Disclaimer: I imagine it might be lovely to own the Naruto franchise. Unfortunately, I never expect to know how that feels in reality. In other words, copyright belongs to the appropriate parties.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far! Your encouragement means a lot to me. And I'm glad everyone's not finding the OCs too unbearable. I promised they'd disappear in a few chapters, but turns out they're far more insidious. Especially Shiki. I'm not sure he'll allow me to write him out of the story.

And I was really glad no one seemed too terribly upset at Sakura getting a bell, but I've read a lot of bell test scenes. Most of them involve an insightful Sakura who is able to figure out the goal is teamwork. But when I considered that, I realized that wouldn't be anything like what Shiki would teach her. While Sakura's combat abilities are significantly increased, her social skills are somewhat...lacking. And, when I was refreshing my memory, I realized there was even precedent for her getting a bell-both Orochimaru and Tsunade were able to acquire the bells in their own test. And while I believe Kakashi is a really powerful ninja, so was Sarutobi in his prime.

After all, while Kakashi focuses on teamwork, the test is also meant to see if they have the combat skills to become a gennin. In canon Sasuke comes very close-so a Sakura trained rigorously and exclusively by her clan might also have a chance. Especially against a jounin trying to give them a chance at the bells. And he's hardly going to return her intent.

Chapter Five

-The Meaning of Team-

Ran knelt before Shiki-dono. "I hope that my son did not offend you," she murmured to the clan head who'd appeared only moments after Sakura and Shiho had taken their leave.

"Why would I be offended?" Shiki-dono inquired, his expression an pleasant, empty kind of polite that he often employed no matter what the topic. It did not reassure Ran, who lowered her head even further. "Shiho is doing what he believes best for Sakura."

"Poor boy's probably stressed," Kagami interjected, almost interrupting Shiki-dono. "After all, Sakura hasn't used him much in public, has she? Not even after what, six years? All the action he sees is against us or the Haruno clan sensei that Shiki sends and he didn't even get to participate in those until a few years ago. He's spent a lot of his life as a weapon living like he isn't one, which means he's got to feel all but useless. He can't even touch the girl, for kami's sake."

Shiki-dono inclined his head. "I will not take action against your son in any case. He belongs to Sakura, which means he is hers to chastise."

It also meant that if he had truly displeased Shiki, it would be Sakura that would bear the brunt of his displeasure, which would only make Shiho feel more miserable. Ran frowned.

"Something wrong?" Kagami asked.

"I only have a few years left," Ran replied quietly.

Eyes narrowed, those sharp verdant eyes piercing, Shiki observed, "If that. You have lived a long life for a branch clan member."

Ran looked down, unable to meet those eyes for long. While Shiho had spoken in anger, his words weren't misplaced. The old saying went that eyes were the windows to the soul, but Shiki-dono's eyes were a cup filled with emptiness, waiting to overflow. Not even Kagami could stem it completely.

"I do not begrudge the main house their lifespan," she began. "I am grateful to have had so much time with Shiho. Many mothers of shinobi do not have half so long with their children. But I worry what they will do when I am gone. No matter what her capabilities are as a ninja, Sakura is still a child in many ways."

"What would you have of me, Ran?" Shiki-dono asked.

"I would ask to go Walking in the White Moon Garden," Ran said, pressing her forehead to the floor.

"No," Shiki-dono said softly. Ran sat up, surprised. She hadn't thought that Shiki-dono would deny her that. "You must let Shiho go." Ran tensed, feeling defensive. When she would have protested, Shiki-dono raised a hand to forestall her.

"Not even Shiki's cruel enough to give someone an eternal mother-in-law," Kagami quipped, stretching in a way that came dangerously close to being indecent, making the slit skirts of her kimono ride up her thighs. Shiki-dono didn't even twitch.

