Oh..my..gosh...
I am so sorry. Did I promise 1-2 weeks? Well, it's been 3 months. Please don't hurt me.
The chapter isn't much longer than the rest either, but I'm pretty happy with it. Some parts need some more tweaking, but I really don't know what to do, and it doesn't bother me that much...
Anyways, I'm really sorry guys. I lost track of time. And as a warning, I'm lost for the next chapter... If there's anything you want to see, tell me, and I'll try to find a way to put it in. Hope the chapter is okay...
-I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 11: Chunin Exam
x Part One: Written Exam x
I met up with Sasuke and Naruto in front of the academy building. Naruto was more ecstatic then usual, and Sasuke wouldn't say a word to me. I began wondering if I looked too fat. I had two free days where I trained harder than ever, and I didn't eat at all, but I still wasn't as skinny as before. I started to space out, and Naruto's shouting was easily blocked.
"Sakura-chan?" Naruto tilted his head and waved his hand in front of my face. "Are you ready to go in?"
He was holding the door open for me. "Oh, uh, yeah, sorry," I walked in quickly.
We all paced down the hall to the exam room. When we walked in, there were rows of desks with people scattered in random spaces. The chunin at the door asked for our names and gave us our numbers. Naruto and Sasuke nodded when I looked at them, and we all went to sit in our assigned place. The test was already passed out on the desk, and I began as I sat down.
There were at least twenty chunin sitting around us, watching for any cheaters. I was put in front with two guys, who were about twice my size, around me. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, our proctor, Ibiki, seemed to be staring at me intently.
Two scars crossed his face that added to his cold and serious expression. Fear was brought into my eyes the first second I saw him.
I tried to ignore his constant look, along with the easily caught glances from the two beside me. The questions were relatively easy, but you had to go through multiple steps to get an answer. I was stumped at times, and my headache wasn't helping either.
I tapped my pencil softly against the desk as I thought. There was a ripple of chunin calling out the names of those who cheated. The clock was ticking in the front of the room, and we only had fifteen minutes left. My heart was beating, and I could feel a bead of sweat falling down my brow. Five minutes were left, and I had two unanswered questions. I concentrated harder, but I was too late.
"That's it. Time's up," Ibiki announced. Pencils clattered on all the desks, and Ibiki began speaking again. "For all those who think that they didn't pass, stand up now, and you and your team will be free to leave. Next year you will be able to take the exam again. And for those who think they passed, if it turns out that you really failed, you will have to wait another four years before taking the exam."
Slowly, hands were raised, and teams walked out the door.
My body was still frigid. I couldn't even work up enough courage to turn around to see how many people were left. My guess was, there were about a fourth of the people remaining. Ibiki finally spoke again, making me flinch. His eyes scanned the desks, making sure no one else wanted to leave, and he began explaining the purpose of the exam.
"Once you all walked in and looked at the test, you would've realized they were different. They were designed to make you think, and if you couldn't process them, you were forced to cheat…"
My mind started trailing away as Ibiki kept talking. My eyes drooped, but my ears perked up when I heard him announce that we all passed. The written exam was over, which meant I was one step closer to becoming a chunin, and one step closer to winning Sasuke.
xXx
Chunin Exam Part 2: Breakthrough
I walked uneasily along Sasuke and Naruto. The sun was starting to set, so it was getting harder to see. All three of us turned around to the bushes that rustled behind us. A small squirrel stumbled out, and we relaxed. Within a second, Sasuke was taken away by an enemy ninja. I gasped and was knocked back by an enemy ninja. The headband she wore said she was from the sound village.
My lungs were throbbing as I held my breath and watched the largest ninja stalk towards Naruto. Naruto's brow curved in concentration when he took a defensive stance.
The enemy chuckled. "Relax, all we want is your scroll, so hand it over and no one gets hurt."
"I'm not giving anything up without a fight!" Naruto yelled. He lunged towards the ninja with a kunai, but was easily blocked.
I was too busy watching Naruto's fight, I didn't notice the girl come behind me. She jerked my hair up pressing a kunai to the throat at the same second.
"You wouldn't happen to have to scroll, would you?" her silky voice asked.
