Unwashed bowls stacked up. Adjacent to the wall of swimsuit models was a promotional poster of the Nobi Noodle company. Scattered across the floor were training weights and a weave of scrolls stopped short of the plant collection in the corner.
The kitchen revealed more species of hosta and a thriving pot of spathiphyllum. Empty cabinet. Empty cabinet. Anko blinked at the crate of cup ramen in the last cabinet, before deciding to scavenge the fridge instead. One carton of milk. Expired.
Connecting the Uzumaki residence to the Haruno residence was a convenient hole in the middle of their kitchen wall. Anko ducked through to find the blueprints for both kitchens as mirror copies of one another, although the second room had arguably less plant, less factory-processed miso, and less bikini bombshells.
From the window blew a breeze that fluttered the paperwork, straining to free from a half-filled mug. The office atmosphere continued, with a box of tea packets seated next to the kettle, and the cabinets bare of anything except vitamin bottles. Anko tried the fridge. One can of anmitsu. Expired.
Skipping a trip wire, she peeked into the bedroom. It was not any cleaner than the previous bedroom, an explosion of books and underwear all around. The room was also more claustrophobic, with three of the four walls converted to bookshelves, walls of stitch bindings that insulated the space from floor to ceiling. The air stood still, strong of ink and cellulose decay.
Done, Anko exited the apartment complex in favor of uptown.
"Aw yeah, now this is what I'm talking about!" Anko stretched in the king sized bed, before hopping off to explore what the wealth of the Uchiha had to offer.
Unfortunately, the Uchiha proved to be as austere as they were wealthy. Aesthetics were minimalistic and same went for utility, the kitchen empty of even a pot or pan. All shades were down, windows shut, creating a cold atmosphere.
While the space was comfortable, the sparse furniture added to the lonely feel. The emptiness did not translate into cleanliness either, as her fingers picked up a trail of dust off the table, so thick that one had to wonder if anyone lived here.
Anko was not surprised when the fridge had nothing past one store package of onigiri. And of course, expired.
.
The alarm blared in beep beep beep, until finally stopped by a slam of the button.
"Get up."
"Five more minutes, okaa-chan," Naruto mumbled, rubbing his cheek against a pillow. Despite her poking, he buried deeper into the covers and wiggled away.
Eye twitching, Sakura pressed her foot against his cheek. "Up. We're meeting our new sensei today."
"EH?" Naruto bolted upright, his face slamming into the notice in her hands. "Mitarashi?" he read.
After snatching their supplies, the duo ran to their meeting spot, a field on the outskirts of the village. Sasuke was already at the post but made no effort to acknowledge their presence. Naruto, who usually mouthed off whenever they came in contact, also refused to make eye contact.
After rolling through scrolls for a silent ten minutes, Sakura became fed up with their awkwardness. They had been weird ever since Land of Waves, like they had confessed love or something and now can't live up to the consequences.
"So, guess what, boys!" she exclaimed. "I just caught up on a season marathon of Sailor Stars this past weekend, and oh mai gosh, I can't believe I never realized how incredibly hot the old villains were! One of them got this, like, beautiful, white hair that just shines in the moonlight, and his chest, hm, it's just so-"
Sasuke coughed. Naruto jumped at the opportunity. "Oh, what's that Sasuke, you want to spar? Over there? Yeah sure, I'd be glad to kick your ass, ahaha!"
When they left, Sakura dropped her act and returned to the profile of Mitarashi Anko. She frowned when no such name showed up in any of the teaching records. That was impossible. The Hokage could not have set them up with a non-certified teacher... could he?
Her thought was broken by a distant explosion. While she hid the stolen scrolls, her teammates stopped in time to see a figure strut out of the smoke, overcoat fluttering behind.
The woman licked her lips. "Hello, kittens."
Sakura had met this Mitarashi person for a total of five seconds before deciding that she really did not like her. While their former teacher had a tendency to be late, their new teacher seemed to be unpredictably early. She also appeared to like flashiness as opposed to Kakashi's sneakiness, given the amount of unnecessary land damage her entrance created.
Nonetheless, Sakura planted on her brightest smile. "Good morning! Are you our-"
Anko cut into her introduction. "Let's make this quick. Who's the loser jinchūriki and who's the loner Uchiha."
Instead of an answer, Anko got a charge in her direction, alongside a "Who you calling a loser!" She did not bat an eyelash.
A monster anaconda lowered Naruto to eye level. "Guess this feisty one is the foxie." She smiled, watching him struggle under increasing constriction, his cheeks a rising blue.
