The next couple of days at the tower proved very uneventful as Team's Seven and Eight lounged around doing absolutely nothing, being lazy to their fullest extents really, ignoring those that arrived as they were wrapped up in their own worlds during that time frame.
Until they were all gathered together again "Congratulations on making it through the second round all of you that are here today I applaud you for displaying great skills to make this possible, however due to the rather large amount of you still left a preliminary round will be held to decide on final round contestants" Hiruzen clapped.
Before explaining the decision that had been made, several of the genin began complaining "Of course if you don't feel up to it, you can opt out of the preliminary round" the Hokage announced knowing that some would be tired or out of chakra.
Not the batch of rookies though, six of them seemed to be in high spirits and full up on chakra and energy, while the other three were in slightly better shape than most of the other genin surrounding them.
"Right those not participating in the preliminary rounds please head to the second floor on the right please, those participating to the left, I'm your proctor for the preliminary round Hayate Gekkou" a brunet coughed into his hand.
Instructing them on where to go as they decided on whether or not they wanted to participate "Kakashi-sensei what are you doing here" Naruto was surprised to see his sensei the moment they got to the second floor of the arena like room they were in.
Many genin moving to the right side while he was on the left with his teammates and friends from his academy days "As your sensei it's my right to be here and cheer you on Naruto-kun" Kakashi chuckled, holding up that blasted orange book that made him want to burn it sometimes.
At least he got an answer though turning to listen to their new proctor as he explained the rules of the preliminary rounds to them "Basically it's a fight, nothing is out of bounds, and killing isn't prohibited, I can also step in if I think neither of you can go on" Hayate told them.
Then pointed at an electronic match board that started filtering names for the first match "Great why did it have to be me" Sasuke groaned realizing he was up first when his name appeared on the board, along with a name he didn't recognize.
So he was at a disadvantage to not knowing what his opponent could do skill wise, "Whoohoo go Sasuke kick that guys ass" Ino cheered as he grudgingly started down the steps, Sasuke grimaced and ducked his head feeling the glares directed at him.
Courtesy of Ino, she even kept cheering when he was stood across from his opponent "Ino that's enough, Sasuke needs to be able to concentrate on his fight" Sakura scolded less than a second later and Ino's catcalls swiftly ended.
Blushing madly in embarrassment as she realized that she was getting a lot of attention to her sensei's amusement, Hayate coughed "Let the first fight begin" he jumped back out of the way starting the fight.
All genin focused on Sasuke immediately to see how his match would go "Odd, I could have swore that guy just stole some of Sasuke's chakra" Shino muttered a couple minutes into Sasuke's fight behind him Shibi straightened.
Focusing his senses on his student and found his son correct, Sasuke had indeed lost some of his chakra, however that could be contributed to the fact Sasuke was wielding his sharingan, which drained it's wielder of chakra as well.
That was his initial thought until it happened again, "Your right Shino-kun, that guy is stealing Sasuke's chakra somehow" the rosette he was in charge of nodded agreeing with Shino her betrothed not that either child knew it yet.
Because he didn't want it getting in the way of the exams, eventually though Sasuke performed a pretty good taijutsu maneuver that knocked his opponent unconscious "Lion's Barrage" he'd named it kicking his opponent to the arena floor.
Emerging victorious from his match "Nice Teme I can only hope I'll be as awesome as you during my match" Naruto grinned when Sasuke returned to the second floor to stand with them, Sasuke smirked as his ego was stroked.
Until Sakura snorted "Either way that was an excellent match, I'm sure Mikoto and Fugaku would be proud of you" Shibi praised proud of one of his students so far during the preliminary rounds, only because the other two hadn't gone yet.
"Thanks Sensei and that makes me glad to know" the Uchiha rubbed his nose grinning from ear to ear, happy and content with how his life had turned out after the massacre, not that he wasn't still a little sad that he and his brother were all that remained of course, but he was happy nonetheless.
"My turn I see" the Aburame Heir said as his name popped up on the electronic match board, Sakura pat his arm as he walked by on his way down to the arena to face off against Zaku Abumi, he was a little surprised to find out that it was the spiky haired genin from Sound.
When the teenager stood across from him a second later before their proctor, "Boy am I glad your my opponent now I can kick your ass for what you did to us in the forest of death" Zaku snarled clearly pissed off for what had happened in the forest.
Shino merely lifted a brow waiting for Hayate to start the match "Shino's gonna end it quick I can tell" Sasuke commented from above watching Shino who stood there eerily silent and letting Zaku throw insults at him right and left.
Firing off jutsu's at the same time with the same amount of speed "Right, because it's Shino-kun, holy is he doing what I think he's doing" Sakura snickered at first before her expression morphed int one of horror.
Peering at Zaku who was still screaming profanities at Shino, running low on chakra and taking a quick break, Shibi also seemed aware of what his son was doing and closed his eyes when Zaku fired off another jutsu.
