When we entered the exam hall we were met by a guy named rock lee. He had black hair and black eyes. Lee then challenged sasuke to a fight. Sasuke accepted lee's challenge.

Sasuke may had been named the rookie of the year and had the sharingan but something told me that he was going to lose. When I looked into lee's eyes I saw that they held a lot of determination. I also could see that he was really strong.

Sakura was cheering for sasuke until sakura turned to naruko "naruko why are you just standing there? We have to cheer on sasuke." Naruko looked at sakura with an unsure look "what's that look for?" Sakura asked. "Umm… sakura I don't know how to say this but… I don't think that sasuke is going win this fight" naruko said, scratching the back of her head.

"What! Naruko why would you say that? Sasuke is our teammate!" Sakura shouted. "I know he is sakura but I can tell how strong a person is by looking into their eyes. When I look into lee's eyes I can see that he's more determined and stronger than sasuke. Remember when we were younger and Iruka-sensei always told us to never judge a book by it's cover? Lee may look weak but I can tell that he's strong. You tend to overestimate sasuke's abilities. You really shouldn't be doing that especially since we're not in the academy anymore. Now that we're ninjas we're bound to meet people who are stronger than us so we've gotta be ready for anything" naruko said a bit more serious.

Upon hearing this sincere and honest statement coming form the girl who basically sakura and almost everyone else in the academy labeled as a "failure," sakura didn't know what to say. What naruko said was true, they were no longer in the academy and people who are stronger than them are bound to appear yet sakura just couldn't bare the thought of her crush losing. She also never thought that she'd hear something like that coming from the blonde's mouth.

"Hmm since when did you become a bit more intelligent?" Sakura said. Naruko stared at sakura with an unamused face. "How did I know you were going to say that?" 'I've always been intelligent, I just don't show it' naruko thought. They saw sasuke floating in the sky with lee when a talking turtle appeared. Lee began apologizing to the turtle while sakura ran off to catch sasuke only to see an orange and yellowish blur pass by her taking her place in catching sasuke.

"Hey teme. Finished getting you're ass handed to you?" Naruko said teasing. Sasuke, who was laying in naruko's lap, growled "shut up." Then he heard sakura worriedly calling out his name dropping down on her knees beside naruko. Sakura extended a hand to help sasuke. Sasuke slapped sakura's hand and quickly removed himself from naruko's lap.

Naruko got up and looked over to rock lee and started walking towards him. For a minute lee quickly went on guard. Sasuke and sakura thought that naruko was going to challenge lee next. Naruko gave lee a winning smile and a thumbs up. "Nice job kicking his ass bushy-brow" naruko said earning a shocked look from lee.

"Naruko!" Sakura angrily shouted, ready to pummel her idiot teammate. Sasuke was glaring at naruko with his fist clenched tight. For some reason he did not like the thought of losing in front of naruko. Especially when she's complimenting the other person for his defeat.

"Oi dobe" sasuke venomously called out to her glaring at her. He knew that if his and naruko's roles were reversed naruko probably wouldn't have even lasted two seconds against lee. Unlike him, who at least lasted a little longer, all though sasuke doesn't know how fast or strong naruko actually is.

Naruko turned to look at sasuke. "You know teme that cockiness and ego of yours is gonna get you killed one day. If you had gotten seriously hurt then we wouldn't have been able to enter the chunin exams. Think about the consequences that your actions may lead to. If you wanna fight a powerful opponent go right on ahead but at least think about me and sakura before you do something stupid. We are a team now sasuke. Don't just think about yourself when you pick your battles but also think about us. A team should lean on one another not selfishly go out and do their own thing or is it that… you don't even think about me and sakura? Do we really mean nothing to you?" Naruko said in a mad tone with a disappointed and mad glint in her eyes.

Sasuke found himself unable to look into naruko's eyes that filled him with guilt. Ever since the beginning sasuke vowed to grow stronger to achieve his goal, he had no time for friendship or to forge bonds when the only thing he should be concerned about was revenge. After hearing everything naruko said, hearing her bluntly and angrily pointing out his flaws to show him how disappointed she was with him with the sorrow expressed in her eyes, sasuke started to think back to all the time they spent together. All the missions they went on, the time she let him stay at her place, cooked him some onigiri since he didn't eat much, and even trained with him from time to time sasuke was honestly disappointed in himself.

Naruko was going out of her way to be nice and care for him despite her grudge against him. This brought forth complicated feelings for sasuke who didn't know how to respond. Even though sakura was unsure of what just happened between her teammates she knew there was truth to what naruko said. The blonde may be reckless and the biggest idiot sakura had came across but there were times when she spoke the truth no matter how much sakura wanted to deny it.

It seemed like forever since sakura had been infatuated with sasuke. She always paid attention to him, admired him, always watching him, she even dreamed about him so she was aware of how sasuke kept himself at a distance.

At least naruko could get some what of a conversation out of sasuke. He never bothered to even talk to sakura. This made sakura jealous when she began noticing how despite how cold sasuke can be the only person sasuke bothered to talk to was naruko. It was as if sakura didn't even exist. That thought hurt sakura. This made her slowly pay more attention to naruko. For a while sakura couldn't see what was so special about naruko for sasuke to pay attention to her until today.

Naruko might not be the brightest crayon in the box but she wasn't afraid to call out someone's wrongdoings, mistakes, or flaws. Especially when that person was sasuke who even though sakura didn't want to admit it had a few flaws himself. Although she would never speak up or confront him about it. 'I guess that's what puts naruko and me apart' sakura thought. Sakura couldn't help but glance down at herself thinking about naruko's words as they made their way to the first part of the exam.