She turned to the remaining children. That left one of these two as the Uchiha, and it was not the bubblegum.
"Oho, I see the family resemblance."
It was an offhanded remark that Sakura would have ignored had the air not froze, her teammate gone rigid. But before Sasuke could act, a presence flickered behind him. Fingers relieved him of the shuriken hidden in his grip. "Just kidding," Anko whispered in his ear. "This level of skill isn't even a shadow of your brother's."
Sasuke lost control and screamed, twisted around with a kunai for a reverse-grip stab.
He was slammed into the ground.
"Quite the eye candy though," Anko chuckled, her breath tangible on his skin. They were close enough for Sasuke to see the individual weave of her mesh shirt, feel the weight of her pendant on his chest. Gritting his teeth, he fought to free his wrists against her grip. When that failed, he kicked.
She not only caught his ankle but lifted it. "You're only making this easier for me, kitten." The mirth in her eyes matched the shine in her teeth.
Sasuke stopped, a cold sweat down his back.
While one of her teammates got molested and the other faced asphyxiation, Sakura contemplated her own options. She shifted her eyes, half-tempted to take advantage of her insignificance and leave. In the end, she settled for diplomacy.
"Um, I apologize for my teammates' outbursts, sensei, but if you do not let them go, then I'll have to..."
The woman rotated her head a frighteningly unnatural, if not impossible, angle in her direction. "To what?"
Sakura swallowed at the impenetrable smile. "I'll have to file a report for inappropriate conduct," she said, serious.
There was a pause. Then, a burst of laughter.
At a beckon, the anaconda threw its victim. Sakura caught Naruto in her arms before colliding into the trunk of a tree. Sasuke slammed into them a second later, and Sakura felt the last of her breath exit through her spleen.
"I think I like this team," Anko said, petting her snake summon. "Name's Mitarashi Anko. Feel free to look me up in binder 412, sector B of those stolen files you got there."
Sakura withdrew her hand from the satchel as if burned. However, Anko showed no interest in turning them to the authorities. Instead, she threw a kunai. It impaled the bark a centimeter from Sakura's ear, a paper note dangling off the edge.
"As you've probably realized, we jōnin are allowed to impose an assessment test on you twerps. Well, there's mine." She turned her back to the trio and signed her farewell, as if they just had a pleasant conversation on the street. "G'luck!"
The anaconda spiraled around her body, and both disappeared.
After they were sure she was gone, Sakura tugged free the note. On it were two words.
'Feed me.'
.
"And we thought Kakashi was lousy," Naruto wheezed, rubbing his neck.
Beside him came another blast. Sasuke breathed heavily before the obliterated post. "How that degenerate even got into the system is beyond me." He stabbed a kunai into the dirt, finished. "I say she disappears."
"Aw, scared the big bad sensei will steal your virtue?"
Naruto's laugh was shut up by a glare.
"Actually, it says here she's a sex offender." Sakura pulled free a list of misconduct. "And a registered pedophile?"
While Sasuke fought to not strangle himself just then, Sakura read through the rest of their new teacher's profile. Kakashi had been trained in silent killing, a solo agent sent to perform assassinations with the highest discretion. In contrast, Anko specialized in team infiltration, and most of her operations appeared to be DA. Which, translated for Naruto, meant boom, get in, blow everything up, boom, get out.
Disregarding their personal judgment, it became apparent why the Hokage kept her active despite the criminal charges. Besides Kakashi, no one had a mission record that extensive or a success rate that high.
"Well, she's qualified, but does she suit our purposes?" Sakura mulled, examining the spread of documents in whole.
"Or should we replace her with someone more controllable," Sasuke said.
"Or you know, turn her into one." Naruto cracked his knuckles, his humor gaining an edge of mischievousness. "Who's up for teaching our new sensei a lesson."
A pinch of his ear dragged him back in place. "Don't epically piss her off just yet," Sakura said. "Like it or not, that woman is now the main voucher of our paycheck. We can't afford to create unnecessary strains in our relationship." She turned to Sasuke. "While I'm all up for getting assigned a better sensei, what are the chances we do? In terms of competence, I doubt we'll get any higher."
After an extended silence, Naruto asked, "So... pedophile snake lady it is, then?"
They came to a mutual agreement. Now, for the test...
That night, the air steamed in savory delight. Expanding across the table were golden crisped perfection, cuts of steaming fish, silken cubes of tofu, skewers of sesame wings, and the peaks of crab legs amidst a nest of mushrooms, all complete with an assortment of sweets and the finest liquor.
