A little over 24 hours later and Kakashi finally woke up from his chakra exhaustion coma. Sakura discussed her observations with him and was relieved he noticed the same thing before he collapsed. At breakfast Kakashi broached the subject with his team and Tazuna.

"Zabuza will need time to recuperate, so I expect we have a few days till they attack again. One of you will accompany Tazuna to the bridge as he works. I expect to be at full strength before the end of the week. Any down time is training time, got it?"

All three Genin nodded. With a pair of crutches Kakashi hobbled his way to the river, his team following behind.

"We've already gone over tree climbing so now we're going to do water walking. Here I'll show you."

Kakashi hobbled his way across the top of the river and turned to wave at his amazed students.

"Alright let's do this! This is gonna be no sweat believe it!"

All three of them fell in immediately. Sakura coughed the water out of her lungs and raised her hand like she was a child back in the academy.

"Sensei this is different from the tree excerise. What do we need to do differently when we focus our chakra in our feet?"

"Good question. What is the biggest difference between the tree and the water?"

"Uh waters wet?" Naruto said with a confused scratch to his head.

"No shit dobe."

The light bulb went off over her head and she snapped her fingers, "It's moving! The water is always moving compared to the solid substance of a tree!"

"That is correct. Now I trust you all to keep working on this while I go take a nice nap in that tree. Good luck!"

An hour later and Sakura, like the tree exercise, was the first to figure it out. She only made three steps before falling into the water, but she came out feeling victorious. Naruto cheered and Sasuke just stared as he floated a few feet away from her.

"I think I'm getting the hang of it. Give me a few more tries to see if I'm doing it right!"

It took her another hour but she was able to get almost 10 yards into the water before falling in.

"Come on Sakura-chan! Tell me how you're doing that!"

Sakura swam back to the shore but when she was about to explain she noticed Sasuke a few feet away staring at them from the corner of his eye. She rolled her eyes and waved him over.

"Let me explain it to both of you. You have to move the chakra at the soles of your feet according to the waves. Kind of like your chakra is waving along with the waves if that makes more sense. It seems to stick better."

"I guess that makes sense. Okay I'll try it!" Naruto said as he put his hands together in the ram seal to concentrate his chakra. Sasuke moved to do the same. Both were able to take two steps before falling into the water, Naruto grinned when he came out and screamed a "finally!" and Sasuke smirked.

"Good job guys!"

.

.

Sakura was accompanying Tazuna to the village to gather supplies for the bridge when she realized just how bad Gato's influence was. All the buildings needed repairs and there were homeless children running through the alleys begging people for food. The adults were malnourished and walked with sagging shoulders.

"This is awful."

"Yes it is. Now you see why this bridge is so important. It will open up trade that we so desperately need."

She felt a hand touch her butt, turning to give the person a nice punch in the face she realized it was a child trying to reach into her bag.

"Food?" Heart squeezing in sympathy she grabbed a rice ball and few pieces of small wrapped candy she had and gave it to the boy with a smile. He looked at it in surprise and gave her a gapped tooth smile in thanks before running off. She turned and quickly wiped a tear before Tazuna could see. She had her doubts when the mission turned to a B-rank but now she was thankful Team 7 didn't turn back.

.

.

Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi were guarding the bridge builder when they returned. Sasuke took on the masked boy and Kakashi took on Zabuza. Sakura felt her muscles tense to back up Sasuke but one glance at their charge stayed her place. When the masked man Zabuza called Haku, surrounded Sasuke with ice mirrors Sakura felt torn.

Sasuke needs back up! But if I go to help then that would leave Tazuna defenseless should Zabuza somehow get around Kakashi-sensei. What do I do?

Naruto, the knucklehead, showed up at the perfect time. Sakura let out a relieved breathe and went to shout at him to attack the mirrors from the outside when he decided the best course of strategy was to run in to rescue Sasuke.

"Naruto YOU IDIOT!" Sakura screamed in the direction of the Ice mirrors.

The mist thickened and Sakura took a second kunai out of her pouch in anticipation. She felt a miniscule amount of foreign chakra at Tazuna's back and pushed him to the ground just as Zabuza swung his sword. She heard the sound of cutting flesh and peeked around her defensive kunai stance to see Kakashi cut in the chest by the huge sword. A surprised scream came out of her mouth.

"Sensei!"

