Her Experience

by Tiny.Dncer

Sakura has been taking care of her sick civilian mother alone since she was 8. But now a full fledged ninja placed on team 7, she must learn how to stop holding herself back and let her team in, although, that proves challenging when her teammates are the wild and childish Naruto Uzumaki and her cold closed off long time crush, Sasuke Uchiha. (Better explanation inside.)

8. Chunin Exams pt 2

A/N: Woof this is a long chapter. I wanted to briefly adress a comment I saw asking about Shikamaru being able to pass the first exam without cheating. He doesn't in the anime/manga. My understanding is that Shikamaru is a genius, but that he's a tactical thinker, not an intellectual/book smart type. Conversly, Sakura is analytically brilliant, which is helpful with, though doesn't automatically equate to tactical thinking. Also at this point in the anime/manga, shikamaru's intelligence hasn't been revealed yet. Even if he could answer without cheating, he's probably too lazy, since he hasn't been properly motivated yet.

"Inner Sakura..."

"Sakura's thoughts..."

Memory...

"Dialogue"

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

---

Anko lead them to the perimeter of a nightmare inducing forest with a seven meter high fence encircling the area.

"This is the arena for the second exam: Training ground 44. Also known as the Forest of Death!" Anko announced with a dark smirk.

"It looks like a pretty creepy place."

Anko chuckled, and Sakura decided she hated it when proctors did that, it almost never meant something actually good for them.

"You're about to find out firsthand…why they call it the Forest of Death!"

"Ooo, you're about to find out firsthand why they call it the Forest of Death!" Naruto mocked. "Like that's really gonna scare us. You're trying to psych us out, and I'm not gonna fall for it!"

"Oh really?" Anko asked with a pleasant smile, that Sakura did not trust in the slightest. "You're pretty cocky, huh?"

She suddenly hurled a kunai at him—and then she was behind him, faster than their eyes could catch. Her hand on his face, licking the blood that dripped from the shallow cut she'd made.

"Heh. Your kind are always the first to go. Spilling all their rich, red, lovely, luscious blood."

Anko looked behind her sharply, holding a kunai in one hand, at the ready.

A grass ninja held Anko's kunai in her incredibly long, thick, snake like tongue.

"Your kunai knife, I believe you dropped it."

"Gee…thanks." Anko responded, a little revolted. When the grass ninja didn't immediately back up, she stuck her tongue out at her. When she still didn't back away, Anko's eyes narrowed.

"Don't just stand behind me radiating blood lust…unless you're in a hurry to die." She said, snatching back her kunai.

"I'll try to keep it under control…but the sight of warm, fresh blood makes me crazy…and I was already revved up, from losing a strand of my precious hair."

Hinata watched the whole thing, mildly horrified on Naruto's behalf. The proctor could have killed him.

"We've got a real nut case proctoring this exam! Not good. Not good at all!"

"And this grass ninja…I've got a bad feeling about her…the tag on her hat says 'evil,' and based on what she said to Anko-san, I don't think that's a complete lie."

"Sorry about that." Anko said to the grass nin as she walked away.

Naruto couldn't get past the creepy tongue…what was up with that?

"Looks like we have some hot-blooded teams on our hands this time out! Heh, should be fun."

Naruto put a hand to his bleeding cheek. They might be hot blooded but this proctor was blood thirsty.

"Before we begin the second exam, there's something I have to hand out." Anko held up a stack of papers. "They're consent forms. Everybody has to sign one."

"Why?" Naruto asked.

Anko grinned widely. "We want all the details covered before the first deaths occur. Sign before you go in so we can't be held liable. You wouldn't want me to get in trouble, would you?" Her tone was almost flirtatious.

"Deaths…?…Is she serious?!"

"Shannaro! She can't say that kind of shit while smiling like that! What a psycho!"

"First, I'll explain what the second exam entails, then you can sign the forms. With the other two members of your cell, bring the forms to the hut behind you and submit them. Got that? Good. Now, about the exam. To put it simply it's a no holds barred survival test." She said handing out the consent forms.

"We called it!"

"I said it'd be something practical, I didn't specify it'd be a survival test."

"Close enough!"

Shikamaru sighed as he took his paper. A survival test? What a drag.

"Let's start with the typography of this training ground. I'll explain the rest later. Training ground 44 is bordered by a circular perimeter, interrupted at regular intervals by forty-four locked gates. There are forests, bisected by a river and in the center is a tower about ten kilometers from those gates. Within the confines of this carefully delineated area, you're going to undergo a survival test. During the course of that test, you may use any ninja arts or weapons you have at your disposal. It's a kind of 'fight to the death' version of capture the flag. Or in this case, capture the scroll."

"Scroll?"

"Exactly." Anko said, holding up a small white scroll and a small navy blue scroll. Each with a large character on them. "There's a 'scroll of heaven' and a 'scroll of earth.' Your objective is to acquire both scrolls."

"Ah…that's how she's gonna cut us down by half…If each team is given one scroll, and we need both to move on, obviously half the teams are gonna be eliminated."

"There are seventy-eight of you. That's twenty-six, three member teams. Thirteen teams will start out with a heaven scroll, and the other thirteen will start with an earth scroll. But you'll need both scrolls to pass." Anko said, confirming Sakura's deduction.

"So your objective is to hold onto your own scroll, get your hands on one of the other kind, and then bring them both to the tower at the center."

"In other words, at least half of us—the teams whose scrolls are stolen—will fail." Sakura clarified. She said it mostly for Naruto's benefit, so they wouldn't have to waste time reexplaining things to him when the test began.

"Bingo! And there's a time limit! You have 120 hours in which to complete this exam—exactly five days!"

"Five days?!" Ino winced. This was gonna be a long test.

"What are we supposed to do for food?!" Choji shouted.

"That's your problem. The forests are full of nature's bounty. Of course, they're also full of man-eating animals, deadly insects, and poisonous plants." Anko answered looking bored.

Sakura was glad she'd had the foresight to pass that note to Kakashi. It had been a request for him to check in on her mother every now and then while she was going through the exam. She knew he'd do it. Her sensei was a man with a strong moral compass. He wouldn't ignore her request. He might claim it was a birthday gift to get out of actually getting her something or buying her a meal—not that she expected either from anyone—but he'd do it none the less. And she'd be eternally grateful to him for it. She wouldn't have to worry about having left her mother unattended over these next five days, which was important, because she had the feeling she couldn't afford to be distracted during this next exam.

"There's no way as many as thirteen teams will pass this. As the time shortens, the trials will come harder and faster, with less recovery time for any mistakes, accidents, and injuries. You'll be surrounded by enemies at all times, so you'll have to sleep with one eye open. So, in addition to those who die in the attempts to defend or capture a scroll, some of you are bound to succumb to exhaustion, exposure, starvation, and dehydration."

Sakura's fists tightened.

"I don't know how useful I'll be in getting or guarding our scroll, but I'll make sure my team won't have to worry about starvation, dehydration, or exhaustion…I can at least do that much…"

"Now let's talk about the rules…and what offenses you can be disqualified for!" Anko said brightly, apparently much more excited by this topic than the basic survival one. She held up one finger.

"Obviously, teams that fail to reach the tower in time, as a three man cell, carrying both a heaven and earth scroll, are out." Anko put another finger up. "So is any team that loses a member, whether to death or sever injury." She put up a third finger. "And under no circumstances are you to leave the forest before the time is up. No recess. No time-outs."

Anko dropped her hand, shoving her fists in her pocket. "Also, you're forbidden to look at the contents of those scrolls until you're inside the tower!"

"What happens if we sneak a peak?" Naruto asked nervously.

"That's for those who look to know!" Anko said coyly. "If any of you make it to the chunin level, there will be times when you'll be entrusted with top-secret documents. So consider this a test of your trustworthiness. That's all the explanation you get. We'll trade one scroll for every three forms. When you've got yours, choose the gate you want to start from. Everyone will begin at the same time. One piece of final advice…stay alive!"

Another proctor leaned out from the curtained-off hut. "It's almost time to distribute the scrolls."

Sasuke watched as Gaara and his team entered the hut. It was smart of them to keep them in the dark. They were concealing which scroll each team got and which member was carrying it with those black curtains. It was just like their first proctor, Ibiki, said. Stealing intelligence was a matter of life and death. Everyone was an enemy! And they were all probably equally determined…if they were all willing to fight to the death, this could become a massacre.

Sakura gracefully settled next to Sasuke, her mind racing. She combed through her silky pink hair with her fingers absently, as her jade eyes scanned the ninja around them.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked. He knew her well enough now to know her anxiety ticks by heart, as well as the expression she had when she was mentally calculating.

"We're going to be targets pretty quickly."

"How do you figure?" Sasuke asked, his eyes narrowing as he considered her words.

"Naruto drew a lot of attention to himself—and us by extension—throughout all of this. He pretty much challenged and threatened everyone here. And several look like their egos bruise easily. In all his blustering, he's kind of telegraphed how much of an idiot he is. They're going to think we're easy pickings…"

Once again, she made several good points. "Don't worry about it. We'll handle it."

"Some of them, yes…but…"

"Who's concerning you in specific?"

"The sound ninja who attacked Kabuto-san earlier, and the grass ninja who returned Anko-san's kunai."

"And you don't trust Kabuto, right?"

"Right…I don't think he'll do anything to us, and my guess is he won't pass this round, intentionally or unintentionally…but I definitely wouldn't reveal anything to him. Especially your Sharingan…if he's around, I'd avoid using it."

Sasuke nodded. There wouldn't be too much they could do, if they were being targeted. They'd just have to respond based on the situation when the time came. But he'd proceed with extra caution around those she named. It certainly wouldn't hurt them in anyway to do so. But he didn't like that Sakura was so tense.

"Earlier…you didn't have to cheat, did you?"

She blinked at him in surprise. "No. I just solved them myself…I knew I didn't have a reliable way of cheating and would get caught…"

"When'd you figure it out?"

"The test? Seven minutes in."

"Hn…well, I wasn't wrong…" She really was the most analytically skilled in their squad…potentially in their whole class.

"Huh?" Sakura blinked in confusion.

"Was he…did he guess that I figured it out? Did he really think I was the first to get it?" Her face colored a little.

"Sasuke-kun totally thinks we're super smart!"

"Your mom…this'll take five days…will she be ok?"

Sakura's eyes widened. Her chest warmed and fluttered. Maybe he was just being polite, just asking as a courtesy, but for the first time in her memory someone other than her just asked after her mother's well being. Someone else spared her enough of a thought to be politely worried. She wasn't carrying it all alone anymore.

"…Yeah…she'll be alright. I asked Kakashi-sensei to check in on her, and she's got enough food and medicine for a week."

Sasuke nodded and looked away. It was good she thought ahead like that. She must have had to do that for the Land of Waves mission too. And that time she'd dealt with it alone. Had no one to ask for help, no one to check in on her mother, no one to share her worry with. But she'd managed to compartmentalize it and not let it interfere with the mission. Her control over her emotions and ability to focus was formidable. Though, he was relieved that she now could ask for their assistance…that they were able to lighten her load, even just a little.

"Sasuke-kun…" he turned back to her at the sound of her voice.

"Thank you." She said, an honest smile painting her features. He was seeing her smile more often now. Not her polite detached one, her tense forced one, or her very convincing fake one, but her real smile.

"Hn…" Her eyes held a deep warmth in them that made him uncomfortable, largely because he couldn't tell what it was. Why was she looking at him like that? It wasn't the look of infatuation that all his fangirls seemed to wear. But there were similarities. Her flushed cheeks, widened eyes, dilated pupils, the smile, the suffix she attached to his name. It sounded different coming from her though, then when it came from them. It was softer, less abrasive and screeching, more soothing and reassuring. Why? What was that? Why did she say his name like that?

He looked away, feeling oddly off balance. This wasn't the time to be questioning why Sakura was the way she was…they were about to start a deadly test and were surrounded by enemies.

Naruto came bounding up to them with his signed form.

"Yeah! Yeah! We can't lose, believe it! Anyone comes near us, I'll kill 'em myself!" Naruto shouted.

"Oh please…"

"Shut it Naruto! You've already drawn enough attention to us as it is!" Sakura snapped, pulling out her ointment and dabbing it on the cut across his cheek.

The three made their way to the hut and Naruto handed the proctors their consent forms, and was traded a heaven scroll.

"Who should hold it?" Naruto asked. "What do you think, Sakura-chan?

Both her teammates looked at her expectantly. She blinked, a little surprised they were deferring to her on this, but she realized it made sense. They both acknowledged her as the most analytical thinker they had. At the moment she was the brains of their team. But analytical and tactical were two different things, and this was more of a tactical question.

"I'm the weakest…I tend to stay in back the most. If I hold it, they default to protecting me anyways…but if I get isolated or they're tied up in their own battle, I won't be able to effectively protect the scroll. Naruto's too reckless and bad at taking a backseat. He'll charge in blindly or throw himself in harm's way and we'll lose the scroll…That only leaves Sasuke-kun."

"Sasuke-kun is the most logical choice. If you ever need to hand it off for some reason, pass it to me."

Naruto and Sasuke nodded once, and Sasuke tucked the scroll away before they left the hut.

"All right, everyone, follow your proctors to your respective gates! When the signal sounds in half an hour, the exam will begin.

"That starts us exactly at 7pm. We'll be starting in the dark…They really wanted to make this hard on us…"

It was tense as everyone waited. Twenty-nine minutes and thirty seconds later, they heard Anko shout, "Part two of the chunin selection exams begins…Now!"

"All right! Let's go!" Naruto shouted, leading team 7 through the gate. They jumped into the tree line and took off.

---

Sakura's first observation was that it wouldn't have mattered much what time of day they started them on this test. Once they were in the forest, the trees grew so close together that they blocked out most light anyways.

They traveled deeper into the forest, eventually slowing to conserve energy, when Sakura heard a scream.

"Did you guys hear someone…scream? This place is creeping me out…"

Stay calm…

Kakashi's voice rang in her mind.

"I'm telling you Sakura-chan, it's no big deal." Naruto said casually, apparently totally unaffected by the environment. He jerked to a stop suddenly. "…Uhh…I gotta take a leak…"

He said, unzipping his pants.

Sakura's inner voice temporarily decided to call the shots.

"Not in front of me, Bozo! I'm a lady, damnit! Use the bushes!" She shouted, decking him in the head.

"Ow!"

His whine brought Sakura back into control of herself, though she didn't feel like apologizing this time around.

"Seriously, what does he take me for?!"

Naruto scurried off to the bushes to relieve himself out of her view. A couple minutes later he emerged again.

"Oh man! What a relief! Feelin' good now!"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"Don't even think about going into details!" Sakura snapped, still irritated at his indecency.

Sasuke suddenly slammed his fist in Naruto's face.

"What the hell?! I know they fight a lot, but that was uncalled for!"

"…Sasuke-kun doesn't do something without a reason…"

"What was that for?!" Naruto demanded.

"Sasuke-kun, wha—"

"What have you done with Naruto?"

"Hello? I'm right in front of you bleeding!"

"You're wearing your shuriken on your left thigh. Naruto's right handed. And you forgot the cut that Naruto got from the proctor just before the exam. You're even worse at disguise jutsu than the real Naruto."

Sakura wanted to kick herself for not noticing.

"I should have caught that—maybe not the shuriken thing but the cut…"

"In our defense, we already put ointment on it and he heals really fast…"

The enemy released the jutsu to reveal a boy in an Ame headband wearing some kind of gas or oxygen mask and an off white full body suit.

"Since you've forced me to come clean, why don't you do the same. Which one of you two has the scroll?"

Neither Sakura nor Sasuke responded, instead readying themselves for attack.

"Unfortunately, you've forced me to be direct." He said, charging them.

Sasuke leapt up. "Fire style: Phoenix flower jutsu!"

The ninja dodged, hopping up into the trees, Sasuke doing the same.

Unsure of what else to do and not wanting to get in Sasuke's way, Sakura took off in the direction the real Naruto had gone, finding him tied up not too far away.

