Author's note: Something strange keeps happening with the formatting, so if you spot any omitted spaces or things like that, please feel free to let me know so I can fix them.

Previously:

Neji Hyūga observed the scene playing out below from his perch in the tree beside Tenten. 'That chakra was abnormal… Is the Uchiha clan that strong…?' he wondered, furrowing his brow.

Sasuke was holding the wrist of his trembling left hand, staring at it with wide eyes. "What happened to..." What happened to all of that strength he felt earlier? "What am I..."

'Sasuke-kun...' Sakura thought, concerned.

'Sakura… Sasuke...' April thought, still concerned, as her eyes fluttered closed, unable to keep them open a second longer now that the immediate danger had passed.

Shikamaru and Chōji stood over April and Naruto. Even after passing out, her brow was still furrowed slightly with worry for her teammates and from her own discomfort, while the sleeping idiot had a silly grin on his dumb face.

'I'll protect Sakura-chan...' Naruto thought while he dreamed, blissfully unaware of all of the trouble the others had experienced, and they danger they were all in.

'It sucks that she passed out again, but I guess it can't be helped...' Shikamaru thought with a frown. He didn't know what happened to them before they encountered the sound ninjas, but it was obvious that April had been through a lot. She looked so pale and weak, he had to lean down and check to make sure she was still breathing and had a pulse. It was amazing she could fight in that condition. "What should we do with him?" he asked aloud, glancing at Naruto, who looked annoyingly healthy in comparison, apart from some minor scratches. "Kick him awake?"

"Can I do it?" Chōji asked. He still owed Naruto for the last time he stole one of his chips without asking.

Chapter 54: Aftermath…!!

Naruto stood protectively in front of an injured Sakura and an unconscious April. Sasuke had already been knocked out. It was just him and the charging grass ninja. Naruto's eyes widened in alarm as the enemy thrust his kunai at him…

THUNK!

Shikamaru noted the resulting sound was strangely hollow when Chōji hit the village idiot on the head with a stick to wake him up.

"GYAAAAAA!!!" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs, bolting upright at the rude awakening, holding his head in his hands like a copy of The Scream. "Ah!" he said when he spotted the still unconscious April lying next to him. "!" Naruto gasped, relieved that she was still alive, but startled when he saw that she somehow seemed even more battered than the last time he saw her and remembered the fight they had been in the middle of before he woke up there. He quickly started looking around for the enemy. "!" He noticed Sasuke and Sakura next and was alarmed by how beat up she looked. "…!" He was even more surprised to see a vaguely familiar injured ninja in a green jumpsuit there, too. Especially since he was wounded and leaning against Ino for support. 'Where is he?!!' Naruto thought, growing more worried when he couldn't find that dangerous grass ninja right away. "Everyone hide!!! No, get down now!!!" he shouted abruptly, dropping to the dirt on his stomach beside April, turning his head in every direction. "Where did that guy go?!"

"!" Sakura and Sasuke said, turning their heads to look at him when they heard he was awake.

"Naruto..." she said, a little surprised to hear his energetic voice after everything that had happened. The events of the previous evening suddenly felt like they had been ages ago. 'April...' she thought, her expression softening as she frowned with concern, noticing that the older girl had passed out again after pushing herself to the limit for them despite her precarious condition. Sakura quickly wiped away the fresh tears threatening to form in her eyes. 'She really… she really came through for us!' If April hadn't intervened when she did, then they would all be dead right now. They would have died before Sasuke had a chance to wake up and save them.

'That idiot is finally awake…!' Ino thought with a frown, a little disgruntled that he had managed to sleep through everything. He should learn from April. Ino didn't know what was wrong with her, but whatever it was, she hadn't let that stop her from saving them. Unlike a certain halfwit, who apparently couldn't tell dreams from reality.

TNK.

"!!" Naruto flinched when Chōji tapped the bump on his head with the stick to get his attention.

TNK. TNK.

"..." Naruto said, chagrined at the way Chōji kept poking him with it.

"You sure are one of a kind..." Shikamaru told the hyper halfwit sardonically, chagrined at his stupid behavior.

"Ha?" Naruto said indignantly, scowling up at them. First they hit him, and now they were giving him attitude!?

"… Just looking at you gets on my nerves..." Shikamaru added, starting to get fed up.

