Well hello there, it sure has been a while, huh?

I'd hate to start this off with apologies when I have good news to discuss, but I must. Home office once again proved far more hectic than I was predicting, which is to say something since my expectations kept going up each month… but now that's no longer an issue. I quit and even changed career entirely. Now I work as, essentially, a video game tester.

It's quite a bit more complicated than that but the important detail is that I'm back to working at an office every day. Such shifts of course impacted my writing, but the biggest culprit was just the nature of this chapter.

Because progress was much slower than I predicted, and as usual some scenes became bigger than planned, or were big plans that had to become two scenes (all the Sasuke stuff cut from last chapter), I decided to split this. The majority of the preliminaries happen right here, right now, with next chapter finishing this portion of the exam and already moving forward with the aftermath.

I didn't want to post the chapter like this, but it's been way too long and I know 20K+ isn't very well everyone's preferred word count.

The good news though, I have two. First is that my new job is very much against the idea of working overtime, never mind on off-days, so my schedule is looking to be much lighter for the time being.

The second and to me far more important: THIS FIC HAS BROKEN PAST 1000 FAVORITES! Like… whoa! I never thought I could get this far, but here I am… but only because of all of you readers, as well as NPCrusader and all my past betas that helped me bring the best chapters I could to you all.

So thanks to everyone! Now enjoy your chapter!

The Chunin Exams arc

Chapter 29: Clash, part 1 (v1.1)

The Firewater Mines looked very different when seen from its central tower, Sasuke realized. The mines were at their highest on the borders, where he had first seen it from, but only when he stood at its center, gazing at the surroundings from a small balcony, that he realized how steep the area was.

And hidden behind or between those rocky inclines and dark caverns, was the place where his life changed. It must have been over fifteen minutes and he still couldn't find it, but the evidence of what happened to him remained, imprinted upon his skin.

One hand went up, and a finger brushed past Orochimaru's Cursed Seal. There were three small bumps, almost like insect bites… but no insect had the venom to match that snake.

'He's hiding something… he betrays your trust! Make him submit and reveal his secrets!'

Mere minutes ago those words had drifted across his mind, just loud enough to guide him, and yet too subtle for him to realize its doing.

Only when it had spoken just as Sasuke had been too shocked by Hinata's uncharacteristic defiance that he noticed its influence.

'How dare this girl affront you like that!? Show her what happens to those defy you!'

His mind's immediate reaction had been to push back against the invasion—these thoughts weren't his own! He tried to suppress them, but though the interloper had relented quickly, it wasn't before punishing him with a spike of pain through the mark.

It had burned from inside out, spreading from his neck through his system, and Sasuke had backed away from Naruto and Hinata before he knew it, lest it tempted him to do something he didn't want to do. He had been aware enough that he could still talk normally to them both, but some primal instinct drove him to escape from that room.

After going down a set of stairs and walking through a few hallways, Sasuke found the little balcony that had caught his attention when he had left the infirmary-like room he woke up in… and there he remained, looking at the mine from above.

The sights distracted him from the pulsing throb on his neck until it had finally subsided.

'This test can't end soon enough,' he thought, grimacing as he remembered what the Hokage had promised him.

"Once this part of the exam is over, I'll arrange a meeting between you and the only other person in the village that Orochimaru has given a seal before so she can aid you. I have also summoned our best sealmaster, and though he can't free you from this seal, he can help further suppress it."

Unfortunately said sealmaster wasn't in the village right then. But if Sasuke could at least return to his apartment and stay in there peacefully…

"Sasuke-kun!"

His body tensed and he spun in place to see Sakura running in his direction. She began to slow down as she approached, stopping only about a meter apart from him.

"You… you're here…"

He could tell it wasn't a question, but a self-assurance. She looked frazzled, and her gaze swept across him as if looking for signs of wounds, or just some sort of proof he was truly there in front of her.

"Hey."

He tried to ignore the wetness clouding her emerald-like eyes.

"I told you he was fine," Sasuke heard a voice from far behind her. Naruto's orange silhouette was unmistakable, and unlike Sakura, he was content with simply walking at normal speed. His arms were crossed behind his head, but the laid-back pose was paired with an oddly unreadable expression.

Sasuke's eyes returned to Sakura's, only to find them locked at a point somewhere below his face.

He went rigid when she suddenly breached his space, her arm shot forward and he almost recoiled by instinct, but Sakura stopped just inches short of actually touching him. Her small hand trembled, hovering over his seal.

When she next spoke, her voice was weak and shaky. "So it's true… something really did happen to you…"

He glanced at Naruto. "You told her?"

"More or less," the Uzumaki shrugged, uneasily.

"Sasuke-kun. How bad is it?"

"I… don't fully understand it myself," Sasuke admitted, fighting the urge to avoid her teary gaze. "But it doesn't matter. Sometime after this exam ends I'll get help. Okay?"

Sakura's head hung low. "I'm so sorry Sasuke-kun! If I had been stron—ouch!"

She looked up to him startled.

He had flicked her nose!

"Don't be an idiot." His words were harsh, but his tone and expression were as close to gentle as Sasuke could manage. "We're only kids. Amateurs. Orochimaru is much beyond what any of us could manage. This… is just like that genjutsu Kurenai trapped us in when we first met. Remember?"

A dark emotion flashed across her eyes. "Of course I do…"

"Then you know there's no reason to blame yourself. And if you hadn't bought me those moments for me to flee, I might not have ended in a situation as favorable when he caught up."

Naruto approached them, placing a hand on Sakura's shoulder. "Y'know, he's right. Hinata and Shikamaru took care of us, and even beat up those Sound guys that were after Sasuke—"

'What was that?'

"—so chin up!"

She did as much, eyes darting between them. "Thanks, you two…"

Sasuke hid his frown. She didn't look convinced, but maybe she just needed time.

"Don't worry about it," Naruto laughed… but then stepped back a bit, suddenly bashful. "Um, guys? Can I… talk to you two for a minute?"

"Huh? Of course!" Sakura answered readily, but Sasuke kept quiet and just observed.

Could it be?

"Alright. Just… just let me speak, alright? I've been hiding something from you guys. You… know that, I think."

Sasuke shared a glance with Sakura.

"So I was talking with Hinata just now and… well, I-I can't really tell you guys what's going on right now… but sometime after this part of the exams ends, okay?"

Naruto then sighed, wearily, as if some sort of weight was threatening to crush him.

"You two deserve to know."

"…That's what you two were talking about?" Sakura asked, with a gentle tone.

"Well, not at first, but…" he scratched his head. "Look. I promised her I'd talk to you guys. And I will. But… I-I don't think I can do it just yet, you know? If you guys can wait just a bit longer…"

"That's fine."

Both Sakura and Naruto looked at Sasuke in shock.

It made him feel ashamed. That neither of his teammates expected he'd accept Naruto's request spoke volumes about how they saw him at that point. Not that he blamed them… but if Naruto was going to be forthright, Sasuke didn't mind playing on his terms.

"After this wraps up, right? We can wait for it."

He caught Sakura beaming at him, and then at Naruto. "Don't worry about it, okay? We will listen to you when you're ready."

The Uzumaki smiled nervously. "Thanks Sakura-chan, Sasuke…"

"No, we should be thanking you."

Sakura came closer to Naruto and took one of his hands between her own. "I can tell this has been burdening on you for a while now. I'm happy that you're trusting us enough to share this with us. Right, Sasuke-kun?"

There was still a bit of nervousness in Sakura's voice, but Sasuke just nodded. "Just call us. We'll meet up at Ichiraku, even if we have to stop our training."

Naruto's eyes were shining. "Oh! I was about to ask if that's where we could meet up!"

"Of course you were," Sakura rolled her eyes playfully, and let go of his hands.

"Right. Okay. Look… there's one thing I can tell you guys right now though, it's important." He then slapped his belly twice. "Orochimaru did something to me back in that cavern that messed up my chakra control. That's what I showed you earlier, Sasuke."

"Hmm." Another piece of the puzzle.

"But why would he do that to you?" Sakura piped up. "He's the one that sent that snake to get rid of you back then, didn't he?"

Unfortunately, Naruto shrugged. "Beats me. But let me finish! I'm gonna ask the old man if I can go somewhere to train for a while to get my jutsu working right again, you know?"

Sasuke frowned. "But why right now?"

Naruto and Sakura stared at him, then at each other.

"That's right Sasuke-kun, you weren't there when Naruto told us! Hokage-sama said there's a chance we might end up in more fights if too many people pass."

Naruto nodded emphatically. "Yeah, that's why I gotta be sure I can do my stuff like usual… huh, what's up with that face, Sasuke?"

"…I'm having similar problems."

Sasuke's hand went up to his seal before he realized it.

"They said that if I use too much chakra too quickly, or spend too long with low reserves, the seal they put to suppress Orochimaru's might come undone."

He saw worry creasing Sakura's features again, but confusion in Naruto's. "So… as long as you're careful, then no problem?"

