuke got his shit together first and was the one to break the silence.
"Don't make the mistake of thinking you're the only one who really wants to take that exam, Sakura. We've trained long and hard for it and we're gonna make it." Sasuke spat back, his own temper flaring up. She stared back, not saying anything but not backing down either.
"Ne, Sakura-chaaan, team seven can do it together, believe it!" he smiled, breaking the tension.
She sighed, too tired to argue with the blond. She was sure he could argue and tire out even Kami. She stood no chance.
"Alright. Let's not waste more time, then. Pay attention, because we have to be nothing short on perfect in order to complete the task. We only have one shot."
The boys nodded and she launched in an explanation. After some good ol' bickering, they set to move. Sakura was no strategist, but the plan was too obvious (she guessed that this was the reason why Sasuke was actually listening and following her lead instead of dismissing her every word), they just needed to refine some details and go over it enough times that even Naruto would be able to follow it with no problem.
After about a minute they reached their first destination and set on working.
-cCc-
Pakkun was watching the kids in deep amusement. For whatever Kakashi had told him, this was not the outcome his master had expected. At all. Which made it all the more fun for him because Kakashi was rarely mistaken in his assessments.
Based on his pupils' personalities, his master had expected three possible outcomes:
1- They would all part ways after reading the scroll. Naruto would come with many clones and try to force his way in. Sasuke would wait a little before using Naruto as a distraction to infiltrate the building on his own. Sakura would stay in the shadows watching and she would follow Sasuke's time to try and slip in unnoticed.
2- Sasuke would understand he couldn't do it on his own and would boss Naruto around to use him as bait to sneak in. Sakura would understand the same but ignore it and try to do it on her own.
3- Sasuke and Sakura would understand they were all needed to complete the test. The Uchiha would manage to convince Sakura to work with them by playing on her fangirl habits and boss Naruto around to create their distraction, then use Sakura as an insurance that should they get caught, he'd at least be able to run away and secure his point.
Pakkun didn't understand why he would create a test in a way that it was sure that all the subjects were supposed to fail. He suspected that it was to prove something about the underneath of the underneath, but he didn't really care because the pups were, surprisingly, acting like a pack and he could see that they had a good chance to shock Kakashi wrong.
It would be good for his master too, he had been too comfortable with his previous assessments of his team and was neglecting to see their subtle improvements. Hell, it took the entire pack telling him about how the girl had been besting some of them in speed when she took them for their daily walk for him to consider spying on her to check what she was up to.
Pakkun knew that he had done it just so his pack would stop nagging him about it and it was with deep satisfaction that he saw Kakashi being shocked for the first time in many years when they found the girl sparring furiously with a miniature of the guy who proclaimed himself his master's rival. That was when they received orders to keep an eye on the girl and report on her development, though when she started training with steathiness and awareness they soon had to stop, because she never trained when she felt someone watching her.
Now, from the pack, only he could hide himself well enough (and long enough) to fool her and he had other stuff to do too. Though it had been a little while since he had been able to track her progress, Pakkun was happy to see that she had advanced quite a lot and was much more confident in her abilities than ever before, to the point of wrecking Kakashi's expected outcomes to this last task.
Even he wasn't expecting that the girl would take leadership on the task, or that the boys would accept it, or even that she had a freaking sound plan that could actually work, playing all the right cards, using their strengths in a way Kakashi was clearly not expecting.
"Any doubts?" she asked, looking straight to Naruto, who frowned but shook his head 'no'.
"Then we meet back here in six minutes." Sasuke nodded, while Naruto made a few clones and they all disappeared, leaving the Uchiha and the girl behind "Sakura, I-" he began saying, his voice heavy, though his face was still neutral.
"Is it about the task?" the girl interrupted, the boy frowned and denied "Then we can discuss it later." she dismissed him "I'll be back in five minutes." then disappeared too, leaving a scowling Sasuke behind.
Even Pakkun knew that the 'we can discuss it later' excuse of hers was nothing more than a polite 'I don't want to hear it', for a long time he thought that she was going a little too far with her resentment against her team. Of course, he didn't know the whole story, but it couldn't be that bad, now could it?
Though Urushi had presented a damn good point when the pack was discussing it: how would he feel if the pack turned its back to him? Because that's how they felt team seven treated the girl.
That got Pakkun thinking and it was the sole reason the pack had nagged Kakashi into paying more attention to his pups. You don't abandon pack and whether he liked it or not, those kids were part of his pack too. It was one of the arguments they used to prove their point, that and the words of his master's dead friend 'those who abandon their friends are worse than scum'.
