When Sensei handed them the application for the Chunin exams, Naruto verbally voiced his excitement to the point where Sakura felt like her ears were bleeding from the sheer volume. When Naruto turned to her, a fake smile was already plastered on her face. And then he moved on to hug Sasuke, who stepped back just out of his reach. At least, the one thing that didn't change was his dislike towards physical touch.

Sakura had to learn that the hard way.

While Naruto didn't seem to notice her apprehension, Sasuke did, so she wasn't too surprised when he lingered behind on the bridge. He would certainly convince her to take part in the exams; if she didn't, then their team would be at a disadvantage. Normally Sakura would have soaked up every chance that Sasuke spoke to her, but the Land of Waves mission had been a slap in the face.

She couldn't do anything except stand there, scream Naruto and Sasuke's names, and cry. There was no way that she would pass the Chunin Exams; Sensei probably recommended them because he didn't want to slow down Naruto and Sasuke's progress.

Was it even worth attending?

"You don't want to take the exams."

There was no hiding it; Sasuke saw right through her. "Yeah…I don't feel like I'm ready. At all."

"It'll be fine, I promise." Why did that not sound reassuring at all?

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," Sasuke told her, a hint of a smile forming on his face. "You'll regret it if you don't." He didn't say it in a patronizing manner, but rather in an ominous tone. Almost like he knew something was going to happen and she would sorely regret missing it.

Sakura took a plunge with her guess. "What's going to happen?"

Sasuke smirked. "You'll see."

Sakura didn't know how that convinced her to take the exams, but she found herself showing up at the Academy bright and early on the day of the exams. She found her team, handed in her application, broke the genjutsu on the second floor and then headed to the third floor. Everything was proceeding as it should be, the first exam was even a confidence booster since she managed to answer every question on the paper with ease. Sakura was hardly worried about the final question; if they could work together as a team, Sakura was certain that between Sasuke and her, they would have an answer.

All she needed was Naruto to pull through and not let his nerves get to him until they got to the tenth question. That could be his one point. They got this.

It turned out that Naruto wasn't the one that she should have been worrying about, but rather herself. As Ibiki posed the question of whether they were willing to risk remaining genin forever if they failed the last question, her nerves began to get the better of her as she watched team after team leave the room.

And then Sasuke turned around, shooting her a very pointed look that told her to not do it. He eyed her half raised hand, trying to communicate with his eyes to put it down. Sakura did. An uncomfortable feeling churned in her stomach.

Then everything was alright again when Naruto delivered his speech, citing that he wasn't a coward. Sakura couldn't help but laugh, partly out of relief and partly because that move was so Naruto.

Sakura had never been so glad to get out of a classroom in her life.

The next day was weird. It wasn't unusual for Naruto to be hyped up about the second round of exams, Sakura had come to expect it, but for Sasuke to be too? Was this the part where she'll regret if she wasn't here to see it?

Now that the moment was here, Sakura wasn't quite sure that she wanted to find out exactly what it was. Especially if it was going to take place in this place, one that the proctor called "Forest of Death." On top of that, all of them had to sign death waivers.

Sakura's hand shook as she signed her name on the dotted line. The proctor didn't hand her a scroll, so that meant one of her teammates had it. He sent her along the way, where she reunited with her team and was led to one of the many entrances to the Forest of Death.

Sasuke immediately took charge, informing both of them that he had the scroll. Earth. Then he promptly shoved the scroll into Sakura's hands, while she desperately tried to give it back, but Sasuke was as stubborn as they come.

"You're the strongest one on our team, so you should be the one to keep it," Sakura insisted. She paused for a moment before adding, "No offense Naruto, but he did graduate at the top of our class."

"And that's exactly why I can't have it. They'll come after me thinking I'll carry it, but I'll just carry a decoy. No one would think that you have it. If we want to outsmart the others, we have to think against normal logic."

"But what if they still attack me because I'm an easy target and then still get it from me anyways? I know how much these exams mean to both of you; I don't want to screw this up."

