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.)

9. Preliminaries pt 1

A/N: I originally planned to upload the full preliminaries at once, but it was a lot longer than I thought and I'm still not finished writing them, so here's part one. Sorry for the wait! I wasn't sure how to fully layout the fights, so section breaks indicate the switch in focus from the combatants to the spectators. I just hope it's not too confusing cause there are section breaks during Sakura's battle where she's remebering a flashback.

"Inner Sakura"

"Thoughts"

Memory

"Dialogue"

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

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The three stood in a large empty room with two catwalks on either above their heads on either side.

Naruto looked around blankly. "There's no one here…"

The ache in Sasuke's body subsided a little and he felt strong enough to stand on his own, tired of having to rely on another for physical support. He'd burdened Sakura long enough anyways.

"I'm all right, Sakura…you can let go." He said, dragging his arm across and off her back. Oddly, as soon as he did, a small part of him missed the contact.

"Oh! Okay…"

"Damnit! That was over too soon! I was enjoying that!"

"At least it means he's feeling better…"

Naruto kept turning his head back and forth. "So what do we do now?"

"Look at that!" Sakura pointed to a sign hanging up on the wall. She began reading out loud:

'If qualities of heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom and knowledge to take your mind higher. If earthly qualities are what you lack, train your body in the fields and prepare to attack. When both heaven and earth are opened together, the path of peril will revert to the righteous path forever. This " " is the secret way…that guides us on from our place today.

—The Third Hokage'

"If heaven…your desire…I don't get it!" Naruto complained.

"There's a shock."

"It refers to the scrolls. I think we need to open both scrolls to fill in that blank space." Sakura answered after quickly rereading the poem.

Naruto took out the two scrolls and handed her the one marked 'Heaven.'

"Well…what are we waiting for?!" Naruto asked excitedly. They both unfurled the scroll, Sasuke looking over their shoulders as they did so. A kanji character for 'Person' sat in the center of either scroll.

"Huh? What is this?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"Human? Mankind?" Sakura asked glancing up at the blank space in the poem and running through all related words to 'person' she could think of to see how it finished the poem.

Sasuke's eyes widened when he felt chakra start to emanate from the scrolls. The character at the center of the paper began sizzling and bubbling. This was a summoning jutsu!

"Naruto! Sakura! Drop the scrolls! Now!" There was no telling what was going to be called to them, it could be dangerous.

Sakura and Naruto both chucked the scrolls away from themselves. They could make out the sillouhette of a person in the cloud of smoke erupted from the scrolls, and Team 7 dropped into defensive stances. Sasuke didn't even notice that he positioned himself slightly in front of Sakura.

But then the smoke began to clear.

"Hunh?!" Naruto stared in wide eyed bewilderment.

"You're…?!" Sasuke muttered in surprise.

"hey kids!" Iruka, their old academy teacher greeted them with a smile. "It's been a while, eh?"

Sasuke and Sakura just stared for a second while Naruto looked back and forth between his team and the very first person to ever accept him in abject confusion.

"Um…Hi Iruka-sensei." Sakura finally greeted.

"I don't understand…'Sensei' isn't the word that's supposed to fill the blank in the poem, is it? It doesn't make any more grammatical sense than 'person' does…"

"You three look like you've been put through the wringer." Iruka smiled, noting how dirty, bruised, and tired his old students looked.

"Huh? Huh? Iruka-sensei, what are you doing popping out of a summoning jutsu?!" Naruto shouted.

"The jutsu was designed so that we chunin could greet the applicants at the end of the second exam. It was just good luck that I happened to be the messenger for the three of you."

"…This seems biased towards the nation conducting the exam…do applicants from other nations feel alienated by this? Every nation has their own traditions and teachings, couldn't they find this offensive?"

"Messenger?" Sakura asked, deciding those particular thoughts weren't worth voicing out loud.

"Yeah…" He checked a pocket watch. "You were cutting it kinda close, but you made it!" snapping the watch shut with a proud smile. "Congratulations, you've all passed the second round of the chunin exams. This calls for a celebration! I wish I could take you out for ramen at Ichiraku's—"

"Yessssss!" Naruto shouted tackling Iruka into a tight hug.

"H-hey Naruto! Let me finish…"

"Yes! Yes! Yes! YES!" Naruto cheered. "I'm so happy!"

Iruka smiled warmly at him. Sakura gracefully sank to her knees while Sasuke flopped down beside her. They watched as Naruto jumped around, excited and cheering.

"Where does he get all that energy…?

"Shannaro! Why's he so damn loud all the time?!"

"He just keeps going and going…" Sasuke sighed.

"You haven't slowed down a bit, eh Naruto?"

Sasuke huffed. "If we had sneaked a peek at the scrolls before the exam was over, what would you have done, Iruka-sensei?" He asked smirking at Naruto. They hadn't been far from a water source when Naruto tired to pitch opening the scroll early to Sakura. He'd heard everything. Thank god Sakura had talked the doofus out of it.

