I wanted to post this earlier today but I only managed to finish this now, sorry! I'm actually really nervous about this chapter so please be kind.
I hope you enjoy this :)
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Sakura panted and pushed herself into a seated position, one of her legs stretched out in front of her and the other bent at the knee. The toxin had been harmless, only aiming to trick the nervous system into thinking it was being attacked but not doing actual damage to anything. She only needed to concentrate enough to encourage her cells to work at metabolising it faster.
"Your skills in battle and survival were being observed and this final part of the test was to remind you that being a jounin of the leaf isn't all about your jutsus." Ibiki's scratchy voice boomed over the clearing. "It's about enduring. Be it pain, tiredness or a seemingly never ending battle."
"Most of the missions you'll take as a jounin will be in the position of leaders," Shikaku took over, "but quite a few of them are solo missions. You need to be able to handle a fight against however many enemies by yourself without the safety blanket of a team."
When Ibiki got to her, Sakura shook her head at him. She didn't want the antidote.
First, because she was already beginning to gain control over her limbs again and the pain was almost gone. Second, because she could only imagine how it would look to the other 'jounin wannabes'.
They had felt the same excruciating pain as her and the overwhelming relief from the antidote. They had no way of knowing she had taken care of the poison with her medical ninjutsu and would only think that she could stand that pain with no counter medication.
The exams weren't over and she still had something to prove.
"Don't be stupid, Pinky." Ibiki frowned at her and she could see people were turning to see her argue with him. "You'll need your strength for the next phase."
Sakura looked him right in the eyes and pushed herself off the ground. She stood on shaky legs but her posture was straight and sure.
"Pass."
Ibiki narrowed his eyes at her and scoffed but didn't force the issue. She saw the approval in his eyes and that was enough for her.
Inoichi-ojisan explained the second part of the test.
They were going to be randomly put into two groups of three and each group would get a scroll with a profile report on a fake ninja. They were to set up base at northern gate one while the other group's base would be at southern gate twenty-three. They had ten minutes to get there and create a plan. Whoever got the other team's profile report first, won.
"Protect the information at all costs," Ibiki said.
Sakura had to fight the urge to sigh in relief when she was sorted into Neji's team. Thank fuck she wouldn't have to fight him again. The guy was annoying.
Mozuku, a guy that she vaguely remembered seeing during the first phase of her Chunin Exams, was also on their team. He'd been a proctor from Torture and Interrogations and Sakura was sure he'd managed to be appointed because of Ibiki. He had no last name and so she figured he was an orphan like Tenten.
His sharp jawline and dark rimmed glasses were charming in a way and he looked to be in his early twenties. Sakura thought that he didn't look like much, but he had held his own during their litlle battle royale so she would give him the benefit of the doubt.
On the other team was the guy with the nifty fire ninjutsu, the sharp look in his eyes matching his chakra nature; the guy whose katana had cut into her sleeve and the Inuzuka with his bear looking dog.
Sakura scowled. They were already at a disadvantage regarding manpower.
No matter, they would make up for it with their brains. She knew she was intelligent, it was one of her biggest strengths and source of pride. Neji had been called a genius more than once and she knew he was very capable. Now Mozuku… Mozuku was the epitome of what TI had to offer.
He kept everything about him simple and unassuming but Sakura could read the strength behind his posture and frame. His glasses, which she distantly wondered if they were even a real necessity, made it difficult to read him but when he changed the angle of his head Sakura could see what the reflection in them hid.
His dark eyes were calculating.
She would bet all her money that Mozuku had made it to the Jounin Exams on sheer planning on his part. He looked like a guy who had worked hard to get to where he was.
Their eyes locked for a second and she nodded at him. He would do.
When the proctors gave the signal, the three of them leaped towards the nearest tree in unison. Sakura waited until they couldn't be heard before she began to lay out her plan. She had just opened her mouth to begin speaking when Mozuku cut in.
"The other team is clearly melee oriented," he said.
Sakura grinned at him. She had been about to say that.
"Yes. It's safe to assume they will take the offensive approach to this." She turned her head slightly to look at Neji. "Maybe it will be best to see if we're not being followed already."
Neji activated his Byakugan and shook his head.
"They're heading south," he said.