"You're not a screw up, Sakura chan!" Leave it to Naruto to always make her feel better. "I'll protect you."

Sasuke hummed in agreement. "Others won't think it's out of the ordinary that we'll want to protect you, so they won't necessarily know that the scroll is with you. Just take it." And then he shoved it back into Sakura's hands once more. This time, she didn't fight it, pocketing the scroll in her weapons pouch.

Every few seconds, her hand reached inside her pouch, feeling the compulsive urge to touch the scroll to assure herself that it was still there. The act continued until Sasuke swatted her hand away.

"Stop. That's basically signalling to everyone that you have the scroll." Sakura did stop, but that didn't stop the bundle of nerves that threatened to spill over. Before she knew it, the gates opened and the second round began.

Sasuke took the lead, immediately taking off towards the trees. Naruto followed, while Sakura took up the rear position. The ominous atmosphere pricked at her senses, sending goosebumps up the length of her arm. Although Sasuke would most likely scold her for it, Sakura couldn't help but glance over her shoulder every few minutes, like something was going to jump out at her.

Knowing this place, something definitely would.

Sasuke ducked expertly around the poison plant, but Naruto seemed to be on track to head straight into it, if not for Sakura, who yanked him back by the collar of his jacket. Unfortunately, she had underestimated her own strength. The force of the backlash sent Naruto careening into her. The force disrupted their balance, sending them tumbling into the clearing below. All the air was knocked out of her as her back made contact with the hard ground. Luckily, Naruto had the sense to shift his trajectory in mid-air so he landed next to her, rather than on her.

The noise from the commotion must have alerted Sasuke that something happened because he backtracked. Poised on the tree branch, his arms were crossed over his chest as he stared down at them. Naruto had just picked himself off of the ground, rubbing the back of his head.

Planting her palms against the grass, Sakura shakily pushed herself into a sitting position. Her arms felt like jello and her ears were still ringing from the impact.

"What happened?" Sasuke demanded. Naruto's blue eyes swung over to Sakura. Sakura gulped.

"You were going to run into a poison plant. It was too late to warn you, so…"

Naruto wasn't the type to blame her, so Sakura wasn't worried about him. Rather she was worried about Sasuke's reaction. Old Sasuke would scoff and make some offhand remark that they were slowing him down, but this New Sasuke was a toss up. Sometimes she saw hints of Old Sasuke, but other times, he would act like a completely new person. The theory that she proposed to Naruto was that maybe they hadn't known him well enough in the Academy to judge; they only saw him at surface level.

Even Sakura wasn't convinced by her own proposition, but it was the best that she had. At least Naruto seemed to believe it.

"Let's get going. We have to track down Or-" At this, Sasuke coughed and backtracked. "Another team."

Sakura latched onto his slip-up, ready to grill him further as to what he had originally meant to say because she didn't think that it was a pure mistake, when Naruto jutted in, announcing that he really had to pee. Sakura's instincts kicked in, yelling at him to go somewhere else to do his business.

Sasuke hardly looked amused; in fact, Sakura could have sworn she saw his visible eye tick in annoyance. He hopped down from the trees, joining her in the clearing. Taking advantage of Naruto's absence, she jumped on his slip up.

"Are you looking for someone? It sounded like you were going to say someone's name. And before we started the exams, it sounded like you knew something was going to happen. It's going to happen here, isn't it?"

"Sharp as always," Sasuke murmured. Just when Sakura was starting to buy into her theory, Sasuke went ahead and dispelled it again. Sasuke didn't give compliments and to hear one come from his mouth with practiced ease made her feel more unsettled than giddy. But that was another problem for later; for now, Sakura needed to find out what was going to happen.

"So I'm right," Sakura pushed. "What's going to happen?"

Sasuke smirked. "You'll see."

Sakura didn't get the opportunity to interrogate him on the subject any further as Naruto bursted out of the bushes, returning from his bathroom trip. Before he had even taken three steps, Sasuke had thrown a kunai at him.

