August 1st 996 — Konohagakure
It feels as if this day has been going on forever. Sakura supposes it was only thanks to the adrenaline from the test that has kept her feeling wired and awake; as it stands, ever since the announcement that they were advancing to the third trial, all she feels is an exhaustion that's settled deep in her bones, weighing her down like stones tied around her ankles. All she wants right now is to go home and curl up in bed for a week straight, because no shorter amount of time feels adequate enough to recover from the stress that she'd apparently compartmentalised so very well. Sakura hadn't even realised how anxious she was about the entire situation until Anko, the proctor for the third phase of the exams, had opened the doors and told them to gather outside of Konoha's ominous forty-fourth training ground in thirty minutes. Sakura's fingers had started trembling almost instantaneously, her entire body sagging with relief once it finally sank in that they'd passed, and even as Sakura walks with slightly unsteady steps toward their destination with Sasuke and Naruto at her sides, her hands haven't stopped shaking yet.
Sakura had been afraid of having to be on her own, undeniably terrified even, but she'd put it all aside for the sake of her team. She should be proud of that, she knows, and she wants to be… there's just so much that's happened today, so much that's been laid out for her and for her team, and she's in dire need of a long nap and possibly another session with her therapist. She needs to be able to take inventory of herself and her feelings—there's just so many of them—before she has another downward spiral again at the most inopportune moment. She needs to talk to someone.
(What she needs is to talk to Ino—)
The moment Team Seven exits the testing building, they're caught off guard by a familiar sensation thumping down on all three of their heads in rapid succession. They all halt in their tracks as one, with Naruto and Sakura impulsively covering their heads with their hands and Sasuke simply rolling his eyes while he crams his fists into his pockets. It's become unmistakable to Sakura, something she's dealt with semi-regularly for months, the little thud of his book against her hair coming just as naturally as the way Sakura spins on her heel to give Kakashi-sensei a wide smile. Her heart, which had been so heavy before, lightens immensely at the sight of him, all thoughts of exhaustion and stress pushed firmly from her mind. A small part of her mind acknowledges that Kakashi-sensei makes everything better.
"I just wanted to congratulate my precious genin," he tells them conversationally as his hand reaches out to squash against Naruto's mouth before he can shout a greeting, "and say thank you for winning me quite a few bets. I'm going to be eating well tonight."
"What bets?" Sasuke looks a little offended, but Sakura can see the curiosity in his eyes despite the downward twist of his lips. He's getting easier to read these days.
"Well, all the jōnin get to watch from the lounge, you know." Kakashi-sensei smiles, his eye crinkling, and Sakura's own eye twitches with the violent need to suckerpunch him right in the ribs. No, they hadn't known that. Logically it makes sense that they'd monitor the exams, but the knowledge that they had been watching makes her feel inexplicably bashful in the face of her sensei. She'd felt so confident because she'd thought, foolishly, that no one else had seen her hastily thought up plan play out. "There are cameras all over this place thanks to the guys at T&I, and the jōnin assigned to any given team is allowed to watch the second trial. I have to say, I was impressed with all of you… even if you did give me a heart attack with that little stunt you pulled, Sakura."
"Stunt?" Eyebrows raising in confusion, Sakura glances at her teammates in alarm, both of them staring back at her with twin expressions of surprise. What had she done that would have alarmed Kakashi-sensei? "What stunt?"
"Swallowing the paper with your name and number, dummy." Kakashi-sensei tells her with that same smile in place, which is now becoming somewhat unsettling the longer it remains trained on her. His book thunks against her head with a little more force this time and she squeaks, having not even seen the movement of his arm until it was far too late. "While a good move on the field, Sakura, that's basically an invitation screaming look at me, I'll only tell you what you want if you use force! Half the other instructors thought I'd been training you up for ANBU or something already. Honestly. You make people think you're off the rails one whole time and suddenly no one trusts you with children…"
The mention of ANBU has her blood instinctively running cold, but her veins turn frigid at the implication that any instructor would set a child in their care up for joining at such a young age. The force called ANBU is like a dark underbelly of Konoha, one that Sakura has only read brief snippets about in all her years of schooling and research, and it was something she knew she'd have to have far more clearance to learn anything more about due to its secretive nature. Each village had their own ANBU, and it was well known that they existed, but the air of secrecy added to the widespread belief that ANBU agents were willing to do the things that no village wanted to claim responsibility for. There are jōnin who thought Kakashi-sensei would be willing to sign her up for that?
"You swallowed your paper?" Sasuke stares at her with something akin to surprise and—dare she read into it?—awe in his eyes, as if he's suddenly seeing her in a new light for the very first time.
"Well, yeah… the point was to keep your note, right? What did you guys do with yours?"
"I dropped mine on Kiba," Naruto says rather cheerily, completely missing Kakashi-sensei's amused snort in response, "because a great Hokage helps out his fellow shinobi, right?"
"I kept mine in my pocket, like any reasonable person would," Sasuke drawls, eyes narrowing as he cuts a glance toward Naruto. "I just—you swallowed it?"
Sakura looks between her teammates and their instructor with wide eyes, confused at their reactions to what she'd thought was a completely logical course of action. If she didn't have the paper, someone couldn't get the paper from her, which would have lead them to the most likely conclusion that she'd already lost hers. She would have been safest that way if anyone had stopped her—well, aside from the redhead from Suna, because he seemed to enjoy taking things by force—simply because she would have had nothing to give them. She would have been a weak link for them to ignore. If she has no paper, she has no use to them or to the exam, right?
But the proctors never said you had to get the paper, she realises with a choking sense of dread. They'd only said to get the number.
"Someone could have tortured me to get my number and still passed." Saying it out loud makes it much more real, and suddenly her heart is hammering painfully in her chest. Naruto sucks in a surprised breath beside her, his hand instantly reaching out to touch her arm in his shock, and even Sasuke goes completely still on her other side. She'd been so smug and sure of herself for her choice, and yet now she realises just how huge of a mistake she'd really made. She could have died. She could have failed her entire team because of one hastily thrown together plan that she clearly didn't think all the way through. Panic seizes her chest and Sakura has to remember how to breathe—
"They could have, but ultimately they didn't." Kakashi-sensei's voice sounds as gentle as his hand in her hair, fingers sifting through the cotton candy strands in repetitive but comforting motions. Sometimes she forgets that those same fingers have doubtlessly taken more lives than he can bother to count. "All three of you need to be more careful, though. Between Naruto's outburst, your apparent challenge, and Sasuke making an enemy of the Kazekage's daughter… well, you three have quite the target painted on your backs."
"We'll be careful, Kaka-sensei." Naruto sounds uncharacteristically solemn as his hand shifts down to find hers, fingers intertwining with Sakura's and giving her a reassuring squeeze.
"We'll try to win you a few more bets, too." Despite the same uncaring tone Sasuke wields like a suit of armour, Sakura swears she feels his fingertips briefly ghost against the back of her free hand as well.