"How are you on chakra?" Sakura asked. "Can you keep monitoring their moves until we reach our base?"
"My chakra reserves are at about seventy percent, I should have no problems with the byakugan." There was a frown on his face, emphasized by the enlarged veins around his eyes. "However, my reach doesn't go that far."
Sakura fought a tiny grin. She wondered how much admitting that must have hurt. The silence that followed made her wonder if he just wouldn't say what his reach was at all and she was almost ready to reprimand him from keeping vital information from their teammates when he spoke again.
"998m."
Mozuku gave an impressed whistle but Sakura wasn't satisfied. The Forest of Death had a radius of 5km, that meant that from their base to their enemies' were 10km. If they were dealing with a melee team, the best strategy was to wait for them to come to them, control the environment to their advantage and hopefully overwhelm them with the element of surprise.
Sakura came up with a half-formed plan and gave the scroll to Mozuku.
"Read it, memorise it, pass it to Hyuga," she ordered.
They had already taken three minutes. She had four minutes more.
"We'll set up traps around our base's perimeter. Nine-hundred and ninety-eight metres out. That way Hyuuga can keep his Byakugan turned off and conserve chakra. When the traps activate, you turn it on." Sakura moved around a branch that looked too fragile to hold her weight before she fell back into step with them. "I have thirty exploding tags, five pepper bombs and eight meters of ninja wire. Do you have anything else that will help with the traps?"
Mozuku gave the scroll to Neji and turned to gape at Sakura.
"Who walks around the village with thirty fucking exploding tags?" He shook his head. "How could you have guessed that you'd need to set up traps like that?"
Sakura huffed a laugh.
"Being Tsunade's apprentice taught me to expect the unexpected at all times." She shot an amused look at him but then raised an eyebrow so he'd focus again.
He cleared his throat and pushed his glasses up on his nose.
"I have enough that we can combine and set up some A-ranked traps." Sakura snapped her head around to stare at him. Even with her favour of traps, she couldn't safely say that hers were A-ranked. Mozuku shrugged. "I specialize in traps."
Huh. They were really fucking lucky.
"Alright, are you done, Neji?" Sakura turned to look at him and he gave her the scroll with a nodd.
Sakura raised her hand in the air with the sign for stop. Only when the two of them continued to jump to the next branch did she realise she had used the ANBU sign for stopping. She blushed at her flunder and called out to them.
The two men turned around but she paid them no mind. With a quick scan of the profile inside the scroll, Inner memorised the words and Sakura set it on fire.
The small katon used a lot more chakra than if she was using her natural affinities but it was a nice trick she had learned during ANBU to always have fire at her fingertips.
Mozuku gasped.
"What the fuck are you doing, Haruno?" Neji was in her branch in the next second, a mighty scowl on his face.
"You're TI, right Mozuku?" Sakura ignored the white eyed boy to her left and looked at their other teammate. "Didn't you pay attention to what Ibiki said?"
Protect the information at all costs.
Not protect the scroll. Now the only way for the other team to get their profile report was to torture it out of them. Sakura watched as Mozuku came to the same conclusion as her and Neji's scowls lessened.
"Don't waste anymore time," she said harshly to Neji before continuing towards their base.
When they reached roughly the one kilometre mark, Mozuku started instructing them on how to make the traps more effective. They wasted seven minutes getting there and would only have three minutes before the beginning of the second phase but it was enough.
"That fire type was favouring his left side," Neji said when they were almost at the gate. The traps were properly set and now all they had to do was wait. "I think he broke his foot."
Sakura nodded at him and leaned against a tree when they came to a stop, the gate at their backs.
"From the looks of it, it was a grade 2 sprain on his ankle." Sakura took a scroll from her flak jacket and unsealed it, taking out some ration bars to distribute to the guys before sealing the rest of it back up. "Nothing major, but I think it's safe to say he's the one who stayed back."
Mozuku thanked her and immediately started munching on it while Neji hesitated for half a second before primly nibbling the dry stick like it was a fancy scone.
Sakura raised an amused eyebrow at him. He could be just as pretentious as Sasuke and that was saying something.
