hello!
i apologise for the ginormous wait - writer's block coupled with being abroad for a month made it so instead of updating early july like i'd originally planned, it's almost august o_o
have a 12k monster as compensation~!
as always, an enormous thank-you to everybody who has supported this fic of mine thus far, i read each and every one of your comments and i love you all, so ty 3
to address the most frequently asked Q:
a lot of you were asking whether Neji was going to be in these exams: the answer is, as you will see, no. that is because on his Wikia page, it says Neji got promoted to Chunin at 15, which is the age he should be at this point in the timeline. normal genin would not be allowed to take missions above C/B Rank (Team 7 are the protagonists, so obviously they're the exception to EVERY rule according to Kishi) but this restriction would make it v difficult for Neji to fill the B/A Rank mission criteria required for the Jounin Exams. ergo, he is not participating in them at this particular point in time in my fic.
(also srsly google Tokuma Hyuuga. he looks as if Kishi got lazy and gave us an aged-up Neji and called him a new character :D)
now, without anymore waffling, ENJOY!
Sakura walked out of Tsunade's office in a daze.
Jounin Exams.
She'd spent a year and a half preparing for them but now that they were upon her, it didn't feel real.
Jounin.
She was still an Academy student not even two years ago!
Somehow, her feet still knew where to go even though the rest of her felt like she'd come too close to an explosive tag. Still, she soon found herself outside of Shikamaru's house and smiled at the sight of her oft-partner and his dad on the porch with a chess board set up between them.
Shikaku looked up and nodded at her, but Shikamaru didn't notice her until she settled next to him on the cushions.
"Sakura?" The Nara heir greeted, surprised at her appearance, then shuffled over to make more room on the cushions. "Everything alright?"
Sakura spared a moment to wonder what she did to deserve such a caring friend, then tried to shape her errant thoughts into a coherent answer. "Jounin Exams. Tomorrow. Tsunade said. Shika," she paused, the gravity of the situation hitting her full-force, "what am I gonna do?!"
Shikamaru put the bishop down and turned to look at her fully, game forgotten. "Well, first, you're gonna breathe, seriously, Sakura, you've been preparing for this for over a year, you'll be fine, no need to hyperventilate." He told her frankly, but the pinkette was barely listening.
"But what if there's a combat section? I'm still shite at close-combat, Shikamaru, no matter how I try to sweeten it up." She whined, pulling off her hairband so she could run her fingers through her hair in frustration, slightly disgusted to find the hair at the nape of her neck still damp with the sweat from her spar with Genma earlier.
"If there's anyone who can out-sneak their way out of unfavourable circumstances it's you, Sakura. You're not confident in your taijutsu? Then make sure it doesn't come to a taijutsu battle. Do what you did with Ino if you must. Since it's intra-Village, you won't need to put on a show or anything like that, I don't think." He assured her with faint amusement, sounding exasperated with the conversation.
Sakura managed a weak laugh then turned to Shikaku. "I suppose it would be too much to hope you might be able to shed some light on the structure of the Exam, Shikaku-sama?" she asked hopefully, getting a smirk from the Clan Head.
"And why do you think I'd know anything about that?" he said, and Sakura got a feeling she was being tested.
"Well, you're the Jounin Commander. If anyone knows anything about the tests that the jounin hopefuls are gonna be put through, it's you, Shikaku-sama. Plus," she added, frowning slightly, "Tsunade-sama never said we're not allowed to ask around for information. In fact, she didn't say much of anything apart from 'be here tomorrow at eight'."
Shikamaru snorted. "She probably expected you to go around and find out more. I mean, jounin trials are run by the Villages, so the format can change year to year, unlike the Chunin Exams. You'd have no way of knowing what to prepare for, and no good ninja walks into something like that blind." He frowned and turned to his dad. "Right?"
Shikaku appraised them for a few seconds then chuckled and proceeded to explain the general structure. Without giving too much away, he said the Jounin Exams are also split into three stages – intelligence gathering, skill appraisal and combat. Something in Sakura eased at that and she slumped against Shikamaru, emotionally wrung-out.
"Why not go to Genma with this?" Shikamaru asked her after a few minutes, going back to the game. "I'd have thought he'd be the first one you'd tell."
Sakura hummed a response then heaved herself into a sitting position. "Genma was field promoted. He probably knows about as much as I did about the structure of the Exams." She replied, yawning unashamedly then realised it was nearing mid-afternoon, so she reluctantly forced herself to her feet. "I better go. Thanks, Shika, Shikaku-sama."
"Remember the Rookies' meetup tomorrow!" Shikamaru called after her, and Sakura paused, turning around.
"The what now?" she demanded, frowning. Rookies' meetup?
Shikamaru sighed, clearly exasperated with the whole idea and explained. "Ino organised it. My team will be there, Team 8, maybe even Hyuuga's team if their kunoichi wrangles them in. Ino said it'd be like 'old times' or something." He shrugged, then scowled at the board when his dad checked his king.
"But we hardly spoke to each other in the Academy." Sakura pointed out, puzzled. "I don't think I ever said a word to the Aburame on Hinata's team."
"I don't think you should use the Aburame as the yardstick, Sakura. Kiba was convinced their whole Clan was mute until he landed with Shino on a team." Shikamaru told her frankly, startling a laugh out of her. "Tomorrow, Yakiniku Q, midday. You better be there." And he shot her the biggest stink-eye Sakura had ever received from him, making her break out into more exhausted giggles.
"You just don't want Ino on your case the whole afternoon." She pointed out between laughs, then waved off the Nara's explanation. "I'll try, don't worry. Can't pass up the opportunity to be your knight in shining armour, hm?" and she shunshined away before the pawn Shikamaru threw at her managed to hit her head.
When she got home, she found a note from Genma and dinner in the fridge.
Escort mission to Hidden Valleys. Be back in a week. Take care xx
Sakura frowned, trying to ignore the twinge of disappointment in her heart at not having Genma home to celebrate and scheme with. Sighing, she forced the dinner down and ran a bath for herself. Then she set to packing, checking her weapons and medical supplies, then attached one more pouch to her belt and filled it with all her supply scrolls just in case. When she was done, she simply crawled into bed and fell asleep, despite the fact that it wasn't even seven o'clock yet.
In the morning, Sakura donned her standard outfit, tied back her hair and attached Chōjūrō's hairclip in its usual place, then set out to the Hokage Tower.
Once all the other jounin hopefuls arrived, varying between looking like they were kitted out for war to like they'd just rolled out of bed, they were led towards a really familiar building and Sakura felt herself relax even when the group of chunin she was with grew steadily more apprehensive.
T&I. They were being led into T&I.
Sakura felt a smile bloom on her face and adamantly ignored the concerned look she got from the jounin accompanying them.
"For jounin hopefuls, you look like a bunch of scared mice!" Anko's cheerfully abusive greeting made Sakura grin, even as she made a point to blend into the back of the group as much as she could. "Look at you all, you're shaking!" she laughed, despite the fact that only about three people were openly apprehensive and on edge. "Well, at least you have some common sense. To those who have not guessed yet, this section of your Exams is going to be devoted to intelligence gathering and protection. In other words-!"
