Sabella drummed her heels on the edge of the mattress. She couldn't deny the anxiety that bubbled up under her heart as Hinata stared at her intently, her lavender eyes transfixed on something that Sabella herself could not see. She tried not to move around too much, but she was failing horribly.

With her nerves running high and her heart sinking and rising in turn she thought she might throw up.

"Well?" she asked at last, looking at the other girl. Hiashi, of all people, stood in the corner watching. Sabella could barely believe she had managed to spin this into a weird 'training opportunity' for Hinata, Hiashi and Hanabi, who was squinting at her with her own white eyes narrowed in tight concentration.

"What Neji said is right. Your chakra pathways… I didn't even know this was possible."

"They're so big," Hanabi leaned closer to her, childlike curiosity over taking her small features.

Sabella shifted uncomfortably. She wasn't sure how she felt about them looking at her like she was a particularly interesting thing to study.

"So, what do I do about it?" she asked, rubbing her arm. "I don't really want to die, thanks all the same."

"No, I would imagine not," Hiashi said, and if it were anyone else Sabella might have mistaken it for a joke. She looked up at him, his hard face all but impassive. Still, there was something in his pale eyes that made her feel a little more at ease. She felt like she should hate him but… she didn't. Even with the shit he pulled with Hinata and her kind heart.

"We will look into it," he went on, "There may be cases of such a thing happening in the past. Until then, you might discharge chakra, and ease the strain on your body. Performing small, simply jutsu should work."

Sabella felt bad shaking her head. "I can't. Whenever I try to use chakra, it rips my skin apart."

Hanabi jerked upright, startled.

"Or, the skin just falls off I guess," she clarified. "Either way, I don't think I can do that."

Hiashi looked down at her. "You'll have to work out a way to use some up, until we can find a better solution. On top of that… your chakra itself is unbalanced."

Sabella wasn't even remotely surprised by that. After all, she was a soul in the wrong body. It did bring up the question of where Sakura was. Had she been pushed out? Or squashed down? Had Sabella's survival promised Sakura's death? Or was she merely a part of her now? If so, why didn't she have memories?

Sabella decided she didn't want to think about that, and chose, instead, to sit up straight and nod abruptly.

"Okay," she said, "I'll figure it out."

She had no goddamn clue how, but she would. And, she now had Hiashi helping her, which was probably the most surprising thing that had happened since she had shown up in this crazy world. She had always thought he was a cold, callause man, but now she wasn't't so sure. He was a person, a poor father but a person still and people were flawed and, Sabella was blessed with the knowledge that he would turn into a more decent person soon enough. Neji too.

They were still dicks.

Very contrary to Hinata and Hanabi, who were truly adorable girls, innocent and pure.

Cinnamon rolls.

"Okay," Sabella stood and bowed to Hiashi politely. "Thanks for your help. I've got to get going now though. Kakashi has a test for us tomorrow, and I need to prepare myself."

"Yes, you do, if you're being tested by him," Hiashi agreed. Sabella took her leave, hugging Hinata and Hanabi on her way out, despite the disapproving grunt that Hiashi made behind her. People were weird. She didn't know that she totally understood humans.

Honestly, who designed them? Their backs were an architectural travesty, they could survive being impaled in the head but died being stuck by an insects butt spike. Nailed it or failed it, that was them. Sabella stared down at her hands, smooth skin that was steadily growing more calloused from work. Scars laced across her knuckles, shallow and sure to fade with age. The skin was still different around the wrists, a jagged line that reminded her of just how painful it was to try and perform any type of jutsu. The chakra had burst forth, destroying her skin entirely.

"I'll figure it out. "

That was starting to sound like a lie.

"Sooo," Sabella drawled, leaning against the tree. "What do you wanna do until he gets here?"

"Nothing," Sasuke said frankly.

"Let's play a game," Naruto plopped closer to her.

"Sure," Sabella smiled brightly at him. "First to five?" she offered, standing up and dancing around him.

"That's fine with me," he agreed, jumping up with her. Sasuke merely watched them out of the corner of his eye, pretending her was too good for them. Sabella didn't fight him. He wouldn't play with them anyhow, boring boy. He didn't want friends. He was going to get them, even if he didn't want the, but not just yet.

"So where were you wednesday?" she asked conversationally, bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet. Ninja shoes were awesome, the most comfortable things she'd ever worn in her life.

Naruto threw the first strike, open palmed, at her face. Sabella side stepped quickly, staying light on her feet. He didn't quite look at her, which was strange. Naruto was always so happy to have attention paid to him.

Suspicious.

"Oh, you know," he said vaugely. He knocked a swipe Sabella took at him quickly and they moved against eachother, hand and hand, blow for blow, steadily picking up pace.