"I'm fine! Stay with the bridge builder!"

But when Naruto somehow broke out of Haku's Ice Mirror Jutsu she noticed Sasuke's body littered in senbon lying motionless on the ground.

"Let me take you to him Sakura. As long as I stay with you, you won't be disobeying your sensei's orders."

"Thank you."

Running past a still Naruto, she slid on her knees next to Sasuke and proceeded to check for a pulse. Finding none, she had to take a long deep breathe that did nothing to calm her racing heart before shakily running her chakra through his cold body for a diagnostic.

None of these senbon hit a fatal artery in his body! How doesn't he have a pulse?!

With no other alternative she started CPR. Tears started falling as she counted out loud each chest compression.

"Wake up Sasuke. Wake up. Wake up! Wake up! Wake UP!"

Later Sakura would mull over the fact that if she was a better medic, hell if she was a better shinobi she would've realized that Haku hit pressure points in Sasuke's body that imitated death. Sasuke woke up and Sakura hugged him in relief. The two watched as Zabuza gave his life. They watched as Kakashi sat his lifeless body next to the boy that gave up everything for him. The bridge was named Team 7 Bridge in honor of them. But Sakura felt the honor was misplaced for her. They left the Land of the Waves and thoughts of being useless consumed her. She couldn't help but to look at the backs of her teammates in guilt as the trees of their homeland surrounded them.

.

.

"Sensei…"

Kakashi removed his stupid orange book from his face and stared lazily at his female student sitting on the branch where he lounged. The sounds of the boys 'spar' could be heard a distance away as they shouted taunts and insults at each other. Sakura stared back with a serious expression, her scroll on advanced medical techniques rolled up in her lap.

"Yes Sakura-chan?"

"Can you…help me improve my taijutsu and endurance?"

Kakashi slowly blinked before sitting up with a hum. He noticed a change in her since they got back from the Wave mission 4 days ago. She was very mature for her age and most things didn't naturally bother her. She was also not a complainer. So when something does bother her it's clear in her facial expressions.

"I can…does this have anything to do with the mission in Wave?"

Sakura sighed and looked toward where the boys were trying to pummel each other into the dirt. Ever since the mission in Wave the two have been more aggressive in their normal competitive matches and spars. Worse than the first two weeks when Team 7 was formed.

"My genjutsu and medical jutsu aren't enough sensei. And I think it would help the team if all of us focused on improving separately so we can come together stronger than ever."

Kakashi looked toward the spar as well, lone eye bland as Naruto gave Sasuke the finger before dodging one of his kicks aimed toward his face. With a scowl Sasuke used his fireball jutsu, eyes as red as his flame. Kakashi looked to Sakura again as she watched the two with a worried expression.

"I have a teacher in mind. His methods are…intense, though I know you will see results quickly."

"You're not going to teach me?"

"Sasuke needs to learn how to master his sharigan. Naruto needs a teacher to help him with his atrocious chakra control among other things."

"Okay…"

Despite the fact that Kakashi agrees with her idea of more individual training she couldn't help but be disappointed that he wasn't training her. It makes sense that he was the one to train Sasuke. Kakashi is the only one alive that can teach him how to master the sharigan. Suddenly a big hand was rustling her hair and she turned narrow eyes to Kakashi's closed one.

"We will do team training in the mornings into lunch. Evenings will be spent on individual training. I won't lie. I'm surprised you've chosen to focus on taijutsu."

"You told me when our team was formed that my taijutsu was textbook perfect. But I have no speed or strength to back it up. Plus I…want to keep up with the boys during spars."

"Hm. With the teacher I have in mind for you…let's just say you might be able to give the boys a run for their money."

Sakura grinned at that.

.

.

"Sakura-san please be my girlfriend!"

Sakura couldn't hold back her shocked expression. Today was the day she was meeting her taijutsu teacher Gai-sensei. No one told her his mini version was going to be brought along. Sakura wiped her expression and replaced it with a polite smile.

"I'm sorry Lee-san but we just met and I'm more focused on my shinobi career at the moment to date anybody."

He looked forlorn but smiled in excitement toward the end of her sentence. "That is admirable to see a rookie genin so focused on becoming stronger! Maybe in the future I will win your heart!"