"Resistance to torture." Ibiki's gruff voice came from behind the group, and Sakura was one of the few who didn't jump. Over the many months of her apprenticeship, she'd learnt that for such a large man, Ibiki could be surprisingly sneaky. Then, the meaning of her superior's words sunk in, and Sakura felt the first twinges of worry. "You will be tested individually with by a Senior Interrogator. You'll each have a data pack that you will memorise, and that will be what the interrogators will be trying to extract from you." And so saying, he started handing out manila files, and Sakura flicked hers open the moment her fingers closed around the spine then paused. If Anko was one of the organisers of this section, it was reasonable to suspect they wouldn't hold back… or so Sakura tried to justify her paranoia as she pulled out one of the bobby pins that was holding her bangs back and slipped it up her sleeve.
Then, she went back to reading, and her eyes widened. She had seen the name on her file before. In fact, she was pretty sure this was the first interrogation Anko had let her oversee. She tried to glance surreptitiously around, but all the others in the room with her seemed to be either committing the contents of their file to memory, or comparing profiles, seemingly convinced that they were made up. The rosette had a sinking suspicion that was not the case.
Her mind was whirring. Was that how they were going to be graded? Was this what would determine whether they passed or failed? Were Anko and Ibiki really going to compare how much information the jounin hopefuls let slip to what the original prisoner had spilled? It seemed cold and cruel but also – and Sakura hated herself for thinking so, but she could not deny that it was the truth – practical. And so, she began memorising the file in her hands and lost track of time.
She was vaguely aware that people around her came and went, some of the chunin disappearing with them, but it was not until she felt a heavy hand land on her shoulder and looked up to meet Ibiki's hard gaze that she snapped back to reality.
"Your turn." He said simply, then Sakura's vision went black.
Sakura came to in one of the cells, her wrists cuffed together behind the back of the chair and her feet shackled to the ground by the ankles. She could feel the steady stream of chakra that was being sucked out by the manacles around her wrists and she raised her head and eyed Ibiki amusedly.
It turned out her assumption was right – they clearly weren't holding back.
Any trace of humour disappeared when Ibiki began the interrogation for real.
Sakura gasped, her lungs screaming at her to suck in air, her scalp screaming at her to get away from the hand pulling her hair painfully back, yanking her head back and baring her neck as she gasped for breath, only to use the same grip to shove her head back into the basin of freezing water, not letting go even when she thrashed.
She knew, logically, that Ibiki wouldn't kill her. She also had a suspicion that the reason there was a section with interrogation was to test how much Konoha-nin trusted their fellow shinobi and how much they believed the rumours and stigma about T&I. So far, despite her body's struggle for air and the adrenaline that was pumping through her veins, her mind was still relatively calm.
Ibiki was going by the book and it was almost touching how much gentler this interrogation was to what Sakura knew the man could dole out. True, she had a black eye, split lip, three dislocated fingers and Ibiki was, for all intents and purposes, attempting to drown her but he was not doing anything outside of what she expected. He'd started with Deception, moved swiftly onto Pride-and-ego down, then when that proved fruitless, turned to threatening bodily harm, and then to minor bodily harm (the moment he slowly popped her knuckled out of place had been the most disgusting, shudder-inducing moment thus far) and now to waterboarding. Which was awful, because it was considerably harder to convince herself he wouldn't seriously harm her when her fight-or-flight instinct was screaming at her to get away get away getaway! and her lungs were burning.
Finally, Ibiki released his grip on her hair and Sakura slumped in her seat as much as she could, taking in ragged, gasping breaths to reassure her lungs that the oxygen wasn't going to disappear again. Ibiki rose and slowly left the room, and if Sakura's hazy brain was right, he was going to come back with the electrocution equipment. She took another shuddering breath, appraised her chakra levels, considered her general wellbeing, then made a decision.
It was time to get out.
Slowly, carefully, she pulled the hairpin out of her sleeve – a process made all the more difficult by the dislocated fingers and shaking hands – and started working on the clasp of the cuffs. Frequent exposure to them let her figure out a weakness in the structure, where if a tiny bit of leverage was applied in just the right the place, the cuff would-!
Thunk!
-snap open.
The rush of chakra made stars dance in front of her eyes for a few seconds, but she carefully kept her hands behind her back, just in case someone was watching from the other side of the window. Sakura thought hard of a way of escaping, how to free her legs or make sure she wasn't stopped in her path out of the cell and was drawing a blank and then-
-and then she twisted and felt the tiny bell from Chōjūrō's hairclip – which had slipped free of her hair and slid under her collar during Ibiki's ministrations – against the back of her neck, the cold metal making her start.
Slowly, an idea formed, and Sakura felt a smile pull on her lips. True, she hadn't used it before, but if she recalled correctly, Chōjūrō had said something about an auditory genjutsu and frankly, that sounded just about perfect-
The door to the cell suddenly opened, Ibiki striding through, and Sakura took a split second to send a prayer up above that her trick would work before sending chakra to her fingers and raising her newly-hand to dig under her collar, then pulled out the hairclip and, stuck for what to do, flicked the bells with chakra-charged fingers. She noted the widening of Ibiki's eyes when he saw her freed hands and the way he reached out to stop her, and suddenly he was almost close enough to touch-!
And then he crumpled to the ground, clutching his head, and Sakura heard the telltale sounds of about three more bodies doing the same in the other room, but she didn't hesitate, wrapping her hands around the shackles and pulling till the hinges popped and she jumped to her feet, swaying slightly at the headrush, but then she was jumping over Ibiki, slamming the door shut and running up the stairs to the main lobby, away from the corridors with the cells and up, up, up, until she rounded a corner and crashed straight into Anko.
"Sakura?!" the woman demanded, surprised but also a bit disbelieving, and Sakura pushed her dripping hair away from her face and shot her senpai a grin.
"Hey, senpai. Don't mind me, I was just, ah," she inched around Anko, then, when she was almost clear, shot her a peace sign and bolted up the stairs.
Once in the lobby, she paused to bend over to catch her breath and laugh, waving at the receptionist when he sent her an odd look. Then, an arm settled round her shoulders and Sakura froze.
"That was one of the shittiest getaways I'd seen in a while." Anko drawled, clearly amused, so Sakura let out a relieved sigh. "Care to tell me why you were running like the devil himself was on your heels and not, I don't know, still in the interrogation cell with Ibiki?" she asked, and Sakura winced.
"I may have, ah, knocked him out?" she offered hesitantly, inwardly delighting in Anko's disbelieving snort.
"Of course you did." She shook her head. "So? How did you find it?"
Sakura shrugged, surprised she wasn't getting more of a tongue lashing, but then again, Anko. "Honestly, after all the crazy stuff that's happened recently, the interrogation was like a nice return to normality." She admitted, not realising how what she said sounded until it was already too late.
Anko's eyebrows were threatening to disappear in her hairline, but there was a sparkle of amusement in her eyes. "Interrogation is 'normality' for you?" She demanded, then sighed fondly. "Kid, you're so fucked up." She smirked fully then, and though her words were biting, there was pride in her eyes.
Instead of being offended or denying it, Sakura shrugged again, this time with a grin of her own. "Pot and kettle, senpai. Takes one to know one." She teased, laughing freely when she tilted her head to the side to avoid the senbon Anko threw at her.
"You little shit." Anko narrowed her eyes and renewed her efforts in hitting the rosette, swatting at the back of Sakura's head. But the girl dodged, giggling and staying out of range of her arms. Grinning a little herself, Anko gave up for a moment and instead asked, "If you knew you could escape, why didn't you do so sooner?" As it was something that had been plaguing her since she put two and two together and realised her little apprentice had dutifully sat through five out of the seven stages of interrogation, judging by her still-dripping hair, with Ibiki of all people.
