It turned out that for the first time in quite a while, she had some free time, having already finished up her report for the week and turned it in to her superior. The latest report had been an assessment of one of a series of isolated incidents concerning the Village Hidden in the Mist. Evidently a kekkei genkai holder by the name of Terumī Mei was engaging in guerilla warfare with the regime and gaining a large number of followers. It had been Sakura's job to decode a number of piecemeal reports and put together a cohesive assessment about the situation, as well as forecast about everything was likely to develop within the coming year. By Sakura's estimate, the success of the Terumī's rebellion was contingent not on strength or numbers but rather the condition of the sea bordering the country and the behavior of the tide – both her supply lines and the current regime's defense depended on nature favoring them.

She had done considerably better at putting together this report than her previous one. That had been about assessing the trade routes established by Otogakure – where they were, who the partners were, and what contracts were likely to be forged or the details of already existing ones were. Though that particular report hadn't been stellar, she had learned significant analytical skills throughout its compilation. And to be fair, the assignment concerning Terumī had been much more geared to her area of expertise than trade contracts and village economics.

Regardless, this was finished and she was glad about the fact. Her handler had told her that she had a few days reprieve from reports and to spend her time "sharpening her skills." Sakura wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean, but she resolved to go and get a book on cryptography. The reports she used rarely had to be decoded by her personally, but it often helped to look at the code with her own eye, to maybe see if there was something the original decoder missed.

So it was on her way to the library where she heard a very familiar voice.

"Hey! Forehead!"

She turned in time for a pebble to sail into her forehead. Playfully glaring, she acknowledged the blonde. "Pig."

"Where've you been for the past forever?" asked the Yamanaka heiress pulling Sakura in for a hug. "Everyone's been wondering where you were, ya know."

"I've," said Sakura slowly, completely unprepared for this, "been busy with missions and training."

Ino quirked a skeptical eyebrow. "For the past six months?"

Sakura remained tight lipped, and her companion took the hint. "Well, whatever, we should do some catching up while you're free."

Despite her protests, Ino dragged her away to the Dango Shop, where she'd bemoaned the amount of training she'd been enduring since she'd been accepted as the Hokage's apprentice. There was a sharp pang of regret Sakura experienced when Ino had first told her of the apprenticeship, and she'd wondered about whether or not she'd made a mistake accepting Shimura-sama's offer. It was of some small petty consolation that apparently Ino was also having to weather "being groomed" to eventually take over the Yamanaka clan when she came of age. Sakura wondered to herself if that entailed having to endure a mental assault from a fellow clan member or maybe Ino's own father. Then, another thought occurred to her. 'Does that mean Ino is supposed to be even more vicious than Fu-san?"

Sakura suppressed a shudder. It wouldn't do to let Ino know that the thought of what she may be like one day was a little terrifying.

"So tell me what's had a genin so busy? Even Shikamaru's been around more than you, and he actually got the promotion. Though, at least half of his assignments have included guarding the village gate."

Sakura sighed. Ino always had been a gossip hound. "I can't really talk about it."

Ino pursed her lips, twirling a dango stick in her fingers. "I bet I could weasel something out of your parents since you're so tight-lipped about it."

"I doubt it. I haven't been home in three months."

"Really, Sakura? So the first thing you do when you get home is go to the library?"

"It's not really free time, per se," she said guiltily. "More like independent training time."

Evidently Pig didn't buy that line because in ten minutes time she found herself sitting in her home, with Ino and her parents. Fortunately for Sakura, despite some scolding for not coming to see them first, Ino's ulterior motives went largely unrealized, as Sakura's parents were much more respectful concerning mission confidentiality. Eventually she was spared of her plight when Ino had to leave for a meeting with her team, which was apparently the first one they'd have together in a while.

Before she'd gone, her parents had given her a bundle of letters, mostly all from Naruto. He'd been writing her since she'd missed out on going on that one mission with him and Jiraiya. She'd also taken the time to pick up a few more changes of clothes – regulation clothing was well and good while on the job, but she'd missed having clothes to lounge about it during down time, sparse though it was.

