Chapter 4

Sakura closed her eyes.

"Angels they can keep." Sasuke scowled. "It's passing the pathetic lines of Konoha that counts. And thanks to you, Naruto, we've got problems." He advanced toward Naruto across the void. There as an anger and frustration in him that was making little attempt to control. Naruto stood with his arms crossed and his stare fixed, un intimidated, unimpressed.

"I mean, where do you get off challenging my authority in the field like that? I'm the damn team leader. I. And that's supposed to mean something."

"It does." Naruto glowered at the forefinger Sasuke was jabbing in his face. "It means I haven't broken your finger you've got. But if you don't put it away, it's a promise that you'll never look the same in gloves again."

"Are you threatening me? Is that a threat, Naruto?"

"Sasuke, this isn't getting us anywhere." Sakura stroked her hands over his shoulders and down his arms, entwining her fingers with his. "You can't just blame Naruto. We all messed up."

"That's right," Ino added. "There are six of us in Konoha's ninja team. It's not just the two of you." She smirked and cupped her hands at Naruto's ear. "Do you hear that, mister Macho Man?"

"Okay, okay. We're all to blame."

Some, Sasuke thought deeply, more than others. He was glad that Naruto didn't offer to shake hands.

"Awesome." Kiba approved. "Hey, look, now that we're all friends again, united in a sense of uncommon failure, here comes Saint Tsunade. Hey, Tsunade, did you send the Pearly Gates away for refurbishment? And what happened to the beard and the long white robe?"

"Kiba, if you devoted half as much energy to your ninja skills as you do to your useless chatter, your team would graduate within a week as Konoha's official Ninja Team, or we could say goodbye to you forever. For all of us, sadly, that doesn't appear likely, does it?"

The woman who materialized in what had been innocent white space did not look like an angel, or any of the gods. Tsunade regarded the team with sharp, brown eyes, her head swiveling on her pale neck.

"Tsunade, I know it looks kind of bad…." Sasuke was thinking of damage limitation.

"We reached the core though, didn't we? And we stopped two of the bombs." Sakura added. At least Sasuke could rely on her to loyally back him up.

"You failed, you imbeciles." Tsunade snapped. "You did what no team at Konoha can afford to do. You failed your mission. Disastrously. Completely. Abjectly. Utterly. Totally. Absolutely. Unforgivably. Pathetically."

"So hokage," Kiba interrupted. "If you were giving marks out of twenty…"

Tsunade pressed a stud on her belt. "I'm ending the program. Stand by for transfer."

The white void trembled uneasily. It flickered with sudden night. The glass shields of the cyber-cradles hissed and rose, releasing the teenagers from the digital drama of the Mizuki program into the rather less exotic environment of the school's virtual reality chamber. They sat up, blinking, rubbing their eyes. The transfer from one realm of experience to the other always took a little bit of adjustment.

But they were used to Tsunade standing there, waiting for them.

"Kakashi's place." She glowered. "In thirty minutes." The silence that followed was heavy with or else. Tsunade turned smartly and stomped her way from the chamber.

"You can never see Tsunade playing Mrs. Claus, can you?" Kiba inquired.

"I don't know." Sakura hauled herself out of the cradle, shook her limbs and stretched. "Tsunade, she's always so bad-tempered I never know whether she really means it or not."

"He means it now." Naruto said. "There's never any joke about Mizuki."

"Then we're really in trouble?" Ino paused in the arching of her back. "They can't fail us for this, can they? We get another chance, right? Sasuke?"

Sasuke glanced at Naruto. It was a petty triumph that Ino had directed her question to him rather than to his rival, but maybe the only one of the day. He wasn't too proud to make the most out of it.

"Come on, Ino, you know the rules. They told us at the start of this program. Each team gets three attempts at the Mizuki program. Three strikes and you're out. Non-negotiable. We're two down now."

"That's…." Ino seemed to be struggling to comprehend the situation in a mixture of defiance and despair. "But that's just…. we can't fail. I can't fail. You don't understand I've got to graduate.

"Well," Sasuke said pointedly. "Maybe some people ought to remember that the next time they feel like questioning a team leader's decisions in the field. I'm going for a shower."

As always, Sakura followed after Sasuke, but this time, Ino did too, still pressing for further information. Naruto waited until they'd left then thoughtfully slouched off himself.

Kiba watched Hinata. She hadn't actually climbed out of her cyber-cradle yet. She was sitting up in it hunched forward, almost like she wanted to be sick. Maybe she did. It occurred to Kiba that she hadn't said a word since their virtual deaths in the Mizuki program.

"Are you okay?" Kiba asked cautiously. Inmate inquiries into somebody's health or otherwise were not one of Kiba's strong points.

"No." She softly replied.

"You want me to fetch a bucket or something?"