Sitting across in the restaurant table were Naruto, still in dismay over his wallet, Sakura, twitching with exuberant amounts of hospitality, and Sasuke, holding trap wires under the table in case this plan did not end in disaster.
Anko stared at the food. Then, with a hearty smile, she crushed the trio in a hug. "I knew we were going to be BFFs!"
Without further ado, she proceeded to munch down. The plates emptied in astonishing time, enough to make Naruto stop coveting his wallet and snatch up a pair of chopsticks. "Oi, leave some for me!" he yelled, working to fill his own bowl. Several minutes in, Sakura lost to temptation, discarded all civic manner, and wolfed down as well. Which just left Sasuke watching with general distaste, trying to not twitch as food particles smacked him in the face and hair.
At the very least, their teacher passed them. By the twentieth slam of her sake cup, she exhaled in satisfaction. "Pack well, kittens. We going hunting the morrow!"
True to her word, Iruka experienced an aneurism the next day when a cannonball shot into the window of the Mission Assignment Office. Anko walked past the shattered glass.
"Alright, we're going to need a mission here! No, not that one. No. Not a chance. Hell no. Fuck that!" Before the Iruka knew it, Anko had taken an assignment scroll. With a grin, she stabbed a kunai into the name of one client. "Give us him."
"That's an B-rank mission!" Iruka cried.
Anko frowned at the B-scroll, then tossed it aside in favor of another one. "Yeah, you're right, too pussy. This one."
Iruka turned to the Hokage in hopes that he would tell the madwoman that no, freshly-made genin did not take on an A-rank missions. Unfortunately for him, the Hokage was too exhausted to deal with this after reasoning with Gai minutes prior. "Just don't get them killed."
"Hokage-sama! You can't be serious! This is-"
Iruka found himself pulled across the desk, hazel eyes blaring into his. "None of your business."
"Yes it is. Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, those were my students-"
"Were." Grin never fading, Anko dropped him flat on the desk. "Were your students."
On her way out, she threw the mission scroll to the team. "Ever broke into prison?" she asked.
When they shook their heads, she chuckled. "Let's hope your last mission wasn't a fluke then."
.
"That was FUN!" Anko exclaimed, marching back toward the village gate.
Behind her tagged three bleary-face, disenchanted pupils. Who may or may not have undergone starvation and torture. Everything hurt. Everything. Sakura could feel the laceration on her back reopening, and while she was carrying a limping Naruto the day prior, she now needed the support of Sasuke to keep from falling herself. Sasuke did not look like he could last much longer though.
He did not. At the gate, Sasuke collapsed, which led to the inevitable fall of the other two. There was not enough energy for a single complaint.
They were permitted an one-week resting period, spent entirely at the hospital, before Anko dropped down from the ceiling with their next assignment, which upon the completion of, they found the hospital once more. One month in, and they were on first name basis with half of the medical staff.
Sakura was forcing herself to focus on a book, her body switching between needle pain and numb, when a set of footsteps unexpectedly stopped by her door. A figure leaned against the doorway, bouquet of violets in arm.
"She lives." Ino smirked.
"Ino!" Pain forgotten, Sakura bolted upright, only to enter a minor convulsion. The next second, she felt the softness of arm warmers against her back, smelled the earthy perfume in the knit of Ino's dress.
"Whoa, relax there, girl." Ino laid her back down, the bouquet forgotten on the floor. "Heard from Asuma-sensei. Your team got some crazy teacher?"
She. Had. No. Idea.
Sakura swore Anko was intentionally trying to get them killed. And Anko would have succeeded had it not been for Naruto and his rampaging kyūbi mode. No matter how Sakura calculated, not even a team of elite jōnin could have guaranteed survival in Blood Prison, Ryūchidō, Shumisen, and Jōmae. Oh gods, Jōmae.
A sympathetic wince. "That bad?"
Sasuke was in a week-long coma. Naruto lost his appetite for ramen. It was that bad.
Ino's gaze fell toward the book in Sakura's lap, a web of neurological code. Her eyes lit in recognition.
"We can't keep surviving off dumb luck," Sakura mumbled, running her thumb over the print. If their team did not expand their arsenal of skills, and fast, they may not wake up to a hospital ceiling the next time.
A poke to the forehead snapped Sakura out of her thoughts. Ino stuck out her tongue. "Well, you aren't going to get far with those shitty textbooks."