Gai-sensei laughed behind lee. "Oh the ambitions of youth! Now Sakura-chan I have brought my student Lee here to see where you are at in your taijutsu. I will have you two do warm ups before we do spars."

The warm ups Gai-sensei set for her were 100 laps around the training grounds, 500 pushups and 500 sit ups. Lee did twice that amount and barely broke a sweat. Sakura was breathing heavily on her back and covered in sweat when she was done.

Intense my ass Kakashi-sensei. Are these two even human?

"Okay Sakura-chan! Show us what you got! Begin!"

Sakura couldn't even land a hit. Lee was just too fast.

"You may stop now! Good job you two. Sakura-chan I can see that you have not slacked at your taijutsu practice in the academy but I can also see that you have not broaden your knowledge beyond what you've learned since then. Not to worry! You have so much potential!"

Sakura went home with new leg weights and an intense exhaustion. Her limbs were shaking and her bruises had bruises.

She went to bed feeling accomplished despite the pain.

.

.

"Forehead!"

Sakura turned from the nurse's station just as Ino crushed her in a hug.

"Pig! What are you doing here?" She said with a grin. Ino stepped back and threw a thumb behind her.

"Choji got food poisoning real bad. I told him not to eat that shrimp but he never listens to me! Anyways when does your shift end? We haven't hung out since before you left the village on that mission. Let's go get lunch today!"

"I'll make sure to go check on him. I'm actually just about to get off. Lunch sounds great! Sorry I haven't been able to hang out. My team and I have been training like crazy since we got back two weeks ago."

With an over dramatic hair flip she pointed her finger in her face with a smirk, "Training is no excuse to get out of girl time forehead! Let's go to our favorite tea house for lunch. You better be there!"

Sakura laughed, "You got it! Tell Choji and Shikamaru I said hi!"

Once arriving to training ground 3 Sakura noticed an older man standing next to Kakashi. He had long white spiky hair and red face paint in lines down both eyes.

"Kakashi-sensei you're on time?"

Kakashi smiled and rubbed the back of his head as the man next to him laughed.

"Oh still always late I see eh Kakashi?"

"Hey Sakura-chan this is Pervy sage! Pervy sage this is Sakura-chan!" Naruto said as he threw an arm around her shoulders. She raised an eye brow at the man.

"Pervy sage?"

"Shut up you little brat! I'm Jiraiya the Toad Sage. Not pervy sage. Damn brat."

Sakura went to shake the man's hand and then she realized, "Oh! Your one of the legendary Sanin. It's an honor to meet you Jiraiya-sama."

Jiraiya grinned then bent down more closely to inspect her, "Wow you were right Kakashi! One of your students would recognize my name. It is nice to meet you too young lady. Boy when you get older you're going to be a knock-out you know that?"

Sasuke moved closer to her with a glare at Jiraiya and Sakura scrunched up her nose in disgust before looking at Naruto and mumbling, "Now I know why you call him pervy."

"That's nothing. He likes to peek at girls in bath houses and call it 'research'." Naruto whisper yelled back to her as he glared at the Sanin for being creepy to his teammate.

"It is research! For my book!"

"Good grief just ignore him. I have news."

All three genin perked up at that statement and stared in curiosity at their sensei as he pulled out 3 slips of paper and handed it to them. Sasuke was the one to immediately recognize what they were.

"You want us to take the chunin exams?"

Naruto scratched his head and mouthed the words in confusion. Kakashi noticed this and with a sigh began to explain.

"The chunin exams are a 3 part exam to test your abilities and if you pass then you qualify to advance to rank chunin. I signed Team 7 up to participate but it's ultimately up to you three to submit the forms."

"Hell yeah were doing it! We're going to kick all there asses and become awesome chunin!"

Sasuke nodded in determination whilst filling out his form. Sakura looked at hers in contemplation.

"Sensei I thought rookies don't usually take the exam…especially in our first year as genin."

Jiraiya grinned at her question before fake whispering in Kakashi's ear, "This is playing out exactly like you said it would." Kakashi rolled his lone eye.

"I'm not signing you guys up simply for experience as I'm sure your thinking Sakura-chan. Though if you don't pass there certainly will be quite a bit this team will learn."

"Of course we'll pass Kakashi-sensei!"

Sakura and Sasuke heard what he didn't out right say. That he signed them up because he thought they could pass. Glancing at Sasuke's responding smirk Sakura found all her doubts wash away. They could do this.