Sakura prepared for the customary pang to her chest that came whenever the boy crossed her thoughts but was surprised to realise it was barely there. She had come to accept that he had made his choice and all she could do now was get strong enough to kick his ass all the way back into Konoha. There was no use in wallowing in her sadness for him.
An explosion came from straight ahead.
"You were correct," Neji said, his white eyes pumped full of chakra. "The fire type is not here. The other three are."
Sakura cracked her knuckles and pushed away from the tree.
"I'll take Inuzuka and his bear," she said. "I have a special treat for them."
Mozuku snorted a laugh and stretched his arms above him.
"Well, I'll tag along if you don't mind," he said.
"Will you handle the katana guy okay?" Sakura asked Neji, partly because she needed to know and partly to annoy him.
He gave a tiny scoff.
"Please."
"Alright, we'll meet up at the tower."
The fight went relatively fast. Sakura dropped the pepper bombs as soon as they came into view and both Inuzuka got disoriented enough that they were no match for Mozuku and her working together.
Still, the man was strong enough to hold his own quite well. Sakura figured seeing his loyal companion temporarily blinded and hanging from one of their traps had set him off because the Inuzuka had fought them bravely. She left with three horizontal scratches on her right cheek.
She was more worried about Neji. He would have to fight Katana Guy on his own and she could only hope the man didn't have anything up his sleeves. She briefly considered circling back to assist him if he needed, but in the end decided against it.
"Shouldn't we go look for him?" Mozuku changed his weight from foot to foot in the shade one of the tower's marquee gave.
Sakura had sat down, crossed her legs and closed her eyes in concentration.
"Neji is a very capable ninja," she said calmly. "You have to trust your teammates."
She would give the pretentious genius ten minutes before she went looking for him.
"You seem familiar." And it looked like Mozuku was one of those guys that liked to talk to pass the time. Sakura fought a sigh. Okay, she'd humour him.
"You were one of the proctors for my Chunin Exams." Sakura counted the minutes inside her head. Eight more minutes. She kept her eyes closed and chakra aware of her surroundings.
It was a few seconds before Mozuku replied.
"Holy shit, I remember you!" He exclaimed. "I was tasked to watch over your row. You didn't cheat a single time and got all the answers correct."
Sakura heard him huff a laugh and she hummed in response, neither confirming nor denying.
"You were one of the rookies. Really impressive of you to know those questions, you know, they were jounin level problems," he continued.
"I'm sure there were plenty of people who knew those questions." She shrugged.
"Yeah, a few of them maybe, but you got everything correct like you had a textbook with you to look at the answers." There was an admiring quality to his voice that Sakura didn't quite know how to feel about. It was flattering, that's for sure, but she kinda felt like it wasn't warranted.
"Good memory," she said simply.
"No shit." He snorted. "Wait, just how old are you again?"
Sakura rolled her eyes behind her lids. She really wished he'd been the silent type.
"Fifteen."
"Holy fucking shit." Sakura was sure he was gaping without having to open her eyes. "You gotta be the youngest here."
"Neji's sixteen," she said curtly. She really hoped he would take the hint and just shut up for a bit. It worked for about two minutes.
"What are you doing?"
He'd got to be kidding. Sakura opened one eye to look at him and concluded he was trying to get a rise out of her. This oblivious facade was just that, and it kinda reminded her a bit of Anko, to be honest. That would make sense, he probably studied under her in TI.
"I'm meditating." She took a deep breath to calm herself down.
"Now?" He asked incredulously and Sakura smirked.
"Meditation helps you control your chakra," she began her impromptu lecture. His voice had gotten too annoying for her liking, it reminded her a bit of Naruto and that really sent a pang through her heart. She missed the idiot. "When you do it enough, you can kind of tune in with the chakra wavelengths of everything around you and when you do that, you can easily get a better understanding of your surroundings."
"That sounds like what a sensory type does," he interrupted her and she immediately scowled.
Sakura opened her eyes with a sigh and got up. The scowl between her brows deepened as she saw the amused expression on his face. She took half a step towards him, barely perceptible, but it was enough for him to freeze. It seemed he still remembered how her killing intent had felt.