In response, Sakura frowned. "Figured that was part of the test too. I didn't enjoy the drowning or the dislocated knuckles if that's what you're worried about, but I reckoned that, y'know. Jounin are the ones who get tortured for information , which had to be at least part of the reason why this was the first stage. I had to prove that I could resist at least most of the common techniques, then get out. I wasn't sure but I was willing to bet that this was a two stage process. The torture itself and then the timing and manner of the escape."
Anko was careful not to let anything show on her face. "And how did you figure that?"
Sakura pursed her lips as she thought, then lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. "Dunno. It seemed like the most dickish move you could make, so I reckoned, since you were also an examiner, it was probably the case." She said with a small smirk, then grew serious. "But if I was captured out in the field, I wouldn't sit there patiently waiting till my captor hurts me enough that I can't run away. I would try to get out before that happened. However, I couldn't just do that the second I came to, 'cause there was Intel to gather and I wasn't out in the field. The people who had me were Konoha-nin, so any escape attempts had to be non-lethal. Hence why it took a while."
Anko tried very hard not to let her disbelief show. "If you had to say, what do you think were the reasons some of the others failed?"
Sakura frowned at her, surprised and noting Anko's backwards way of telling her she'd passed, but after a moment, she obediently held up a hand with her fingers splayed. "Got out too soon." One finger went down. "Got out too late." Another went down. "Didn't even attempt to get out, didn't handle the interrogation well, or..." She trailed off, one finger left as she scrutinised Anko. "Or," she continued slowly, "treated this exactly like a field interrogation and didn't trust the 'captors' to use moderate force. And, maybe, used excess force when trying to get out?"
Instead of saying whether the girl was correct, Anko smiled wryly. "Tonbo and Hikaru have broken bones to show for this interrogation. A broken nose and a snapped wrist respectively."
Sakura winced, thanking the heavens for having used Chōjūrō's bells for her escape. "Was I rig-?"
"More importantly," Anko cut her off, "I believe you have a gathering of brats to get to?"
There was surprise on the pinkette's face, then a muttered 'oh shit', and a second later, Anko was alone in the corridor.
Two figures emerged from the shadow of the wall, and Anko sighed, knowing what was coming.
"I've told you before that she's being wasted in T&I." A lazy drawl reached her and she scowled, turning around to face the Nara Clan Head and a fully-recovered Ibiki.
"And I've told you before, Nara, that I'm not letting Intelligence have her. Or Tactical." She snarled, absently noting that for once, Ibiki wasn't telling her off for letting her Killing Intent seep through. Huh.
"She's probably stagnating in here. The only other ones to guess the purpose of this stage were the Aburame and the Nara candidates."
Anko bristled. "I've spent over a year moulding her into a kunoichi who could pull that off. I'm not letting you take off with the finished product and demote her to a paper pusher!"
And then, before the Nara could formulate a response, one of the senior interrogators appeared, a clipboard in his arms and a frown marring his brow. "Morino-san, Mitarashi-san, come quick. There's been a breach in the highest security cells; the sealed ANBU agent? He's gone."
Anko shared one glance with Ibiki and then they were running.
Shikamaru rather regretted letting Ino drag him to this gathering. Although the Akimichi restaurant was, as per standard, filled with the bustling crowds that came in search of the best BBQ in Konoha, the company he was with prevented Shikamaru from melting into the background and observing the people or napping, like he would have normally done.
All of the remains of the Konoha 11 – his team, Team 8, and the Hyuuga's team were gathered around the table, Team 7 conspicuously missing. Still, it seemed that Kiba was trying to make up for the lack of the loudmouthed blond and he kept antagonising his Aburame teammate, trying to get Hinata to talk louder or glaring at her cousin despite the fact that, to the best of Shikamaru's knowledge, the rift between the Hyuuga cousins was on its way to disappearing completely.
The Aburame, as could be expected, did not rise to the challenge, Hinata just ended up blushing more and speaking even less, while Neji had developed a considerable tick in his brow, not helped in the least by his bushy-browed teammate who was crowing about 'youth' and ridiculous challenges. Ino had risen to the occasion, yelling at Kiba and trying to smack him in a way she'd – luckily – long since stopped trying to hit him and Chouji. Neji's female teammate seemed to be the only sane one in the group, though Shikamaru saw her giggle at something the Hyuuga did and cover her mouth in the way he remembered Academy-Ino doing around the Uchiha and he sighed. There went the possibility of an ally.
Why couldn't the Jounin Exams be on a different day?
"Ow-! What the hell, woman?!" Kiba yelped, covering his head to prevent Ino from hitting him again. "What was that for? I was telling the truth! Shikamaru, back me up!"
The Nara raised an eyebrow, looking between his indignant teammate and the Inuzuka. "With what?" he asked cautiously, not really wanting to get between an angry Ino and her target.
"All I said was that the reason there are fewer kunoichi than shinobi is that women are weaker! Ow, damn it, they are! That's why most retire and take up a desk job and raise kids- ow, damn it, Ino, stop!" he finally managed to switch seats with Shino so the blonde didn't have such easy access to keep smacking him, and turned to Shikamaru. "Back me up, man!"
But Shikamaru crossed his arms and slouched further in his seat, snorting. "Nah. First, I'm not getting in the middle of that," he waved his arm to vaguely indicate Ino and Kiba's squabbling, "and second, I don't think that's true."
"Damn right you don't!" Ino cheered, momentarily forgetting her anger to flash him a grin and blow him a kiss before she went to smack Kiba, again. "See? That's what happens when you heed my teachings! And Sakura's too, I suppose." She added after a moment's thought, and Chouji took a break from scarfing down food to nod to show his agreement.
"Sakura?" Kiba parroted, drawing the attention of Team 9 who had previously been busy watching Chouji eat a platter for five by himself. "Pink hair, our graduating class Sakura? She's still a ninja?"
Shikamaru bristled inwardly, but luckily Ino was indignant enough for the two of them. "Of course! She's a chunin like Shikamaru, or did you forget?"
Kiba just shrugged, "Dunno, haven't seen her around much so I thought she quit. Plus, everyone's here but her, so you can't blame me."
And Shikamaru would never know what compelled him to say it, but he ended up biting out, "That's because she's taking her Jounin Exam right now." And immediately clamped him mouth shut, but it was too late, the cat was out of the metaphorical bag and Shikamaru could see no way of shoving it back in.
"She's what?"
"How do you know?"
"How are we still genin?!"
Shikamaru sighed and resigned himself to a round of 20 questions, but then, Shino became his unlikely rescuer and murmured, "I heard about what you did in T&I. My father said what you did was brave."
The Nara snorted, "Try 'stupid'." He replied, but then Neji of all people butted in.
"I did not realise you were the thief's representative." The Hyuuga said, his brows drawing together in a frown when Shikamaru reflexively snapped 'Ao'. "Pardon me?"
"Ao. The thief's name, as you put it, was Ao." He explained, and for the second time that day was wondering what on earth had possessed him to open his mouth.
Then, Kiba, of all people, clued in to what they were talking about. "Wait, wait, wait! That was you?!" he demanded, incredulous, and Shikamaru may or may not have groaned aloud at the question. "Damn, man. My sister was talking about the Hyuuga getting all pissy 'cause a Nara had the balls to defend a foreign bloodline thief, but I had no clue you were that Nara!"
"Yup, Shika's just that awesome." A new voice piped in, and the table as a whole jumped two feet in the air because Sakura suddenly materialised in the empty seat Shikamaru had left beside him, her hair slightly damp and looking a bit tired, but she shot him a smile when their eyes met.
