The ground was soft due to the downpour earlier as Sakura staggered back, her face twisted into many different forms of dismay. It felt like she was being devoured by quicksand, physically and mentally. She imagined the illusion where she was pushed into the sand itself and left there to suffer painfully as it took her body and her life. She would of gladly accepted that fate if she had hurt someone she knew. She probably ended that person's life as a shinobi if they even were one. Such a hard and precise blow would of shattered all of their bones in their hand and severed vital veins...chakra and blood wise.

She stopped the walking motion once her back hit the tree she happened to have pounced out of and she slowly tried to calm herself, her hand feriously clawing through her pink locks. The sun set to the highest point in the day meaning it was about to start it's trek to plunge the Earth back into darkness. Sakura wouldn't have minded if that actually happened right there since she didn't want to recognize the face of the person she had hurt. Their expression would be carved into stone and etched into her fragile mind so that she would remember it before anything she did.

She failed to notice the smoke dissappear. To her surprise and luck, the special smoke bomb she had concocted and used to blind her target had lasted longer than expected, giving her much needed time to escape. But she couldn't escape. Her body relented but forced her to stay immobile. It wanted her to see the victim, the one she had hurt so severely although her mind felt the exact opposite. Unfortunately, her mind had no say as of yet; it seemed to have lost all control of her body.

And anyway...where was her sensei?

Her mind was rudely brought back to reality when she felt someone's heated gaze on her quivering form, their eyes piercing through her. She slowly looked up and a gasp escaped her parted lips when her gaze met up with the intimidating but beautifully painted eyes of an anbu mask. She could not see the owner's face nor the hair but she could obviously tell that it was indeed a man because of the sculpted body that seemed to glisten through the tight but efficient pants of the uniform. Her eyes looked down immediately at the kneeling body that came into view while the dust settled. She bit her lip when the smoke dissappated around the hand and her eyes widened drastically.

His glove that was essentially black now was a crimson red and was torn in several places. Smoke was rising from the surface as the burns bubbled and more blood dripped quickly off it, creating a puddle of red right in front of his aching feet. She stared intently and her body didn't seem to move although someone was in need of her skills. She was capable but she felt compelled to run away and never face that person again.

Her body decided to move of it's own accord when she heard the man hiss from the excruciating pain that overtook his senses and shook his body wildly. His anbu mask made it nearly impossible for her to analyize him and figure out if she knew him or not, but that was the last thing on her mind as she made her way over.

He craned his neck and another hiss escaped him while his partner took a step back. She assumed that he thought she was a monster but she didn't fall into that large menacing hole appropriately named denial that stood before her because she would have thought the same thing if she was in his shoes. Crouching down to inspect the damage, she hesitantly put one hand forward and stuck it right side up to see if he'd accept her help. He placed his palm into her hands and she instinctively but slowly took off his bloodied and torn glove. Her jaw clenched in a display of sympathy for the man after she felt his deformed hand in hers, it pulsing while blood poured out from every scrape. She gently tapped special parts of the hand she knew from her practice and sighed heavily.

There are twenty seven bones in one hand that are connected with muscles and tendons and I seemed to have broken and torn them all.

"You must stay calm. I'm going to tie a piece of cloth over your hand so it may sting a little. Just a little though. It will stop the blood from circulating. Your blood cells are not able to recover quickly and you may faint and that could lead to potential problems..."

"I'm not a fool," he replied but Sakura was unable to make out his voice properly.

How ironic...

Now she truly felt sorry for the man before her. But she also felt a tinge of confusion sneak it's way into her system. She had failed her anbu test by two points but she had gained some valuable experience which seemed to contradict her current situation.

'The area she was in was surrounded by towering monoliths, each representing different shinobi and kunoichi that Sakura had never seen before. The wind blew violently and it seemed to shift the monoliths into many shapes, all becoming more sculpted and crafted. It was beautiful to watch but it couldn't overpower the nervous sensation in the pit of Sakura's stomach that rivaled her pounding heart.

She stood in the middle of the desolute area created by a genjutsu and clapped her hands together, placing chakra onto the points and extending it out to use as claws. She had learned this technique in the tutoring of Tsunade but never had the opportunity to put it to good use. She scanned the area slowly, taking in all of the surroundings. There were several stalagmites that rose from the ground in some sort of distraught pattern while sand blew wildly, with the wind, in all directions.