"It is." Her voice was calmer than before but she saw him gulp all the same. "They do this almost instinctively. Doesn't mean you can't do it too if you have good chakra control and work hard enough. Maybe you'll never be as refined as a good sensor type but it gets the job done. Just like everyone can learn any type of jutsu even if they don't have the affinity-"
Sakura stopped mid sentence and turned towards the tree line. Her hand inched towards the tantou on her back, her posture not exactly stiff but ready. A few seconds later Neji jumped down from a tree branch.
She dropped her hands and didn't spare a single glance towards Mozuku before meeting Neji halfway.
He was bleeding heavily from a cut to his arm, his kimono's right sleeve tattered. All in all, he seemed tired but okay.
Sakura moved her left hand towards his wound, her palm glowing soft green, while the other held fast to his wrist so he wouldn't run away.
"I don't need you to heal me." Neji frowned at her when he couldn't get out of her grip.
"This will only take a second," Sakura replied. "This phase isn't finished yet, you need to be able to fight."
"The next phase could be me against you, Sakura." Neji wasn't trying to leave anymore but his posture was still stiff. She didn't quite know the feeling that passed through her when he spoke her name. It felt weird, having his pale eyes on her. Mozuku watched her hands interessedly.
"Hmm," the older boy hummed. "That is true, Sakura-san."
"With a wound like this you could pass out before we even reach the other side of the training grounds." Sakura narrowed her eyes at them both, her chin set. "If this was a mission, I wouldn't go further without healing my teammate so that's what I'm gonna do."
Both boys shut up.
Sakura nodded when she was done and Neji ripped the sleeve completely off before they set off towards southern gate twenty-three. They didn't rush there to conserve their energy but also didn't dally. The sun had begun to set and neither of them wanted to drag this on for longer than necessary.
Being in the forest at night wasn't something she wanted to go through again.
The last guy, fire type with fire in his eyes, was a surprisingly tough opponent considering he was heavily outmatched. If this was a real mission, she would have run a fist through his chest without hesitation and be done with it in the next second but this wasn't a mission.
So Sakura made a mental tally on everything she had shown the proctors so far and, in the end, decided to trap him in her nastiest genjutsu. It was one she did without hand signs or spoken words and she could practically feel her teammates eyes on her when she told them to go look for the scroll while Fire Eyes suddenly dropped to the forest floor screaming.
Ibiki was the only one to appear in a cloud of smoke.
"Congratulations," he said dryly. "You passed the second test."
"Hi, Ibiki-senpai," Mozuku said with a tired smile and a lazy wave of his hand.
"Idiot," Ibiki growled at him. "You should've been the first one to think of destroying the scroll." He threw a tiny one at his head and two more towards Sakura and Neji. "You did good on that one, Haruno."
Sakura acknowledged his compliment-which she figured didn't come easily by Mozuku's face-with a nod and looked at the scroll on her hands. If she had to guess, she'd say it was a teletransportation scroll.
"Well, this last part will be thoroughly less enjoyable…" Ibiki narrowed his eyes at each of them. "For you."
Sakura wanted to find his ominous voice amusing but found herself shuddering instead. His dark eyes were like bottomless pits and she feared if she stared long enough at him, something dark and heavy would reach out to her.
She averted her eyes and waited for his command to open the scroll. With a last glance towards the boys and a quick, "good luck," uttered for them, she was gone.
The room she was in wasn't one she recognised. For a second she thought she'd been transported towards an interrogation cell in TI but she knew for a fact that those were underground. She could see the full moon beginning to rise from the only window.
Suddenly, chakra cuffs were closed around her wrists.
Sakura snarled at the man that appeared in front of her and made to attack him but heavy arms held her down until she was strapped into a chair by her hands and feet.
She had put up a hell of a fight, but in the end, her chakra had been deemed worthless and even though she was fit she was no match for six shinobi without it.
They all filtered out of the room and the only one who remained was the first who had put the cuffs on her.
"Ah, I'm terribly sorry about all this." He did a little bow. "From now on, it's best if we keep things clear, don't you think?"
Sakura frowned at him and waited for him to continue. She was sure she knew what would happen, but was finding it a bit incredulous.
"We're gonna do some role playing, Haruno-san." The man smiled at her, his light brown hair falling on his dark eyes. "I'll play enemy ninja and you'll play loyal kunoichi from Konoha."
This was really happening. What the fuck. Sakura kind of wanted to kick Tsunade for even considering this a suitable part of the exams.
