A/N: Some revision of earlier chapters has taken place (primarily in chapters 3 and 6). Just giving those of you who have read earlier chapters a heads up. Didn't want to delete and repost, though, since notifications can get annoying.

Chapter VII: Mokuton

Once upon a time, there was an unfairly overpowered ninja named Hashirama. Unlike all of the other super powerful ninjas who could do things like run around at supersonic speeds (maybe), teleport and replace themselves with inanimate objects (or something), and morph into other people at will, he could do something even cooler: the Nature Transformation, Wood Release. Wood Release, or Mokuton, happened to be a kekkai genkai that was completely unique to Hashirama, and had only been acquired by others through manipulation of his DNA (and never at the same level of mastery).

To be honest, Sakura didn't really understand the way Nature Transformation worked very well. Supposedly, there were Five Elements, with each element being strong against one and weak against another. Although each ninja has a primary affinity towards a certain elemental nature, other elements could be mastered if a ninja was skilled enough and had enough free time on their hands. She also knew that advanced elements, like lava release, ice release, and wood release, were simply a combination of two different basic elements, and that they could only be done by those who possessed a kekkai genkai, or bloodline limit.

So, Sakura was understandably confused when Ino proudly showed off her newfound ability to use Mokuton.

"Isn't this so cool?" Ino grinned, watching excitedly as smaller branches began sprouting off of the thicker wood.

"That's... That's Mokuton," Sakura said dumbly.

"Yep! I bet you're jealous, huh?" Ino laughed. "I knew I was going to find something neat to learn in those scrolls. I can't believe you weren't going to tell me about them."

"This isn't possible," Sakura could feel the cold sweat on the back of her neck become more apparent as her shock wore off, "Mokuton is a bloodline technique. You can't learn it from scroll."

"But I did learn it from the scroll," Ino stated, gesturing with her hands (which, incidentally, did not work out very well when you had wood shooting out of them). "How else do you explain these bad boys?"

"It's impossible," Sakura repeated.

"Well, obviously it's not. I found a scroll, it had some writing in it with some handsigns, I copied them, and afterwards, I could do this!"

"You're not even using handsigns! How does that make any sense?"

That seemed to stop Ino, but only for a moment. Ino had a puzzled expression on her face, which quickly morphed into irritation. "How should I know? Who cares?" Ino said. "Maybe doing those seals cast some kind of spell that gave me the ability to use wood release indefinitely. Yeah, that must be it!"

"Wood Release is a bloodline limit," Sakura insisted. "That means you have to inherit it—like genes! It's something you're born with, that's ingrained into your DNA. It's like Sasuke's Sharingan. When he developed it, it didn't just appear out of thin air! The potential was always there—he just hadn't learned how to access it yet."

"Whatever," Ino said, rolling her eyes. "I'm gonna go practice. Asuma said the exams are coming up, and I have to get ready. I'll blow everyone away now!"

Sakura froze—shit. The Chunin Exams?

"You don't have to train with us this time, though. Sakura is supposed to lose anyway, and since you don't have any cool new abilities, I wouldn't even bother if I were you. I'll see you later." With a wave, Ino left Hinata and Sakura standing in the middle of the training field.

"Did... did that really happen? Is this really happening?" Sakura pinched herself. "Did you see that, Hinata?"

Hinata stared at her for a long moment; finally, she nodded. "Yes."

Sakura wondered, briefly, if it was normal for Hinata to be so calm; unfortunately for her, her mind was racing and all she could really think was, "Oh god. Ino is going to murder everyone in the Chunin Exams with Mokuton."

"Possibly," Hinata said.

This is crazy.

Ino. Mokuton. It was just… unthinkable. What… how… why, god, why?

She had to get her hands on that scroll. If Ino was telling the truth, that was one dangerous piece of paper. Was it the same one Naruto had learned his shadow clone technique from? You know—the one he just up and decided to steal one night from the (supposedly) most powerful person in the village?

Unfortunately, Sakura's handsigns and her general knowledge of scrolls was lacking. She obviously couldn't talk to Ino about this…

"Kakashi-sensei. Of course."

"Hmm?" The man in question was peeking out at her, masked nose barely visible from underneath his book. "Yes, Sakura?"

"N-nothing," Sakura stammered out, shifting her focus onto Naruto and Sasuke, who were standing off to the side. She couldn't bring it up in front of them. No, she'd just have to ask him about it later, perhaps while her two teammates were busy with a mission. And really, Kakashi was the perfect person to talk to about this, too! He knew Yamato and everything! Genius, Sakura! Now all she had to do was figure out a way to work her question into the conversation without making him suspicious.

Of course, by now Ino might have already decided to make a treehouse in the middle of her front yard, making discretion on Sakura's part an exercise in futility.

"Oh, by the way," Kakashi said, quite rudely interrupting her train of thought, "Here are the applications for the Chunin Exams. You know what these are, right?"

Sasuke nodded, somehow managing to look both intrigued and completely disinterested at the same time. Naruto, on the other hand, became so overwhelmed with excitement that he tackled Kakashi (much to the latter's dismay).

"Oh, that's good." Kakashi smiled, "You might want to sign them now, because they're due by 3pm today."

"W-wait, what?" Sakura's jaw dropped. "What do you mean TODAY?!"

Weren't they supposed to get their applications days in advance?!

"Yep," Kakashi said evenly. "I set them on my desk and must have forgotten about them. Sorry about that."