Ran swallowed nervously. Anger was a distinctly unhealthy emotion to display in front of the oyakata-sama. "Please, Shiki-dono." She poured into those words all her feelings, her desire to continue to watch over her son and the girl she was fond of despite herself, her frustration at being torn from this life so soon, and her rage at her own blood, which had stolen her Shiho away in the first place.

There was a terrible, long silence, but then, "If Sakura has a use for you when that time comes, then I will consider your plea. The main house owes you that much," Shiki-dono granted her. "But, recall, Ran, what I told you before. You must let Shiho go. The child that you loved died long ago."

-X-X-X-

Hatake Kakashi was going to have words with whoever was supposed to be assessing the gennin. Not only was Haruno Sakura capable of more killing intent than some of the better chunnin he'd met, Naruto had somehow learned the Kage Bunshin technique and Sasuke was capable of fire ninjutsu. None of which were gennin level skills. Some, like Kage Bunshin, weren't even supposed to be chunnin level.

He'd never had difficulties culling teams in the past. He'd though he wouldn't have difficulties with this one, despite feeling that it was sort of too bad for the Uchiha. But now he had a situation on his hands. Kaskashi had lashed Naruto to the post when he'd tried to circumvent the whole test by going ahead and eating the bentos, which was an ingenious solution to be sure, but now he had a quandary.

Normally he would give them a lecture, invite the other two to enjoy their lunches while Naruto looked on, and give them one last chance to redeem themselves, but the fact remained that Sakura had already gotten a bell. Technically she'd fulfilled the stated requirements of his test, if not the spirit of it.

And what in the world was the girl doing with a gaun dao? It wasn't that ninja couldn't fight with unconventional weapons, but she looked a little ridiculous. Already slight, she was visually overpowered by the sheer size of it. But, he thought ruefully, that didn't seem to impair her handling of it.

Sighing, he appeared before his prospective students. Sasuke was fairly seething as he stood to the right of the post Naruto had been tied to, but Sakura's expression was subtly pleased with herself. He had a feeling that she'd locked her excitement down tight, lest she start grinning broadly and antagonize the others. Even though they stood together before him, each was locked in their own little world, one that didn't involve the others.

Beneath his mask, Kakashi frowned. Even if one of them had got a bell, this was one of the most discordant teams he'd been asked to evaluate. Maybe the lecture was still needed after all.

-X-X-X-

"You don't have the qualifications to become ninja."

When he said that, it was like something shorted out in Sasuke's brain, and forgetting tactics or jutsu, he blindly charged the jounin whose skills he knew without a doubt eclipsed his own.

And before his mind could catch up with his actions, he suddenly had his face down in the dirt, arm pulled painfully back in a submission hold, foot pressed humiliatingly down on his head, he wondered where he'd gone wrong. He was at the top of his class. If anyone deserved to be a ninja, it was him.

-X-X-X-

"Are you kids thinking that being a ninja is easy? Huh? Why do you think you're doing this exercise in teams?" Kakashi-sensei challenged them.

"It's as if you guys have no understanding of the answer to this test," he continued, grinding his heel into the back of Sasuke's head.

"Answer...?" Naruto asked with confusion from his position on the post.

Sakura's hand tightened around the warming metal of the bell she held in one hand. At her side, Shiho-nii watched with tightly pressed lips. He'd said this was something she needed to learn for herself, but she didn't understand. She'd done everything as Shiki-dono and Kakashi-sensei had said. She gotten the bell. What had she done wrong?

"Yes. The answer that determines whether you pass or fail this test. Haven't you even realized the meaning of the three-man squad?"

"Meaning...?" Sakura inquired tightly.

"Teamwork," Kakashi-sensei told them. "But it's too late even if you realize that now. If all three of you had come at me, you might have gotten both bells. But it's too bad."

"You mean," Sakura said after a moment, "that the only reason there were only two bells was to create internal discord? Not to test our skills?"

"Exactly. This is a test set up to purposely place you against one another. It's especially important when your own interests are at stake. The intention was to select those who could prioritize teamwork. Despite this, you fools..."