"Now, you're going to tell me exactly what was in that profile report," the man looked her right in the eyes and leaned forward, "or I'll start cutting."
Sakura could feel the chakra washing over her, entering her pathways and disturbing her flow. The genjutsu made everything seem bleeker, the moon outside suddenly gone, making her chest constrict. Sakura bared her teeth.
She knew what the genjutsu was doing to her, she could feel the effects on her body and she knew that whatever happened inside it wasn't real but she couldn't get out of it. The chakra cuffs prevented her from doing anything. She felt helpless and weak in a way she had promised herself never to be again.
It was maddening.
Inside the genjutsu, Sakura spent seven long hours being tortured. She didn't give him anything, staying quiet for the first five hours. Then, she started playing with her fake captor, her irritation at him and the situation showing through her manipulations. She cried, begging out by telling fake chopped out information between sobs. She could see it gave him pause but soon he was laughing and commending her on her acting skills.
During the last hour she dropped her act and headbutted him when he got close enough.
The genjutsu wasn't really as sturdy as she figured it was supposed to be. With an inner repeat of kai, kai, kai, inside her head and the constant way she kept trying to disturb her chakra, things seemed glitchy.
Look underneath the underneath. And she did.
She sometimes could see the moon outside, noting that barely any time had passed. The chair beneath her wasn't filled with sweat and blood from time to time and even his face looked different, less scary.
The genjutsu was lifted off her suddenly and without warning, leaving her out of breath. Sweat dripped inside her eyes and her scar itched.
"That was very impressive!" The man raised his eyebrows at her in mock surprise. "I'll see you soon!"
And with a careless wave, he left through the door on her back. A blond man took his place. He wore the uniform for TI and his pupilless eyes stared into her soul.
"What the fuck," Sakura panted. "This is insane! The enemy wouldn't have a Yamanaka to take the information from me!"
The man blinked at her complaint and scratched the back of his ponytail.
"You successfully kept the information from 'the enemy', Haruno-san." He tried to look reassuring but Sakura knew the kind of invasion to her privacy was about to happen. "This is the final part of this test. I promise you it won't hurt."
Of course she knew it wasn't gonna hurt.
If she was correct, though, he was about to Mind Walk inside her head and he would see Inner. She wasn't really sure what Inner even was, she didn't want a stranger-much less a stranger that was probably going to put what he found out in an official report-messing around inside her head.
She had wondered about Inner over the years. In the beginning she had guessed that it had been a coping mechanism she had found as a child to come to terms with the fact that she had two very different personalities inside her head.
One that obeyed her mother and father, wore pretty dresses and smiled politely, if not shyly, at everyone. The other was a fierce girl who had chosen to be a ninja and stood up for herself.
When she was younger, she could see Inner as a chalky outline of herself inside her head that sometimes worked completely by herself. As she grew older, that outline disappeared as she managed to grow into herself, find out who she really was. She didn't have separate personalities nowadays, it was all facets that made her who she was.
But still, she had learned that her mind was very much more pliable than she had ever thought before. She used "Inner" to represent her ability to mold parts of her mind. She could control the things going on inside her head, bringing specific feelings to the surface while burying others deep inside of her.
Her eidetic memory helped her in that and in a sense, Inner was simply her.
Sakura still didn't want a Yamanaka inside her head. Specially with all the dangerous things she had lying around.
The process of another person breaching her senses was more disturbing than she remembered it being. Maybe because she was expecting it now and could pay better attention to it.
She didn't have enough time to come up with a strategy to keep the things she wanted to keep unseen locked away. All she managed was to use Inner to cloak everything and then he was inside her.
"Heh, that sounded weird."
Sakura had thought that but she could hear the sentence spoken… by herself.
It was her voice, for sure, only it was distorted. Scratchy and somehow both deeper and higher at once. But it was definitely her.
"What the fuck."
That, however, wasn't her.
Sakura couldn't see anything. For a second she thought she'd gone blind but then she realised it wasn't that she couldn't see but that there was only darkness to see. Very small, if she looked in the general direction of down, was the Yamanaka.
He was looking around at the darkness surrounding him and that's when she realised that it was her. Sakura was the darkness.