"...Basically," he nodded, suppressing a smirk. Leave it to his teammate to see it as simply as possible. Framed like that, it didn't sound as bad. "But that means I can't use my Sharingan. It doesn't consume as much chakra anymore, but it drains me at a steady pace and could be dangerous. At least they told me to avoid it."

"Oh… but you have plenty of other stuff to fall back on," Naruto crossed his arms. And it was true, Sasuke knew that between taijutsu and shurikenjutsu alone he was more than a match for your average genin. "But if you want I can ask the old man if you can come with."

Sasuke pondered for a bit, then went through hand seals. After a poof of smoke, he came out transformed into Naruto, to said boy's visible confusion.

"Sakura?"

She looked between the two and bobbed her head. "Seems close enough,"

Another poof. "Then I'm good. Go get your training done while you still can, Naruto."

He gave them a bright smile. "Sure! See you guys later!"

After that, Naruto dashed off without looking back, leaving Sasuke alone with Sakura.

"Well," she cleared her throat. "I'm gonna go back to our room. You coming with?"

"Hn."

On their way back, Sasuke had already planned what he'd do next: meditation. Guy of all people taught him that, and while at first it felt like a waste of time, Sasuke felt that lesson might prove the most important of all depending on how things played out with his seal. Regardless, there was value in relaxation, in simultaneously honing your mind while letting it float peacefully. Then probably a bath.

Yet when they got there, Sakura helped him settle in and began to talk. If it were months ago, Sasuke would have ignored her completely and might've even snapped at her so he could have the peace he desired.

But he had changed since then. He not only listened but talked back, and not begrudgingly or out of obligation, nor with short dismissive grunts meant to clue her in he'd rather she shut up.

From Naruto's seal to Orochimaru's intentions… from the upcoming 1-on-1 portion of the exams to their progress with elemental jutsu… from the strong influence Hinata had on Naruto that neither realized yet to the ridiculous incident that got Sakura banned from her own home's kitchen… from the plot twist in a mystery novel they both were reading to horses, of all things.

They talked for hours.

Nothing lasted forever, though. Perhaps due to Sasuke's own shortcomings, they eventually ran out of things to talk about and slowly drifted into silence. Not an awkward one, but a comfortable kind of silence.

He chose to resume his plans meditate a little while Sakura practiced chakra control exercises… until she soon changed her goal to genjutsu practice and kept asking him to be her guinea pig.

It wasn't anywhere as annoying as her incessant badgering before Kurenai set her straight. But the third time she asked he lost his patience.

He glared at her. "Sakura, no doesn't mean maybe. It means no."

The pinkette groaned dramatically, and threw herself on her bed, burying her face on her pillow.

"Sorry. This sucks… this is so boring."

"Excuse me for being boring."

Sakura peeked at him. His wording was sarcastic, but he hadn't been and she caught on.

"You're not boring," she countered, voice muffled by the pillow. "We've talked a lot… it's just, I'm really antsy right now. Maybe Kakashi-sensei's chronic lateness traumatized me, I swear I had more patience than this before."

Sasuke suppressed a laugh. Multiple memories of their academy days came to Sasuke's mind, many of which involved a clueless Naruto getting whopped for the smallest of things. 'I'm not so sure of that, Sakura.'

He, of course, didn't dare to say that out loud, opting instead for a suggestion: "Try meditating like me. Or just nap."

She moved her body so she was facing away from him, or more accurately, away from the window. "I guess I'll take option two…"

Sasuke shook his head, with a bit of amusement. He tried to go back to his meditation, but quickly realizing his head was too "on" for him to find that sweet spot.

His eyes fell upon the girl beside him.

The way their dynamic had shifted over the past few months… it was hard to believe that was the same Sakura that relentlessly pursued him, just another annoying girl that had fallen for someone that didn't exist. No longer did she ask for dates. She now knew who Sasuke Uchiha was. She gave him space, support, and sometimes even scolded him when his bluntness was too much!

Putting aside the boredom-induced regression just then.

'She really changed a lot.'

His eyes first lingered upon her hair, once long and always so carefully groomed to appeal to him, was now short and messy and she had no shame in talking to him like that. The apathy and contempt she held for Naruto had all but disappeared, to the point where almost half an hour of their conversation was just her sharing her worries about their brat of a teammate, and even told him she had almost given up during the first test for Naruto's sake.

His eye moved to her arm. They were still thin, but he could actually see some musculature—and he knew intimately how much her blows hurt. Now she no longer contributed just with book smarts, he could count on her to fight by his side and pull her weight, even if not quite like he or Naruto, but in a more supportive way. She trained just as hard as they both did under Kakashi's guidance, and the other jonin when applicable.

But then his hormones betrayed him and his eyes drifted lower and… her position was such that her dress completely failed to cover her shorts.

Form-fitting shorts.

Whichdid very little to cover her legs.

He stared.

'Was her butt always this big…?'

He grunted moment his brain caught the stupid thought, tore his eyes away from her and settled on the wall in front of him.

Maybe he wouldn't feel any remorse about such shallowness from himself if that was still the only way she treated him, like eye candy.

But no. She was his friend, his teammate. She deserved better from him than that, and he was better than that.

Not that his gaze had never gone towards where it shouldn't, be it Sakura or other girls, but Sasuke could always correct course and focus on his goals, leaving such thoughts behind quickly before anyone noticed. It was a skill he learned to survive in the academy, since showing any hint of interest in one of his fangirls (or any female probably) would surely only cause unspeakable chaos.

He closed his eyes and took a silent, deep breath. Maybe he could finally to clear his mind.

"…"

His cheeks felt warm.

"…"

He opened his eyes again, but forced them shut. There was a stupid temptation to just… look again.

But a knock on the dorm mercifully terminated that line of thought before he could risk succumbing.

'Maybe it's the tedium getting to me,' he thought, ashamed. "Enter."

It was a chunin he didn't recognize. "Excuse me. The next phase of the Chunin Exams will begin 75 minutes from now, on the tower's top floor. In the meantime, lunch is ready, so please eat up and prepare yourselves until then. You're allowed to bring it back to your rooms if you wish but do clean your messes, please."

"Sure."

"Thanks," he heard Sakura mutter with annoyance, and the Chunin promptly left after warning them not to be late.

Sasuke got up and turned to her just in time to catch her yawning and stretching. "Figures that just when I decided to nap that… uh, something on my face, Sasuke-kun?"

She seemed confused. Just confused.

"No. Nothing," he quickly turned away. "Let's go."

Hopefully he wasn't blushing.

Lunch was a messy affair, in Sasuke's opinion, as expected from his former classmates.

Perhaps their noise was what drove whatever other teams that passed to eat in their rooms, which was for the best considering all the fight recountings he listened to—including the incident with the Sound genin Naruto had alluded to earlier.

One part of Sasuke was still taken aback by the concern they all showed to him, and his own happiness at seeing everyone safe and sound. His self from back at the academy didn't care one bit about those people. They were weak, pathetic, or annoying. They either shallowly idolized him or avoided him out of spite and jealousy.

But somewhere along the past few months, they became his friends. He actually felt stupid that it took so much time for this simple fact to sink in. There was a sense of camaraderie among them, but his bond with the others had already gone past that point… in most cases, at least.

Only one person he struggled to define his bond with, and that was Naruto. Said person had completely missed lunch, which hadn't gone unnoticed by the group of genin.

In the end, he was not at all surprised that it was Hinata who volunteered to bring his lunch to him, after Shino confirmed Naruto wasn't even on that floor and Sakura explained a little of his circumstances. What did surprise him was that the girl claimed she had something to apologize for when Sakura offered to go in her stead.

He later heard Kiba snorting that she was probably overthinking something again, but given what the two must have talked about after he left them alone…

And he hoped it wasn't that very topic that made those two late. The 75 minutes they were given were just about to expire, and Teams 7 and 8 were hanging around a stairway on the top floor, unable to proceed without their missing teammates.

Both Kiba and himself wanted to just hunt them down, but Sakura was adamant about leaving them alone. Unlike Kiba, who got growled at, Sasuke did not dare talk back.

Luckily Shino could keep track of their movements when the two finally realized they were late and dashed through the tower, until…

"About damn time!" Kiba huffed when Hinata and Naruto finally appeared before them, winded. His eyes settled on Naruto. "Thought you were giving up on us, man!"

The Uzumaki glared back. "Like hell!"

"I-I'm sorry, everyone! We—!"

"Apology accepted," Sasuke cut Hinata off, "now let's go. The last thing I want is for Kakashi of all people to scold us for not being on time."

Sasuke went up the curved stairs without looking back. Five sets of footsteps trailed behind him, and Sakura's were the closest.

"I hate when that hypocrite does that," she complained.

When the stairs ended, Sasuke found himself at the roof of the tower. Because of the big tree that ran through its center, he hadn't been able to look at the area from the edge of the mines when the test began, but now…

That same tree loomed over them, showering the ground with leaves, blocking the sun above them and casting shadows all over the center of what could only be described as a flat, wide battlegrond. He spotted some passages at the edges of the room that led down to the lower floors like the one he had emerged from, and two staircases leading up to the big circular second floor that surrounded them. One staircase was directly behind him, and one was across from him. The second floor acted as spectator stands, being little more than a small O-shaped platform running from wall to wall, offering a clear line of sight down to the first floor with metal railings to stop people from falling.