"You'll all do great!" Kakashi-sensei waits until Sakura looks back up at him before he tilts his head much like a puppy, eye curling into that familiar smile of his. Her chest feels lighter at the sight of it, and Sakura offers him a hesitant smile in return. "I've been summoned by the Hokage, so I just wanted to see you off. He says it's important, so I might be leaving on a mission for a bit—but I'll come back just in time to see you all pass the third phase!"
He's gone in a swirl of leaves before any of them can say anything else, leaving his students to stare after him with mixed emotions painted clearly on their faces. The three of them stay rooted to the same spot for a few moments, each of them processing through what he'd told them with heavy hearts: they've all made enemies, it seems, and their advancement to chūnin is looking less and less like the walk in the park they had all expected. Pride is often a shinobi's greatest downfall, Kakashi-sensei had warned her just the day before. They've gotten cocky with their progress, egged on by the leaps and bounds they've been making as a team, and this is the result. They'll have to be more careful if they want to reach their shared goal. They need to make sure they aren't getting too far ahead of themselves.
"Come on," Sasuke says at last, head turned so that she can't see whatever expression he's wearing. He's tense, but he still reaches out to press his fingers to her wrist in their follow sign before he starts walking, clearly encouraging her to come with him. "We don't want to be late—that Anko looks like she redefines the word crazy."
"You've got that right, teme!" Naruto laughs from beside her, grabbing Sakura's other wrist and pulling her along with him to join their fellow teammate. He has an edge to his tone, one not so different from the one he'd worn back in Wave, his voice riding high on adrenaline as he fought to keep his confident smile in place no matter what. "Seriously, did you see the way she just shattered those windows? When I'm Hokage, I'm gonna take stuff like that outta people's paychecks, dattebayo."
For some reason this is the funniest thing she's heard all day. Sakura throws her head back and laughs, Naruto's declaration so confident and yet so out of left field that she just can't help herself. The pitch of her laughter is higher than normal, clearly tinged with anxiety but still clearly sounding relieved all at the same time, and soon enough Naruto's laughter is ringing alongside her own. From the corner of her eye, Sakura can see a soft smile quirking the edges of Sasuke's lips, and together the three of them head toward training ground forty-four, ready to face their newest challenge head on.
What they arrive to isn't exactly what they're expecting.
In front of them is a large, walled off forest with trees taller than anything Sakura has ever seen before in her life, branches reaching out in fathomless directions with leaves that block out any sunlight from entering below. It's almost impossible to see any further than the tallest branch, just over the top of the wall, as everything else tapers off into pitch-black obscurity. Apparently the three of them arrive just in time to be thoroughly spooked: a bird lands on the branch they can see clearly, situated in just the perfect angle to be seen in a well placed beam of sunlight, and within the span of a single heartbeat the creature is swallowed whole by a large, spotted snake that slips back down into the darkness with its meal.
"Was that… a giant snake?" Sasuke sounds morbidly curious, his expression tight despite the way his eyes widen just enough to be noticeable to Sakura.
"Yikes." Naruto's deadpan betrays the look on his face: wide-eyed, mouth hanging open, probably only mildly shell-shocked.
"Hard pass," Sakura says immediately, her skin crawling, "I'm really not liking this place."
"Well, you shouldn't." Anko's voice carries across the way to them, shocking the three of them back into the present. Naruto squawks indignantly with surprise, Sakura jumps nearly a foot out of her skin, and Sasuke tenses up so abruptly that Sakura is positive she hears his spine pop. Their reactions seem to please Anko, because her lips stretch into a wide smile, the edges sharp and deadly while her dark eyes seem to glow with an indescribable glee. "They call this the Forest of Death, kiddies—and today, all of you are gonna get to find out why."
"Don't like that," Sakura mumbles under her breath. Anko's dark eyes flicker to her face, smile widening as if Sakura's just given her the best gift she could ever ask for, but before Sakura can shrink back from that wild gaze someone else decides to draw Anko's attention.
"This place doesn't look all that bad!" Kiba barks out a sharp laugh and rolls his eyes, jabbing his elbow into an obviously unwilling Aburame's side as he looks up at the treetops. "Looks like if my backyard got a little out of hand, y'know? Akamaru'll probably have a blast in there!"
Sakura thanks every single God from every single religion as those eyes of Anko's flicker away from her face, shoulders sagging with silent gratitude once she feels like she's no longer being watched by what she can only describe as a predator. Anko tilts her head in a clearly unhinged way, head lolling toward Kiba's direction, and with a flick of her wrist that Sakura's eyes can't even follow a kunai zips by Kiba's face. It hits the ground behind him with a dull thud, startling poor Hyūga Hinata close to fainting as she realises how close it's come to where she's standing, and for a second Sakura genuinely thinks Anko's going to just snap Kiba's neck right there in front of all the genin participants. She looks half-crazed as she brushes her thumb through the thin line of red on his cheek, leaning in close—too close, that's so inappropriate—and inhaling like she's scenting his blood.
Sakura hears Sasuke make an odd choking sound beside her.
"You think you're brave, tough guy?" Anko presses her face so close to Kiba's own that Sakura's cheeks flush at the proximity, her voice shifting into something akin to a distorted lullaby. It's deceptively soft and yet it carries across the entire area, her words coming out in a little sing-song manner, and Sakura actually wonders for a moment if she should do something, anything at all, to put an end to this debacle . Her behaviour is highly inappropriate for a proctor and it sets Sakura's skin crawling, anxiety pulling at her muscles and sending her fingers twitching for one of her weapon holsters purely on instinct.
Thankfully, Sakura doesn't have to act—Naruto does it for her.
"Oi! Back off, lady!" His bellow is enough to startle everyone standing around them, and Sakura feels rather than sees all of the genin surrounding them take a collective step back and away from where he's standing. "If you don't, I'll make you!"
It seems that while Sakura balks in the face of danger, heart rate skyrocketing and her muscles seizing in terror, Naruto laughs and makes an obscene gesture at death with a smile on his face. Sakura immediately moves closer to Naruto after his declaration, her shoulders held taut and a grim expression settling against the lines of her face. This is the second time today that she'd been too frightened to step up when she really should have, the second time that Naruto has shown just how courageous he really is, and Sakura won't leave him to make the stand alone. (If he dies on this hill, she's going down with him.) She has to admit that if today has taught her nothing else, Sakura at least knows this: she admires Uzumaki Naruto more than anyone else she's ever met.
"Oho?" Anko looks amused, if not a little condescending, as she turns her wild gaze to him. Her expression reminds Sakura of a long-suffering parent that's simply entertaining a child's fantasy to avoid a tantrum, the lines of her face clearly unimpressed as she regards his defiant stance and determined expression. Her lips pull up into a crooked smile, a lazy expression not unlike one Sakura's imagined on Kakashi-sensei's face before, and she straightens up and away from Kiba to angle her body towards Naruto. Sasuke shifts closer to them both, and Sakura briefly wonders if she imagines the way Anko's dark eyes flicker at the movement. "You'll make me, huh?"