Only to have it rebound on him and tear his arms to shred, Shino hadn't had to do anything but stand there the whole fight, dodge a few jutsu's and keep quiet, his opponent had done all the work "Winner of the Second match Shino Aburame" Hayate called it.
As Zaku dropped unconscious from the amount of pain he was currently in no doubt, Shino nodded and returned to the stand's "Very nicely done son" his father praised as he had done for Sasuke when he was stood next to Sakura again.
"Indeed why because I already knew some of what my opponent could do" Shino stated simply, turning to eye the board as it started up again only to land on one familiar and one unfamiliar name, Kankuro from Hidden Sand and a Hidden Leaf Genin they didn't know.
The fight was interesting to say the least as Kankuro's opponent was able to somehow turn his body into a rubber like substance to wrap around Kankuro, strangling him until it turned out that Kankuro had been a puppet all along and the real Kankuro was hidden beneath bandage wraps.
Becoming the victor of his match and the third person to advance to the final rounds, followed by a match between Ino and Shikamaru of all people, with the Nara heir winning the fight against his teammate, then Naruto and Kiba got a horrendous match up with one another.
Naruto whining and complaining the entire time luring Kiba into a false sense of security because he thought he would have the fight in the bag only to be on the loosing end as Naruto pulled off a win against him somehow.
That was five so far through to the final round and several of the genin were getting antsy standing around waiting for their matches so Hayate called a thirty minute break, Sakura blew out a breath and slid into a sitting position against the wall.
"When do you think it will be your turn and who do you think you'll have to fight Sakura" Ino questioned looking worried and a little beat up, Shikamaru had definitely put her through the ringer it seemed and she called healing chakra into her hands.
Until Ino waved her off "No idea Ino chances are it will be completely random" Sakura shrugged lightly, gaze flickering to her shoulder then up and Shiruki scurried to her hair, adding her venom to the spikes again because she had an uncanny feeling her turn would be soon.
And oh how right she was when the thirty minute break ended and her name appeared on that board, alongside the kunoichi from Hidden Sound "Lucky me" Kin Tsuchi as her name had been revealed on the board smirked.
Glad to have a chance to beat that smile right off the pink haired kunoichi's face for what she'd done in the forest to them "Would you please start the fight Hayate-sensei" the pinkette asked kindly, running through several scenario's in her mind as she waited.
He nodded "Let the sixth match begin" the brunet coughed jumping back, Kin started slinging senbon needles at Sakura, who narrowly dodged each one, keen emerald eyes honing in on the bells that were attached to some of the weapons being thrown.
'Must be sound based genjutsu' she thought throwing down a smoke bomb to obscure Kin's vision of her, plugging her ears with some ear-plugs, she'd only just done got shoving the uncomfortable plugs in her ears when Kin charged through the smoke at her.
Quickly to avoid getting hit she back-flipped and threw her own weapons with deadly accuracy, a needle hit in the brachioradialis and the kneecap, Kin winced yanking the throwing weapons from her flesh, fighting down a yelp of pain because that hurt.
Then focused her attention on fighting her opponent who'd managed to somehow get behind her while she was distracted "Fool, rule number one during a fight never take your eyes off your opponent" Sakura scolded.
Slamming two fingers into the older girl's shoulder, this time Kin wasn't able to help it as she let out a scream before she found herself being kicked in the back to land face first on the arena floor "Bitch are you fucking crazy that could have killed me" Kin shouted.
Jumping to her feet and charging again, Sakura shook her head "Maybe, maybe not you'll never know" the pinkette taunted riling her opponent up into a fury while above Shino and Sasuke shook their heads realizing what she was doing.
Basic baiting tactic that blinded Kin from all else except her "When I get my hands on you, your going to regret mocking me stupid bitch" the ravenette yelled angrily, going faster than Sakura had thought possible.
And finally, finally getting her hands on the other girl, wincing at the spikes in Sakura's hair "Idiot I was going to end this peacefully" Sakura scoffed taking the ear plugs out of her ears as Kin let go instantly in the next moment screaming in agony.
While clutching her stomach before vomiting all over the floor as venom coursed through her veins "B..But how I didn't see any poison on those weapons" Kin gasped barely conscious now, though she would still live the venom was excruciating.
"Hair spikes, a type of venom that's all I'll tell you, you have your whole life ahead of you Kin-san, don't let a sick bastard like Orochimaru control you" Sakura knelt whispering in the girl's ear before her eyes drooped in unconsciousness.
Utter silence met her ears as Hayate coughed "Winner of the sixth match Sakura Haruno" Hayate called it in the next moment and Sakura smiled briefly at him on her way back up to the stands, being enveloped in a bone crushing hug by the goofy blonde that nobody expected to win.