There were some genin teams and the exam staff around but Sasuke couldn't focus on anyone before one Anko Mitarashi angrily stomped in their direction.

"Sheesh, cutting it close aren't ya? You six know that being late would be ground for disqualification, right?"

Her gaze swept across all six of them, but she made no effort to hide that Sasuke caught her attention.

She sighed and turned away from them. "Look, just follow everyone's lead."

All teams were side by side, its members in a column formation, and Sasuke rolled his eyes when Naruto pushed past him to be at the front. Beyond where the genin gathered, only a few feet away from the big tree, was the Third Hokage himself, Hiruzen Sarutobi, flanked by various chunin and jonin. Among them were the exam proctors, various chunin, their own sensei, and a jonin from Suna—though not one from the Sound, despite their genin team's presence.

Though he had been a model student, Sasuke had honed a skill one would never expect from someone with his academic scores: he could zone out during a teacher's explanation, but not completely, shifting his focus back to the explanations the moment he heard something that truly mattered.

Maybe, just maybe, he shouldn't have done that to the Hokage of all people… but when the old man began to ramble on about the purpose of the chunin exams and so on, Sasuke couldn't bring himself to focus on him. None of that really mattered to him—but also, none of it was much of a logic leap that he needed any explanation beyond the initial comparison between the exams and war.

Instead, he took the time to size up the competition.

The members of Team Guy didn't have that much time to recover from the exam like the rookies, but they at least seemed to have their wounds healed, even if it was just a few cuts and bruises. Lee had enthusiastically shown off the 6 scrolls their team finished the exam with, which only reminded him that these three weren't to be trifled with.

The team from Suna didn't even look any different from when they first crossed paths. Sasuke knew from Kiba that at least the puppeteer had fought once, and Shino had disclosed that they had finished the exam only a few hours after the ANBU had rescued them… but the information Kabuto had on the apparent leader of the team, Gaara, made this outcome unsurprising.

In contrast, was the team from Sound. They looked ragged. Sasuke knew Hinata and Shikamaru had fought them off during their supposed attempt to hunt him down, but they seemed to have run into trouble even after. The one he was told had an air cannon in his arm, though, seemed much better than he expected after the damage Hinata claimed to have done to his chakra pathways. No doubt because, in the interest of fairness, they got some healing after entering the tower.

And on the topic of healing…

"I give up."

Kabuto Yakushi raised his arm. Even though he and his team didn't look to have faced many problems, the man that helped stabilize his condition back in the caves chose to leave the exams and fail them for… the seventh time, if memory served.

"I know not only my limits, but that most if not all people here outclass me in a straight fight," he justified with an apologetic shrug. "It's a tough group this year,"

Sasuke supposed it made some sense, if he was dedicating himself to a support role like a medical ninja. Yet he knew these people still manage to promote—being a chunin was an outright requirement to work in the main Konoha hospital. So there were ways.

"Very well," said Hayate Gecko, the proctor for the third exam who had just interrupted the Hokage. "A chunin will escort you back to the village if you want to rest, but you are also free to stay and watch your teammates," the proctor motioned up to the alcove surrounding them all.

After some brief words with said teammates, Kabuto just apologized to them all and left.

Something about it didn't feel right. And from the glare he saw Shikamaru giving Kabuto, and the hushed whispers between the other proctors and the Hokage, he wasn't the only one thinking as much.

The new proctor cleared his throat. "Anyone else?"

Sasuke felt a hand on his right shoulder.

"Sasuke-kun, shouldn't—"

"No. If I don't think I'm up to it I'll give up later," he shot back, without even looking at Sakura.

Seal or not, Sharingan or not, Sasuke had no intention of giving up. Not when his brother had already been a jonin at his age.

But Sakura didn't need to know that.

The genin all remained silent after, and Hayate nodded to himself. "Very well then. I suppose this makes things easier since we'll have an even number of combatants."

The man went on to explain the simple rules of the final exam's preliminary round. Naruto's insider info had been correct—expected, since it came from the Hokage himself.

"Now, please take a look over there," Hayate motioned to a monitor that hung high up in the alcove's circular wall. "The match-ups will be randomized, so please understand there's a chance you will fight a teammate right here."

Naruto looked back, grinning, and Sasuke responded in kind.

With them both not in top shape, he had to wonder if that wouldn't be the boy's one chance to beat him…

But it was not to be.

"Sasuke Uchiha vs Zaku Abumi. You two, stay here. Everyone else, please take the stairs so you may watch and wait your turn."

"Aww," he heard Naruto whine, then he beamed at him. "Next round, then?"

"Heh. If you can get there too," he shot back, just loud enough that his opponent would hear him.

Everyone began to move. The genin and their jonin were directed toward one side of the arena, while the Hokage and a few other ninja such as the previous two proctors went in the opposite direction. There were some cheers and words of encouragement from the other rookies, as well as a couple taunts from Kiba and Naruto again, and Sasuke found himself smirking at it all.

However, instead of retreating, Sakura chose to move in front of him, forcing him to face her.

"Are you sure of this?"

"Sakura, I can handle myself."

His bluntness left the girl miffed, but for once, a certain someone chose to diffuse a conflict within Team 7.

"There, there," Kakashi said from behind Sakura, placing a hand on her shoulder. "No need to worry. The proctor and the other staff can and will stop a match if things go too far, and besides…"

The jonin shot a sharp look at him.

"Sasuke promised to not overextend."

He nodded at the man. "And I don't break my promises."

Sakura snorted at that. "Now who's sounding like Naruto?"

He rolled his eye, and Kakashi led Sakura upstairs, though not before offering but a nod to his student.

Offering his trust.

Before they fully exited the arena, Sasuke took those precious few seconds to survey the battleground once more while he still could.

It was a plain, circular area, but the tree changed things. It reminded him of the lake he fought that unfortunate genin from the Grass, but that tree had been small and thin. It could be used as a small platform but not as a wall. The tower's tree, however, was very tall and wide. Its trunk was as much of a floor as the ground could be, and it would be just as durable—if not more— thanks to the incredible properties of the Wood Release that birthed it. He could try hitting it with his strongest flames and the trunk would likely remain unscathed.

It was too tall and there were too many leaves for Sasuke to make out if the top could become a platform, never mind that the sun which was angled just right to force him to look away.

'Hmm…'

"Now please stand in the middle, facing each other, where the markings on the floor indicate."

There were two dark spots on the ground about ten meters apart, in the "middle" of the arena. Sasuke stood in one, Zaku stood in the other.

The Sound genin was smirking predatorily, and however pitiful it was to Sasuke at this point, he could feel the killing intent.

'If I let my guard down, and the proctor can't stop him in time, he will actually kill me,' he thought, but he didn't fear Zaku. Thanks to Hinata and especially Shikamaru, he had a good idea of what he was up against.

"Are you both ready?"

"Yeah," Zaku grunted.

"Hn."

"…Very well then," Hayate nodded. "May the first match begin!"

Zaku started by chakra-jumping back, putting distance between then. Sasuke read his jump and readied shuriken to catch his landing…

But then there was pain.

"Call upon me. You know we can crush him like an ant! Remember how good it felt the last time?"

At a loud explosion-like sound, Sasuke clumsily threw himself to the ground, letting a violently sharp burst of air sail past him.

"What's up, Uchiha?" Zaku provoked. "Looks like you've got something on your mind, there!"

Sasuke shot the shuriken at him as he rose back to two feet, but Zaku not only dodged it… he ran away, circling around the big tree as if to leave it between them. He released one last Air Cutter before leaving Sasuke's sightline, which was easily dodged.

'So that's his plan. He'll use the tree to put distance and keep running away until his projectile catches me.'

In other words, if he could get into melee range, he'd win. Sasuke couldn't use his ranged techniques often enough to challenge Zaku from afar.

He tsk'd to himself and dashed straight toward the tree.

'If I walk on the tree, I can chase this coward easily.'

Yet Sasuke skidded to a halt mere inches away from the trunk. Tree walking wasn't a costly technique, but it required constant chakra output.

"Dammit!"

He made a single seal to bring forth five clones. Three gave chase to Zaku in the direction he fled to, while he and the other two went the opposite way.

All of them wove through seals as they ran.

"Pathetic," the Sound genin sneered and swept his arms in a wide arc.

Sharp whistle-like noises cut through the arena, and the clones vanished.

Grunted, Sasuke hopped back, barely flinching from a gash on his abdomen. The pain didn't stop his jutsu, though.

"Great Fireball Jutsu!"

Sasuke held his flames for less than a second, then jumped high toward the tree, sticking to the trunk for an instant before launching himself forward to rain down shuriken at Zaku from the sky.

He landed a fair distance behind where Zaku stood, the same place his the three clones that weren't with him had "died" on.

Sasuke turned, unsurprised to see Zaku had dodged his assault.