"Sasuke, what are you doing?" Sakura yelled, completely astonished that he would attack their teammate.

Sasuke shot her a deadpanned look. "Open your eyes and look. That's not Naruto."

Her eyes swung to Naruto, eyeing him up and down to see what was missing. When her gaze landed on his left cheek, his unmarred left cheek, it finally dawned on her what Sasuke had noticed. Pushing chakra to the soles of her feet, Sakura propelled herself upwards, following Sasuke as he took the battles to the trees.

While Sasuke fought the fake Naruto, Sakura searched below for Naruto. Following the source of muffled cries led her to her teammate. Hopping down the trees, she undid the bindings and freed him from the mouth tape, earning herself an earful of curses. Naruto was ready to charge into action, declaring that he was going to extract revenge, when a body landed next to them with a loud thump.

Sasuke landed next to the unconscious, or was it dead, body, wiping his hands against each other, in a manner that suggested he had done this a million times before.

"No scroll," Sasuke announced. "Must be with his teammates."

"Should we go track them down then? We'll have a better chance since they're at a disadvantage," Sakura suggested.

Sasuke shrugged. "Sure we can do that, but I don't think we'll make it there."

Sakura arched an eyebrow. "Why?"

"We'll probably be ambushed on the way there. Using my chakra just gave away our location, so we better get moving." A logical explanation, but from his nonchalant delivery combined with his eagerness at the start of the exams, why did Sakura get the feeling that Sasuke wanted to be ambushed? Would they be ambushed by the person he was talking about earlier? Was this the show that she didn't want to miss?

Sakura didn't get a chance to ask. Sasuke started moving, Team 7 forming a triangle formation with him at the helm. As they travelled, Sasuke started detailing a plan for having a code so that another Naruto incident didn't occur again. He rattled off the code, an extremely long code, and while Sakura easily filed the code away in her mind, Naruto looked utterly lost. His mouth parted open, undoubtedly to ask Sasuke to repeat the code, but his unspoken question never came.

A huge snake appeared out of nowhere, swept the branch and took Naruto with it. Sakura screamed, all sorts of horrible thoughts racing through her head. Her first instinct was to go after Naruto, but after spotting the paper bombs planted on the branches, Sakura was forced to take cover in the other direction.

A separation tactic, Sakura noted, her Academy knowledge flooding back in. But what good would analyzing the situation do, if there was no way she could counter it?

Sasuke and Sakura landed in the clearing, followed by a third person. She was extremely pale, such a contrast from the long dark hair that framed her face. A sinister smile appeared on her face, tongue reaching outwards to lick her lips. Sakura's eyes landed on her forehead: Grass symbol.

The good news was that it appeared she was alone. The bad news was that Sakura knew that they were severely outmatched, judging from the killing intent that leaked through the area. The killing intent was so suffocating that Sakura found herself completely frozen. Besides her, Sasuke remained rooted in his position as well.

"Ah, poor genin shaking from fear," the Grass nin commented, followed by a few sadistic chortles. "Unfortunately, I don't get much satisfaction out of that. Come on, do something."

Sakura tried, tried her hardest to move her damned arm but it felt like a ton of bricks was weighing on her. Sasuke didn't appear to have the same problem; Sakura watched as he literally flashed across the clearing and delivered a giant fireball straight to the Grass nin's face. Her screech pierced the clearing.

Next thing she knew, Sasuke was by her side, breaking her out of her trance. Tugging her by the arm, he dragged her away with him.

"Listen, don't interfere with the battle," Sasuke instructed, after depositing her by the base of a tree. "Let me handle him. If Naruto ever comes back in during the battle, don't let him interfere."

"What?" Sakura grounded out, despite still being slightly out of breath from the disorientating experience. "We're no match for her. You're no match for her. We need to get out of here."

Once again, Sasuke gave her that same cryptic response. "You'll see." And then he turned to face the Grass nin just as the Grass nin picked herself off of the ground. Her face was completely melted, but rather than sustaining third degree burn wounds, the Grass nin tugged at the gooey substance and yanked it off of her to reveal a male face.

