Sakura needed a good laugh. Though it only came out as a small giggle at Kiba's proclamation of becoming Hokage. He put up a good fight against her teammate, but Naruto took the win after successfully knocking him out. Sakura bonked him on the head as he made his way up the balcony, cheering obnoxiously.

"Ow Sakura-chan! What was that for?!"

"How are you always so gassy Naruto? Though it was brilliant dulling his senses with that fart, and honestly kind of hilarious, it was ridiculous you knucklehead!"

"Hehe yeah I totally did that on purpose…to dull his senses! Believe it!"

Feeling a hand on her shoulder she glanced up at Kakashi-sensei, "This is no time for laughter Sakura-chan. You're up next."

Sakura Haruno vs Ino Yamanaka

Making eye contact with her best friend across the room the two stood up straighter. Faces determined the two met each other down the stairs.

"We haven't sparred in a while forehead. I've learned a few new tricks since the academy I'm dying for you to see."

Sakura grinned pulling her fists up in preparation, "Give me your all pig."

The sickly proctor Hayate coughed in his fist, "Since you both look ready, begin!"

Sakura put distance between them slamming her palms on the ground, "Tearing Earth Turning Palm Jutsu!"

Ino yelped as the earth became uneven, small cracks and fissures protruding out of the arena floor and under her feet. She jumped in the air kunai deflecting her own. Sakura didn't give her a moment, having already shunshined behind her, round house kick blocked by her arm. They grappled for all of 10 seconds by the time Ino realized she couldn't keep up with her and jumped back creating space between the two. Sakura followed, watching as her best friends eyes lit up with an idea. A paper bomb went off that sent Sakura flying toward the wall of the arena.

"I got you now Sakura!"

Sakura couldn't move. Damnit chakra strings! It was too late to form a strategy of escape, she felt the familiar pushing of chakra into her system.

"Sorry Sakura. It's pretty obvious you've been working on your taijutsu and your crazy fast. It sucks that we both can't be chunin."

Ino forced Sakura to raise her right arm, "Proctor I, Sakura Haruno-"

"No!"

Sakura tried to envision her minds inner self. Tried to enlarge herself to Ino's size andpush.

"S-sakura how…?"

"Come on Sakura-chan! You can do this! Don't quit now! You are no quitter!"

Naruto.

"You haven't seen anything yet Ino. This is my mind and my body!"

The shining beacon of Naruto's support gave her the strength and determination to push Ino's soul out of her body and back into hers. Though now dizzy and disoriented Sakura cast a small genjutsu while getting her bearings. Ino recovered quicker than her and Sakura shakily dodged her fist. Ino's eyes widened, thinking her hit connected and Sakura saw her opening and delivered an uppercut that sent her colliding with the ground. Just to make sure she stayed down she delivered a shallow gash into her arm with a poison tipped senbon.

"D-damn forehead."

"YEAAAAHHH! Great job Sakura-chan!"

Sakura couldn't help the large grin.

.

.

After her high from winning wore off Sakura was antsy. She kept a tight grip on the railing, having to force herself to pay attention to the remaining matches. Her only reprieve was Lee-senpai's battle against Gaara Subaku. Naruto and she both nearly jumped in several times during the match if not for Kakashi-sensei holding them back. And the ending left her feeling angry and confused at Gaara's bloodlust and the unnecessary damage he'd done to Lee. But in a very strange way his chakra reminded her of Naruto's.

Her mind was racing as they passed the box with the slip of numbers to pair the opponents for the rounds next month. She snapped to when the very person that was occupying her thoughts was announced to be her opponent.

.

.

The next month was a blur. Kakashi gave a vague and very quick explanation for what happened with Orochimaru and Sasuke. That he wants to recruit Sasuke and covet his powers. That the mark on his neck is a forbidden jutsu (one of many) that Orochimaru created that reacts on emotions. But when she brought up the name Itachi, he simply shook his head and explained that was a conversation for another time and to not talk to anyone else about him. That immediately put her on edge. The whole conversation stirred up more questions than answers. But she didn't even have time to ask a single one when he explained that Jiraiya was going to help train her and Naruto for the exams while he prepares Sasuke for his.