She dropped by the library and picked up what she had in mind. Unfortunately, she almost got all the way to the ANBU compound before she realized that she'd left her wallet back in the Dango Shop. Sighing in frustration, she turned on her heels and returned.

To her relief, she found that the owner had kept it behind the counters, anticipating her return. However, she'd also managed to return at the same time Mitarashi Anko. Sakura didn't have any personal grudge with the tokubetsu jōnin, but she was rather –

Well, frankly put, she was loud and obnoxious, with a serious disregard for personal space. In short, she was very much like Naruto, but without the familiarity he brought with him. That, and if Sakura remembered correctly, the woman also had a rather strange sadistic streak.

She'd tried to slip out without drawing attention, but the older woman appeared to have a sixth sense for weakness, and she grabbed Sakura by the shoulders, hauling her in for a closer look. The smell of sake mingled with sweet dango invaded her nostrils as she tried hard to put on a polite face.

"Hey," slurred the woman. "Aren't you that girl from the 'xams. On the team with the focksh kid and the Uchiha kid? Hatake's bratsh?"

Sakura tried as hard as she could to breathe through her mouth without making it overly obvious, though she imagined it wouldn't matter much to the drunken woman in front of her. "That's right Mitarashi-san."

"Mmf, so you'll be in the necksht exam, right?" she asked. "And ish Anko. None of that Mitarshi-san bullshit."

"I don't think so," said the pinkette, trying to remember when they were scheduled. "I'll probably be busy with assignments."

Anko's grin was loose and mischievous. "Running around in the shadows, behind a porcelain mask, eh?"

Sakura froze. 'Shit, shit, shit. No one's supposed to no about me; how did she find out. I am so done for.'

The older woman let go of Sakura, cackling to herself while she propped up on the building behind her. When she'd had her fill of fun at Sakura's expense, she looked back at the confused girl. "S'okay, kid. Your bosses told me. Meet me here tomorrow at sunrise."

Sakura watched as the odd woman walked away, feeling more than just a little uncomfortable. 'Relax. Mitarashi-san is a loyal shinobi. If she said it was legitimate, it is.'

Her self comfort did little good to abate her fear, after having been called out in public by a drunk shinobi. Fortunately, there hadn't been anyone nearby to hear their conversation. She wondered if Mitarashi would've acted any differently had there been. She seemed like a woman who played loose with regulations.

Uncertain about how to proceed, she decided to just return to the compound. Once she got back to the room, she found note left on her bed that did indeed confirm that she was supposed to meet Mitarashi Anko, though the note specified a different location. Sighing a breath of relief, she idly wondered about what she was meeting with the odd woman about – Sakura didn't think she was ANBU. She supposed she'd find out soon enough.

After grabbing breakfast dango, Sakura had followed her companion to an underground bunker a little ways outside of the city walls. Mitarashi hadn't said much, and Sakura was started to get frustrated. After finally arriving in a room after going through winding hallways, she decided to speak up.

"So, Mita- Anko, if you don't mind, could you tell me the details of this assignment?"

If Anko heard her question, she didn't give any sign. There was a strange look on the woman's face. Wistful, almost.

After a minute or two, she spoke up. "This isn't just a normal Konoha bunker, ya know. It was specially designed years ago. It was actually a lab or research site, but since then, it's been wiped down."

Sakura didn't know what to say, so she kept her mouth shut.

"This is actually where I first started training, when I graduated the Academy," Anko finally continued. "It isn't my job to train you, not exactly. But I figured it would be a good place to start. Maybe start you off the same way my sensei did."

Sakura shrugged. She wasn't sure what a rookie genin exercise could do to help her at this point, but there was no harm in it. She was about to give verbal confirmation when Anko twisted around, sending a kunai sailing toward Sakura's face.

Sakura sidestepped the kunai and pushed herself backward, creating space between herself and the older kunoichi while drawing her own kunai in defense. Batting another thrown kunai aside with her own, she watched as Anko withdrew the room, but when she advanced to follow, she saw the door roll closed and heard a latch lock in place.