Wait, him? Sakura's eyes widened. How did Sasuke know that the Grass nin's true identity? Was this the person he was trying to meet? A sickening feeling emerged in her stomach. No matter how skilled Sasuke was, he was in over his head! The Grass nin wasn't an ordinary genin!

"Ku ku ku. How interesting. You were just pretending to be frozen in fear. As expected from the Uchiha prodigy."

"Hmph. I was waiting for you, Oro-chi-maru." Sasuke stated his name in a taunting manner, purposely enunciating every syllable in his name. If that didn't confirm it, Sakura knew it now: this was the guy he was waiting for.

Orochimaru seemed to be pleasantly surprised as well. "So you know who I am. That makes everything more interesting."

Neither made the move to attack; for now, it seemed that Sasuke was content with talking and Orochimaru was equally interested in dishing out the favor. Time was good. Maybe someone would notice something was wrong and come find them before a fight broke out…

"Do you want to know what else I know?"

"Oh pray, do tell."

Sasuke did, launching into a list of locations. Sakura had no idea what it meant, but clearly Orochimaru did. If it was possible considering how pale he already was, Orochimaru's face became even paler and paler as Sasuke listed off each location.

"Oh imagine the possibilities if I gave away this information to each of the Five Great Nations. Then where will you run? Where will you hide? Where will you conduct your experiments?"

Orochimaru let out a hissing noise, his killing intent becoming even more intense. "How do you know all of this?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

And then Orochimaru lunged at both of them. A slew of snake heads shots out of his left arm. Sakura had barely rolled out of the way, having been so close that she could feel the scaly skin bristle against her own. A chill went down her spine as she rolled again to avoid the second stream of snakes incoming.

It came a third time. Sakura screamed, fingers reaching for a fistful of shuriken and blindly tossed it at the snakes. The act didn't do much except for stall them, but it bought her enough precious seconds to leap to her feet. Tugging the ninja wire from her weapons pouch, she threw the kunai into the tree directly across from her. Steeling her nerves for what she was about to do - if Sasuke was brave enough to tackle such a strong ninja then why couldn't she take care of a few snakes, Sakura held her breath as she waited.

The snakes came at her, aiming directly at her head. Every instinct her body screamed for her to move, but she somehow found the courage to remain planted in her position. Just when the snakes were about to reach her, Sakura sidestepped and slid under the bundle of snakes. Rolling to her feet, Sakura pushed chakra to her feet to give her the extra boost to use the bundle of snake bodies as a stepping stone back to the other side.

With all of her strength, she yanked the ninja wire. A squelching noise filled her ears and Sakura was forced to look away as bile began to make its way up her throat. She released the end of the ninja wire from her grasp like it burned her. Sneaking one final glance at the mess of limp snake heads, Sakura leapt away, in search of Sasuke.

Sasuke wasn't even taking the fight seriously. He continued to taunt Orochimaru all while dancing gracefully around Orochimaru's attacks. None of the stuff he said even made sense.

Like:

"You want my body don't you? Come and get it!"

"Do you really want damaged goods?" Here, Sasuke tapped his cover eye. "I only have one functioning eye."

"You want to give me power. Aren't you afraid that I'll become strong enough to kill you instead when you try to possess my body?"

Sakura was convinced that Sasuke was going insane. Or maybe she was hallucinating. Either or. All she knew was that nothing was making any sense. But clearly it did to Orochimaru, since he seemed to get more riled up after each of Sasuke's statements.

The fighting intensified. Sakura was so certain that Sasuke would get outclassed by the other nin, but it seemed that Sasuke was holding his own. Holding his own by using jutsus that Sakura didn't know that he knew how to use. When had he learned earth style? And lightning style?

It didn't matter. All that mattered was that it seemed like Sasuke might win.