She didn't know why her thoughts weren't being spoken out loud, only that it maybe had to do with the fact that they weren't exactly sentences, but more like half-formed images and sounds and thoughts all combined.
The Yamana looked up.
"What the fuck is this?"
Sakura laughed and the sound echoed around them. With conscious effort, she thought the words she wanted him to hear out loud.
"You're inside my head, Yamanaka-san." No matter how freaked out she was, she wouldn't waste this opportunity to mess with this guy who had uninvitedly broken inside her mind. "What exactly do you want to see?"
He continued to look around, his face the picture of incredulity. She had to give it to him though, he only took a few seconds more to recompose himself.
"This is mandatory for every jounin," he explained slowly. "We have to check if you haven't been compromised before giving you all the clearance the elite has."
Sakura felt angry. She felt like she could just get up and go pinch the elders' heads and squeeze until it went pop. From the way the Yamanaka shivered, she figured he could feel it.
Sakura took a deep breath, and that was so weird because she technically didn't have a body to do it, but it calmed her down all the same.
Her mind was going overtime trying to think of her next move. She couldn't exactly block him out completely otherwise he wouldn't pass her and fuck she really wanted to make jounin. Not to mention he would be extremely suspicious of her and she just knew Danzou was involved in this.
This type of disregard for the personal lives of the shinobi in the village had his dirty little paws all over it.
She'd have to hide it. Tuck away the information against a little corner somewhere he'd never think to look twice. She didn't even know if she could actually do it but she'd have to try.
Sakura took the darkness away, slowly giving him access to her childhood memories first.
Where to hide it, where to hide it?
He was already reaching her genin graduation. She had to hurry.
It needed to be somewhere dark. Somewhere he wouldn't notice the heavy feelings around the memories because he would assume it was from what he was seeing. Somewhere like…
Sakura stepped into the Forest of Death once again. This time, she was in her thirteen year old body, Sasuke and Naruto to her sides and… Orochimaru staring them down.
This was a memory that made up most of her nightmares. It had always been a moment where she thought she had failed them, her teammates. With Orochimaru staring at her like that, she had never felt so fucking weak before, not even when they had faced Zabuza at the bridge.
Sakura fought the shaking of her tiny legs-so fucking tiny, she didn't remember being this small-and jumped towards the snake sannin. With quick fingers, she shoved the handful of darkness suddenly trapped between her fingers right into his pouch.
This memory, once something that had held her captive many nights, keeping her awake with nightmares, would be her savior today.
Yamanaka peeked from around a tree.
She was strong. Blood and sweat permeated every single nook and cranny inside her mind, her hard work had gotten her to a point where she could actually do this-whatever the fuck this even was-and it had taken a lot of sacrifice on her part to get here.
But she made it.
And she would fucking make it to jounin.
The blond haired man sped through many of her memories. Some of them, she fought the urge to push him out of-Sasuke leaving her on the cold bench, Shinsei pressing her against the onsen wall, Ino falling to the forest floor, Kakashi breaking down, the blood that felt sticky to the touch during her ANBU missions-but she held fast.
She let this intruder inside her head and waited with baited breath for him to get the fuck out. The memories stayed hidden.
She felt lightheaded. The moon was a bit higher in the sky but not by much. Probably a couple of hours since the sun had set. There was sweat on her forehead. It slid slowly down her temples and neck and she counted to five before she felt the chakra cuffs being removed from her.
"I'll take you to the arena now, Haruno-san."
Sakura stared at him.
No. No fucking way would they put them to fight right now.
Suddenly, she came back to herself. She was so angry and so fucking ready to punch the next person who threw something like this at her again that maybe a fight wasn't that bad.
She shouldered past him with her teeth bared, killing intent slowly leaking out of her. They made it to the arena where Tsunade, Shikaku, Ibiki and Inoichi stood at the podium, Mozuku in front of them.
Sakura took her place next to him while the Yamanaka joined the jounin and tokujo standing on the mezzanine.
Mozuku took a discrete step away from her and she cut her narrowed gaze towards him. He had his eyebrows furrowed and sweat on his face. Sakura tsked and put a lid on her killing intent.
Neji joined them in the next minute and Shikaku took a step forward.
