Naruto is not mine, and if things keep going how they are right now, never will be.
For simplicites sake, all matches in the preliminaries that don't matter for the story will be shortened. If you really, REALLY, want to see/read them, mention it and I'll either add it next chapter, or do it as a stand alone fic.
The ninja stood in a cluster as the examiner explained the rules. "I have the right to immediately end a match when I deem fit. Do not question me on this. The matches are randomly determined. Now if you'll look at the screen," the examiner, Gekkou Hayate said, gesturing towards the screen in question. "The first match is Tsurugi Misumi versus Akodou Yoroi." The two teammates looked at each other, mortified. They knew each other's tricks intimately from training.
At the end of the battle Yoroi stood victorious against his flexible friend. Sakura looked over at Naruto and Sasuke, both brimming with confidence, and couldn't help but feel a little inferior. Sasuke silently eager, and Naruto practically vibrating, making a lot of noise in the process, with excitement. While they were praying that their match was next, she was praying hers would never come. She was scared. Her heart suck when she saw the next match, she was up against Kankurou, one of the ninjas of hidden sand. She had heard terrbible things about the sand nin. She was shaking a little bit as she entered the arena, the opposite of her opponents carefully measured swagger, it seemed the whole world had gone silent. She was numb to Naruto's cheering, barely noticed Kakashi reassuring smile.
"Scared little girl?" the makeup wearing ninja spoke, breaking Sakura from her reverie. She drew a kunai and one hand, then slapped her hand against a searing pain in her neck. "Already sore. And I haven't even hit you yet." With that the cat hooded shinobi charged forth, smashing her stomach with a hand harder than flesh ever could be, sending her reeling. She dropped onto her knees, hacking, her kunai abandoned as she clutched at her shattered ribs. He then proceeded to kick her in the face, leaving her lying prone at his feet. Naruto screams had reached a fevered pitch, and he was about to jump in the ring when Kakashi grabbed him, putting his hand over the enthusiastic blondes' mouth.
"She'll be okay Naruto. Remember that. But give her a chance. If you jump in she's already lost." Kakashi outwardly looked calm, but inwardly was anything but. A lot of genin had died during the previous exams, was Sakura on the verge of joining their number?
Sakura forced herself to her feet, looking over at her team for support. Kakashi was talking to Naruto, she noticed. She focused on Sasuke's face to steady herself, and when he realized she was looking at him, he gave her a slow nod, with the barest hints of a smile. She whirled, dodging the make-upped freak's next attack. She realized suddenly, he was slow, but strong. When he came at her next grabbed his arm, and dropped towards the ground. Using the momemtum of her fall combined with his charge she sent him hurtling towards the edge of the arena, where his back smashed heavily against the wall. She quickly drew a pair of explosive tags from her pouch, holding the potent rune etched paper gingerly. Kankurou had dropped that strange pack he carried on his back she noticed. Best to deal with it now, she thought. Yanking a kunai out her her pouch, she attached the tag, and threw it toward the pack, and was greatly startled when it rolled out of the way! The explosion sent the package smashing once again into the wall, where it let out a groan of pain. She didn't have time to follow up her attack though, as 'Kankurou' had began another wild charge, this time akwardly holding a kunai dripping in poison. She dodged the clumsy swing, throwing herself into a backflip, slapping her hand high on his inner thigh as she tumbled out of harms way. The explosion from the tag blew the man into hundred of pieces. Sakura closed her eyes, reluctant to see the extent of the damage. When a piece glanced off her cheek she felt herself gagging. She opened her eyes wide when she felt something pierce her side, and looked down in horror to see the man's head, a needle covered in dripping, purple poison sticking out of her. At the far side of the arena, the bundle, which she had long suspected was something more, stood up, to reveal an uninjured Kankurou. Her vision burning, she felt the world slip away.
Naruto had started screaming again, and this time Sasuke yelled Sakura's name as well. He was more than a little horrified. Had that ninja just killed her. She was lying face first on the ground, completely immobile. Sasuke, the ever cold Uchiha, was about to jump in the ring to intervene, when the examiner began to speak. "Winner, Kan- Never mind." Sakura had just forced herself onto her hands and knees, her hair falling and covering her face. She made the hand seals for henge no jutsu, her hair still obscuring her face, and everyone was more than a little disapointed when she pushed her long pink hair away from her eyes to see that nothing had changed. Everybody except Sasuke that is. He Noticed once again that her eyes were the vivid violet they had been in the forest of death.
Kankurou smiled. Seeing her stagger, seeing the poison that was burning threw her system. With a practiced twist of his wrist, he pulled the head of Karasu from her side, and sent it flying through the air again. She watched it warily.
Naruto had started screaming words of encouragement again, and even the stoic Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief. Sasuke, however clenched the railing of the stands even tighter, his hands white.
Kankurou and Karasu's dismembered head circled around Sakura, who tracked their movement only with her eyes, not turning her head at all. They charged both at once, and she threw her leg high, smashing the head into the ground, and attempted to twirl around to meet Kankurou who grabbed her, and using his greatly superior strength, bore her into the ground. He then lifted her from the ground, and smashed her down several time, laughing as he felt her hands clawing at his back. He wouldn't have been laughing if he saw the deranged smile on her face. When she went to her pouch for a kunai he lifted her and threw her into the arena wall, hoping the blow would crush the slight girls head in. To his disgust she twisted in midair, and nimbly bounced off the wall, looking completely unhurt from his savage beating. He felt a healthy twinge of fear when he looked at her smile. She started to make hand seals, something he felt that certain that he shouldn't allow. He hooked his fingers, and grabbing Karasu's needletipped head and blade arms, sent spiraling death towards the girl, who didn't even move to dodge. She completed her seals the instant before the three blades struck. "Hiraishin no Justu", she said, as she disapeared, the three projectiles passed harmlessly through the space she had been in just a millisecond ago. He couldn't see her! His stomach clenched painfully as he felt a hand on the small of his back. Sakura whispered in his ear, "Goodbye," as she ran her kunai across his throat, blood splattering all over his face, staining Sasuke's jacket, coating her as she continued to saw at his neck,
She stopped when she heard the examiner announce, "Thats enough! Winner Haruno Sakura."
With that she kicked the corpse, watching it fall to the ground. She heard a female voice scream Kankurou's name from the stands, and walked away, her girlish giggles providing a horrific counterpoint to the scene presented to the other genin.
Two updates in two days? I'm on a roll. Its crazy!
If there are Kankurou fans out there, don't look at me like that, I suppose its possible, then I'm sorry, don't abandon this fic. Guess I'm not as nice as Kishimoto. Don't worry people, I won't be too brutal to rest of the chars.