She quickly cut the ropes, freeing him, in time to see Sasuke in a branch above them.

He'd been distracted by the sight of his two teammates, checking to make sure they were alright.

"You left an opening! Lucky me!" He hurled kunai at Sasuke, who flipped behind the branch, seeing the paper bomb attached to the kunai too late.

The bomb exploded, splintering the thick branch and sending Sasuke to the forest floor.

"Ow!"

"Better and better. One false move and I'll kill you. Now hand over the scroll!" The Ame nin said from behind him.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted, jumping and hurling her kunai at the enemy, who jumped to avoid it.

"You're not getting away that easily!" Naruto yelled, throwing a Kunai of his own, though this one was aimed more at Sasuke than their attacker.

Sasuke was quick to catch the kunai with the sole of his shoe, using chakra to hold it in place. He sent the knife flying with a kick, but quickly jumped, catching it and slamming it into the airborne enemy's arm. Blood splattered across his face.

"Sasuke-kun…" He could hear the worry in her voice along with the surprise at the vicious attack.

"I'm fine, and he left me no choice! We need to move, we don't know where his friends are!"

The Ame nin's hand shot to his wound. It was bad…He'd thought coming alone would help conceal his presence but instead it had been his downfall. He had to retreat.

The enemy genin hopped away as fast as he could, and Team 7 took off in the opposite direction. They finally came to rest about fifty meters away from the scene of the fight, and decided to break for a group meeting.

"Remember this. If we get separated again, we can't trust each other blindly! It could end up the way this last time did!"

"We need some way to identify ourselves." Sakura agreed.

"The safest thing would be for us to have a secret password. That way, we'll know. No matter who they look like or how they sound, if one of us gets that wrong…they're an enemy." Sasuke suggested. Naruto and Sakura nodded.

"Do you have one in mind?" She asked.

"Yeah. Listen carefully, I'll only say it once. It's a poem called 'Ninki'—'Ninja Opportunity.' When I ask for it, here's what you respond…"

Sakura knew this poem. She'd read it before. It was an interesting choice.

"Sasuke-kun likes poetry?"

"We thrive in chaos of the enemy tide. Quiet shinobi don't need dens to hide. Our only concern is to watch and wait, until the enemy lowers the gate." Sasuke's eyes bore into hers.

"Why this poem…Why a poem about shinobi lying in wait to attack…it wasn't thematic to a password or identification. So why…unless someone's watching and waiting right now…"

She saw the look in his eye shift.

"Got it." She said out loud, double referencing the password and the message Sasuke was sending. They were being watched.

"And you expect me to remember that, how?!"

"You're such a dunce. I've got it down already." She countered, keeping her tone light and unbothered, even as she watched their surroundings closely from the corner of her eye.

"But you're super smart Sakura-chan!" Naruto protested, oblivious to his teammates cautious scanning. "We need a better password! How about "Swordfish"—ow!" Something thin and sharp sliced across his cheek. "What the—?"

There was a large blast of strong wind, so strong the three genin couldn't keep their footing. There was a loud boom as several trees fell, kicking up dust and erasing their vision.

When the dust cleared, Sasuke crawled out from the bush he'd hidden under. There was no sign of Naruto, but Sakura was running towards him.

"Sakura…"

"Sasuke-kun!"

"Stay back. What's the password?"

"We thrive in chaos of the enemy tide. Quiet shinobi don't need dens to hide. Our only concern is to watch and wait, until the enemy lowers the gate." She recited. Sasuke lowered the kunai he was holding and nodded.

"Yow…are you guys alright?" Naruto called, jogging towards them.

"Not so fast Naruto! The password?" Sakura demanded.

"Right. 'Ninki.' We thrive in chaos of the enemy tide. Quiet shinobi don't need dens to hide. Our only concern is to watch and wait, until the enemy lowers the gate."

Both Sakura and Sasuke chucked a kunai at Naruto, who leapt backwards to evade them.

"He's good enough to deflect the attacks this time." Sasuke muttered.

"Well done!" Naruto disappeared in a puff, replaced by the grass ninja with the weird tongue.

Sakura tensed and Sasuke shot her a quick glance. She'd been right again. This person had targeted them…and they were definitely more skilled than their first opponent.

"What gave me away?"

"I knew you were underground, eavesdropping on everything we said…that's why I chose that kind of password…" Sasuke answered.

"The real Naruto wouldn't have memorized anything. He'd probably just say, 'What's that stupid password again?'" Sakura finished, her voice even despite her growing anxiety.

"Gotcha imposter." Sasuke smirked.

"I see…watch and wait, eh? This is going to be more fun than I thought!" The grass nin said, her voice dark and vaguely slithery.

"I really have a bad feeling about her…and where's the real Naruto?"

"I supposed you'd like to steal our earth scroll, wouldn't you? Since you already have a heaven scroll." The woman's snake like tongue wrapped around the scroll and pulled it into her own mouth.

Sasuke and Sakura watched with revulsion and horror as the woman completely swallowed the scroll.

"…Now we shall see…just who will be stealing scrolls from whom?" Her fingers reached up and started pulling at the flesh of her eye. "We'll fight to the death!"

A pulse hit Sasuke and Sakura, and suddenly everything was bathed in their own blood, kunai lodged deeply into their foreheads.

Sasuke collapsed onto all fours and vomited, trembling. Sakura dropped to her knees.

Her heart was drumming loudly in her ears, drowning out all other sound. Pain erupted through her whole body. Her chakra was exploding out of her—but it was more chakra than she ever had at her disposal, more than her body could handle. It felt like she had blades running through her veins instead of blood. Her skin was burning. Her bones felt like they were being squeezed so tightly they might shatter. She couldn't hold in her blood curdling scream.

Sakura's sudden explosion of chakra shattered the death genjutsu they'd been under. The earlier paralysis that had gripped Sasuke had dispelled, but he was still held in place by confusion and horror at what was happening to her. He could practically see her chakra through her skin.

"…Intresting…" The grass ninja murmured, her cold eyes studying the screaming Sakura. Sasuke snapped his head towards the terrifying woman when she spoke. She flicked her two kunai, which rocketed towards the Team 7 members. Sasuke forced his shaky limbs into action, grabbed Sakura and took off as fast as he could.

He knew the woman was following them and Sakura's erupting chakra could probably be felt for at least two kilometers. He could feel her muscles twitching in his arms.

He thought he lost their pursuer when he could no longer sense her presence, although it was hard to sense anything other than Sakura at the moment. The amount of chakra leaking from her overpowered everything. He kept pushing a little bit more, before slowing to a stop and setting her down on a thick branch. The tree bark around her immediately cracked.

Sakura had completely lost track of what was going on. All there was, was pain. She was vaguely aware of moving, Sasuke, and the horrible woman who must be chasing them. She was doing her best not to scream, only allowing strangled cries and strained whimpers to escape her lips.

It was like her body was being shredded from the inside out. She struggled to form some kind of helpful thought through the raging pain.

"Too much…chakra…get rid…"

But she couldn't mold it. It was racing through her too fast. She lost all control of it.

"Sakura! Wh-what the hell is going on?!" Sasuke asked in a shouted whisper. That woman couldn't be far behind them…she'd reach them any minute. No matter what, she'd be able to track Sakura. And he could tell from the horrible sounds his teammate was making that she was in unfathomable amounts of pain. Too much was happening at once and he wasn't sure what to worry about more. Sakura's condition or the encroaching enemy who was way out of their league. "Sakura!" He tried again.

His voice sounded muffled and far away, but she heard him over her pain, and desperately grabbed hold of his hand.

Stay calm…

Her sensei's warning floated loose from the back of her agony soaked mind.

"Right…I need to…be level headed…to figure out how…to handle this…"

It took all her effort, all her concentration, but she focused only on Sasuke's hand in hers. It was cold against her burning skin. Clammy. She concentrated on the feel of his various callouses and small scars. The way she felt his chakra through his hand, a torrent of energy, rushing at a breakneck speed. His chakra was as impatient as he was. She had too much right now…it was tearing her apart. He could have her chakra. As much as he wanted. She'd gladly give it if it lessened the force pounding through her body and compressing her lungs so they burned with every shaky breath she took.

She concentrated on the energy in her hand mixing and matching with the energy and movement in his, tracing it through every bone of his hand.

Sasuke's eyes widened. His left hand, which Sakura was grasping tightly, was tingling, warming. He felt the feeling spread up his arm and down through his torso. His diminished energy was replenishing, and as the feeling spread and grew, Sakura's pained moans lessened. Somehow, she was giving him her chakra. "Sakura…" He breathed out. They didn't have much time, she'd be here any minute now. They needed to move.

His voice registered clearly, and didn't sound as far away. Sakura opened her eyes and looked up, the movement sending electric shocks down her body. She locked eyes with his wide onyx ones, which were terrified. She'd never seen Sasuke look so scared. And then movement from behind him caught her eye, and she didn't have time to form any sort of proper warning.

The huge snake lunged at Sasuke from behind, and Sakura tackled him into a flat fall off the branch at the last second.

Sasuke's panicked eyes shot to the giant snake, who splintered the branch in its powerful jaws. He was so off balance, he hadn't even noticed the giant snake about to eat him! He secured Sakura in his arms, before controlling their fall and landing them on a thick branch, releasing a barrage of kunai and shuriken at the oncoming, open mouthed snake. The knives and blades cut through the snakes mouth and throat, pinning it to a tree trunk. Sasuke lowered Sakura down, since it didn't seem like her legs would support her. She was shaking hard, her eyes closed and her lips pursed tightly. She was still practically bleeding chakra, but it wasn't as much now, and her skin wasn't glowing as brightly with it anymore, so he'd take that as a good sign.

The snake, and tackling Sasuke, had been very bad for Sakura. She'd just started to calm herself down enough to think clearer, and that had to go and undo most of that effort. Every movement sent searing pain through her body, and it took straining all of her minimal mental presence to focus on Sasuke. His arms wrapped around her. Her cheek on his shoulder. His chest against her own. The rapid rise and fall of his breathing. She couldn't siphon off chakra to him this way…it seemed that needed to be through hand to hand contact. But it was helping her to ground herself. To calm down. The more she calmed, she was able to notice, the less chakra raced through her, over flowing until it had to explode out of her in a geyser of pure energy.

There was a shredding sound, and grass ninja burst from the snakes throat.

"Shame on you letting your guard down! Stay on your toes, like good prey should! It makes the chase so much more rewarding for the predator!" Her torso elongated like a snakes, and she spiraled her way around the branch, shooting towards Sasuke.

A barrage of shuriken hit the branch in front of her path, cutting her off.

"Sorry Bastard…What's that stupid password, again?"

Naruto looked boldly down at the scene. His eyes narrowed when he saw Sakura. Something was wrong with her. He knew it. After all, it had been her chakra that lead him here, when he was still many many meters away. Her chakra had never been that…potent before.

"Naruto! I know you're trying to be cool and rescue us, but don't get involved! Just run! She's—she's on a much different level!"

Sakura heard everything. The grass ninja showing up from inside the giant snake, her reprimanding Sasuke, calling them pray, Naruto's brave, bold, and utterly stupid rescue. But she kept her eyes closed and focused only on her breathing, her points of contact with the tree, and the wind through her hair and against her skin.

Stay calm…

She had to keep calming down. She needed to clear her mind enough to help Sasuke and Naruto with their enemy. She also didn't want to do anything to trigger a second…attack. She didn't know what damage had been done—if there had been any—to her body, but she knew a second wave of whatever this was, would probably killer her. Her mind was more coherent now, less drowned in pain. She slowly lifted her hand and ran it down the length of her hair. The action always helped sooth her, and she felt the chakra leaking out of her less and less, slowly diminishing.

"Take Sakura and run!" Sasuke shouted.

Naruto frowned. Sakura definitely didn't look good…but he wasn't running and he wasn't gonna leave the bastard behind.

Sakura's eyes opened when Sasuke said that. She didn't divert her focus from forcing her breath out evenly, or the soothing activity of passing her hand through her hair, but with her mind clearer, she could think. And at the moment, if they should leave anyone behind, it should be her.

"No…" Sasuke's eyes darted quickly to her. "…you two run. Leave me…I'm too easy…to track right now…your chances…of…getting away will go up…without me…"

The grass ninja chuckled evil. "The little girl is right about that. Your best bet is to flee and let me kill her now. She's doomed anyway, destined to die screaming."

Sasuke didn't answer, but stepped decisively closer to Sakura. What did she mean Sakura was destined to die screaming? Did she know something about why Sakura's chakra suddenly went super nova?

"Shut the hell up! I'll never leave Sakura-chan behind!" Naruto growled.

The snake lady studied Naruto with something like amusement in her cold eyes.

"Congratulations on your brilliant defeat of that giant snake, Naruto…"

This woman was freaky. No matter how Naruto looked at her, she resembled a snake. She was the one responsible for the giant snake that swallowed him earlier when he got separated from the rest of his team. He'd had to call up enough shadow clones to explode the snakes stomach…and after spending some quality time being digested, he decided he throughly hated snakes.

Sasuke tried to figure out what to do. Naruto showing up to a situation had never been any help in the past…usually it made things worse.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Naruto shouted to the snake woman. "Evidently you've been bullying the weakling! Now that I, Uzumaki Naruto is here, I'll wipe the floor with you!"

Sasuke felt his panic surge afresh. Damn! If things continued like this, all three of them were done for!

"If it's the scroll you want, just take it and go!" He shouted, holding up their heaven scroll.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock.

"Bastard! What the hell do you think you're doing?! Is this some clever way of beating the enemy…? By handing over everything we've got?!"

The snake woman laughed, her body slithering along the tree branch as she straightened.

"Well done…You're obviously natural born prey…instinctively knowing that your only hope lies in the chance of the predator being distracted by some tastier bait."

"Take it and go!" Sasuke repeated, chucking their scroll at her.

There was a blur of orange as Naruto intercepted it.

"Stay out of this! You'll get us all killed!" Sasuke growled at him.

Naruto was beyond pissed. He slammed his fist hard into Sasuke's face, sending Sasuke flying and forcing him to land on a neighboring tree branch.

"Naruto…what…" Sakura asked weakly…struggling to maintain her focus on her senses and breath while still allowing herself to absorb what was going on.

"I forgot the stupid password…So I can't prove it…But this so called Sasuke is obviously fake!"

"What…is this Moron…saying?"

"Naruto…You idiot! I'm me!"

"Bullshit! And you're the idiot, idiot! You're a coward, which Sasuke isn't, so you're not him! I'm not sure we need to be afraid of this guy…and even if we did hand over our scroll, there's no guarantee she'd spare us! So even if you were Sasuke, I'd still be telling you you're an idiot…and maybe a chicken too!"

"Oh, Naruto! This is rich." The snake woman said, watching in amusement. "And you're right. Why bargain…when I can simply kill you and take the scroll?" She said, pulling up her sleeve to reveal a black symbol inked on. She bit her thumb and spread the blood over the symbol.

"Shut up!" Naruto shouted, charging at her blindly.

"Don't do it, Naruto!" Sasuke yelled.

Naruto clenched his jaw in disappointment. His faith in Sasuke was totally shot.

"Summoning Jutsu!" A huge Snake appeared under the woman's feet—larger than any of the previous reptiles. Its huge tail smashed through the branch Naruto had been running along, sending him up with so much force, his body smashed through two branches above him before slamming hard into the underside of a thick branch with so much force he coughed up blood. Gravity took hold of his body as he started to fall.

Sasuke watched in horror as Naruto fell. It required Sakura's maximum focus to keep from panicking again and continue calming down.

"Trust Naruto and Sasuke-kun, and breathe. I need to stabilize myself…So I can be helpful. And I don't want it…to happen again…I'll be no help to anyone if…that thing…happens again…actually, I'll be an active detriment. Get stable, and…then try to figure out something…useful."

"Excellent but let's not take any chances with the boy." The snake obeyed the woman's implied order as its tongue made to wrap around Naruto."

Naruto's eyes snapped open, his irises red and his pupils elongated like a foxes. The three whisker like markings on his cheeks seemed more pronounced.