The other boy laughed. "Hah, for a Great Fireball it sure didn't even come close to hitting me. I'd say nice try, but you were just doing it to be flashy. Idiot."

Sasuke bounced back the insult with a smirk. "That was never intended to hit you."

Zaku's eyes went wide and he looked back. What he saw, was the one detail that had caught Sasuke's attention earlier.

"Clever little shit…"

The tree at the center might have been invulnerable to his fire jutsu, but its leaves, which were scattered all over the floor, weren't.

The circle-shaped arena was now cut in half by a tall wall of fire, which would only get bigger and bigger if left unattended.

"Let's see you run away now," Sasuke taunted, panting slightly.

He had left Zaku with three options: to go through Sasuke, which he wouldn't; to jump over the wall of flames which, would require a high jump that could easily be intercepted mid-air; or to do what Sasuke just did and use the tree to flee.

That last option is what Sasuke was waiting for, as he had left a single explosive tag when he landed on the trunk.

But then Zaku began to laugh, low and dangerous.

"Too bad. I've got something just for you!"

Eyes fearlessly locked with his, Zaku raised his arm behind himself… and shot a blast of water.

'What?! He can use elemental jutsu?'

The part of the wall of fire was engulfed by a cloud of steam, which Zaku quickly hopped into.

"Dammit," Sasuke grunted. He jumped to the left, just in time for a burst of air to cut through the steam and blast the ground he had stood in.

'Struggling to close in, are we? If only you were faster!'

'Shut up!'

Furious, Sasuke pivoted and ran. He pumped chakra into his legs, jumping high once he was about to circle the tree to dodge another Air Cutter he had predicted would come.

He landed with a kunai ready to deflect a hail of shuriken, then tossed it at Zaku, who lazily swept it away with a stream of water while aiming at where there were still flames to create more steam to hide in.

That gave Sasuke some information though. The stream wasn't powerful enough to be an offensive threat, like the techniques he saw Hinata and Ino learning. But it was thick and had just enough pressure to deflect projectiles, making kunai veer wildly off mark. Zaku also could use that much faster than his Air Cutter.

'Not good.'

This time Sasuke risked going through the steam, and it proved to be the right call as Zaku was close by and looking away, expecting him to run around the tree again.

But his footsteps alerted the Sound genin just in time to charge another Air Cutter, which Sasuke deftly jumped over to try a bold flying kick.

Zaku barely managed to cross his arms to block, and Sasuke flipped in the air to land in two feet.

Finally in position for some taijutsu, Sasuke rushed with a quick jab which Zaku went to intercept with both hands.

Open hands.

"Ghhng!"

Zaku shot water from both cannons at once, and the combined volume and pressure threw Sasuke backward before the punch ever landed, leaving him destabilized on the ground.

"This water shit is surprisingly useful!" Zaku said triumphantly as he charged another Air Cutter, which Sasuke narrowly rolled away from.

He tossed a kunai to cover himself. He was now drenched, the breeze made him cold, the remaining fire that was behind him warmed him slightly, but he ignored both and dove toward Zaku.

Their exchanges were, in one word, annoying.

The defensive water blasts, the deadly air blasts. Zaku mixed and matched which he used when and his timings, even faking charge times to throw Sasuke off, all while steadily moving backward as they battled.

Sasuke was so close but so far!

And he was running low on shuriken and kunai, too.

'Dammit, I need to end this quickly but how?'

'You know exactly how.'

Another wave of pain made him flinch.

The answers were, caving in to the seal, or daring to use the Sharingan. He lacked the invasive insight that the Byakugan provided, but he would've been able to detect that the water blasts were coming because of the chakra build up in Zaku's body.

But because he didn't use it, he got hit multiple times and was wet from head to toe, barely suppressing a shiver from the cold despite the sunlight's warmth. Zaku, he thought, might have been trying to push him into the fire. All his foe ended up doing was putting it out completely.

He was close enough to Zaku that the boy couldn't run away as he did at the start, but he was too close to use his stronger jutsu uninterrupted. Zaku's water, even with just one arm cannon, was strong enough that if it hit his hands while he wove seals it would mess him up. Plus the careless way the Sound genin kept throwing around his jutsu told Sasuke that he must have large reserves, an attrition battle would be suicide.

Reluctantly, Sasuke jumped back to put more distance between then.

Zaku seemed amused. "Oh? You're backing away from me!? Instead of coming right at me, you're running away?"

Sasuke was so irritated by the fight's pace that he taunted back. "I can beat the shit out of you even without getting closer."

"Oh ho! Then stay as far as you'd like!"

He ran, leaving Zaku's mocking cackle behind him.

But he wasn't just running away.

Now free to make seals, he dashed around the tree. This time he didn't hesitate to climb it, dashing upward but veering sideways in the direction he came from.

He saw Zaku reaching into his weapon pouch for the first time in the fight, and punctuated by a familiar explosion-like sound, a single shuriken blazed past him almost three times faster than he'd expect it, almost nicking his ear.

'Of course he can mix that stupid air technique with shurikenjutsu!'

It was a nice complement for when the Air Cutter was too far to be reliable, but Zaku couldn't land a hit either. Sasuke's battle senses were too keen-he couldn't react to the attack but could predict them.

Finally when he climbed high enough, his hand made the last seal he needed and he jumped away.

"Phoenix Fire Jutsu!"

"Hah, fire again? You sure are stupid, kid!"

He shot water forward, but that quickly proved useless as the fireballs once more weren't aimed at him… but all around him. Some weren't even close to Zaku, who confusedly looked around and gave Sasuke just enough time to launch more shuriken as he flew past the Sound genin to land behind him.

Zaku tried to deflect them again, but Sasuke had angled his throw just right that the sunlight would blind him, so naturally, he failed, and was left in a field of burning leaves that almost caged him in.

"Now let's see you put this out," Sasuke goaded.

"Pfft. Pathetic"

Though with more difficulty, Zaku managed to fend off Sasuke while putting out the fires as he came close to them. In under a minute, there were no fires, and the floor was all wet.

"Looks like that didn't work either, Uchiha," he scoffed. "Nice try to trap me like that, but all your fire is gone."

Sasuke smirked. "Not all of it."

Zaku scoffed, but suddenly his face scrunched up and Sasuke knew exactly why: the Sound genin must have detected the dry stench of fire and smoke from behind him.

Grunting Zaku swept his arm behind him, dousing whatever might have been aflame as he faced Sasuke.

But the smell would not cease.

"The hell?"

The moment Zaku's curiosity won and he glanced behind him, Sasuke drew his very last bundle of shuriken.

Zaku, confused, turned back just fast enough to see the tail end of Sasuke's toss and reflexively leaped back. He almost deflected them, but even before landing on the wet floor, he began to laugh at Sasuke's poor aim.

The shuriken had curved far from Zaku's position..

"Are you even trying to hit m—aaaauuughhn!"

Zaku screamed and convulsed as his legs gave under his weight like a puppet with cut strings. But on the floor, he saw the strings. The strings of wire that were on Sasuke's shuriken, pumping electric chakra in the wet floor.

"Game over."

Sasuke burst forward and the last thing Zaku saw was Sasuke's sandal, then pain and blackness.

The proctor approached the fallen Zaku and the breathless Sasuke.

"…Zaku Abumi is unable to continue. The winner is Sasuke Uchiha!"

Sasuke smiled, victorious, for all but one second.

"Congratulations, Sasuke-kun."

He doubled over, almost falling as pain erupted from his neck.

"All this time, effort and chakra wasted just to stomp on an ant. It would have been so much easier to ask for my help! Here, let me show you!"

Anger began to bubble up inside him as his chakra swirled chaotically in his body, but then two hands pressed against his face, pushing his head up.

He stared upon Kakashi's eyes, his exposed Sharingan swirling hypnotically.

The darkness swiftly claimed him.

"That was closer than I thought…"

Sakura barely heard Naruto muttering beside her, focusing only on Sasuke and Kakashi. The jonin had grunted something akin to "He used way too much chakra" as the proctor called the match, then in a flash he was down in the arena and Sasuke fell.

'You promised to be careful, Sasuke-kun…'

"That thing must have messed him up more than he knew," Naruto continued speaking, face taut with worry. "It didn't sound that bad when he told us earlier, right?"

Sakura considered it for a moment, then just sighed. "I suppose. He probably didn't know where to draw a line."

A squad of medic-nins then emerged from one of the staircases leading down into the tower. A few hurried over to Zaku, and the other was met halfway through by Kakashi, who had Sasuke in his arms, and the proctor hovered nearby. Kakashi exchanged some words with the medics then pulled his forehead protector down again.

In a few moments, he was up there with his remaining cute little genin.

"So how is he!?" Naruto pressed immediately.

"He should be fine," Kakashi said simply, in his usual vexing mix of nonchalance and disinterest. "The medics will watch over him. Now let's focus on the next battles."

Sakura frowned, but it melted away a little when she felt Naruto's hand on her shoulder. She shot him an appreciative smile, earning a wide grin back in reply, then turned away to face the monitor.