Sakura was certain her knuckles were bone-white as she clenched her fingers tighter. Though Shiho-nii had said he wouldn't interfere, he stepped closer, placing an insubstantial hand on her head. "It's all right..." he murmured as Kakashi harshly deconstructed their strategies.

"Missions are carried out in squads. They're no mistaking that ninjas need unsurpassed individual skills," he said with a pointed look at Sakura, "but teamwork is considered more important than that."

In her mind's eye, she could almost see Shiki-dono standing by her side, looking at her with that sidelong, dismissive glance, "The clan exists in two parts and both those parts are necessary to the whole."
But the kind of teamwork the jounin was talking about seemed very different from the partnership within in the clan. The clan was bound by ties of blood and mutual obligation, receiving direction through tradition and the oyakata-sama. But even within the clan, most of the members spent their lives serving the kage of different countries or living out their existences as civilians without any particularly close connections. The fifteen year reunions and edicts from Shiki-dono were the only things that gave them the will of a clan.

And though they'd been her classmates for six years, the two boys might as well have been strangers.

Kakashi-sensei was still speaking. "Individual actions that disrupt teamwork throw the team into crisis and lead to death. For example," and he reached into his pouch and casually withdrew a kunai, placing it at Sasuke's throat, "Sakura! Kill Naruto or else Sasuke dies."

At her side, Shiho-nii tensed, his tall frame leaning forward as if he would interfere himself. "Remember," he reminded her despite having said that this was her challenge to overcome, "this is a test. This is Konoha, not Mizu. He won't actually kill a gennin candidate to make a point."

Sakura knew he was right. Despite his peculiar attitude shift and the rough way he'd been speaking, Kakashi-sensei wasn't using killing intent. He was threatening, to be certain, but she was suddenly sure what he'd been looking for was their first reaction.

And Sakura knew what her first reaction was. "Let him go," she said, gripping Shiho-nii more tightly and doing her best impression of Shiki-dono's terribly flat voice.

"So you'd choose to kill Naruto?" Kakashi-sensei demanded.

"No," Sakura replied hollowly. "I'd kill you and finish the mission."

"That's some kind of arrogance you've got, kid, just because I let you take one bell," Kakashi-sensei noted. "And what happens when you're outclassed?"

Sakura relaxed her death grip on the bell in her off hand, letting the bell fall, tinkling softly, into the dust at her feet. Ever so slowly, her grip on Shiho-nii become more natural as well.

"Sakura…," Shiho-nii said softly.

"The mission must always come first. But it is my responsibility as a shinobi of Konoha and my duty to the name Haruno to complete it perfectly. Without exception," she pronounced and in a single dramatic move, she reversed her hold on Shiho-nii, bringing his blade through the ropes that bound Naruto, parting them as easily as air.

He regained his feet with a stunned expression. "Sakura-chan?"

"It is our obligation to take into consideration the criticism of our sensei, Naruto-san. He's a little bigger than a bell, but I think we might manage to take Sasuke-san anyway," and she tilted her head as proudly as Kagami ever had.

At her words, Naruto grinned broadly, foxlike confidence restored. "You got that right."
"I've already got a kunai at his throat," Kakashi said. "Do you really think you're fast enough to

save him?"

Sakura knew what Shiki-dono's response to that challenge would have been. If you're going to kill him, do so already. But without allowing her kekkei genkei to bloom, she wasn't that cold, nor did she have the sheer skill of Shiki-dono to back her threat.

But Sakura was Shiki-dono's heir, her will forged in bloodshed. Sakura had known for a long time that what the Haruno clan practiced was not considered normal, even before Chouko had attempted to destroy the clan, even before she'd been told she was not to spar with her classmates. Perhaps she didn't really understand what Kakashi-sensei meant when he spoke of teamwork, but she could imagine Shiki-dono's disappointment if he was to hear of the mess she'd made of such a simple test.

"Sakura, be careful," Shiho-nii said, more sharply this time.