"Ah shove it where it hurts, Lady!" Naruto shouted, flipping himself and drop kicking the snake with such force the snake's head actually drooped a little.

"Naruto's completely snapped…"

"But…where did all that strength come from?"

The snake lady suddenly exhaled a large cloud of fire, much like Sasuke's jutsu, which sent Naruto through another branch, and slammed him into a tree trunk.

"And it's Sasuke-kun's turn next! How will he take it?" The woman jeered, as her and the snake launched towards Sasuke.

He was frozen. Sakura was still next to him, unable to move for the most part. At the very least he had to push her clear of the snake, but he couldn't get himself to move.

"Sasuke-kun…!" Sakura tried to spur him to action with as much strength in her voice as she could muster…but it still came out weak. It felt like she'd swallowed an entire bag of broken glass.

Suddenly, Naruto was in front of them both, his arms spread wide, two kunai piercing the snake's snout as he held it back. Naruto looked up at Sasuke, bruised, blood trailing from the corner of his mouth, and breathing hard.

"…Hey are you hurt…?…Scaredy cat?!" Naruto asked, tossing Sasuke's words from their journey to the Land of Waves back at him.

The memory raced through Sasuke's mind, along with Naruto's earlier admonishment of him being an idiot and a coward. But his thoughts were jarred to a stop when the snake lady's tongue wrapped around Naruto and lifted him to her eye level.

"Heyyy! Get off me!"

"To think that the nine-tailed brat survived…" She said, somehow still perfectly understandable despite the abnormally thick and long tongue hanging out of her mouth. Her hands formed some sort of unrecognizable seal. "How fascinating that, when you are consumed with rage, you lose yourself and a bit of the nine-tailed demon fox trapped with in you comes through. Amazing development." She pulled up Naruto's shirt, allowing her to see spiral, sun-shaped, seal around his belly button. "There's the proof. That seals the monster within and appears on your skin like a tattoo."

The woman thrust her hand against the seal on Naruto's stomach. The blond let out a choked gasp of pain.

"Sasuke-kun! Naruto needs you!" Sakura said firmly, glad that her voice sounded like it was beginning to regain some strength.

Naruto slackened, knocked out. The snake woman studied the unconscious boy. It seemed that after being trapped in Naruto for a dozen years, the demon fox, and the boy's native chakra and psyche, had apparently gone from enmity and opposition to coexistence, and were on the brink of symbiosis. But for now, she thought, removing the scroll from Naruto's weapon pouch, they were more trouble than they were worth. The terrifying woman threw Naruto away from her with a simple flick of her tongue.

Sasuke was so shaken, he wasn't moving. Sakura knew she had to do something to help Naruto. They were so high up and he was unconscious and free falling. He'd die from an uncontrolled drop this high.

Her body screamed in protest, but she managed to move her arm enough to grab a Kunai and throw it, hitting the blond's orange track jacket and pegging him to a tree. She reached up and grabbed Sasuke's hand, feeling the energy pulsing underneath it, and just like before, augmented it with her own—whatever excess chakra she was still leaking, she carefully transferred into him.

"Sasuke-kun…" Her voice was quiet, laced with pain, but also anger and frustration. "Naruto may be nothing like you…He's clumsy. And reckless. And sometimes he's a big nuisance. But at least he's got guts. Naruto's no coward, right?…And unless I'm wrong, neither are you…"

Her words caused a domino effect in his head, triggering his brother's final words to play through his memory.

Baby brother, you're pathetic. If you want to kill me, settle for hating me until you can! Hate me and live like the coward you are! Flee and cling to your life without honor…

No! Sakura was never wrong. He wasn't a coward. He couldn't let his brother's words become true! Not now, not ever. That man forfeited his right to have any say in Sasuke's life when he took everyone from him. His loathed brother was wrong. Sasuke wasn't pathetic or a coward. And he didn't flee.

He felt the warm tingling of Sakura's chakra mixing with his own, energizing him. He closed his eyes and took a steadying breath. If this is where he went out, so be it, but at least he'd go down fighting. When his eyes opened, black irises were replaced with the red, patterned ones of the sharingan. Sakura's hand slid away from his, as he dropped into a battle stance.

The snake woman smiled. It seemed his Uchiha blood finally started boiling, demanding action. She decided to take her time, so she could see all of his moves, and dispelled her summons. The snake disappeared with a loud puff, leaving her standing on the remains of a shattered tree branch.

Sasuke reached into his weapons pouch and pulled out several kunai and shuriken, even going so far as to hold one in his mouth. He'd been living with the hope of one day killing his older brother…he'd thought it was the most important thing. But he'd been a dunce this whole time. Naruto…Sakura…Someone who couldn't even lay his life on the line to do what had to be done in a time like this…wouldn't stand a chance against a guy like Itachi.

Sasuke threw his shuriken, catching each movement and way the snake like person dodged. He anticipated the woman's escape route and grabbed the trunk of a tree, swinging himself around and using the added momentum to give more power to his throw.

The woman was forced to jump to dodge the shuriken, and Sasuke immediately threw the kunai in his mouth at the woman's head, forcing her to lean to the side to just barely dodge.

She smirked. Not bad…the way he anticipated her every move, the accuracy of his targeting…he saw her!

Sasuke pulled hard against the string in his mouth, attached at the other end to the shuriken he threw. The string was woven through the center of the throwing star, one end in Sasuke's teeth and the other wrapped around the tree he was braced against, secured by the kunai he'd just thrown.

The kunai bounced off the shuriken, correcting its trajectory while Sasuke pulled at it with the string, sending it straight for the snake lady's head. She whirled around last minute and caught it in her mouth.

She was impressed. He'd flawlessly perceived her escape route and struck along a path she didn't even see herself.

"Fire style: Dragon flame jutsu!"

The snake woman turned just in time to see roaring fire, stronger than any Sasuke had ever conjured before, thanks to the chakra boost from Sakura, racing along the string. Her head ignited in flame.

Sasuke didn't feel nearly as drained as he expected…the additional chakra Sakura had given him kept him from using too much of his own. That was good. It meant he'd have enough chakra to get Sakura and Naruto somewhere safe.

"…That one so young should have such mastery over the sharingan…truly a worthy successor to the honored name of the Uchiha clan!" The woman looked up…but maybe she wasn't a woman. Her voice sounded different now. Masculine and raspy, like a snake's hiss.

Her face was melting off, peeling over the left eye, like a mask, to reveal a different sharp boldly painted eye underneath.

"…in fact…I believe…I want you after all…"

Sakura didn't like the sound of that. She was no longer leaking chakra, but the aftermath left her feeling exhausted and drained. The chakra she had felt abysmally small. And the trauma and aftershocks still coursed through her body. She forced herself to stand, though her body ached in protest, and jumped to Sasuke's branch, wincing as she landed, her jaw clenched in pain.

"Sasuke-kun…"

His eyes shifted to his teammate for a second, immediately noting how pale and pained her face looked. He was surprised she was standing at all, let alone moving.

"It's marvelous fun, having you show me all your tricks!" The snake person said, their eye glaring at the two malevolently.

Just like before, Sakura and Sasuke found themselves paralyzed, though this time without the horrific projection of their own deaths.

Stay calm…

Sakura focused on her breathing, the body heat radiating from Sasuke, and the wind rustling in her hair.

"You really are his brother, aren't you?" The enemy's eyes never left Sasuke. They moved their hand, revealing a music note on their hitai-ate…

"So, they're actually affiliated with Oto…They snuck in. Obviously they're not a genin, just who the hell are they?…And what do they want with Sasuke-kun?"

"You can see—and conceal—things with those eyes of yours that Itachi himself never dreamed of!"

Sasuke's eyes widened. This person knew his brother?!

"Just who the hell are you?!"

"I'm Orochimaru, the great snake. If you think you want to meet me again, then pass this exam as quickly as you can." He said, holding up their heaven scroll and setting it on fire.

"I'll see you again if you manage to defeat the three Oto ninja who answer to me."

"They answer to him? Is he their squad leader? Their Kage?…does it work differently in Sound?"

"Wh-what are you talking about?! We never want to see your face again!" Sakura yelled, with as much strength as she could muster. Orochimaru turned to her.

"Perhaps not…but wishing won't chase me away…although, I doubt you'll live long enough for it to matter, little girl…"

Orochimaru's neck elongated like a snakes, his head launching itself at Sasuke, and biting him on the base of his neck. Orochimaru released him, his neck reeling his head back to where it belonged.

"I look forward to seeing you again Sasuke-kun, in your quest for power…"

A mark, like three spiraling tomoe burned at the base of his neck, and Sasuke doubled over in pain. His entire body felt like it was on fire.

"Wh-what…? Everything…hurts!" Sasuke gasped, clutching at the base of his neck.

Sakura whirled on the nightmare of a man, sinking into the ground behind her. "What did you do to Sasuke-kun?! Did you poison him?"

"I just gave him a little gift to remember me by…Rest assured, Sasuke will come to me…in his quest for power." Orochimaru disappeared under ground.

Sakura turned her attention back to Sasuke, who screamed as the mark on his neck throbbed.

It was just like earlier, except now the roles were reversed. Sasuke was the one screaming in agony…and he was actually screaming, unlike how Sakura had attempted to hold hers in as much as possible.

Oddly enough, this particular situation didn't send Sakura into a panic. She'd never seen Sasuke this in pain, and had no idea what was wrong with him. No clue how to help. But Sakura lived with that feeling daily with her mother. And she knew how to work through it.

She sank down next to Sasuke, something her own body was grateful for, despite the wave of pain movement elicited.

"Sasuke-kun…I'm right here. Just hang on." She said gently but firmly.

Sasuke grabbed her hand, his fingers intertwining with hers as he squeezed hard. He let out another agonized cry, the fingers of his other hand scraping against the bark of the tree.

She hated seeing him like this. Hated seeing this boy who meant so much to her, in so much pain. She felt tears stinging at her eyes knowing that at that moment, there was nothing she could do to help him, other than give him something to hold on to. She couldn't risk giving him anything to try and knock him out, not knowing what Orochimaru had done to him. She figured he'd pass out from the pain soon…she nearly had several times over earlier. She'd fought it every time because she wasn't sure if she'd be able to wake up again.

"Naruto…Sasuke-kun is—" She looked over to see him still unconscious, pegged to the tree. She was alone in this…

"This is bad…I'm useless enough normally, but now…I'm weakened and exhausted, I can barely move without my body wanting to commit mutiny…Naruto's down for the count and Sasuke-kun…"

He let out another agonized scream, and she felt the tears in her eyes overflow down her face. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close.

"You can get through this Sasuke-kun…just hold on. I'm right here. It'll be alright."

Sakura slipped a pain killer into her mouth, and went back to hugging him. She held him like that, rubbing soothing circles on his back, until his cries grew quieter and quieter as he finally passed out. Once he was unconscious, Sakura got to work.

---

With a lot of slow going, pained effort, Sakura had gotten her two teammates to the forest floor, and took refuge under the roots of the giant trees, which formed something of a little, cavelike overhang. She bandaged and treated all the small injuries the two had, placed a dampened cloth over Sasuke's forehead, and decided to risk giving him a fever reducer.

She then, much to her body's protests, set about laying a few traps. They weren't great, she knew, but they were the best she could do in her weakened, pained, state.

Sakura had always been good at estimating the time. Day one of the exam started at 7pm. They'd traveled the forest for about forty-five minutes prior to Orochimaru's attack. It was only around 8:30pm now. That horrible battle, and the eternity of pain Sakura had been in, had only taken less than a full hour. Battles moved much faster in real time than they seemed to…and pain elongated time in the worst ways possible.

The night dragged by, and Sakura's body screamed at her to go to sleep. She knew she needed the rest, to repair whatever damage her chakra had done to her earlier. But she was the only one who could keep watch. She was the only one who could look after them. It was all on her. She couldn't afford to rest. She couldn't let them down. She had to protect them both.

Sakura spent the whole rest of the night checking on Sasuke, and trying to meditate to get some level of rest without losing consciousness.

The hours flowed by like that without much interruption. Sakura monitored Sasuke's uneven breathing, rubbing some eucalyptus paste under his nose and on his chest to help ease it. She changed the cloth on his forehead every half hour. Every move she made sent an achey wave through her body.

Soon the area around her began to lighten a little. It was already dawn.

She heard a rustling behind her and gripped her kunai. To her relief, it was just a squirrel.

"What are you up to, scaring me like that?"

The squirrel started to move towards her.

"Hey!" She chucked her kunai, halting the squirrels progress, and it turned and ran off in fear.

"That was close…that little guy almost set off one of my traps…"

"You've been up all night standing guard, eh?"

Sakura recognized the voice of one of the sound ninja from when they attacked Kabuto.

"Seriously?! Why is it everyone we didn't want to run into?! How is our luck this bad?!"

"This isn't good…It's three on one, they're tough and I'm…I'm weak in a fight on a normal day, but it's even worse now…I can barely move without it hurting."

"As of now you're off duty. Just wake Sasuke for us. The three of us want to take him on."

"What are you talking about? Are those Orochimaru's orders? I know he's the one pulling all the strings…So what do you actually want?" Sakura answered coldly.

Stay calm…

"Easier said than done…especially with these odds…"

The three Oto ninja looked surprised.

"That mark on Sasuke-kun's neck, what is it? You really want to fight him in this condition…leave now."

"Hmm…I wonder what Orochimaru's up to?!" The bandaged one rasped.

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "Is this a mind game? Or is he genuinely caught off guard?"

"Whatever…I can't walk away after hearing that! I'll destroy you little girl, and your precious Sasuke-kun too!" The spiky haired one sneered.

"So he's a hot head…"

"Shannaro! Little girl?! Why does everyone keep calling us that?!"

"Wait Zaku!"

"Wait? Why?"

"It's obvious…freshly turned stones, exposed soil, grass in places it would never grow…"

"And he's the intelligent one…"

"Someone's been setting booby traps…but what's the point of laying them if you leave evidence that warns your prey?"

Sakura bit at her lip.

"It's amateurish! So she threw the kunai knife at the squirrel to stop it from springing the trap?"

"Well the girl's of no use to us…let's eliminate her first."

Stay calm.

The ninja jumped to avoid her trap on the ground. Sakura smirked, cutting the string next to her.

A log dropped on the ninja from above.

"The trap was above us all along?!" The bandaged one adjusted his position, placing his hand against the wood. "How funny…" The long exploded, raining shrapnel down on the clearing.

"…How?! It's just like before with Kabuto-san's glasses. What's the trick?"

"To be honest…you're a complete no-talent, you know that, don't you? Stop slacking and work harder! It's an insult to be underestimated by the likes of you!"

"SHANNARO! Shut up you freaking asshole! You have no idea how hard we work!"

"But not at training…"

"Yes at training! We just rarely get the opportunity."

"Well…no matter…I knew this was a possibility coming here. Time to face the music."

Sakura winced as she stood—but even though it sent vibrating waves of pain through her, she kept her movements smooth and fluid.

"It…hurts…but I can't let them know how weak I actually am right now, it'll give them just one more advantage…"

"Leaf hurricane!" A green blur slammed into the sound nin, sending them back, sprawling.

"Look who's talking. Try taking your own advice." Rock Lee stood proudly in front of her, ready to challenge all three of the Oto nin.

"Wh-who are you?"

"Konoha's handsome blue beast, Rock Lee!"

"Lee…why are you here?" Sakura asked, wide eyed.

"I came because you needed me. I'll always come when you need me!"

"But…Right now…I'm his enemy, so why…?"

Lee placed a squirrel that'd been sitting on his shoulder down on the ground. It was actually thanks to him that he was here. If he hadn't found the paper bomb on the squirrels back, he'd never have know to come.

Sakura glanced back at her unconscious teammates. "I don't know how to thank you…I'm not even your teammate."

"I promised when we met to protect you with my life!"

Sakura softened, giving him a tired but honest smile.

Lee's face burned scarlet. Sakura really smiled at him! He couldn't wait to tell Gai-sensei! He did it!

The bandaged one tossed their teams earth scroll to Zaku.