Naruto stopped his cheering.

"You're as sharp as ever, Sasuke." Iruka commented, picking up one of the open scrolls. "As you seem to have guessed, an important component of this exam was that you demonstrate the ability to remain within a mission's stated parameters. And you were specifically instructed not to open the scrolls until you got here."

Naruto cast a quick nervous glance at Sakura, who couldn't help the gratified smile making its way to her lips. She felt vindicated. But it hadn't escaped her notice that it was Sasuke who asked and that he was smirking at Naruto like he'd won.

"Did he overhear all that disguising a scroll idea?"

"So uh," Naruto gulped, "If we'd opened them too soon…?"

"Our orders were very specific. Anyone standing around an open scroll was to be knocked out until after the second exam was over."

"Heh, now aren't you glad you didn't open it?" Sasuke teased.

"You knew about that, bastard?!" Naruto yelled, shocked before abruptly turning to Sakura. "You're a life saver Sakura-chan, I owe you one!"

"Damn straight ya do!"

"Thank god you actually listened for once." She answered, folding her arms and looking away resolutely.

Iruka smiled at the interaction. Those three had always been so alone. But Sasuke seemed more at ease now, freely teasing his teammate, where before he wouldn't have even spoken to them. Naruto had matured, accepting the blame and owning up to his mistake where as before he would have denied it or insisted he was right regardless. And Sakura had always seen so absent, her mind on eighty other things, and too adult for her age. But she seemed a bit more like a kid now, more in the moment.

Sakura's gaze fell on the poem on the wall. "Oh, right. Iruka-sensei, can you tell us about that poem on the wall? There seems to be a word missing, and aside from it referencing the scrolls, we couldn't figure out what it means."

"So?! Who cares?! It doesn't matter anymore, we passed!" Naruto shouted, earning him a glare from his pink haired teammate.

"Has he never heard of volume control?!"

"Wrong!" Iruka chided, turning to look at the poem. "Part of why I'm here is to make sure you understand the message of the poem, so read it again. It's the directive set down by the Third Hokage for all chunin ninja."

"Directive?" Naruto asked, confused. It didn't seem very direct to him!

"That's right! In the text, the word 'heaven' refers to the human mind, and 'earth' refers to the human body."

"Hmmm…" Naruto, unsurprisingly, still didn't get it.

"If qualities of heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom and knowledge to take your mind higher. In other words, if Naruto's weakest area is his brain and academic knowledge, he's got to study hard and learn the principles that will help him on his missions."

Naruto grumbled.

"And if qualities of earth are what you lack, train your body on the field and prepare to attack."

"This one applies to me…" Sakura fists tightened in her lap, aware that she was the next example, and feeling all the more useless for it.

"Screw this! Why is the one about knowledge only if you 'desire' but the one about strength an order! They should both be orders damnit!"

"…If Sakura's weak point is her lack of strength and power, she needs to train hard to find the riches of physical strength and skill."

She dropped her gaze to her lap, missing the way Sasuke glanced over at her. Her lack of training and physical inability used to bother him, but now that he knew why, he was no longer annoyed by it. Actually, considering how little Sakura trained, ate, and slept, she actually was quite physically strong, compared to how most people would be in her situation. She definitely needed to train more, but he wouldn't blame her if she didn't.

"…And once you access the qualities of both heaven and earth, no mission, however dangerous, will be a wrong path for you. You'll be walking a safe path, even in the midst of the most perilous mission…that's what it means." Iruka finished his explanation.

"Then what about the blank space? What goes there?" Sakura asked.

"The word that goes there is the description of what a chunin should be. The singular character that belongs in that space is the one from the interior of the scrolls. It's 'Jin,' meaning one person or all people."

"So I was right. The grammar's a bit weird though…but…" She couldn't help thinking about Zabuza and his story of the Blood Mist Village.

"Is this concept of Chunin universal, or was is only how Konoha thought of it?"

"The challenge of seeing who survived these past five days was a part of the exam designed to test the applicants' basic Chunin abilities. You all passed with flying colors. Chunin are the unit commander class, responsible for leading their teams. They can only do so by a combination of intelligence and strength. I can't emphasize it enough. Learn it…live it. Believe it from the bottom of your heart! Keep the Chunin directive foremost in your mind as you move on to the next round of the exam. That's it. That's the entire message!"

"Yes sir!" Naruto saluted proudly.

"Iruka-sensei, is that how all the nations think of it, or just Konoha? These words came from Lord Hokage, but the exam is an international affair. Does that sentiment align with other village's thoughts about Chunin?"

Iruka was taken aback at first by Sakura's question. It was unusual for Genin to be concerned with diplomacy, or even aware of culture differences between nations. But then smiled, deciding he had no reason to be so surprised. Even though she'd always arrive late to class, and seem flight and preoccupied, she'd always been exceptionally bright.