"Huh?" Naruto said, looking around again when he suddenly remembered seeing something extra odd during his earlier scan. "Oh! Sakura-chan!!!!" he exclaimed, shocked when he spotted the frayed ends of her abnormally short hair. Of course, he was very worried about Sakura and April's injuries, but for someone to cut a girl's hair…!! He didn't understand why, but he knew that Sakura's hair had been very important to her! He lurched to his feet and ran over to comfort her. "Sakura-chan… you hair…!!"

"Oh! You mean this..." Sakura said, reaching up to touch the short ends with a sad smile. With everything going on, she had almost forgotten about it. "Just trying to change my image!" she said, forcing a brighter smile on her face so he wouldn't worry. "It's an image change!"

"..." Sasuke and Ino frowned. He hadn't been awake to see it happen, but he knew that wasn't it. To the two of them, it was painfully obvious that Sakura was hiding her true feelings about how upset she was over the loss of her beautiful hair.

"I like it longer, but… you know, in this forest, it can get in the way," Sakura continued for Naruto's benefit.

"Ahhh… I see," Naruto said, squinting a little. Something didn't seem quite right, but if Sakura didn't want to talk about it… "Ah!!! That's right!!!" he exclaimed suddenly, jumping to his feet to run back over to April. "What about April?? Is the seal still hurting her!? Is she going to be okay!?" he demanded anxiously, starting to panic when she showed no reaction to him poking her with his finger. April hated being woken up. Normally, she would throw out at least one hand chop or a punch!

"Geez… You're all over the place...' Shikamaru remarked, sweat-dropping. "She's nearly dead with fatigue, but she'll definitely live." Even if he didn't know the cause, it was obvious that she was suffering from a serious case of enervation, but a few days of solid rest should fix it. She would be alright if they could avoid being attacked again in the meantime.

"The seal stopped glowing a while ago, so… I'm sure she'll recover as long as we let her rest," Sakura added with another brave smile to comfort him.

"I guess so..." Naruto said with a frown, remembering the threat the grass ninja made about how the exam's seal might kill her. He shook his head. 'No way!! April's too tough to die!!!' he reassured himself firmly with a nod. There was no way she would let some stupid seal kill her!

"..." Sasuke and Sakura furrowed their brows with concern, still worried. The knew April well enough to know that she wasn't the type to die from something like this, but it wasn't an ordinary case of fatigue, and Orochimaru's ominous warning about the heavy consequences of pushing the seal was still fresh in their minds, too.

"By the way..." Naruto said, glancing up at Chōji and Shikamaru. "Why are you guys here?"

"Man…" Shikamaru said with a sigh. He couldn't believe it took him that long to ask. "Explaining to you is a waste of my time."

"Everyone came to save us," Sakura told him, immensely grateful.

"..." Ino smiled ruefully while she watched her. 'Sakura's hiding her feelings again...' she thought, feeling strangely proud this time. That toughness wasn't just an act anymore. "!" she said when the girl from Lee's team jumped down from her tree to land right in front of her.

"I'll take it from here," Tenten told her.

"Ah… Okay," Ino said, handing him over. He was her teammate, after all.

Tenten clamped both of her hands firmly on the unconscious boy's shoulders. "SNAP OUT OF IT!! LEE!!!" she shouted as loud as she could, shaking him violently.

"Uu… u..." poor Lee groaned miserably.

Ino sweat-dropped at the rough display of tough love. After everything he had been through, wouldn't it be better to be a little more gentle with him?

"Nnn… Tenten, why are you here?" Lee asked groggily, sinking to his knees as he regained consciousness, still feeling a little dazed and disoriented from the damage done to his ear.

"We came to save you!!" she told him, squatting down to talk to him on his level.

"Huh?" he said, looking around. "Where are the sound ninjas?"

"That Sasuke kid drove them off," Tenten replied.

"… I see..." Lee said, glancing over at him and the rest of Sakura's group.

"Why did you break the plan and act alone? Plus, you're all beaten up!" Tenten scolded him.

Lee looked down, feeling disappointed himself. "Sakura-san was in trouble… and as a man..." He didn't regret coming to her aid, but he was sorry that he couldn't have been of more use.

"!" Tenten furrowed her brow and frowned. 'If he was alone, Lee would never lose to those guys!!' she thought, upset on his behalf. "You're such an idiot!!" she scolded him again.