Sakura pushed the feelings of hurt and frustration into the back of her mind to dwell on later.

.

.

Training with Jiraiya was almost no different than training on your own. He was even worse than Kakashi-sensei. He would give a quick explanation before sneaking off to peep on women swimming in one of the nearby lakes. After the first 3 days of no progress Naruto and Sakura came up with a plan. At the end of the day when he sauntered back to their training grounds, the two ambushed him.

"You need to help us pervy sage!"

"Could you please help us a bit more and stop peeping on girls."

Jiraiya gave a long winded sigh at the two annoyed genin, "I didn't take you two as the hold my hand through everything type ninja."

Naruto growled at that and even Sakura couldn't hold back her glare and her sassy remark, "Maybe you just suck at teaching! You aren't explaining anything!"

Jiraiya looked properly affronted, "Fine then what do you need explained?"

"How is learning the basis of water manipulation supposed to help me against Gaara's sand? And why are you teaching Naruto a summoning jutsu against a Hyuga?"

Jiraiya sighed before sitting down and gesturing to them to do the same.

"You know as well as I do that when water is combined with sand it weighs it down. Makes it slower. Which is why I've also told you to step up your Shunshin training. What Naruto is learning is more of a backup in case of a life or death situation. An emergency jutsu I suppose. Though I could teach him something else to get the upper hand on the Hyuga boy."

Sakura raised her eyebrow at the "emergency jutsu". "Why are you giving him the Toad summoning's right now?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah how am I supposed to defeat that Neji basterd if I can't even use the scroll unless it's an emergency?"

Jiraiya had a strange look on his face at their questioning till he smiled, "You're too smart for your own good Sakura-chan. Your brains seem to be rubbing off on the brat as well."

"Hey I'm smart! C'mon pervy sage we aren't training hard enough! Stop peeping on girls and help us!"

"Alright you two asked for it so don't whine to me later when you're too tired to go home."

Naruto and Sakura fist pumped in victory.

.

.

Sakura and Naruto stood in a line with the other participants. Anxiously they looked around for any sign of their last teammate.

"What the hell is the teme doing?" Naruto whispered to her as they made their way to the balcony overlooking the arena. Sakura shrugged her shoulders keeping her gaze forward and chin high. Gaara's eyes were following her she can feel them on her back. She wished her teammate good luck and stuck close to Shino's side as she watched Naruto's match.

Jiraiya really did run them into the ground during their training. And despite how utterly exhausted they were the results showed in Naruto's match against Neji.

"All that fate talk is a load of crap! You make your own destiny! And one day I'm going to become Hokage! So I will be beating you! Believe it!"

Sakura knew he had an idea. Despite the signs of chakra exhaustion that she could sense from him, Naruto never gives up. He created another 5 clones that surrounded Neji and a smoke bomb went off just as they charged.

"Rotation!"

Naruto's clones flew from the dissipating smoke cloud and popped out of existence and just as they did two paper bombs on Neji's right went off and sent him flying. When he landed he realized too late the symbols written in the ground that activated. Naruto produced 3 more clones and together they attacked the now paralyzed Hyuga.

"Winner! Naruto Uzumaki!"

"Alright! YEAAHHHH WOOOO!"

Naruto had the biggest grin on his face as he approached her on the balcony. Sakura couldn't help tackling him into a hug.

"I'm so proud of you Naruto!"

"Thanks Sakura-chan!"

The next few battles went by much quicker than she expected. Sakura pushed back her suspicions at Kankuro's forfeit of his match against Shino. She cheered for a reluctant Shikamaru. Then finally, since both Dosu and Sasuke hadn't shown for their matches she was the next contestant to be called to the arena. Despite her best efforts anxiety surfaced as Gaara did a form of sand sunshin to transport himself down below. Sakura gave Naruto the best smile she could manage before descending the stairs. Just as she was about to step through the corridor she heard, "Sakura-chan wait!"

"Naruto?"

"I have faith in you Sakura-chan! I can tell you're worried but you've gotten so strong since we became a team! You got this!"