"Hmm…how to answer that…well, no matter what the village, the ninja ranking system, and rough expectations of those ranks, are consistent. A Hidden Stone Chunin will be just as able, qualified, and responsible to lead a team as a Hidden Leaf Chunin. And no matter where they're from, a Chunin will be expected to have a certain amount of intelligence and strength. But the different cultures of the villages do change the expectations they have from the ninja they raise. The central teaching of Konoha ninja is The Will of Fire, but each nation has their own, differing version, central to their own shinobi teachings, that instill their ninja with a different attitude and outlook towards their role. This poem, though written by The Third Hokage, wouldn't be contested or offensive to other nations."

"Oh good, that means teams from other nations that passed won't be off put by the message and try and take it out on us during the next round." Sakura sighed in relief.

Iruka blinked. To think Sakura not only grasped the potential possibility for cultural offense, but also the consequences of them…most genin didn't even have a concept that politics came into play with these exams. Exceptionally bright might have been an understatement.

"No, you won't have to worry about that, unless of course you pissed someone off during the last five days, but that would be a personal issue. But…speaking of the next round…Don't overdo things. Especially you, Naruto…I worry about you."

It was no secret that Iruka and Naruto had a special bond. Iruka had seen a lot of his own experience in the young boy, and as the first one to recognize and care for Naruto's wellbeing, the blond loved him dearly.

It felt good, no, great, to know that Iruka cared enough about him to worry about his well being throughout the exam. But Naruto was a ninja now. Danger was obvious, it came along with the territory, but he was strong enough to handle it.

"The day I got the Konoha graduation headband, I stopped being a student! No need to worry about me!" Naruto smiled at his former sensei, proudly adjusting his hitai-ate. "It's proof of my maturity, and I got it from you, Iruka-senei! My temper hasn't changed any, and maybe I'm impulsive and full of energy, but I'm not a kid! I'm…a full-fledged shinobi! Believe it!" He declared, staring Iruka down, determinedly.

Iruka studied the boy in front of him, looking back at him stubbornly. Despite how beat up Team 7 looked, of the three of them, Naruto was the one still standing, jumping around, and not even considering backing down.

"…I see…my apologies Naruto…" He smiled. He'd lied when he told them he was assigned to be their messenger randomly. The truth was that he'd begged Anko to allow him to see them. He'd known they'd have no chance of passing the third round, and begged to be the one to break it to them. Anko had allowed it, since it meant so much to him, but insisted that if those three were trained by Kakashi, she wouldn't count them out just yet. Kakashi had said something similar as well. They weren't Iruka's students anymore but soldiers under his command. Well…it looked like Kakashi was the one who understood what these kids could handle, and not him.

"Well, that's that, then. You three have officially passed the second round. If you head straight through that door over there, you'll get to a hall where you'll receive instructions about the third round. Good luck, you three!" Iruka smiled warmly. It was time he started trusting their abilities.

Sasuke and Sakura rose and followed Naruto through the door Iruka had pointed out. Sakura tried not to feel too jaded or apprehensive, but luck was never something she seemed to have. And the combination of Iruka wishing them luck, along with his previous concern about them participating in the third round, indicated to Sakura that whatever it was they were in for, it was going to be rough.

The three stood in a large open room, with two balconies on either side, looking down on the open space. The back wall had a statue of two arms, the hands forming a ram hand sign. Sakura couldn't help looking around in wonder.

"It would be amazing to dance in a space as nice as this!"

Anko stood in front of the hand sign statue, wearing a face mic.

"Ah, good. You guys are the last ones. Get in line."

They joined the pack of other applicants, who stood in line by team.

"Now that everyone's here…" Anko trailed off and turned. Each team's Jonin sensei dropped down and lined up behind her, facing across from their teams. Eight proctors fanned out diagonally on either side of Anko, and the Hokage stood next to her.

Sakura eyed the sound ninja's Jonin sensei. The sound nin had said they were operating under Orochimaru's orders, which Orochimaru himself had indicated. At the time she had wondered whether he was their team's Jonin sensei or even the Otokage. It appeared now that he must be the Otokage.

"Although, that could be him…when we met him, he appeared as a female grass ninja—he even impersonated Naruto briefly, although that was short lived…for all I know, that might be him…"

The thought that she was standing in the same space as Orochimaru again made her heart pound and her breathing grow shallow. She was starting to panic, and that was not something to advertise when she was surrounded by so many who might become opponents, since there was obviously going to be more tests. She took a deep breath.

"For the sake of my sanity, I'm gonna go with that's not Orochimaru. But even so, that probably means he is a subordinate, so we should be careful around him…"

"Congrats to you all on passing the second exam!" Anko had to admit she was impressed. There had been 78 applicants. It was amazing that 21 actually passed. She'd said she'd cut their numbers down to less than half, but she'd really been expecting a single digit figure.

Shikamaru let out a huff from his place. There were still so many competitors.

"Sasuke-kun's team made it!" Ino said with a bubbly giggle. Secretly, she was deeply relieved that Sakura was there and seemed to be more or less okay. She really hadn't looked good when their teams split off, and though she'd never admit it out loud, she'd been really worried about her.