"Haha… I can't argue with you there..." he agreed weakly, hugging his knees. It probably would have been better if he had brought Neji and Tenten with him from the start.

"Ohh!!!" Naruto exclaimed rather obnoxiously when he suddenly recognized Lee and noticed he was awake, running over to point his finger at him. "It's Bushy-Brows!!!"

"!" Lee said, taken aback.

BAMM!

"How dare you be rude to Lee-san!!!!" Sakura screamed furiously at her clueless teammate, sending Naruto flying with a brutal punch that made him bite his tongue.

"UGGH!!!" Naruto cried as he soared through the air with blood trailing from his mouth, completely shocked by her ferocious reaction. He grunted in pain when he hit the ground and slid to a stop. 'What the hell…? What happened while I was asleep…?' he wondered, bewildered by the bizarre turn of events. Last time they met Lee, Sakura had been absolutely grossed out by him!

"He is totally clueless," Shikamaru commented. He had never seen someone fail harder at reading the atmosphere.

"He's the type that could never become the main character of a story," Chōji agreed.

Sakura straightened up and turned to face Lee properly. "Lee-san… Thank you..." she said sincerely, deeply grateful to him.

"!" Lee looked up at her, surprised.

"Thanks to you, I have awakened," Sakura continued with a genuine smile. "I feel like I've become a little stronger."

'… Sakura-san...' Lee thought, tearing up, so deeply touched that his whole body trembled from the effort of holding back the flood of emotions he felt. He reached up and wiped his eyes. "It looks like I need to work harder..." He raised his head again to look at Sasuke, who had gotten up to stand beside her. "Sasuke-kun," he said.

"!" Sasuke said, giving him his attention, since it seemed he had helped Sakura and the others.

"The Uchiha clan sure is great," Lee told him, bowing his head. "To drive off those sound ninjas, you are the owner of incredible powers. I was beaten to a pulp."

'What!?' Sasuke thought, shocked. 'He was beaten…!?' A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. It was obvious that Lee had been injured, but he hadn't realized it was that bad. 'What's going on? They were that strong?' He had assumed they were able to defeat April because she was still weak from the seal attacking her, but for them to beat someone as strong as Lee…

"Sakura-san..." Lee called.

"!" Sakura turned her attention back to him.

"The lotus of Konoha blooms twice..." he said.

"?" Sakura said, wondering what that meant.

He gave her a tired, lopsided smile. "The next time we meet, I will be a stronger man…" he stated with determination. "I promise."

"..." Tenten frowned.

"..." Sakura stared at him in amazement and smiled. "Yeah!" She had been worried, but it looked like Lee-san would be alright. He was strong in more ways than one.

"..." Naruto pouted while he lay on ground, resting his head in his hand. He wished April was awake to explain all of this for him.

"Hey, Sakura!! Over here!!" Ino called, deciding it was a good time to interrupt, since there seemed to be a lull in the conversation.

"!?" Sakura said curiously, glancing in her direction.

"I'll straighten out your hair!" Ino offered. She couldn't let a fellow girl walk around like that after it the guts it took to do that.

Sakura was a little surprised, but she smiled, determined to embrace the new version of herself that she had discovered. "Please do."

The two kunoichis moved away from the others a little. Sakura kneeled and sat back on her heels, while Ino stood behind her to cut her hair.

"You are so dirty!!" Ino said angrily though gritted teeth while she worked to even out the ends. "Hugging him like that, you little billboard brow..."

Sakura smiled and then smirked deviously at her. "They say the first attack is the most important one! Ino-pig-chan!"

'Uchiha…Sasuke...' Neji thought with his brow furrowed, still watching everyone from his tree. 'He seems to be a formidable enemy...' He frowned when his eyes landed on April again. 'And that girl...' he thought, turning his attention to the outsider. When he activated his Byakugan before,he got a good glimpse of her chakra network. Something wasn't right there, either. In addition to the seal, her chakra was being absorbed by another source. There was something like an extra organ linked to her chakra pathway system, shaped like a thin tube about four inches long, that was located at the junction of her small intestine and large intestine, sitting in her lower right abdomen. As the seal tried to draw out her chakra, this extra organ countered by splitting and reabsorbing a portion of the stolen chakra before it could reach the seal, and then converted the majority of it back to its basic elements of physical and spiritual energy. It appeared to be an involuntary response. No matter how much chakra was produced, this organ would always reabsorb a large percentage of it within seconds of its molding. The result was that a relatively steady level of vital energy was maintained to prevent organ failure at the expense of her stamina. He had never seen anything like it before. 'If she didn't have that strange physiology…' he thought, narrowing his eyes as he recalled how massive her chakra reserves appeared to be, taking into account the incredible amount that the seal had already gathered and sectioned off from her. 'If not for that handicap, then that girl would be a monster.' He smiled ruefully. Fate was really cruel. Although the extra organ appeared to have saved her on this occasion, in every day life, it would be nothing short of a nuisance. She could have had a lot of potential, but with that body, she had probably already reached the end of her limited ability to grow as ninja.