She couldn't help but give her blonde teammate the biggest most grateful hug, "Thanks Naruto…I really needed to hear that. I have a feeling something isn't right with this exam. Especially Gaara."

Naruto pulled back with a serious expression, "No matter what happens I've got your back Sakura-chan. Now go out there and kick ass!"

Sakura grinned and gave one nod. She ventured out into the field more confident than she'd thought she'd ever be since witnessing Gaara and Lee's match during the preliminaries. The proctor, a tall man with a bandana and a senbon between his lips nodded as she stood the appropriate distance across from Gaara.

"Gaara Subaku and Sakura Haruno are you ready?"

Sakura nodded, lowering her stance. Gaara's unusually blank face turned slightly as if in curiosity before giving one nod.

"Begin!"

Sakura immediately sprinted forward to deliver a series of punches and kicks reminiscent to Lee's style of attack in his match but this time, when the sand rose up in Gaara's defense she made sure to leave something behind when she sprung back at the leisurely swipe of sand aimed toward her. A series of explosions bloomed in the sand littering the ground around Gaara's feet so large, Sakura could hear the crowd's screams of shock. After a few trials and errors that she will in no way mention to Kakashi-sensei, her tags were tweaked at 5 times the power of a normal exploding tag. She paid the astonished crowd no mind as she squinted at the billows of smoke. Feeling a prickle on the back of her neck she shunshined toward the opposite end of the arena at the edge of the small tree line.

"I knew it…I knew you were strong…"

Sand flew at her at all angles but Sakura was in her element, expertly dodging and using the sparse amount of trees as shields and springboards. Finally sensing Gaara's location she substituted herself with a tree branch then henging herself as a rock as close as she could get to him without being sensed.

Catching her breathe she strategized her best course of action.

"You can't hide from me Sakura Haruno."

"Shit!"

At the last moment Sakura was able to shunshin away from the mound of sand slamming the ground in her place. It didn't stop there. Gaara's sensing was on pars with Sakura's and he seemed to finally be taking her seriously. For a few tense moments all Sakura could do was remain on the defensive when she realized she was being backed toward the arenas walls. An idea she wasn't sure would work came to her and she sent a quick prayer to whoever would listen as she broke the first rule she ever learned in the academy.

Don't ever turn your back on an enemy.

If there was one thing she observed of Gaara's abilities it's that she could sense his sand. His chakra was infused with it after all. But just barely. She felt the incoming sand heading towards her back and just when she was about to run face first into the arena she sidestepped about a foot to the side before turning and jumping on the sand that impaled the wall. Her feet barley stuck to the surface but her control was flawless and she was determined. She sprinted on the sand whip straight towards Gaara with chakra infused legs. The tag she stuck immediately after landing on the sand went off and gave her such a burst of speed, her surroundings were nothing but a blur and the new waves of sand coming for her couldn't keep up.

Gaara's eyes widened as a shield of sand blocked her view but this was exactly what she wanted, "Water Style: Water Bullet!"

A small stream of water was all she could produce in her month of training but within short range it can create enough water for her take down his sand and as she brought her hands up to the mostly intact shield she sent a pulse of chakra that weighed the sand down enough for her kunai to land a hit on his shoulder.

The arena went silent in anticipation as Sakura shunshined once again to the other end of the arena. Panting she held herself up with a hand on the arena wall. Her chakra was low and she knew she only had maybe one more shunshin left in her.

'Please Kami tell me that hit did it.'

A piercing scream filled the air so loud it caused shivers to go down her spine. Gaara's sand wrapped itself into a dome the moment her hit landed so she couldn't be sure of the damage she'd done though she was sure she hit his shoulder.

"It hurts! It hurts! This pain!"

After seemingly a blink later the most gigantic sand wave she'd seen yet came at her with no room to sidestep or jump out of the way. She had no choice but to shunshin away and as her feet landed she felt her consciousness slipping and fell to one knee. Sakura struggled to stay awake when she felt another wave. Her heartbeat was loud in her ears. Her vision was spotting on the edges and her breathe ragged as despair dawned on her. The last memory she had was the sound of birds chirping.

"SAKURA!"