Sakura had only been in the Yamanaka library twice. The first time, she wandered into the basement of Ino's home by accident. The second time, Ino's father threw her the key and asked the girls to retrieve a few brushes for him. He had given Sakura a wink. "We can trust you to not spill our clan secrets, ne?"
The library was outdated relative to the architecture upstairs. The chestnut floors had abraded into gray, the shelves containing stacks of paper-bound books alongside jars of ink. In bins were rolls of heavier scrolls, untouched for years. The overhead lights flickered unpredictably, but Inoichi never got around to fixing it.
Yet, despite the unremarkable atmosphere, Sakura knew there was more shinobi knowledge in one scroll than the entire public library.
Books of the public library were drafted by government officials, self-proclaimed historians, news reporters, speculation theorists, and the occasional third-rate war veteran. Almost all of them were civilian.
Books of clan libraries were written by the legends of shinobi history. They were written by first creators of any jutsu, the innovators and application experts who documented their findings for the benefit of their descendants. They did not write hearsay, but instructions. What a technique is. How to execute it. Where to modify it.
On the floor, Sakura flipped through their genjutsu section, her notebook blackened with notes. While she studied, Ino studied her, the callouses on her hands, the bandages covering the wounds on her arms and back. Even her face was marred, a particularly rough stitch from her hairline down to her temple.
Her eyes narrowed. "Say Sakura, are your teammates... dependable?"
Sakura stopped her pencil. "We look out for each other's asses. Yours?"
Ino made a face. "Eh. You know we have this family tradition," she said. "Doesn't mean I wouldn't prefer a team with you."
Their eyes met, and Sakura caught a sight of something that Ino's shrug could not brush away. Sakura softened. "You don't have to look over me anymore, Ino."
Ino scoffed. She changed the topic. "What are you studying?"
Tucking the pencil behind her ear, Sakura spread the scroll out wider.
"My team's weakness."
.
Team 7 was not stagnant.
Over the past months, Sasuke had diversified his skill set. While Naruto faced uncontrollable, flaring energy flows and Sakura relied on conscious manipulation, Sasuke found chakra second nature. He could slow his chakra for suppression and fasten it for acceleration, allowing him to reach impossible reflexes. Sakura had also noticed his talent for clever improvisation and good judgment, which made him well suited in the face of emergency interventions.
Meanwhile, Naruto had developed his ninjutsu to unprecedented levels. After examining his abilities, Sakura calculated his number of clones as an exponential decay function with time, with the upper threshold at one thousand clones for twelve seconds. His henge had also extended duration, with improvements on imitating weight, volume, and density. Put together, the two techniques could copy any person or thing they need.
They were speed and versatility, offense and defense, a sword and a shield. But if not properly used, both will break.
Naruto yanked off his IV, while Sasuke strained to pry the comforter off. Sakura clutched their latest mission scroll, watching their teacher flicker out.
"Eh, Sakura-chan, where did Anko-sensei go?"
"Apparently, she had other duties." Sakura crushed the scroll in her grip. "Looks like we're by ourselves on this one."
"What-!" Thud. Naruto whipped around to see Sasuke's body on the floor. "Oi, Sasuke!"
Outside, Anko grinned at the yells from the hospital room. As they say, the worst shinobi receives no scars; the mediocre shinobi, some; the good shinobi, many. And the best shinobi, none.
Her team better learn quick.
.
The mission was for another Daimyo with family problems. Great. Red light district. Figures.
The brothel was located in a wealthy, well-protected city. This meant Anko's usual tactic was not applicable. Good, because as great as unleashing god powers on their foes was, Sakura rather not depend on kyūbi chakra again. They would plan, and they would do this without violence.
"There's at least eight guards, and that's only the outer wall," Naruto reported, shedding his disguise. In the hotel room, Sakura stared at the incomplete blueprint. Given the geometry of the land, she estimated at least twenty rooms, not including the guest lounges or massage chambers. If she had to extrapolate their financial figures, then they were looking at approximately thirty sex workers to interrogate and one object to extract. They had five hours.
Going undercover may be the best option, she concluded.
"Eh! But aren't you worried some pervert will touch you and... stuff?" Naruto blurted out.
Sakura did not spare a blink. "Who said I would be the one to go undercover?" she said. "This job requires someone attractive." And a flat chested girl with a wide forehead did not fit the requirement.
Sasuke noticed Naruto eye him with an aghast expression. "She isn't talking about me," he growled.