Naruto finally smacked her stomach, and Sabella took advantage of his lowered arm to box his ears.

"One one," she said lightly, eyeing him. Naruto also liked to overshare like no tomorrow. Vague wasn't his style. He was up to something on wednesday, she was sure of it. The question was, what was it?

Naruto used her distraction to bop her in the head. "One two!"

Sabella ducked under him, sudden and fast, and hit him once in the stomach and spun sideways to hit his side.

"Three two!"

Naruto swung around, huffing, and threw himself at her. Sabelle stepped to the side and smacked his shoulder.

"Four two!"

Naruto spun on his heel and attacked. Sabella barely blocked him, knocking his hands this way and that as Naruto took it up a notch. He moved faster, hitting harder, and Sabella had to push herself to keep up. Sakura was a natural fighter, and though she hadn't been focusing on her physical abilities until Sabella was hanging around, she was getting good fast. She had to, if she was going to keep up with Lee, the psycho. She was better than Naruto most days, but every now and again he could still surprise her.

In the end, Naruto won with a come back, five to three. They played their game twelve more times, with Naruto winning only two of them before Kakashi finally appeared alongside them in the tall grass of the training grounds. It ruffled lightly in the winds, beaten down in some places and growing strong in others.

"Good morning," Sabella sang cheerfully towards Kakashi. He lifted his hand at her.

"Yo."

"You're late!" Naruto howled, pointing an accusatory finger at him. There was a grass stain already on his pants, and his cheek was scratched but already healing. Sabella was jealous. She wanted a crazy awesome healing quirk and a cute fox!

Cute, but angry, which fit Sasuke to a T.

Sabella giggled at her own joke, ignoring the incredulous look that landed her from Sasuke.

"Are you insane?" he asked, prompting her to lift her shoulders.

"I dunno dude, probably. I'm trying to be a shinobi when I can't use chakra so… yeah, probably," she nodded to herself.

"If you're done chatting?" Kakashi asked dryly. Sabella mocked him a snappy salute.

"Sir yes sir!"

Kakashi heaved a sigh at her. "Anyways. The reason you're all here today," he reached into his pocket and produced two bells. Sabella listened with half and ear as he explained the test, the consiquences, and the chances of them passing. She didn't both pretending to be afraid. She knew how this would end. When Naruto tried to lung for him, Sabella caught him around the middle.

"He hasn't started yet. Hold up," she scolded lightly. Naruto pouted and leaned into her shoulder, but he held off on attacking. Kakashi eyed the pair of them. Sabella smiled sweetly at him. She turned her face and whispered quietly to Naruto her brief hummed but nodded in agreement.

"Start," Kakashi finally said. 'Sakura' reached out and caught Sasuke's hand before he could run. Naruto smacked a hand sign in front of him and the trio disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sabella stumbled a little when they landed, and did not let go of Sasuke when he tried to yank his arm away from her.

"Hey, what are you-!"

"Shush," Sabella hissed. "Listen. We're gonna have to work together for this."

Sasuke scoffed but lowered his voice. "You're an idiot. You heard him, only two people will pass."

"Yeah, two out of three are good odds. And besides, he's two ranks above us, if not more. That means there needs to be at least three of us to try and beat him, or even touch the bells. If we get them we can figure out who keeps them later. But if we don't work together, no one gets jack shit," she said quickly, keeping her voice low. She was still pretty sure Kakashi could hear them, but it was good enough. And the whole issue of passing was in now turning on one another. Not that the boys needed to know that.

"I agree with Sakura," Naruto announced.

Sasuke scoffed and yanked his hand away from her. "I don't need help from the two of you," he snapped.

Sabella sighed in despair and shrugged at last.

"Whatever you say dude. We'll see you after you get your ass kicked."

Sasuke scowled at her and Sabella mocked his with a different sort of salute than she'd given Kakashi. Naruto snickered at her and the pair huddled together, planning quietly. Sabella was by far the best at taijutsu, Sasuke was the best at ninjutsu. Naruto still struggled with most things,but he was considerably better than he had been in the original show. Hinata had helped him, and so had Ino, and he'd been disappearing off to who knew where a couple times a week. He could do all the academy basics, transformations, substitution and clones too. Not shadow clones, just illusions, but still.

It would be useful. He could make a whole lot of them. That was where most of his plan lay. Naruto was the brains behind the operation, coming up with a plan on the fly. He was clever, his trickster nature shining through when she prodded it.

They crept in the shadows, waiting while they were pressed up against each other, watching Kakashi engage Sasuke. The pair of them bided their time, until Sasuke shot out a massive fireball at a startled Kakashi.