Followed by claps on the back from her teammates who'd also won their matches it seemed the whole of team seven was absolutely brutal against their opponents, the matches continued on after that other genin proving to be just as brutal against each other as Team Seven had been.
Some kid by the name of Lee was crushed by sand by Gaara, Hinata lost her match against her cousin Neji, Naruto wasn't very happy about that a girl named Tenten lost against Temari, putting all three Sand Genin through the final match against Choji and Dosu, the Sound Genin won.
With that the preliminary rounds were over "Okay you lot time to draw lots to see how the final round match up will be" their proctor cleared his throat drawing the genin's attention once all ten of them were stood before him.
Making them draw numbers and read them off to him, Neji got number one, Naruto number two and he was ecstatic because he wanted to avenge Hinata for what Neji had done to her, Shino number three, Kankuro four, Shikamaru five, Temari six, Sakura seven, Dosu eight, Sasuke nine, and Gaara number ten.
"Best of luck to you all, take this month to train and improve where you need it that is all dismissed and we'll see you all in a month for the final rounds" Hayate dismissed them for the next month, then their sensei's body flickered them from the tower.
Out into the village again after a rough five days Shibi cleared his throats before his students could wander off "I'd like to inform you of your sensei's for the next month if you each would stay for a moment longer" Shibi announced.
His students swung around instantly at that and he was pleased they were still so obedient after all this time "For Sasuke, Kakashi-san has offered to train you, these days, Shino you'll be with me of course and Sakura, I managed to get Kurenai Yuhi to agree to train you" the Aburame Patriarch rattled off.
Passing out the schedules to the two students that didn't live with him "Roger that Shibi-sensei, I promise we'll train super hard this month and make you proud by becoming Chunin" the rosette saluted with a bright smile pasted on her lips.
"Exactly, we'll make those judges so impressed they'll have no choice but to promote us" the raven haired preteen smirked leading Sakura away so they could actually sleep in their own beds again after five days of hell.
Shino watched them go from behind his sunglasses "Let's go home Father" the brunet sighed exhausted and ready to rest, he didn't think things would be that easy though and he was right because the moment they got home his Father started their first training session for the month.
While Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto got to relax "Did you manage to make it to the Final Round dears" Mebuki asked when the kids were flopped down on the floor around the low sitting table that was situated in the living room for them.
"Yeah, Sasuke and Sakura-chan were kick ass believe it" the blue eyed blonde yawned tiredly before smiling sheepishly in the next moment, not that Mebuki blamed him any, as it were Sasuke and Sakura were practically already passed out from how exhausted they actually were.
She stared at them in sympathy "I'll go get the blankets" Kizashi nodded when his wife turned her emerald orbs on him, he was gone for a couple of minutes and was back carrying three blankets, Naruto climbed onto the couch gratefully and was out a moment later.
As Sasuke and Sakura slept hunched over the table the older Haruno's eyeing them fondly until they decided to call it an early night without supper and go to bed as well, leaving the children to their much needed rest.
~Next Morning~
The genin were much more energetic as they raced off to meet their assigned sensei's for the month of training they'd been designated "Ah it's nice to meet you Sakura-san, I'm Kurenai Yuhi" Kurenai greeted when the pink haired girl wandered onto the training field.
"Kurenai-sensei thank you very much for agreeing to train me, I'm Sakura Haruno" Sakura bowed becoming as polite as she was known to be in the Jonin circle, courtesy of her secret lover actually, who'd taken a shining to the girl when she'd been much younger.
But she was still a little surprised, floundering at the politeness for a couple of seconds actually before nodding "Right so Sakura-san as I understand it you recently became a qualified medic does that mean you're skills are mostly taijutsu based" the raven haired woman questioned.
Getting the literal ball rolling "Not at all Kurenai-sensei, though I am skilled and can even pull off low level chakra enhanced attacks, I can also use elemental based ninjutsu and my shuriken jutsu earned me top marks during my academy days" the pinkette ticked off.
Revealing just a few of her skills to the woman "Interesting so what are you hoping to learn during the month" Kurenai inquired yet again, surprised at how well rounded the girl seemed in other things beyond her taijutsu and medical ninjutsu as she'd initially assumed.
"A uniquely crafted scent based genjutsu to offset Dosu's sound based jutsu's" apparently Sakura knew exactly what she wanted to work on during the month of training she had and Kurenai found herself floundering again.
Before snapping out of it, "Okay then, do you have an idea of what you want to use for the scent part of your genjutsu or what you want one to see in the jutsu actually, part of crafting a genjutsu is knowing what you want others to see already without thinking about it" the raven haired woman informed.
Sakura nodded in understanding "Cherry blossoms, I'll seal them in a scroll to unseal during the fight, for the genjutsu, one that starts of slow, showing the trapped simple things he/she's already seen before progressing" the rosette announced.
Lying just a little bit, when really she intended on showing off her skill with the body flicker technique activating the genjutsu the moment she appeared before her opponent with a larger amount of cherry blossom petals that covered her entirely.
