So… My friend is forcing me to do this. Mendokusai…

Shikamaru: Troublesome woman…

Me: Mendokusai…

Shikamaru: …

Me: …

Okay, then… Enjoy!

- - -

Sasuke got up in the middle of the night to check on the girls – he'd become worried and uneasy with the lack of noise. Didn't they make any sounds when they slept?

A sudden movement in the dark startled him; he threw a kunai at it without thinking. There was the usual sound of a kunai speeding through the air – until it was abruptly silenced. There was a sigh, and Sakura appeared eerily before him.

"I'm keeping watch," she muttered. "Relax a little." Trust me. I'm not the weak little girl you used to scorn. Still he hesitated.

Do you distrust me that much? Sakura thought sadly. You do not know the full extent of my power.

Itachi trusts us… Inner Sakura's thought popped up unexpectedly. At least one Uchiha knows what we're worth.

Yeah…

Finally the raven-haired teen went back to his tent.

The Next Morning – 5:00 am

"Ino." It was barely a whisper, but the blond kunoichi heard it all the same; she and Sakura slipped down to the stream and washed their faces.

Once they were clean, Sakura looked at Ino. "Did you notice…?" Ino nodded almost unnoticeably.

"I'll lure them out; you take care of them. How many?"

Sakura's gaze settled on her friend's face, an eyebrow raised. Ino sighed.

"Right, right. Use my senses… Aren't you the little sensei's pet? Ten – no, eleven of them," she counted slowly with her eyes closed.

"Aa."

"I swear, Sakura. You sound more and more like him every day." The aquamarine-eyed girl stood and walked out to the middle of the stream (on top of the water), humming to herself and seemingly oblivious to the world around her. Sakura withdrew to the shadows. Eleven shapes drew closer to Ino.

- - -

Kakashi sat up in his blankets. He'd sensed enemy presences; the two girls might be in danger! Rushing outside, he took in the empty "beds" and followed the chakra patterns to the stream. He arrived in time to hear Sakura say, "You call that tracking? Ha! What I call tracking is when you have to tell your target that you're there!"

He stepped into the faint sunlight and froze. Ten corpses lay, littered around Ino, each with a senbon sticking out of his neck. One man stood, panting, trapped by Sakura, who held his arms pinioned behind his back.

Ino quickly burned the dead shinobi, leaving only ash and a faint wisp of smoke. Suddenly, the captive swung his foot back – driving a hidden blade deep into Sakura's foot. She disappeared in a puff of smoke, only to reveal another Sakura, still holding him.

"That would hurt," she remarked casually, as if talking about the weather. "I might have needed that leg, you know."

"How about your head? Do you need your head?" he snarled as he appeared from behind her. He swung his knife and lopped off her head. "During the puff of smoke, I switched places with a clone." The clones had disappeared – both of them.

"And I followed your every movement," Sakura called from her perch on the highest branch of a tree. While he was busy gaping at Sakura, Ino produced a coil of chakra-enhanced rope and bound the nin's hands and feet, taking care to keep his fingers separate.

"Tsk, tsk," she scolded, wagging a finger childishly. "you shouldn't drop your guard like that." She giggled and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Ah. Kakashi-senpai," Sakura addressed him. "Should we interrogate this man?" He nodded dumbly, unable to take his eyes off of the prisoner. The man had to be jounin-level, at least, but the two kunoichi had defeated him with ease.

Naruto and Sasuke clambered out of their tents when the girls dragged their captive back to camp.

"Talk," Sakura ordered, sitting cross-legged on her rope. "Who sent you? Why?" The ninja stared defiantly at her. She sighed, pulling out a kunai. "There are many ways to kill someone with a kunai, did you know that? Some less painful, some more so." She flipped it back into her pouch as he gulped visibly. "Bu I can inflict pain without a kunai." She grinned ferally, kneeling in front of where he was seated – or rather, tied to a tree.

Reaching out swiftly, she jabbed a spot on his neck. Immediately, the muscles on his face strained, and he screamed.

Sakura scoffed. "It can get worse," she promised darkly. "Talk!" Still the man refused to speak. "Wish I had the Mangekyou Sharingan," she muttered to Ino, keeping her lips absolutely still. "It would make this so much easier." She took a senbon and carefully carved a seal into the man's neck. Cutting her finger, she rote the kanji for "pain" below it in her blood.

A short string of handseals sent him into excruciating pain. The curses coming from the tortured ninja's mouth were in all different dialects – and, Sakura suspected, many were mixed combinations of dialects.

She gestured briefly; the curse jutsu deactivated, and all that could be heard was the poor shinobi's ragged pants. "S-stop," he rasped. "I-I'll talk!"

Sakura raised a thin eyebrow. "We're waiting," she said impatiently. "Who and why? Speak quickly; my patience runs thin." She let her thumb hover above a pressure point.

"P-please d-don't," the ninja pleaded. In response, Sakura drove her finger into the spot on his shoulder. He crumpled against the ropes, crying.

"You are in no position to make demands," she said coldly. "Speak!"

"He – he didn't tell us anything – just said to patrol the area and kill anyone we came across!" the nin blubbered. "He said he would pay us when we got back…"

Sakura stood and untied the rope that had served as her bed, stowing it into her pack, which she swung onto her back.