"The three phases of the exam are over," he spoke loud and clear. "Now, we'll discuss your performance and each jounin of the village will take a vote. If the majority agree, you'll be promoted."
Sakura felt some of the anger she had been feeling leave her body. While the people on the stands spoke about Mozuku's abilities and then Neji's, Sakura felt the exhaustion from the day settling over her.
"Haruno Sakura," Shikaku called.
She snapped her gaze to his, her muscles locked tight to keep her from shaking. She was so tired of this already. While the nervous energy of being minutes away from a promotion kept her alert she was overcome with the sudden need to just lay down and take a nap.
"Impeccable work," a woman called from the stands. Sakura couldn't see who she was but she had heard her voice around headquarters before.
"She needs to work on her ninjutsu," a man said, which, okay. She'd give him that. Ninjutsu had never been her forte and she wasn't in any hurry to increase her control over her chakra nature since she had a vast repertoire of skills to fall back to when needed.
Someone defended her, saying exactly that and she turned to see that it had been Raido.
"She's not a team player, is she? That could be troublesome in the future." It was a man who spoke and he was standing right to her left. He was a jounin sensei, she knew, but not of anyone she knew. She narrowed her eyes at him.
"You've got to be kidding me." It was Genma who spoke up, his scoff loud and disrespectful. "Haruno would die before letting anything happen to her teammates. She fits well in any team she's assigned."
Sakura couldn't see him without turning but she let a smile reach her lips all the same. His voice was carefully nonchalant, almost bored but she appreciated his effort all the same.
"Shiranui is right." She recognised the voice once again but had never seen the face of the man who spoke up. "This isn't about her not being a team player, it's because she's highly effective in her decision making. This can come across as rash but the truth is every second counts in the field. This is a characteristic every ANBU operative has."
"She's from ANBU?" Someone said, surprised.
"Has been there for almost a year now," Genma answered. She couldn't place his tone of voice, couldn't figure out if that was a good thing or not in this situation.
"Alright." Shikaku raised his voice over the chattering shinobi. "Let's call a vote now."
"Mozuku," Shikaku said. "All those in favour raise your hands."
Mozuku passed.
"Hyuga Neji."
Just a few hands weren't raised.
"Haruno Sakura."
There wasn't a single hand left unraised.
Sakura didn't know the kind of relief that washed over her was possible. It rushed through her veins and scrambled her brain for a bit, leaving her kind of dizzy in its aftermath. Blood rushed inside her ears for half a second before she felt Mozuku lightly punching her shoulder.
"I'm really glad I didn't have to fight you," he said with an awkward laugh.
"Congratulations," Sakura laughed. She turned to extend the same sentiment towards Neji but her view was blocked by the thick green wall that was Gai. For a second, she feared Neji wasn't even breathing in his embrace.
Anko touched down next, immediately putting both her hands to Mozuku's head and ruffling his head rather roughly. Sakura laughed at the blush on his cheeks.
Then she was being pulled into a tight hug, Genma's strong arms around her like vices.
"You'll break me, jiji," she laughed, "fuck off."
"I knew you would make it," he said.
"Then why are you trying to squeeze the shit out of me?" She joked.
He called her a brat and hugged her tighter and she didn't mind at all. A lot of people came to congratulate her and she smiled at them all. Most of them she knew were from ANBU but others like the people who recommended her, Asuma and Gai still made sure to speak to her.
Gai was loudly speaking to both her and Neji-more like yelling at their general direction-and he happily announced a night out the following Friday to celebrate their promotion. Even Mozuku was invited. Sakura was actually glad for it, this way she wouldn't need to do any work.
Sakura made her way towards her shishou.
Most of the people had already left and she just wanted to go home.
"Shishou," she murmured as she approached the woman.
Tsunade nodded at her. She knew exactly what she needed. With quick goodbyes to everyone else, the two women made their way towards the Senju Estate.
The night was cool and she was already shivering by the time they got home. The lack of food had gotten to her and while her chakra reserves weren't dangerously low, they were greatly diminished by the exams.
Sakura made to reach for the fridge but Tsunade slapped her hand away and pushed her into a chair before going about heating up their leftovers.
"What happened today was sick." Sakura didn't waste any time. "I'm guessing Danzou suggested the whole let's-torture-our-elite-to-know-they-can-be-trusted shitshow."