"It can't be helped. Zaku, Sasuke's all yours. They're as good as dead!"

Lee glanced at Sakura. She didn't look like she was in any condition to fight…her face was pale and her eyes looked tired and pained.

The bandaged one charged at Lee, but before he could reach him, Sakura threw a kunai at him, forcing him to jump to avoid it. As gravity took its effect on him, still fully intent on attacking Lee, the Blue Beast reached into the ground, pulling up a large section of dirt and tree root in front of him, forcing the sound nin back.

"I've seen you use this move before. There's a trick to your attack, isn't there? So I won't just waste my time avoiding it."

"Whoa…Lee-san's strong!"

Still, no matter how confident Lee was in his abilities, his odds weren't good. There were three of them and one of him. They had the advantage. It was a gamble, but if he took them down one at a time, his strength should be enough to overpower them.

---

Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji wandered through the forest, trying to figure out what to do. They'd been put down by Neji, being called weak and pathetic…and at the moment it felt pretty true.

"Gaah how can we pick off the weak if we can't find any weaklings!?" Ino shrieked in frustration.

"Well…besides Naruto's team of course!" Shikamaru countered.

"What are you talking about, you idiot!? Naruto's a loser and Sakura's…well…she's a weakling…but they're teamed up with Sasuke-kun—the best of the best!"

"Now why is that? Maybe your precious Sasuke is better in theory than in practice."

Ino growled at him.

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry for dissing your idol!" Shikamaru muttered dryly. That girl was such a pain…every time he opened his mouth about Sasuke, she went off on him.

"There's no way anyone here will beat Sasuke-kun! But Sakura…she's a complete wimp." Though she hesitated to say it. She was always hesitating when it came to Sakura.

"Hey!" Choji interrupted, looking to the left of them into a small clearing. "Sasuke's unconscious!"

Ino turned, ready to argue, but his next words stopped her cold.

"And Sakura's defending him!"

Ino's eyes widened in concern.

---

Lee loosened his bandages around his arm. It was surely a permissible time to use his forbidden skill, and not hold back. After all, his circumstances satisfied the rule. He had to defend the life of someone who meant the world to him.

Lee charged the bandaged sound nin, seeming to vanish before appearing right in front of him and sending him flying with a high kick to the jaw.

"This was the move he started to do while fighting Sasuke-kun…"

The blue beast jumped up, mirroring the sound nin's flight like a shadow. His previously loosened bandages encircled the sound nin, binding the two of them together. The two entered a spin as they dropped headfirst towards the ground.

"Crap! He's wide open! Can't make a move to defend himself!" Zaku muttered, quickly forming hand signs.

"Take this! Primary Lotus!" Lee yelled as they slammed into the ground.

Lee hopped away to reveal the sound ninja's legs sticking up from the ground. But something was wrong. Zaku had his hands pressed into the ground.

"Whew…looks like I made it. You good, Dosu?"

Dosu pushed himself up out of the ground, with a huff of effort.

"No way!" Lee's eyes widened.

"What a terrifying technique. I managed to land in a soft pillow of soil and it still almost wiped me out. But now…it's my turn." Dosu said, pushing up his sleeve and running at Lee.

This was bad…The primary lotus was incredibly taxing on the body, since it required tricking the brain into letting the body use more then 20% of its muscle strength. It drained Lee's chakra and his body's strength. He had nothing left in him.

Dosu took a swing at him, but he jumped back. The attack missed. But Lee still felt himself shudder. The image of Dosu in front of him started spinning and waving. The ground tilted.

"Your moves may be fast…but ours are supersonic!"

The world tilted more, and Lee collapsed on all fours a puked.

"Lee-san!"

"It's just like with Kabuto-san…He looks dizzy…supersonic, dizziness…he's attacking with sound! That's why they got dizzy, he attacked their vestibular systems…but how is he doing it?!"

Lee felt something warm drip down the left side of his face. He couldn't hear anything other than a ringing sound in his left ear.

"This appliance on my left arm…you see it? It prevents you from blocking my attacks."

Lee's body shook as he clutched his left ear.

"You…you attacked him with sound…"

"Heh. Even if you dodge my fist, the sound waves still reach you. What is sound, really?"

"Vibrations…"

"Precisely. When you hear a sound, it's actually those vibrations displacing the air, which trembles against your ear drum. And the human eardrum—the tympanic membrane—ruptures when exposed to sound levels in excess of 150 phons. Moreover, if the sound is powerful enough to upset the liquid within the semi-circular canals of the deepest inner ear, it becomes impossible for you to maintain your balance."

Sakura knew all this. She'd read about it many times. Being a dancer made her very interested in the systems that played into a body's sense of balance, as well giving her an interest in music and sound waves.

"How do you fight someone who attacks with sound?!"

Stay calm…

"Think…"

"Lee-san! Stick your hand out in front of you and focus on your middle finger!" She instructed. "It'll help overcome the dizziness quicker…"

Dosu gave a dry chuckle. "Even so, it'll still be a while before your equilibrium returns."

"You see, crude, old fashioned taijutsu simply won't work against us." Zaku jeered. "You did start out very well though. It's rare for an opponent to force me to reveal the nature of my techniques." He said pulling his hands from the dirt and revealing some kind of sonic device implanted in his palms. "I can wield sound waves as a weapon with enough force to crush entire boulders! And with a mere thought, I can use sound waves to force air into the earth beneath me, turning rock hard soil into the softest kind of cushion. A far more elegant and effective art than your crude application of brute force."

"Come on…think…how can you beat sound?"

Stay calm…

"And now…it's your turn!" Dosu charged at Sakura.

"He's coming…"

She widened her stance so she was more stable and held her kunai at the ready, ignoring the ache radiating through her body.

Stay calm…

"I need to think of something!"

There was a blur of green and Lee was in front of her.

"Lee-san!"

"Leaf hurricane!" He swung his leg at Dosu, but the world swam painfully around him, turning his movements slow, inaccurate, and clumsy. Dosu knocked his leg away easily, coming at him again with his fist.

"My last attack is showing some lingering effects. You startled me at first but now, where's that fast, laser-sharp attack of just a few moments ago?"

Lee blocked with his left arm, attempting to protect his left ear, and caught hold of Dosu's arm with his right.

"This arm of mine magnifies every little sound from within to the utmost limits. It's an amplifier, and it goes to 11. Not only that, but far from relying on the momentum of my arms swing, I can use my chakra to direct its power to my chosen target, where ever he may lie!"

Lee screamed in pain as a wall of sound hit his ear. He completely collapsed, unable to move.

"Lee-san!"

"Now…to finish this…" Dosu said, winding back his arm.

"Not on my watch!"

Dose looked up to see shuriken hurling at his face. He blocked them easily.

"Oh…my…"

---

Ino watched in horror from behind a bush as Sakura was left completely alone against three, super strong shinobi. She knew Sakura well enough to know that something was wrong. She was abnormally pale, and while her movements may have seemed normal to most, Ino knew that they were lacking in their usual easy grace. They were slower too.

"Running away sounds like a good plan! Those guys are getting creamed!" Choji whispered next to her.

"It looks like Sasuke and Naruto are just unconscious…but…the famous Lee's obviously had his butt kicked, and Sakura's all alone. What are you going to do, Ino?" Shikamaru asked quietly.

"Why…Why are you asking me that?" Ino whispered, unable to look away from the clearing.

"I mean, Sakura's in deep! We can't just leave her…can we? Wasn't she, like, your best friend once?"

A ten-year-old Ino and an unusually quiet Sakura made their way to the academy together.

"Alright Ino-chan! It's time to make your choice! You can either be friends with the rest of us, or be friends with the walking jinx. You can't have both." Ami said, stopping them in front of the school one their way in. Most of the girls in the class stood behind her.

"…what…?"

"You're really popular Ino-chan…we all really like you and want to stay friends with you. But she's bad luck. Completely cursed. So who's it gonna be? Us or her?"

Ino looked alarmed between a silent, blank-faced Sakura and the rest of her friends. She didn't know what to do. She loved Sakura, but she didn't want to lose the rest of her friends either. She liked that she was popular and well known, that her classmates looked up to her and asked her for help and advice. She didn't want to lose that. It was important to her. But Sakura was her best friend she didn't want to lose her either.

"Well, we're waiting. Us or her?"

Ino looked between the two, completely lost and unsure, and she was the type to never be lost or unsure. She was normally confident about all choices she made.

"Us." Sakura's flat voice answered for her. Ino's shocked gaze snapped to her. "…I was getting tired of being friends with you anyways…We're done."

She walked past her without turning to look at her once, disappearing into the school building.

Ino's fists clenched. Why was she remembering that now?

"Hey! Ino! What's it gonna be?!" Shikamaru tried again.

"There's nothing we can do. If we just blunder in now, we may make things worse!" Ino snapped. Her knees were shaking. Those guys would take her out in 10 seconds flat, and she was the top kunoichi in their graduating class.

---

Sakura tossed another round of shuriken. She knew it wouldn't do anything but she was trying to buy more time for her to come up with something.

Zaku slid in front of Dosu, thrusting out his hands. A wave of air emanated from him, blowing her shuriken back towards her.

"He vibrated the sound waves to generate an air wave…I have to do something! Think!"

It was no good. It was just like in the Land of Waves while Sasuke was fighting Haku. She couldn't seem to formulate any thought that was remotely helpful. On top of that, her body burned with exhaustion and pain, and she kept trying to keep herself calm as her sensei had instructed, so she could think rationally. Neither of which were conducive to battling when the odds were stacked against her.

She didn't even notice that Zaku had turned his air wall directly on her, as strong as he could. Caught off guard and exhausted, Sakura was knocked off of her normally flawless balance. A hand fisted in her hair, dragging her down to the ground and holding her in place. She bit down on her lip in frustration.

"…I forgot about the other one…the kunoichi…"

"Damn it!"

"Lovely hair…so much more bounce and shine than mine has! Maybe if you spent less time shampooing and more time training, you wouldn't be in this situation." The kunoichi mocked, shaking Sakura's head back and forth.

"She's envious, vindictive…"

"Shannaro! You don't know jack shit about my life you assgoblin!"

"Hey, Zaku! Let's kill this Sasuke guy right in front of this sexy bug and force her to watch!"

"Yeah! That sounds fun, Kin!"

"I have to do something!"

"Hold still!" Kin snapped, giving another forceful tug on her hair.

Sakura felt the tears pricking at her eyes, and to her frustration, she didn't have enough strength or focus left to keep them from falling.

"I…I have no strength left…I'm just a burden to them…just someone they have to protect…I'm always in the way…never helping, damn it! Yesterday…Sasuke-kun almost died cause he was too worried about protecting me…I swore to myself this time would be different! I thought this time…"

"I need to help the people I care about! Damnit!"

"All right. Let's do it." Zaku said, moving towards Sasuke.

Stay calm…

---

"Hey! Sasuke and Naruto are in deep trouble!" Shikamaru whispered, his anxiety growing.

Ino stared at Sakura, being held immobile by her hair. Everything that sound kunoichi said was wrong. That wasn't why…

Ino was panicking. What could they do?!

---

Stay calm…

Sakura pulled out a kunai.

"Your tricks are useless against me, little girl."

"You think so?"

Sakura pulled the kunai through her hair, severing the strands Kin was holding from her head.

---

Ino's eyes widened in shock.

---

I wanna be a ninja, like Daddy!

Why Sakura-chan?

So I can help lots of people in big ways!

"I dropped a huge burden on my mom when I said that. She sacrificed everything for me to pursue that dream…I haven't been making good on my end of that deal. I was so proud to be on my team, even though I'm constantly scolding Naruto, and hiding a crush on Sasuke-kun…but I've never contributed enough. They're both always in front of me, while I watch their backs safely from the background. They were both risking everything to protect me…Even Lee-san…he said he likes me, and he risked his life to come between me and danger. Everyone's always sacrificing themselves for me…you're all my teachers, and you've shown me what I want to be…Like all of you. Now it your turn to watch my back!"

The sound ninja were recovering from their shock.

"Kin! Finish her!" Zaku shouted. He recognized the hand signs she was making.

Kin stabbed senbon deep into her, but there was a puff of smoke, and a log took her place.

She charged directly at Zaku, throwing shuriken at him.

"Kin! Out of the way!" Zaku yelled, directing his wall of air to bounce them back at her. She pulled up short, and started weaving hand signs.

"Stupid little girl! You're just a one trick pony!" He jeered. When her own shuriken hit her, there was nothing but a log in her place.

"Obviously…" He muttered looking up, to see her bearing down on him, already weaving hand signs. "Twice, three times, that trick will never work on me! My smallest skill is more than enough for you!" He said, tossing a barrage of kunai at her. He looked away trying to find where she'd appear next, missing how she brought in her arms and legs to block her vitals as the knives embedded themselves her in her.

"Come out, come out, where ever you…" His taunt was cut short when he felt a drop of blood fall on his face. He looked up in shock. It was really her this time.

She landed on him, knocking him to the ground, driving a kunai into one of his forearms while biting down on the other so she wouldn't be thrown off as easily.

Despite the sudden and ferocious attacks, she felt much more calm than she was before. Doing something eased and unclouded her mind. All the thoughts she hadn't been able to formulate before were starting to take shape.

"Get off!"

"I need to immobilize his hands, they're the key to his jutsu…"

She applied more force to the kunai in his forearm, pushing it deeper and twisting a little to draw his attention to that area, while sneaking one hand away to grab her own kunai. When she saw his right hand flex, she drove her kunai through it with all her strength, nailing his hand to the ground.

Zaku screamed. "You crazy bitch!"

He pulled his left arm away and began punching her repeatedly. Sakura only bit down harder, applying more force to the kunai piercing through his hand.

"This pain is nothing compared to yesterday. I can take this…so long as it keeps him away from Sasuke-kun…"

---

Ino watched in abject shock as Sakura was pummeled in the head again and again.

Ino followed the sounds of sobbing until she came upon a small pink haired girl curled up in a ball. She crouched in front of her.

"So you're the one everyone calls 'Raggedy Doll' and 'Walking Jinx'…"

"Who're you?" The girl asked, pulling her limbs in even closer.

"I'm Yamanaka Ino! What's your name?"

"I'm…Sakura…Haruno Sakura."

Ino hummed as she looked Sakura over. "I can't help but noticing, your clothes and hair are really dirty…it's no wonder they pick on you if you go around looking like that…"

"It's not my fault…" Sakura murmured, tears pouring down her cheeks.

"Oh? Then why do it?"

"We're…moving. To a new apartment…but we haven't found a place yet…and nice shampoo's expensive…" She muttered looking away.

Ino blinked. She'd never noticed. It had never been a problem for her before.

"Hmm. That's no good…but there are other ways. A lot of flowers and plants and stuff are really good for your hair. And there are a lot of streams in the woods you could use if you don't have a shower."

Sakura blinked up at her, a strange spark glinting in her eyes. "Really?"

"Uh-huh. You're bangs aren't helping much either. They draw a lot of attention to how dirty your hair is…"

Sakura frowned.

"Tell you what, Sakura-chan, meet me here again tomorrow ok?"

"Huh?"

"I'll make it worth your while, so don't stand me up." She said walking away.

---

"Kin! Don't just stand there! Kill the Uchiha!" Dosu ordered.

Sakura threw herself off Zaku just as his fist was about to connect with her head again. She grabbed his fist and pulled it towards herself, snatching a kunai and staking his sleeve to the ground. He'd probably tear out of it and free himself, but she didn't have time to figure out something more permanent. She had to stop Kin.

Her body screamed at her, but she ignored it. Next to what she went through yesterday, this was barely on her radar.

She lunged at Kin and grabbed her hair, yanking her sharply back and sweeping her leg across the larger girl's ankles knocking her to the ground. She bent, whispering in Kin's ear.

"You're right, your hair's way worse than mine…Does it bother you that no guy thinks you're pretty enough to lay down their life for you?"

Kin shrieked, taking a blind swipe at Sakura, who put up her already injured arms to block, and stumbled back.

