Sakura averted her gaze from her book to glance at the clock. "Ten o'clock," she grumbled and put her book down on the desk. "Where could Haruka be? She should've been home half an hour ago." Just then, she heard rapid knocks on the door. "Coming!" She opened it to find a very dirty Haruka looking up at her sadly. She quickly let the girl in and glared at her. "Where were you, young lady?" she asked crossly, "I was worried sick about you."

Haruka wiped some dirt off of her pale cheek and replied, "Sorry, mom. I was out training and lost track of time." She sighed. "Hikaru's right. I'll never be as good as him. No matter how hard I try."

Sakura picked up a first aid kit from the desk and took out a bottle of alcohol along with a cotton ball. She poured the liquid into the cotton and dabbed it on her daughter's cuts, earning hisses and yelps. "Now, Haruka, you know that's not true. You're the top student in the Academy. Oh, and by the way... Did you make it into Genin?"

Haruka's mood brightened up as she squealed, "I sure did! I got the highest score! I even almost beat Hikaru's." She hissed again as her mother dabbed on her cheek one last time.

Sakura smiled as she placed a small bandage on the cut on Haruka's cheek. "That's wonderful news. And don't forget. Within a week, you'll be twelve years old."

"I know! I'm so excited!" Haruka saw Sakura's glad expression turn into a sad one and asked, "What's wrong, mom?" She gasped as a few tears fell from her mother's eyes.

Sakura heard Haruka's voice and quickly wiped her tears away. "N-nothing." She put away the alcohol in the kit and threw away the crimson-brown cotton ball. "Go and eat dinner. Afterwards, I want you to clean up and go straight to bed, got it?"

Haruka nodded. "Got it," she said and ran to the kitchen.

Sakura walked up to her room and closed the door without even turning on the lights. She stared out of her window and saw a shadow on a tree branch...his crimson sharingan staring back at her. She couldn't believe what she was seeing and approached her window, opening it to call, "Sasuke?"

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Sasuke snapped out of his deep thoughts at the sound of Sakura's voice. His eyes widened when he saw her green orbs in contact with his red ones. However, he didn't respond. Instead, he just formed some hand signs and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Sasuke!" Sakura cried, tears streamed down her cheeks as she repeated, "Sasuke..." She closed her window and fell on her knees, crying. "Please...don't leave me again." Her bunned hair became untied and long, pink locks flowed past her shoulders and her long bangs covered her porcelain face.

Haruka cautiously walked inside Sakura's room and whispered, "M-mom? Are you okay? I heard you scream out 'Sasuke'." She approached her mom and was shocked when she found her crying. "Mom?"

Sakura looked up at her daughter and hugged her tightly. "Haruka!" she sobbed, "I thought I told you to go eat dinner, clean up, and go to-"

"I WAS eating dinner," Haruka interrupted, "But I heard you scream and came up here to see if you were alright. I guess you weren't." She then remember Sasuke. "Mom? Who's...Sasuke?"

Sakura stood up and lead Haruka to the door. "No one you need to know about. Now, just go about your business because...I-" She took in a shaky breath and said, "I need to be alone for a bit." She forced a smile.

Haruka nodded and ran down the stairs.

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Hikaru lept from tree to tree rapidly. He found a hidden clearing nearby and stopped there. "I found our resting spot!" he informed his team mates, who were desperately trying to catch up to him.

"Hikaru!" a boy with spiky brown hair and dark blue eyes shouted, "Can't you ever slow down? Sheesh! It's like your life's in danger or something!"

Hikaru glared at the boy. "Shut up, Ryo!" he growled, "If you weren't such an idiot, you'd know that there are other ninjas out there that are trying to kill us!"

Ryo glared back and whispered angrily, "You'd better watch it, Hikaru!"

A young girl with shoulder-length light brown and pinkish eyes appeared between the two and sighed. "You two sure do bicker a lot," she said, "Why not give it a rest?"

"Stay out of this, Hikari!" Hikaru hissed.

Hikari couldn't deny that she had feelings for Hikaru, but it still didn't give him any right to talk to her so rudely. She glared at him and spat, "Watch what you say, Hikaru! Or your tongue might get cut off when you sleep!" She wasn't the one to make her romantic feelings so obvious.

"Yeah!" Ryo cheered, "You tell him, Hikari!" He blushed a bit as he said her name.

Hikari calmed down and rolled her eyes. "Look, lets all just forget about this and make up, okay? We can't go on like this. It's fatal." She smiled sweetly at the two. "Friends?"

Ryo nodded dumbly. Hikaru just huffed and sat down with his arms folded. "Like we were even friends to begin with," he said coldly.

Hikari was about to scold her team mate, but then just gaped when she saw a figure next to him. A very identical figure. "H-Hikaru!" she squeaked, pointing at the man behind him.

Hikaru turned around and looked into deep crimson orbs. His eyes widened when he saw that he resembled the man before him. "Who are you?" he asked, standing up to an offensive stance, "Answer me!" He took out his shuriken and held it in front of him.

The man just chuckled. "Do you honestly think that you can kill me with that, you little brat?" he asked venomously. His red eyes glowed threateningly as he smirked.

Hikaru remained in his composure, desperately trying to intimidate his 'opponent'. He gasped when he heard the man's voice ask behind him, "You value your life too much to take the risk...don't you?" He turned around, but was quickly pushed up to a tree, the man's hands on his neck.

"Hikaru!" Ryo and Hikari cried and ran over to help him, but were instantly immobolized when chakra strings were quickly wrapped around their bodies. They were helpless.

Hikaru watched as the mysterious man took out a kunai from his pocket and started to draw it close. "Damn!" he cursed.

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Dun! Dun! Dun! Sorry. I forgot to say in my last chapter that Hikaru was taking the second test of the Chunin Exams. My bad.