She stood on the field of battle again rather quickly.

Naruto's match against Shino lasted longer than Shino's match against Kankurō but even the large swarm of chakra eating bugs couldn't drain Naruto of his insanely deep reserves and Shino felt the glutinous after effects of his bugs slowing him down. Naruto had, in the end, overwhelmed him with clones and his powerful taijutsu.

Temari stood opposite her, her fan out from where she usually had it strapped to her back even if it wasn't unfurled.

"Right are you two ready?" the proctor asked. Temari nodded once. Sakura inclined her head when the proctor looked over at her, her eyes never leaving her opponents feet. Wielding something as ungainly as the fan as fast as she did meant she needed to have an incredibly balanced stance. Sakura figured that she'd have to brace herself before even moving.

"START!"

Sakura dived to the right as a sharp wind cut through where she'd been standing. She'd tucked in and rolled before smoothly transitioning to her feet and running around to the blonde's blind spot.

"You know the danger's of underestimating your opponent," the blonde taunted. "So I suggest you don't underestimate ME!" She grunted as she swung her fan in a wide heavy arc, her chakra folding itself into the air creating blades of wind sharper than steel.

Sakura took a deep breath, her fingers completing the sequence even as she launched herself into the air, twisting to avoid the wind shuriken that slashed deep gouges into the concrete wall.

She held her fingers to her lips and expelled her breath long and slow. With it came a torrential rush of water that covered the arena floor three feet deep. Sakura had managed to stay glued to the surface as the water rose, but Temari had to jump up out of the water to stand on it without much confidence.

Water was a scarce commodity in the desert, and walking on sand that moved under your feet was similar but still no where near what it was to walk on water.

Sakura was gasping for breath and it highlighted another area that she needed to work on. The longer she could hold her breath, the longer she could expel water, the more water she could expel, the more flexibility she had over what water jutsu she could use.

She threw a kunai at the blonde who was glaring at her. Temari went to shift her stance and promptly sank to her ankles. The kunai missed but only because her opponent wasn't completely competent at fighting on water yet.

To gain solid footing, Temari jumped to the wall and sent off another slicing wave of her fan that cut deep into the water where Sakura had been standing. But Sakura hadn't been motionless. Her fingers were cycling through forty-four signs as fast as she could.

The crowd gasped as an impressive water dragon rose up and attacked putting Temari on the defensive.

Each slice of wind cut deep into the dragon that relentlessly pursued her, one cut it's neck clean through, but the water was laced with Sakura's chakra and it just reformed solid once more.

"You taught her a B-rank jutsu," Kakashi demanded of his old friend.

"No, she knew that before I took her on. I just helped her refine it," Yamato replied.

"I don't recall seeing her do the hand signs for it," Asuma- the jōnin sensei of Team 10, commented.

"She's doing them one-handed," Yamato confirmed.

"Her control's that good?"

"Better than anyone's I've seen."

"Kami, she's created another one," Kurenai- the jōnin sensei of Team 8 gasped.

And she had. Sakura directed the second of her water dragon's to harry the Sand nin who was sticking to the arena walls.

Temari was getting tired. She was being kept constantly on the move and each wave of her fan drained her chakra and her attacks were merely passing through the water. She couldn't even reach Sakura who was standing on top of the water in the centre of the arena without losing her footing.

The rather one-sided match was infuriating her. Then her foot slipped as her chakra wavered. The dragon she was trying to avoid smashed straight into her, the hard water slamming her against the wall and pinning her there.

Temari felt her head throb as it was smacked into the unforgiving concrete. Her grip on her fan slackened but the pressure of the attack didn't allow it to move far. She cracked open her eyes when that pressure receded and found herself trapped inside the mouth of the dragon. Her fan floating next to her.

The water prison held her firm, there was no escaping. She couldn't even open her mouth to forfeit lest she drown. She glared down at the girl with pink hair and found herself grudgingly admiring her. She didn't look like much, but she packed a hell of a punch.

"Winner: Sakura Haruno!" the proctor called since there was nothing that Temari could do. She took the loss knowing that in this match she'd been outclassed.

Sakura let her control over the dragon's form go, allowing her to breathe again, and lowering Temari to the ground in a show of sportsmanship she hadn't shown her previous opponent.

Temari waded through the water, to where the medics waited. She didn't want to go with them but couldn't find the energy to argue, the final match would be starting soon and she wanted to see her opponent win that too.

Sakura stood facing Naruto with the proctor between them. The water she'd flooded the arena with in her previous match had been drained and the earthen floor was no longer slippery mud thanks to some jutsu from the chūnin and jōnin that were on duty.

While they were setting the stadium to rights, Sakura had been given a chance to centre herself before the next match. She didn't move when the proctor leapt away with a shout of 'START', and neither did Naruto.

"Ne, I don't want to fight you Sakura-chan," Naruto whined loudly. The acoustics of the arena meant that he was heard clearly. Sakura laughed.