Yeah, they had gone that far because if he didn't feel bad about neglecting the girl, soon enough he'd start neglecting one of the boys. Pack protects pack, so he and the boys felt like they needed to open their master's eye about this and they weren't about to cuddle him into understandment.
Besides, the pack had grown fond of Sakura, more so than the boys, considering they spent more time with her and that had nothing to do with how many treats she gave them (though that helped too). He was happy to see her, despite the odds, blooming into a fine genin with a big potential. He could smell that she was strong, stronger than even she realised as of yet, though he had kept his assessment to himself, he had a feeling it was not the time to bring it up and his master hadn't asked either.
Sux minutes later, they were all back and discussing what they had discovered about the building Kakashi was in, how many entering points, exits, how many floors, and how many people there probably were in there. He was pleased to see that, so far, the plan was working wonders. Sakura had perfectly matched the jobs to each of them: Naruto had been on scout duty, checking for the possible ways of entering the building as well as leaving some clones in strategic places to watch for movement. There hadn't been movement on the outside, but he heard a small hussle on the inside, from where Sakura had instructed him to pay attention (third floor, the apartment to the right, according to the information she got from the Hyuuga girl, although she didn't explain why that spot).
Sasuke was supposed to leave in about two minutes to check for traps on the exits they weren't gonna use, just in case. Sakura had gone somewhere she didn't say, but assured it would help their escape. Whatever it was she was doing, she came back with a brown paper bag and a poorly disguised disturbed look on her face, though she said that everything had worked as expected. Nobody inquired further.
Soon enough Sasuke came back and they went over their plan once more before taking off in the direction of the building. Sasuke and Sakura each made a clone that left with Naruto towards the entrance of the building. As soon as the yelling began, the real Sasuke and Sakura left towards the side building. Even Pakkun had been included in Sakura's plan and though he wasn't supposed to do anything (he had orders not to, either way) she reasoned that he had to stay with Naruto and the clones because, otherwise, Kakashi would notice that Sakura and Sasuke were sneaking from somewhere else.
So that's where he was right now, watching as Naruto played his part with surprisingly good acting skills.
"He's expecting us to come in through here, Naruto! We need to back away and make a plan!" clone-Sakura shrieked, trying to tug Naruto by his shirt.
"Yeah, dobe. There are too many points in and out of here. They can escape before we can stop them and then we're fucked because we'll have to track them all over again." Sasuke hissed, pinching his nose between his fingers.
"Then I just need to have eyes everywhere!" the blond protested and proceeded to create a shit load of clones, making them run to circle the building and using the buildings next to them to jump on its walls and roof top, stationing a clone of himself in every single exit.
"Naruto!" Sakura facepalmed "That helps nothing! We need to work together! That's why there was only one scroll!" she yelled at him "And we can't even surprise them anymore! How the hell are we supposed to get in unnoticed now? I told you we needed to plan this!" she turned to look pleadingly at Sasuke who remained scowling at the blond "What do we do now, Sasuke-kun?" she all but begged Sasuke.
But before the brunet could answer, Naruto freed himself from her hold and yelled "They can't defend themselves from every direction! I'll get sensei out, Sakura-chan. Believe it!" then jumped towards the door at the same time as his clones entered from every one of the other exit points.
Sasuke simply shook his head and said "Let the dobe get his ass kicked, we need to plan a way to do this ourselves, Sakura." he turned to leave without even looking at her. Pakkun followed them, despite wanting to watch the rest of the show and, as soon as they were out of sensing range, the two clones poofed out.
-cCc-
Sasuke was quite surprised by the plan Sakura had come up with in such a small time window, but he was even more stunned that he couldn't come up with a better one himself. He often forgot that she had had the second best score at the academy on the theoretical tests, ranking higher than even him, only losing to the Nara kid.
He was quite surprised by a lot of things about Sakura today, if he was gonna be honest.
First she had jumped into the lake like it was nothing, which indeed it wasn't, but out of the girls around his age he had ever had contact with (most of them being his dreaded fangirls) would never do that. Especially in front of him and she had been one of his fiercest fangirls up until a few months back.
Then she had aced the sparring test that not even he got two points for. He supposed that Kakashi had different standards and different types of evaluation for each of them, but still, seeing her best him in that task had stung. What would his father say if he found out about this? He'd be absolutely furious that a clanless civilian-born girl managed to best him without ever having had a freaking sensei to teach her and-
Oh fuck.
A girl, clanless, civilian-born, who had never before the Academy years ever even seen a shuriken. A girl that had never, before turning genin, stepped into a dojo and even after getting the rank, was never taught by their sensei, who was usually worried about either reading his porn or helping him and Naruto sharpen the taijutsu they already had been taught by their parents or clan, in his case. All the while, the only person in the team that actually needed lessons on taijutsu, was the one ignored and set aside only to watch because she couldn't keep up with them.