I shook my head no, and finally let out a breath when she let go. I looked back to Naruto's fight only to see that he fell unconscious when the ninja knocked him against the tree.
"He doesn't have the scroll we need," the enemy said after searching Naruto.
"What a waste of time," the girl scoffed. "It was so easy to beat them. The group is too weak."
The words that the enemy said confused me. Naruto didn't have the scroll, Sasuke did. In that case, did Naruto take the scroll from the enemy? I heard light breathing behind me as the two ninja trudged away.
"Sakura," Sasuke whispered behind me, "I got away, but he's still following me. We have to move. I'll get Naruto. Start going to the tower."
Before I had time to reply, Sasuke was picking up Naruto in front of me. I got to my feet and jumped on the branch. Sasuke joined me and we started running to the tower.
"Who's after us?" I asked.
"Some sound ninja, but he isn't after the scroll."
I was more confused now than ever. The exam was starting to take its toll on me, and we weren't even halfway through it.
Before I could dodge it, a kunai pierced my leg. I flinched at the wound and started falling. Sasuke tried to beat me to the ground, but I hit it before he did. We were further into the forest, but it looked the same as where we were before. Sasuke stared at my leg and back up at me.
"I'm fine," I muttered. More weapons were thrown at us and I curled up, waiting for the pain. Sasuke blocked all of them before they could hit us, and he jumped to where they came from. A sound ninja came from the tree and clashed with Sasuke. They immediately began fighting. The two were almost invisible, but you could still hear when their weapons made contact. I concentrated on the fight, but a sting in my leg made me focus on it instead.
The cut wasn't too deep, so the bleeding wasn't that bad. I wrapped bandages around it and leaned back on a tree. Even though the pain wasn't too bad, if I tried to fight the cut would open up again and I would be more trouble than help.
Sasuke and the ninja paused for a moment, and I watched as Sasuke made a tiger seal. I felt an immense heat on my face and waited for the smoke to clear. I heard Sasuke scream and I gasped, causing me to cough.
The smoke was gone along with the enemy who was standing on a branch. Sasuke was left kneeling on the ground, his hand tightly clutching the back of his neck. Ignoring the pain in my leg, I struggled as I ran to him.
"What did you do to Sasuke?" I yelled.
A smirk fell on the ninja's face while his tongue licked his lips. "I gave him a gift. He'll come to me for power, and I'll grant his wish."
I cringed in disgust, but I forgot about him when Sasuke screamed again.
"Sasuke, are you okay? What happened?" I attacked him with questions, but never got an answer. I took his hand to try to comfort him when he fell to the ground with another yell. The grip he had tightened until my fingers turned purple, but I didn't pay attention to it. One last scream escaped from him, and he fell unconscious.
Tears welled up in my eyes as I laid him down by Naruto. I never saw Sasuke like this. He was never hurt that badly. Something was out of place. There was no way a bruise on his neck could hurt him that much.
After watching over Naruto and Sasuke, my head was nodding and my eyes were begging to close. Naruto was out for over an hour, and Sasuke was panting. He had a high fever causing beads of sweat to drip down his face. Trying to stay awake, I took the wet cloth from his forehead and laid a new one on.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke. I'm sorry, Naruto. I failed again. I wasn't able to protect you. You guys have always protected me, but look what I have done for you. You guys are laying here unconscious because of me. I should've done something to help, or I could've tried," my throat went dry. "Sasuke, you never accepted me, but I guess that doesn't matter anymore. The changes I made drove you away. My hair," I laughed bitterly, "I grew it out for you. Nothing changed. You still hated me."
I took a kunai out and cut through my pink locks.
"My training made no difference. I'm still just as weak as before. You hated my dieting the most. I became beautiful, but to you, I wasn't," I began whispering. "I guess it doesn't matter anymore. I'm just a broken toy that can't be fixed, but you don't care. I'm just another annoying fan-girl."
Tears fell from my eyes and they threatened to close on me, but I wouldn't lose the fight. I felt my stomach churn slightly. This was enough for me to stay awake. I had my hunger back; the hunger that I loved. Sasuke tensed and his uneven breathing started becoming steady. Suddenly, his eyes opened, and the bruise on his neck grew over half of his body.