"During the Sandaime's first go at the job, yes." Tsunade sighed.
"And what if I hadn't managed to hide what I needed to from the Yamanaka?" Sakura challenged because, fuck, if she hadn't totally winged it and succeeded… She didn't even want to think about it.
"This is one of the reasons I didn't immediately shut down the third phase," Tsunade said. She sat the food in front of Sakura and took her place at the head of the table as Sakura scarfed it all down. "Shikaku and I both thought it would do well to lose this battle for now so we can win the war in the long run."
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked around a mouthful of rice.
"If you hadn't managed to hide everything from Yamanaka Fu, we would probably be okay because we'd just have Inoichi order him to keep it to himself." Tsunade steepled her fingers in front of her.
"You're moving things along." Sakura blinked at her.
"Yes," Tsunade said simply.
Sakura sighed and worried her forehead with her fingertips.
"So Inoichi-ojisan is next, then," she said.
It made sense. First, they knew for absolute certainty that he was on their side and he worked well with Shikaku, to put it mildly. Then there was the fact that both the Yamanaka clan and the Nara clan had been affected by Danzou before. Both clans had reports of missing children and having them on their side would be good for their mission.
"Next month, we'll announce it." Tsunade grinned at her and her eyes seemed to soften for a second. "I'm so proud of you."
Sakura stared wide eyed at her shishou. It's not like she didn't think she would be proud of her, she'd always known she was, having long ago learned how to read the woman. But the simple fact that she had actually said it out loud…
Sakura didn't fight the tears that sprang to her eyes.
"Fuck," she choked on her exhale and now it was Tsunade's turn to look surprised. "If you think that will get you off the hook for springing this on me you're absolutely wrong, Shishou!"
She brushed her tears away with her forearm and looked back at the blonde to see she was eyeing her with a soft expression on her face.
"I'm sorry I couldn't give you a heads up, Sakura." Her voice was as soft as her face and Sakura actually sobbed.
"I don't even know why I'm crying!" She exclaimed, wide eyes spilling tears on her cheeks as she choked down a few more bites of her dinner. "I think I may be pms-ing. Shishou, stop looking at me!"
Tsunade got up and rummaged around the kitchen cabinets for a few moments while Sakura began to wonder if there was something wrong with her tear ducts. They just wouldn't stop leaking.
Her shishou smacked a bottle of sake and a couple of cups in front of her before sitting down. The good stuff.
"Here," she poured for Sakura, letting the first cup overflow, "this is what you need."
Sakura hiccuped into her food before pushing it away to grab the small cup. She took a tiny sip, her tears still falling but the taste of alcohol on her tongue calmed her down a bit.
"I'll draw you a bath and give you a chakra massage today." Tsunade nodded almost to herself before downing her whole cup in one go. "Drink your sake, Sakura."
"You're the best, Shishou," Sakura whispered into her cup, eyes closing as she savoured the taste of the fine sake.
She was safe beside her shishou and she'd made it.
.
.
.
I figured Sakura was well due a good cry, don't you?
This chapter (and the last) was really hard for me but I gotta admit the thing that was the hardest was that scene with Inner Sakura (btw Uchi Naru Sakura means Inner Sakura). It wasn't even supposed to be addressed in this fic at all, but the scene just wrote itself and I spent quite some time agonising over it later -.-'
In the end, though, I stand by what I wrote and I ended up liking it a lot. I hope you do too. Also, I have some more theories on this but since I haven't decided if I'm gonna address it later on or not, I'll keep quiet for now hihi Sorry for the suspense, but do let me know what your personal hc are regarding Inner Sakura!
You guys, next chapter it's going to be... I don't even have words for it. I'm really excited to show it to you, I think I've been desperate for this more than you.
Anyway! We're closing a cycle with this chapter, Sakura is finally a jounin and quite some things are gonna change for her in the near future. I'm excited hehe. Also, some time jumps will come pretty soon, be prepared for it.
Thanks for reading! I hope you all have a great weekend! Much love to everyone who reviewed last chapter, I didn't get a chance to reply because I was rushing to finish this but I hope you know that every single one of them got the biggest, goofiest smile on my face. Please keep them coming!