Fucking hell.
Of course she couldn't keep up! How could he have been such an idiot? Sakura was civilian-born! And Kakashi had never taken the time to teach her a single move of taijutsu. Of course she didn't know how to fight or defend herself and was always depending on them to protect her.
For fuck's sake. He had been a blind idiot, hadn't he?
She was annoying, but she was helpless. Literally. In all aspects.
What would his brother say if he knew how abhorrent his behavior had been compared to what he and his mother had taught him? Oh boy, his mother would incarnate Kami itself and kick his ass until his next life, he was sure of it.
"Any doubts?" Sakura's question interrupted his thoughts. Naruto shook his head 'no'.
"Then we meet back here in six minutes." he nodded, while Naruto made a few clones and disappeared, leaving him behind with the object of his most recent distress "Sakura, I-" he surprised himself by beginning to speak without actually thinking things through, his voice heavy because of the guilt, but he made sure his face was neutral.
"Is it about the task?" she interrupted him. A frown took over his face before he could stop it, so he settled for simply shaking his head to deny her question "Then we can discuss it later." she dismissed him "I'll be back in five minutes." then disappeared too.
Deep down, he knew that the right thing was to apologize, though he didn't actually think he could do it, he didn't even know how to go about apologizing for all that had happened. Because even though it hadn't, not even by far, been only his fault, he had said some pretty nasty things. Things he had said with the intention of hurting her.
Kami protect him and prevent his mother from ever finding out. She'd kill him or even worse, she'd force him to spend his every free hour teaching Sakura how to become a proper genin. Though, by the current results of this test scores, he'd say that she had done that already. He had no idea how (considering that he had never seen Kakashi teaching her anything that wasn't basic chakra control), but it appeared that she had found a way.
While she was sharing her plan and explaining it to Naruto multiple times, he had taken a moment to actually look at her for the first time since he entered the Academy and she had all but thrown herself at him.
The first thing that struck him was that her hair was short, much shorter than ever before, though he had no idea for how long it had been this new length. The second thing had been the muscles. Sakura, albeit not bulky, was fit, shredded even. Every movement she made he could clearly see the group of muscles contracting and relaxing under her skin. Surprisingly, she didn't look too boyish, even with the short hair and the muscles, she looked like a shinobi, which was a striking surprise.
Especially considering that, not long ago, he would have described Sakura, with her absurd pink hair and green eyes as the furthest look from a shinobi as possible. But there he was right now thinking that she looked more like a shinobi than Naruto with those weird whiskers and his abominable orange jumpsuit that (even without the yelling) was even harder to miss than Sakura's hair colour.
Another thing he noticed was that she had gotten rid of the impractical civilian clothes in favour of simple black shorts, a deep burgundy sleeveless top, bandages on her ankles and standard shinobi sandals. There wasn't any flourish, just simple and practical items.
If he hadn't noticed before how much she had changed from the fangirl he used to avoid, now he couldn't ignore it any longer.
-cCc-
Just in time, Sasuke heard the 'go' sign.
"They can't defend themselves from every direction! I'll get sensei out, Sakura-chan. Believe it!" Naruto yelled at a distance.
He turned towards Sakura, who was already henged as Naruto and nodded before they both jumped towards window of the second floor, on the apartment to the left, along with a couple other clones. As soon as they landed, though, the original plan had to be changed into plan B, because there was a guy there they hadn't been able to sense before.
He had no time to be surprised to see Iruka there. Henged-Sasuke, henged-Sakura and the three Naruto clones left adopted a V formation with him on the front, Sakura on the back to the right, closer to the wall of the apartment they calculated that their target would be.
"Oh, Naruto. You should've heard your teammates. This is not a good way to go about a rescue mission." Iruka pursed his lips and advanced to dispose of the clones.
As soon as the man moved, the V formation broke, leaving only the two clones on the left to face Iruka, while the other three makeshift Narutos made a run for the door and into the corridor where they found a woman with purple hair scowling at them.
"They warned me that you might do this clone thing, but I never thought that you'd actually be stupid enough to go for it." the woman sighed.
It was then that many other clones finally made their way into the corridor from the woman's back, making her shift the attention towards the bigger crowd that was yelling 'I'm coming for you, Kakashi-sensei!'.
"Oh, goddammit. You'd think that the Hokage's son would try something smarter than that." the woman grudgingly turned her head and disappeared between the clones. Before the popping sounds had even begun, Sakura was already running towards the door, while Sasuke and the remaining clone went to join the fight with the woman.