She already had the entire plan thought out for her fight it was just a matter of practicing with and without her trainer for the month "Good, good why don't you place me in the genjutsu now so that I can see what you have" Kurenai offered.
It was what she was there for after all to train the girl "Just remember you asked for it Kurenai-sensei" Sakura grimaced knowing exactly how she wanted her genjutsu to be and forming the hand signs for it.
To place Kurenai in, who blinked her eyes only to frown as absolutely nothing changed, then again her unlikely student had said it would start out slow, showing her what she'd already seen, Sakura stood across from her.
And just like that so unexpectedly the girl was gone fading out of existence as if she'd never been there, silence and she was starting to get worried that she would have to do a lot more than she thought when all of a sudden hands wrapped around her throat from behind.
Eyes wide because she hadn't heard anything Kurenai struggled to pry the hands from her throat, they felt so real, it was a challenge for sure and when she was free she dropped and thrust out her foot to kick the enemy away.
Only to swing through empty air, next came a barrage of shuriken and throwing needles and she had to hastily yank out a kunai to defend herself, forgetting all about how it was actually a genjutsu and that none of it was real.
But that had been the point probably simple things that happened in a fight would distract the entrapped into thinking everything was real if the entrapped didn't know they were trapped in a genjutsu that was.
Until she suddenly remembered and flashed through a set of hand signs to break out of the genjutsu "Not bad Sakura-san, for a moment there I nearly forgot it was all just a genjutsu" the raven haired woman smiled.
Pleased that the girl had an actual talent for genjutsu "If it had been allowed to keep going, things would have gotten darker I think, if I remember correctly anyway it's suppose to be a nightmare based genjutsu ensnaring an opponent by scent alone" the rosette explained.
In further detail about her genjutsu and Kurenai was actually impressed "Can I ask how long you've been planning this out, it seems quite a bit for only having the rest of yesterday to think on it" Kurenai questioned seriously.
Curious, very curious about Shibi's student "For awhile now, a few weeks I think, just haven't had the time to really buckle down and work on it" Sakura shrugged admitting that much, Kurenai smiled finding herself thinking that she was going to enjoy the next four weeks.
Especially if Sakura continued to make this easy on her "Impressive, okay do you have any back up plans in case the genjutsu fails on you" the ebony haired woman asked of the young girl who tapped her lip in thought.
Thinking no doubt of other idea's she could use during her fight against Dosu "Well there's elemental ninjutsu and my taijutsu of course, but he'll be expecting that I think, along with my shuriken jutsu, I don't want to have to use to much chakra so I'm limited" the pinkette mused.
Delving deep into her thoughts lips pursed as she considered all the options she had "Have you thought about signing on with a summons Sakura-san" Kurenai piped in when the mutterings got unintelligible and to low for her to hear.
"Oh ah…well you see the truth is I already have a summons, two days before I became a genin actually, I can use those in a pinch but he might suspect I have some sort of summons since one of his teammates went down from their venom" Sakura admitted sheepishly.
Wishing that she didn't have to reveal that particular tidbit but having no choice because she had a feeling the woman would have suggested she find a summons to sign on with if she did "What kind of summons if I may ask" the raven haired Jonin prodded.
"Red Legged Spiders, I'm the first to sign on with them, their very special to me in all honesty due to who gave me the summons contract" the fuscia haired preteen explained, thinking fondly of Shisui and hoping he was proud of her wherever he was.
Kurenai tilted her head to the side in confusion but didn't ask this time, instead took note of the time "Well that's it for our first training session, we'll meet again in two days time, work on your genjutsu and figuring out how to incorporate the scent part into it" Kurenai instructed.
Ending their training session and body flickering away in a swirl of leaves, Sakura sighed then marched off to her own team training grounds "Kid that you, is the survival round for our chunin exams already over, what happened did you make it to the final round" Darui spotted her.
When she was halfway there "Indeed I was wondering if you could demonstrate healing some things for me" Amai piped in on Darui's heels, both of them following her to wherever she was going only to end up on a training field.
"Yeah the survival round is over, since yesterday, apparently Orochimaru's on the loose in our village somewhere and yes I made it to the final round Darui-san, however that doesn't mean I'm not busy, there's a lot of work I have to do before I'm ready for my fight" Sakura announced.
Not wanting either male to think she was blowing them off but right now if she didn't get serious about her genjutsu plan then it wasn't going to be done in time for the Final Round, Darui and Amai shared a look "Training huh, do you need help" the dark skinned Cloud Shinobi offered.
Jade eyes widened "Are you willing to let me put you in a nightmare based genjutsu while I work on incorporating scent into it" the rosette inquired seriously, Darui shuddered and she grinned at him, knowing what he was thinking already.