"Now," Hayate spoke, "for the second match…"

As it turned out, she'd have no choice but to focus.

"What, really?" she heard Naruto huffing. "Betcha I'm going up against the mummy guy next!"

The monitor read: Kin Tsuchi vs Sakura Haruno.

"Well, good luck Sakura-chan!"

In contrast to Naruto's loud cheer, Kakashi merely nodded at her. She steeled herself, nodded to them both and walked away.

In the alcove surrounding the arena, Team 7 ended up being between all the teams. To one side were the other rookie teams and Team Guy, the other had the foreigners and Kabuto's teammates. Sakura had zero intention of walking near Gaara unless it was absolutely necessary, so she took the other way.

That she'd be getting more encouragement from her friends along the way wasn't something she'd say no to.

Besides Lee. She could have gone without being called a "lovely, youthful flower" in front of everyone! Luckily Team Guy was right by the stairs so the only reaction she had to swallow was Tenten cringing.

As she made her way down, she observed her enemy, the girl from the Sound team.

Yes, not an opponent. An enemy. This girl and her teammates were sent to kill Sasuke and whoever stood in their way… and Sakura was not going to forget nor forgive that anytime soon.

The gears inside her head were moving at blazing speeds while she calmly walked to the dark spot on the arena.

Both girls stood across each other, trading glares.

"Are you both ready?"

"Yes."

"Yes."

Sakura felt that eager would have been the better word.

"Then let the second match begin!"

She was forced to jump right from the get-go, letting the hail of senbon that Kin shot land on the wet floor.

'No bells yet,' Sakura thought as she landed.

Knowledge was power. Thanks to Hinata, Sakura knew what to expect from her foe. And just like Sasuke's match, the key would have to get into brawling range.

She dashed forward while her fingers moved from seal to seal, molding her chakra.

Kin grunted, wound up to throw more needles. But this time Sakura didn't dodge—she crouched, slamming her hands on the floor.

"Earth Release: Earth Wall!"

A thin, perfectly squared slab of stone emerged from the ground. It was large enough to cover Sakura if she stood up.

She heard noises as the needles bounced harmlessly off the wall… and a bell rang softly as Sakura's word began to spin violently.

'Ah! I didn't know it'd be this bad! Release!'

Her senses normalized and her hands made another seal. Borrowing ideas from the previous fight, she made a couple weightless clones and sent them around the wall.

On the other side of the Rock Wall, Sakura once again was weaving seals. Needles began to fly around her wall, sailing past harmlessly.

She slammed her hands on the floor again and another wall rose, a few meters ahead and slightly to the side of the first wall, closer to the big tree.

Sakura bolted towards that new wall.

"So that's the game you want to play, huh?" Kin said, annoyance dripping from her voice.

Sakura's answer was to repeat her strategy, sending more weightless clones from both sides of her cover, and once more she made the seals for the Rock Wall as the clones went to bait Kin's attacks.

Just when she slammed her hand on the ground, a bell ran past her again and her arm exploded. She screamed from pure shock, but she knew it was a trick and expelled the other girl's chakra from her system.

The third Rock Wall she had created was, again, a bit ahead and to the side of the one she was hiding behind. But Sakura created it toward the opposite direction, so the walls wouldn't make a diagonal line towards the tree. Instead, they made a triangle.

Another clone materialized by Sakura's side and leaped toward the wall.

"You think I'm stupid!?"

Sakura smirked to herself. 'Yes.'

With the sound of a single needle wheezing by in the direction the clone went, Sakura leaped to the other, pumping chakra into her legs to dash as fast as she could, then changing the balance of chakra in her feet to adhere to the big tree, which she climbed diagonally so she that she would be directly across from Kin, if not for the tree separating them.

'Alright, time for phase two.'

For the third time, Sakura made clones and sent them in opposite direction, but once more she remained rooted to the spot. She drew a kunai, and balanced herself in one leg so she could cut two little pieces of her sandals, which she shoved down her ear.

It hurt, and it was kinda disgusting. But it muffled the sounds around her almost wholly. Since genjutsu was an art of subtle, precise chakra manipulation, Sakura knew the girl's bell tricks wouldn't work unless the needles landed extremely close to her ears.

Afterward, she ran up the tree diagonally as fast and as high as she could, all while scanning the ground below until she saw Kin, who to Sakura's surprise had only chased her up to where the last Earth Wall she had conjured was.

She did have a fistful of needles with her though.

The two traded projectiles, but Sakura focused more on dodging than aiming her attacks. Thus, she noticed one of the senbon had a bell before it even struck the tree.

'I knew it.'

Sakura trembled as Kin's genjutsu invaded her mind, and the chakra she held on her feet dissipated with it.

She fell from the tree like bird shot down by a rock, and for an instant, she caught her foe smirking and relaxing.

Sakura didn't get the pleasure of watching that smirk fade when she voiced out as she fell: "Earth Release: Shockwave Slam!"

She swung her arm and let her fist hit the ground with all her might, splashing a bit of water from the last fight.

"Aiie!"

Even with her ears plugged Sakura heard Kin's undignified squeak when she lost equilibrium and tumbled. To an onlooker, the Sound girl had fallen for no reason. But Sakura knew… Kin had fallen because, in her mind, Sakura had caused something akin to an earthquake upon landing.

She knew no such jutsu. It was all in the other girl's mind, mere illusion.

Before Kin could get up Sakura was on her feet, tossing more kunai at her. But Kin hastily rolled out of the way and burst forward to hide around the Earth Wall close by.

Sakura cursed her lacking speed, and frowned at the three barriers that stood between then. 'What's she trying to do now? No, forget that, I can't let her get the initiative!'

She decided to rush past the closest wall, intent on disrupting her chakra from it when she got near enough so it would fall apart and expose her foe when—

"Lightning Release: Shock Stingers!"

Needle-like streams of light pierced through the Rock Wall as if it were butter.

Sakura crashed down, electricity and pain blazing through her body thanks to a single needle that pierced her right thigh.

Kin had attacked blindly from behind the wall, compensating by shooting in a wide spread which led to no other hits. It also didn't go deep… but doused in Lightning chakra, it didn't need to be. A single strike sufficed.

'No. No!'

Panic mixed with pain. Her right leg was quaking from the shock and as useful as Naruto during a written test—she couldn't walk.

She caught sight of Kin, smugly walking in her direction without hurry, as if she had already won. Sakura glared at the girl, whose fist was buried in her pouch to draw more needles.

Kin said something Sakura couldn't hear, and her reply?

She focused as much chakra as she could into her arms and the one leg that wasn't failing her, and pushed her body forward in an awkward, ungraceful variation of a chakra jump. Just in time to see the wet ground where she had stood become pincushion.

"How stupid are you? You know that won't protect you!" she faintly heard Kin taunting her, offering no help at all.

'Dammit. What now?! Her Lightning chakra can get her needles through my wall, I need… I need…!'

Sakura needed protection. Time.

Luck.

She made hand seals in time with Kin's.

'Please work!'

A wall rose between the girls.

Not a thin wall of rock, but of thicker one made of mud.

"Pathetic! Lightning Release: Shock Stingers!"

A moment of silence, and Kin laughed to herself.

'What an idiot. If an Earth Wall couldn't do the trick, why would a Mud Wall be any different? And to think Kabuto said she was supposed to be smart.'

Her eyes darted to the proctor near the wall, who had yet to interfere. Kin hadn't shot widely this time, but she figured maybe the girl was lucky and the needles didn't land in a critical area.

She would have to approach the girl and knock her out. 'A pity, I was hoping to have killed her with that…'

So she began to walk forward, only to halt at the sounds of rock falling apart.

The three rocks walls her foe had used destabilized and became piles of rubble, giving Kin a clear sightline to Sakura's body… or not. The girl's Mud Wall had fallen backward, covering her curled up body almost completely.

'Huh. Didn't know these wall jutsu needed to be sustained. Did I knock her out?'

Once more her eyes caught the proctor's, who was still watching it all impassively.

Kin scowled at him as she approached Sakura.

"Why are you st—"

"I'm not done yet!" came a voice from behind her.

Kin growled as she whirled around and three senbon at…

Nothing.

"Wha—aaah!"

Her right leg buckled from a sharp pain at the back of her foot and she fell.

Sakura hadn't moved at all since conjuring the Mud Wall, except to cast a very, very simple genjutsu, until Kin turned her back on her.

All Sakura could do was slash at the girl's leg, who then fell just close enough that Sakura could use chakra to throw herself atop her foe.

Her right leg was useless, but Sakura made sure to show Kin just how well her right arm still worked as she winded up for a chakra-charged punch.

"This is for trying to kill Sasuke-kun—"

Her fist slammed on the other girl's face, and it felt so good she did it again.

"—Naruto, Hinata—"

And again.

"—and Shikamaru! You bitch!"

And again.

The next time she wound up a punch, the proctor's hand blocked it.

"Stop it! It's over!"

Sakura was panting, and somewhat dizzy. Partly from being able to lash out at the girl, and partly because she had used too much chakra in their fight.