.

.

They had a month to prepare. Team 7 didn't do a single D-rank mission, dedicating all there time to training. Jiraiya was brought to teach Naruto and another Jonin, a seemingly crazy Kunoichi named Anko, to train Sasuke. Sakura switched to training in the mornings with Gai-Sensei and Lee-san and would later do team training in the afternoons toward late evenings. Jiraiya was the only one of the three that would hang around for team training. After their first week he offered the three a piece of paper.

"It's a Chakra Induction paper. You infuse your chakra into it and it tells you your elemental affinity. Go ahead give it a try."

The three shared a look before shrugging their shoulders. Sasuke's paper sizzled like it was going to catch on fire and Naruto's split directly in half, while Sakura's…well she couldn't really tell what happened to hers. At first it crinkled but then it crumbled up in a mud like substance and caught on fire. It happened so fast she felt as though something went wrong.

"Whoaaaa what does this mean?! What element do I have?!" Naruto bounced with excitement. Sakura couldn't help but frown in anxiety at Kakashi-Sensei's wide eye and Jiraiya's excited grin.

"Well well this is an interesting bunch indeed! Sasuke your affinities are lightening and as expected fire. Naruto your wind and Sakura…well you have an affinity for nearly every element! It's almost scary how perfect this turned out!"

Sakura gasped, "Nearly all elements? Are you serious Jiraiya-sama?"

Kakashi stepped up to the three with a weird expression in his lone eye, "Sakura your affinities are water, earth, fire and air. It's common to have one or two affinities but three is very rare and four is nearly unheard of."

Jiraiya walked up to the boys and shoved a hand on each of their heads with a laugh, "The fact that the boys each have an affinity that is less common for most shinobi to have and to learn so early in their careers is just crazy! Oh this team is going to be fun!"

Naruto shoved the hand off his head and turned to the Sanin with stars in his eyes, "You're going to teach us element jutsu?! SWEET! Teach us now pervy sage!"

Jiraiya showed a demonstration to Sasuke on how to infuse his weapons with lightening. He walked off in determination toward the target practice area. He then gave a balloon to Naruto and told him to pop it with his chakra. Sakura might've had her doubts with Jiraiya teaching them but she couldn't disagree that this would not only teach her blonde teammate a cool new jutsu but to help him with his chakra control at the same time. Then the saninn turned toward her with a serious expression.

"I actually have something else to teach you Sakura-chan. I've been thinking this is something you will master fast and efficiently. You have the best chakra control on the team and though you are doing a good job advancing your taijutsu and endurance this will give you speed in a tricky situation. It's called the Body Flicker Technique or Shunshin."

Kakashi lowered his book, "That is not something we teach genin Jiraiya-sama."

Though disappointed she wouldn't be learning an elemental jutsu, she couldn't help but want to learn something new that could help her become stronger. So she unleashed her puppy dog eyes on her sensei. "I promise to be responsible with this justu Sensei. I really want to learn something new and I'll practice really hard."

Kakashi, Anbu hardened war veteran, caved in a matter of seconds. She knew she won by his sigh. Jiraiya clapped his hands together.

"Right! Let get to it!"

Her first attempt wasn't bad according to Jiraiya. Though Sakura felt like 6 feet was unimpressive. Two hours flew by and Sakura was able to reach her goal of a half a mile, which was the distance from one end of the training grounds to the other. Just when she reached the other end she heard a shout of victory from the blond sitting on one of the wooden posts.

"I did! I DID IT! Hahahaaaa!"

Sakura smiled and was about to congratulate him from across the clearing when Sasuke walked over with a victorious smirk. Kakashi-sensei had his hand on his shoulder and eye smiled his three students in pride.

.

.

At the end of their second week of training and only a week and a half left till the exams were about to start was there breakthrough. Sasuke was able to easily add chakra to his weapons and his wire, Naruto was able to make the Rasengan with the use of a clone, and Sakura had been able use the Shunshin for over 3 miles away and with very little chakra output so she wouldn't drain her reserves. Kakashi let them go early to give them rest for the next week because they were doing strictly team training for now on. Sasuke wanted to train some more so Sakura and Naruto were walking together to get ice cream when Konohamaru ran around the street corner toward them.

"Hey boss!"

"Hey Konohamaru! Oh and you two Moegi! Hey Udon!"