"Sakura?" Shikamaru asked, a note of disbelief in his voice, because the girl had just snuck up on two Byakugan users. Then, he calmed down because it was Sakura, so of course she did. "How was the test?"
Sakura held out a hand, palm down, and wobbled it from side to side with a small shrug. "Eh, it wasn't too bad. Tested resistance to interrogation. I got Ibiki-san since senpai is, y'know, my senpai, so they wanted to avoid favouritism and saddled me with the Big Bad instead." She grinned lopsidedly and bumped her shoulder with his, a few droplets falling from her bangs and landing on his jacket. "He was nice about it and went very by-the-book, so it wasn't too bad."
Shikamaru nodded, accepting that from what the rosette had told him of her experience of T&I, and they both turned to the rest of the Rookie 9, only to realise that they were being stared at.
"Resistance… to interrogation?" the weapons mistress repeated slowly, at the same time as Ino widened her eyes and demanded, "Ibiki? As in, Morino Ibiki? Head of Torture and Interrogation Ibiki? The proctor for the first exam?"
When Sakura nodded, confused, Kiba gawked. "You got interrogated by the crazy scarred guy from the Chunin Exams and you say it wasn't too bad?"
Sakura scowled, uncomfortable with the attention. "Hey now, that 'crazy scarred guy' is my supervisor so be nicer about it." She snapped, then smirked proudly when she added, "Besides, apparently the guy senpai had cried."
When all that earned her was more flat stares – which she didn't understand; that little tidbit was hilarious in her opinion – Shikamaru came to her rescue with a very valid point. "I believe their issue is with your definition of 'not too bad' rather than the viciousness of the interrogator." He pointed out, which Sakura was embarrassed to note was probably exactly right.
"Ah, right, sorry." And then, because apparently, her brain was still in the T&I cell, she pointed out, "But it really wasn't too bad. Running through three countries on a shattered leg, now that was bad."
"Anyway," Shikamaru managed to choke out when he stopped laughing at her and the fact that the stares had only worsened. "after you left yesterday, dad said something about joint Chunin Exams to celebrate the alliance. D'you know anything about that?"
"K-Kurenai-sensei g-gave us forms to s-sign today." Hinata spoke up, so quietly that Sakura almost didn't notice if not for the fact she saw her lips move. "S-So they'll p-probably be soon."
"Yeah, we got forms too." Tenten piped in, and Chouji nodded, and Sakura turned to the Nara with a sigh.
"Which means we'll get roped in, most likely." She pointed out, and Shikamaru tensed for a second before slumping in his seat, resigned.
"Damn it. But I'm leaving the Kiri crazies to you. Had enough of them to last a lifetime." He grouched, and Sakura couldn't help but laugh.
Then, Kiba opened his mouth and Sakura realised she was getting the same compulsion she had back as genin with Naruto – whenever his mouth opened, her hand itched to slap it closed. Or just slap him. She wasn't picky. "But I thought you guys are already chunin? So why would you need to take part?"
"Man, are you slow on the uptake today?" Shikamaru mumbled bitingly, quietly enough that only Sakura heard and had to hastily stifle a snort, elbowing the brunet lightly to shut him up.
"We are, Kiba. But we're also Ambassadors to both Mist, and Suna. Since it's a three-way alliance, it's likely that the each of the stages will take part in a different Village, in which case we'll probably have to tag along with you guys as representatives." She explained, then, because Shikamaru was still sulking, added, "Or maybe just Shika, since I'll have exams of my own." She added with a grin, delighting in the Nara's snap to attention.
"You're not leaving me with the Suna Elders." He ordered, blanching despite his tan. "I'll sabotage your Exams if I have to, I'm not facing Chiyo alone." He threatened, and Sakura shot him a saccharine smile.
"Shikamaru, sweetheart, if you mess this up for me I'll tell your mother that it was you, not the deer herd that trampled all over her hydrangeas." She replied, batting her eyelashes at the Nara till he scowled.
"Fine, fine. I won't. That doesn't mean I won't complain about it the whole time."
Sakura laughed and poked him in the ribs. "So as per usual then, hm?" and not even Shikamaru himself could hold back his snort at that.
Then, the conversation moved on to the upcoming Chunin Exams and Sakura was content to watch instead of participate. She smiled fondly as her old classmates bickered and plotted and laughed and made a conscious effort to include Gai's team. Maybe it had been wrong of her to cut off contact with them the moment Team 7 dissolved, but then again, they had never been a close-knit group even at the Academy.
Still, she watched with no small degree of wonder as Ino and Shino ganged up on Kiba who had been about to jump over the table at something Lee had said, while Tenten and Chouji talked about some of the recipe books the Kiri merchants had brought in, and Neji and Hinata engaged in some quiet conversation.
There was an innocence to them as well, some of that Academy-bred naïveté that still hadn't left them, and Sakura was half glad for it and half bitter, because all that meant was that they hadn't been disillusioned by their profession yet. Then there was the fact that they all looked different, freer, that they still had some individual style which in most cases wasn't there for practicality because it hadn't yet needed to be practical. She looked to her and Shikamaru and marvelled at how they had both unconsciously become used to their flak jackets and standard gear and grown to appreciate nondescript clothing and minimal bandages over fanciful, impractical, and simply dangerous (because Ino's midriff top was nothing if not an invitation to gut her) style.
Shikamaru's hand on her elbow brought her attention onto the brunet and his murmured, "Control that expression on your face or someone will notice." And Sakura realised she'd unconsciously let her lip curl and her brow crease in her musings, so she quickly smiled and turned away from the table to face her fellow diplomat.
"Thanks. I was just thinking-"
"-that we stick out?" Shikamaru finished for her, and she didn't have it in her to even be surprised, so she nodded instead. "Yeah, same." He sighed, then relaxed in his chair, absently plucking two sticks of dango from the desserts platter and offering one to her. "Don't think about it. It's not their fault, nor is it ours."
"What should I blame then?" she asked teasingly, though there was a note of seriousness in her voice. "Fate? Karma? Hokage-sama?"
Shikamaru's grin was sharp and only slightly bitter. "Why not all three?" and when Sakura's startled laughter joined in to the giggles and squawks of her old classmates, she decided that she could get used to this.
Naturally, the relaxed atmosphere from the Rookies' meetup was not to last, and that same night, Sakura was snapping awake at three in the morning, the feeling of being drowned making her gasp for breath, not realising that she was hyperventilating until her breath was loud enough to snap her out of it. She ran a hand through her hair and rubbed at her eyes, frowning at the wetness on her cheeks. Sighing, the rosette crawled out of bed, realising only after she was already halfway up the stairs that Genma was still on his mission.
Sakura hesitated for a minute, knowing she would not be able to sleep but also too exhausted to go out and train. She trekked to the kitchen, switching on the lights and rummaging through the cabinets until she had sugar, flour, eggs, chocolate and butter out on the countertop. She briefly entertained the thought of how much Genma was going to laugh at her when he found out she baked his favourite cookies to ward off nightmares, then shrugged and set to creaming the butter.
A few days of ribbing would still be better than trying to sleep in her current state of mind.
In the morning, she was woken up by a persistent knocking on the door. She rubbed at her eyes, absently realising that she'd fallen asleep on the sofa, a half-eaten cookie still loosely held in her hand and couldn't help laughing quietly at herself. Once she dragged herself through the house and opened the door, she was greeted by the sight of a frazzled-looking genin message runner and promptly informed that she was to report to Training Ground 39 for the second stage of her exam.