Until Orochimaru elongated his neck, head detaching his body and mouth wide open to bite Sasuke while he was trying to recover his footing. Sakura, who was too far away to intervene, could only shout to warn him of the incoming attack. She watched, completely horrified. The time that it would take Sasuke to catch his footing, Orochimaru would have already reached it. To make matters worse, Sasuke would position himself right in the trajectory of his attack.

Out of desperation, Sakura hurled two kunais at Orochimaru despite knowing that they wouldn't reach in time.

Sasuke shocked both of them. He released the chakra from his feet, sending him plummeting to the ground below. While in mid-air, his fingers worked their way through a sealing sequence. A streak of lightning appeared in his hands. Utilizing it like a sword, Sasuke wielded it to slice cleanly through Orochimaru's neck right as his back hit the ground.

Sakura hastily scrambled over to Sasuke's side.

"Sasuke kun, are you alright?"

A pained grunt was her only answer. Sakura helped lift Sasuke in a sitting position. When he tried to get up, it was met with protests.

"Let me take a look at your injuries first."

"I need to burn Orochimaru's head." Sasuke shot her a deadpanned look. "You happen to know any fire jutsus?" Sakura shook her head no. "Then unless you want to drag his head over to me, help me stand up."

Sakura didn't argue. The thought of touching Orochimaru's head - his severed head - made her completely squeamish. It was a miracle that she managed to keep her breakfast down, between the snakes and Orochimaru's grotesque jutsus.

A triumph smirk was stretched across Sasuke's face as Orochimaru's severed head went up into flames.

"So is he dead?"

"No." Sakura wished she never asked at all.

"No? Didn't you cut off his head?"

"He's practically an immortal being. The only way to get rid of him for good is by sealing."

"Why'd you burn the head then?"

"The satisfaction."

"Satisfaction? Did he do something to you?"

"Lots of things," came Sasuke's vague response. The back and forth continued for a little bit longer, Sakura firing question after question and receiving responses that practically told her nothing. The entire time, she felt like she was going in circles: one question would lead to an unclear response which in turn would raise more questions.

Sakura should have never opened her mouth in the first place.


Not that Kakashi was too concerned that they would die in the second part of the exams, but he was glad to see that his students made it out in one piece. Naruto looked relatively unharmed, save for the cut on his left cheek, despite looking a little queasy. Both Sasuke and Sakura made it out only with some dirt clinging onto their clothing. While Sasuke seemed to be smug about something, it was obvious that Sakura didn't share the same sentiment. In fact, she couldn't even look him in the eyes.

Kakashi's interest piqued. Something interesting must have happened between the two of them, since Naruto remained as oblivious as ever. Did they finally have a heart-to-heart about their feelings while at the height of danger? After all, adrenaline was known to make someone more impulsive.

Inwardly, he snickered. Why did this sound like a potential plotline for the next Icha Icha book? He'd have to pass that idea along to Jiraiya sama next time he saw him. Quality entertainment and drama at his students' expense? Small price to pay.

The preliminary matches began. Kakashi only half paid attention to the first three battles, none of them involved his students anyways. If he had it his way, he wouldn't have paid attention at all, if not for Gai harping in his ear about how proud he was of his kunoichi student who participated in the third match. In his opinion, it had been a lackluster battle, but he supposed that it was decent for a fight between genin.

Watching the fights at the chunin exams were boring, at best. Luckily, Kakashi managed to worm his way out of proctor duty this year since his students were participating. At least that was a perk of being a jonin sensei. Plus, Kakashi suspected assigning him to proctor duty was just Sandaime's way of encouraging him to take on a genin team. And to get back at him for always being late.

From Team Seven, Sakura was the first to fight. It seemed that whatever happened during the Forest of Death helped Sakura to grow a backbone because Kakashi had never seen her fight with this much determination before. Although her battle ended in a stalemate and she was disqualified from the finals, Kakashi couldn't help but think that this experience turned out alright. At least Sakura learned something.

The only fight that didn't involve his students that Kakashi tuned in on, willingly, was the Nara kid's. What could he say? Strategic battles interested him. No flashy jutsus, no loud shouting, no talk-no-jutsu, just pure brain and wit. Shikamaru's battle didn't disappoint.