"Good…That provoked them enough that both of them have forgotten about Sasuke-kun…they'll just be after me…"

"And how are we gonna deal with that?! We aren't exactly thriving at the moment!"

"Haven't thought that far ahead yet…And there's still Dosu…"

"Seriously these odds suck! Our luck royally blows!"

Zaku tore his sleeve free and with a shout of pain, pulled the kunai out of his hand.

"You'll pay for this, bitch!"

She just barely stumbled away from his blind swing in time.

"I don't have enough strength left for a brawl…I'll have to try to keep dodging or using his momentum against—"

She straight dropped a second before the senbon had the chance to bury themselves in her. She had two enraged shinobi after her…she'd have to keep track of both Zaku and Kin.

Exhaustion pulled at her, her body wanted to give out.

"I have to protect them!"

She jumped away from another barrage of senbon, and took Zaku's fist to her cheek, sending her sprawling as the two advanced on her and started pummeling her.

---

Ino winced as she watched Sakura get pounded by the two sound ninja.

Ino found Sakura again at the same place, just as she requested. Her hair looked shinier and not at all greasy.

"Did you get some shampoo?"

"…Sorta…I followed your advice…and made some of my own."

"You made it?!"

Sakura nodded.

"I looked up a book on flowers and their properties, and one on hair beauty care, and made my own."

Ino blinked at Sakura. She couldn't believe this girl had actually mixed her own shampoo, just cause Ino'd mentioned that there were flowers that were good for hair…

She smiled brightly at the pink haired girl.

"Well, I've got the next step in your transformation." She said, holding up a red ribbon.

Ino pushed Sakura's bangs off her face, using the ribbon to secure them in place, tying a neat bow on the top.

"It's much cuter like this, Sakura-chan. You're actually really pretty! You can keep the ribbon."

"…Th-thanks…but…what for? Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Because we're friends now. It's a birthday present!"

"…My birthday was two months ago…"

"Yeah well, we weren't friends then. So I'm giving it to you now! Happy late birthday Sakura-chan!"

"…Thank you…Ino-chan."

Ino beamed. "How old are you?"

"6."

"That means I've got five birthdays to catch up on! Come on!" Ino said, grabbing Sakura's sleeve and tugging her along to the market.

…..

"Ino-chan…I don't have enough money to make up for all your birthdays I missed…"

"That's fine…there are other kinds of gifts. Hanging out with someone, making them something, doing favors for them…" Ino stopped short. "Oh no! I completely forgot! It's Shikamaru's birthday and they're coming over after we all eat with the Akimichis…I was supposed to clean the kitchen and bake a cake! Ugh mom's gonna kill me! Like for real! I'm so dead! And I'm already running late! Sorry Sakura-chan, I need to go! See you tomorrow!"

…..

Ino was dreading the moment her mother asked her to come to the kitchen with her to get the cake, but it happened, and she'd have to own up to it.

She followed her mother into the kitchen. "…See mom, the thing is…"

"Wow Ino, you did a really good job this time…"

"Huh?!" Ino's eyes shot around the sparkling clean kitchen.

"I'll get the plates. You go get the cake you made from the fridge."

"Uh…r-right…" Ino opened the fridge hesitantly, but her eyes went wide when she saw a cake sitting fully prepared right on the middle shelf. She carefully pulled it out and a note fluttered to the ground. She picked up the paper and read it over:

'Happy late birthday Ino-chan! I lied to one of your cousins and said I was supposed to meet you here, and they let me in. I cleaned the kitchen and baked a cake with what was in your fridge, so your mom won't get mad at you. I never baked a cake before so I don't know if it's any good…but I used a recipe so it should be fine.

Love,

Sakura'

Ino stared at the note a couple seconds before breaking into a large smile. It was an amazing birthday present.

…..

They were on a class field trip to a farm for a sample mission day. Ino found Sakura standing by the pig pen, watching the pigs wrestle.

"You like pigs, Forehead?" It was a nickname she'd given her when they played a trivia game together and Sakura got every question right. They then played a memory game and Sakura won by kilometers. Ino had joked that the reason she had such a big forehead was to house her giant brain, and since then the name had stuck.

"They're ok…I really like this one though." She said pointing to an adorable pig in particular.

"Hm, why?"

"Cause she reminds me of you Ino-chan! She's super cute, but really tough. There was this smaller pig that the others kept pushing out of the way so they could eat, and she pushed the others back to let the small one get food."

Ino's eyes softened, as she turned and smiled at the pig. Since then, to Sakura only, Ino had been known as Pig.

Ino shook from the force of her memories. Her eyes teared up.

'I was getting tired of being friends with you anyways…we're done.'

It didn't matter…she couldn't just leave and abandon Sakura like this.

---

Sakura knew she needed to get up, if she was up, she could move and she'd be harder to keep beating. But it was hard. They weren't giving her much of an opening. She was realizing there were several flaws in this plan…They might get bored. They might beat her to death, and then there'd be no one left to protect Sasuke, Naruto, or Lee. They might decide emotional torture would be more satisfying and go back to killing Sasuke in front of her—and she'd definitely be too weak to do anything about it now.

"…Maybe enraging them and becoming their punching bag to keep their attention away from Sasuke-kun wasn't such a good idea…"

"You think?!"

"I need to break away from them."

She saw her chance. Zaku pulled his leg up to stomp on her, and she pushed up hard against it, throwing him off balance and toppling him backwards.

Everything hurt as she pushed herself off the ground and back in front of her teammates, though she swayed unsteadily. Even as badly bruised and cut up and beaten as she was, it still was nothing compared to the pain of too much chakra racing through her uncontrollably. She struggled to stay upright her chest heaving. She couldn't keep this up much longer, she was gonna give out soon—even her thoughts were starting to slow.

"They…need me…to protect them…"

She dropped on to all fours…staying upright hadn't lasted long.

"…Damn…"

"I'll kill you!" Zaku roared, pulling up his hands to use his jutsu, despite his injury.

"Shit! I'd hoped we'd disabled that!"

"…That's what…I was trying…to do…I guess I…failed. But I don't have that option…they…need me…damnit!"

There was a flurry of long blond hair. Ino was standing right in front of her, flanked by Shikamaru, holding the scarf like a leash of a reluctant Choji.

"Huh?"

"The freak parade just goes on and on…" Zaku growled.

"Ino…"

"Sakura…There's no way I'm just going to let fellow leaf shinobi get killed in front of me…especially not Sasuke-kun!" Or Sakura…but Ino couldn't bring herself to say that out loud. Not with how Sakura broke off their friendship still ringing loudly in her head.

"More of these annoying little gnats from Konoha have crept in and started swarming…" Dosu muttered, his patience wearing thin.

"Wh-what are you guys thinking?!" Choji demanded. "Those creeps are too dangerous! They'll eat us alive! Shikamaru…let go of me!"

"Nope! No way. Sorry, buddy, but that's the way it is! We're the men here! We can't run away when Ino's ready to risk her life fighting! Not even if we die!" Shikamaru had a lot of warped chivalry and male pride—enough to overrule his stand by his usual laziness in emergencies.

"Sorry I dragged you boys into this, but we are a three man cell…all for one and one for all."

"What's meant to happen will, I guess!" Shikamaru allowed carelessly.

Zaku gave a dark chuckle. "We'll let you off the hook if you want to run…fatty."

Choji froze.

"What did that guy just say? I…could've sworn he called me…"

Shikamaru eyed Zaku. That was a trigger word for Choji…if this guy said it again…

"Eh? I just said that you're welcome to run away if you can find a hiding place that's big enough, Fatso!"

Choji went off.

"I'm not fat! I'm just pleasantly plump! Pleasantly plump people unite!"

"Unreal…what…a personality change…"

"We're not ones to talk."

"You…stay inside…"

"Not always."

"Does everyone understand?! Do you get me?! Konoha and the Sound ninja are at war!" Choji declared, fire burning in his eyes.

Ino smirked. It always worked in their favor when Choji lost it during battle.

"This is turning into a complete mess!" Shikamaru released Choji's scarf, knowing he wasn't going to bolt now.

"It certainly is…" Zaku muttered. He still wanted to kill the crazy brat behind these new three, and now they were getting in the way of two of his targets.

"Sakura…stay here and watch over your teammates." Ino ordered, not looking back at her.

Sakura was torn between feeling immensely grateful and immensely frustrated. She knew she couldn't keep going much longer…she'd had maybe seconds worth of fight left in her, but still…

"…I'm being…protected again…even…after all that…I still…need someone to save me…"

"We protected them until reinforcements arrived—that's completely valid. It's not being saved, it's reinforcements, damnit!"

"That…sounds more like…an excuse…"

"…right."

"This is it team Ino! Up and at 'em! Full speed ahead!"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Ino-Shika-Cho Boar-Deer-Butterfly Formation!"

"It's on you Choji!"

"Okay!"

Sakura stopped paying attention. She had to check on Sasuke's fever, but that meant moving, which her body was in no condition to do at the moment. She needed to start treating her own injuries first, before she finally gave in and passed out.

She took inventory of her injuries and decided the kunai embedded in her arms and legs were the most severe things that she could treat. She slowly and carefully pulled out the the kunai piercing her forearms, gritting her teeth in pain. She poured some water over the wounds and decided they were deep enough to require stitches. She'd never done it before, but she'd read about the procedure, and had brought dental floss and a needle with her. Her whole body was shaking with exhaustion and pain, but she poured disinfectant over the needle and her wound and strung the dental floss.

She took a deep breath and carefully began stitching the skin closed the way she recalled the diagram in the book showing. If she recalled correctly, the closer the stitches were, the less of a scar would be left, but she didn't have the energy or time for anything neat and done with care.

She watched peripherally as Choji expanded and rolled at Zaku with his human boulder technique, Shikamaru caught Dosu in his shadow paralysis jutsu, and Ino successfully completed her mind transfer jutsu on Kin.

Once she pulled out all the kunai stuck in her, and completed stitching her wounds, she poured disinfectant over them, smeared on her ointment, and bandaged them. Based on the fact that she was able to move and stand earlier, even after the brutal beating, she assumed that fortunately nothing was broken. She tapped around her sides lightly. While painful, she didn't feel the spongy feeling she'd read to be indicative of internal bleeding. She also wasn't coughing up any blood, which was good. If she had to guess, the damage was more residual from the night before, and the extreme exhaustion she felt. She figured the damage she'd received from Kin and Zaku's beating was muscle deep at worst.

"Aw hell yeah! We're more durable then we realized…"

"Yeah…but I'd rather not…make a habit…of taking damage like this…"

"You're finished! If either of you makes a move, your teammate Kin is as good as dead! Both of you, leave your scrolls and finish this exam without them. When I can no longer sense your chakra, I'll release Kin!" Ino ordered from inside Kin's body.

Zaku and Dosu smirked.

Sakura thought back to her taunt to Kin earlier. The way Kin had reacted told her she'd hit the nail on the head, but that meant that her teammates…

Sakura's eyes widened.

"Ino! Watch out! They're going to—"

Zaku turned his sound waves on Kin, blasting her with air pressure so strong, it blew her off her feet and slammed her hard into a tree. In her own body, a trickle of blood slid from the corner of her mouth.

"Ino!" Shikamaru shouted in concern.

"Wh-what unbelievable lowlifes…to wound your own comrade!" Ino ground out from Kin's body, where she'd dropped to the ground.

"You underestimated us…bad mistake." Zaku hissed cockily.

"Our objective is not some stupid scroll…nor have we any interest in passing your infantile exam. We're after Sasuke!"

Shikamaru knew he was running low on time. His shadow paralysis would break soon. Damn. He was almost at his limit.

Sure enough, not long after, his shadow broke, receding back to him.

"So…your little trick can only work for five minutes at a time? And the jutsu that girl is using…from the looks of things, if we inflict any damage on her host, her real body suffers as well! We can kill her by killing Kin ourselves."

"You're despicable!" A new voice shouted.

All eyes shot to the tree above the clearing, where Hyuga Neji and Tenten stood.

"You minor Sound ninjas…bullying these rookie wimps and acting like you're winners."

"What?" Dosu growled.

"More cockroaches crawling from the woodwork!" Zaku twitched. He just wanted to kill the pink haired bitch and complete their mission.

"They're…Lee's teammates…"

"Lee!" Tenten called, concerned to see her teammate laid out on the ground.

"You messed up. That kid with the bob lying over there is on our team, but you messed with him didn't you?!" Neji growled, unmistakable anger and threat in his voice.

The veins around his eyes bulged menacingly.

"Now you'll have to answer to us!"

It wasn't a threat to be taken lightly. Neji's eyes seemed to penetrate everything—all seeing.

"Stop while you can, or we'll give you everything we've got!" Neji stated confidently, but stopped when he began to sense a strong chakra.

"If you find us so despicable, why don't you stop posturing and start doing something about it?!" Dosu challenged.

"Well…from the look of it…we won't have to." Neji answered, his eyes returning to normal.

Sakura heard movement behind her and turned.

"Sasuke-kun! You're awake! You shouldn't mo—"

Something was wrong. Sasuke's eyes were blazing with the sharingan, the look in them dark and menacing…colder than she had ever seen them. Black marks, similar to the ones at the base of his neck, had spread over the left side of his face, all the way down his left arm to the tips of his fingers, and down his left leg.

Sasuke had woken from a nightmare of the night his family had been murdered. He'd been facing his eight-year-old self who'd been crying, telling him his families deaths had been his fault because he'd been too weak to save them. He'd let them die. He was too weak. He needed more power. If he'd had power then, he could have saved them. He'd need power now to avenge them. When he'd opened his eyes, he was filled with renewed rage, burning through him as if his family's murder happened yesterday. He pushed himself up, and a cloth fell from his forehead. Only one person would have placed it there—one of the only people left who cared about him enough to do so, but she wasn't immediately next to him. It didn't take him long to locate her. Sakura's pink hair was always eye catching. Except something was wrong. Her hair was cut short, choppy and uneven. She was kneeling on the ground, shaking. Her clothes were dirty, ripped, and there were blood stains on them. From what he could see of her arms, they were covered in bruises and small cuts. A part of her forearms were freshly bandaged. When she turned to face him he saw her face was bloody and bruised. The last time he remembered seeing her, she hadn't been in great shape, but she hadn't looked this beaten. This was recent. His rage exploded, burning through him with even more fury than before, if that was possible. How dare someone hurt her like that!

"Sakura…point out the ones who pummeled you into that state." He'd make them pay.

"…Something's not right…His sharingan…normally he…wouldn't call it out…so quickly…"

"S-sasuke-kun…you had a fever…You should lie down…"

"Don't worry. I'm feel fine…strong…bursting with power! I got it from him."

"Huh?"

"I understand now. I am an avenger. On the path I walk, I have to do whatever it takes to gain power…even if it means selling my flesh to the devil."

"This isn't…this doesn't sound like…Sasuke-kun…"

Dosu stared in horror at Sasuke. It was as he thought. The mark on his neck that little Sakura was blathering on about was the mark of the curse he was placed under. And he actually channeled it…it was already reaching his feet!

"Sakura, tell me. Who hurt you?" Sasuke demanded. The need to spill their blood and make them feel the same pain they'd put her through was overwhelming.

Zaku smirked. Now was his chance to complete their mission. It would emotionally cripple that little bitch too.

"That would be me!" He stated cockily.

"Ino! Get back in your body quick! You don't wanna be in there when this goes down! Choji, let's get moving! It's time we got out of here!"

Ino hurriedly released the jutsu, groaning a little as she returned to her own body.

"Good! Welcome back!" Shikamaru said, relieved that their team was out of the line of fire.

Sasuke's terrifying glare landed on Zaku. How dare this guy be smiling. How dare he sound so proud and smug of what he put Sakura through!

The marks on his body spread to cover more of his face. His chakra was immense, radiating off him…and tinged with a malevolent feeling.

"Sasuke-kun's chakra…doesn't usually feel…like this."

"Snap out of it Dosu! I'll blow him and that little bitch away with one move!"

"Zaku, no! Don't you get it!" Dosu shouted, but it was too late.