But the surprise came from Amai who stepped forward "I'll do it if you don't mind Sakura-san" the brunet offered bravely, she worried her lip for a moment before nodding and gestured for him to sit down, then flashed through a set of hand signs.
Influencing his mind to see her still a work in progress genjutsu "Just what are you making him see anyway Kid" Darui prodded curiously when nothing happened and Amai continued to sit there unaffected for the moment.
While Sakura sat down and pulled out a scroll from her storage pouch to unseal two whole bags of cherry blossom petals, these ones scented, he could smell them from the short distance he was from them and start painting a formula on them for genjutsu probably.
"Can't say for sure, what all will go into my genjutsu, Amai-san will see us at first and the rest is by chance until I formulate a better illusion as I work on improving" Sakura admitted, glancing to Amai, who twitched lightly.
Probably going through the experience of being strangled right now, then glanced down to the pile of scented cherry blossoms with the jutsu storage seal on them, in the next second Amai's body gave a great jerk.
Darui's brows rose watching his current partner fight off invisible attackers, thrashing around entrapped in a genjutsu of who knows what until nine minutes after the start of it Amai broke free gasping for air and looking around wildly with onyx eyes wide in fright.
Before rapidly calming down as he realized that everything he'd just went through hadn't been real "Kami just call it the illusion of nightmares and be done with it" Amai breathed heavily still a little uncertain of whether he was out of the genjutsu or not.
Until Sakura spoke up "So things did take a darker turn just as I expected, besides being strangled what else happened" the pinkette inquired curiously needing to know to build a better foundation for how her illusion would be.
Amai blew out a breath "First I saw you two, then you faded away, there was utter silence and someone came up from behind to strangling me, I was faced with a barrage of weapons to and after that, I saw things that I see in daily nightmares" the brunet ticked off his fingers.
"What else Amai, you looked pretty wild there for a moment when you came to" the dark skinned male reminded of how he'd been after first breaking free of the genjutsu, that's because he'd thought he was still in it despite flaring his chakra.
Sakura listening with rapt attention "I was being drowned by that point in acid I think, it really did feel like my skin was being ate off, while I was entangled in hair and held down in the acid, pink hair to be precise, the illusion was oddly specific to make the hair pink" Amai grimaced.
Her brows rose "Well I didn't think it would go that far but thank you Amai-san, now I can put together a solid foundation hopefully and tweak it as I go along" Sakura grinned thinking over the limitless possibilities that were literally at her fingertips.
"Yeesh you get any scarier and you'll scare that Shino kid off" Darui teased only to get a senbon thrown at him, "Ouch" he said dully plucking the weapon from his arm and handing it back to her while she pressed a glowing green hand to the spot he'd been hit.
Off to the side Amai watched with interest "And you said that you recently became a fully qualified medic Kid, kami they should have let you become one the moment you started with that amount of talent" the dark skinned male whistled.
Seeing the bright green glow "Now don't get ahead of yourself Darui-san, I've had to train my ass off to achieve even that much for over three months you know" the pinkette huffed, then focused on adding the new petals into her body flicker technique.
"She knows body flicker at her young age what talent, how aren't you already a Chunin" the brunet was in as much awe as his partner was in awe Sakura body flickered around the training grounds, a sweet smell emanating from the cherry blossoms whenever she did.
Indicating that now should she want to Sakura could unleash the worst genjutsu he'd ever been in on anyone at her whim the thought was slightly frightening "Because I want to become a Chunin with my teammates" Sakura announced simply.
Proving to be dedicated to whoever her teammates were "And your little boyfriend so do you think you'll still be with him when your older Kid" Darui teased with a chuckle, watching as her face turned a spectacular shade of red at his teasing.
Before she stuck her tongue out "You keep mentioning a boyfriend Darui, but don't you think you're a little young Sakura-san" Amai creased his brow in concern, was the guy older than the girl, if so he hoped she realized that the guy was just using her.
"Maybe but he's my age and we've been the best of friends since we were six, plus we're taking it slow, really slow actually and yes Darui-san I think we'll still be together when we're older because there's no one else I like more than him" the rosette said.
Training a bit longer until she decided to call it quits for the day as she took note of how the sky was darkening up on her "Mind if we walk you home" the dark skinned male requested seeing her wary expression.
Which made him remember that she was afraid of the dark still from the Uchiha Massacre "Pretty sure Darui that if anyone tried to do anything to Sakura-san, she'd kick them halfway to Sand" the brunet chuckled dryly in amusement.
Missing the wariness because he didn't know what Sakura had been through "True but it's the thought that counts right Kid" Darui commented and she nodded looking just a tiny bit relieved actually as they started from the training grounds.
"Right and anything could happen on the way home, it could even be something that I can't handle on my own" Sakura piped in chattering to the two Cloud Shinobi to keep her mind off the fact that the streets were growing darker yet.