"Haruno, in a situation such as this you should not use your chakra," a man stated, his voice echoing through the field and sending a shiver down her spine. If there was going to be an instructor, couldn't she at least see his face?

"Why not?" She hesitantly asked, her voice muffled by the newly acquired anbu mask. She still had yet to paint it but she would only get that rare but highly respected chance if she passed the test.

"Do you know where you are?" The voice echoed and rang in her ears. She could make out that it was an older man (not much older than her) but was still of a higher stature. How did she know? She had the amazing sixth sense to tell these things.

"In genjutsu..?" Sakura sarcastically replied, a snicker following.

"Don't act like such a smart ass. You don't know where you are. You don't know who you're fighting. You can't even tell if there's anyone here. Why? They're masking their chakra. Didn't you learn this in the first year of academy?"

"I--uhh.."

"No, you were too busy leading a Sasuke fan club to remember any essential skills. A shinobi and kunoichi should be up to par with all the skills needed to battle and you're not even near the expectation. If you weren't a student of Hokage-sama at one point then I'd drop you back down to Chuunin. You disgust me...pathetic little girl. Leave!" His last word was eccentuated greatly and his voice rang through Sakura's tense ears.

The genjutsu was immediately dispelled and Sakura ran towards the door, tears streaming down her twisted face. They dripped onto her anbu uniform but she didn't notice until a man stopped her in her tracks.

"Where do you think you're going?" He calmy asked and Sakura recognized it as the same voice that just tore through her fragile pride.

"I'm leaving! Aren't you done?" She retaliated, throwing a fist at his chest which he easily caught, whirling her around and pushing her against the wall.

"Life is not easy. It's truly sad that you think you can become a full fledged kunoichi and help your fellow anbu in your condition. I wasn't planning on repeating myself but I will for your benefit. You're pathetic. Now, give me your anbu uniform and mask and get out of my sight." He pointed to the change room and Sakura made her way there.

She changed hastily and left three minutes later in her signature but larger red dress, whipping her clothes at the man and grabbing the door handle and smashing the door into pieces before jumping onto the anbu headquarter's roof.

What had she learned from that? She learned that her anbu sensei was an arrogant bastard who deserved a kunai up the ass. Well, she actually learned that one must mask their chakra when in an unknown situation. She had blindly attacked the being with the only circulating chakra she felt. Unfortunately, she was unaware that Kuchiyose monsters had the ability to mask their chakra but it was too late now.

It was like trying to put a jig saw puzzle together but forgetting that one of the pieces were missing. It seems to make no sense until you're nearly done solving it, then everything comes together. After that, you feel like a complete moron and you pack up the puzzle, looking around frantically to make sure no one witnessed that embarrassing moment.

First off, the current situation was in no way representing a jig saw puzzle. If it was, there'd be every piece except for one missing and Sakura would have never bought the damn puzzle in the first place. But there she was, in 'the current situation', and what was her motive?

"I was training with my sensei."

The two anbu figures snapped their heads up and looked at her or either the tree behind her, she couldn't tell. She then realized that she had said that out of nowhere and laughed nervously.

"This is not a laughing matter," the accomplice member said. Sakura immediately stopped but the man continued. "It seems that your abilities are lacking as a medic and we have no apparent use for you here. I'm going to take my partner to the hospital. We can wait until your done thinking about what you've done, if you'd like."

She looked up at the man and gritted her teeth before answering. "Go ahead, I'll come by later and file a report."

Just as quickly as she responded, the man picked up his wounded partner and flew into the trees, the rustling of the leaves making it apparent that they had made their exit. Sakura sighed, rubbing her temples feverishly while tapping her heel. She was stressed, tired and worried and where was her sensei again? She let the anger-propelled chakra flow freely to her knuckles and swung herself around on one foot, lunging her arm towards the tree. It stopped about two inches in front of the lucky birch and her eyes widened when the cloak of her sensei curled around his form.

"H-how..?"

"Through experimentation and observation, I have merged certain cells with my chakra and used complex molecules to catalyze the effect. In turn, it causes my chakra's cell regeneration process to speed up even though excess chakra has not been used. Inevitably, my chakra flow is nearly tripled although the veins have not gotten any larger. It causes my chakra to be expelled in large amounts, strengthening it after the miniscule chakra molecules interact with oxygen and hydrogen. It creates a hard chakra that can withstand almost any blow."