She'd already backed herself into a corner with her words and too late she realized the tactical mistake she'd made. It was as foolish as Sasuke's headlong rush at the jounin had been. But she didn't regret it. Even if she failed here, she would have shown her pride as a Haruno and as a shinobi. This was her nindo.

A life without pride is not worth living, someone in the past had once told her many times.

"We won't allow you to kill our teammate," Sakura reiterated firmly, her mind running scenarios as she wished the Uchiha hadn't been foolish enough to get himself caught in the first place.

-X-X-X-

This was really getting out of hand. There was nothing more dangerous to a ninja than bad information and it seemed he'd collected it in spades. Haruno Sakura had only one known ninja relative in the village, a distant cousin named Haruno Shiho who'd died years ago.

But ninja skills didn't just appear out of thin air. Someone had been training her. Someone with a distinct flair for the dramatic and more than a touch of ruthlessness. Someone dangerous, because he'd lost control of the conversation so quickly he hadn't had time to think. He'd been about to put his kunai away and explain what a dangerous position their division had put them in, but then Sakura had met his challenge in all seriousness.

And there was a cold sort of resolve in the young girl, so much that he hadn't been able to ignore it. Whereas Kakashi thought she was the furthest from understanding the importance of teamwork, he thought she might be the closest to understanding what it meant to be a shinboi. There was an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach. If he recalled the data from her file correctly, she'd only ever been out of the village to visit family. Where would she have seen the kind of violence necessary to put such determined pride in her eyes, though he'd seen the flash of hesitation when she'd realized her misstep.

Abruptly he decided to take pity on her. Sheathing his kunai, he released the Uchiha and stood. "This is what will happen if you cannot learn to function as a team. On top of having a hostage taken, you'll be faced with two impossible choices and end up being killed. And at your level, you could never hope to employ the option of killing your attacker, because you won't be the only one working in a team. Your enemies will be as well," he told Sakura repressively, but even though she lowered her head, her eyes were still and watchful. They were not child's eyes. Not children of this era, born into a peace bought by the blood friends and comrades.

-X-X-X-

If asked, Sasuke would say that the incessant rumbling of Naruto's stomach as he sat on his heels, eyes closed tightly shut as if he could will his hunger away, was so irritating that he'd offered him part of his lunch just to shut him up. But the truth was that Sasuke, even without his Sharingan, was perceptive in a way that people didn't normally attribute to him.

Even if the experience had been humiliating, he'd been in a position to know better than anyone that Kakashi hadn't been serious. But if anything, just for a few moments, he'd been afraid of his own teammate again and he hated that even more than he'd hated being taught a lesson by a jounin. Because Haruno Sakura was his age, had gone through the same lessons, been in his class for a long time, but she'd won where he'd lost.

There'd been something very staged, an underlying message in Kakashi's words, so acting on his suspicion Sasuke had made the overture. After a moment Sakura had offered a part of her own bentou, even though the bell she'd dropped was still lying in the dust, neither he nor Naruto having bothered it.

When Kakashi appeared before them, storm clouds roiling over his head, he knew a moment's doubt, but then, "You pass."

Sasuke was certain they all wore equally stunned looks on their faces.

-X-X-X-

Sakura was still confused by what had transpired as she walked home. Naruto-san had invited her for ramen after their test, but she'd declined. She was certain Shiki-dono would be waiting. In her right hand, she held the bell that Kakashi-sensei had picked up and placed in her palm, telling her to keep it as a souvenir.

Opening the door quietly, she called out, "I'm home."

"Welcome back," Shiki-dono's voice answered as he appeared from around the corner. "Ran has prepared tea."

Sakura followed him into the living room, searching for the best way to phrase her question. "Shiki-dono, are teammates really more important than the mission?" she blurted at last as she unfurled the scroll that had Shiho-nii sealed inside. When the familiar spirit appeared she relaxed incrementally. Eventually he would be able to appear even while his body rested inside the scroll, but as of yet he was trapped in a sleeping state when sealed.