"Hell yeah! I'm gonna be Hokage one day, y'know!" The declaration is one Sakura has heard countless times since joining the Academy, yet this time feels it feels completely different. It feels more like a promise than the way he'd always shouted his dream from the rooftops, the words sounding as if she's never really heard them quite like this before, and Sakura can't help but turn her head to look at her blonde teammate in shock. "It's my job to protect my village—and that includes Dog Breath, too! So if you mess with him, or any of my other fellow shinobi, you mess with me!"
You really are something else, Sakura thinks with no small amount of awe, her wide green eyes staring intently at Naruto's profile, at the stubborn tilt of his chin and the determination painted so clearly along the planes of his face. He'd been bullied all his life, mocked for the very same dream he's proudly declaring now—even by the person he's defending—and yet here Uzumaki Naruto stands, fighting the good fight for the people that had treated him so poorly. He didn't hate a single one of them, not one person in the village; in fact, he loves them all, wants to protect them, lead them. Not for the first time, Sakura feels a well of shame overflow in her chest, eyes burning with the same regret that had choked her on the night of their very first sleepover together. He is so kind, so inherently good, and Sakura knows without a doubt that the people of Konohagakure don't deserve him. She doesn't deserve him.
But he's going to love them all anyway.
It's so silent in the wake of his words that Sakura swears she could hear a pin drop between them, but Naruto's gaze doesn't waver even once from Anko's as she stares him down. The seconds feel like they drag on for decades, and with every passing heartbeat Sakura's muscles become more and more tensed, as if they're predicting an attack that's yet to be made. As the seconds tick by, Anko's face eventually shifts into a new expression, softening but retaining a peculiar edge that Sakura can't really identify.
"I like you, kid!" Anko finally declares with a boisterous laugh, baring her teeth in a feral sort of smile as she shifts into a much more relaxed stance, hands on her hips and head tossed back. Approval seems to be shining in her eyes, but Sakura's not really sure what exactly she's so approving of. "You've got spunk. I think you're gonna do fine. What's your name?"
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto of Team Seven, dattebayo!"
"Uzumaki Naruto, hm?" Something in her tone tells Sakura she'd known exactly who the boy is, but that she'd wanted to see if he was as proud of his name as he was of his dream. Narrowing her eyes suspiciously, Sakura makes sure to keep her eyes trained on Anko's hands—she'd been fast with her kunai, almost invisible to the naked eye, but Sakura's willing to test whether she can keep up for Naruto's sake. At this point, Sakura's willing to bet she'd be willing to do a lot for Naruto's sake. "Well, kid, gimme a call when you're Hokage. I'll be disappointed if you don't."
The older woman turns on her heel at that, waving her hand over her shoulder as she makes to approach one of two jōnin holding large chests covered with seals, and for a long moment Sakura can't fathom that the confrontation has ended as quickly as it had begun. It's as if the spell on all the assembled genin is broken at the sight of her back, and slowly several teams begin to follow after her or simply mill around to exchange words in low tones, some of them tossing Naruto unreadable glances as they pass him by.
The three of them seem to silently decide to hang back without exchanging even a single glance. Sakura decides it's for the best, really, especially after the scene they'd just caused not even ten minutes after Kakashi-sensei's lecture. Sakura takes the moment to brush her fingertips against his sleeve, offering the blonde a small smile of congratulations, and on his other side she sees Sasuke lightly jab Naruto's arm for the trouble. Naruto, though… he's still wearing that same confident grin of his, glowing in her eyes as if he's made of sunshine. In that moment, Sakura acknowledges that the curve of Uzumaki Naruto's lips is nothing less than contagious as a matching smile creeps along her own face.
"Listen up! You'll need to get through this alive if you wanna get promoted to chūnin, so pay close attention!" Anko bellows from where she's standing, dragging Sakura's attention away from her teammates. Crossing her arms over her chest, Sakura tilts her head and glances over the wooden chests on either side of her; they're sealed shut and clearly important, as they're being guarded by one jōnin each while several others and even a number of chūnin stand nearby. So, is whatever's in there supposed to be their next trial, then? "Each team is assigned their own scroll from these chests. No one but me has had access to your team's scroll, and you don't want anyone getting their grubby little hands on it either. Every single one of these scrolls is unique and attuned specifically to your team, so keep that in mind as you go through."
One of the jōnin standing beside Anko rolls his eyes when she pauses, seemingly for dramatic effect, and he tosses her a clearly annoyed look for his trouble. Sakura gives him a once over, taking in the bandana wrapped around his head and the senbon rolling between his teeth, before her eyes snap down to see Anko's hands lifting the lid of the chest cradled in his hands. The purple-haired woman tosses a scroll up and down in her grasp, black ink seeming to gleam in the sunlight as complicated seals wrap around the entire length of it. Sakura narrows her eyes, noticing a small Konoha insignia carved in the wood of the scroll, a subtle marker that either indicates where the team is from or simply that these exams are taking place in Konohagakure.
"You'll all be let into the forest in turns, and I'd suggest you take the time you get to put some distance between yourselves and your gate. Your first priority should be working on getting your scroll open." Her grin seems to widen at the confused reception of her words, that same manic edge to her smile sending a shiver crawling down Sakura's spine, and Anko outright laughs at whatever expressions she sees in the crowd. "What, did you really think it'd be so easy? Your entire team has to work together to break the seal on your scroll, and once you've done that, you'll need to follow whatever instructions are in it. Every team has a different objective, and some of you could be foiled if other teams beat you to the punch, so I'd suggest moving quick, kiddies!"
"When I call out your team name, please come up to retrieve your scroll. A Konoha shinobi will be assigned to escort you to a gate, and once you're inside you will have five days. Make sure to complete your given tasks and make it to the tower in the center of the forest as quickly as possible." The man with the senbon looks that he'd rather be anywhere else than standing here, surrounded by a bunch of genin, but his voice is no less authoritative as his dark eyes scan the crowd in front of him. It may be rude to make assumptions based on first impressions, but Sakura's willing to put down money that he and Kakashi-sensei are friends. "Teams that don't make it to the tower will be retrieved after the time limit expires. Now, then: Team Shigure, Amegakure!"
Deciding to take advantage of however long they might have before they're called to enter, Sakura unhooks her pack from the straps that wrap around her shoulders, kneeling down to quickly double-check her supplies. She's thrumming with nervous energy, second and triple guessing herself and feeling oh-so-glad that she'd packed everything for today just in case. Kakashi-sensei hadn't been able to tell them much of what would be expected of them, but the way he'd shelled out a small fortune on his three students to make sure they'd all been fully stocked up with everything from bandages to food rations to all new weapons had made Sakura wonder. He'd completely topped off Sakura's own meager weapon supply, and she knows he even made sure Sasuke's holsters were nearly crammed full, so she'd been extremely careful to bring as much of everything he'd purchased with her today. She had hoped she'd been anxious for nothing, that she'd lost sleep over something impossibly easy, but now…
Well, a stint in a clearly dangerous forest, surrounded by enemies in a free-for-all scenario that could feasibly last for five days? Sakura is so grateful for her paranoia right now.