"Sorry about this kid, but if you can't handle this next point, I'd be wasting both my time and yours. You have about an hour, maybe two to fight off the effects. Any longer than that, and the poison will have already left you a brain-dead meat-sack. Good luck, have fun!"

'Poison?' Sakura wondered to herself. Her question was answered later by some hissing noises beneath her. 'Well, that would be why there were holes in the floor.'

As useless as she knew it would be, Sakura tried the door. It was securely locked, and the metal door wasn't likely to give under pressure. Maybe if she'd have some explosive tags, but no, she was stuck here.

'Brilliant, Sakura, just brilliant. Let yourself be trapped so easily. Some kunoichi you are – ANBU aspirations, indeed.' She shook her head, focusing. 'Wallow later. You have to get out of this. Earth jutsu, maybe?'

She ran through a list of earth jutsu she knew. It wasn't a long list, admittedly; her genin team hadn't gone over any nature affinities. Since then, the ANBU had administered her the affinity tests, presumably to keep them on file.

As it turned out, she had two – water and earth. She briefly wondered if she should try water instead, maybe to contain the gas, but by the time she had the thought, the hissing had stopped. So, reaching into her very limited repertoire of doton jutsu, she selected one that drew in rocky rubble into a shell around the user. Normally, it was used for defensive purposes, but she wouldn't have any complaints if it were to punch escape routes into the room she was trapped in. She was going to have words with Mitarashi when this was all over with. Superior be damned, it was all quite unprofessional.

She snorted. This coming from someone who's team jōnin had been the Copy Ninja.

'Focus, Haruno,' she thought to herself, running through the hand seals for her Earth Shield. She had gotten all the way through 'Ox' when she noticed something was wrong with her chakra, and abruptly halted her motions – it was a dangerous thing to attempt jutsus when one's chakra was off.

She did a basic self-diagnostic of her system, which amounted to pulsing chakra through her body. Or at least, that was supposed to be what she did. Instead, her chakra shakily flared and crackled rather than cleanly pulsing through her system as it was supposed to.

She paused. 'That was…odd.'

Re-focusing, she tried the pulse once more. This time, the flare up didn't stop. Pain coursed through her body, and her right arm jerked of its own accord, corresponding with her chakra crackling in the same limb. 'The poison…attacking my chakra?'

Sakura grit her teeth, still reeling from the pain that had racked through her body. She had no idea how to deal with poison that attacked chakra. In the Academy, they had gone over countless poisons and how they attacked the body, but never anything that attacked chakra like this. Sure, there were some poisons that slowed chakra regeneration, but those were mild, and didn't do anything that caused it to behave any differently beyond regeneration rate.

She paused for a minute to think about her predicament – Anko said that this was something that she had been put through as her test as a genin, which meant it shouldn't be too hard to shake off, right? Then again, Anko never said that she had passed that test. 'Damn all this. Come on, Sakura pull yourself together. You've gotten out of tougher spots than this.'

The pinkette wondered if she could she could somehow manage to isolate the poison in her body since it was evidently tainting her chakra system in some way. She yet again wondered to herself if it would've been better to pursue a place as the Hokage's apprentice; she probably would be better equipped to handle such a problem. Then again, she probably wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

She decided immediately not to pursue a brute force approach. Blasting chakra through her body and winding up comatose sounded like a very Naruto thing to do, so she dismissed that course of action. Instead, she resolved to probe her system until she found the source of the problem.

Sakura decided to divide her body up in sections to see it the source of the issue was localized. The body's chakra system was connected together by tenketsu, chakra points. These points couldn't be pinpointed on any one individual by normal means, but the general placement of them could be narrowed down throughout the body. While expelling chakra from individual tenketsu was a feat generally limited to the Hyuga, all ninja could move chakra while it was still in the chakra pathways, and Sakura prided herself on being quite adept at controlling chakra flow. So, the goal now was to limit the flow to certain areas of the body, then isolate the issue. To make things simple, Sakura decided to break it down to the separate limbs, her abdomen, torso, and head.