"It would depend, of course, upon the teammate and the mission. What is Hatake's opinion?" Shiki-dono queried.

As she relayed what had transpired, Sakura tried to sort out her own thoughts about the events. He'd sounded so reflective and remorseful when staring at the memorial stone, but to her they were only the names of the long dead. Maybe it had something to do with being a Haruno. When branch members died they didn't depart and members of the main house were notoriously long-lived and difficult to kill. But when they were gone, it was easy to bloom into the First Flower state and let them go if the attachment was painful.

"So he only passed you after you showed a willingness to support each other?" Shiki-dono murmured. "Interdependency is something I did not teach you, because as the heir, you will one day stand alone as the oyakata-sama with only Shiho by your side. Perhaps you will collect advisors and followers, but they are only a crutch that should not be depended on. They will always fail you at the least opportune moments," Shiki-dono said darkly.

"Don't be nasty, Shiki," Kagami scolded. "Sakura'll have to play by Konoha's rules if she wants to live here. And Konoha ninja are legendary for being big softies when it comes to their teammates. Just think, you'll get to make friends."

Sakura frowned up at the spirit. "I have Shiho-nii."

Kagami rolled her eyes. "And Shiho is all great and wonderful, but if you hit puberty with only that big metal pole around to comfort you, you're going to have some serious problems."

"Kagami-sama!" Shiho-nii snapped, obviously appalled.

"I'm just saying, Shiho, that metal gets mighty cold on long nights," she taunted with a smirk, flicking her hair back over her shoulder from where it had pooled over the bare tops of her breasts.

"I think we were discussing Sakura-chan's teammates, not…that," Shiho said stiffly.

Kagami winked at Sakura, who automatically flushed and was then appalled with herself for the reaction. "Team play is fun too, or at least it was until I became partners with Shiki here." Shiki-dono continued to drink his tea, unperturbed by the weapon and seemingly content for her to give the advice. "But what I'm trying to tell ya is that you're gonna be here, on this planet, for a while yet. And it's an awful long time to be alone with someone who can't even touch you."

Some of her confusion must have shown on her face. "I know that hasn't been a big deal in your life after that fiasco as the ceremony, but every human being has a need to be touched in a way that doesn't have anything to do with killing. Well, except maybe Shiki," she amended when the oyakata-sama glanced over at her. "Teammates are like captive friends—they're required to be with you, so you don't have to worry about them ducking out while you try to make nice. With any luck, you can get people who'll support you for something other than your ability to slice and dice."

Shiho-nii sighed. "Please don't give her such confusing advice," he requested wearily.

Kagami snorted. "Think you can do better, Shiho? You've been with her for six years. Does she even speak to people besides you? Does she have any friends? What? Is that a resounding no?"

Shiho-nii scowled. "Sakura-chan-"

"Has never needed to make friends because you've always been there for her," Kagami stated bluntly. "And you'll always be there for her. We get that, but you can't be the only one there for her Shiho. The closest thing she's probably got to a real, live friend right now is Shiki."

They both shuddered at the thought. Shiki-dono frowned. "If you must have this discussion, remember that I am right here, Kagami."

She waved him off. "So, Sakura, here's what you do…"

A/N: Wow. Sakura really played up the clan heir role in this chapter. Hopefully we can get some actual interaction going in the next chapters, as well as some action. Definitely a dialogue heavy scene. So, just as kind of an interest poll, if Sakura has a pairing in this story (and I can't guarantee there'll be one) who would you like to see? I've been entertaining the idea of either Gaara or Itachi, because they're relatively "gentle" character types after Gaara meets Naruto, but I'm not entirely certain. I could always go the way of the ol' Team Seven fic, which I've never done before. Or, if you're not tired of him, we can see more of Neji, who tends to feature heavily in my stories and I though this might be an opportunity to branch out.

Also, special recognition to Zephyrus246, who has written some amazingly long and detailed reviews and also pointed out that I was misspelling kekkei genkai.