Sakura stepped back, cutting her eyes at her smirking sensei. After what had happened, nothing surprised her. "Kazuki-sensei, why were you being a coward? Why couldn't you face me?" Sakura said, her anger clearly causing her to forget about Kazuki's small explanation.

"Kunoichi, you weren't able to defeat my Kuchiyose. How do you expect to defeat me?"

Sakura, frustrated, jumped into the nearest tree and set off towards Konoha's gates. Kazuki merely sighed when he noticed the lone tear dissipate as it flew carelessly through the air, carried by the winter's cold chill.

A large mahogany door slowly creaked opened and a tall man tip toed through, careful not to wake the sleeping beauty behind the oversized desk scattered with a plethora of different types of essential documents. Lee assumed that they must not have been that important because they were currently in a disheveled mess. Photos of missing-nins were on the left side in no apparent order; the edges were given dog ears and were crumpled until it didn't resemble a photo at all. The law documents were in a neat pile--on the floor beside the garbage bin which just so happened to be full with academy honour students...although there didn't seem to be many.

Lee inwardly smirked. If it had been when he was in the academy, the garbage bin would have been at full capacity. He also cringed, figuring out that youth with potential were being taught such insuffient things.

"What a waste of their springtime of youth," he said to no one in particular although it did awaken one sleepy fifth Hokage.

She looked up at him through clouded eyes, her face scrunched in a strange attempt to figure out who he was. Her hair cascaded down and landed gracefully on her back and shoulders. Lee noticed it wasn't in it's usual pontytail. He presumed that she must have been drinking a lot lately. Something on her mind, maybe?

"Lee, whhaattt ddddoooo yyoooouuuu wwwaaannnt?"

Definetaly. She had been drinking a lot by the incessant slurring of her many words. He smiled at her apologetically, feeling quite sorry for her. She was going to have a side splitting headache in just a few moments.

"Hokage-sama, have Kakashi-san and Neji-san returned and given you the mission report?"

She clutched her head and shut her eyes tightly, hissing as an eruption of firey pain started a throbbing pain in her head. She drew chakra to her feet and jolted backwards in her swivel chair, crashing threw the window in one swift motion. Lee stood there dumfounded before the actual seriousness of the situation dawned on him. He sprinted to the broken glass, being extremely careful not to fall over himself. He stretched his neck forward and his mouth fell agape when he saw the chair lying flatly on a battered Naruto.

He searched around frantically for the Hokage and yelped when she appeared right in front of him.

"I mmmmaaaaayyy ooffff hhaaaadddd tooo muuccchhh ssaaaakkkeee bbbuuutttt I aaaammmm nnnnooottt sssstttuuuupppiiiiiddd." She smiled and her body tossed back and forth while she stood on the side of the building, her feet sticking to the building like an adhesive substance.

Lee offered Tsunade a hand but she shooed it away, slowly ascending up the wall while civilians gazed from far below. Naruto coughed and hacked up blood onto his calloused hands before getting up and brushing off his new orange jump suit.

It wasn't that it was different--it was just new. Lee had been one of the lucky ones and was fortunate enough to see inside Naruto's closest, which looked like the aurora borealis, but for Halloween. It was basically an array of orange and black, all assembled in a fashionable order which Lee happened to admire.

His thoughts were ruptured when a large thump rang in his ears. He glanced over the edge and instantly ran down the side of the building when he saw Tsunade, Naruto, and a chair.

Naruto under the chair, which happened to be under Tsunade.

"My report is going to have to wait," Lee mumbled, jumping onto the cement and waving at all the flabbergasted onlookers.

Sakura inched closer to the hospital clerk but slowed her steps every time she came a small fraction closer to her destination. She was about to find out who she had hurt severly and accept her verbal punishment. She was prepared. Well, at least physcologically. She had even yelled at herself in the mirror to prepare for the onslaught of profane and rude words that were to fly in her face in a few moments. She had also asked Ino to meet her in front of the academy to help. Ino had easily named off all of Sakura's insecurites, which took more time than Sakura expected and liked. And to add to her misfortune, all of the academy's students were out for kunai practice but they all seemed to halt mid step upon hearing the precise words: bitchy baby.

But that's what friends are for, right?