She was just about to pull her chakra powered lava lamp out when a distinct metallic scent wafted into her nose and she gagged "Sakura-san are you alright" Amai became very worried when the girl suddenly started puking.
"Blood I smell blood it's really strong" the pinkette gagged some more fighting off the flash-backs now was no time to panic especially if someone was injured, she took deep breaths plugging her nose before focusing her attention on her surroundings.
And when she pinpointed the direction the smell was emanating from hurried that way, Darui and Amai hot on her heels until they found a very injured person "It's recent the blood is still warm, but he's not breathing and he doesn't have a pulse" the brunet knelt down at the man's side.
Sakura stared in horror down at the person they'd found "Hayate-sensei, he was the proctor for our preliminary round yesterday, why would someone want to….never mind about that, Darui-san how good is your chakra control, we have to start his heart" Sakura took charge.
"Eh it's okay but I hope you aren't suggesting I use a lightning style jutsu on him" the dark skinned shinobi gave her a disturbed look, that might do more harm than good and he wanted to sigh when she nodded.
Though held up her hand before he could complain "Can you focus just a little bit of lightning based chakra in your hand to give him a little shock, on the count of three….Mibojin-sama go to the hospital inform them that Hayate Gekkou is gravely injured" the pinkette instructed, summoning Mibojin and sending him off on an errand.
While Darui on Amai's instruction pressed his hand over Hayate's heart to give him a little shock in hopes of restarting his heart, it took four tries before a shaky badump, badump, badump sounded in her chakra enhanced ears listening for that exact sound.
Darui sat back on his haunches sweat beaded across his brow "I'm glad I'm not a medic that's some hard work, having near perfect chakra control is definitely not my cup of tea" Darui grimaced watching as the two medics worked.
Healing up the giant chest wound while Hayate remained unconscious "Mine either really though I do know the hemostatic jutsu to stop bleeding" Amai admitted just glad that Sakura was there, who proved to have talent beyond what he'd thought, it wasn't on Tsunade's level sure but with a couple more years she'd be near that woman's level.
Fourteen minutes later Ittei and a gaggle of medics came tearing down the streets in their direction "Haruno what's the situation currently" Ittei demanded to know of the young girl, who was pouring all her intent and concentration into healing at that moment.
He had to wait patiently for a couple of seconds until she paused long enough to answer "When we found him, he had no pulse, Darui-san gave him a shock with lightning based chakra to restart his heart, stitches for what we can't heal, he lost a lot of blood as well" Sakura ticked off her fingers.
Relaying what he wanted which was excellent news in his eyes "Run back to the hospital get a IV for a blood transfusion ready, can you do stitches now or do we have to get him back immediately" the purple haired man barked.
Wanting more information "Mibojin will you spare me some of your silk and I'd like to at least have Hayate-sensei conscious before we take him to the hospital, so we can see if anything else needs to be healed, trauma to the brain could have been caused" the pinkette answered honestly.
Ittei stood back watching the youngest qualified medic on his staff work her magic with the help of a medic from Hidden Cloud, finishing healing up what they could of the chest wound before the spider that had come and got them gave his summoner some silk that she'd requested.
Pulling some disinfectant from her pouch and pouring it over the thread before looping it through a needle glad that her patient was unconscious for the time being and started the stitches, one medic moved forward with a rag to wipe her forehead free of sweat and pull her hair back.
Allowing her to see better without the mass of pink hair in her way, when she was done she took a quick sip of water then gave Hayate a jolt with her chakra waking him carefully from his unconscious slumber.
His eyes opened slowly peering around blankly for a moment "Hayate-sensei can you hear me, my name is Sakura Haruno from the preliminary rounds" Sakura asked very slowly having Amai help him to sit up very carefully at the same time and start wrapping bandages around his chest to cover the stitches.
"Sakura…from Team Seven what are you….I was dead wasn't I" Hayate frowned trying to remember before the memories started flowing in of what happened and Sakura nodded in answer to his question.
"Yes Hayate-sensei, lucky for you we found you when we did, Ittei-sama is going to take you to the hospital now do you want me to relay any information to Hokage-sama for you" the pinkette informed him gently speaking in a serious tone at the end.
He shook his head "No I'll do it later when I can think straight" the onyx eyed brunet coughed as the gaggle of medics that had come with the Head Medic shuffled forward to situate him on a stretcher and cart him off to the hospital.
The remaining ninja watched before letting out sighs of relief "Come on Kid let's get you home alright" the dark skinned Cloud Jonin said rising after a tense thirty minutes, the streets were completely dark by now.
And it was clear she didn't want to stick around for any longer than she had to "Yeah good idea" the rosette nodded trying to ignore the smell of blood that lingered in the air, Darui gave her a reassuring smile.
While placing his hand on her shoulder "Are you going to body flicker her home Darui" the brunet that had helped frowned in confusion at his current partner, Darui nodded seriously already knowing the way to her house.