"Super sonic slicing wave!"

An immense blast of air pressure, so strong it cut into the neighboring trees and left an indent in the ground, erupted from Zaku. When the debris cloud cleared, there was no sign of Sasuke, the pink haired crazy bitch, and their other unconscious teammate.

"Heh. Blew them all to bits." Zaku declared, huffing in exhaustion from the attack. It had hurt a lot too, thanks to the stab wound through his hand. He seriously hated that crazy little girl.

"Really?" A dark voice said from behind him. He turned just in time to see Sasuke back hand him, sending him skidding across the ground.

Dosu stared in shock. He was fast and strong enough to completely move both his teammates out of the attack path. He hadn't even seen him do it!

"Fire style! Phoenix flower jutsu!"

"Don't push your luck! I'll just blow them out!" Zaku growled. He didn't even need a huge attack to do it. He sent a burst of air at them, but the flames sputtered out to reveal shuriken, which didn't seem to be affected by the wind at all. He immediately put up his already injured arms—courtesy of Sakura—to block his vitals, allowing them to be sliced by the spinning blades.

"Zaku! Beneath you!"

He looked down startled to see Sasuke, who grabbed his arm, pivoting and pulling it behind his back. He grabbed his other arm as well and placed a foot on his back, pulling at his arms painfully and forcing Zaku to his knees.

Sakura saw Sasuke smirk as he pulled against Zaku's arms.

"He's torturing him…and he's enjoying it…"

Rest assured, Sasuke will come to me…

Orochimaru's rasping voice hissed through her memory.

"You seem very proud of your arms…It's time you parted with them." This bastard was so proud of the damage he did to Sakura with those arms, so obviously they had to go. He applied more pressure to his foot, pushing Zaku's torso down while he pulled harder against his arms. Zaku screamed in pain, making Sasuke's smirk widen. A sickening snapping was heard, as Zaku's arms completely broke. Sasuke carelessly dropped him, as he passed out from the pain.

"That isn't…the same boy who let me share what I really thought and felt…"

Tears welled in her eyes.

"And then there was one." Sasuke stated darkly, turning towards Dosu.

"That isn't the same boy who asked if my mom would be ok during this test…"

The tears began falling down her face.

"I hope you're more of a challenge." Sasuke said, walking towards Dosu.

"That isn't the boy I…"

"…Love!"

She didn't feel how her exhausted, beaten, body protested. Didn't register how every step sent spikes of pain through her. All she felt was the overwhelming need to get her Sasuke back.

"Stop it!" She yelled, her arms wrapping tightly around him from behind.

Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise at the sound of her voice. It was so…desperate. He turned to look at her, his blood red patterned eyes meeting her jade green ones. There were three things about her in that moment that shook him to his core, and stirred…something.

The first was that Sakura was crying. He'd seen her cry three times before. The first was for him, when she thought he'd died in the Land of Waves. The second was when she was confessing about her life with her mother to him and Naruto. The third had been yesterday night, when she was in overwhelming pain and doing everything in her power not to scream and give away their location more than her enormous, out of control chakra, already was. But this time, she was crying because of him, because his actions were upsetting her…and that bothered him immensely.

The second was that there was fear in her eyes…and that could only be because of him too, because that hadn't been the look she'd had when he'd first woken up. He could also feel her body trembling against him…he'd scared her that much…and Sakura was someone who didn't scare easily. Most importantly, she should never be afraid of him, and the fact that she was, was unsettling.

The third, and the one the struck him the most, was the other emotion in her eyes. Something like caring, but much much deeper. It was vaguely familiar. He'd seen it before, but it had been so long ago…back when his family was still alive. They looked at him kind of like that. But it looked…different on Sakura, like it was related but not quite the same. Either way, it was…calming, though he couldn't put a name to it.

"Please…Please stop."

His breath hitched slightly. She sounded so…small. It didn't sound right coming from her. She was the one who always sounded strong and collected when speaking to others, even if it was obviously a front. She shouldn't sound like that…especially not because of him.

The marks on Sasuke's body glowed as they began receding, retracting up his legs and arms, and across his face, back to their origin at the base of his neck.

Dosu's eyes widened. That little girl had somehow brought him back to his senses. The curse mark was receding. They were saved for now.

Sasuke flopped backwards, suddenly feeling very tired.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried in her concern. She'd dropped with him, shifting so she was next to him instead of behind him, one arm still around his back.

"You're pretty tough! Obviously, in our current state, we have no chance of defeating you, Sasuke." Dosu took out an earth scroll and set it on the ground. "Please accept this as a token of admiration, and as some reparation for your trouble. Allow us to leave in peace. After what we've done, it may seem a lot to ask, but there's something going on that I need to look into." Dosu said, collecting his unconscious teammates and throwing them over his shoulder. "I give you my word that the next time we face you, we'll see the battle through to the end, one way or another."

Sasuke glared up at him, breathing hard.

"Wait." Sakura commanded, using her full effort to make her voice sound strong and not betray the amount of exhausted pain she was in.

Dosu stopped and turned.

"Who is Orochimaru? What did he do to Sasuke-kun? Why is he after him?"

"…I don't know…we were just following orders."

"But he got to him first. If he really wanted him dead, why didn't he just kill Sasuke-kun himself? It seems to me your orders were designed to get you killed."

Dosu's eyes narrowed. His jaw clenched as he turned away from the girl, unnerved that she had more or less just voiced his exact thoughts. He didn't look back as he departed with his unconscious teammates.

"What…happened to me…?" Sasuke murmured staring down at his trembling hand.

"…Sasuke-kun…"

"Hey! Are you guys alright! Ino, I'm leaving Lee to you!" Shikamaru ran into the clearing, followed by Choji and Ino. He and Choji went to go check on Naruto.

Sasuke looked over at Sakura. She didn't look good, and it wasn't just all the bruises. Her face was abnormally pale, her whole body was shaking, and her eyes looked pained. It occurred to him that she'd been the only one left conscious after their battle with Orochimaru, and she'd still been suffering from the aftermath of…whatever it was that happened to her. She must have been looking after them both all night, and then tried to deal with those sound ninja, without ever getting a chance to properly rest or treat herself.

They suddenly heard a loud shout.

"Everybody, get down! Now! No telling where he is!"

"Naruto…" Sakura murmured.

"He would wake up shouting."

Ino huffed from where she was helping Lee to stand. The idiot was finally waking up, way too late to be of any help.

Choji poked Naruto on the head with the stick he'd hit him awake with.

"Don't have any impulse control at all, do you?" Shikamaru muttered.

"What?" Naruto demanded sharply.

"Just watching you pisses me off!" Shikamaru replied.

Naruto glared at him before looking around. What was the Lazy ass even doing here? Then Naruto caught sight of Sakura—her hair short and choppy.

"Heeyyyyy! Sakura-chan! Something awful happened!"

Sakura winced slightly. Now that the danger had passed, she was becoming aware of just how much her body was aching…which included a steady pounding in her head.

"What now?!" She asked, caught somewhere between concern and irritable exhaustion.

"Sakura-chan…your hair!"

"Oh…that…" She didn't have the energy to recount everything that happened, and she didn't want Naruto to worry. Mostly she didn't want to reveal how weak and useless she really was…to be incapacitated by her own hair…but also…she missed it. Her hair had been her security blanket. The one thing she always had control over. The thing that frequently masked how dire her situation was. The thing that made her feel beautiful and gave her confidence in the face of her classmates.

"…I just wanted a new look."

Ino and Sasuke both glared at Naruto.

Ino couldn't believe how much of an insensitive idiot Naruto was. He'd really just shouted at Sakura that the loss of her long hair was awful, as if she wouldn't be having a hard enough time with it herself! Right now she needed to hear that she was still beautiful, not that the loss of hair length was some beauty ruining tragedy!

Sasuke thought of all the times he'd seen Sakura pass a hand through her hair…when she was nervous, scared, anxious, thinking, even yesterday when her chakra was incapacitating her…obviously it had given her a lot of comfort. Whatever the exact situation had been that she'd cut it, it was something she'd been forced to do. She never would have done it of her own volition. The Dead Last was her own teammate—had he really not picked up on how much her hair had meant to her?

"I…like it better long…but we're in the forest, fighting enemies, moving fast…it gets in the way."

"Hmm…What're all these guys doing here?"

"Explanations are such a drag." Shikamaru said with a sigh.

"These guys saved our butts." Sakura answered with a soft smile.

Ino's face softened. As always, Sakura was putting up a brave front and bluffing…as if they all didn't know they'd be dead without her and Sasuke. She always did undersell herself…

Tenten dropped down in front of Ino.

"Let me take him from here."

"Uh, sure." She replied, passing him off.

"Lee are you alright?! Pull yourself together!" The bun haired girl shouted, shaking him vigorously.

"Wha…huh? Tenten? When did you get here?"

"We came to rescue you!"

"Huh? Where did the Oto ninja go?"

"Sasuke scared them off."

"…Oh…"

"What were you thinking, going off like that alone? Look at you! You're a mess!"

"S-sakura-san needed me! I swore I'd protect her with my life!"

Tenten gave an annoyed huff. For crying out loud, Lee could have taken those sound nin down by himself if he hadn't been so distracted. Tenten had a crush on Neji. Lee was just a close friend and teammate. But she really didn't like this girl Lee was so infatuated with. Because of her, her friend had nearly died.

"You're an idiot. You know that right?" She admonished.

"Ah…well…"

"Hey! I know you! Bushy Brows!" Naruto shouted, bouncing over, Sasuke and Sakura following more slowly behind. Sasuke didn't miss how she'd swayed a little when they stood up, and was staying close in case she collapsed.

"Don't talk to Lee-san like that!" If she had the strength, she'd have ran up and punched Naruto in the face. But she didn't, instead settling for hurling the closest thing she could find at him, which happened to be the earth scroll. It hit him in the face so hard, he actually lost balance and fell over.

Lee's jaw dropped, as Sakura knelt in front of him, taking his face and turning it to inspect his left ear.

"Are you still dizzy, Lee-san?"

"Um…" Lee's face flamed, with the contact. She was so close to him! "A little."

"Keep focused on one point, it'll help center you. Can you hear anything from your left ear?"

"A little…mostly ringing though."

Sakura bit her lip, trying to draw up any information she'd read about the ear, limbic or vestibular systems, and hearing. It wasn't the kind of injury she had the ability to treat, but still she owed him at least some kind of assurance, advice or procedure of care. Unfortunately, her mind was moving too sluggishly to dredge up anything helpful.

"I think…that means it should return to normal after a little while…" She turned to Tenten. "If his hearing doesn't normalize before the end of the exam, please make sure he goes to the hospital."

Tenten's eyes widened at the genuine concern the girl was showing for him, but it was nothing compared to her shock when Sakura bowed to her in apology.

"I'm so sorry your teammate was hurt because of me. I…I should have tried to help him more…I…forgive me…"

Tenten blinked. Sakura was making it hard to keep disliking her. She also noticed, now that she was closer, how bad Sakura's condition was. She didn't know if it was entirely a result of this battle, or a culmination of them, but it occurred to her that Sakura may have really needed someone to step in. Lee may not have been just blustering about Sakura needing him…and it wasn't her fault if Lee was distracted by her—he needed to learn to focus better.

"Yeah. Ok." Tenten siad, offering a smile, which Sakura returned, before turning back to Lee.

"Lee-san, thank you…Thanks to you, I was able to grow a bit stronger." Sakura said, smiling at him.

Lee sniffled, tears pooling at the corner of his eyes. Sakura really was an angel! But it felt wrong taking any credit for saving her.

"I…am not worthy of your thanks. It was Sasuke. Of course a member of the renowned Uchiha clan would have such incredible powers that he could defeat those same Otonin who beat me senseless…"

Sasuke's eyes widened. Lee had been beaten senseless?! He didn't get it…Were those Sound Ninja really that strong?!

"Sakura-san…The fighting lotus of the leaf will grow and flower again! Before we meet again, I'll have become a stronger man. I swear it!"

Tenten sighed. He sounded too much like Gai-sensei.

"…Right." Sakura said with a smile.

"Sakura…Do you…would you want me to fix your hair for you?" Ino called as she approached the group.

"I-Ino…You'd do that?"

"Would I have offered otherwise?" The blond countered snidely. She couldn't stand seeing Sakura hurt…but she still hadn't forgiven her.

Tenten stood bringing Lee up with her, and jumped up to rejoin Neji in the tree, the three jumping away not long after. Sasuke wandered towards Shikamaru and Choji, though he kept an eye on Sakura, who looked like she'd pass out any second. Ino knelt behind Sakura and set about fixing her hair.

"Ino…thank you…"

Ino stiffened. "Don't think too much of it. I just had to make sure I looked good in front of Sasuke-kun."

"Oh…Right…"

An awkward silence fell between the two, as Ino finished her task.

"There. Looks good." She offered, rustling the silky pink locks when she finished.

"Thanks."

Ino nodded, before getting up and rejoining Shikamaru and Choji, who bid team 7 their goodbyes before departing.

"We should probably get moving too! We're burnin' daylight!" Naruto cheered.

Sakura opened her mouth to give some kind of response, but was cut off by a fresh wave of pounding headache. Her body swayed and her vision began to darken around the edges. She couldn't fight it anymore. Her body finally gave out and she fell unconscious, completely unaware of how her raven haired teammate appeared at her side to catch her.

---

When Sakura next opened her eyes, she was lying next to a boulder. She blinked up at the blue sky and registered that it had to be late afternoon. She heard a large splash to her right and turned over to see Sasuke standing on the bank of the river that Naruto had just jumped into.

Three fish jumped out of the water and Sasuke pegged them all to a tree with kunai. She was very happy to note, that there hadn't been any pain when she moved. The rest must have allowed her body to reset and normalize.

"Go under and flail around again! Three fish won't last us long. I want to preserve some for later." Sasuke ordered. "Let's do it three more times. C'mon, stupid."

"This isn't exactly easy, ya know! Let's swap jobs! You dive!"

"Oh! I can take care of this!" Sakura called, getting up and heading towards the river bank. She'd frequently fished in streams running through the woods rather than wasting money buying them at the market, and now, she could walk on water.

Sasuke and Naruto's heads shot towards her in surprise.

"Sakura-chan! You're awake! You okay?"

"I'm fine." She answered easily, closing her eyes and focusing her chakra as she stepped onto the water and walked to the center of the river.

Sasuke studied her intently. She definitely looked better. They'd applied her ointment to her several cuts and bruises and Sasuke had changed the bandages around her forearms, thigh, and shin. He'd been taken aback when he saw the stitches. She must have done them while Team 10 or Lee were distracting the sound ninjas. To think she'd managed to pull off such a procedure on herself in the middle of battle in the state she'd been in…it was both baffling and impressive. And her miracle ointment really worked. Most of the bruises had faded already. She was moving easily again, with that natural grace she had. No sign of pain, fatigue, or unsteadiness. She really did seem fine…normal.

The boys watched in awe as she walked lightly over the surface of the water, kneeling down and sticking her hand in. She'd said she'd taught herself how to walk on water, and that she could successfully dance on it, but it was their first time actually seeing her do it.

Sakura stilled, not moving a muscle and waited. When three fish swam up to nibble at her fingers, her hand swiped at them dexterously, and she pulled the three fish out of the water. She repeated the process and pulled out another three.

"9…is this enough?"

"Hn." Sasuke smirked, so she took it to mean yes.

"Wow! You're awesome Sakura-chan!"

"Come on," Sakura smiled at him, "you should come out of there before the temperature starts dropping."

---

They sat around a fire, the fish roasting on sticks as dusk began to fall.

"What happened back there, Sakura-chan? Why'd you pass out like that?"

"Right…Naruto wasn't there when the weird thing happened with my chakra…And I don't want to claim it was all cause of the sound ninja because that'll make me sound even weaker than he probably thinks I am…"

"I…I was just really tired."

"Well obviously! You were out for a little over two days Sakura-chan! Believe it!"

"Over two days?!"

"We were out for that long?!"