He looked at me with his sharingan, but his eyes didn't look the same. His glare was full of hatred. I tried to move back but the tree I was leaning on stopped me.
A black chakra was swirling around him as he walked closer to me. My eyes widened in fear.
The marks on him began growing down his leg. His blood red eyes stared harder when he came at me with a kunai. I scrambled trying to run away, but then he appeared in front of me. I winced at the pain in my leg, finding that the cut opened, and he seemed to watch the blood that was staining the bandages.
Sasuke took a step towards me, and I took a step back. He had an evil smirk on, while I had a scared look.
"You cut your hair," I heard him whisper.
He narrowed his eyes at me. I widened my eyes even bigger when he ran towards me, hitting my stomach.
"Sasuke, what are yo-" I was cut off by another hit.
"Sasuke, I-"
I desperately tried to block and run away from him. This wasn't the Sasuke I knew. There was no way I could fight him back.
He was about to come at me again when I screamed out to him. "Sasuke, stop it!"
He came behind me and whispered, "Why should I?" He took another hit at me, knocking me across the field.
"You're already killing yourself, so why shouldn't I kill you right now? I already tried to convince you to stop, but you didn't listen," he stopped attacking me.
"Sakura," He rasped, "When was the last time you ate?"
"T-this m-" I stuttered.
"Tell me the truth," he demanded.
I looked at the ground. "3 days ago…"
"So you're back to your old self?" he picked me up, and pushed me into the tree. "Sakura: the fan-girl, the weakling, the anorexic."
I said nothing.
"She chases with a tinted pink face. She grows out her hair, wishing that she'd win attention. She studies hard, hoping to impress. She trains excessively, damaging her body more than doing good. And last of all, She starves herself to the point where she's barely alive," He rambled. "So tell me, why are you doing this?"
I kept my lips shut. There was no way I would tell him. His eyes flashed red, and from the corner of my eye I saw them spin.
"So?" He pressed.
I broke my silence. "It's nothing," I whispered.
"Anorexia is nothing?" His eyes looked directly into my eyes, and I couldn't look away. "This "starving for attention" is nothing?"
"I'm not anorexic, and I'm not starving myself!" I screamed.
"Sakura, you're killing yourself! Why are you so dense? How is that invisible to you? You know it's true"
"Don't talk about me like you know me! You don't know what I've been through!" I fell to the ground. "I'm not doing this for you."
"Then tell me why."
"…I just want to believe her…" I began in an inaudible voice. "I want to be beautiful…"
Sasuke scoffed, not hearing what I said. "That's what I thought." I saw the marks on him recede back to his neck.
Somewhere inside of me, I found confidence. "You're wrong, Sasuke. I'm not doing this for you. I already gave that up a while ago. This," I pointed to myself, "this, is for me."
He pinned me against a tree again, his blood-red eyes burning me. "You're going to stop, Sakura."
"I don't want to," I spat. "I finally have something. I'm not going to give it up."
"Sakura, do I have to spell it out for you?" he raised his voice. "I care about you okay? I've always cared about you! I thought that I made that clear enough." He turned his back to me. "When I said everyone was worried about you, I meant me included."
"Sasuke, I didn't-"
"Make me a promise," he commanded.
I nodded slowly, unsure.
"Sakura," he said flatly, "you're not going to do this anymore. You're not going to starve yourself. You're not going to be anorexic."
I shook my head no.
"Sakura," he said.
"Sasuke, I can't… Kakashi tried to get me out of it, but it didn't work. The thought of it-" I was cut off by his lips crushing mine.
I closed my eyes and tears started falling. Sasuke pulled away when he felt the water on his cheek.
"I'll help you out of it," he insisted.
"I can't…"
"Sakura, if you keep doing this, you're going to die."
"I don't care! I have to make her proud…" I retorted.
Out of surprise, I started spilling out everything, just like when I was talking to Kakashi. "Before, my mom was always there to soothe me. She told me how beautiful I was, but I thought that she only said that because it was her job. She was my mother, she would love me no matter what," I smiled as tears came to my eyes. "She was all I had, and she was ripped away from me."
