Chapter 18: Exam

Thanks to Sasuke's training, Sakura easily passed the first part of the examination. For the second part, there was a special type of survival training, unique to this year's exam, which she did survive. Barely. The third portion was the most difficult. The task seemed simple enough: to become a jounin, one must beat a jounin in battle.

They had both been relieved that Sasuke hadn't been chosen to fight her. Instead, Tsunade had decided on Kakashi, which was rather uncommon. Usually, if someone was chosen who had a personal relation to the student, someone else volunteered. Sasuke found it strange that Kakashi hadn't at least asked Gai to take his place.

When the battle began, Sasuke, Naruto and Tsunade were standing on the gallery of the arena to watch. Sasuke took the chance and asked Tsunade: "Why did it have to be Kakashi?"

She shrugged. "You know that he was chosen by drawing lots. Be grateful that it wasn't you. I doubt that Sakura would have been able to attack you."

He wasn't so sure about that, but didn't voice his opinion to the Hokage. "But why didn't anyone else take his place?", he asked suspiciously.

"I would have preferred that too", she replied.

Naruto interrupted her: "I heard that Kakashi-sensei asked the other jounin not to volunteer. He wanted to fight her. Although, I don't know why."

Sasuke eyed his former teacher distrustfully. "Interesting..."

Sakura had the advantage of knowing the weaknesses of the sharingan, due to her training with Sasuke. She knew that genjutsu would have no effect on Kakashi. But regardless of that advantage, things weren't going so well for her.

They were already ten minutes into their battle, and while Kakashi was still more or less unharmed, Sakura was already quite exhausted.

"She's going to lose...", Sasuke said, disappointed. He had expected her to do better than that.

"You should have more faith in your wife", Naruto, suggested. He raised a hand and yelled: "Sakura! You can do it! Show the pervert what you can do!"

Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest. To believe that Sakura had the slightest chance of winning was just stupid and unrealistic. Kakashi was much stronger than her and had more than a decade of experience in the field,. It was just... disappointing. To be honest, he had thought she would be more of an opponent for Kakashi.

"Look!", Naruto yelled, when Kakashi suddenly dissappeard from their view. Surprised, Sasuke activated the sharingan. "Where the hell is he!" It took a second, before he discovered his former sensei, who lunged at her from behind.

She saw him, almost before it was too late. Her pained scream echoed through the hall when his fist, which was originally aimed at her stomach, hit her shoulder with bone-crashing force. "Shit!", Sasuke hissed when he saw his wife fall to the ground. Kakashi must have broken a bone, he could see that she was in agony from the look on her face.

Kakashi waited silently, while she struggled to get into a sitting position. With her left hand she was clutching her right shoulder, her arm hung limply by her side. "It's over, Sakura", the grey-haired shinobi quietly spoke. . "You can't use your right arm, which means you can't do any hand-seals."

Sasuke nodded. "He's right, she can't do any jutsu like that. This fight is over."

He wanted to leave the arena, but Naruto held him back. "Wait. Look at her!" Inquisitively, he threw a glance at his wife. She was standing, which was already surprising, considering the great deal of pain she had to be in. She stared determinedly at Kakashi and hissed: "This fight is not over yet!" With her left hand, she pulled out her kunai from the holster and leaped forward.

"AWESOME!", Naruto yelled. "Sakura, you can do it!"

She tried to directly attack her former teacher. Of course, Kakashi dodged it and launched a blow at her in return. She ducked away under it and spun around to kick him with her leg, but he caught her by her ankle. With her left arm she tried to stab him with the kunai once again, but he moved his head away and she missed him. He grabbed her ankle with both hands and threw her away, the momentum sent her skidding on the ground for a few meters.

Sasuke clenched his fists. He couldn't watch this any longer. He took a step forward to jump over the rail, but Tsunade grabbed him by the wrist and held him back. "If you interfere, it's over, Sasuke."

"What's the use in letting her go on like this?", he growled. "She's going to lose. If things contiune this way, she'll get seriously injured." When he had said these words, he realized how stupid that was. Kakashi wasn't allowed to kill her, and everything else would heal.

Sakura got back to her feet. Blood was running down from her nose. Her knees were visibly shaking, she was having a hard time to stay on her feet, but still there was an unusual determination in her eyes. She wouldn't give up yet. Sasuke felt...different. He was so proud of her. Even though she was going to lose no matter what she did, even though she had to be in a great deal of pain, she still didn't give up. She had changed, a lot.

"I would have never thought that Sakura could be so stubborn and strong", Tsunade said. "She has grown."

