Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Naruto

( Hey guys, I'm still waiting for reviews! They don't have to be positive you know, just… suggestions, complaints, etc.

The New Sakura

"Sakura-chann!" Naruto exclaimed with delight, then stopped short as he fully took her in. Sasuke was still standing there with his Sharingan, staring at her.

Sure, it was Sakura, standing up there on that tree branch. But… but… she had a completely different look. She wore a gray zip-up hoodie that had a light pink sakura blossom printed on the front. It was unzipped in front, and the separate halves of the jacket's front flared about her sides in the wind, revealing a black shirt with the Haruno clan symbol in pink on the front. She wore black durable short pants and her forehead protector was firmly in place, although her long pink hair was now tied back into a low ponytail that trailed down her back. Most startling of all, her eyes had changed to a darker type of green, and there seemed to be a constant flicker of colors underneath the green. Her eyes had a look of determination that couldn't be scratched anything.

She tossed her hair, and the long tail of hair wove through the wind to settle over her shoulder. Sakura looked down at Naruto, and then across the clearing to the other side of trees, meeting Kakashi's eyes. He had finally looked up at the sudden disturbances, and his eye seemed to widen slightly at Sakura.

"Sorry, I'm late. I seemed to arrive just in time to keep everything from falling apart, anyways." She stated matter-of-factly. Her voice had changed too, Sasuke thought, it was more officious, confident. Sakura jumped down from the tree branch, holding a bag in her hand, and rose from the ground. Her eyes connected with Sasuke's for the first time. She didn't look away like she usually did. And, Sasuke noted with some feeling of disbelief and shock, She doesn't have that look of fawning adoration. He wasn't sure if this disturbed him.

She extended her arm, and offered Sasuke the bag he had seen in her hand. It was a large one. He took it.

"What is it?"

"The five chickens that weren't with the rest of them." She replied curtly, and then ran to find the sixth that Naruto had tried to kill. She returned shortly, holding it by the legs, and shoving it under the net with the others. Sasuke stared at her the entire time. What happened! He thought, bewildered. There was no trace of redness in her eyes, or a tremble in her voice as she spoke to him. And she had changed her appearance, her attitude.

"You baka, Naruto!" Sakura chided Naruto, for once letting a glimpse of the old Sakura's attitude glimmer through. "Kill the mission, will you?"

"You were late." Sasuke suddenly felt an urge to say something against this new Sakura. "Should you be scolding him?"

Sakura's face turned from Naruto's beside him, to Sasuke's. Her eyes had lost their previous sparkle when she had been teasing/scolding Naruto, and her face was hard. Sasuke shivered as her eyes seemed to turn an even darker green, and he thought he saw streaks of red glimmer.

"Perhaps you would prefer me not to come at all, and let several hours of work go to nothing." She said quietly. Then she raised her voice. "Kakashi-sensei. We're done. Please deliver the chickens back to the restaurant. If you'll excuse us, the three of us will go spar now." She said it politely but firmly.

"Hey now, Sakura-chan! You can't order Kakashi-sensei around! And since when did you take charge of our training?"

"Think of it, Naruto-chan. Any training supervised by you would be on how to eat ramen in 10 seconds flat. You tell me. My training will get us somewhere. I intend to improve. You can do otherwise if you want to." She said coldly. Naruto winced at the chan that Sakura used. Then, Sasuke seemed to watch Sakura's eyes become a light teal like they had been before, although the hints of other colors still remained.

"Come on, guys! Let's go!" she smiled for the first time. Sasuke and Naruto exchanged very confused glances, then followed the receding gray back.

Sparks flew as Naruto and Sasuke sparred, and their kunais clashed over and over. They were going in pairs, and Sakura was sitting out for the first match.

"Kage Bunshin no Justu!" Naruto multiplied into five of himself.

Sharingan. Sasuke thought, and his eyes turned red. He immediately located the real Naruto, and sent him spinning to the ground a few feet away. Naruto got up, wincing, and for once, wished he knew how to use more techniques. It'd be funny to see what the sexy no jutsu did to Sasuke, but Sakura would kill him for even trying. Well, the old one would. Naruto looked at the changed Sakura, who was watching without any expression. Her eyes were a medium shade of green.

"I give up. Sakura, it's your turn." Naruto surprised himself and the two others as he admitted defeat.

Sakura shrugged, then got up. Sasuke's eyes returned to normal as he prepared to battle Sakura. She could do all the weird stuff she wanted, but no one could improve in a single night. She had been bluffing. She changed places with Naruto, and Naruto declared, "Start!"

Sasuke and Sakura stared at each other, Sasuke noticing that Sakura's eyes had turned such a dark green that they seemed black. He blinked after a while, and his eyes widened at the patch of empty air in front of him.

WHAM! The back of Sakura's foot connected with the middle of Sasuke's back, and he was flung forward. He remembered the day when the three of them had decided that when they sparred, it was real sparring. But no trying to kill each other or give them bleeding cuts, because that was just going too far. Sakura had always backed out of her turn to spar, which had been fine with Sasuke. He got up onto his hands and knees, and leapt up to block her kunai that had come out of nowhere. His hand tingled under the impact.

What is this? He wondered, shocked, as he stared into Sakura's grim eyes.

"Are you finished already, you big chicken?"Sakura quipped the line Sasuke and Naruto had often shot at each other. Sasuke's eyes became slits in their anger, and his eyes turned red. Sharingan! Sakura leapt away and vanished in high-speed movement. Sasuke followed it with ease.