Naruto was the second of his students to go. By the time his name flashed across the screen, it was the seventh battle and Naruto was itching from all the pent up energy. Instead of taking the stairs down to the arena, Naruto launched himself off of the railing. Kakashi kept a neutral expression even as the other jonin senseis' gazes swung to him, as if to inquire what the hell he had been teaching the kid.

He didn't meet any of their eyes during the entire battle. Although there was no tactic in the battle, Kakashi's attention remained riveted on the two boys the entire time. The Inuzuka had put up a good fight, and it seemed that he was set to win the battle, but of course, Naruto was unpredictable. Somehow he managed to turn the tide of the battle by farting in Kiba's face.

Kakashi was torn between face palming himself out of the ridiculousness of the situation and snickering at the Inuzuka's expense. He didn't think Kurenai would appreciate that, so he did neither of those options. The battle was a complete mess. A brilliant mess, but still a mess. Not surprisingly, Naruto emerged as the victor.

The eighth battle featured two Hyuga contestants. Kakashi didn't want to care about the battle, but it was hard to doze off when Gai had sidled up next to him, loudly pointing out his pupil's brilliance. Still, Kakashi kept up his facade, pretending that he didn't hear a word that Gai said, when he heard every single one.

Loud and clear.

Ah the tenth battle was the one that Kakashi was waiting for. What made it even better was that Sasuke's opponent happened to be Gai's favorite student, Lee. While the others probably had written off Lee as a major threat to Sasuke, Kakashi was one of the few who knew how entertaining this battle would be.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kakashi glanced at his rival. If this Lee kid turned out anything like his sensei, this was bound to be very interesting.

"Your student against mine," Gai stated. "Are you up for another challenge?"

Kakashi should have known Gai would have tried to make it a challenge. "Rules?"

"If your student wins, that's a point for me. If my student wins, I get a point. We'll see who is the better sensei."

It seemed fair, aside from the glaring fact that Lee had one extra year of training with Gai, but Kakashi took him up on the challenge anyways. One, he wasn't one to back down from a challenge. Two, he had faith in Sasuke. Maybe his student was weird sometimes, but he still lived up to his prodigy status.

The match began. The two of them went at each other with a series of kicks and punches. Normally, it would have been stupid to try taijutsu against a taijutsu specialist, but as the minutes ticked by, it was clear that Sasuke could easily match Lee blow for blow. The best part was that Sasuke hadn't even turned on his Sharingan yet.

And he was doing all of this with one eye.

Lee capitalized on that fact, doing his best to attack Sasuke's left side. His obscured vision didn't hinder Sasuke one bit; it was like he could always sense when Lee was coming. Sasuke's left arm moved up to block another one of Lee's kicks before he backflipped three times to create some distance between them.

The two of them stared at each other with such intensity that it radiated throughout the entire arena. He zoned in on Sasuke's hand moving to hook underneath his headband, in a motion that suggested that he was going to push it upwards.

Oh, was he going to use his Sharingan now?

Lee charged at him, determined to intercept his movement. Whatever Sasuke was going to do would leave Lee at a disadvantage if he allowed him to complete the act. But Kakashi knew that it would be over soon; he'd recognize that move to be similar to his own when it was time to utilize the Sharingan. Lee was completely susceptible to genjutsu. He had no chance.

When Sasuke yanked his forehead protector upwards, his left eye snapped open, revealing a black eye. Any second now, Kakashi expected to see the black orbs spin into red, but it never happened.

Sasuke froze.

And then Lee promptly kicked him in the face, sending him flying across the arena. Kakashi winced as he registered an audible crack as his student's back hit the wall.

What the hell was Sasuke doing? Did he think that his Sharingan would magically already be there without turning it on? For Kami's sake, his Sharingan wasn't like his! Maybe Kakashi shouldn't have acquiesced to his shenanigans, allowing him to cover up a perfectly good eye. Look where that ended up for him.