When she turned up to the Training Grounds half an hour later, cussing under her breath, kitted up like usual and sporting some truly unflattering black circles under her eyes, someone was already there. Jounin, judging by his attire and the way he held himself. And then he turned, and Sakura recognised his face from the photos around the house.
Ebisu. Genma's genin teammate.
"You're late." He told her flatly, pushing up his sunglasses. "Nevermind. You've got five minutes to warm up, then we start."
Sakura stayed rooted to the spot, her eyes narrowed. "Start what, exactly?" she asked suspiciously, and Ebisu turned to her like she was stupid for even asking.
"The practical skill assessment. I'm here to see whether you have the basic skill level required of a jounin. Now stretch. You'll need it." And Sakura remembered the phrase that often accompanied Ebisu whenever Genma talked about him – 'really anal'. She couldn't help but agree.
But she obeyed and stretched, ran a few laps around the field and just as she was about to reach down and touch her toes, a kick came flying at the back of her knee and she forced herself into a handspring to dodge. She turned, indignant, to face Ebisu who was lowering his leg, certain her face spelled out a very annoyed 'what the fuck?!'. In response, the jounin smirked and pushed up his glasses.
"Five minutes are up." And then he was on her in a rapid flurry of taijutsu blows and punches. Sakura dodged as much as she could and retaliated when she could see a window to strike. She took some pride in the fact that Ebisu hadn't landed anything harder than a glancing blow in the first five minutes, but then he upped the speed of the strikes and Sakura scowled, having an unpleasant flashback to the month with Horse.
So she matched his speed and waited for the moment he was off-balance. When it came, she sidestepped his punch, grabbed his wrist and turned her back on him before, chakra pumping through her arms, she bent over and threw him over her shoulder and onto the ground. Ebisu's back impacted the ground with a dull 'thud' and she saw the moment the air was knocked completely out of him. She found herself having to seriously restrain herself from stamping on his throat with her foot and she panicked, terrified that such an impulse would even strike her.
By the time she got herself under control, Ebisu was back on his feet and scribbling something on his clipboard. Then, before she could blink at the odd scene, a giant fire bullet was coming her way and all she could do was let out a terrified 'eep' and disappear underground, thanking the heavens for the Hiding Like a Mole technique.
"Don't evade!" Ebisu snapped at her when she remerged, surprisingly frustrated. "Counter!" and with the barest twitch of his fingers, the same bullet, only this time made of water was coming right at her, and Sakura managed to throw up an Earth Wall seconds before it took off her head.
"Do you try to kill all the trainees, or am I just special?!" she screeched at the man, feeling justifiably angry when she let the wall crumble into mud.
"If I was trying to kill you, Haruno, you wouldn't have had time to throw up even that pathetically basic defence." He replied, and this time Sakura was ready for the fire-covered shuriken that came her way, plucking them out of the air with chakra strings while she dodged the fireballs.
The rosette frowned and decided that if he was allowed to try to kill her, she could return the favour. She flashed through the handseals and touched the ground with the tips of her fingers and watched as four rock spears shot out of the ground from different directions and headed straight to where Ebisu was standing, sharpened tips aiming for all the vital organs.
Sakura saw a flicker of surprise on the jounin's face before he shunshined away, but a spear still managed to cut his pants leg, though Sakura couldn't see any blood. She had about two seconds to feel proud of herself before she realised her feet started sinking into the ground, and Ebisu was flickering through a long chain of handsigns that was uncomfortably familiar. And then, a giant water dragon reared its head, rising from the stream like a vengeful spirit, and Sakura was having really unpleasant flashbacks to the fight during Team 7's first ever C-Rank. She had milliseconds to decide her course of action, but just as the water dragon was about to hit her, she crouched and pumped chakra into the quicksand at her feet, sinking in completely. With compact earth surrounding her from all sides, Sakura gave herself a moment to catch a breather, and then, feeling vindictive, sought out Ebisu's chakra and started layering her illusions. After all, if it was a free-for-all, she wasn't about to hold back her hardest hitters.
When she was done, she slowly crawled to the surface, chakra muted as she watched Ebisu stumble when her vertigo genjutsu hit. She darted over, arm pulled back in a punch, but in the last moment, Ebisu turned, grabbed her wrist and, using her momentum against her, threw her towards the treeline.
Sakura managed to turn in mid-air and push off the trunk before she collided with it, then crouched, appraising the tokujo. He was clearly still nauseous, but he had somehow managed to overcome that and sense her coming. Grudgingly, Sakura felt her respect for the man grow.
"I hadn't…finished the ninjutsu stage…yet." He panted, straightening at last.
The rosette had little sympathy. "Sorry. Should've been clearer with your instructions." She shrugged, then darted forward again.
They danced around each other for a few more minutes, firing off ninjutsu and rapid-fire taijutsu in Ebisu's case, while Sakura brought out her naginata and fuinjutsu, alongside the constant slew of illusions. Eventually, just as Sakura was about to slap a knockout tag on Ebisu's forehead, she felt the tip of a kunai between her third and fourth rib, angled upwards to perfectly pierce through tissue and into her heart. They stayed like that for a breath, then Sakura pulled back with a sigh.
Ebisu appraised her for a few seconds, then nodded. "The final stage is in two weeks in the Tower the Chunin Exam preliminaries were held in. As part of the test, you are expected to get through the forest and report in the main arena at eight in the morning. Understood?"
All Sakura could do was nod, and then the exhaustion caught up to her and she fell on her butt, managing a weak wave at Ebisu as he walked away.
Genma got back a week before the final combat stage, walking through the door just in time to see Sakura almost fall asleep with her face in a bowl of soup. Naturally, Genma took a moment to laugh first, before moving to avert the imminent crisis of face-in-bowl. He steered her to the sofa and only when she was snug under the blankets and a step away from falling asleep did he ask what caused the drop.
The mumbled "Final stage… Jounin Exams… g'ta prep…" were enough to ensure that she would be getting no sleep until she explained everything to Genma in sufficient detail.
Only after they went through all the possible challenges and ways in which the combat stage could go wrong and the subsequent steps she'd have to take to right it, did Genma pick her up and carry her to her bed, ignoring the grumbled complaints when he dropped her unceremoniously on the bed.
"Sleep, kid. We're gonna be training so much over the next week that you won't even have the energy to worry."
And with those cheerful words of encouragement, Sakura drifted off.
Genma kept his word, and a week later, when she actually had to face the challenge of getting to the Tower, she was considerably less worried than she thought she would be.
Two years difference and a lack of a murderous Snake Sannin also had a great effect on how she viewed the Forest of Death – whereas before, it was an insurmountable challenge, now, she ran through it with hardly any problems in less than half an hour, and that included all the dodging of creepy crawlies and other jounin hopefuls.
So when she got to the arena, hardly out of breath and with nary a scratch on her, she was feeling cautiously optimistic. Tsunade's speech was a lot better than the Sandaime's, even with all the talk of 'increased risks' that come with the upper ranks and talks of 'honour' and 'duty' that reminded Sakura of the Academy-grade patriotism that had been spoonfed to them.
And then, the matches started – a jounin hopeful vs an established jounin, starting from tokujo and progressing to fighting full jounin if you won a match. Sakura bit back her apprehension, joined Genma on the viewer's gallery, and waited for her name to be called.
Haruno Sakura vs Hyuuga Tokuma
That… was not a fight she was looking forward to.