"You sure came prepared. Did you know about this extended camping trip?" Sakura lets out a muffled squeak of surprise, whirling around to stare up at a relatively bored looking Nara Shikamaru. His shoulders are slouched, his fists in his pockets, but his eyes are focused on her pack with an unnerving intensity that makes her want to question just how lazy he really is. Ino had once said her teammates were both 'lousy' ninja, claiming that one spent all his time napping while the other ate his weight in snacks instead of studying, but something in Shikamaru's dark gaze reminds her of the way Kakashi-sensei can seem completely disinterested and yet have full focus on his team at all times. It's unnerving, to say the least, a clear reminder that not everything is always as it seems.
"Not really… I just kind of worked myself up, I guess, so I brought everything I had." She feels sheepish, silly even, but the admission comes freely instead of the easier claim that she'd known or suspected as much. Her honesty has sacrificed a chance to establish herself as a talented kunoichi with killer instincts, yet Sakura feels like Kakashi-sensei would still be proud of her. "It's just dumb luck, really."
"I think it's good that you're so prepared, Sakura-san!" Chōji is suddenly right there beside Shikamaru, smiling encouragingly at her between quick bites of what look to be fried potato chips. Sakura can't help but smile back, warmed by his compliment and his soft and polite demeanour.
"Thank you, Chōji-san." Sakura closes her pack with a snap and stands up, fingers absently fastening its hooks back into place on her harness. Her eyes discreetly flicker behind them in search for Ino's platinum blonde hair, noting that her former best friend is stubbornly standing some odd distance away with her back to them, not even bothering to approach Sasuke. Oh. "My team would probably just call me paranoid, though."
"Super paranoid!" Naruto chirps happily, ever the unhelpful one. Sakura shoots him a nasty glare.
"I prefer troublesome." Shikamaru rolls his shoulders, one hand snaking from his pocket to rub at the back of his neck. Blinking languidly at her out of the corner of his eye, his expression still that carefully crafted expression of disinterest, Shikamaru gestures with his free hand toward the pack she's just put up, his tone belying his bored expression. "Where do you buy your Grade A tags? Those things aren't exactly cheap."
"Oh, Kakashi-sensei took me to some shop he frequents…" Sakura tilts her head, finger tapping her bottom lip thoughtfully, and she tosses a glance towards her teammates with raised eyebrows. "Do you guys remember the name of that place?"
"Ha De Ikiru," Sasuke replies coolly, crossing his arms and leveling Sakura with an unimpressed scowl. Huh. What's his deal? Is he under the impression she hadn't really forgotten the name and was simply trying to drag him into the discussion? Or is he already set into the don't converse with the possible enemy mentality? Geez, grumpy much?
"Oh, that's my uncle's shop!" A new voice chiming into their conversation has Sakura turning to look at the source. A girl that looks maybe a little older than herself is walking up to them, her dark brown hair pulled into two twin buns and a bright smile on her face. She's the kind of pretty that Sakura wishes she could be; the girl is clearly comfortable in her skin, her look completely at-ease and all-natural, but Sakura feels that little pang of envy completely dissipate as the girl tilts her head just so, instantly charming the younger genin with the sincerity of her expression. "Hiya! I'm Tenten! I don't think we've met."
"O-oh…" That old childhood shyness of hers creeps along the back of her neck, tinging the tips of her ears pink, and Sakura has to fight to not drop her gaze to the ground and revert to the once mumbling, bashful mess she'd been as a child. Maybe her confidence is still shot from all that's happened, or maybe she just hasn't been faced with so many new people speaking to her before; either way, it's enough to make Sakura want to do nothing more but take a half-step behind Naruto much like she'd once done with Ino for a long while. "Hi, Tenten-san. I'm Haruno Sakura, and—"
"Haruno Sakura-san!" Yet another voice has joined in on the steadily-growing group, and Sakura very nearly jumps right out of her skin as an unfamiliar boy appears from seemingly nowhere. His dark hair is cut in a bowl-cut that frames his head, his wide eyes dark and yet somehow filled to the brim with whatever particular emotion he's feeling at the moment. Sakura swears she sees little stars twinkle into existence all around him, glittering like gold, and part of her wonders if he's put her under a genjutsu without her noticing. "I am Rock Lee! Please, go out with me! I will protect you with my life!"
"Come again…?" Sakura doesn't know what to say to such a proclamation upon first meeting someone, let alone how to feel about it, and she's left staring at him with a dumbfounded expression on her face. She flounders for several seconds, mouth opening and closing helplessly with wordless squeaking sounds all she can muster, and her face feels like it's on fire —
"Team Seven, Konohagakure!"
Sakura tries not to sigh in relief, because that would be beyond rude, but before she can even apologise for cutting things short she's hauled sideways by two arms linked with her own. Throwing her teammates a confused and clearly shocked look, she's met with two vastly different reactions: Sasuke stubbornly ignores her, jaw set and eyes focused on the jōnin they're headed towards, while Naruto makes a vaguely offensive face back at where the others are watching, bringing two fingers to his eyes and then pointing them back at the boy—Rock Lee—in a clearly threatening gesture. Really?
She's let go rather unceremoniously by Sasuke, the only thing keeping her standing even remotely straight being Naruto's grip on her arm, and Sakura squawks unattractively as she fumbles to regain her balance. It takes all of her willpower not to cuff Sasuke up the head—though she totally does smirk when Naruto takes a swipe at the Uchiha brat for her—before turning a bashful gaze onto the jōnin with the senbon in his teeth. He looks positively tickled at the interactions, shoulders shaking with silent chuckles and a wide grin spreading across his lips.
"Hatake did say you were a handful, Pinky, and now I see he wasn't joking."
Sakura manages an indignant squeak of "Pinky?" that's just barely audible beneath the sound of Naruto's uncontrollable guffawing beside her, but both of them snap their jaws shut when Sasuke, ever the suspicious one, levels his clear superior officer with a flat glare. (Does Uchiha Sasuke think he's just magically exempt from being charged with insubordination?)
"What do you mean by Hatake said?"
"You're a colourful bunch in more ways than one, Sunshine." The man rolls his eyes at the way Sasuke bristles at the nickname, rolling the senbon along his teeth to the other side. The dull clink of metal against enamel puts Sakura on edge, part of her hyper aware of the fact that this man is a jōnin for a reason—the same rank as Kakashi-sensei. "Shiranui Genma. Your sensei and I are kind of old friends, though the bastard would never admit it. With the way he brags on you three—well, bragging for him, anyway—I'd have to be damn blindto miss you in a crowd."