Next to Kakashi, Gai smirked.

"Your students made an impressive showing! I wonder how much of it was dumb luck…not that it matters. My team is bound to knock them out in the next round. At the next level, it will be all about their abilities, or lack thereof. Ah well, youth is all about learning to deal with heartbreak, eh Kakashi?"

"Huh? I'm sorry…did you say something?" Kakashi asked, finally turning to him.

Gai turned away and raised a shaking fist. He was as annoying as ever! It always got under his skin when he acted to cool and aloof.

Kakashi was prone to ignoring Gai as a way to annoy him, however this time he'd been genuinely preoccupied checking over his team. They all seemed fine, albeit tired. He'd been informed about their encounter with Orochimaru, who was after Sasuke. Naruto seemed fine, probably the most unscathed of the three. He knew Sasuke had a curse mark placed on him, and that had to be giving him some difficulty, but he seemed to be handling it better than expected for now. That brought him to Sakura. She seemed ok. A little tired and banged up, but she was there and breathing. That was a good sign. But he knew better than to believe the worst hadn't happened. After all, they'd come into contact with Orochimaru. He doubted she fought him herself, but Orochimaru was one of the Sanin—three legendarily powerful ninja in Konoha—and he happened to be an evil one. He was a scary opponent even for a Jonin.

Gai's team watched the interaction from afar. So that was their Sensei's sworn rival. All Tenten could think was that Kakashi definitely outclassed Gai in the looks department. Lee thought just the opposite—none of the other senseis even came close to how cool Gai-sensei was! He'd make him proud, for sure! Neji looked around at the other applicants. Only the major players were left…and Uchiha Sasuke had made it.

The hidden sand applicant stood calm and collected—Gaara without so much as a scratch. Kiba's dog, Akamaru kept shaking and hiding in his coat, behavior that their sensei, Kurenai, immediately found strange. Hinata blushed happily as she looked at Naruto. He'd passed too, she was so glad!

Sakura glanced around, taking inventory of the passing teams.

"Weird…almost all of the passing applicants are from Konoha. Kabuto-san's information card indicated that Konoha had the most applicants, but still…There are only two teams from foreign nations—Sand, and Sound."

It hadn't escaped her notice that the sound team was glaring at them. Zaku was practically leaking murderous intent at Sasuke and her, Kin looked eager to kill her as well, and Dosu was studying them with an unreadable look in his eye. That team most definitely was carrying a personal grudge, and it was solely focused around two members of team 7.

"Hmm…I have a bad feeling about this…" Sasuke muttered quietly, his hand reaching to his neck when it gave a mild throb. There were too many applicants here…

"If the first exam was theoretical, and the second practical, what's the third…the first two were team based, but that means applicants move through it by threes, and based on what Iruka-sensei was saying, being promoted to Chunin is based on who's capable of leading a squad. They've tested our basics and team thinking, and our team survival, but at a certain point, if they want to see who's really strong enough to lead a squad, they're going to have to start testing us individually."

"This next round…it'll probably be one-on-ones…" Sakura murmured quietly.

"Like a tournament?" Sasuke asked quietly, glancing over his shoulder at her. She nodded.

Sasuke turned his head back to the front and smirked. Good. That's exactly what he wanted. That meant he'd get the chance to fight Neji or Gaara. Although, there were a lot of applicants still. This would be a long tournament.

The Hokage looked at the crowd of Genin standing before him. It was astonishing that so many of them survived and reached this point…It was even more astounding that most of them rookies.

"No wonder their instructors vied for the right to recommend them for this competition…" He murmured softly, looking at the Jonin behind him.

"Now listen up! The Third Hokage himself will explain about the next exam. Take every word he says to heart!" Anko ordered. "They're all yours, Hokage-sama."

"Very well. The third exam is about to commence…but before I go into specifics of how it will be conducted…let me make one thing perfectly clear. It pertains to the underlying purpose of the exam."

"Finally…this has been bugging me for a while…Why have this exam be international, if each nation has their own teachings? I know Iruka-sensei said that the basis of the ranking system is the same everywhere, but their fundamental teachings and values are different. So why test and promote internationally?"

"Why do you suppose an examination of this nature is being jointly conducted by all of the nations in our mutual alliance? 'To promote friendship among allied nations and raise the level and standards in the art of the shinobi…' Be very clear about what those fine-sounding phrases actually mean! This series of so-called examinations is, in fact…a war in miniature between all of our allied lands."

"That explains it…"

"Wh-what do you mean?" Tenten asked, a little shocked. The Hokage always preached about friendship.

"If you were to study our recent history, and consult a map, it would swiftly become apparent that our alliance is, in fact a temporary and mutually beneficial agreement between a group of geographically contiguous lands, whose pervious existence was one of continual strife…constantly jockeying against one another openly and in secret, for power and control of resources that were perpetually depleted almost to exhaustion in the struggle…until a better way was devised. The way of the Chunin ninja selection examinations!"