"Now," he hissed. Sabella tensed, lifting her hands into fists.

Naruto threw his hands together into the hand signs. An army of clones erupted around them, spreading across the grass. Sabella stared at him in shock, her mouth partially open.

Naruto scratched the back of his neck. "It's easier to make a bunch of them," he admitted sheepishly.

"You're so weird, doll," she accused, not even bothering to hide the fondness in her. Naruto turned pink and laughed awkwardly. Sabella left him there, rushing forwards with his clones. They weren't shadow clones, just illusions. He'd never learned shadow clones, he had no idea what he was.

That was probably a bad thing.

Sabella jumped to punch Kakashi in the face.

He caught her wrist and tossed her easily over his shoulder but she was no so easily deterred. She landed on her feet and went back at him, kicks, punches, all of which he blocked with a frustrating amount of ease. Sabella didn't let up, trying to search for an opening.

There were… a lot of them. A lot of them and each one was a trap for her. Sasuke, at some point, gave up going solo and joined her and the whole while Naruto kept sending his illusionary clones at him. Sabella made eye contact with Sasuke and mimed blowing through her fingers behind Kakashi's back.

He cottoned on to their plan quickly and spat out another massive fireball. Kakashi moved to the right, Sabella went left, and an army of Naruto's attacked. None of them made real contact.

A puff of smoke and the real Naruto hit Kakashi in the side before he was chucked to the side. A pair of silver bells glinted in the air. Kakashi caught them before Sabella could swoop in and steal them from the air and jumped back a few steps.

"Close, but not close enough," he said cheerfully. His dark eyes shone with a sort of amusement and Sabella tried to remember if anyone else had worked together or gotten so close. She didn't think so.

Sabella went in after him, unrelenting, in the hopes that he didn't notice what they'd done. Sasuke, who didn't know the plan at all, went with her, aiming for the bells once more tied to Kakashi's hip.

Finally Sabella broke off, grabbing Sasuke and sprinting away. She lead him on a squick chase through the forest, doing her best to lose Kakashi. She was very sure that she didn't succeed, and he was only letting her run off because he was being kind.

The trio huddled under a tree, Sasuke forcefully stuffed between the pair of them.

"Did you get them?" Sabella asked, her eyes alight. Sasuke looked between the pair of them, his mouth opening in a question.

Naruto beat him to it by holding up his hand, opening his fingers and revealing a pair of small silver bells. Sasuke's mouth fell open.

"When did you get those?!"

"When you and I were distracting him, Naruto transformed two rocks into bells. He swapped himself out for the real ones, left Kakashi with the fakes and ran off to get the real ones while we played red herring."

"You thought of that?" Sasuke looked at her, a hint of admiration to his voice.

"Me? Hell no. Naruto thought it up," she pointed to the boy, who laughed sheepishly. That threw Sasuke. She could see him tense and sit straighter, looking at Naruto in a strange new light.

"So, we have the bells," Sasuke said finally. "Why get's to keep them?"

"Sasuke can have one," Sabella said swiftly. "And Naruto the other."

"What? But then you won't get one!" Naruto argued. "You take one!" He shoved it into her hands.

"If you give me on and you keep one I'll just give it to Sasuke," she said firmly. She shoved the bell at Sasuke before crossing her arms stubbornly.

"Then you give that one to Sasuke and I'll give you mine!" he threw the other bell at her.

"I'll just give it back to you." She pushed it back.

"I won't take it, you said you'd keep trying to be a shinobi, you promised!" Naruto insisted, shoving it into her hands. His jaw was set and his bright eyes were narrowed.

"Yeah but it's your dream, so you keep that bell and Sasuke keeps mine." She pushed it back into his hands.

"I'm not taking it!" Naruto foced it back in her fingers. "I'll get my dream any way!"

"Just take the bell!" Sasuke finally punched Naruto in the side, dropping the bell into his lap.

They both stared at him. Sasuke didn't say anything more, looked stubbornly off to the side with the smallest color on his cheeks.

Sabella wordlessly handed the bell in her hand out towards him. Naruto squawked and tried to force his bell on her until they dissolve into a wrestling match on the ground, kicking up dust and absolutely giving their position away.

Someone much taller than the three of them cleared their throat above them and the trio froze. Sabella was pulling Sasuke's hair, Naruto had his foot in her chin, Sasuke was wrenching Naruto's arm around him. Kakashi looked down upon them, a strange look in his eyes, a furrow to his brows.

"Um," Sabella said eloquently.

Kakashi looked from one of them to the other. Finally, his single visible eye crinkled with a strange sort of mirth and pride.

"Congratulations," he said. "You all pass."