"Who's this boss?" asked Moegi with a slight blush as she gazed up at Sakura. Konohamaru grinned evilly and elbowed Naruto in the arm.

"Is this your girlfriend?" Naruto blushed with a sheepish grin.

"Well uh yeah I guess she is-"

Sakura lightly whacked him on the back of the head with an unimpressed look.

"No I am not his girlfriend. I'm Sakura Haruno. Naruto's teammate. It's nice to meet you three." She said with a smile towards the three children. Moegi and Udon smiled back shyly and Konohamaru scoffed.

"I thought you said your teammate was gorgeous boss! She's as flat as a pancake and her forehead is big! Who would wanna date her?! Anyways wanna play shinobi with us boss?"

Sakura frowned, "Well that's pretty rude."

Naruto was fuming, "Sakura-chan is gorgeous even if she doesn't have boobs! And her forehead is pretty too! And I don't play shinobi anymore I'm a real shinobi now!"

Her eye started to twitch. "Were done talking about my body now thank you."

"What you think you're some big wig shinobi now that you have the headband! I bet I'm faster and stronger than you boss!"

"That does it!"

Sakura sighed as Naruto started to chase the boy so he could 'throttle him'. She ran after them to hopefully diffuse the situation. They still haven't gotten there ice cream. But then Konohamaru ran into a young teenager wearing all black carrying an item wrapped in bandages on his back. She skidded to a stop next to her teammate when the boy picked him up by his scarf.

"Hey!"

"Look Temari, a puny brat just ran into me. Should I teach the punk a lesson?"

The blonde girl with a metal contraption strapped to her back sighed, "Put him down Kankuro or you know who will get furious for making a scene."

Sakura noticed the two were wearing Suna headbands and if she didn't know about the exams she would've been alarmed and confused as to why they were wondering the village. Temari didn't look like she cared what Kankuro did and Kankuro seemed to be in the mood for a fight. One of her training exercises was to always be scanning her surroundings with her chakra and senses so she had to force her body not tense when she felt the chakra signature by the tree over the fence. Sasuke was in the same tree as well, probably deciding to meet them for ice cream. She glanced in her peripheral vision and noticed a boy her age hanging in the shade upside down below the branch.

Naruto got red in the face, "Put him down now!"

Konohamaru began to struggle, "Yeah put me down!"

Kankuro just laughed, "Whose gonna help you kid? Those wimps behind you?"

Thoroughly annoyed but composed enough to know they needed to handle the situation carefully with the foreign nin, she held Naruto back from charging with a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry that he ran into you. It was an accident. Please put him down, he's an important boy that you shouldn't mess with."

"Yeah don't mess with me or-or you're gonna regret it!" the boy yelled, shaking a little fist towards Kankuro's face.

"Tch I don't like your attitude little brat!" Rearing back his fist, Sakura was about to form the hand seal for a shunshin when a rock collided with the hand holding Konohamaru up.

"Teme!"

"Picking a fight in someone else's village? Get lost."

Kankuro scoffed and pulled off the item hanging off his back. Temari looked shocked, "You're going to use crow for this?"

"I'll show these weak Konoha nin not to mess with someone from Suna."

"Kankuro, stop."

Sakura turned fully towards the voice. The boy had blood red hair and sea foam green eyes and he wasn't staring at Kankuro. He was staring at her.

I've gotta work on my body language. He must've known I made him from the beginning.

"Uh hey Gaara. I was just uh-"

"Shut up or I'll kill you."

Kankuro and Temari went pale. "Sorry Gaara I was t-totally outta line."

Gaara turned toward Sasuke, "Sorry for the trouble he caused."

When three turned to leave Sakura stepped forward. "Excuse me but I can't let three unknown Suna nin roam the village. I need to see your papers for entry into Konoha please."

The girl, Temari just shrugged, producing the papers for her too see. Sasuke hopped down and glanced at the papers with a stoic expression, hands now in his pockets before moving his gaze to the red head.

"What's your name?"

"Gaara Sabaku. And you?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

Gaara nodded then shifted his gaze toward her. She tried not to stiffen under his dead stare. "What is your name?"

Blinking she tried not to show her shock, "Sakura Haruno."

Nodding he turned to walk off. Naruto bristled, "Hey why don't you want to know my name too?! I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Believe it!"