Naruto was sitting against the tree trunk staring at the two of them. Mostly Sakura. When had she gotten so fast! She could match Sasuke! I think she does! His eyes were wide. He continued watching as the sparring became more than a match. Other than the Replication, they didn't use any real techniques, but they used their shuriken and kunais with no hesitation.

Half an hour later, Sakura flew backwards, and landed tumbling in the dirt on the ground as Sasuke punched her shoulder and sent her rolling. She stopped and gathered herself into a crouch, and suddenly sprang at Sasuke again. He smirked at the futility of her attack, and sent three kunais speeding in her direction, then stopped dead in his tracks as Sakura changed her speed and dropped like a rock somehow. She landed and swung a foot around, tripping Sasuke. He gave an oof as the wind was knocked out of him. Before he knew anything, Sakura was straddling his stomach with a kunai at his throat.

"I win." She whispered, and grinned. Then she got off of him and collapsed on the ground. Sasuke lay there too, both too exhausted to get up. Naruto got up and walked over to the two of them.

"That was… amazing, Sakura!" he said, taking care not to add the ­–chan after her name. "You too, Sasuke! How come I can't do that?"

"That's because, you're an idiot like that, Naruto." Sasuke panted. He got up too. Sakura began to stand up, but fell back down as her legs trembled. Sasuke grinned, a real one.

"Great, Sakura. Really. Nice to know you realized it." He said as he offered her a hand. She smiled and took it, pulling herself up and dusting herself off.

But, she replied, "You don't know anything about anything I did. Keep out." And smiled again. Sasuke looked puzzled.

"I think that's it for today." Naruto said. "You guys must be tired."

The other two agreed, and set off for the village.

Sasuke went home and showered. It was early evening still, and he prepared some quick dinner. All the while, he was puzzling over the new Sakura. He also began to feel a little jealous. How come Sakura had improved like that over a night? There was no way she had trained. How come he couldn't do that? It felt the same as when Sasuke and Naruto had compared the strength of their Chidori and Rasengan. Naruto had won, by quite a lot.

He shook himself, and refused to be jealous. The hunger for power was what had driven Itachi to kill his kin. Sasuke had a want for power too, but it was to avenge his family. Yet he couldn't rid himself of the feeling that he was going along the exact same lines as Itachi.

No. I'll train harder. I don't have distractions now that Sakura's come to reality. I can improve by myself and I'm good where I am. As soon as he thought this, his mind's feeling of pressure seemed to have lightened already. He finished dinner and washed his dishes. Later, he slept easily, but before he had fallen asleep, a picture of Sakura sticking her tongue out with a giggling smile on her face bloomed in his mind.

Sakura had not gone home. She had gone straight to Tsunade-sama, who she deeply respected and had formed a friendship with. She marched in through the doors of the Hokage's work office, and cleared her throat politely. The Hokage wasn't there.

"Hokage-sama." She called, bracing herself for the wave of nosie.

"SAKKKURA! Exactly how many times have I told you, that considering your relationship with me, the honorific term is not needed! A simple Tsunade-san would be enou-" Tsunade stomped through from a side room and stopped mid-sentence, staring at Sakura. Then she smiled and forced a chuckle.

"New look..eh? eh..he…ah… What's up?" Tsunade said, and sat down behind her desk.

Sakura sat down in front of the desk and began with Sasuke's harsh words to her. Tsunade nodded, already knowing about Sakura's crush on Sasuke. Then Sakura talked about her new uniform and her newfound power and skill. She also told the Hokage about how much she could control the expressions on her face. She confessed she had no idea how any of it had happened. Her eyes were now the color they had used to be, and her face was creased with worry.

"Nahh, calm down, Sakura-chan." Tsunade comforted Sakura. "I think that you've always had this power but you were too busy trying to make Sasuke notice you and everything that even touched on Sasuke clouded your mind. You were afraid too much power would make him despise you. I see you don't care anymore…?" Sakura quieted, and listened to her, then nodded vigorously.

"Yes, maybe. But the last part's wrong. I still do care about Sasuke! But it's the same kind as I do for Naruto. I care for them as friends. Something changed in me and now I don't feel anything for Sasuke. Well… I'm not sure yet."

"I want to try something, Sakura," Tsunade said.

"Um… okay." Sakura said. Tsunade handed her a round thing that looked like a bowling ball.

"It's just a test. Pinch it into a cube." Tsunade said. "Concentrate on that feeling of determination you had today."

Sakura's eyes popped. "PINCH!"

"Shut up and just try." Tsunade snapped. Sakura gave a meep and then shut her eyes tightly, and began to move her hands.

……..

"Open your eyes, Sakura." Tsunade said. Sakura opened them, and found a heavy cube in her hands. She gave a shriek.

"Oh my god…there it is again. That creepy strength. I'm not sure I like it anymore." Sakura was trembling. Tsunade took out an identical ball and dropped it onto a nearby scale. The needle went way up, and so did the pitch of Sakura's shriek this time.

"I think you can learn to control it. Now you can turn on that robot face of yours, and get on home to catch some sleep. Uchiha Sasuke is not an easy opponent to best." Tsunade said, and picked up a sheaf of papers as if to declare there was nothing left for Sakura to do. Sakura got up, her face now calm again, but her eyes shifting shades nervously. She went out of the room and closed the door gently.

Tsunade lowered the papers to just below her eyes, and over them, she looked at the door.

"The flower has bloomed." She murmured to herself.