I saw Sasuke's fist tighten at my last sentence. "You and I both."
He took a step backwards, giving me more space to move, and I wrapped my arms around him.
"That's why, Sasuke. I can't let her down…" I sobbed.
"You aren't letting anyone down. She doesn't want you to die, Sakura. We're going to get you out of this."
I nodded, and he rubbed my arm.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun…" I wiped my tears away.
"We need to get out of here," he said, picking up Naruto and walking to the middle of the forest where the tower was.
I followed behind him, limping as I walked. There wasn't another attack as we walked. Naruto finally began waking up, and the three of us walked with each other.
"Sakura-chan, what happened to your leg? Are you okay? And your hair! What happened to it? Did you cut it?" Naruto asked, forgetting to give me time to answer.
"I'm fine Naruto, don't worry." I said, tripping.
Sasuke took my arm, and put it over his shoulder. His arm wrapped around my waist. Occasionally he winced at the pain in his neck, but he endured it.
The three of us were tired and bruised all over. My eyes were drooping again, so Sasuke was about to put me on his back, but his neck was hurting too much.
Naruto crouched down in front of me, and I put my arms on his shoulders as he held me up. Sasuke glared at him, and I laughed. Finally, I could get some sleep.
xXx
Chunin Exam Part 3: Disappointment
Sasuke woke me up when we were at the tower. I thanked Naruto and got off his back.
"Hey guys, we made it," I said cheerfully.
I took my two teammate's hands, and together we walked through the doors. Iruka greeted us and asked for the two scrolls. Sasuke took his out, and Naruto pulled the second from his pocket. Iruka pointed us to another room where we were to wait.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed.
Sasuke pulled his hand away from mine, and walked towards Kakashi. I looked down at the ground. I knew he was telling him about what happened. I joined my two teammates, but kept my gaze down.
"So, you guy's have passed the first two parts," Kakashi said. "Congratulations. Now all you have to do is pass this part, and you'll be a chunin."
I looked up at him in surprise. He didn't look mad, but I knew he was hiding it.
Kakashi left us, and we walked out to form a line where all the others were standing.
"Alright, since there are more students than we thought there would be, you guys are going to have to fight in a preliminary round," the proctor said. "Before we start, is there anyone who would like to leave, or anyone who has a teammate who is injured?"
A few students raised their hands and left the room. Sasuke turned around to me.
"Sakura, you aren't fighting. You know why, and you can barely walk, anyway," he spoke.
"That's not fair! And what about you?" I protested. Sasuke was about to raise his hand, but I slapped it down.
"No, I'm going to fight in this whether you like it or not," I said in disagreement.
"Anyone else before we start?" the proctor asked.
Sasuke put his other hand up before I could stop him.
"Uchiha, you're leaving?"
"No, my teammate is hurt," he replied.
"Alright, Kakashi get down here."
I glared at Sasuke as I limped up the stairs with Kakashi. He took my bloodied bandages off my leg, and put new ones on it. When he was done, he looked at me.
"I'm sorry, sensei…" I looked down again. When he said nothing, I started asking about the bruise on Sasuke's neck.
"Sensei, can I ask you something?"
He raised his eyebrow at me.
"Sasuke… while we were in the forest, someone bit him, and now he has a bruise on his neck," I started. "There was a moment when it grew over half of his body… When that happened-"
"He wasn't himself? Don't worry, Sakura. I'll take care of it." He reassured.
Sasuke's fight was first, and when he finished, Kakashi took him away.
I sat alone and sighed. A part of me was happy Sasuke took my out of the exam, but the other part wanted to become a chunin. The fight was only a preliminary, so there would be a next fight in a month. Sasuke would be busy training with Kakashi, and if he was more worried about that, he wouldn't pay attention to me. Maybe things were better this way. Maybe it was better if he left me alone.
I couldn't know for sure. All I knew was, the next month would be a long one.
Was this okay? Thanks for reading. I'm really sorry... The next chapter... I don't know when it's coming out, but I'll be writing every single second i get. If not, brainstorming because I don't know what to write next.
