Disclaimer: I don't own shit.

Sakura thinks she's dead.

She's floating in a bottomless void as her life rapidly flashes before her eyes.

Sakura feels nothing but warmth as she briefly catches the sight of purple eyes that flash blood-red, and curly, pink hair that's just a shade darker than her own.

(Tou-chan...)

The feeling of warmth and comfort quickly turns into confusion as she sees emerald eyes identical to her own, long, pale blond hair that reminds her of Ino's, and a soft smile.

(Kaa-chan...)

Sakura's thoughts quickly turn to how much she misses a certain Yamanaka as she catches sight of pupilless eyes and a red ribbon.

She feels nothing as she remembers rivers of thick, red liquid and a dozen spinning red eyes as her tiny fingers clung to her father's haori as if her life depended on it.

(Because it did.)

Sakura doesn't know how long she watches her life flash before her eyes, but once she catches sight of whiskered cheeks and an Uchiwa fan, she stops thinking. She stops feeling.

The kunoichi begins to thrash violently in the empty void as she begs and screams to be let out. She needs to wake up so she can protect her team; she will do anything to protect her loved ones.

Sakura wakes with a start. Her right shoulder is in an immense amount of pain as black flower petals flow out from her bite mark down her arm and across her face. Her emerald eyes are practically glowing, there's a swirl of dark chakra around her body, and all she can think is, "I need to protect them."

As Sakura stands up, she can feel the eyes of everyone in the clearing on her.

She can smell the fear on them, and it's intoxicating. But Sakura doesn't have time to focus on that right now because she took one look at Sasuke's bloody body, and now she's fucking pissed.

A wickedly predatory and sickeningly sweet grin that shows far too many

teeth spread across Sakura's face.

"Sasuke-kun, who did this to you?"

"S-Sakura?" Sasuke asks, "What happened to you?"

Sakura ignores his question because it's irrelevant.

"Who did this to you?"

Sasuke doesn't get a chance to answer her question because Zaku's dumb ass decided to open his mouth.

"It was me!" Zaku cackles as he gives Sakura a once over, "Dosu, why are you worried about this pink-haired runt?"

Dosu blinks.

Kin shrinks back into herself.

Tenten forgets how to breathe.

Neji trains his dōjutsu on Sakura with great interest.

(Why does she have a seal on her eyes?)

Sasuke grunts.

"Does that dude have a death wish?" Ino mutters mostly to herself.

"Troublesome."

Choji drops his bag of chips.

Sakura's left eye twitches.

Because, what the fuck?

Does Zaku seriously have the unmitigated gall to taunt Sakura when she has the power to snap him like a twig?

Is he really so fucking stupid that he can't see the bloodthirsty look in Sakura's eyes?

Zaku doesn't realize how badly he's fucked up until the dark chakra swirling around Sakura's petite body begins to whip around the clearing violently, ripping grass and flowers up from their roots.

Sakura's predatory grin never leaves her face as she asks Zaku a seemingly innocent yet truly terrifying question.

"Do you like your eyes?"

"W-What," Is all Zaku can manage to say before Sakura suddenly has her right hand wrapped tightly around his throat.

"Do you like your eyes?"

The hand currently wrapped around the sound ninja's throat began to tighten ever so slightly, so all he could do is nod his head frantically.

"Aw man," Sakura says in a sympathetic voice that was dripping with sarcasm, "That's too bad."

Everyone knows what is going to happen next.

But no one is strong enough to stop it.

The rest of the genin can only watch in abject horror as Sakura places her left thumb directly under Zaku's right eye and pushes.

Zaku thrashes violently against Sakura's hold and makes strangled noises akin to a freshly maimed crow as she violently pushes one of his eyes out of its socket.

Blood begins to squirt from his eye socket directly onto Sakura's face as the muscles connecting Zaku's right eye to its socket begin to rip and tear apart.

The lack of oxygen reaching his brain and the pain from having his eye forcibly removed from its socket causes Zaku to pass out.

"Pathetic," Sakura spits at Zaku's limp form before snapping his neck and dropping him to the ground like he's worth less than the dirt caked to the bottom of her sandals.

She stares blankly at Zaku's limp form for a few moments, then a predatory grin returns to her face, and she says, "One down, two to go."

(What she didn't know is that Kin and Dosu ran away from the clearing as soon as her bloodlust honed in on Zaku.)

As Sakura's eyes began to frantically, the clearing for her prey, Sasuke dared to take a step closer to her.

Sakura's eyes instantly snap to Sasuke as he takes slow, tentative steps towards her. When Sasuke notices that her eyes are on him, he speaks before considering his words carefully. "Sakura? What the hell is wrong with you?"

His words are spoken in a harsh tone that's entirely Sasuke, and it's exactly what she needs to snap out of the thick fog that had consumed Sakura's mind.

Sakura doesn't see how Ino is trembling in fear or how Neji's eyes are scrutinizing every breath she takes; all she sees is Sasuke. As the black petals begin to retract from her body, all she can think about is how she murdered someone in cold blood.

Her entire body begins to shake violently as she clenches her fists to sides so strongly that she scratches the palms of her hands and draws blood.

Sakura's freshly drawn blood mixes with Zaku's and slowly drips down her fingertips onto the forest floor as Sasuke wraps his arms around the pinkette's waist and presses his face against hers. He's desperately hoping that Sakura will calm down because he can't comfort her. He shouldn't be comforting her, and yet here he is, getting attached to her when he knows it only distract him from his goal.

"Sasuke," Sakura whispers as she cautiously returns his hug, "What's happening to me?"

Sasuke doesn't answer her question because he doesn't know what the fuck just happened. Sakura didn't merely kill someone; she gouged his fucking eyes out. It was a horrifying display of cruelty, something that would make the Sakura he knows dry heave in disgust at just the thought of performing such a heinous act.

So he hugs her just a little bit tighter.

"Tou-chan will b-" Sakura says but is quickly cut off by Sasuke before she can finish her thought so she can't think herself into a panic attack.

"You're okay," he says harshly. He speaks in the same cold tone he used to bring her back to reality just a couple of minutes beforehand.

It sounds like he'd rather be anywhere else, but he's not. He's here, holding Sakura in his arms and keeping her grounded.

But it's a lie. She's not okay. Nothing about this current situation is okay.

Sakura entered the chūnin exams when she wasn't ready, and she almost died.

But they're not going to talk about it because there really is nothing to say.

(Besides 'thank you,' but Sasuke is too stubborn to say it, and Sakura doesn't think it's needed.)

So after a few seconds of silence, Sasuke repeats himself. "You're okay."

It's still a lie. He knows it and so does she. It's more of a lie than he'll ever know.

But it manages to make Sakura's heart feel just a little bit lighter nonetheless.