"They're really something, huh? I like their style." Anko is suddenly very much there, looming over the three of them with a scroll in hand. Sakura sees the Konoha insignia carved into the base of the thick scroll, black lines of ink stretching across the surface in what looks like a complicated seal. Anko meets her eyes and tilts her head, reaching out to hand it to Sakura instead of to one of the boys. Sakura can't help but to stare back at her in obvious confusion, though she only received one of Anko's slightly deranged looking grins in return. "A gal like you is obviously the one keeping them in line. Remember those waivers you signed when you registered, kids? This trial is why. Hold onto that and follow the instructions, yeah?"
"Yes, ma'am." Her answer is immediate, ingrained in her after years in the academy of respecting her elders and superiors, and Sakura flushes at the offended scoff Anko gives at the title. The dark haired woman walks away muttering under her breath, and Sakura's sure she hears the word ma'am more than once, uttered like the darkest swear word in existence. Perhaps Anko is sensitive about her age?
"You three, follow me." Another Konoha jōnin wearing the standard-issue green flak vest joins them, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses and his hitai-ate angled over brown spikes of hair. Sakura straightens up and nods at his command, mind already whirling. "You're entering from Gate Twelve."
Tossing a fleeting look toward Genma, who offers Sakura a grin that she thinks is almost encouraging, the three genin dutifully trail after the nameless jōnin, all three of them puzzling over possible strategies for the upcoming trial. Sakura's sure she's not the only one feeling anxious when Naruto's fingers find her wrist, curling around her in much the same fashion as when he'd nervously gripped his oversized white shirt during their first sleepover, and she wonders if she imagines Sasuke running just a little closer to the two of them than usual as they head toward the gate they're slotted to enter through.
"Once you enter this gate, it will be sealed off again. How you proceed is up to you," the spectacled man turns to look at them as he holds the metal fence's entrance open for them, "but I would suggest you hurry to open your scroll. Like Anko said, your success could hinge on another team's speed, so you want to be quick."
Without another word, he beckons them inward with a motion of his hand, and as one Team Seven launches into the forest, their pounding hearts lodged in their throats.
Sakura's not really sure exactly how long they run for, the muted colours of the forest blurring by them like a dizzying painting, but eventually Sasuke leads them to a particularly dense gathering of trees. He runs up the side of one massive trunk as if he hadn't once struggled with the mere concept of tree-walking, and Sakura marvels at his grace as she instinctively follows up after him, Naruto right on her heels. It doesn't surprise her in the least that they default to Sasuke's leadership without even speaking—he's definitely the leader type, and he has this tone he uses that brooks no argument which comes in handy for implementing his and Sakura's various strategies. She's actually finding herself grateful that he's wordlessly taken the role of team leader for them.
Once they reach the top, Sakura is awestruck by the incredible little haven they've somehow stumbled upon. The canopy of the trees forms a sort of hideaway, like a cave hidden in the shroud of full leaves and branches, and Sakura wonders how on Earth Sasuke had spotted it from the ground. It's only high enough for Sakura to kneel in, her bun getting caught in the overhanging foliage, and deep enough that they'd all be squashed together if they tried to lie down, but it's secure and well-hidden from prying eyes. It's perfect.
"Alright, Naruto, you're on trap duty. Make sure to leave a few false leads so that it's not obvious we're hiding up here." Sasuke's quick to begin delegating, his voice low and even despite the tension Sakura can see in the lines of his face. He really is a natural-born leader. She's so caught up in her admiration of his cool demeanour and quick thinking that she almost misses his next command: "Sakura, scout the perimeter to be sure no one else is trying to set up camp around here. Leave the scroll with me and I'll get it set out and divvy up our rations."
Sakura and Naruto share a look before nodding to one another, turning to complete their given tasks. Sakura glances over her shoulder in time to see the blonde darting down one of the trees and pulling a length of wire from one of his shoulder pouches, not even bothering to look for where he's reaching as he does so. Sakura can't help the impressed huff of laughter at the sight, green eyes going wide as she realises she was wrong in her earlier assumptions. Well, I'll be damned, she thinks with no shortage of pride glowing in the lines of her grin, Naruto really did have a system to his pouches instead of deciding to wing it. Who knew?
Sakura turns her eyes back forward, smile still stubbornly in place even as her fingers fold easily into the seal for tiger, the appropriate amount of chakra funneling through her coils as she shunshins through the towering branches. Keeping a careful tally on her current chakra reserves, Sakura rockets through the canopies in a true test of her speed, pushing herself as much as reasonably possible just to see how quick she can actually be. She sends a steady flare of chakra to her optic nerves as she darts from limb to limb, stimulating them and sharpening her eyesight so that she can properly spy any signs of life around them. She spots more than one clone of Naruto's in the underbrush laying traps, and she can't help but smile at his dedication to lay out as many as possible, to keep them as safe as he can. She'll have to compliment him on his execution of Sasuke's orders later, because she hadn't even thought of him using his clones to cover more ground.
She returns to their chosen campsite after running a wide perimeter around their hideout, legs sprinting easily up the monstrous height of the tree she'd left down thanks to a steady flow of chakra through the soles of her feet. Her eyebrows furrow as she alights on the branch just outside of their chosen campsite, the realisation that her chakra reserves have been nearly halved by such a short-lived excursion knocking any confidence she'd had in her newfound speed firmly to the ground. She's disappointed, but not really all that surprised if she's being honest with herself. Kakashi-sensei had warned her that it would always be a challenge for her because no matter how hard she worked to flex her coils, she would never hold the same amount of chakra within her that Naruto or even Sasuke were capable of. Her disappointment and frustration must show on her face, too, because Sasuke narrows his eyes at her as she slides into place beside him.
"You're taking third watch so you can replenish your reserves as quickly as possible," Sasuke tells her immediately with a pointed frown. "We'll probably need your speed for whatever we're supposed to do."
Sakura nods obediently, awareness turning inward as she focuses on the rather diminished pool of chakra she visualises within her mind. She'll have to do something about this, find some way to make her chakra last longer or some way to store away chakra for emergencies. Is that even possible? Perhaps through some obscure fūinjutsu technique, though Sakura's never paid much attention to fūinjutsu before. While she may have quite the attention for detail and her eidetic memory would surely help with memorising different sealing techniques, she's self-aware enough to know she lacks the focus for it. Something in her brain just shuts down whenever she finds herself looking too deeply into fūinjutsu, like when she used to phase out what the bullies were saying until they'd snap her back to reality with a shove or a smack to her forehead. Still, maybe she'll ask Kakashi-sensei about it.
"So how do we open it?" Naruto's voice in her ear startles her out of her musings with a sharp gasp of surprise. She turns to stare at him in confusion as he slides in beside her, his legs folded and a wide smile on his face. He seems to find something in her expression funny, because he chuckles at her and gently bumps her shoulder with his own, pointedly turning his eyes away from her own to look over at the ink scrawled across their scroll.