"That's not—what about," Sakura said shakily, "What about Gaara? Yeah! That's right! We haven't even met up with Gaara yet!"

"That happened days ago," Sasuke said. "How did you find out about that?"

"What?!"

"Hey, that's right!" Naruto perked up. "You ran into those crazy sand people too, Sakura?"

"No, I…" Sakura stammered, "I mean… wait, when did you meet Gaara?"

"Umm.… Naruto scratched his head. "I don't know. I think you went home early that day."

"Yeah," Sasuke glared at her. "You were sick."

Sakura felt her face flush. She was feeling under the weather. He didn't need to look at her like that… "B-but aren't we supposed to be tested by Iruka first?" That did happen, right? Wait, was that anime only? I can't remember!

"Anyway," Kakashi continued, completely ignoring her comment about Iruka, "If you feel ready and decide you want to take the exams this year, just sign the application and show up at Room 301 at the academy…" Kakashi glanced up at the sky, "..in about five hours."

"You can't be serious!" Sakura burst out. She saw Kakashi physically deflate as she spoke—apparently, Kakashi must have thought her outburst was finished. "I'm—I mean, we're not nearly ready for the exams!"

At that, Sasuke folded his arms in irritation. "Tch. Speak for yourself."

"Yeah, Sakura!" Naruto chimed in. "I'm totally ready for this! Just bring on those stupid Sand ninja—I'll show 'em!"

Next to her, Kakashi sighed. He must have taken pity on her, or perhaps finally fell prey to her well-practiced puppy dog eyes. "Look, Sakura. If you don't feel ready, you don't have to participate. It's voluntary."

"B-but," Oh no… it was happening again. "I-I… I can't just—" She could feel her eyes water, threatening to spill over as her chest filled with some awful, unnamed emotion. Sakura tried desperately to shove it back.

"You can always take it next year," Kakashi added. "Nobody will—"

"I don't know anything about anything and five days from now they're going to find my corpse hidden in the bushes in the Forest of Death! I'm.. I'm going to die!" She wailed, and then promptly burst into tears.

"She's right," Sasuke said. "She probably will."

"There, there," Kakashi said lamely, patting her on the head. Sakura only cried harder. "You're not going to die. Why don't you just try it, and uh, if things end up going particularly bad, you can always opt out. Until then… I just remembered I left a load of laundry in the wash. Good luck with the exams!"

When Kakashi left, it didn't take long for the rest of her team to vacate the premises, too. Naruto seemed uncomfortable leaving her behind at first, but the blonde had quickly gotten used to her crying spells. He gave some lighthearted words of encouragement before running off, lost in his own world and giddy with excitement at the chance to compete in the exams.

"Sakura. We need to talk."

Sakura jolted at the sound of Sasuke's voice, startled by the interruption. She thought everyone had left her there. And what had he said—something about talking? She wasn't so good at that, these days.

Sniffling, Sakura looked up at him. "Um.. Okay…"

"What is going on with you?"

Sakura wasn't sure how to respond to that, so she said nothing.

"Don't think I haven't noticed," Sasuke said, his eyes narrowing. "You haven't been acting like yourself at all."

"I.…" Sakura bit her lip. "I don't know what you're talking about." Sasuke's glare intensified, and Sakura shuddered. "Kakashi-sensei would have noticed if something was weird, and he thinks everything's fine."

"Kakashi-sensei is the definition of weird," Sasuke countered. "So that doesn't mean anything. It doesn't change the fact that you haven't been acting like yourself. You and Ino are usually fighting, but now you're hanging around each other all the time like you're best friends again."

"Well… I wouldn't exactly call us best friends…"

"And you haven't been helping us at all on missions. Kakashi just lets you get away with it, and you haven't—" Sasuke fumbled over his words; Sakura could have sworn she saw him blushing as he spoke, "—you haven't been flirting or asking me to hang out at all lately."

And here she thought Sasuke hadn't been paying a lick of attention to her…

"Whatever's going on, it needs to stop," Sasuke continued. "This isn't a game. You saw what happened to Zabuza, to Haku. We're ninja. If you aren't cut out for training, or for fighting, then maybe you should just quit."

"I-I know that." Sakura gulped. She could feel tears welling up again. "I do want to, but... I'm just not very good at it..."

"How can you get good at something if you never even try? " When Sasuke caught sight of the tears starting to flow down Sakura's cheeks, he let out a deep breath. "Listen. You heard Kakashi-sensei. He recommended you, but he really shouldn't have. If I were you, I wouldn't take the test."

"What?" Sasuke's statement managed to shock her out of her crying fit. She waited for him to continue, but Sasuke seemed to be done talking.

"No you—you don't understand, Sasuke. I have to take the test."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, disbelief evident in his gaze.

"If one of us doesn't take it, then our team is disqualified."

"What?" Sasuke seemed genuinely shocked. "How do you know that?"

"Just trust me, okay? It's the truth. This is the final part of the test. If we're not ready to enter as a team, we can't take it at all."

He was quiet for a long time before he spoke again. "You're going to fail, you know that, don't you?"

Sakura said nothing.

"I didn't come this far to be held back by someone who can't even do a basic mission without faking sick. If what you're saying is true, we're lucky Kakashi-sensei recommended us at all…"

Truth be told... Sakura was hoping that he wouldn't have. It would have solved so many problems.

"You can do better than this. So don't screw up." With that, Sasuke walked off, leaving her alone with her thoughts.