"What?! That's the stupidest thing I ever heard! I thought the point was to select Chunin!" Naruto shouted.

"Listen when The Hokage speaks, damnit!" Sakura almost erupted, but took a steadying breath before continuing. "Just like with the first and second exams, there's more to this examination on the whole than just the instructions we've been given. This is really to vent tensions and check on each other's power."

"That is correct. Although there is one more part to it, and make no mistake, Naruto, when the exam is done, it will have had the side effect of winnowing out any applicants unfit to ascend to Chunin level. But more importantly, it serves as an arena wherein, for the honor of their respective homelands, young shinobi may fight, to the death if need be!"

"The honor of their lands?" Ino questioned.

"Yes. As Sakura said, this serves as a check of each villages power. But it's not just to monitor each other for potential danger. The third examination will be conducted under the watchful eyes of a number of distinguished guests, including the rulers and nobility of the various lands you all aspire to serve. And among their numbers will be those who rule over each country's own hidden villages. They will be watching you. If any one nation's applicants demonstrate outstanding skill and superiority, the nobleman from every land will be quick to commission work from those trained in that superior nation. Conversely, if a particular country's applicants are shown to be incompetent or feeble, commissions to agents of that country will dwindle. And when one land is strong in battle and the village coffers overflow with the many outside commissions, this begets, then the village may say to its neighbor, 'beware, for we possess prowess, riches, and the influence of political power!' These are the new resources we fight for."

"So, this whole thing is an advertisement for the respective nations we represent." Sakura stated.

"Yes, that's one way to put it."

"So, why's it necessary for us to stake our lives and fight?!" Kiba barked.

"The strength of a country is derived from the strength of its village. And the village draws strength from the shinobi who live there. The greatest strength of those shinobi only emerges in the midst of a desperate life-and-death battle! These exams provide a public arena for each country to show off and boast of the strength of its warriors, and henceforth the strength of the country itself! This test has meaning and great consequence. As you struggle for the sake of your very lives and your people, you help to fulfill the dream that was envisioned by our ancestors."

"But…you've always emphasized the concept of 'friendship'…why?!" Tenten demanded. Sakura was glad she did, she'd been wondering the same.

"Though my meaning is subtle, I chose my words with care. To preserve the balance of power at the risk of lives…that is the essence of friendship in the world of shinobi."

"Sounds like 'allies' to me, so why not just say that?…Maybe it's aspirational…"

"Let me reiterate before the third exam begins…you are taking no ordinary test! You risk not only your future and dreams, but the dignity and prestige of your village as well."

"Now I get it!" Naruto exclaimed, crossing his arms cockily.

"Yeah right! Liar!"

"Whatever…could you wrap up the philosophical talk and get down to the life-and-death stuff any time soon?" Gaara asked, his raspy voice quiet but carrying.

The Hokage gave a small huff. "So, you insist I explain the third exam? Well…the truth is…"

A man appeared, kneeling in front of the Hokage.

"Forgive my interruption, Hokage-sama, but if you don't mind handing the rest of the proceedings over to me, Gekko Hayate, proctor of the third exam."

"Go ahead."

"Good to meet you everyone. I'm Hayate." The man turned around to face them, and Sakura immediately felt concerned for his health. He was pale with dark shadows under his eyes. "Uhhh…Before we start the exam…I must ask you all to do something for me." His sentence kept being interrupted by a wheezy cough.

"Ummm…you see…there are some preliminaries to the exam proper…and whether you proceed to the main exam is contingent on how well you manage those."

"Preliminaries?…Forget that, is he even healthy enough to proctor? That cough sounds…wet…"

"Preliminaries? Like what?!" Shikamaru shouted. This was turning out to be a drag.

"Hayate-san…Shouldn't you go to the hospital? By the sound of your cough, you could have pneumonia or bronchitis…if it's not viral, they'll be able to give you medicine for it…"

Sasuke sighed. How like her. They were just informed they'd have to go through a whole additional round of testing, and she was worried about the proctor. Of course she would though. Sickness wasn't something Sakura could afford to take lightly, and it had become a trained reflex for her to worry for others health, whether she knew them or not.

The Chunin and Jonin in the room, with the exception of Kakashi, blinked in surprise. It was not unusual for a genin to have some basic first aid knowledge, but that didn't extend to illness. It was incredibly rare for one to be able to identify the potential illness just by a cough.

Recovering from his shock, Hayate waved her off. "Don't worry, I'm fine…it'll pass…"

Naruto and Sasuke both glanced back at her in concern, though it was more obvious in Naruto's expression. Now that they knew her background, they could only imagine how triggering that answer might be for her. They were right. Sakura didn't like that answer. Her mom used to say something similar in the beginning, and for her, it did anything but pass. But she couldn't exactly argue with him about it. For one, she didn't know him, and for another, this wasn't the time or place. So she switched gears, deciding to focus instead on these preliminaries.

"Hayate-san, what do you mean by preliminaries? Why can't all remaining applicants proceed directly to the next exam?"