"They didn't really give clear instructions, did they?" Sakura taps her bottom with a thoughtful hum, tugging her legs up against her chest and resting her chin on top of her knees. She really isn't a fan of fūinjutsu or of the way it seems to cause her mind to wander, but she still closes her eyes and tries to pull up every memory of attempting to study up on it in the library. She remembers reading about summoning scrolls and other such techniques, but without having read over them a multitude of times—or having re-written or drawn what she's seen, which seems to be the best method of recalling with near-perfect clarity—she can't really remember anything of importance. Unfortunately, all the texts and examples she'd seen on fūinjutsu just look like thick, meaningless scribbles to her. It's no use.
With a frustrated sigh, Sakura reaches out to pick up the scroll, rolling it in her palm as she studies the lines of ink. It won't even budge, and she's sure if she took a kunai to it she'd just wreck the scroll and fail them all for her trouble. Its mechanism is entirely nonsensical to her, and in a moment of frustration she does the first thing she can think of: she channels her chakra into it, just a small burst of agitated energy.
The reaction is small but instantaneous, and Sakura's not exactly sure how exactly to describe it… but she feels something. Something in the scroll reacts to her chakra, like when one acknowledges someone saying their name without actually looking up. She had no idea that a seal could be so responsive—in fact, she'd completely expected her little attempt to explode in her face—or so well designed. If she's right about the key to opening their scroll, then it's a perfect lock for testing teamwork and chakra control, a method to make sure that there are no lone-wolf types trying to clear the exams alone. Genin are assigned to four-man squads for a reason, after all, and this test must serve as a reminder for any over-achievers who think they're exempt from the system.
"That's… actually kind of a genius strategy." Sakura can't keep the awe from her voice as she cradles the scroll in both of her hands. She looks up to see her teammates watching her with matching expectant expressions and she can't help the sharp laugh at their expense, though she quickly sobers as Sasuke's expression shifts further and further from any kind of amusement. "The seal reacted to my chakra, but it didn't open because it was only my chakra. Something was missing from the equation. Remember what Anko said about opening the scrolls?"
"An exercise in teamwork and in chakra control." Sasuke says it slowly, his voice pitched low and his eyes darkening as it sinks in. He looks slightly vexed, and all at once Sakura remembers just how much her teammates have struggled with anything relating to chakra control so far. "Tch, annoying."
"So we all just have to channel our chakra together? Kind of like what we did with the trees?" Naruto glances between the two of them, sky blue eyes wide and seemingly lit from within by an eagerness to get started as soon as possible. "That doesn't sound so bad! Let's do this, dattebayo!"
One of his hands instantly joins her own on the scroll, jittery with excitement, and slowly Sasuke's own hand reaches out as well, though he only presses two fingers to the scroll. (Doesn't be realise that he's just making it harder on himself, that it's easier to channel to his whole hand instead of two individual fingers?) Still, Sakura doesn't say anything, biting down on the comment to instead silently begin channeling a small amount of chakra into her palm. She watches as Sasuke struggles to pour the necessary amount of chakra into the seal, a small part of her wanting to grin at his trouble, but between Sasuke falling short and Naruto completely dwarfing them both, the entire balance of their chakra is overthrown.
"We have to try and sync up the amount of chakra we're putting out," she tells them seriously, shifting her grip so that she's holding the middle of the scroll and leaving them room to fully place their palms against the surface on either side of her hand. "It's easier to just channel into your entire hand, so grab the scroll and focus on a steady stream of chakra—don't put out too little, but don't overpower the other two either, okay?"
Naruto grabs his handhold without any kind of hesitation, expression set in determination, but Sasuke is much more hesitant to join them. It's an apt representation of their team as a whole: Sakura acting as a sort of bridge and trying to pull everyone together, Naruto eagerly following through for the people he can call his friends, and Sasuke petulantly holding out until the last possible second. All that's missing is Kakashi-sensei pretending to be difficult but bending oh so easily to his two more boisterous students' wills. Still, even with that missing crucial element of their team, they seem to find their balance after a moment or two of Naruto in particular fumbling—this time with too little chakra at first—but Sakura and Sasuke keep a steady feed going together on the same wavelength and sure enough, after just a little longer, Naruto seems to sync perfectly with the two of them.
The scroll opens with an audible click and both boys drop their hands, seemingly waiting for her to unfurl the scroll and show them what's written within. She doesn't want to admit how touched she is that Sasuke doesn't instantly take the scroll from her hands, because she feels so silly for the warmth that blossoms in her chest at the notion, so she quickly and gently rolls the parchment beneath her fingers with steady hands. Written in clear, bold letters are their team's instructions of claim the scroll of Team Shiore from Kusagakure just above an impressive sketch of the three members of the squadron. A diagram of a small chunk of the Forest of Death is drawn across the scroll to indicate the gate their team came in and how far it is from the gate their target entered from. They'd come in through Gate Twelve, and it seems that Team Shiore had entered from Gate Fifteen, not too far from their approximate current location. So, their task was to ambush and overpower this team from Kusagakure and take their scroll?
Easy enough, in theory.
They decide that Naruto will take first watch and Sasuke will take second, encouraging (more like demanding) Sakura get some sleep while they keep an eye out. With a soft scoff of amusement, she moves to the far back corner of their little hideaway, curling up with a light blanket tossed over herself instead of trying to fanagle her way into a sleeping bag. She hears Naruto and Sasuke bickering softly at the entrance of the canopy, soft murmurings that start to rise in volume and then abruptly cut off before they become too loud with the sound of someone being cuffed—Naruto probably—that results in hasty, irritated whispers after a beat of silence. Smiling to herself, Sakura falls asleep to the sound of her team, part of her wishing that Kakashi-sensei was here just to complete the usual relaxing lullaby of Team Seven.
August 2nd 996 — Konohagakure
It's been almost two weeks since her last nightmare. While she had been recovering decently from Wave, the mission her team was sent out on shortly after had completely shattered any sort of tangible progress she'd made on her own and she'd needed to assistance of a professional to help her sort through it all. After the first few "mandatory shrink sessions," Sakura had slowly felt more and more capable of pulling herself from her nightmares and of compartmentalising everything she was dealing with, at least until she could spare the time to sit down and talk some of her fears and doubts out with her therapist. Seeking comfort from those that experienced the traumatic event with you is normal, she'd been told when voicing how much better she felt when she was with her team, but you have to remember to let them support you as much as you support them. It took longer than she would have really liked, but eventually she'd felt like it was easier to breathe, and Sakura had been sleeping better than ever recently as she continued feeling like she was growing closer and closer to her team.