Sakura looked up at the almost set sun. For this time of year, that meant it had to be around 6pm. In an hour, it would mark the fourth day of the exam.

"So…the exam started four days ago?" She clarified. She still couldn't believe she'd been out for so long…it hadn't felt like it.

"Yeah…" Sasuke answered, watching her carefully.

Sakura looked down at the fish, her eyebrows drawing together as she proceeded to think out loud.

"The exam began at 7pm, so it'll be over in a little over 26 hours. A lot of teams must have finished by now. Which means…"

"People will be getting desperate." Sasuke finished, looking down at their earth scroll.

Naruto wasn't paying attention to their conversation and what it entailed, and continued munching away at his fish happily.

The three continued eating in silence. Sakura hadn't realized how hungry she was until she looked down at her completely polished off fish. She wanted more.

"Sasuke-kun was trying to save some though…and we'll need to focus on getting a scroll—we won't have time to stop and find more food…I shouldn't—"

Before she could complete her thought, another fish was thrust in front of her.

"You haven't eaten in over two days. We'll have enough, so just eat."

"O-okay…thanks." Sakura murmured, her cheeks flushing as she took the fish.

"This…this is the real Sasuke-kun. This is the boy I…love."

She was still processing that. She always knew she had a crush on Sasuke, but she hadn't realized when it had become so deep.

"We love Sasuke-kun! We're in love with Sasuke-kun!" Her inner voice sang.

"Stop it! This isn't the time for that…we have to focus on passing this test!"

Her eyes dropped to their earth scroll and she was hit by a wave of uncertainty and guilt.

"…although I may have screwed our chances…I held them back for over two days and now…"

"…I'm worried that their might not be any heaven scrolls left…"

Sasuke eyed her, relieved that she was finally voicing whatever it was that had been bothering her for the past five minutes.

"What do you mean, Sakura?"

"Well, the second exam is due to last five days, and four of those days have elapsed already. That's 80% of the test time. There are 26 teams competing and only 13 of each scroll. Since you need both scrolls to pass, only a maximum of 13 teams will succeed…and that was before Orochimaru attacked us swallowed his earth scroll and burned our heaven scroll."

Naruto looked up from his fish, his attention finally piqued.

"…Which means that…" Sasuke said, beginning to piece together what it was Sakura was saying.

"At that point, the number of teams that could possibly pass this test dropped to 12. And we have no way of knowing if all 25 of the other scrolls survived either. As soon as one of either type of scroll is destroyed, one scroll of the other type automatically becomes useless."

"This is my fault…they had to waste two whole days taking care of me…"

It wasn't hard for Sasuke to see the route Sakura's thoughts had taken.

"After we split up from the rest of the Konoha teams, all of us were in pretty bad shape. We all needed to spend two days letting our wounds heal." Sasuke stated, stressing that the time they'd taken to rest wasn't just because of Sakura. And it wasn't. He wasn't lying. Neither him nor Naruto had been in any condition for an extensive battle after the encounter with the sound ninja. "We'll just have to widen our search to make up for the lost time and distance. The next enemy we meet could be our last chance!…I'm going to go get some water." Sasuke rose and walked off toward the river.

"Hey…Hey!" Naruto said, picking up the scroll on the ground as an idea popped into his head. "There's another way to get a heaven scroll! And we won't even have to throw a punch!"

"How?!"

Naruto dug through his bag, dumping out a bunch of scrolls.

"You've been carrying those the whole time?"

"Yup! If it's scrolls they want, I got a million of 'em. Ninjutsu, manuals, recipes for poisons, blank scrolls for taking notes…a few brush strokes here, some decoration there, and one of these can pass for a heaven scroll in no time!"

Sakura blinked. "Do you even use any of those? You haven't taken notes once in your life! Why carry all that around…" It then occurred to her what Naruto was suggesting. "Wait a minute! Even if you could make the outside look the same, we have no idea what the inside of the scroll looks like, or what's written inside them! The minute they open it, we'll get busted you idiot!"

"Well, usually, these things have some kind of cryptic password written in them that doesn't make sense until you bring both pieces together…so, yeah! You probably need that password to get into the tower at the end of the exam! I bet you, that's it!"

"So what?! We never saw the inside of a heaven scroll in the first place, so there's no telling what it said! It's no use even trying to make a fake!"

"To think that proud look on his face fooled me into expecting him to actually come up with something!…but he's so innocent and childish…"

"And so dumb!"

"But what if we can use what we have to deduce its contents? You're smart enough to do it, Sakura-chan! This earth scroll—"

"No! Don't even say it!"

"It holds the secret…I'm gonna open it!"

"No!" She shouted, punching him in the face.

"I can't believe how stupid he is!"

"Have you forgotten the rules, you idiot?! We were told never to look inside the scrolls for any reason! Not until we reach the tower!"

"But we're in deep, Sakura-chan!" Naruto whined, rubbing the top of his head.

Sakura gave a deep sigh gathering her patience.

"Remember what Anko-san said? This is to test our trustworthiness. You'll never become Hokage if you can't prove that you can be trusted."

Naruto looked down, considering her words seriously. "You're right Sakura-chan…Sorry about that." Naruto's serious mood suddenly dissipated, a wide smile breaking across his face. "It's good to have you back Sakura-chan! The Bastard's no fun."

Sakura smiled back at him. He may have been childish, but he was an unquestionably good guy.

---

Sakura volunteered to take watch. Their plan was to get five hours of sleep and then start their hunt for a heaven scroll.

"You sure, Sakura-chan? Cause I'm good—"

"I've been asleep for two days, Naruto. I don't want to sleep more."

Naruto was asleep, not five minutes later, lightly snoring.

Sasuke didn't lie down right away.

"Sasuke-kun? You should get some rest."

"What happened to you?"

Sakura swallowed hard. She knew what he was talking about.

"I don't know…I just…suddenly there was so much chakra…more than I could handle…and I had no control over it…"

"You were in pain."

Sakura nodded. "It felt like I was being sliced up and crushed from the inside out…I'm sorry. I put you in more danger…made a bad situation worse."

"Don't be annoying." Why was she apologizing? It wasn't like it was her fault.

"…Sorry…what happened to you, Sasuke-kun? Against those sound ninja…"

"I'm not sure…I was angry and…I don't know…you gave me some of your chakra. How'd you do that?" Sasuke asked, changing the subject. He didn't want to talk about something he had no understanding of and mixed feelings about. The way Sakura had reacted, whatever it was that had happened was not good, and it obviously had something to do with Orochimaru, so it would be stupid not to be suspicious. But he'd felt so powerful…able to beat people who wiped the floor with Lee—and so easily, it hadn't even taken much effort on his part to do it. It would be a lie to say that he didn't want that level of power always.

"When I grabbed your hand, I felt your chakra moving behind it, so I just tried matching your chakra's speed and flow…I wasn't really thinking that clearly, I was just trying to give myself something to focus on. I didn't know I would end up sharing my chakra with you, it just sort of happened."

"Did it help?"

Sakura hummed and nodded.

"If that ever happens again…do it again. If it helps."

"Oh! Uh, sure! Thank you." Sakura blushed.

Sasuke didn't say anything else and settled himself on to the ground, facing away from her. When he closed his eyes, the image of her writhing in pain, doing everything possible to hold in her screams haunted him, but so did the image of their hands connected, and her arms around him. When he finally drifted off to sleep though, all he saw was his eight-year-old self crying over his dead parents, and Orochimaru's snake like whispers.

---

Her watch passed uneventfully until the end. Sakura heard a rustling and was immediately on her feet, kunai out. When she saw movement that obviously belonged to a person and not an animal, she nudged Naruto with her foot, who grunted and sat up.

"Wha—"

"Sasuke-kun, wake up, someones here."

Sasuke's eyes snapped open and he was on his feet in seconds. Naruto stood up as well, still a little sleep hazed, but mostly alert.

Kabuto stepped out from the brush and froze when he saw them.

"What's he doing here?!"

"Well if it isn't the three rookies."

"Kabuto-niisan! You scared us, man!"

Kabuto chuckled. "Sorry about that. How have you been holding up?"

"…He might just be being polite…but why does it feel like he's abnormally interested in us? He's the one who approached us before the first exam too…"

"Where's your team, Kabuto-san?" Sakura asked, her polite detached smile in place, her guard still up.

Sasuke didn't lower his guard either. So far, everyone Sakura had had a bad feeling about had ended up giving their team huge problems…the grass ninja who turned out to be Orochimaru, the sound ninja, and now the Kabuto happened to show up, he wasn't about to take anymore of Sakura's suspicions lightly.

"We got separated. I'm meeting them at the tower."

"How'd that happen?"

"Long story. It was while we were getting our second scroll."

"So you have both then?" Sasuke asked, his eyes lighting with challenge.

Kabuto held up both scrolls for the three to see.

"See you around." He turned to keep on his way.

"Wait!"

Kabuto stopped and looked at Sasuke.

"Fight me."

"Have you lost your mind! Kabuto-niisan helped us out at the start of all this!" Naruto shouted.

"…Fight you? Are you joking?"

"Our time is almost up. There's no other way. Challenging him is the only way we'll be out of this forest in time to pass the test."

"That's a lie. If you were really wanted the scroll, you would have just blindsided me, like a true ninja. By issuing a challenge, you put me on guard and ensured a fair fight…I respect it. And I think I have a better suggestion. But we should move. An enemy can easily find you when you're out in the open like this…"

"You mean like you coming across us?…What are the odds of him encountering us on his own in this forest?"

"This guy gives me bad vibes! Are we really gonna follow this guy?"

"…I think we should…He might actually give us a way to get a heaven scroll, or he could be leading us to a trap, but we're on guard for something like that. If it is a trap, it'll reveal why he's so interested in our team, since he's already got both scrolls. There's no point in doing this just to get ours."

"Awesome! You're the best Kabuto-niisan!"

Sasuke glanced over at Sakura, who caught it and gave him a small nod. He understood her meaning perfectly. They should go along with this, but she still didn't trust him and they should be on guard.

Naruto followed after Kabuto without question, taking to the trees after him. As Sasuke passed Sakura, he heard her murmur, "Don't use your sharingan if you can help it." He gave her an imperceptible nod.

---

As the four raced through the trees, Sasuke turned to Kabuto, trying to get a gauge on his plan.

"Are there even any enemies left this late?"

"Lots of 'em! If you were more alert, you'd know it, too." Kabuto admonished. "It takes intelligence to win battles in a territory like a jungle or forest. And do you know the intelligent

thing to do?"

"Shannaro! Condesending bastard!"

"In a territory like this, the only sure fire way to come across someone is to aim for where they're gonna be…So how was it Kabuto-san happened to come across us?"

"To aim for the tower…" Sakura stated.

"We all share it as a common goal. So the closer we get to the end of the exam, the more people will be carrying scrolls to the finish line…making the tower and its vicinity the likeliest place to find them."

"You're suggesting we set up an ambush." When she caught Naruto's blank look, she elaborated further. "We make our target someone who's captured both heaven and earth scrolls and are taking them back to the tower."

"Oh cool! I get it now!"

"It never ceases to amaze me that he's survived this long…"

"You're one third right." Kabuto allowed.

"The first time this prick even remotely acknowledges how smart we are and of course it's back handed!"

"Well, obviously we won't be the only one's attempting that tactic." Sakura shot back. "There'll be a lot of others, desperate and attempting the same thing."

"I get it! While we're waiting to ambush them, they'll be trying to ambush us! Hah! I play my best games with a handicap! Believe it! This is gonna be sweet! It'll be worth a little sweat if we get to kick everyone else's butts and walk away with the second scroll we need to pass this exam!"

"Kabuto-san. What's the other third of the answer?" Sakura asked, trying hard not to let it feel like a blow to her pride.

"This kind of exam brings out another type of enemy…I call them collectors."

"Collectors?"

"Even when you're standing at the tower door and think you're home free, don't relax your guard for an instant. The conditions of this exam are apt to give rise to them…bottom feeders. They're the ones who may not be good enough to beat every enemy they find, so they try to get their hands on as many extra sets of scrolls as they can to buy themselves safe passage from anyone they can't or won't face fairly. Some of them also want to have extra scrolls to offer teams from their home villages who may not have faired as well, because if those teams are on their second or third attempts at passing the chunin exams, the collectors can barter the surplus of scrolls for advance intelligence about the next stages of the test. And there are those who aren't after your scroll…they're after your life! They want to eliminate strong teams now just so they'll have less competition to deal with as they move on to the third exam and beyond. And as you can probably guess, most of these shrewd, ruthless teams never make the mistake of getting complacent or letting down their guard. Those are the deadliest and the worst!"

"So…that's why you didn't take off after helping us. You're vulnerable too! Safety in numbers, eh?" Sasuke questioned.

"Right."

Sakura's eyes narrowed.

"If that's the case, then why let himself get separated from his team in the first place? Especially if he's the one holding both scrolls? And why was he so…leisurely about strolling into our clearing? There was no urgency in his movements to find his team…"

They kept going until they caught sight of the tower a distance away. The group came to a stop.

"We're in view of the tower. Here's where the fun really begins." Kabuto said.

"Kabuto-san had been so far off from the tower…was that really what his team decided to use as their meeting point? Just when had he gotten separated from them, that they hadn't decided on some closer spot?"

"Everything about this guy reeks…"

"…I mean there's logic to it…since the tower is the final goal, you'd obviously be able to find your teammates there, assuming nothing happened to them…but that's a big ask in this kind of test, and I can't get over how…unbothered his movements were when he walked in on us…so casual…"

"Then let's get to it!" Naruto shouted, excited at the prospect of being so close to passing.

There was a sound from behind them.

"An enemy so soon?!"

"Over there!" Naruto shouted, tossing a kunai at the intruder and skewering…

…a giant centipede in the head.

Sakura's eyes widened and she abruptly turned away.

"AAAAHHHHH! Gross! Gross! Gross! Creepy! Gross!"

Sakura had never been a fan of creatures with no legs or creatures with over six legs. When she was very young, she used to cry at the sight of one until her dad came and took care of it. When her dad died, her mom had taken up the charge. But when her mom fell sick, like so many other things the charge fell on Sakura. And like so many other things, Sakura had learned to choke down her revulsion and unease they elicited in her, handling it on her own, while her inner voice screamed and cried in her head.

"Aw man! It was just a centipede!" Naruto whined.

"Just?! Damnit that things a freakin monster!"

"A really big centipede." She countered out loud, still not turning to face it.

"So very very gross!"

Kabuto gave a sigh and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Naruto."

"Huh?"

"The idea here is to not attract any attention. Let me make this really simple for you."

"Stop talking to Naruto like he's an idiot! Only we—ok, well, us are our classmates—get to do that! Shannaro!"

"If we stomp through the forest like a herd of wild elephants, we're basically trumpeting our arrival to everyone around. And they'll throw us a welcome party, but we surely won't enjoy it. So starting now, let's keep it quiet and remain out of sight."

"Gotcha!" Naruto gave a grave nod.

"…Right." Sasuke agreed.

Sakura just nodded.

As they began walking, Sakura thought she felt something faintly brush over the skin at the back of her neck. But there was nothing when she glanced behind her and no one else seemed to notice anything, not even Kabuto…

"It's been a long time since my hair was this short…maybe I'm just not used to it…"

Sakura ruffled the soft hair brushing against the base of her neck and decided it wasn't worth alerting the group over.

They walked on for a long time. Hours.

"We went to bed at around 7 and met up with Kabuto around midnight…it has to be around 4am now…that's a little under four hours straight of walking so…"

Sakura's breath was coming our in short huffs, as were Naruto and Sasuke's. And everyone was sweating—the forest terrain wasn't easy to maneuver around.

Sakura stopped, her hands braced against her knees as she sucked in air. The boys turned to face her, realizing she'd fallen behind.

"…Sorry…I need a second…" She looked up at the tower, her eyes narrowed.

"You alright, Sakura-chan?" Naruto worried, rushing over to her side.

"I…I don't know how far we've come…but that tower hasn't gotten any closer…"

Sasuke looked over at the tower, his eyes widening. Once again, Sakura was right. Why hadn't he noticed it before?