As soon as she asked, a possible answer occurred to her.

"If such notable guests as Lords and Nobleman attend the third round, they'll probably want to make sure only the best of the best are participating to keep in interesting. Since this has been a team endeavor so far, there are probably people here who only got this far because of their team…like me…it wouldn't be worth it to watch someone like me in a fight I'm bound to lose…"

"Well with that attitude, yeah! That's so lame! Since when do we give up without even trying?! We're awesome! Just watch, we'll definitely make it to the third test! Shannaro!"

"Well…I don't want to say that the first two exams weren't demanding enough…but the truth is…we still have too many applicants. Under the traditional rules of the exam, we have to have a preliminary test…to reduce the number of applicants who'll proceed to the third exam. As Hokage-sama mentioned, a number of honored guests will be observing you during the third exam…so we must make the exam intense, tight, and fast-moving."

"We so called it! If we got 1 Ryo for every time we were right, we'd be filthy rich!"

"Hmmm…so anyway…now that you know something of what it's really all about…anyone who doesn't feel up to the challenge, either physically or mentally, can walk away. Just take one step forward…because the preliminaries start…right now!"

"Now?!" Kiba shouted. They weren't giving them any time to rest or recover?

Naruto gulped. He was tired, but he had to do this. He promised Kabuto he'd do his best, so he couldn't back out now!

"Well…I'm outta here." Kabuto smiled, giving a small wave.

"Why am I not surprised…"

Sasuke glanced back at her. She'd predicted this would happen. He didn't know what Kabuto was playing at, and neither did she, but he was suddenly very thankful that she kept blocking his sharingan from Kabuto's view earlier.

"You should have bet money."

"With who? You wouldn't have bet against me on this, since you thought he would too."

He wasn't about to tell her that when it came to anything scholastic, analytical, or people related, he'd never bet against her. Sakura picked up on too much, it would be foolish to bet against her on anything that wasn't related to her physical skill.

"What?! K-kabuto-niisan?!

"Ummm…Aren't you…Yakushi Kabuto of Konoha…? Ok. You can go. Uhhh…In case I forgot to mention it, from here on in, you fight as individuals…not as members of teams. So you can make the decision that's right for you without worrying about anyone else. So…anyone else want out? Show of hands…?"

"Hey! kabuto! What's up with you quitting?!" Naruto demanded.

"Naruto…I'm sorry…but those guys we fought beat the crap out of me. And ever since my scuffle with those sound ninja prior to the first exam, I've been totally deaf in my left ear. Now they're saying this could be a fight to the death…and I just don't think I'm up to that!" Kabuto answered with a sad smile, that struck Sakura as fake.

The Hokage looked over at the bespectacled youth. "…Well there's a familiar face, eh? If memory serves me, this is about the same point at which he dropped out last time…I wonder…what on earth could he be thinking?"

Anko checked over her notes on the applicants. "Yakushi Kabuto…according to his dossier, he's tried and failed six times now."

"What sort of record has he got?" The Hokage pressed.

"Ordinary…unremarkable. In his academy days, he was an average student, earning mediocre grades…it took him three attempts to pass his finals and graduate. Since then, he's completed two C-ranks and fourteen D-ranked missions. There's nothing noteworthy in the records of any of his battles…except…"

"Except?" The Hokage questioned.

"…except for something that happened before he even entered the academy. Do you remember hearing the tale of a young boy who was brought back from the battle at kikyo pass?"

"I do…yes…If I remember correctly, the story was that a jonin elite ninja of the medical corps took in an enemy youth who had survived on the battlefield. So he's that child…?"

Kabuto smirked, pushing his glasses up his nose as he made eye contact with Orochimaru, who was disguised as the sound ninja's jonin sensei. He would have liked to play around with Naruto and Sasuke a little while longer, but if he kept going, he might slip up and show his true colors. Fun was fun, but technically he was a spy here and now wasn't the time to blow his cover. Besides this was perfect, if Lord Orochimaru was going to be a member of the audience, Kabuto could hand off the intelligence gathering work to him. Maybe it was for the better. He'd hoped he would have been able to catch Sasuke's sharingan and his progress with the curse mark in action, but interestingly, Sakura seemed to always get in the way. She was quite annoying. It was obvious the girl didn't trust him, although he had no idea what he did that set her on edge. She was right not to, of course, but it had made his job unexpectedly harder.

Orochimaru smirked from his place, disguised among the Jonin sensei. As his undercover agent, Kabuto had to wear the mask of a false life since he was a mere child. The strain of holding in his true self must have been getting to him.

"Has it become too much for you? Are you ready to snap? Get a hold of yourself! Have you forgotten Lord Orochimaru's orders?" Kabuto's teammate hissed behind him.

"You guys can take it from here. Especially you, Yoroi…with your abilities, this next part should be a piece of cake! It's the perfect opportunity for a show of real brute strength! Considering how you resent my recent promotion, I would have thought you'd jump at the chance." Kabuto whispered back.