"I can't guarantee you more than a good minute." he whispered at the girl as they separated.
-cCc-
Sakura entered the room to find Kakashi sparaled in a bed with an icha icha opened in front of his nose, she wasn't surprised at all.
"Yo, Sasuke." he greeted while popping sounds filled the corridor on her back "You know, I'm almost disappointed you didn't bring Sakura as a safety net for your escape."
"Come on, sensei. I don't think dobe will hold much longer." she said in the best Sasuke impersonation she could manage and didn't dispel the henge.
"Oh, I think I won't bother getting up. Anko won't be pleased if she comes back and I'm not here, you know?"
With a tired sigh, Sakura grabbed the paper bag and fished the book from within "This is an illustrated special edition of Icha Icha Paradise sensei, if you'll be so kind to come with me, right now." she deadpanned, bored.
The effect was instantaneous, and in a split second Kakashi was in front of her reaching for the book she was already placing back on the bag.
"I'll give it to you when we're out, wouldn't want anything to happen with it, right?" and motioned to the window.
"Oh, you're no fun, Sakura-chan." her sensei sighed, but walked to the window anyway.
She didn't answer, they didn't have the time to spare. Walking backwards, she made the sign to create a simple genjutsu that, if all went according to the plan, would buy a few precious seconds for Sasuke to flee.
"Only two clones left, Sakura-chan. We gotta go." she heard Naruto saying from outside the window, where they had agreed that the blond would grab Kakashi and leave, him being the one with the greater stamina out of the three of them.
"Okay, go. I'll give him the sign. We'll meet at point A in two minutes, but if we don't show, move the target to point B, take route 4 to return and back us up." she said without taking her eyes from the door, taking her time to polish the edges of the genjutsu she casted, so it'd be more effective.
"Two minutes, Sakura-chan. Don't be late." Naruto sounded dead serious, but she still didn't look at him, just nodded and felt them fleeing.
As soon as she was alone again, Sakura grabbed an explosive kunai yelling "Teme! I got him! Les't go!" while she completely masked her chakra and scooted behind the armchair next to the window "Come on, sensei! Teme doesn't have much time! I gotta take you to the meeting point!"
Four seconds later she threw the explosive kunai to the right of the door, creating a whole in it, from where the woman, not Sasuke, slipped through in a heartbeat. The purple haired woman stopped on her third step as she got caught in her genjutsu and Sakura spotted Sasuke running past the whole, towards his own exit point, on the far edge of the corridor where there was a small window next to the staircase.
It took the woman, Anko, fifteen more seconds to break her genjutsu, plenty of time for Sakura herself to prepare for her last task before leaving. In truth, she had calculated that her jutsu would only last for about five seconds, so the bonus seconds were used to remove her weights and put them on her storage scroll, in case she needed to make a run for it.
"Shit!" Anko cursed and ran to the window as soon as she broke the jutsu.
There were two small smoke explosions as the woman was caught in one of Sakura's traps. The room went still for a few heartbeats before she heard a faint "Move your butt, sensei! I can't carry you the whole way" from somewhere near the roof. She hoped fervently that that had been the distraction Naruto was supposed to offer and not the real one. She didn't have time to think that through, though.
"Iruka, the roof!" the woman yelled from somewhere within the smoke "Those freaking brats, who do they think they are?" she grumbled before leaping out the window.
Sakura waited until she was out of earshot.
four
three
two
one
She stood up and quickly placed new traps on the window, walked to the door where she placed some more and, after passing through the whole on the wall, she used the remaining traps and quietly made her way to the same small window Sasuke used to flee. Some of the traps went off as she was halfway through, forcing her to bolt down the rest of the hallway at the max speed she could muster and as soon as she was out, she ran. Ran like a mad man towards the place she'd meet Sasuke.
-cCc-
Sakura was late.
Almost twenty seconds already. He wasn't particularly worried, her plan was good, but that woman… damn, that purple haired woman was a pain in the ass. He almost didn't manage to hold his own end of the plan and was so relieved when he heard the sign that Kakashi and Naruto had left, because that meant that Sakura would create the opening for him to leave too.
The part of the plan he didn't like was that she would stay behind to misdirect the woman into a false trail. In their current condition, they needed all the time they could buy to make a run, but still, it irked him that the best chance they had involved scattering themselves. It felt wrong and he had wanted to argue with Sakura, but in the end he couldn't come up with a better plan, so he resigned himself to following this one.
There was movement to his left and then Sakura was coming out of the tree line, looking flushed and panting.
"Everything ready?" she asked hurriedly in one short breath.