"I don't particularly want to fight you either. Not for real." Naruto perked up at her words. "But can you believe that we're here?" Sakura asked.

"What do you mean?"

"We graduated the Academy six months ago. We're rookies. No one honestly thought we'd make it this far. Especially not us. Not Dead Last and the Civilian Girl." The murmurs from the crowd settled into a bit of a stunned silence. "Guess we showed them huh." Sakura smirked and created the seal of confrontation with her left hand. "How about an all out friendly spar instead?"

Naruto grinned and did the same. "Yeah! Dattebayo!"

It sounded like there were some in the crowd that didn't like the idea of the two of them having a friendly fight but Naruto had already launched himself directly at her with no clones in sight. Sakura grasped the wrist of the hand that was aiming to punch her in the shoulder and directed it away as she stepped to the side, her other hand shoving him off balance.

He leapt at her again, and they settled into a taijutsu dance. Sakura guided nearly every kick, every punch away. Naruto was fast and some of them got through. His kick to her knee sent her to the floor but his follow up punch to her gut missed when she rolled away and back onto her feet.

Sakura started throwing her own punches and Naruto grinned at her wide and carefree when she landed one one his ribs that pushed him back several feet.

She cursed when he formed a familiar seal and a dozen clones puffed into view.

She whipped water at them and while some managed to dodge the chakra filled length of water, others couldn't and were dispelled. She hissed as a kunai grazed her hip when they rushed her. That must have been the real Naruto. More clones formed to replace every one she'd burst and she dipped and weaved and bent over backwards to avoid being pummelled into the dirt.

Sakura growled at the overwhelming force Naruto sent at her and in between fighting them off of her, in between sending her elbows sharply into the soft fleshy parts of the body, and sweeping their feet out from under them, she formed hand signs. Slow and interrupted by guiding a foot or a fist away from her face, she formed her hand signs and disappeared underground the first chance she got.

She started grabbing feet, pulling them down into the earth. Each clone she grabbed dispelled quickly and the rest took to the trees or the walls of the stadium leaving her range completely.

She climbed from the dirt and grinned up at the dozens of Naruto's that she'd made retreat.

"When did you learn that!" they demanded in unison and she laughed.

"A month's a long time when you've got exceptional chakra control." Sakura grinned and formed her own clones smugly using the two handed sign to spring them into existence.

She loved the way that the jaws of all the Naruto's dropped open. Then one of them stood tall and pointed at her accusatory.

"Hey! That's my jutsu!"

Sakura smirked "And now it's one of mine," she taunted as every one of her clones started forming hand signs.

They slammed their hands to the ground in unison and vines erupted everywhere. They were there to create a distraction. They were there to dispel as many of Naruto's clones as she could, but Naruto just kept making more. And more. And more, until there was a sea of orange rushing towards her.

Sakura- the original Sakura, finished her hand signs just in time and a massive wooden dragon wrapped around her protectively. Her clones were gone and she didn't have the chakra to waste making more. She was all but tapped out.

The dragon twisted its body and swirled around her in a never-ending sinuous movement. A protective sphere against the clones that tried to assail it.

The instant that they drew back to think of something else the dragon swept out low to the ground mowing down and destroying the clones it pursued with it's jaws.

Sakura was back under attack and she reached for the trees that covered some of the arena floor. She uprooted one and swung it in a wide arc smashing it into several clones and the real Naruto who went tumbling head over feet across the arena and into the wall.

"Sakura-chan!" he yelled out, sounding affronted.

"What?" she called back breathless but amused. "You act like someone hasn't swung a tree at you before."

"That's cause they haven't!" he yelped. "Who the heck swings trees at people!"

Sakura dropped the tree and just waved at him as if to say 'me, that's who'.

The dragon had cleared out the remaining clones and had loomed up and over Naruto's prostrate form. It burst into cherry blossom petals that buried the blonde entirely.

He was spitting them out of his mouth and shaking them out of his hair when he emerged, crawling to his feet. He gave her a look that asked if she wanted to continue and she gave a minute shake of the head. She was nearly out of chakra and she was sore and tired from the spar he'd inflicted on her.

Sakura shuffled out into the middle of the arena with Naruto meeting her there. They formed the sign of reconciliation and bowed to the Hokage and then the proctor.

"I declare this match a DRAW!" he shouted.

Well. There you have it. The end of the Chūnin Exams and consequently the end of this fic since it felt a good place to stop even though there are still loose ends to be wrapped up. Don't worry there is a sequel in the works that is already partially written. I want to get a bit further through before I start posting but when I do the crazy fast updates will be no longer be crazy fast- sorry.

Thank you everyone who has reviewed, you honestly made my day when you did. I'm super pleased that you all loved my Sakura and the beginning of her journey. I hope you stay tuned for the rest of it.

Much love

~G