The fight to finish the exams had been a hard one. After he had fought the scary man that had been disguised as Yoroi, Naruto had been left tired and beaten with a seal on his stomach that had screwed over his control of the Kyubi chakra.
Sasuke had found him soon after, thankfully untouched.
It was getting dark by then.
"Should we..."
Give up, that's what Sasuke was about to say. And Naruto understood so, so well.
He wanted to give up so badly. As he cried into his forearms, the tears going everywhere, he considered it.
Was this truly what being a ninja felt like? This pain, this heartbreak, for absolutely no other reason than to pass a test? What is ninja?
Was this how every ninja felt, was this the sort of thing they went through every day?
But then, Sasuke slumped to the ground next to him. There they sat, shoulder to shoulder, watching the sun go down. Even in the torn up clearing, even with his body battered and bruised, even with a teammate who's body had yet to be found, it was beautiful. Even through blurry tears, the setting sun made everything beautiful.
Sakura might be dead, but until they found her there was no certainty. There was still hope. He would not give up yet. The world was an ugly place, but there were some things worth living for, some things worth hoping for.
"No," he said hoarsely, managing to refrain from sobbing. "We're not giving up. Not until we find Sakura's body."
"We made it..." Naruto whispered.
5 teams of Leaf genin, 3 of which are rookies, one Sound team and one Sand team.
He was lined up behind Sasuke, and behind Naruto stood Sakura, a thin stripe of red across her neck.
It had taken hours searching for her in the vast forest, their only lead a vague recollection of where she might have landed from that massive wind jutsu that Yoroi imposter had used.
But they had found her, the wound on her neck cauterized. It hadn't been deep enough to cut her windpipe, and it did not risk bleeding out, not with the cauterisation.
Why? They hadn't known then, and they still didn't know now, but all that mattered was that she was alive.
Naruto glanced over at where Sasayaki stood, her eyes downcast. He glared at her teammate, Yoroi (AKA the imposter). He had nearly killed Sakura, hurt his team, betrayed the Will of Fire.
Yet how was it he was so strong? Was he really a genin?
"The first match: Sakura Haruno of the Leaf versus Sora of the Leaf."
Naruto grimaced, but Sakura perked up.
"Hah, I'm finally going to show that bastard who's really the weak one," she growled, punching her palm.
How can she be so enthusiastic, even though she almost died? Naruto wondered. Nevertheless, he gave her a thumbs up and a grin, even though he had been hoping to save it for Sasayaki.
He headed up the stairs with Sasuke, both of them keeping well clear of where Kabuto and Yoroi were headed. Kabuto had seemed harmless, but he couldn't be sure, not when he was on a team with that monster.
They made their way over to where Akio and Anko were waiting. Anko's expression was dark, her eyes tracking Yoroi, leaving Naruto to believe she somehow knew of his traitorous actions also.
"Who do you think will win?" Sasuke asked, voice in his usual monotone.
"Sasayaki," Naruto responded immediately.
Sasuke grunted in response.
"Does anyone wish to forfeit?" the proctor asked, and I went to raise my hand.
Unfortunately it was not to be. Orochimaru gently caught my wrist and lowered it, and I swallowed.
Damnit.
Kabuto didn't forfeit either.
No one did, and it was this announced I would be fighting Sakura.
It was with a strange sense of relief I stepped to the other side of the arena, my mind far away. The past couple of days I'd been waiting for the first exam to end, I'd been fretting over the others (Sakura especially) avoiding Kabuto and Orochimaru, and traning. My chakra had been unsealed since I'd awoken after that fight.
Now, I knew Sakura was ok, my real teammates had made it, and things would likely continue similarly to canon.
"I'm going to take you down after what you said to me!" Sakura yelled, her eyes ablaze, breaking me from my reverie.
I shrugged, taking on a cool demeanour. Now that I had the chance to fight someone in public like this, I felt decidedly tempered. Especially considering just who that public included.
Also I wanted to look cool, and cool people never yelled in retaliation.
"You can try," I drawled, sliding my hands into my pockets, much like Shikamaru.
Her eye twitched, but she had nothing to say to that. Then the match began.
Now, let me tell you something; Sakura's skills are actually considered quite good for a female ninja of her age. Let me explain; in this world, most girls are groomed to end up specialising in information gathering, medicine or (occasionally) infiltration.