The proctor then announced her victory aloud to everyone, and helped her up just in time for the medic-nin squad to arrive to pick up her foe.

The girl's face was bloodied and bruised and her body was stained with mud. Sakura felt zero sympathy.

A single medic came to her, removed the sole needle that had harmed her and healed her leg. "Can you walk," he asked her?

She tested her leg. "Kind of. Thank you!"

He nodded and followed the rest of his team out of the Arena.

"Now please return upstairs," Hayate told her, but before she could even nod Kakashi was suddenly there with them!

"Now now, Hayate. I know this is a bit against protocol but, you see this right?" he motioned at her and Sakura just wanted a hole to hide herself in.

It was not the time or place to care about looks, but she was completely drenched in mud.

She had never felt grosser in her entire life.

"It's not the second exam anymore, there's no need to force her to stay like this."

The proctor gave it some thought. "Alright, I suppose. You can get back to clean yourself, but if you aren't back by the time the final fight ends, you're disqualified."

Sakura bowed at him, "Thank you! Oh…. b-but, uh…"

"What is it?" Kakashi asked.

She felt a blush coming up, hidden beneath the mud.

"We have no spare clothes!" she whispered harshly to him.

"…I'll deal with it, now let's go so the next match can start."

"Okay."

Kakashi then escorted her away from the arena, leaving a trail of mud all over the place…

"Ugh, I feel so sorry for whoever has to clean this up," she lamented once they entered the hallway, glancing back to see the mess she was making. Even a civilian could track her down.

"I feel sorry for that girl," Kakashi shot back, making her look up at him. He seemed to be smiling under his mask. "That was an excellent fight, Sakura. Especially that trick at the end to protect yourself from those Lightning-enhanced needles. Did you know that would work before you tried?"

"Oh… hehehe," she laughed with some embarrassment. "Not… really. I-It was just a theory! I'm just glad I was right about it all!"

"As am I. I knew it would work, because thanks to the Sharingan I'm familiar with how these less common chakra interactions play out. Had that jutsu been any stronger you'd have failed."

She gulped. "Y-Yeah… I imagined as much. But I got hit once so I had a feeling it was just weak enough."

Sakura's plan was based two properties of Lightning chakra: it could beat Earth techniques of around equal strength, and could travel along water. As a Mud Wall is composed of both—which was an option thanks to all the water thrown around in the previous fight—the piercing properties of Kin's technique became weaker, dispersing within the mud.

In the end, the needles had almost fully pierced the wall. Had Sakura outputted even a bit less chakra into the wall, she'd probably have died.

"I just didn't realize that would make the Mud Wall come crashing down on me… but even that was useful. I had to crumble my walls to make things more believable, you know, but that let me cast that final genjutsu on her."

"Ah, so that's how it was. Nonetheless," he suddenly grew serious, "Sakura, I'm proud of you."

She felt a smile blossom on her lips.

'I'm proud of myself too.'

"Argh… who'd know mud could be this hard to clean? Maybe it's because of the chakra," Sakura grumbled to her naked reflection in the mirror as she dried herself.

The proctor had threatened her, yet knowing her match had only been the second out of ten, Sakura felt confident she could spare a couple minutes to get the mud out of her clothes while she showered.

Or at least try. Unfortunately she had no time to mourn her underwear. She had to dress herself with whatever Kakashi got her, then maybe use some of the rope from the second test to leave her wet clothes hanging to hopefully wear them again when the exam was over.

Yet when she walked back into her team's dorm room, her jaw fell when she saw a hospital gown spread over her bed, a note, and...

"A soldier pill?"

She frowned as she took the small, brown pill, but then decided to give attention to the note first.

It read: "Sakura, unfortunately this is the only thing I managed to find that didn't involve me going all the way back to the village and hoping your parents would react well to a grown man asking for their daughter's clothes and underwear."

She could only imagine Kakashi doing just that while making no effort to hide his stupid Icha Icha books.

"I thought you might want to use the Transformation Jutsu instead. You looked like you were close to your chakra limit earlier, so take half or one-third of the soldier pill to help you sustain the Transformation if you choose that. Either way, don't be late!"

Sakura felt a migraine coming up, and sighed, tossing the note on the floor which let her notice a pair of hospital slippers.

The gown by itself, doable if not for the wind outside the tower—which unfortunately made just using her wet clothes not an option—and the fact that she had zero underwear. Transformation alone, also doable, if not for the risk of her ending up completely naked in public if anything disrupted her jutsu.

"Both it is, then."

When Sakura finally left her room, a chunin was there waiting for her and led her upstairs through another path, as the current ones would lead into the arena where a fight was still taking place.

She ended up emerging atop the alcoves, from a little entrance close to where the Hokage and some other staff were watching the fights from. The chunin sent her away before she could really take in the small but surprisingly fancy monitor that was set in front of them, perhaps explaining how they could watch what happened if the fight went on behind the tree.

A luxury the genin didn't have.

Resigned to her place in the hierarchy, she hurried along the path while trying to spy the fight below… or the lack of it.

"Hey Sakura, congrats for the win!" Tenten called out to her when she passed by team Guy, making her turn around

"Oh, thanks!" Sakura smiled, but it waned quickly. "Uh, where's Lee? Did his fight happen already?"

Wordlessly, Tenten pointed to her side with one thumb. Sakura's eyes followed, passing by Ino who seemed to be arguing with a rather unimpressed Chouji, then Team 8 quietly watching the fight—except Kiba was missing too—and finally she could see the green-clad boy in the distance, beside Naruto, motioning as if he was explaining something to him.

"Lee chose to offer some company to young Naruto," Guy clarified, snapping her back to attention. "And I agree with my pupil's words, excellent fight!"

He offered her a thumbs-up, but before she could reply Neji added his thoughts.

"At the very least, it was more entertaining than this one."

His droll comment made her look at the arena again. The combatants were Shikamaru and the girl from the Sand, Temari. Both were in opposite corners of the arena, standing directly across each other… if you were to ignore the massive tree standing between them.

She even caught the proctor sighing at the situation.

"…Well, that's apparently a pretty low bar, but thanks I guess," she shrugged and excused herself, and as she approached the rest of Team 10 she began to understand why Ino seemed so upset from afar.

"I'm not saying this because he can't get her where he wants," she heard Chouji say. "He can find a way. But that's still how this will end."

"Ugh!" Ino threw her hands up in the air, then crossed her arms and turned away from the Akimichi. "Oh!" Her eyes caught Sakura's, an indiscernible expression crossed her face for a moment as she scanned for something in Sakura's own.

A relieved smile blossomed right after. "Finally back, forehead? Come on, you missed a lot!"

Despite her words Ino just walked up to Sakura and dragged her to her side, barely giving Sakura a chance to at least wave to Chouji and Asuma to acknowledge their congratulations—something Ino didn't even bother doing, the jerk.

"This is going nowhere fast, but at least I can recap for you what went on in the past four fights while you took your time preening."

Sakura choked at that. "F-Four?!"

Ino chuckled. "Yeah, four. But I was kidding, it's not that you were slow, the fights were just that fast. Right Chouji?"

"Yup. Everyone got pretty lucky, or unlucky in your case," he replied, making his teammate sag with a dissatisfied sigh before she got Sakura caught up on the matches she missed.

Ino's bad mood turned out to be from her fight against Kankuro, which she had been forced to give up on when she found herself unable to approach the puppeteer in any way. She had left some of her hair behind in an attempt to trap him, but it had went as poorly as when she tried to pressure him with the few Water techniques she knew. His puppet was just too good defensively.

Chouji's match had been on the other end of the spectrum, against Kabuto's teammate Tsurugi, who could stretch his body unnaturally. He was better than Chouji at taijutsu, but his attempt to suffocate the plump boy only resulted in him being crushed under the Meat Bullet Tank Jutsu, KO'd instantly.

Kabuto's other teammate had fared no better against Shino. A simple trick of substitution with a Bug Clone had turned Yoroi's need to touch people to drain chakra into a fatal flaw, ending the match in half a minute.

Kiba's absence was explained by his foe being Dosu. The Inuzuka had walked in somewhat arrogantly, knowing Hinata had dispatched his foe relatively quickly. But where the Byakugan provided a major advantage against Dosu, Kiba's sensitive hearing was the very opposite. He'd been too aggressive at the start and that seemed to have been paying off, but it only took one well-executed counter for Dosu to turn the tables and secure a victory.

…Which led to fight #7: Shikamaru vs Temari.

The girl from Suna had finally revealed what her mysterious weapon was: a giant war fan, which aided her when using Wind jutsu. She fought at mid-range, where Shikamaru's shadow-based techniques excelled, putting both at a stalemate when the giant tree stood between them.

Temari's techniques were much harder to avoid than Shikamaru's, but they weren't as capable as his Shadow Possession Jutsu at closing out a match, in one move no less, and Temari seemed to know that much, respecting his reach.

The moment of stillness that had given Sakura just enough time to get caught up, however, was about to end.