"Hmph…you may think you're Lord Orochimaru's favorite, but don't push it, brat." Yoroi spat.

"I got it loud and clear, coach." Kabuto mocked, before turning to look at team 7, all of whom were eyeing him with different expressions. Naruto looked sad and confused, Sasuke was glaring, and Sakura's face was perfectly blank, though her eyes were calculating…she was such a nuisance. All the same, he smiled at them placidly, and waved before walking off. He looked forward to the day of his next meeting with Sasuke…and Naruto too.

Yoroi glared at Kabuto's back. He'd make sure Kabuto wouldn't get a 'next time' with Sasuke. Those were Lord Orochimaru's orders after all and he'd carry them out where Kabuto failed.

As Sasuke eyed Kabuto's back, the mark on his neck gave another, strong pulse of pain, making him clutch at it and wince. They were coming more and more frequently, damn it!

Sakura watched as Sasuke hissed in pain.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun…I was afraid of this…he's in no condition to fight right now…"

"So, uhhh…Looks like no one else is bailing out."

Sakura's head whipped towards Hayate, before jerking back to Sasuke.

"S-Sasuke-kun…maybe you should quit too!"

Sasuke whirled around glaring at her.

"Huh?" Naruto exclaimed. Why would Sakura suggest that?!

"Ever since Orochimaru attacked you, you haven't been yourself! That mark on your skin, it's hurting again, isn't it?! And it keeps getting worse!" Sakura said keeping her voice low, though the desperation in it was still clearly audible.

Naruto blinked in confusion. What mark?

Sakura couldn't shake the words Orochimaru said to her as he'd left.

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

Nor could she get the image of Sasuke with black marks covering his body, smirking evilly as he caused another pain.

"Please…" She murmured weakly, her eyes burning with tears she refused to let fall. She never wanted to see him like that again.

Sasuke felt his heart pound. She was truly upset and concerned for him…

"Please withdraw…I…I'm afraid for you…"

Naruto's eyes widened. Poor Sakura…she cared so much for that bastard…

Sasuke looked down biting his lip. She had that look in her spring green eyes—the one he'd been seeing more and more since the sound ninja attacked. The one he couldn't for the life of him put a name too, but reminded him vaguely of the way his family used to look at him. It was unnerving and disarming, making him actually consider what she was saying—something he never would have considered before. He knew better than to take Sakura's opinion lightly. She had yet to be wrong once…but this…this was about his goal…he needed to know how strong he was, needed to get stronger, needed more power. He couldn't back down from this.

Sakura noticed the look in his eyes shift, as his resolve hardened. She was losing ground.

"You're in no shape to fight!" She argued desperately.

"Shut up…!" He growled.

"Sasuke-kun, I know that you've barely been able to contain the pain all this time!"

"I said…"

"You leave me no choice. If you won't listen to reason, I'm going to tell the teachers about that mark!"

She started to raise her arm to alert the senseis, but Sasuke's hand grabbed her wrist tightly, keeping her arm in place.

"Keep your mouth shut! Not a word about the mark, or I spill about your chakra!"

Sakura's eyes narrowed. In the back of his mind, he registered that even though she was glaring at him angrily, her gaze still somehow held that deep warmth and care that he couldn't quite place.

"Oh, so it's mutually assured destruction now, huh?" She hissed.

He knew she didn't want everyone to know. She hadn't even explained what happened to Naruto. Even if her plan was to talk to Kakashi about it, he knew she wouldn't want an audience like this. It was a low blow, and part of him felt bad for using it against her, but he couldn't have her forcing him to withdraw.

"They're not the same thing! Mine only happened once—it might have been a freak occurrence! Yours has happened repeatedly—almost every time we've been in battle since you got it, you end up doubled over in pain! Damnit, Sasuke-kun! Why do you always have to act so strong?! I can't bear to watch you suffer!"

He'd used that threat to keep her from ratting him out, but he was finding himself more and more annoyed by how much she was brushing off what had happened to her, making it sound like what he was dealing with was so much worse. He just ended up doubled over and cursing, for gods sake, she'd been writhing, unable to hold her own weight, screaming in sheer agony!

"That's rich coming from you! 'Acting strong?!' How long did it take you to tell us everything you were dealing with?! Can't bear to watch me suffer? Do you think it was fun for me, watching you cry, trying to hold in your screams while your own chakra tore you apart?! Something like that doesn't just happen Sakura!" Freak occurrence his ass.

Sakura was a taken aback at that, her eyes widening, the anger and frustration in them giving way to shock.

"He…that—" It was obvious something like that would be hard to witness…but she never would have imagined it would bother Sasuke so much—he sounded genuinely distraught. Sasuke wasn't very expressive, so it threw her off to see so much unchecked emotion from him…even if it sounded angry, ultimately she knew at its heart it was concern.

"He cares! He cares! He cares! Shannaroo!"