Sakura started with her right arm, since that was where her chakra had crackled during her second pulse. To focus herself, she did a hand seal, one that help direct a basic flow of chakra through the right arm. This time, there was no flare up, though her chakra was much more faint than usual.

Cycling through the rest of her limbs, Sakura had similar results. She smirked in satisfaction to herself. Kunoichi though she was, using her head was Sakura's strong point. 'I'll figure this out yet.'

Testing her abdomen next, the problem intensified – faint chakra that flashed and stuttered rather than flowing properly. Her stomach tensed in protest. Still though, there was no violent flaring or crackling like there had been earlier.

Her torso test went much better. Well. Perhaps not the best word, but it helped aid Sakura's theory that there was an effected area rather than a blanketed catch-all that targeted the whole of her chakra system. The weakness of the chakra remained and when she pulsed chakra in the area, it flared, making her whole chest seized up, leaving her short of breath. Last, there was the chakra network in her head – this time, the whole suite of problems accompanied the pulse. A flare of chakra that left her blinded for a few seconds, accompanied by crackling after effects that made her temples throb and left her head aching.

Now that she had it narrowed down to the problem areas, Sakura wondered about how to proceed. If the problem had originated in her head and had spread out of it, then it may be problematic to continue to conduct tests, as conducting a flow through tenketsu could cause leakage into the rest of the system. Though, bottling up the taint may also be problematic, build up in one area part of her system was just as likely to harm her as a spread throughout its entirety. Even then, she could be helpless in the spread of it through herself at all. That or it may not even be prone to spreading.

She groaned at the possibilities. Instead of worrying over the details, she just decided to narrow down the area even more than she already had. The problem with that approach was that there were only so many hand seals, each one that dictated flow in a certain area or distinct manner. Some jutsus needed a direct flow, others pulses or flashes, other times, a spiraling, spinning motion was needed – and most of them needed chakra to be molded that came from more than one area of the body.

Thus, triggering her chakra to behave in a certain manner that would allow her to conduct her test could be a little difficult, given that control over individual tenketsu wasn't something she could achieve. The goal in this case was to both narrow down the affected area and see if it mattered how her chakra flowed. However, there were a limited number of hand seals, which meant that it might be necessary to do some fine-tuned probing and chakra control without the structured seals she was used to using.

Annoyingly, this was feat that say, a medic nin would be able to do simply enough. Well, maybe not simply, but definitely more adeptly than most shinobi. Though, she supposed puppet-using shinobi had to have this kind of deft control, though in distinctly different ways for very different reasons.

Shaking her head to get back on track, Sakura conducted her tests. She lost track of time as she struggled to make her chakra flow in various ways. By the time she had figured out what she wanted to know, she was in poor shape – feverish, weak, and drenched in sweat, Sakura had narrowed the areas down to her head, neck, and down just past her clavicle right at the top section of her sternum. Furthermore, only certain motions or rigorous drawing on her chakra supply triggered backlash.

Spiraling motions tended to draw the least amount of backlash, possibly because they didn't necessarily require direct control to affect the entire target area. Usually this resulted in some crackling that spread out, but it was very minor. After repeating that exercise a number of times, Sakura decided to once more direct a slow, snaking flow through the region. She was dangerously close to trying that violent surge that she though of earlier. Curiously, though, she saw that this time, , only the crackling and the flashing that had occurred in her torso happened, rather than the full-on flaring. Wondering if she had stumbled onto a technique to soothe the effects, Sakura tried the spiraling motions again, as if trying to massage out a knotted muscle after a day of hard labor.

Switching methods again, the pinkette saw that she had indeed discovered a remedy to the chakra poison, though she wasn't yet sure exactly why her approach worked. She supposed that it didn't really matter at the moment, and set about kneading her chakra network in the affected area.

Minutes later, there was no flaring, flashing, or crackling. Although, her chakra was still weaker than normal, its normal strength was returning. Standing up, she approached the door, only to find that it was already open.

Mitarashi Anko, standing in front of Sakura, spoke through a mouthful of dango. "Took you longer than I thought."