It took Naruto more than a minute to process that.
"Me?!" he asked Sakura.
"If I remember correctly, you were quite proud to display this so-called sexy jutsu in front of class."
Naruto felt his face flush to the color of a beet. "What, no, that was... that's not-!"
Sasuke smirked at Naruto's panic. "Maybe next time, you'll think before you invent stupid jutsu. Never know when it'll bite you in the ass."
Sakura smiled endearingly. "Or fuck you in the ass."
Naruto backed up into the wall. He could not help but feel ganged up. And exploited.
Thankfully, Sakura dropped the tease. If the plan went successfully, they should be done within an hour with no drama.
"Okay, the plan is simple. Naruto, I need two copies, one henged as a man..."
At that, Naruto blinked in confusion. Sakura could not help but smile at his naivety. "... handsome, mid-thirties. The second, henged as a suitcase of money. Now, once you get in, don't freak out if some inanimate object starts talking to you..."
It was a quarter past eight when Sakura positioned herself on a neighboring roof, watching Naruto push open the main door of the brothel. From the shadows, Sasuke had already entered in through the back.
Closing her eyes, Sakura entered a meditative state.
In the darkness of her mind, she focused on Naruto's chakra signature first, weaving through tunnels and strings of light until there stood a door. She had already been given the key to enter.
"All of them, okyaku-sama?"
Grinning, Naruto leaned against the counter, suitcase clicked open. "Will that be a problem?"
When the hostess disappeared to find the manager, Naruto released a breath. He seated himself in one of the chaises and picked up the nearest magazine.
The bikini model on the cover page winked. "Looks like it's going well so far."
"Gah!" Naruto dropped the magazine back on the table.
"I told you to not freak out," the picture said with a growl.
"Sakura-chan?!"
"Don't talk, you idiot." A mouth morphed out of the magazine cover. "Don't look at me either. People will notice."
That was a little difficult to do with an origami mouth floating in front of his face. Just what on earth...?
"You remember in Jōmae when I said I was going to fix our coordination issue?" said the mouth. "Well, this is it. Before you left, I placed a neurological link between our chakra. I'm using that now to access your consciousness and alter your sensory perception. You're basically under a mild genjutsu."
Naruto blinked. And a genjutsu is...?
Sakura wanted to facepalm. "Instead of earpiece walkie-talkie, you have imaginary walkie-talkie. And imaginary walkie-talkie is me," the mouth broke down line by line.
Oh! Cool! Naruto beamed. His lips pulled into a grin. That means he could dial in Sasuke?
"I'm not proficient enough to link you boys directly together, but I have separate line with him, yes."
Eh, so Sakura could listen in to his thoughts too? Heh, she should be careful. For all she knew, Sasuke could be a closet pervert, his mind running with XXX stuff-
The mouth morphed into a fist.
"It's not just hearing and sight that I can alter, you know!"
In the hallways, Sasuke noticed his shadow pop out of the ground, forming a series of calligraphic characters. 'Go to northern wing.' The kanji rearranged themselves. 'Naruto found target. Evidence is a hairpin. Red.'
When the shadows returned to normal, Sasuke flickered out.
.
"Not bad, kittens, not bad."
The team felt their eyes twitch when Anko munched down on another bite of yakitori. "Give me the pin. I'll bird it over to the Daimyo. In the meantime, go fill out the mission report."
Before they could leave the sake restaurant, she beckoned them back, three pieces of paper tucked between her fingers. "A little reward."
Anko smirked at their reaction. "Don't fail me, eh? I'm on a bet with some of the other jōnin instructors. My all-you-can-eat buffet is riding on the line."
The lick of her tongue sent a chill down their spines. No one looked forward to the glorious missions Anko had lined up for them should they fail this promotion.
On the street, Sakura read through her chūnin exam form. It gave little information, just that they had the prerequisites to take the exam. She bit her lips at the stamped date. Seven days from now.
"No, Konohamaru-chan!"
Down the road was a conflict between three Academy students and two foreign nin. Judging from their attire, Sunagakure.
Naruto recognized the student choked by his scarf, held up high by a shinobi in kabuki face paint. "Hey! You fatass, let Konohamaru go!"
"Naruto-!" Sakura reacted too late.
Naruto had already sprinted forth. Three steps in, he lost balance, his butt making an unsightly smack against the road.
Sakura felt her eye twitch.
Konohamaru dropped to the ground after the hit of a pebble. The foreign shinobi massaged his bruised wrist, looking up to see Sasuke tossing another pebble in his palm. "Get lost."