Once again, Sakura leapt at Kakashi with an angry scream. For a few seconds, she engaged him to hand-to-hand combat. If she had been able to perform a jutsu, maybe her stubborn determination would have been enough to win this battle. But like this, it was useless. She managed to get through his defense and kicked against his chest hard enough to make him stumble backwards. But then his fist connected with her chin and she fell to her knees, bleeding. Instead of declaring this battle as over, he raised his right hand. A strange, yet familiar sound filled the room as blue chakra became visible in his hand.

With his eyes wide in disbelief, Sasuke gasped: "Chidori?"

"What the..? Is he trying to kill her!", Tsunade yelled. Kakashi was done collecting chakra. "Shit, it's going to be close!" She and Naruto attempted to jump over the rail at the same time, but Sasuke was faster than both of them.

Without thinking about it, he threw himself over the rail and stood in front of her. Kakashi's fist lunged forward and he couldn't stop the attack any more. Furiously, Sasuke slapped Kakashi's arm away and threw his fist against the other's face as hard as he cold. The blue chakra of the chidori disappeared.

Everyone in the arena fell silent. Tsunade and Naruto had stopped when Sasuke had interfered. Kakashi got back onto his feet and rubbed his bloody nose. "Did you have to hit me THAT hard, Sasuke?", he complained, as if this was all just a big joke.

"What the hell were you thinking?", Sasuke screamed. "Were you trying to kill her?"

Kakashi threw him a dark glance. "No. I wanted to see if you would interfere if her life was at risk." Surprised, Sasuke stared at his former sensei. What the hell was this all about? Kakashi said: "If you hadn't helped her, Tsunade would have stopped me. I just wanted to see your reaction."

Sasuke was too surprised to answer. He hadn't wanted to protect her. He had just reacted instinctively, just like when he had protected Naruto from Haku, when they had been rookie Genins.

Kakashi walked past Sasuke. He was grinning beneath his mask, but his words were dead serious. "If you hadn't tried to save her..." He stopped when he was next to Sasuke and placed a hand on his former student's shoulder. Calmly, he added: "...I would have taken her away from you."

Sasuke suppressed the urge to hit Kakashi, instead his attention focused on his wife, who was being treated by Tsunade. . He decided to deal with Kakashi later. He wouldn't forget this, that was for sure. He knelt down beside his wife and she opened her eyes. "Sasuke... I lost..."

Tsunade placed her hands flat on Sakura's shoulder in order to heal her. It didn't take long and when she was done she sighed deeply. "Okay, that should do it. She isn't heavily injured, you can take her home, Sasuke." And to Sakura, she added: "It might still hurt for a while, so take care of yourself." She stood up and an angry look crossed her face. "And now I'll have a talk with Kakashi. I can't wait to hear what he has to say for himself."

While the Hokage followed Kakashi, Sasuke gathered Sakura into his arms and lifted her up. Her emerald eyes avoided his gaze. On their way home she didn't say a single word. As soon as they got home, she asked him to let her down and when he did, she disappeared into the bathroom to wash the blood from her face.

At first, Sasuke wanted to leave for some training. After all, he had spent over a week training her for an exam she hadn't passed, yet he couldn't really regret his efforts. Today, he had learned two important things. The first one was that she had gotten a lot stronger than he had thought she would ever be capable of, and the second , as much as he hated to admit it, he somehow cared about what happened to her.

For some strange reason, he decided not to go training, but headed to the kitchen instead to get her a glass of water and some painkillers. He knew from experience how such injuries and bruises could hurt. When he got tired of waiting for her return, he went into the bathroom. Much to his surprise, she was sitting on the ground with her knees pulled to her chest, and she was crying.

"What's wrong?" he asked and tried to make his voice sound unconcerned. "Are you in pain?"

She shook her head no and he hissed impatiently. He hated this. Why didn't she simply tell him? "Sakura, what the hell is wrong?"

"I've lost!", she screamed. "You just wasted your time on my training! I was no match for Kakashi, I had to be saved by you. I can't compare with you, or Naruto, or Kakashi." She placed her forehead against her knees. "I disappointed everyone. I disappointed YOU."

"No, you didn't", Sasuke said softly. She didn't react. He put away the glass and knelt down beside her. "Sakura. Look at me." Hesitantly, her head raised and she stared at him with puffy eyes. "I'm proud of you. You fought well."

"Are you serious?"

He just nodded and Sakura smiled. To end this awfully emotional moment, he took the glass of water and gave it to her, along with the painkillers. "Take these. And then lie down. You'll feel better tomorrow." She did as she was told.

Satisfied, Sasuke nodded. He was about to leave, when she reached out and took his hand. "Sasuke-kun... thank you."

He hated this. Sasuke just didn't know how to react. He tried to come up with an answer and all he could think of was: "Forget about it..." He helped her to her feet and brought her to their bedroom.

…tbc…