"Ino, pack up. We're leaving," she ordered; there was a harsh, eager feeling to her voice which Kakashi did not like. "We're so close…"

"Wh-what about m-me?" the trembling nin stammered nervously. "What w-will I d-do?" Ino's eyes flickered to Sakura, who had slid a single senbon out of her hair.

The rose-haired woman gave him the briefest glance of disgust before flicking the needle into his throat. Blood trickled down the side of his chin from the corner of his mouth; he keeled over, dead.

Naruto and Sasuke stared in disbelief at Sakura. "Sa-Sakura-chan!" Naruto choked out thickly, "since when… How could you kill him, just like that?!"
Kakashi waited for her to smack Naruto on the head and tell him that the nin was only unconscious – he would have to reprimand her, saying that such softness could cost them their lives. Instead, she only shifted he pack to the other shoulder before replying coldly, "They would have killed us, or leaked information. We are ninja – you should get used to death."

Ino snorted. "Stop quoting your sensei like he's some kind of textbook, forehead girl."

"Sensei…?" Sasuke began, spinning around to look at the Copycat nin, but Sakura only leapt up into a tree. Ino sighed.

"Don't worry about it," she muttered. "Pack up – we don't have all day!" She followed her friend.

- - -

Sure enough, they were on the move again – once more, at the incredibly quick yet steady pace from the day before.

"I guess this counts as our laps, huh, forehead girl?" Ino joked to Sakura. Sakura grinned back, glancing at the boys. They had begun sweating already. She laughed teasingly, and for a moment, they saw the old Sakura grinning at them. Then it was gone, and she turned.

"Hn… They're dragging us down," she replied nonchalantly. "I don't see why shishou sent them with us… We could've been done by now…"

"This is an evaluation test," Ino answered quickly, seeing Sasuke's glare. "Besides, sensei said to take it easy."

Sakura snorted skeptically. "When did he say that?" she asked amusedly. "I don't remember that."

"Well, he didn't say it," Ino said sheepishly, grinning. "But he was implying it." Sakura glanced at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Really?" she said. "I seemed to recall his message as 'Finish as soon as you can so that I can increase your laps again'!" Both kunoichi shuddered at the thought. "I hate laps…"

"Laps?" Naruto interjected loudly, having listened in on their conversation. "Ero-sennin made me run around him 100 times every day! What did you do?"

Sakura grimaced; it was Ino who answered. "Aa… We started out doing 100 laps around Konoha until we made chuunin…"
"So now you're the one who sounds like him!" Sakura exclaimed in triumph. "I'm not the only one! Cha!"

Ino stared at her. "'Cha'?" Sakura colored and mumbled something about Inner Sakura rubbing off on her.

"100 laps around Konoha?!" the blond chuunin shouted. "Every day?!" By now, Sasuke and Kakashi were also listening intently.

"Until we made chuunin," Ino repeated, an involuntary shiver rippling through her body. Sakura also shivered; again, she increased the pace.

"What happened when you became chuunin?" Sasuke asked, curiosity piqued. And why are you shivering?

"The laps were increased to 500 a day," Ino answered. Kakashi's eye narrowed visibly.

"Who's been training you?" he demanded. Ino was about to answer when Sakura's pale hand clamped itself over her mouth.

"Damare," she hissed. "We're getting close." Her emerald eyes scanned their surroundings quickly but carefully. She didn't miss a thing – not even the hidden shinobi.

"Let me take care of it," Ino murmured to Sakura, who was already fingering a couple of kunai. "You can't have all the fun."

Sakura sighed. "Fine. Quietly though, Ino-pig. Last time you 'had fun' with a ninja, his screaming alerted half the village before I could shut him up!" Ino laughed sheepishly, rubbing the side of her blond head.

"Heh heh… Sorry. Sensei chewed me out for that, too…" She whirled two shuriken on her fingers, flinging them into the bushes. A choking sound, and then silence. Sakura dragged the bodies out from their hiding places and yanked the bloody throwing stars from their throats.

Surveying the dead man and wiping the shuriken off, she observed, "Fairly well equipped, but not for an assassination. I'm guessing they were sentries." Kakashi nodded grimly, having reached the same conclusion; he was not prepared at all for a small smile to spread itself over her face.

"Sakura, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Ino asked, a matching epression on her lips.

"It's time for some fun," the pink-haired girl answered cheerfully. "I hope we find him soon!" Sasuke stepped forward, surveying Ino's victims with a suppressed shudder.

"Assassinations aren't fun, Sakura," he began. Surprise flitted over Ino's features for a moment, but Sakura's smile only widened.

"Not fun for him, maybe," she replied, "but his bodyguards will surely provide some entertainment for us."

"Just don't lose it, okay, forehead girl?" Ino commanded. Sakura let out a silvery laugh and waved her hand carelessly.

"Aa… Let's get a move on, then!"

"You do sound just like him!"

"I do not!"

Bickering, the kunoichi led the way down the road at the same speed as before.

- - -

So there! Mendokusai… But without you yelling at me, I'd never get anything done, so arigato!

Damare – stop talking