"Why you-" In one motion, the shinobi had unbound the life-sized package on his back.
The air changed. The kunoichi accompanying him shifted form. Sakura tensed, a kunai hidden in her grip, eyes locked on the package. Sasuke flash-stepped in front of his teammates, poised but ready.
The three Academy students glanced back and forth between the two sides, until a new voice caught their attention.
"Stop, Kankurō. You're an embarrassment to our village."
Hanging upside-down from a nearby tree was one more shinobi, wrapped in a cross of scarves, a gourd-shaped container holstered on his back. His eyes were as dead as his voice, encircled by rings of black.
The shinobi named Kankurō froze. "G-Gaara. Listen, they-!"
"Shut up, before I kill you."
While Kankurō gave a shaking apology, Gaara flickered down. Straightening from his crouch, he stood as leader of their group. "Pardon this inappropriate behavior." To his team, "We're leaving."
"Hold it."
They turned around to see Sakura step forth. "State your purpose in our village."
Scoffing, the kunoichi held out her visitor's pass. "The chūnin exam, if that wasn't obvious."
Before she could leave, Sasuke spoke up. "And your name?"
The kunoichi looked surprised, before her expression softened. "Temari." She examined him with intrigue. "Yours?"
"Uchiha Sasuke."
Her intrigue intensified. "Well then, a pleasure."
When they disappeared, a bewildered Konohamaru turned to Naruto. "Wah, that was amazing, nī-chan!"
Naruto rubbed his neck in embarrassment as the three students gathered next to him, fawning.
"What a standoff, Leader!"
"You must tell us who are the two ninja with you!"
"Yeah, they're so cool!"
Naruto collapsed. "What?"
"You know, the no-nonsense kunoichi with the pink hair? And the shinobi with her, the one with the handsome looks!"
"Oi, wait, I'm just as cool as them!"
"You sucked, nī-chan." A disappointed waterfall of tears fell down Konohamaru's face. "I needed you most, and you just trip like that. How pathetic..."
Their voices faded in the distance.
Sakura turned another corner. "That was no trip," she told Sasuke through genjutsu. No matter how she replayed the scene, physics did not work like that. Something had to be pulling Naruto's bottom weight forward for him to have fallen backward. "Any chance you caught what that Kankurō guy did?"
Sasuke walked beside her, eyes up front. "It wasn't wire," he mentally replied.
She processed that information.
"The Gaara person. I failed to sense him too."
Her eyes widened. For Sasuke to not detect a presence...
"Sasuke-kun, I'm going to need you and Naruto to do some reconnaissance." Other competitors would have already arrived in Konoha. "I want to know what we're getting into." The more they knew about their opponents, the greater their advantage.
They passed by the eyes of another foreign squadron, hidden in the shadows of a tree. Pocketing his hands, Sasuke chuckled. Looked like said opponents were already one step ahead of them.
"Yeah, sure." Before they parted ways, he had one question. "Why did you make me ask the kunoichi for her name?"
Sakura hid her grin.
.
Temari fashioned the obi of her bathrobe, letting her hair hang low. "What did you think of those Konoha nin?"
On the couch, Kankurō growled, sharpening the tip of a blade. "They piss me off."
Scoffing, Temari slid open the window of their inn. Her eyes widened.
After a wipe, Kankurō examined the gleam of his weapon. "They're interesting though, won't deny that." A coat of poison dripped along the edge, fading as it dried on the metal. "Uchiha, was it?" He looked up, staring at his sister's back. "And we thought they had gone extinct."
Temari watched the messenger hawk fly off into the night sky. For Temari, of Sunagakure.
She flipped over the card. May we see again.
With a smile, she twirled the blood-red rose left in her hand. "Apparently not."
.
Tenten stepped toward the two shinobi guarding the classroom door.
"Won't you please just let us through-"
Tenten fell back in the same motion as the punch. On the floor, she applied another henge on her cheek. She made the bruise look particularly brutal this time and inwardly grinned at the nervous crowd. One of the guards even said a few words that managed to discourage a wave of genin to leave altogether.
At Neji's nod, they readied to file out, pretending to join the discouraged genin, when another Konoha team entered the hallway. Surprisingly, they looked even younger.
"You mind letting us pass?" In front was a boy with dark eyes. He looked smug, and despite her better judgments, attractive.
The crowd diverged to allow the team to pass through the hallway. As he walked by, his grin widened. "And you two, why don't you take down that genjutsu as well. No one's falling for it."