This is, simply put, because they are considered weaker and because they are female, unable to carry out such dastardly tasks. Women are meant to be child-bearers and housewives.
Obviously it is absolute bullshit, a girl who trains hard enough can always reach the level of the boys even if the chakra levels and muscle mass of girls is biologically lower. She must work harder, yes, but she can compensate with her mind and by focussing on special talents.
But it is so deeply rooted in society that people haven't bothered to refute it. It also remains that the standards of female ninja are far lower than that of males, thus they have room to slack of, to be substandard and not be penalised for it. It is a ridiculous system, because of it female ninja have a far higher mortality rate than males.
It is why Sakura, who barely knows any jutsu and still spends more time on her hair and appearance, who prefers to diet than build strength, is allowed to be genin.
The unfortunate thing being that she doesn't seem to realise that this has happened, and that one day it will come to bite her in the arse.
Like today. And I had no qualms in showing her the truth. Especially after the fact she had almost died. I had almost lost a teammate because she was ignorant to her weakness, and somehow that was considered normal.
I would abide no longer. I would not let something like what had happened happen again.
"Is that all you've got?" I sneered, dodging her pathetic attacks. "You've always been the weakest of us, you know, but you seem blind to it!"
"Shut up!" she snapped, throwing a kunai with an explosion tag attached. I jumped away, dodging the resulting explosion.
I don't know how long I spent just dodging her pathetic attacks and laughing at her. I could see her face going red with humiliation, the shame beginning to take hold as she realised maybe, just maybe I was right.
It was cruel, but what can I say. In my eyes, it had to be done.
Plus, it was the perfect way for me to win without giving away any of my skills.
"Oi, Sora, just end the fight already. This is just pathetic to watch. You've made your point," Sasuke spoke.
Ah Sasuke, never one to twist his words. Some of the other teams laughed, Kankuro making an audible joke directed at her. I watched as Sakura's face curled with shock, and her eyes began filling with tears.
"I'm not going to stop until she gives up on being a ninja, or she gets stronger," I said. "We can spend all day here, Sakura."
That was the final straw.
"I forfeit," she barely whispered, though the way her eyes burned into me promised terrible things.
It was actually quite scary. I shouldn't have been surprised; I had literally spent the whole match humiliating her. There would clearly be consequences.
Clearly the guy managing the match hadn't heard her but had his suspicions.
"Sorry, did you just-"
"YES I FORFEIT DAMNIT! CHA!" And she threw down several explosion tags.
Well hey, at least she went out with a bang.
"You better watch out, Sora, you're going to regret looking down on me."
I smiled in response.
"I would hope so; I don't want you to stay weak forever."
I grinned smugly, not that it was really any kind of victory. Sakura stormed off, straight out of the arena.
Then I returned to the others, Naruto giving me a disapproving glance while Anko smiled and proceeded to punch my shoulder. Hard.
"Hey!" I yelled. "Why did you do that?"
Anko shrugged. "I feel like I have the responsibility as both your sensei and Sakura's. But, otherwise, good strategy," and we grinned at each other.
Akio sighed. "Shouldn't you be promoting teamwork above winning, Anko-sensei?"
"That's why I punched her!" she snapped. Akio sighed again, this time with disappointment.
However, my attention focussed on a certain red-haired Sand-nin across the room. Apart from the fact he was reeking a constant stream of bloodlust that only an idiot would miss, I noticed the way he was glancing around the room as if searching for something, or rather, someone.
I felt a hand on my shoulder, and Anko's voice drifted into my ear, so soft even I could barely hear it.
"None of the genin missed the feeling of the nine-tails chakra during the first day of the exam; luckily none of them that we know of could identify it, but everyone is on edge."
I swallowed. Naruto's identity, or rather Asahi's, could come into question, as could everyones.
But there's already another junchuuriki here, I realised. It might be possible to turn suspicion away as soon as Gaara releases the one-tail, or everyone finds out about him being a jinchuuriki, since everyone would likely come to the conclusion that was the source of the chakra outburst in the forest.
I could only hope.
Yea, I could have made the Sakura/Sasayaki fight better, but what can I say, there isn't much interesting I can do with Sakura's current skill set.