Across all fights up to that point, Temari knew this was the one where the environment would have the most impact.

The shadows and the sunlight effectively divided the arena in two. The sun wasn't close to setting just yet—it shouldn't be much past 2 P.M by her estimations—but it also wasn't lingering directly above the massive tree at the arena's center, bathing one side of the tree and the arena in sunlight, while the other had shadows cast over it thanks to the branches and leaves far at the top.

Each minute the light from one side of the arena faded, Shikamaru gained more reach.

Her teeth grit as impatience threatened to overcome her. She had thought of someone using the tree as cover from her after watching her brother's fight with the pony-tailed blonde, but she felt no worry. It was just a matter of circling around it and using clones until her opponent guessed wrong and she could blast them off with Wind.

But with the shadows being essentially an instant-loss zone, that strategy went out of the window.

The only advantage she had pressed was blowing all the leaves on the floor away from her, as they could have extended her foe's range, but that was another factor that would literally pile up against her in time.

Her foe was all too comfortable in not doing anything unless he absolutely had to, so Temari had been using this time to think. Most solutions that popped inside her head were…. unwise. They could work, but she couldn't reveal all her tricks.

Not yet.

But oh did she want to crush that boy. On his way into the Arena she heard him mumbling about fighting a woman, and maybe it was some ridiculous gentlemanly notion instead of him being a sexist asshole, but she wanted to pummel him all the same.

Temari took a deep breath. 'Calm down. Whatever you decide to do, it needs to be decisive.'

With a limited arsenal of moves—really nothing but raw Wind manipulation if she could get away with it—Temari begrudgingly accepted she'd have to rush Shikamaru where he was at his strongest to win, and she'd likely have a single shot to commit to.

She glanced one last time at the line she carved on the floor, representing the Shadow Possession's reach, added a couple more inches mentally, withdrew her war fan, and flew forward as silently as she could right toward the tree.

Nearing where trunk met floor, she made clones and sent them towards both sides while she chakra jumped and dashed alongside the trunk, right in the middle of where the sunlight still shone over it.

It was a simple deception, not dissimilar from what was seen in a few of the past fights, but she was betting on its predictability being her true cover.

When she was high up enough, she made another clone, knowing the last likely were gone by then, and the clone continued to climb while she bid her time.

Soon that final clone curved towards the dark side of the tree and leaped.

Temari drew a single kunai and dropped it to the floor below, and waited with her weapon at the ready.

The clang of metal on stone was the final distraction before she too curved around the tree, and leapt almost blindly, confident in her plan until mere instants after.

Shikamaru was exactly where she predicted he would be, but even from high above she saw his semblance held no hint of shock.

'No time to hesitate,' she chided herself.

He launched a few shuriken at her, but Temari used her closed fan as a shield. Metal bounced on metal, then still in midair she changed her grip to use her weapon as a heavy club.

Shikamaru jumped.

Temari smirked.

'Let's get you out of your comfort zone!'

She swung her fan right before impact, opening and sending chakra through it, creating a burst of wind angled just right to shift her momentum in midair to chase Shikamaru down.

She extended her leg and finally landed the match's first real hit, kicking Shikamaru past his raised arms right into his face and bowling him over.

But Temari fell on her butt.

'Tsk, still not enough practice,' she thought, grunting as she quickly rose and swung her fan in a single motion, sending a wave of sharpened wind right at the Nara.

"Troublesome," she heard him muttering as he rolled… right into the sunlight.

Her left hand dove into her weapons satchel and she sent forth a wave of shuriken. The metal stars missed Shikamaru but they did their job, pressuring to jump back even further away from the tree's precious shade.

Once more Temari flew forward, meeting her foe in the sunlight with a sweeping fan swing that was inches shy of its mark, and she didn't let up after.

'Now let's see how you like fighting up close!'

As a mid-range specialist she knew how horrible it was when someone did close in on her, but that's why she also devoted herself to taijutsu, rounding out her skillset so that she could even let people approach as a trap.

Shikamaru, however, was predictably reliant on being at his perfect range. The boy struggled to merely avoid all her blows, not even attempting to parry, counter or land an attack of his own. He just kept dodging, left and right… so Temari kept striking, dancing with him as her confidence rose.

Victory was just a matter of time now.

…Only Shikamaru disagreed.

His hands suddenly began to weave seals, a different sequence from his previous technique, and that's when Temari unknowingly made a mistake in her attack sequences: she didn't strike low enough.

Shikamaru practically threw himself by her feet and Temari used her swing's momentum to roll out of the way just as his palm struck the floor.

"Earth Release: Stalagmite!"

With only a small quake as warning, a sharp spike of earth shot up from the floor exactly where she had stood. It was about as thin and tall as an adult male but not wide enough to fully hide her foe from view.

Mercifully the sun was positioned just right that the structure's shadow was angled toward Shikamaru rather than herself, but Temari had to be wary just the same as a fragment of darkness snaked towards her.

Grunting, Temari backflipped, once, twice, thrice, all in slightly different angles as the tendril curved around in an attempt to mess her timing, and all while gathering chakra until a fourth backflip had her opening her fan in midair and sending a wave of sharp gales in Shikamaru's general direction, at the very same time the Shadow Possession Jutsu reached its limit.

Her eyes widened the moment she focused on him. Instead of cowering behind his little rock, Shikamaru was now in front of the stalagmite, using it as an anchor to withstand the winds that tore through him. They cut him up some more, adding to all the damage Temari had done until then, but he overcame the pain enough to work on more seals.

The same sequence from earlier.

'But that jutsu can't have this much range, right?'

Temari only realized her mistakes when the second stalagmite emerged.

The first, was that Shikamaru's shadow had made her dodge so her back would be almost against the tree.

The second, was that she had paid no mind to the lingering evidence of the previous fight's events: the small bundles of rock that lingered where the pink-haired girl's Earth Walls once stood in the second match, one of which was close enough to her.

It was exactly there that Shikamaru's jutsu went off. The spike shot up from the floor with enough force to launch all the stones high in the sky and her eyes went wide.

Stomping her gut instinct of countering his plan with lethal force, Temari only saw one way out.

She jumped high, fully opened and swung her fan directly below her pumping as much chakra as the weapon would handle without a proper jutsu molded. The ensuing gales forced Temari's body upwards violently, thankfully with zero cutting power.

She did it again and again, soaring parallel to the tree until her shadow no longer was cast on the ground below.

Then she stuck her legs out to the tree, latching on it. She was high enough that her shadow was limited to about two meters from her feet, very far from Shikamaru's reach on the ground.

'Okay. We are both out of our ranges again,' she paused, mind racing for another plan. She had spent a good chunk of her reserves without winning the fight, but her plan still paid off a little in that at least she could see Shikamaru and had gained one important bit of information.

Shikamaru's jutsu had reached her shadow between her last two swings, yet she had full control of her body. The jutsu therefore didn't work just from touching the target's shadow, it needed a real connection to the target from the ground. The target shadow was just a convenient end-point.

'But now what?' she scowled. 'About the only thing I can do from here is shoot kunai… but I can't let him come up with a plan either!'

Temari's brain sent a command for her arm to move toward her weapon pouch.

Temari's body just trembled, refusing the motion.

Her eyes went wide as one hand came up to the upper left of her face, massaging the area near the eye.

"He… he caught me… but how!?"

Against her will, her legs began to move forward, leading her down the trunk all while Shikamaru made his way to the tree far below.

'Of course… dammit! His shadow must have gone around the tree and used all the shadows back there to climb up… but there has to be a counter for this!'

She tried to move in every way possible, but most of her body from neck below refused her commands. It didn't help that Shikamaru's neck was angled up toward her, which left her staring almost right at the sun. Mercifully she could at least close the one eye her hand—his hand?— wasn't shielding.

Flaring her chakra did nothing. This was no genjutsu.

She only opened her eyes again when her head's angle changed. Shikamaru was walking up the tree, with half his face obscured much like her own. Then her legs swerved a bit sideways too, taking them both in a diagonal path until he finally stopped.

"Geez," he muttered, dropping his hand revealing the purple, bruised skin beneath. "You didn't have to kick me that hard."

Anger surged through her. "We're fighting, you doofus! What did you expect? A head pat?"

"That'd be less troublesome at least," he muttered with slumped shoulders, forcing Temari to mirror his discouraging stance which she hated.

"So what now?" she spat, still trying in vain to free herself. "If I understand this technique correctly you can't knock me out like this."

"Yeah, not here. But take a look."

He craned his neck to the side, and Temari's eyes almost bulged out of her skull.

A kunai with an explosive tag, stuck right beside her.

"W-When did—!"

"I didn't. Sasuke left that there in the first match." He shrugged. She shrugged. "Nobody got rid of it, so… yeah. Even though I'm getting low on chakra, I had already thought a bunch of other ways to get me a victory from here, too, but… ugh." Shikamaru grunted in disgust, and Temari couldn't help her bewildered stare.

It was clear to her that every action she took since forcing Shikamaru out of the tree's shade was within his plans, and yet….

"Do you not want to win?"