The guard chuckled, impressed. Without warning, he dropped on his palm, coming up with an aerial kick. The boy reacted in time for a counter kick. It would have worked too, had Lee not flashed in between and blocked both strikes.
While Tenten watched, amused, Neji rose up. "What happened to the plan?" Their injuries faded, the pretense over.
That was when Lee turned his attention toward the kunoichi on the boy's team, some girl with rosy hair. Oh no. Tenten shook her head. Lee had always a soft spot for girls in pink.
"My name is Rock Lee! What's yours?"
The girl remained cautious. "Sakura."
"Do you want to go out together? I'll protect you until I die!"
When Lee struck his nice guy pose, complete with sparkling teeth and thumbs up, Tenten died of mortification. She shielded her face, only to realize that the girl had not backed away in horror. Instead, she was… blushing?
"I'm very flattered, Lee-san," Sakura said sweetly. "But I'm afraid my heart is already taken."
Lee froze into a statue, ready to crumble to dust, when Sakura glanced to the side, a finger at her dimple. "But you know what they say, a woman's heart is like the spring sky, no? Maybe you can help me win it back from the ones who had stolen it."
Bait, hook, reel. "Who!"
Deadpanned, Sakura pointed to the two boys beside her. "Defeat them, and I'm yours."
"Wait what, Sakura-chan-!"
One second later, both her teammates hit the ground like bricks, as an eager Lee flashed before her again, hair swaying and eyes glowing with hope. Sakura blinked. Well then…
Tenten dropped her jaw, as Lee marched down the hallways in victory. A giggling Sakura wrapped around his arm, while the rest of the shinobi hooted and cheered them on.
What- Why- Did Lee- Did Lee just procure himself a girlfriend? "Neji, am I caught in a genjutsu?"
Neji massaged his temples, as the surrounding genin examined their upheld thumbs, marveling at its power to pick up girls. Some things, not even genjutsu could create.
.
Naruto massaged his jaw on his limp to the testing room. "I can't believe Sakura-chan left us for some thick-brow nerd," he whined to Sasuke, who cracked his shoulder back in place.
"She didn't leave us," Sasuke growled. She created a connection with a member of another team, a team that she judged was stronger than them. Stronger than him.
When the door opened, Sasuke saw that was not all her work in the past week. Amidst the hundreds of shinobi gathered in the testing room, a group waited for them.
Ino of the Yamanaka clan. Chōji of the Noble Akimichi clan. Shikamaru of the Nara clan. Hinata of the Noble Hyūga clan. Kiba of the Inuzuka clan. Shino of the Noble Aburame clan. Sakura had collected their former classmates, each from the most prestigious of backgrounds, into one alliance.
The room hushed when the examiner entered alongside a group of chūnin. Unraveling from Lee, Sakura listened to him announce a written test.
Everyone reorganized into arranged seating, a paper placed before each genin. Her eyes concentrated on the blackboard, dissecting the rules.
Ten questions, ten points. One point lost for every question incorrect, two points lost for every attempt at cheating. Advancement based on collective team score. Any teammate hits zero, entire team is disqualified. Question ten would not be disclosed until 45 minutes after the exam starts.
Pressing the tip of her pencil against her lip, she gave Naruto a worried look. If he could just get a single question right... She looked over the test.
Her forehead hit the table. Nope! No way Naruto could answer any of this. In fact, she doubted any genin could. The first question was a cryptogram from an advanced code text, an obscure one too.
She sighed.
"I'm going to assume you need help," she mentally contacted her teammates. Naruto and Sasuke fought to not react as numbers appeared on their papers. Ino hid her smile, as she picked up her pencil and traced over the answers.
Sakura glanced over at the chūnin scribbling in their clipboards, marking the people who got caught cheating. It was fine. She was confident in her first nine answers, and the most she would lose for getting caught with genjutsu would be 6 points; each of her recipients, 2 points. In exchange, her team secured 17 out of 30 points.
As time passed, teams began getting disqualified. Sakura never removed her eyes off the proctors, noting their every scribble. 51 teams, 15 disqualified, 468 marks. Another mark, another team disqualified.
Sakura recalculated. She was certain she sat in an entire room of cheaters. Another team gone. 17 teams disqualified. 481 marks, a maximum of 500 points spread amongst the remaining genin. Assuming a normal probability density... Sakura bit her lips. Damn. 17 points may not be enough to rank.