"Is that supposed to be funny?"

"Actually, yes, but I'm thinking of getting some new material."

"Why don't you think about leaving me alone? I'm not in the mood, Kiba."

"It wasn't real, you know, Hinata. Mizuki, the bombs, what we did or didn't do. Don't let it get you down. It's just a training program. Nothing about it was real."

"But it would be." There was a pain in Hinata's eyes, and shock, and confusion. "One day it could be, couldn't it? We're training now because if we ever pass the course one day we'll be doing this for real. Mizukis exist, don't they? Madmen and their crazy schemes. One day real lives might well depend on us. And what happens then?"

"Then? Then we'll get it right." Kiba said. "I hope."

XXXXXXXXXX

Sakura walked the streets of town, a hood over her head, shielding herself from the rain. She wasn't going home, just walking off her pain. Sasuke had done it again, on the brink of insanity, she was sure he would have lost control of himself.

She had promised him a place to eat afterwards, but seeing the uneasy gaze in his eyes, or maybe the lack of rest in them repelled her. For the first time, she said no.

Disappointing to him, perhaps, but better than the possibility of Sasuke losing it again. They had been going out for a couple of weeks now, and Sakura was exhausted from all his anger shone towards Naruto. They never had any problems until the Konoha Ninja team was rallied.

The team's purpose was to defend Konoha at any given time, and there were other teams as well, but Sakura had ended up with Sasuke willingly, of course.

She had been walking in- apparently through shops, the heart of town, and wove her way through bars and gambling tents. Now, on the outskirts of town, she relaxed, watching the moon with emerald eyes. She was on a cliff top, her favorite place to be to let go of her troubles for once.

She lay down on the grass, her lips curing upward in a slight smile, she stared at the stars and scrutinized the numerous constellations. The stars were everywhere, and each one bright from her angle above town. She turned her head and watched the ground below her, the dizzying height of where she was.

It was there, gazing when a shadow was cast beside her. Without thinking or looking, she smiled.

"Hi, Sasuke."

"It's not Sasuke."

She gazed up, and Gaara was above her, gazing at the moon.

"Ah, hi, Gaara. I thought you were Sasuke."

"What are you doing?" He inquired. Sakura was silent, thinking why he didn't sound so solemn on this hour.

"I'm watching the stars." Her eyes shifted back to the wide domain of empty sky. "There's no clouds, and it's nicest to stare at them this way." She stood up and stood beside him, gazing at him bashfully.

He still decided not to look at her, she was a nuisance anyway.

"Come on, take a load off. Lay down." She offered. He looked at her silently. "Don't give me that look, Gaara. It's very relaxing.

"No thanks, I'm fine." He replied coldly. His words struck her like a hit on her shoulder. She scowled. She recovered easily.

"Hey, what happened to your gourd?" She inquired.

"I learned to conjure sand without it." He replied with ease. Sakura fell deeply in the sound of his words, the way he said them, deep and smooth. She shook herself out of the trance. What was that about?

"That's amazing, Gaara!" Her sudden outburst of joy surprised him. He finally looked at her expressionlessly. Her cheeks flushed.

"Come, on, Gaara. Want to walk with me?"

In the midst of her words, it was like Gaara's mind suddenly unclouded. She had such deep green eyes, her long cascade of hair…. she was beautiful. He stepped close to her, and she smiled. She had such a beautiful smile, the glory of seeing it was contagious, it was just.. it wasn't like him to think like this.

"Okay."

Sakura's eyes widened slightly. Okay. Following came a smile, worth a thousand miles to walk to. He had never smiled before in his life. She smiled back and as they walked into the forest, she spared glimpsing at him, at his handsome smile.

"So who's in your Konoha ninja team?" She inquired.

"Me, Kankurou, Neji, Temari, Shikamaru, and Lee. We passed today's virtual program." He said. Sakura bit her lip.

"Our team didn't pass. Sasuke was too stressed, and Naruto contradicted with his decision. It didn't go well." He was being an ass. Sakura thought in her mind.

"You have one more shot at becoming the Konoha ninja team. That'll be in a few weeks." Gaara reminded. Sakura held her head down.

"I know, and with Naruto and Sasuke always arguing, we're not going to do well." She clenched her teeth.

"I'm sure you'll do fine, you just need practice. And some way to get Sasuke and Naruto to agree somehow."

Sakura nodded her head. She never thought Gaara could talk this much.

"Thanks for your advice, Gaara." She smiled at him weakly.

He smiled back.

"Sakura…." Gaara hesitated. He stopped himself. "Never mind." Sakura just giggled. He knew it was a pretty idiotic statement for her to hear anyway. Sakura…. are you still with Sasuke? I'm sorry for all my sins. I'm sorry that.. I never told you I loved you one time.