"That's bizarre. It's right in front of us, plain as day." Naruto muttered.

"That feeling I felt before…It was familiar. I thought it might have just been remembering what it was like to have short hair again, but…maybe it was more recent feeling…"

"I think our enemies already know we're here." She said quietly, straightening. That was what she had felt before. Genjutsu.

"And we're enjoying their warm welcome." Kabuto agreed. "Look." He pointed the giant centipede, nailed to the tree with Naruto's kunai.

Sakura immediately snapped her head away. No matter how many times she saw it—it wouldn't make it any less creepy.

"Ew! Ew! Ew! The prick just had to point it out…!"

"He was verifying something…I can't hold this one against him…"

"Oh yes-the-hell-we can!"

"Aw man! No way! Wh-what the hell is this crap!" Naruto yelled.

"A genjutsu…" Sasuke stated glancing at Sakura. She wasn't looking his way. In fact, she had her head completely turned away from the centipede, and was taking deep breaths. Was she ok? Was her chakra being weird again?…No. He would have felt it if that was the case.

"That's what it looks like! And we fell for it." Kabuto answered, not noticing or caring about Sakura's discomfort. "We've been very, very cautiously running around in circles."

"And undoubtedly being watched…" Sasuke said glancing around at their surroundings.

"It would make sense. Whoever did this is waiting for us to wear ourselves out, so they can move in and take us down!"

"Then they must realize our strength is fading."

"So they'll make their move soon." Kabuto agreed.

"Right…"

Less than a second later, figures in full black body suits with some sort of oxygen masks started popping up form the trees all around them.

"His clothing style is similar to the first guy that attacked us—a teammate, maybe?"

"Here they come." Sasuke said.

"Heh, just about the perfect handicap!" Naruto decided with a grin.

"There are a lot of them…not to mention all the clones." Kabuto muttered.

When Kabuto, turned his back to him, Sasuke activated his sharingan. It was too easy for a real enemy to be hiding among the illusions, he needed to be able to see what was going on to maximize their chances. But he also wanted to heed Sakura's warning. Kabuto didn't need more information on them than he already had, and he didn't want him to see his sharingan. He's half to make sure to deactivate it if Kabuto ever turned around.

The enemy laughed, "you're all trapped like rats!"

"Shut up!" Naruto yelled, punching one of the nearest ones hard in the stomach. The section his fist made contact with splatted like a popped water balloon, but the enemy didn't go down. In fact, another arm and torso grew from his back, like something out of a nightmare. The newly sprouted arm aimed a kunai at Naruto.

Sasuke reacted fast, throwing a load of shuriken at the arm. It splattered, but reformed, and the torso turned and threw the kunai aiming for Sasuke.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted in warning.

Sasuke meant to move, but a sudden throb at the base of his neck froze him in place. He couldn't move.

Kabuto looked behind him, preparing to tackle Sasuke out of the way, but all he saw was a blur of pink as Sakura beat him to it.

The kunai sliced across Sakura's arm, but the pain barely registered.

"My body won't obey my commands…" Sasuke grunted to her.

"Chakra depletion…or something to do with that mark…Can you deactivate your jutsu?" He knew what she was referring to.

He closed his eyes, and opened them again to reveal black irises.

They both sat up, with more effort on Sasuke's part. He eyed her cut. That was a real kunai. Not an illusion.

"That kunai actually cut you." Kabuto stated, holding the kunai responsible for Sakura's injury.

Naruto glanced over at that. That meant their attacks were real.

"Does the fact that they physically hurt Sakura-chan mean these guys are solid clones and not just illusions? Even if a clone has some substance, they usually fade away if you hit 'em hard enough…and these guys are still here, so is this genjutsu after all? What's going on?" Ultimately, Naruto was too impatient to care, and charged them. "Ah to hell with it!"

"Wait! It's no good!" Sasuke called stopping him. He'd seen enough while his sharingan was active to know.

"They are just illusions. Genjutsu by the enemy…"

"My cut's definitely real though…So—"

"The illusionist is watching from somewhere close by, synchronizing a real, physical attack with the movements of the enemies we think we see. It enhances the perception that the shadow shinobi we're fighting are real."

"Shannaro! That's what I was gonna say, you prick! Always needs to be the smartest, this one…"

"So I'll hunt down the coward who's throwing knives from behind the scenes and kick his butt!" Naruto shouted.

"No…good as he is, he can convince us to believe the kunai are coming from any direction he wants us to. We'll never find him that way. But he's hoping we'll try. Based on my experience, his kind are pretty much wimps when it comes to taijutsu. The actual foe won't come out and face us until we're completely worn out and helpless. Right now our only choice is to keep moving and avoid their attacks."

"Okay…if that's how they want to play it." Naruto growled, not enamored with the plan.

The four dodged and blocked every kunai thrown, though some by very narrow margins. She didn't trust her sense of time when it came to genjutsu, but to Sakura, it felt like they'd been at this for at least forty-five minutes. She was getting tired. They all were.

"How long can they keep this up?" She growled in frustration.

"How long can we?" Naruto countered. He was fed up with this approach. It was getting them nowhere. He put his fingers into a hand sign."

"Naruto, no! Don't squander your chakra! A direct attack can't help us!" Kabuto protested, but the blond was past reasoning with.

"Maybe not, but this method isn't working either—if it is, it's taking too long! It's time we try something different. And he's severely underestimating how much energy Naruto has."

"If we were to dissipate all of the illusions simultaneously, whoever's casting them wouldn't be able to just hurl knives at us without us seeing where they're hiding! Multi-shadow clone jutsu!"

An army of Naruto's appeared and charged ripping apart one shadowy illusion after another.

Sakura's eyes widened and she turned to Sasuke. "I have an idea." She grabbed a near by Naruto. "Can three of you transform into us?"

The Naruto clone blinked and broke into a smile. "One step ahead of you Sakura-chan!"

As Naruto drew the enemies focus destroying their illusions, Sakura, Sasuke, and Kabuto ducked into the foliage, replaced by Naruto-transformed versions of themselves, all collapsed in exhaustion. When more illusions grew out of the ground, Naruto attacked, but let them win this time, falling back in exhaustion, as the remainder of his non-transformed clones popped away.

"Ugh, that's all I got." Naruto groaned. His exhaustion wasn't fake. This was tiring.

The shadowy illusions melted away, revealing three guys in full white body suits and oxygen masks. Sasuke and Sakura both recognized the one that had attacked them at the very start of the test.

"I know you. You're the one who maimed my shoulder! And here you are again, making us work hard all night. I'm so glad there's time for a little test of payback!" The rain ninja growled.

"Now who's the trapped rat?" Sasuke asked, as he, Sakura, and Kabuto stepped out of the foliage behind their enemy's backs.

"Nice work Naruto!" Sakura encouraged.

"Wh-what the—? N-no way! How did they…"

The three transformed Narutos dropped the transformation, revealing themselves to be clones before disappearing entirely.

"Suckers! Pretty slick, eh? You thought my shadow clones were my whole act, but they were just a distraction to keep you from noticing that I was single handedly impersonating my whole team."

"And while he did that, we three snuck up behind you using your own genjutsu to beat you at your own game!" Sasuke finished.

Naruto suddenly flopped to his knees, breathing hard.

"You expended all your chakra, Naruto. I'll take care of the rest." Sasuke said.

Naruto suddenly leapt up, decking one of the Ame nin hard in the face and sending him flying into his other teammates, knocking them all over.

"No way! I won't stand around and let you have all the fun!" Naruto answered, still breathing hard.

The Ame ninlooked at Naruto with a mix of annoyance and disbelief. What an obstinate brat! Why was he even still on his feet?

Sasuke watched the blond seriously. He was like a whole different Naruto. He was always just…Where had all this improvement suddenly come from?!

"My teammates…they're both so strong…I…I need to train more. I don't want to be left behind…" For the first time, Sakura actually considered her mother's suggestion that she use the money from Kakashi to cover their expenses to give her time to train. She still would rather get her mom treated, but for the first time since their fight, a pretty large part of her actually found herself in agreement with her mom.

Kabuto studied Naruto with interest and awe. His chakra was immense! creating all those clones and then carefully transforming just three into counterfeit teammates alone required an impressively large amount of chakra. But to think he still had the stamina to be on his feet and moving, even on the morning of the fifth day…he was still just a boy, but if he really gained full mastery over that massive chakra, he could become a monster!

"You do have some skill, however, that doesn't mean we're completely out of luck! But we are almost out of time!" The Ame nin they fought at the start said, as all three began weaving hand signs. "So we're going to have to generate our own ninja skills!"

"This sounds like a desperation move…"

The Ame nin seemed to have called up their own clones…several for each of them.

"Shadow clones?" Naruto asked.

"No…" Sasuke answered. He recognized that sequence of hand signs. These were just images. "Just ordinary clones, but there's got to be more to them than this…stay alert!"

"Hah! If most of them are just illusions…then there's only one solid body. I'll just plow through them until I get to the right guy!"

"That's a totally waste of effort, Bonehead!" Sasuke admonished.

"Who asked you! Chaaaaarge!"

"Shannaro! Does that idiot never learn?! How many times have we told him! It's like talking to a god damned wall!"

Sasuke tried to subtly use his sharingan to help spot the real body faster, but when he attempted to call it out, his neck throbbed painfully. He flinched, his body shaking. What was going on? Every time he tried to use the sharingan, his neck ached…had he expended all his chakra?…Damn…

Sakura noticed him jolt and was immediately by his side.

"Just low on chakra." He mumbled. She didn't believe him.

Naruto punched and kicked through clone after clone. None of them were real.

"Naruto stop!" Kabuto yelled, charging after him.

"They're all fake! Where are the real ones? Is this another genjutsu?!"

"It better not be! We didn't sense anything!"

Sensing genjutsu seemed like the only thing she was good at. She'd have really hated to have that proved wrong.

Sasuke clenched his teeth. He had to figure out what was going on here. He summoned up the last of his chakra, and called out his sharingan. He looked at the scene in front of him. They were all definitely just images…Sasuke dropped to his knees with a cry of pain when the base of his neck throbbed again.

"That mark! It's spreading like before!"

"Sasuke-kun! Don't use the sharingan again!" Sakura hissed urgently.

Sasuke knew that while it was wise to listen to Sakura, he couldn't afford to do so right now. He had to see through their attack. And this was also a matter regarding his strength. The sharingan increased his strength and abilities greatly, and he needed to get stronger, more powerful. Besides, the sharingan was his clan birth right. He was entitled to its power. It was one thing to use it less frequently and subtly to keep Kabuto from finding out about it. It was another to not use it at all.

Naruto turned towards his teammate in concern when he heard Sasuke's cry of pain.

"Shame on you! Letting your guard down like that!" One of the Ame nin said, bearing down on him—or was it just another clone?

Kabuto tackled Naruto out of the way, the rain ninja's kunai slicing across his shin. The older leaf nin fell to the ground, his knee pulled to his chest in pain.

"Kabuto!" Naruto now looked at the rain ninja, enraged. "All right, you—!"

"Don't bother, Naruto! It's a waste of time. There are no real bodies among them for you to hit."

"But illusions can't punch and stab, ya' know! So where are the real attacks coming from?!"

"If I knew that, we wouldn't have to go through any of this! The mystery is the essence of their attack, Idiot!"

Naruto fell to his knees. He was too low on chakra to call out any more shadow clones.

"They seem to have reached their limits. How fortunate!" The enemy said, jumping to stab at Naruto.

Sasuke watched carefully, his sharingan still activated, though it hurt. He saw a hand clutching a kunai rise up from the ground near Kabuto, followed by the hunched forms of their three opponents. That's it! They hid their physical selves underground using earth style and used their clones to mask the real attacks!

The one holding the kunai sliced Kabuto across the face, knocking his glasses off. The enemy made to stab Kabuto but stopped short, paralyzed.

Sakura didn't miss the look Kabuto was giving them. Neither did Sasuke. It was crazed, murderous and terrifying. It was no wonder the ninja had frozen at the sight.

Sakura felt oddly vindicated, like every reason she'd had to be suspicious of Kabuto was proved right just with that look alone.

Naruto's foot swung hard into the three Ame ninja, preventing them from landing their attack on Kabuto. The ninja were sent rolling painfully over the ground, the force of Naruto's kick knocking one of their masks off.

"Hah! Shame on you, letting your guard down like that—sucker!"

"Phew! Thanks for the save, Naruto!" Kabuto said, a look of relief on his face.

Sasuke didn't buy it. There was no way Kabuto had actually been in a situation he couldn't handle. He hadn't needed Naruto to save him if that look in his eyes had been any indication.

"That was outstanding Naruto!" Sakura called, swiftly stepping in front of Sasuke, obscuring him from Kabuto's view. Naruto chuckled as he flopped down, tiredly.

Kabuto approached Sasuke and Sakura. "You alright?" Kabuto asked, questioning why Sasuke was on his knees holding his neck. He noticed something black peeking out from where Sasuke's hand was covering.

"Fine. It's just a bruise." Sasuke muttered, catching how Sakura's eyes narrowed.

"Seems like it's giving you some trouble. Want me to take a look?" Kabuto asked.

"No need. I already did." Sakura answered, with her politely detached smile. She looked at the cut on Kabuto's cheek. "Let me take care of that for you."

Sakura dragged Kabuto away from Sasuke.

"This isn't necessary Sakura."

"Nonsense. You don't want it to get infected. It doesn't look deep enough to need stitches or anything, and there's no discoloration around the wound, so I wouldn't worry too much about poison." She gently wiped the cut clean, applying a small dab of her ointment and placing a bandage over it.

Sasuke took careful breaths, until the throbbing in his neck stopped, watching Sakura's back as she distracted Kabuto by tending to his face. He didn't miss the way she positioned herself to block him from Kabuto's view. Of course, in her attempts to keep the older genin from finding out too much about him or Naruto, she was revealing a lot about herself.

"Hey over here! We got ourselves a heaven scroll!" Naruto shouted.

"Good work!" Kabuto smiled at him.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Sakura was right. Something was off about the older genin.

---

The four finally reached the tower around late morning. There was a shift in the foliage behind them, as Kabuto's two teammates stepped into view.

"Huh? Oh…it's you guys. You're late, Kabuto!"

"Sorry. I ran into a little trouble." Kabuto answered, rejoining his team.

"But it's all good! Thanks to you, our group has a full set of scrolls, same as you do!" Naruto said brightly.

"Don't thank me. You earned them. The way you came through at the end was amazing, Naruto."

Sasuke felt his frustration mounting. He felt weak…he hadn't done anything that last battle, and just calling out his sharingan, his genetically gifted skill, had practically crippled him. Even now, he was relying on Sakura's support to help him walk. When had he become so…pathetic? When had Naruto gotten so strong?

"This is the door we enter through. Good luck, everyone. Give it your best!" Kabuto said, bidding them farewell.

"Yeah!" Naruto cheered.

Naruto pushed open the entrance to the tower their team was to use, and walked in, Sasuke and Sakura following behind him.

---

A/N: That was so much, wow. I hope that wasn't too long of a chapter. So here's where some more major departures from canon happen. Ino and Sakura's friendship does not fall apart because of Sasuke. I 100% believe a group of ten year old girls would do that. I don't think it was 'wrong' of Ino to not know what to do in that situation-that's a tough place for a ten-year-old to be in. You'll get Sakura's reasons for her choice in the next chapter. In the anime the second test starts the day after the first, and in the manga the passage of time isn't clear...mine starts on the same day/evening, which is a change although I don't think it really makes a big difference. You'll get an explanation about what happened to Sakura after the preliminaries.

Thank you so so much for all the reviews! They mean so so much to me. I saw a few that said they really liked my writing style and I'm so flattered, thank you so much for that! I'm not sure how much credit I should take for it though, because 98% of the dialogue and scenes are lifted directly from the manga/anime...regaurdless thank you so so much for all the favs, follows and especially the reviews! They mean so much to me, please keep them coming! You guys are the best!

Thanks for reading :)