When they hit the 45 minute mark, the examiner stepped up front again. "Before we disclose the last question, let me explain some additional rules. First rule, you may choose whether to take the tenth question or not. If not, then your points reduce to zero."
Sakura waited.
"Second rule," he said, "if you do choose to take it and answer incorrectly, then you lose the right to take the chūnin exam again."
The room burst into outrage.
A bark. "What kind of stupid rule is that!" Sakura recognized the voice as Inuzuka Kiba's. "There are guys here who've taken the exam before."
The examiner remained unfazed. "Heh, you guys were unlucky. This year, it's my rules. Those not confident can leave and try again next year."
Within a minute, someone stood up. Other teams soon followed.
Once Sakura overcame her disbelief, she inwardly punched the air. These events could not have worked better in her favor. The number of genin trickled down.
Excluding hers, 24 teams remained, a maximum of 450 points among them. Each taker presumably had at least 4 points at hand, and given a left-skewed distribution...
A team only needed 14 points to rank. Her team had 17 points. Deduct 6, add 3. 14 points. It was a mathematical win.
She paused. Who should she share her answer with? She could only risk genjutsu one more time. Ino was fine; she had her clan's technique. That left either Naruto or Sasuke. One of them would have to fend for themselves. Crap.
She was snapped out of her thoughts by the bang of a table.
"Oi, are you done?" Naruto yelled. "None of us are scared by your stupid question, so let's get a move on!"
The examiner exchanged a look with the rest of the chūnin proctors, then congratulated everyone on passing.
Sakura collapsed. Say what-?
The examiner revealed the true purpose of the test: to assess their intelligence gathering skills. As for the last question, it was to make them choose.
"Say your mission is to steal a secret document. The amount of ninja, their abilities are all unknown to you. And of course, there could be traps. Now, you don't want to die, you don't want your comrades hurt, but can you avoid this dangerous mission? The answer is no."
Sakura listened, as the examiner continued.
"No matter what the danger, there are missions that cannot be avoided. Courage, this is the ability to become a chūnin captain. Those who can't put their destinies on the line, who walk away from their chance, the trash who only make cowardly choices don't have a right to become chūnin!" Pleased, the examiner readied to conclude the written test when a figure stood up.
"I say this with all due respect, but that is wrong."
Naruto watched his teammate seethe. "Sakura-chan..."
"Many people left under the assumption that we needed a certain number of points to pass. Those with less than two points remaining were correct to have left the room, else they would have eliminated both themselves and their teammates from future examinations. If you calculate the expected pass rate, teams under twelve points should have left as well."
"Girl, you have missed the entire point-"
"There is a difference between unavoidable dangers and unnecessary risk. That was not a display of cowardice, but prudence. Likewise, what you described promotes not courage, but recklessness." Sakura gripped her pencil hard. "In this test, only those who gave accurate assessments of their capabilities should have passed, while those who overestimated themselves deserved to get penalized."
From the back, another figure stood up. "I have to agree," Neji said. "We stayed because of our skills, not because of fool's luck."
In the far right, Temari smirked. "I say we get the tenth question!"
A hand rose in the back. "Seconded."
"Yeah, what the hell!"
While the genin reached consensus, the row of chūnin proctors leaned forward, engaged. One of them passed the examiner a note. His expression changed, and Sakura grew numb when his eyes stared directly into hers.
"If you kids want to play, we'll play." A sadistic smirk darkened his features, while the rest of the proctors reclined in their chairs, ready to enjoy the show.
.
In the emptied classroom, Ibiki recounted the tests. Nineteen teams passed.
"How is this possible?" he asked, slamming the tests on the table.
"Give us a second. Tobitake and Tatami are tracing the information source now."
The two proctors handed Ibiki a clipboard.
"Ibiki-san, we've cross-referenced each genin with their information source. The ones with the blue lines had gotten the incorrect answer from our planted chūnin. The ones with the red lines had gotten the correct answer."
Ibiki followed the red arrows down to their origins. Two spots? The first was seat number 53. His eyes went toward the spot, and his mind flashed back to the bang of the table. That boy. The next source was…
He placed down the diagram in favor of the test pile again.
He held two test papers before overlapping them to show them identical, right down to the team identification marker. After further scrutiny, he identified the original from the replica. With a pen, he drew one final arrow on the seating diagram, until every red line flowed toward one lone point.
Haruno Sakura.
He could not help but chuckle. So that was why she was so vocal earlier. She wanted the tenth question.
Because out of everyone in the room, she was the only one who could answer it.