"Sakura-san, is there anyone you're looking for?" Hinata shyly asked, her fingers still plastered to the keys of the hospital phone. Sakura looked up and raised her eyebrows before returning the smile and calming herself. Hinata had chosen to become a clerk to pass the winter months because she was on temporary leave. She confided in Sakura more often than not and their relationship had grown as were the people entering the hospital. Although the shift seemed to never end on shady days, the two always connected through simple smiles and gestures. Hinata had learned plenty from Sakura and even watched Sakura preform surgery on Naruto. Upon completion, Sakura had ripped open Naruto's jacket (which she later had to repay for damages) and inspected his seal. Sadly, Hinata blushed furiously and exited the room.

Sakura had Hinata to thank for many accomplishments. A patient would enter and Sakura would need the help of Hinata's Byakugan to inspect the damage and see if it may have spread to other organs or even to the extent of destroying cells. They used eachother as back supports and were the best of friends.

"I'm looking for the patient with a severely broken hand," Sakura replied, trying her best not to look upset although her face was contradicting her hopes.

"Oh, I saw him come by. Kakashi was carrying him but I wasn't unable to see who it was. Sorry. Oh umm, it's room 3b. It's the first on the left."

Sakura smiled and made her way to the room. Why did it feel like she was about to enter a funeral gathering?

"Wait Kakashi...huh? If Kakashi was carrying him then that must mean..." Sakura began to mumble to herself as she headed down the surprisingly empty hallway. "...He was the one who talked rudely to me! Oh, wait until I see him!" Sakura drew her fingers into the most menacing fist she could conjure up and turned into the room. She looked up and scowled at Kakashi then hastily changed views to the hospital bed. On it sat Neji, his hand hoisted up by chords and bandages.

Sakura's mouth fell agape and her tongue literally swung out as she swiveled on one foot and exited the room. Kakashi and Neji exchanged glances and watched her go to the opposite wall, her Jounin cape twisting as she stormed down the hall.

She tapped her foot when she reached Hinata's desk, earning a perplexed look from the pearly eyed woman. Sakura bit her lip, grabbing her ponytail and ripping out the band, releasing her pink locks.

"Neji..?"

Hinata backed up and looked at Sakura for a moment before she realized what was going on. "Oh, it seems that Neji had all the bones in his hand broken. Whoever did that must have been strong!" Hinata pouted at Sakura and instantaneously let out a gasp. "Wait. Sakura and Neji. Sakura's strength and Neji's hand...hello?" Hinata's head frantically changed directions, searching for Sakura. She cracked a smile when she saw a flash of pink enter 3b.

---

She sat down on the only available chair next to Kakashi's and smiled at him, attempting to hide the creeping chance of tears that was slowly making it's way to her eyes. She then looked at Neji who was staring at her with serious intensity, sending a wave of shivers down her spine. She immediately tore her gaze away from him and bowed her head, trying to configure what happened so that she didn't seem like a fool when she explained to them.

The silence in the room was choking but Sakura didn't seem to mind as she fidgeted with her fingers, twidling her thumbs in a rythmic pattern to loosen her tense mind.

She felt the same type of 'failure' silence when she entered the same hospital room that was Naruto was in twelve years ago. She saw a battered Naruto sitting up on the bed, bandages covering him from head to toe as Shikamaru struck small talk with him. She felt bad for interrupting them but she felt the urge to ask if Sasuke was back. But one look from Naruto and she knew that her hopes had been shattered.

It also seemed that her hopes had been shattered now too. The doubts of her capabilities started to surface in her brain. Everytime it pulsed, a new and worse memory resurfaced, causing Sakura to clench her fist harder. Kakashi and Neji noticed her change but failed to say anything as Sakura began to hiss.

She was a failure. She was never able to do anything right. The only talent she has was her great chakra control which she seemed to use horribly anyway. Everything she did was a burden to others and they didn't hide it from her to save her. They told her bluntly that she wasn't worth the time, the effort, or the breath. She wasn't even able to pass the anbu test. Actually, it wasn't even the anbu test that she failed. It was the ­pre­-anbu test.

"It was my Byakugan." A voice rose from the silence and Sakura snapped her head up, rubbing under her left eye to check for escaping tears. None had fallen, yet. Kakashi looked at Sakura and she tore her gaze away from Neji to look at the interesting beige wall beside him.

"You were after that Kuchiyose. You lured it into the clearing and threw the smoke bomb. We had walked by and were caught in the permeating smoke. I activated my Byakugan as a precautionary measure but it seemed that your smoke bomb blocked it. I kept it on for surity and you felt my circulating chakra. What I don't understand is why you attacked me. The Kuchiyose had planned for all of this to happen and it's plan worked flawlessly. If you hadn't been so impatient, this could have been avoided."