Tokuma looked a lot like Neji: same facial features and brown hair and holier-than-thou attitude that only served to raise Sakura's hackles. Naturally, the first thing she did when the proctor said 'go' was attempt to snag him in a genjutsu, much like she'd done in the fight with Ino two years back.
But Tokuma merely activated his doujutsu and smirked.
"The Byakugan sees through all illusions." He announced, radiating the same arrogance Sakura had seen in Neji a few months back, which only added to his similarity to the prodigy. "If that's all you came here to do, you can forfeit."
"What?!" she shrieked, dodging a wave of kunai as she went. "Oh, come on! As if your entire Clan wasn't already ridiculously overpowered, there's this too?" she despaired,
There were some quickly-smothered laughs in the audience at the rosette's exasperation, but the Hyuuga she was facing remained nonplussed. "Resign, and keep your dignity."
Sakura bared her teeth in a sharp grin, "I don't think so."
Her opponent's eyes narrowed in annoyance, and he settled into the Jyuuken stance. "Then lose." And he rushed at her, all grace and billowing sleeves and righteous anger.
Sakura made to leap away and practise the tried and tested 'dodge for your life', but then a voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like Anko spoke up, its message simple:
Mindfuck him.
Grinning, Sakura changed her stance at the last second, spreading her legs and bringing her arm out in front of her, her palm perpendicular to the ground while she brought her other arm close to her right side and bent at the elbow.
She saw the exact moment her intention registered in the Hyuuga's eyes, but by then it was too late to reverse his momentum and they met in a flurry of blows and chakra and a sound like a clap of thunder.
Sakura smirked even as she felt some of her tenketsu get blocked. Then, she summoned the same technique that had helped her run with a broken leg and started giving as much as she was taking.
Time to even out the playing field.
"Okay, what the fuck?" Aoba kept glancing back and forth between the fight taking place below them and his friend, as well as the small group of equally surprised jounin who had gathered nearby. "What the hell did you do, Genma?"
The brunet arched a bemused eyebrow, tearing his eyes away from his protégé to regard his friend. "I didn't do anything. Or have you forgotten that I'd been out of the Village for the last week and a bit?"
Aoba threw his arms out in exasperation. "The Jyuuken, Genma! How the fuck-!"
"That's not the Jyuuken and you know it, Aoba, shut the hell up!" Anko butted in, seemingly materialising wherever there was insanity to be had, a shit-eating grin on her face as she watched her student. "Kid's good, but even she can't pull off the Hyuuga secret technique without the Hyuuga bloodline, so don't be an idiot."
A few of the jounin around them relaxed infinitesimally, but Aoba glared instead, an 'oh, really?' expression on his face as he gestured at the floor of the arena and the two still engaged in hand-to-hand. "Then what's that?"
Anko laughed, "Kid's spent the last few months learning how to mindfuck Konoha's enemies. What do you think she's doing?" when no answer seemed forthcoming, she smirked. "It's all an elaborate fake-out. He sabotaged her best offence, so she's sabotaging his. And Hyuuga aren't known for versatility, so he should be starting to panic soon."
Then, the Hyuuga faltered, his arms falling limply by his side much to his visible surprise and Sakura jumped on that window and delivered a very un-Hyuuga kick to the man's solar plexus, sending him flying back.
She hurried after him though she was visibly stumbling, her left hand encased in a visible blue glow while her entire right arm hung limply by her side. When she reached her opponent, she slashed, first at his upper thighs then at his calves, before she clambered over to kneel by his head and press a kunai to his throat.
"Winner, Haruno Sakura!"
Anko whooped even when the rosette fell on her bum and sat back, smiling wryly when the medics came over and murmured something to the two that knelt beside her.
Beside Anko, Aoba muttered a very vehement 'what the fuck'.
When Sakura made her way back to the stands, Genma greeted her with a hug and a wry grin. "It seems that every time I let you out of my sight you get a little bit scarier." He teased, to which Sakura grinned, completely unapologetic and lightly socked him in the arm, her tenketsu freshly unblocked.
"He completely blocked my mojo so I had to block his. It's not my fault the sheer suspicion of someone being able to learn the Gentle Fist style is enough to stop the Hyuuga from thinking rationally." She defended, yet couldn't fight the grin on her face when Genma just reached out an arm and pulled her into his side, lightly messing up her hair.
"Well done, kid." He congratulated, and when Sakura's face lit up, he added, "Only about four to six rounds left." Which made her scowl and jab him in the side in retaliation. Then Anko came over and pulled the rosette away, ruffling her hair and muttering something too low for Genma to hear.
Good times.
When her next match, got called, Sakura was ready to revert to her tried and tested method of 'hide and wait'. So when the proctor said 'go', she threw a smoke bomb into the space between her and her opponent, called up a Water Clone and unsealed its naginata while she herself disappeared underground, content to wait for the opportune moment.
The sounds coming from above her were muffled, so she channelled some chakra in her ears until she could clearly hear blades clashing and jutsu being called out. After a few minutes, she heard her clone's naginata clutter to the ground while the shinobi she was fighting asked the proctor to end the fight and knew that her moment had come.
Genma had been clinging onto the rail from the moment Sakura's opponent was announced. While Tessen Togeito was not by any means a genius or prodigy or expert in his field, he, like Ebisu, believed in having a very well-rounded skillset in all areas. Something which Sakura, even with all her training, lacked.
But he had faith.
Yet when Tessen had Sakura in a headlock and a very big kunai pressed to her neck, Genma felt the metal under his fingers give a little when he squeezed.
But when 'Sakura' turned into a puddle, he was not the only one startled, looking around the arena in search of the pinkette.
Suddenly, she burst from the ground below Tessen, upsetting his balance and making him sway a little, and that was enough of a window for Sakura to dart towards him and stick something to the back of his neck then jump away, the fingers of one hand coming together in a half Ram seal.
Tessen froze, his muscles locking in place. Sakura smiled, but didn't drop the seal nor let her hand relax. Instead, she dug around her hip pouch with her free hand and produced a handful of shuriken. Finally, she spoke:
"I stuck a paralysis seal on you. As long as I'm pumping it with chakra, you can't move. So, two options: option one, forfeit." A snarl came from the incapacitated nin, making Sakura shrug a shoulder with a wry, not at all surprised smile. "In that case, option two, you keep being an obstinate bastard and I use you for target practise." And she waved the shuriken she'd pulled out with a smile. "There's plenty more where that came from, I assure you. So what's it gonna be? Forfeit or pincushion?"
There was a moment of silence, then, from between clenched teeth, Tessen ground out, "I forfeit."
A moment more of silence and then – "Haruno Sakura wins this match."
Tsunade could feel the shock radiating from the Hound masked ANBU guarding her back and she didn't bother to stifle the smirk that appeared on her face. Hound had been the only one to veto Haruno's participation in the Jounin Exams, but seeing as all of the Clan Heads and Elders had already agreed, since, despite her youth, the girl had not only met but exceeded the mission requirements thanks to her stint in ANBU, his protest had been dismissed in an instant.
Now, she thought, if he still didn't believe his old student had a right to take part in these exams, he was long overdue for an appointment with her fist.
Anko got to Sakura first this time and greeted the rosette with a devious grin and a high-five before sending her off to the others.
Genma made sure to wipe the surprise off his face before she reached him, and greeted her with another hug and a proud smile. After congratulating her, he asked – "Why the paralysis tag? Why not just do what you did in the Chunin Exams?"