A few hours later, two Anbu agents wearing masks that resembled cat faces were leaping from tree to tree, following the Hokage's orders to locate and confirm Team 7's whereabouts and level of vitality. They were worried about what they would find.

'If I remember correctly, this is Kakashi-sempai's team...' the male ninja in the cat mask covered with intricate green and red markings thought, frowning with concern. 'I hope we'll be able to give him some good news...' The odds seemed against it, though, given who they were dealing with.

"Found them!" the kunoichi in the cat mask with three red stripes said when she spotted a group of four genins matching each member's description.

"!" the male ninja said, stopping alongside her to follow her gaze to the left and down. She was right. A short, blond boy was carrying an unconscious purple-haired girl on his back, and a taller boy with dark hair, wearing the Uchiha clan's crest on the back of his shirt, was walking beside a pink-haired girl. Naruto Uzumaki, April Starr, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno were all present and accounted for. Sasuke and Sakura seemed to have more trouble moving than the Naruto, but they were at least able to walk on their own. From their height and angle, he could see Orochimaru's cursed seal on Sasuke Uchiha's neck. They were all, naturally, a little worse for wear, but the fact that every single one of them had managed to stay alive was nothing short of a miracle. Even more astonishing, was the fact that Sasuke was already able to get up and move around with that seal.

"Amazing… The only one who appears to be in a serious condition is the outsider…" the kunoichi said, stunned, not counting bruises or other superficial wounds.

'But, judging by her appearance… It looks as though she's suffering from the effects of the exam's seal...' the male ninja thought, frowning. It seemed the most obvious explanation for how she came to be in such a terrible condition, despite only bearing some faint bruises and shallow scratches. It was easy to imagine the desperate situation they must have found themselves in after being cornered by someone like Orochimaru. Provoking the seal was a mistake, but he couldn't say he blamed her for trying in that situation. "We've seen enough, let's go," he told his partner. There was nothing more for them to do there now that they had confirmed the team's safety. The Hokage's orders were not to intervene, unless they were found under extreme circumstances outside the original parameters of the exam, such as being on the verge of death due to Orochimaru's actions against them. And, while the outsider was certainly in a very weakened state, her life did not appear to actually be in danger. Nor did Sasuke Uchiha's.

"!" Sasuke looked up in their direction when he thought he saw movement out the corner of his eye, but they were already gone by the time he finished turning his head. "..." He furrowed his brow and frowned. They had only just parted with Team 10 and Lee's team to find a new shelter where they could rest in safety. He would hate to have to fight off another enemy team in their current condition. He glanced at April. He wanted her to recover as soon as possible, but part of him dreaded finding out how she viewed him after he attacked her before in his misguided attempt to force her to hand over their Heaven Scroll. Thanks to her refusing to listen to him, they now had both. All they had to do now, was rest and recover their strength for the rest of the journey to the tower.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the way Sasuke kept glancing in his direction. "What are you looking at?" he asked, getting annoyed.

"Not your stupid face," Sasuke retorted coolly.

"Why, you…!!" Naruto growled, losing his balance when he tried to lean closer to the jerk to get in his even stupider face. "Wah!" he gasped as he stumbled into Sasuke, taking him down with him.

"You moron!!" Sasuke scolded him with a scowl, especially irritated since he was tried, and his whole body was already sore.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Sakura demanded angrily, giving Naruto a wack on the head for making the still unconscious April fall, too. "You have to be gentler with her!!!"

"Oww!!" Naruto exclaimed, grabbing his sore noggin to protect it in case another blow was coming. He felt guilty about dropping her, but he was amazed April had slept through it. "It's not my fault!! Damn it, Sasuke!!!"