In the next moment he was gone, Amai on his heels feeling where his chakra was located in the village "Thanks Darui-san, Amai-san, goodnight to both of you" Sakura bowed her head then disappeared within the very civilian home.
Her parents weren't happy to say the least until she explained what had happened, eating a late dinner and then taking a shower to wash away the remaining metallic scent before going to bed, Naruto and Sasuke conspicuously absent.
So it was just her at the dining table the following morning "Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun didn't come back yesterday, their sensei's for the final rounds are keeping them out the whole month" Mebuki informed with a huff.
"Oh I see, well it's probably better to have no distractions, plus Naruto's a blabbermouth sometimes and he'd blurt out everything he was learning" Sakura said lightly nibbling on a piece of toast covered in apricot jam.
Kizashi threw his head back with a laugh "To true Sakura-chan, to true, since it's just us though can you tell us what your plan is to defeat your opponent" Kizashi asked curious because who knows what his daughter had come up with.
Emerald orbs lit up in excitement "Genjutsu, I'll probably work on my taijutsu a bit during this month as well, but my finishing move will be with genjutsu, something Dosu will never see coming" the pinkette grinned.
Chattering a mile a minute to her parents the three of them alone for the first time in years "Do you know anything about what your opponent can do" the blonde that was her mother questioned interested to hear more about her daughter's grand plan.
"I do, he can use sound for his jutsu's that messes with the whole body, I'm going to fine tune my chakra control, make a barrier over my internal organs to counter his sound, plus find someone who'd be willing to seal some of his wind jutsu's into an elemental scroll for me" Sakura rambled.
Clearly having come up with a ton of plans to use in case one failed on her, both of her parents blinked before grinning "That's my girl show em who's boss during that final round okay" the pink haired male let out a raucous laugh.
Sakura blushed lightly in response before polishing off the rest of her breakfast, with that she vanished from the house no doubt to train the whole day like she had the day before, even if it wasn't with her designated trainer for the month.
"Figured you'd show up here Kid, so what's on the agenda for today" the dark skinned male that she knew and his partner were already on her training grounds, having been waiting for her probably as she skidded to a halt before them.
She took a deep breath "Stamina and taijutsu type training, I'll be using these weights to enhance my speed" the pinkette explained easily pulling out four twenty five pound weights, then sitting down to put them on.
Before wrapping her special wraps around each of her limbs "Are you going to be able to even stand" the brunet that she'd only met that week actually asked out of concern, but it morphed into shock when she did indeed stand.
Channeling chakra into her arms and legs to make the weights extremely light, it was a good way to fine tune her chakra control as well, then she saluted to the two males and took off, determined to meet her quota for the day.
Darui sighed and perched himself on a rock, while Amai did the same to watch Sakura run the training grounds throughout the morning, they didn't know how many laps she'd run but by the time it was noon she was clearly struggling to keep moving.
Until finally flopping down to rest "At the rate your going Kid your going to pull a muscle or kill yourself" Darui pointed out watching as she popped a chakra restoration pill into her mouth, then reach into the pack that she'd brought for a scroll.
Which was unsealed to reveal a plethora of nonperishable food items, immediately a can of beans was opened with some spooned out to make a burrito, cheese, a tin of sardines with a bag of crackers were cracked open as well, along with a large flask of water.
"Possibly Darui-san but I'll never improve if I take it easy considering I'm the only one from my class that isn't from a clan background, I have to work harder to keep myself at their level" Sakura piped in seriously.
Chowing down on her homemade lunch "How is it you decided to become a Shinobi anyway Sakura-san" Amai joined her on the ground, to his surprise she was in an awfully sharing mood as the food scroll was offered to him.
And he was all to happy to find something to eat as well, Darui following him a moment later in eating lunch with the young girl "I love to read and once I found a book on Lady Tsunade and decided that someday I want to become a kunoichi just like her" the rosette admitted.
Looking sad for a moment and Darui grimaced "Right how is your panda ant colony and that goliath beetle Saidai if I remember doing" he changed the topic hastily not wanting to see that look on her face anymore.
"Panda ant colony, goliath beetle please tell me those aren't what you consider pets Sakura-san" the brunet cringed wondering how on earth the girl had gotten into the habit of keeping insects as pets instead of normal creatures.
She sighed "From the time I was little I've loved insects, my panda ant colony has been successfully relocated though and Saidai's just as lonely as before, still have yet to find him a mate" Sakura added as an afterthought.
Resealing everything that had been chosen once the three of them were done eating and hopped onto her feet again, apparently she was going to keep wearing the weights as she flashed through a set of hand signs and made five clones of solid rock with her earth nature chakra.
Then went about brutally destroying them refining her taijutsu skills all the while "Such a scary girl" Darui shuddered seeing how ruthless she was even against her own clones, then again he had to remember what she'd done on a daily basis for two weeks.