Which is why it's such a shock when her usual dreams of faded flower fields and deft fingers weaving daisy chains and laughing blue eyes suddenly shifts, darkening and clouding over until everything is tinged with grey. The checkerboard of flowers beneath her feet suddenly turns to damp dirt, soaked through with the blood of her teammates, and Sakura is horrified to see Naruto's lifeless eyes staring back at her from the ground. Kakashi-sensei reaches for her, his chest a riddle of gaping wounds and remnants of his flak vest, but a hand snagging a fistful of her hair and hauling her backward stops her from rushing to his aid. She's helpless, flailing uselessly against the white-knuckled grip in her hair, and she can only watch as the light fades from Sasuke's eyes, as Kakashi-sensei tries futilely to crawl after her. He's abruptly forced from her vision as the hand yanks her back and leaves Sakura staring into the wild eyes of Zabuza for one long, agonisingly breathless second. She tries to scream, to cry out for Kakashi-sensei, for Naruto, for Sasuke… and then her head is shoved beneath frigid waves, water filling her lungs and choking her as darkness creeps along her vision and the grip on her hair remains cruelly steadfast.
(She can't help—she can't reach them—she's drowning—)
Waking up feels like that first night after Wave. Sakura snaps awake, eyes wide and pupils blown wide, a sharp intake of breath forcing down the scream that she's too cowardly to let escape from her throat. Her death grip on the blanket is trembling and clammy, her heart hammering painfully against her ribcage, and it's not until after several of those frantic heartbeats pass that she finally becomes aware enough of her surroundings to recall the events of yesterday. The walls of green that surround her slowly shift into focus, the mist she'd seen in front of her eyes and the brisk chill of the water she'd sworn was still dripping from her hair slipping away, and it takes her several seconds to pull her awareness firmly into the here and now once again. She turns her head slowly to peer at the form of Naruto that's lying by her side, curled toward her with his fist tucked against his lips, blissfully ignorant of the unbearable panic his teammate is still caught up in. Letting out a low, shaky breath of relief that sounds almost like a whisper of a sob, Sakura pulls herself into a seated position and rubs at her eyes, fingers trembling as they wipe away the ghosts of tears clinging to her lashes.
(She feels like she's damp, just like she had been in the dream—drowning, she'd been drowning—she could only watch—)
Sakura glances up to see Sasuke silently peering at her from the tree branch just outside of their canopy, dark eyes guarded but watchful of her every move. She offers him what she hopes is a reassuring smile, the lines shaky and not quite reaching her eyes, before she slowly begins the slow crawl around Naruto so she can head to the exit. Feeling decidedly less cramped once she's out in the open, Sakura gingerly situates herself next to Sasuke outside at the guard point they'd apparently established. She pushes a lock of hair from her face, loose from her bun and damp with the cold sweat of her nightmare, and turns to wordlessly gesture for him to go in and get some rest. She doesn't trust her voice quite yet, doesn't trust that it won't waver and quake the way her fingers do against her sides, so she just hopes he understands she's indicating that he can end his shift early. He doesn't move a single muscle, expression held carefully blank as he regards her like something on her face is suddenly the most riveting thing to him.
"What was it?" He doesn't have to clarify. She knows exactly what he's asking.
"Wave," she answers truthfully after a beat of silence, looking away from him in what she hopes is a clear dismissal. Her eyes struggle to focus on the gloomy darkness of the forest instead, her mind still several miles away.
Sasuke hesitates a moment longer by her side, not speaking another word for several seconds, before he eventually crawls inside and lies down for his turn to sleep. Sakura doesn't look back at him or bid him a good night, but she's sure he doesn't mind her momentary lapse in good manners. She wonders if he'll even sleep anyway—she wouldn't be surprised if he stayed awake just in case, not trusting her to be able to keep watch in the state she's in. She's not sure she trusts herself, really. Her head feels heavy, her face numb, and she's sure he realises she's grappling with herself all over again. She feels like she's reliving the days after Wave all over again: the paranoia, the heart-stopping terror, the buzz of anxious energy beneath her skin demanding she runrunrun—
The sun is barely rising, streams of muted light peeking through the thick foilage overhead, when a trap is triggered far too close to them for Sakura's liking. The high pitched chime of a bell tells Sakura that a kunai trap has been set off, and she's on her feet within a single heartbeat with a kunai of her own drawn in preparation.
Sasuke is up before she even says anything, suddenly crouched by her side outside of their canopy, and Sakura can't tell if it's confirmation of her theory that he wouldn't sleep or if he really is just that light of a sleeper. Naruto is slower to rise than their raven haired teammate, blinking away bleariness as the sound of his handiwork registers in his mind. One glance at the two of them has Naruto just as awake and alert as his teammates, scrambling from their hiding place to peer down below in what she assumes is the direction his trap has gone off in.
The three of them wordlessly slip off into the tops of the trees, eyes trained below to look for either a wounded shinobi or a corpse, though none of them want to voice the fact that they're all hoping for the latter.
It takes them no longer than three minutes to stumble upon the aftermath. Two bodies lay splayed out against the grass in twin pools of blood, their torsos riddled with numerous kunai. They don't seem to be moving, but Sakura's not willing to risk going out and exposing themselves without confirmation. She glances to Sasuke with a silent request that he check for genjutsu, relieved to see him activate his Sharingan immediately to peer down below, leaned forward with his elbows braced on his knees. He stares for several seconds before his fingers reach out to flutter against her upper arm in their code, three rapid signals forming a short but concise report: no genjutsu, definitely dead, injured teammate nearby.
Sakura feels sick even as she nods her head.
The third member of the squad is crouched against a nearby tree, just barely hidden from Sakura's view. They're just sitting there, not moving a single muscle, a kunai clearly embedded in their leg. Sakura channels chakra into her eyes and peers more closely at them, narrowing her eyes as she sees the headband across their forehead and the matching ones on the corpses of their apparent teammates. Rapidly she signs against Sasuke's shoulder, suddenly grateful they'd thought up indications for village shinobi and even missing-nin:Kusagakure?
"Hello, little Konoha genin."
Sakura feels Sasuke seize beneath her hands and hears Naruto's sharp intake of breath behind her, her own wide eyes trained on the Kusa shinobi's own as they peer right back up at the three of them with no hint of surprise in their expression. They don't make a move, seemingly just staring up at them as if in expectation, and Sakura glances down at their left hand with a growing sense of dread: they're holding their scroll out towards her team, lips pulled up in an eerie sort of smile.
"Should we risk it?" Sakura asks lowly, not taking her eyes off of them as she speaks.
"There's no genjutsu down there—the kunai in their leg is definitely real." Sasuke looks eager to head down and handle this confrontation. "An already injured enemy? If that's the scroll we need, we couldn't have asked for a better set-up."
Sakura's instincts are a blaring warning siren that they should be careful, but Sasuke seems confident and Naruto looks like he really just wants to leave as quickly as possible, so she just pushes her concerns to the back of her mind and nods. As one, the three of them leap from their hiding place, dropping to stand just outside of striking distance of the downed shinobi. They keep their formation tight: Sasuke in the middle, her to the shinobi's left, and Naruto to their right, pinning the shinobi to the tree with no direction to run in. It was a tracking and hostage formation that Kakashi-sensei had taught them, one of many that he'd made sure they'd be able to fall into if for whatever reason he wasn't with them any more.