"I'd hate to lose to a girl," he shot back, bored, unaware of how fortunate he was that Temari couldn't kill him with her smoldering glare alone. "But winning would be such a pain too. If I get to the third round my mom would be watching so I couldn't even half-ass it or else she'd kill me."

Temari's harsh gaze faltered with her shock. "Uh… win more, then?"

"That'd probably get me promoted and that's no good either. Being a chunin sounds like such a pain even if I felt ready for it…"

"What!? Why the hell are you here for then!?"

Shikamaru never got a chance to reply.

"SHIKAMARU NARA! I SWEAR, IF YOU FORFEIT I'LL PERSONALLY TELL YOUR MOM HOW YOU THREW AWAY A PROMOTION AND AN EASY VICTORY JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE A LAZY BUM! DO YOU HEAR ME!?"

Temari got to watch all the color draining from Shikamaru's face.

"…Shit."

She made no effort to hide the smug smirk blossoming on her own.

"Well, well. I ought to thank your teammate for giving out your weakness for free like that."

"Huh?"

Temari wasn't dumb. She had effectively already lost, only Shikamaru running out of chakra at that point would have saved her.

Yet despite losing the battle…

"Proctor," she announced, loud and clear, "I give up."

...Temari won the war.

Sakura's ears were still ringing from Ino's screech, to the point she almost missed Temari's forfeit. That Naruto was laughing his heart out not too far off didn't help.

"Well, he won," she muttered.

"More like he didn't lose," Asuma sighed, but she could see that the jonin was amused by everything he saw.

"Good thing I didn't bet on Shikamaru giving up," Chouji chuckled a bit. "I never saw that coming."

Ino didn't say anything. She just looked pissed as the proctor called the match.

'Well, I know that look.' Sakura thought. She did not want to be near Ino when Shikamaru climbed up back to them.

She said a timid goodbye and moved away while making herself as small as possible, but also as swiftly as she could without drawing Ino's attention.

Before she could get to her original spot, she had to pass by Team 8.

What immediately caught her eye was that Kurenai seemed distracted by something. She followed the woman's gaze all the way across the alcove, where the Hokage was. She didn't have the best angle thanks to the tree, but she could see a bit of a commotion there.

'Huh. Weird.'

She snapped out of it when Shino called out to her, and they exchanged congratulations for their victories as she passed Team 8. Of course both Kurenai and Hinata followed his lead, but while she still couldn't quite define how she felt about the older kunoichi's praises, her heart warmed at her younger friend's visible worry for her well-being.

Of course her outburst when pounding Kin into the ground wouldn't be easily forgotten. But Sakura had gotten it out of her chest, and after convincing Hinata of it, she left Team 8 behind.

That of course, meant only Lee stood in her way back to a still-laughing Naruto.

"Sakura-san, congratulations for your victory!" the boy exclaimed, offering his classic thumb-up/shining smile combo, which would be almost charming if not for his suggestive wink drawing attention to his eyes and especially his eyebrows.

She just couldn't get over them.

"It was an incredibly youthful display!"

"T-Thanks, Lee… I just hope this one hasn't been giving you much trouble," she motioned at Naruto, who waved at her as he struggled to catch his breath.

"Oh no, Naruto-san has been no trouble at all. In fact, I am quite enjoying analyzing the past few matches with him!"

With some difficulty, Naruto used the wall to get up. "Bushy Brows might not look like it but he's pretty smart, you know?"

"Naruto!"

Her fist was closed, trembling fist was the only evidence of how she was surpassing her impulse to just wallop Naruto for his rudeness. Lee just waved her off though. She supposed that someone that dealt with Neji on the daily would have a thick skin anyway.

A poof and a small cloud of smoke interrupted her thoughts.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she and Naruto spoke in unison.

"Hey."

Sakura took just one look at her teacher, and she already sensed something was wrong.

"Ah, Lee. I see you've been taking care of my genin while I was gone. Thanks for that."

"It was no problem at all!"

Her eyes narrowed at the jonin. His tone was almost as carefree as always. Though he still had his head buried in his stupid porn book, she could see the tension in his posture.

"Where were you Kakashi-sensei?"

"Oh, you know, the usual stuff. Checking up on Sasuke, making sure there really wasn't a better option for you, reading quality literature, chasing down enemy spies…"

She scoffed. "Right."

"YES!"

"NO!"

Sakura jumped, her heart almost leaping out of her throat at Lee and Naruto's sudden screams.

"It's finally my turn!" Lee announced happily, and Naruto was his complete opposite.

"Are you kidding me!? You and Sasuke got to go first why do I have to wait this long!?" he whined at her, but Sakura ignored his childish rant, twirling to stare at the monitor.

She didn't know why, but the moment she read who would be Lee's opponent, her heart suddenly felt heavy.

In a flash of green, Lee had leaped from the alcove into the arena.

The moment the energetic boy landed, a cloud of sand burst right across him, revealing his opponent…

Gaara.

A/N

And here's where it ends.

No I'm not covering fight #8. I could not possibly do it justice compared to the anime, and there is zero purpose in covering it from either an emotional standpoint or from a mechanical standpoint (which is one of the things that made me cover Temari vs Shikamaru).

So how were the fights? Both the three big ones, as well as the brief account on the other four? I hope you guys enjoyed them. It was very difficult to reimagine the last fight with a new environment in particular, the canon version was quite the show after all.

Of course it wasn't all fights, as we got a very much needed SasuSaku moment that I hope has done justice to the characters. Fans of this pairing have been rightfully glaring at me for a while now, I hope the wait was worth it!

People who bothered keeping track of things should know who's left and what the probable match-ups for the last two fights are. One of them in particular might be disappointing as a concept right now, but trust me, I'm doing that fight for very, very good reasons. It's important! I hope that I earned your trust by this point…

Beyond that, I'm releasing this chapter on my birthday! Please consider brightening a poor fanfic writer's special day with your thoughts, theories, hopes or observations with a REVIEW!

You could not possibly give me a better birthday present! (even if it's late because you're reading this any other day lol)

Guest Review Answers:

Guest (BR) - Answering this in english just because i feel some people might read this and have something to say about your take on crush vs love. What Hinata feels about Naruto is kinda complex right now. It's not yet deep and (as i'll soon demonstrate) mature enough that i feel it works as love. Crush feels correct to me, the problem is that she has other strong non-romantic feelings about Naruto ranging from severe guilt to a hero complex. This can muddy one's perception of where her heart stands. She's definitively falling more and more as time goes on though... oh and i think crush in portuguese feels weaker than it does in english. Especially when people here use it in english (gods i hate it, lol). Oh, as for the hug scene well, it made my day to read how much you loved it! (and the wave reconciliation scene). Thanks for the praise!

naruluvshina - i hope this chapter helped address some of your concerns about Sakura and Sasuke! Yeah... the SS tag is something i've been wondering about for a while. They were always intended to be the beta couple, but because the scope of the story's chapters grew so much and my cowardice when it comes to giving Sasuke PoV, they've been harmed a fair bit. Hinata and Naruto's dynamics needed more attention earlier too, but we are at a point where SS will become more frequent and realistically, matter more.

That being said I'm sad to see you think Sakura hasn't been getting development... from my perspective she has, and Sasuke seems to agree with me. The way Sakura behaves around her teammates, her efforts to repair her bond with Ino, to take care of Naruto like an older sister, the way she's significantly more serious about her profession... i'm sure it doesn't come across as well in the earlier unrevised wave chapters, but it's all there. Maybe because Sakura is a "normie" her growth doesn't stand out as much? Probably just my fault tho.

rae - You get it! I go out of my way to try and make Hinata (and others if i can) grow up and earn little victories every chapter, glad that has been paying off! Both for herself and her reputation. Oh yeah, her dynamic with Shikamaru was set up to have the tables turned on her from the beginning. Her innaction comes from a place of low confidence rather than laziness, but it leads to the same ending just the same. Ah, this review now kinda makes me sad for not being able to give Hinata some spotlight, but then again she will steal the show next time...

guest (jul 2) - Well have a little more joy then, haha! I'm glad to read some people react this way, i'm just sorry i can't update more often. Glad you've been enjoying the impact of Naruto's secret. I just can't get enough of people saying they liked the Hina/Shika dynamic, lol... they'll get to friendship eventually.

AUlover - Well it was a 16K words chapter, if i didn't get a lot done there would be something really wrong... (*glares at wave*). Ah yes, Danzo and Orochimaru. I don't think i'll get back to them next chapter, but soon their machinations will come to light. I think i may end up surprising you!

guest (jul 4) - Good point... now it works like this lol. I don't mean to be rude, i totally forgot Naruto needed to input chakra. But now it's played up for drama...

Joe Schmoe - Thanks!

Changelog

v1.1 - Changed instances of Kin's name ending with "m" as per superscarface83's review, fixed the position of the line break that separates the end of Sakura's PoV and the start of Temari's, changed the description areas that used the word "alcove" which did not mean what I thought it meant, plus polished Sasuke's analysis of the arena environment before Anko pops out to better describe the place