"Hn." he nodded and they took off towards Naruto.
She told him that she had managed to lose Anko, but that they should hurry, just in case and, to his surprise, Sakura kept his rhythm. He still had no clue how the hell this girl had been that slow, weak, weepy, fangirl not even six months ago. Part of him wanted to ask her how she had done it so he could boost his own training, but the other part argued that he could do it on his own just fine.
They reached Naruto and Kakashi's position with three seconds to spare, interrupting his internal discussion for the time being.
"Yo." Kakashi greeted them from behind his orange book.
"WE DID IT!" Naruto yelled "TEAM SEVEN RULES!"
"Hn." he nodded, not entirely sharing Naruto's opinion or enthusiasm, but still pleased that they had managed the test without any setbacks.
Sakura didn't answer, she just tossed the paper bag to Kakashi, who grabbed it before it could hit his face while he pocketed the orange book.
Before they could ask about the test result, the purple haired woman showed up with Pakkun.
"What-" Naruto began to ask.
"They did it." the woman grumbled, ignoring his teammate and glaring at Sakura and himself. Then she disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
"So, pups. Care to tell me how you did it?" their sensei asked in an obviously fake-bored tone.
"We worked together." Sakura deadpanned before Naruto or himself had the chance to open their mouths.
"Whose plan was it?" Kakashi insisted.
"We worked together." the girl repeated with a scowl.
Naruto started to talk but stopped when she glared daggers at him, her expression promising pain if he didn't shut up and, Sasuke knew, the blond only complied because earlier she had made him promise not to do the talking when they finished the task in order not to risk their points.
Faced with silence, Kakashi sighed and stood up.
"Alright. You succeeded in the task, though I gotta warn you that that little plan could backfire in a real life hostage situation." he sighed again "Anyway, Sasuke and Sakura finished with six points each and Naruto with five poin-"
"WE PASSED!" Naruto shouted before their sensei managed to finish his sentence "We're gonna take the chunin exam!" he turned to grin at Kakashi.
"Hn." Sasuke nodded, pleased.
Sakura had a tiny smile on her face, but remained silent.
"Right, tomorrow we go back to training. Same time, same place. Thank you for the gift, Sakura-chan." he gave them an eye crinkle and disappeared in a swirl of leaves as well.
"Ne, teme. We have to celebrate at Ichiraku's!" Naruto all but bounced in place, turning to face him "You too, Saku-" he looked around in confusion. Automatically, Sasuke scanned their surroundings only to find out that the girl had already disappeared as well and he hadn't even noticed it "Where's Sakura-chan?" the blond asked, though he seemed to be asking himself.
"Dunno." he shrugged, annoyed with himself for his own slip up. He hated the feeling of failure he had right now and it got worse because he didn't precisely know what he had failed, because not sensing Sakura leave wasn't it, and still… he couldn't shake the feeling away as they made their way to Naruto's favourite place in the entire village.
A/N Behold my struggle with this damn chapter:
1. (today is nov.12, btw) It's official, friends: I've jinxed my own inspiration by announcing it last chapter. Haha, servers me right, huh? Though I was inspired, I actually wrote around 50 pages in 5 days (which is a lot if you consider that I'm working about 9hrs a day), they were for other stories.
But it gets worse: none of it for my ongoing stories! I actually managed to start two new (and still unposted) stories because they were all I seemed able to think and write about these days. *Sighes*
2. Hello, today's nov.16 and I still can't write anything for this fic. I have the ideas, but I just can't write! So unnerving. Also, I've apparently dried up all my inspiration juices for the time being.
3. A little thing: I've received some reviews and messages alike, talking about these last chapters not having ItaSaku interactions and what can I say? These are flashbacks of a test that Itachi only found out about 2 weeks afterwards. How can I put ItaSaku interactions in there without it being a plothole? There's just no way.
4- Today is nov.30 and I'm still unable to write here, goddammit. (I've reached the 120+ pages on the other stories ~combined~, though… how?). The ideas are here but I can't seem to be able to put it in words! I'm frustrated.
5- Today is dec.22, I'm finally feeling able to write for this fic! Hell yeah, I even got new and good ideas! *does victory dance*
6- I tried to finish this up today (dec.23) so I could post it before Christmas, but life got in the way and now I'm leaving to travel and I won't be able to finish and upload before the 27th (no wi-fi where I'm going). Though, better late than never, right? I'm just happy I'm being able to write at all these days. :D
7- Today is dec.27 and I've finally finished the chapter, though the ending isn't quite what I wanted... I believe I'm gonna post it anyway because I can't tweak it any further. I wanna move on to the chunin exam already!