He knew Sakura understood what he was getting at because she frowned before she explained. "Ino and Temari were girls. And both were around my age and build. Plus, on Ino, I had the element of surprise, so I wasn't all that worried about her overpowering me. Temari managed to do it and I had to improvise, so if she, a genin and a teenage girl, managed to throw me over her shoulder when I got behind her with a kunai, I was not about to pull that move on a tokubetsu jounin. I like my life, Genma." And though she grinned at the end, there was a worried frown pulling at her brows and Genma quickly changed the subject, babbling on about the paralysis seal and how to improve it so she didn't have to keep feeding it a constant stream of chakra. He knew he'd done the right thing when, after about three minutes of his monologue, Sakura's frown faded away and she hugged him around the waist and pulled away with a smile.
"Thanks, Genma." In response, the tokujo pulled out a scroll and unsealed a brown paper bag which he pressed into her hands.
"Dango. Eat up; you'll need the energy for the next rounds." He advised, and merely laughed when it earned him another hug and an excited 'thanks!'.
The next fight came far too soon for Sakura's tastes, her reserves still not fully replenished after the previous two battles, even though the sugar from the dango helped.
"Damn it, why did you have to be an Inuzuka?" she whined when she faced her opponent, "Why couldn't you have been a Yamanaka? I'd even take a Nara, seriously." She grouched, earning a fanged grin from the man.
"You discriminating, girlie?" he asked, one hand absently petting the head of a massive nin-dog oh god-! while another idly twirled a kunai.
Trying to stifle her unease, because if she'd thought that Inuzuka Hana's ninken were giant, the dog belonging to her opponent had a good foot and a half extra height and breadth to him, she shrugged. "Nah, it's nothing personal. I'd have liked to use my specialisation at least once in this tournament is all."
Gaku threw his head back and laughed, his animalistic appearance all the more highlighted by the action. "You're welcome to use it, I sure as hell ain't gonna stop you from wasting your chakra." He told her, and Sakura scowled, though it was in good humour.
Somehow, the back-and-forth banter was putting her at ease.
Then, Gaku bowed shallowly and swept his arm around in a grandiose gesture. "Alright, ladies first."
Sakura elected to ignore the sarcasm in his voice and grinned instead, then flashed through the seals for her favourite Earth ninjutsu, sending her chakra underground till it pulled under the nindog's feet and pulled-!
The dog's – Akihiro's, if she heard correctly – paws hadn't even sunk half way into the mud sinkhole she'd created before Gaku jumped over and pulled him away by the scruff of his neck, which was a feat in itself seeing as the dog weighed easily over fifty kilograms.
"Damn, Haruno, you're not playing around, are you?" he accused, spitting out four small water bullets to clean the mud off of Akihiro's paws before the rosette could send more chakra in to harden it. "Going for Akihiro like that was a dirty move."
Before, she might've taken that to heart, but just then all she could do was grin wryly and shrug. "Ninja." She pointed out, then threw herself out of the way when a literal human bullet sped towards her.
It seemed there were more downsides to fighting a veteran of the Third Shinobi War than she'd realised – despite being an Inuzuka, Gaku didn't gloat. He didn't call out his technique. And he hadn't needed the massive power-up Sakura recalled Kiba needing when he used that technique during the Preliminaries to the Chunin Exams.
Simply there one second and speeding towards her with all the inevitability and destructiveness of a hurricane the next.
Sakura threw herself over to the side again, rolling under one of the blurs and jumping over the second, then regained her footing and masked her chakra, hoping that scent wasn't the predominant feature they used to track.
Her hopes were crushed when the next attack managed to throw her a good twenty feet away from where she'd been standing, opening up a fairly deep gash in her arm and nearly ending in her complete decapitation had she not noticed the follow-up attack at the last second and sunk into the ground.
The deep breath she took to calm her hammering heart turned into a shriek when the ground above her head burst open and only a quick shunshin saved her from being turned into paste.
Goddamn Inuzuka nose-!
Sakura paused, then quickly scaled the wall and used the railing of the audience balcony to launch herself at the ceiling, sticking to it with chakra in her feet, an idea taking shape in her mind. She remembered that Kiba had ran out of steam quite quickly with that jutsu and had been rather disoriented afterwards. Even assuming that Gaku had twenty odd years of experience over her old classmate, he would still have to stop eventually. Now if she could just wait him out till he did…
Sakura quickly formed the signs for an Earth Clone, then after some consideration made two. She shrugged off her flak jacket, careful to empty her pockets, and gave it to one clone, then pulled her turtleneck over her head and handed it over to the second. She wasn't the most comfortable with the fact that she ended up in just her sleeveless ANBU vest, but a quick notice-me-not genjutsu hid the bandage that covered her ANBU tattoo from most prying eyes.
Now, to test her hypothesis…
One clone dropped down to the edge of the arena, and sure enough, not two seconds later, Gaku and Akihiro were there, no doubt tearing what remained of her chunin vest to shreds. Before they could clue in to the ruse, the second clone dropped to the opposite end of the arena, and with a barely noticeable delay, man and beast followed.
But they were slower. Considerably so.
By her estimation, they'd been running the jutsu non-stop for around five minutes. The fact that they hadn't stopped yet out of sheer nausea was a feat in itself in Sakura's eyes.
She felt the moment her second clone was popped, but before she could worry about what to do next, there were two 'pops' and Gaku was once again still and in human form. He swayed momentarily, and Sakura palmed two baubles she always carried on her and found herself wishing for her shemagh.
Then, she jumped.
When red powder filled the arena and the spectators' eyes suddenly stung with tears, all Genma could do was laugh and try not to choke on the chilli that burned his throat with every breath.
His kid was a genius.
He could see, once the smoke cleared, similar expressions of surprise mixed with what he cautiously labelled as respect in the eyes of some of the other viewers and found himself grinning proudly.
Gaku Inuzuka was probably the worst opponent for Sakura, moreso than even the Hyuuga kid. Not only was he a veteran of the Third Shinobi War, but he'd ran missions with the Yellow Flash and had a good twenty five years of field experience over the rosette. Plus, everyone knew that Inuzuka, much like the Aburame, would trust their ninken and bugs respectively over what they themselves saw any day, so most of Sakura's illusions were rendered moot before she'd even had a chance to use them.
The fact that she'd managed to outlast the longevity of the trademark Inuzuka technique through a trick and now incapacitated her opponent's greatest advantage over her?
That would give Genma bragging rights for at least a month.
When she touched down, Sakura didn't give her opponent a chance to recover from the chilli powder – she was too low on chakra to drag this fight out much longer. Twisting her fingers through the necessary seals, she caught Gaku in a vertigo genjutsu that affected the vestibular nerve in the inner ear, then, when he stumbled, threw an explosive tag between them to clear the powder. She was satisfied that the effects would stay given Akihiro's low whining, but visibility would improve.
Then, once she could see that Gaku was on his knees and his partner a few metres away with his head between his paws, she darted towards the dog. Akihiro tried to stand up and snarl at her, but she could see how disorientating being nose-blind was to the canine, so she pressed her advantage. Forming first the Ram seal then the Tiger, Sakura felt the syrup gather in her mouth then expelled it, trying to narrow the surface area while pumping it with chakra to increase its viscosity. Due to his disorientation, Akihiro was a second too slow to leap away and ended up getting caught in the trap, but before she could do a victory dance, a shuriken embedded in her unprotected back. She hissed out a breath and managed to dart out of the way of the rest of the barrage only to end up facing a much more pissed off Gaku.