Sasuke leaned against the wall, unmoving. The proctor moved closer to Sasuke, to check whether he was still conscious for battle. Right as the proctor bent down, Sasuke's body disappeared in a puff of smoke. Lee's yelp rang through the arena. Kakashi jerked his head towards the source of the noise.

Only to find that Sasuke had successfully executed the headhunter jutsu. When had he learned this jutsu? Did his Sharingan copy it when Kakashi used it on him during the bell test? Did he even have the Sharingan then?

Regardless of the questions that piled up, Kakashi had to admit it was quite amusing to only see Lee's head sticking from out of the ground. With Gai's wails about his poor student, it made the scene infinitely more comical.

Of course, a jutsu that was meant more for pranking than actual damage couldn't keep Lee down for long. After opening the first two gates, the force from the chakra released widened the hole in the ground allowing Lee enough room to climb out. Sasuke had gotten serious too; this time, his Sharingan was turned on. Two spinning red eyes clashed with a boy who was surrounded by an aura of green colored chakra.

They moved.

"What's going on?" Naruto shouted, leaning even further over the railing as if that would help him see better. Sakura yanked him by the collar of his jacket to prevent him from tumbling over.

"They're so fast," Sakura stated with a tinge of awe in her voice. If not for his Sharingan, Kakashi wouldn't be able to keep up with their movements. For a normal eye, all they could make was a blur of blue and green. Sometime during the clash, Lee had also removed the weight from his legs and Kakashi was astonished that Sasuke could still keep up with him. In fact, the faster Lee became, the faster Sasuke was too.

Prodigy or not, even Kakashi couldn't move that fast when he was a chunin.

For everyone else, the fight seemed to end quite anticlimactically. One moment they were complete blurs and the next Lee went sailing through the air as Sasuke successfully landed a kick. Lee landed on the ground in an ungraceful heap while Sasuke was declared the winner.

With his Sharingan, Kakashi had gotten the slow motion of it. While blocking one of Lee's punches, Sasuke had angled his head so that Lee would look directly in his eyes. From there, Sasuke emitted a quick burst of chakra, capturing Lee in a genjutsu. Then taking advantage of Lee's dazed state, Sasuke backed up before planting his foot in the center of Lee's stomach.

Genjutsu, huh? Not that an Uchiha using genjutsu was strange, but Kakashi couldn't wrap his mind around why Sasuke didn't end the battle much earlier.

When his student returned to the balcony, moving to stand next to Naruto again, Kakashi stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. While Gai went down the arena to fetch his student, Kakashi guided Sasuke towards the corner.

He just had to know what his student was thinking. "Why did you draw out the battle like that?"

Sasuke knew not to play dumb with him, thank Kami, so it saved them a lot of time from the back and forth that would inevitably occur if it was anyone else.

Sasuke shrugged. "It was fun."

"Fun?" Kakashi repeated.

"Exhilarating," Sasuke tried. "It's been a while since I fought like that." Why did Sasuke speak like he had a decade of fighting experience under his belt?

"Really." Skepticism leaked from his voice.

"Think of it as training. The only way I would be able to improve my taijutsu skills if I went up against the best. I can't rely on my Sharingan all the time."

Speaking of the Sharingan…"When you pulled up your headband, what happened? You just froze."

Sasuke flashed him a sheepish smile. "Ah well...I guess this sounds embarrassing, but I kind of forgot."

"Forgot what?"

"To turn on my Sharingan."

Kakashi sucked in his breath. The more he spoke to him, the more convinced that he was clinically insane. But who was he to judge?

He was pretty sure he was going insane too. The culprit?

His team.


A/N: Hi again!

I'm not the best at fight scenes, so I hope it was still a passable experience! Forgetting to turn on his Sharingan is one of the highlights of my ideas list so I hope you enjoyed it as well. And of course, he can't pass up the chance to troll Orochimaru for all the things he's done in the past. :)

Thank you for reading! Until next time.

-MM