(She's going to demand Team Seven simply become Team Kakashi if they get promoted—she won't let them get separated. She's sure they'll fight with her, too.)
"We'll be taking that scroll of yours, if you don't mind." Sasuke's tone is casual, as if he's remarking on the weather instead of subtly threatening another human being's life.
"Oh? You need my scroll?" This seems to delight the shinobi for some reason, their lips stretching into a smile that's far too wide for their face. They lift their hand with the scroll up to eye level, letting it roll back in forth in much the same way Anko had done when she was instructing all of them on the procedures… and then, that unnerving euphoric expression still in place, they tilt their head back and swallow the scroll whole. Like a snake swallowing its prey, just one fluid motion and then an audible gulp before it disappears entirely.
The sight is so much of a shock that none of them are able to react when the shinobi lashes out in a wide arc with their arm, the limb elongating in an unnatural way and catching Naruto in the throat. The swipe sends the blonde careening back into a tree with enough force that the bark shatters beneath his body and a crack resonates through the forest, louder than thunder in Sakura's ears, and he drops to the ground below in a hail of splinters. Sakura can't tell if that sound was his skull, his spine, or his ribs—but something is definitely and undeniably broken, and that realisation sends Sakura into a full-blown panic mode. She's only barely read up on first aid, and she has no idea how to fix anything worse than a broken rib… if Naruto's injuries are worse than that, what in the hell are they supposed to do? Try and rush him to the tower?
She scrambles for her fallen teammate with one wild, terrified glance towards Sasuke's own wide crimson eyes, fingers already weaving the seal and launching herself forward with every ounce of speed her shunshin has to offer. She hears Sasuke doing what he can to cover her, his voice rougher than normal as he all but screams the name of the Katon that he hurls mercilessly toward the Kusa shinobi. The flames explode against the tree, their target having already moved, and Sakura doesn't bother even looking at the way Sasuke and the shinobi explode into a flurry of motion, dropping to her knees beside Naruto and fumbling to check his vitals. He can't die here. None of them are supposed to die here. They're supposed to breeze in and out, get their promotions, and win all the bets for Kakashi-sensei that they can—
She remembers this from Wave, she's sure, the overwhelming dread that's suddenly choking her… but even Zabuza hadn't been able to inspire this kind of fear in her, a fear that reaches up with frigid fingers and curls around her throat. Sakura feels like she's being strangled, her windpipe being crushed beneath blood-coated hands, and it's like that box she'd so expertly tucked away to be dealt with earlier this morning is violently ripped open and dumped over her head. The wave of Killing Intent hits her so hard that Sakura actually forgets to breathe, to think, her mind suddenly trapped in a loop of the same nightmare of this morning. She's in Wave and the mist is clogging her lungs, drowning her, she's being carved open and her head is being shoved under water and she's going to die, her team's going to die—
Something in her awareness shifts, changes, and suddenly another hand grabs her hair just like before. Her head is roughly yanked back, neck protesting the sudden movement, and she stares uncomprehendingly at the face staring back at her. It's not Zabuza whose hand is twisted in her hair, using the kunai she'd so proudly wrapped up in it as a handhold, but a Kusa shinobi. Kusagakure… why is there a Kusagakure shinobi here? Why is she here, again? She feels like she should know their face. She thinks she hears Sasuke screaming for her, too. He sounds so far away.
Why would Sasuke be screaming her name?
"Silly girl," the shinobi tells her with a condescending smile, shaking her head by her hair. Sakura stares uncomprehendingly back, her face numb and her limbs so heavy and her mind still screaming that she's in danger, Wave means danger, where is her team? "Such easy targets, Sasuke-kun. Your team really doesn't deserve you."
She doesn't understand and it seems the shinobi has grown tired of her lack of response, because they roll their eyes and suddenly head head is pitched back and she's flying. Her legs leave the ground and she swears she rotates in the air, a heartachingly long moment of defying gravity as she stares up at the sunlight trying futilely to sprinkle into the forest. Her arms are pinwheeling, her legs feeling terrifyingly boneless, and Sakura frowns when she realises that she doesn't recall any trees being on the bridge—
The jarring impact of her ribs slamming into one of their trunks is enough to bring her back to reality, blinking away the stars beneath her eyelids as she struggles to remember how to breathe. She struggles to pull herself up, brain still swimming, unable to remember where exactly she is for several seconds. Her mind is trying to catch up, to process what she's just been through, seemingly not capable of the mental gymnastics required to firmly root itself in the present after being so thoroughly muddled for who knows how long. Pushing herself onto her elbows and grimacing at the sharp pain that lances through her chest at the action, Sakura absently wonders if either of the boys know how to wrap a cracked or broken rib properly. She's mentally picturing their reactions to her trying to teach them when a scream grabs her attention and shatters the fuzzy, distracted mindset she'd wandered into.
Sakura's head jerks up just in time to see several things she can't seem to wrap her mind around. One: that freak's neck has elongated, just like what they'd done when they'd struck out at Naruto. Two: they had apparently lashed their head out towards Sasuke this time, and it looks as if they were aiming to sink their teeth into his shoulder. Three: Naruto has his arms around a shell-shocked Sasuke, his chest pressed against the Uchiha's back, and his arm is clamped within the jaws of the equally surprised Kusa shinobi. Sakura stares in confusion as everything seems to freeze, the shinobi's wide eyes staring into Naruto's own, and then the shinobi jerks away with enough speed to unbalance Naruto and Sasuke.
And then Naruto screams.
01/13/19: Updating a day earlier than scheduled! Hope you guys enjoyed it!
This chapter is extra special for me because not only does it mark the beginning of Big Changes™ to the plot, but it's also the chapter with which all the exciting changes to the story itself drop as well! As you can see, I decided on a new title for this fic: Learning Curve. The reason for the change is because the name "butterfly effect" was apparently leading people to believe this was a time-travel fic, so I decided I'd change not only the name but the description and the tags on AO3 as well. There are currently two companion fics in planning/drafting stages from Sasuke and Kakashi's POV, so they will be added to the series on AO3 as they get published! (Sasuke's will not be available on FFNet, unfortunately.) I'll be updating on tumblr, so feel free to check on ishi-ryoku for any future updates or sneak peaks!
I noticed people wondering about the length of this fic, so I wanted you guys to rest assured that this is very much going to be a long, long process. I strive for 7-10k length chapters at minimum, and I have around 40-41 chapters loosely drafted already! This chapter was actually broken into two after it got way too long, so that number fluctuates as I polish the story. I have plans to address a lot of what happens in canon, but in my own way, because as you've seen from this chapter… Team 7's "stick together" mantra brings about some interesting twists and turns. I hope you'll enjoy the ride!
Thank you to everyone who gave their feedback for romantic ships! I've had a few possibilities in my head already since the first draft of this story and seeing the opinions of my readers (regardless of who they shipped or whether they wanted any romance at all) was really helpful for me. Hopefully you'll like what I have in store! See you next week!