"God damn it, Haruno, leave the dog alone!" he snarled, and Sakura had a bit of a 'and now what?' panic.
Then, she snapped out of it and did her best to bury Gaku under layers of genjutsu.
She ran towards him the moment she was sure he was trapped, daito drawn and chakra nearly drained, and made the last few leaps with chakra even as she felt the layers get broken. She swiped with her daito and earned one, two, three cuts across relatively vital parts before her blade met resistance and her gaze met Gaku's angry one. Then it was a matter of 'keep-away', because for all that her blade was longer, Gaku was still faster than her. He scored shallow gashes across the bridge of her nose, across her uncovered bicep and down Sakura's thigh before she detected movement behind her and turned, bringing her daito up with the motion.
Akihiro was flying towards her, less than a metre away, teeth bared and claws out, and she knew she did not have enough time nor room to dodge. Sakura had a split-second vision of her carrying through with the strike, of skewering Akihiro on her blade, of blood and tears and the death of a comrade on her hands and she knew she had to stop. But her momentum was too great at that point, her speed too great to stop the movement of her arm, so all she could do force numb fingers to release the daito and let it drop. She made one last, ditch attempt to turn an upwards stabbing motion into a block to protect her face before sixty kilograms of canine barrelled into her and she went flying.
The dull thud of the rosette's head hitting the floor seemed to echo around the arena, then the shuffling sound of her rolling across a good fifty feet of the floor with the dog finally quietened down and everything was still.
Gaku had still not moved, kunai raised and blood dripping down his face and limbs, but his gaze was drawn to the discarded daito on the ground.
Sakura wasn't moving.
Few had missed the moment the rosette realised that her strike would be lethal, and some had screwed their eyes shut in preparation. Death in the field was something everyone learned to stomach after a while, but death by a comrade's hand was rare. It happened, yes, but often, it completely destroyed the survivor's psyche.
But in that situation, it seemed that there was no other option.
Until Sakura dropped the blade.
The significance of the action was not lost on the audience, nor, it seemed, the rosette's very opponent. Gaku bent down and picked up the daito, and it seemed as if the trance broke; medics descended on the scene, some taking Sakura while others carefully tended to the unconscious nin-dog, the proctor announced the match as Gaku's win, and Genma made his way over to the infirmary, proud, worried, and something in between which he was hesitant to name.
When Sakura came to, she was in the infirmary. She stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, willing her eyes to focus and only when she was sure she wouldn't start crying cause she fucked up oh god so many months of preparation and she lost-! did she turn to look at Genma who was, as was becoming the norm, sitting in the uncomfortable plastic chair beside her.
"I'm sorry." She mumbled at last, avoiding eye contact and trying to ignore how her head throbbed. In response, Genma flicked her nose, and the sharp burst of pain made her let out an indignant noise and meet his eyes.
"Don't be an idiot." He said simply, unbelievably fond and exasperated, and Sakura realised with a start that he wasn't angry or disappointed. At all.
"But- but I lost!" she tried to argue, but all it got her was one of Genma's patented 'stop talking before I make you' looks, so she closed her mouth with a snap of teeth.
"Nobody, and I mean nobody in that arena is going to regard what you did as 'losing'. In fact-" and it was only in that moment that Sakura noticed two more figures that were in the room with her: Gaku and a wild-looking woman who reminded her a lot of Kiba.
"I just wanted to, ah, I mean," Gaku hedged, his voice gruff as he pointedly avoided making eye-contact. "thanks, Haruno. For back then." And he narrowly dodged the slap the woman aimed at the back of his head as he made to leave and quickly shut the door behind him.
The other Inuzuka regarded Sakura curiously for a moment, then bared her teeth in a fanged grin. "I've sent the rest of my Clan to plead your case with the Hokage. If she fails you for saving Akihiro's life, she'll have an Inuzuka riot on her hands." She offered casually, then eyed Genma with amusement. "If I'd known you'd be good with kids, I'd have had you babysit my brats ages ago. Good job on that one, pretty boy. She's got her head screwed on right." And so saying, she followed in her clansman's footsteps and walked out of Sakura's hospital room, leaving a bewildered rosette and a blushing Genma in her wake.
Instead of commenting on the absolute weirdness of the whole encounter, Sakura turned to the brunet with a smirk. "'Pretty boy'?" she asked teasingly, waggling her eyebrows suggestively till Genma swatted at her shoulder.
"Shut up." He grumbled, covering his face with his free hand. "We met when I was doing that stupid forfeit for Rai's bet and growing my hair out. I hoped she'd forgotten about it 'cause she hasn't brought it up in years."
"Apparently, she hasn't." Sakura managed to choke out in between giggles, prompting Genma to swat at her once again.
"You better not be abusing my patient, Shiranui, or it's another mission to Frost for you." Tsunade's stern voice broke through their light-hearted camaraderie and Genma sprang away, hands going quickly to his pockets.
"Tsunade-sama-!" Sakura greeted, surprised, then felt her spirits drop. "I've failed, haven't I?"
The Godaime prodded her bruised side none-too-gently and scoffed. "Haruno, you are not going to fail the exams because you spared a comrade's life." She announced, scribbling something down as she moved onto Sakura's bandaged head.
"But... I lost the match." The rosette managed to say, only slightly wincing under Tsunade's exasperated glare. "Sorry, Tsunade-sama."
"You should be. I've got at least half of the Inuzuka Clan claiming that I can't fail you on the basis of 'outstanding moral fibre'. As if I was going to fail you in the first place, but now I've got to explain myself to a bunch of dogs." She sniffed, and Sakura absently wondered if the woman was grumpy because she was genuinely annoyed or because she couldn't show that the situation amused her. "Your concussion has been mostly treated. Still, no strenuous activity for three days minimum. Come to my office at noon tomorrow to find out how you did in the exams."
And so saying, she turned on her heel and stalked out of the room, leaving a bewildered Sakura and a hysterical Genma behind.
"Whaddaya know, Tsume was actually telling the truth." He announced between chuckles. "Now sleep, kid. You look knackered."
It wasn't until the words were out of his mouth that the exhaustion of the last few weeks truly caught up with her, and her eyes were sliding closed even before her head hit the pillow, out like a light.
At noon the next day, Sakura was a trembling ball of nerves, not willing to risk roof-hopping to get to the Hokage's Office for fear of falling off, she was that nervous. Even the half an hour walk to the Tower didn't manage to calm her, and it wasn't until she was pushing the door open and facing the rest of the jounin-hopefuls that she managed to get her breathing under control.
"First of all, congratulations. The Jounin Exams are not easy and are meant to test things the Chunin Exams gloss over, and they can be gruelling-" Sakura tried to pay attention, but try as she might, her eyes kept flickering to the other chunin in the room with her, to their anxious or confident faces, to the birds twittering outside.
"-Inuzuka Hana, fail. Haruno Sakura: pass. You possess jounin-level skills but have been awarded the rank of tokubetsu jounin for a probatory period of a year, until you get more field experience and consolidate your skills. Congratulations. Omoi Shigeru, pass-"
Sakura froze.
Then, her body moved almost on auto-pilot, collecting her new jounin jacket and moving to stand amongst the three other newly-promoted jounin, her head reeling.
She'd passed.
Her.
A civilian-born nobody.
A jounin.
Slowly, a grin grew on her face until her cheeks hurt with the stretch.
Genma was going to go bankrupt with all the dango she was going to make him buy her!
aaaaaaand here we are!
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