Sakura swallowed her arising saliva quickly and looked at Neji confusingly. As always, he had his stoic impression on and Sakura couldn't pinpoint what he was thinking.

"But I felt only one chakra..."

"When you heal animals, don't you notice that they have a different chakra circulatory system than humans? Also, my bloodline limit is unique so most of my chakra flows through the main chakra veins to my eyes so I can maintain Byakugan for a longer period of time. And I even purposly pumped excess chakra to my eyes so that I could see farther because I didn't have the neccessary time to pinpoint your location. You're a medic, aren't you?"

"Y-yes..." Sakura meakly replied, her hands shaking.

"You know the circulatory systems like the back of your hand. You should at least be able to tell the difference," he spat, his voice similiar to that of Kakashi's earlier.

Sakura mentally repositioned all of his assumptions and shut her open mouth when she realized that everything he stated was correct. It hit her like a ton of bricks and Sakura's honour shattered along with her diaphragm.

"I don-t... I meaaan I ccan-" Sakura got up and made her way to the door. At the exit she turned around to face the two. She wasn't about to let Neji win another verbal argument. She'd have the last word.

"Well, if I'm not mistaken when you're in said situation you should not activate bloodline limits because you could risk the safety of your party. It tells any smart enemy that there are more of you, especially when said person knows what bloodline limit you're using. You're precautionary measure was calculated wrong. Aren't you lucky I didn't strike you with full force? If I knew it was you...I just might have." She smiled and left the room to leave Neji and Kakashi to watch her back. Her fuming back.

Kakashi shook his head pathetically at Neji and left the room, closing the door once his body stepped out.

Had Neji pushed her too far?

"Mushi bunshin no jutsu."

Petite bugs sprung from Shino's arms as he stepped back, avoiding the spreading toxins that were gathering around a darkened tree. The bugs took the form of himself and sprung behind Shino protectively. He pointed to adjacent tree and his clone easily hopped onto an unstable branch before quickly changing weapons. The clone took out two long chords and wrapped them around his wrists before sending chakra through them. Shino did the same but added more speed, motioning for the clone to strike. They both ran forward, whipping the chords out and drawing them back after the tips hit the soft wood.

The tree flexed, spewing out more toxins and the two hastily jumped to the side. Unfortunately, the clone inhaled some of it and dispersed itself back to kikaichu bugs before returning to Shino. Unbeknownst to Shino, the tree was being controlled by a shadow in the bushes and it was about to strike.

Shino's glasses tinted in the sunlight, causing his eyes to become apparent. Ignoring the sun's glare, he shot out his arm and bugs crawled from under his coat. They landed on the tree and although the toxins surrounding them, they seemed to be unaffected. They ate away at the trunk and the tree started to grimace. Suddenly, chakra spouted out from holes that Shino had not seen previously. The red chakra gently hoisted the bugs on it's leaves and suddenly they were gone. All that was left was miniscule black spots floating and being carried off by the wind.

"Who are you?" Shino asked impatiently.

"I need you for my experiment," the voice replied. Shino immediately took a defensive position as a momentary rustle of leaves caught his attention. He whipped to his right and hissed when a weapon embedded itself in his shoulder. He fell to his knees and grabbed the kunai, using all his strength to pull it out.

"You can't pull it out."

Shino looked above him and saw a cloak overthrow the sun's beams for a swift moment before a pain stung his body.

"P-poison..." Shino muttered, feeling foolish for not being able to defeat a tree. He didn't even choose to acknowledge the man before him.

"Yes, it's poison but that isn't why you aren't able to take out the kunai. You see, I struck you so that the tip of the kunai that was laced with poison ended up right on the main chakra vein in your arm. The poison slipped off and flowed through the vein. But! It did not affect your chakra. It just made the chakra that I infused in the weapon magnetic. The poison just acts as a reinforcer of sorts. Impressive isn't it?"

Shino looked up at the man and bit his lip to ease the pain.

"I'll be taking you now. You'll have to stay with your fellow Konohagakure residents. By the way, happy birthday."

TBC

: You'll understand soon. You can figure out what day this was by checking Shino's birthday. Also, this is a Neji x Sakura fic which means that love is involved somewhere in the plot. Note that it's Action/Adventure/Romance not Romance/Action/Adventure.

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