Helped both Naruto and Sasuke, plus Shino and work on her own things "Indeed where do you suppose she gets it from" Amai flinched as Sakura punched her fist through one of her clones heads with fatal force.
No doubt channeling chakra into her attacks as well it was a frightening display to watch, Darui shook his head clearly not knowing how to answer, instead kept his gaze focused on Sakura until she was sufficiently exhausted.
When it was nearing 5:00 she called it quits, pushing herself past her normal limits, only then did the weights get peeled off and once they were sealed away in a scroll, Sakura saluted to them and body flickered home.
The following day it was back to training with Kurenai, who was put through a slightly more solid genjutsu "Nice just keep working on it and I'll see you next week on Tuesday Sakura-san" Kurenai told her when their training session ended.
"Roger that Kurenai-sensei" Sakura smiled waving the woman off before marching her way to her own team's training grounds for some more genjutsu training, Amai was the victim yet again, braver than Darui.
Who she coerced into sealing two of his wind jutsu into her elemental scrolls "Just be careful with those" the dark skinned man grumbled to Amai's amusement when he did finally break free of the genjutsu, cringing at the illusion of being strangled and held down in acid.
"I don't think you really have to worry Darui" the brunet chuckled watching as she worked on her body flicker technique, appearing in a larger flurry of cherry blossoms than usual, though it didn't completely cover her to her apparent frustration.
Traipsing off hours later only to return to the stamina/taijutsu training of the day before, which was kept up all the way to the following Tuesday "Looks like you've really improved with that, before it was just random, now it's more solid" Kurenai admitted.
Freaked out just a little at the illusion, it seemed to get more real each time she was put through "You don't think I'm going over board on it do you Kurenai-sensei" the rosette frowned wondering if it was enough and she should stop.
"Not at all Sakura-san, there's always room to improve, even when the jutsu seems perfect, don't assume that you can't make it better" the raven haired woman stated lecturing the young girl with a kind smile.
Sakura was very serious about her work and she didn't want the girl to think that she couldn't keep working on her genjutsu improving it even more "Got it Kurenai-sensei and thanks" Sakura nodded watching the woman body flicker off.
Before she hurried to her conduct her own training yet again, refining her illusion a little more, Darui being the tester this time since Amai was otherwise busy that day, only to vow afterwards to never go through it again.
"Make sure to remind me to never get on your bad side alright Kid" Darui grimaced feeling his skin crawling from the aftereffects of the genjutsu, he didn't know how Amai could even stand being put through it at all.
"If it counts for anything I am sorry" the fuscia haired preteen smiled sheepishly then turned and began storing the illusion into the seals on her cherry blossoms, nearly all the way through Amai meandered onto the field.
And she turned to him "Will you let me test and see if my genjutsu will work in conjunction with my body flicker on you Amai-san" Sakura requested politely, while Darui stood clear out of the way, Amai merely smiled.
Relenting to her request "Of course Sakura-san" Amai smiled, standing where she positioned him, then body flickered in a great flurry of cherry blossoms, a sweet smell emanated from them and suddenly he found himself neck deep in her genjutsu.
It started off normally enough like usual, being attacked, there was no strangulation this time and Sakura didn't fade away as she normally did, instead her hair became a living banner, tendrils of locks reaching out to wrap around him.
Holding him down as the ground sunk in beneath him, he could literally feel as acid ate through his clothes to his skin, eating it away painfully little by little and when he least expected it the illusion changed.
No longer was it Sakura holding him down as a very familiar voice echoed in his ears of his Kage, calling him everything that he always feared he'd be called, then the finale as he was pulled from the acid and the illusion Ay slammed two fingers charged with chakra into his heart.
Only then did he snap free of the genjutsu with a jerk and a flare of chakra, damn he'd nearly forgotten it was a genjutsu again "Mind if I ask how you managed to make the acid in the illusion feel real" the brunet panted hands on his knee's.
Sweat dripping from his face at the nightmarish illusion he'd just faced it was clear this particular run of it had really gotten to him "Picked up an acidic slug on accident once, remembered the feeling of it and incorporated that into my illusion" the rosette told him.
"Like I said a few days ago you are a very scary kid, Kid" the white haired Cloud Shinobi shuddered at the answer, glad when she moved on to working on other things until vanishing on them again most likely to go home.
And the next day brought something new as she switched up her stamina training to add evasion training into the mix as well, every Tuesday and Thursday Sakura showed up late to work on her genjutsu on those days only.
Until an entire month passed them by and it was finally time for the Final Rounds "We'll be in the crowd Sakura-chan" Mebuki told her daughter as she checked her pack one last time to make sure she had everything ready.
"Good luck kick your opponents as and make your old man proud" Kizashi pat her on the shoulder on their way out the door, Sakura blew out a breath, steeling her nerves, then body flickered to the arena to commence with the final rounds.