"That's the boy I love speaking…maybe he won't lose himself and seek Orochimaru out…even if he continues this…if he holds onto that concern…maybe it'll all be alright…"

Naruto's wide blue eyes bounced between his two teammates in confusion and worry. Clearly there was something he was missing—a different something, for both of them. A very bad something.

Sasuke took a deep breath, his glare lessening mildly.

"It's my decision…and it's none of your business! This pain is my burden to bear…alone" She was glaring at him again, and looked ready to counter, but he pressed on. "Remember what I told you, Sakura? I'm an avenger. This is more than just a test for me…and I don't care whether I achieve the rank of chunin or not. 'Am I strong enough?' Finding that out is all that matters to me right now. I'm here to test myself against the best of the best." He thought of Rock Lee, Neji, Gaara, and Dosu. "And the best opponents I could find are all around us, here and now. Not even for your sake…will I turn away from the path that leads to my goal!"

"Not even for our sake…? Sasuke-kun just exposed himself! Finding out if he's the strongest isn't the only thing that matters to him right now, the liar! we matter too!"

"Is that really what you're fixating on?"

"We always pay close attention to word choice—why stop now? How else would we read 'even' in that sentence?! It totally elevates us from others, to him!"

"Seriously?! This is not the time for this!"

"Hey, Idiot! Why the hell are you trying to act so cool?! Sakura-chan is worried sick about you! Don't you care?!" Naruto still didn't know what was going on, but he couldn't stand the way the bastard was speaking to Sakura—dismissing her concern. Sasuke was just like him—he had no one else, surely he had to realize how precious Sakura's care for them was! How dare he just trample all over that!

"Naruto…" Sasuke answered, turning to him with a smirk, "You're one of the ones I want to fight the most…"

The admission struck Naruto dumb…Sasuke had always called him a loser…but this meant that Sasuke actually thought he was strong. Strong enough to pose a challenge. Strong enough to respect. Strong enough to be considered among the best or the best…

The mark gave another painful pulse, making Sasuke clutch at it yet again.

"Oww…!" He murmured quietly. He heard Sakura sigh behind him and turned to face her. All traces of anger or shock were gone from her mint green eyes, replaced by sadness, concern, and that thing he couldn't name.

"Fine…I'll keep my mouth shut. But listen to me Sasuke-kun…when you have to fight, don't use your sharingan. The pain seems to be worse when you try, and that mark starts spreading…so don't use it…"

"Sakura…"

"You said this is about testing your strength? Fighting the best of the best? These are just the preliminaries. Beat your opponent without your kekkei genkai. Then you'll know truly how strong you are at your base."

Sasuke stared at her. Her analysis tracked. In the fight with the Ame nin, every time he'd tried to use his Sharingan, the pain had gotten worse and worse. He wasn't able to see the mark, but she had at the time, and it wasn't the sort of thing she'd lie about. Plus, he couldn't get Naruto's admonishment out of his head. She was worried sick about him. And…it bothered him. While it was nice to know that there was someone who worried about him, he didn't want to make Sakura worry. She had too much to worry about anyways. She cared. That much was obvious. And it meant a lot to him. But that was plenty. He wanted her to keep caring about him, but never to worry…and she had a point. If he could win a battle without the sharingan, he'd know he was strong with the basics, which meant if he was too low on chakra to use his kekkei genkai, he'd still be strong enough to potentially pull a win in a more dire situation.

"I'll do my best."

She nodded and gave him a small smile, but he could tell it was fake. How could she smile fully when he was still clutching his neck and wincing?

The Jonin and Hokage watched the interaction carefully. They were too far to hear anything, and the positioning of Sasuke and Sakura's argument had prevented them from readying lips. But they'd been able to glean the basics. The curse mark was hurting Sasuke, Sakura was worried and wanted him to withdraw, he felt strongly opposed.

"It's just as I feared…" The Hokage murmured.

"What can we do?" Ibiki asked from beside him.

"Pull him from the exam…quarantine him under the guard of the Anbu black ops agents." Anko had been insisting the same thing since her failed confrontation with Orochimaru, and learning he'd placed the curse mark on the Uchiha. After all, she knew what that mark did. She'd barely survived it herself.

"And you really think he'll just go quietly if you order that? Keep in mind, he is a member of the Uchiha clan." Kakashi said, finally weighing in. He was worried for Sasuke, though less about what the mark would do physically than mentally. He believed Sasuke was strong enough to handle it, but the boy was already revenge and power bent, and that mark would only increase that drive. Honestly, as problematic as the curse mark was, it could be sealed. He was more concerned for Sakura, at the moment. By nature of her condition, no matter how strong she was, her chakra would be too much for her body to handle if triggered—and Sakura wasn't that strong to begin with.

"Don't talk nonsense! I'll stop him by force if I have to. Any attempts he makes to manipulate his own chakra will provoke a reaction from the curse mark, forcibly drawing out and draining all his strength. It's the mark of a forbidden art, which debilitates the body of the practitioner." Anko snarled. This was a touchy subject for her, since Orochimaru had placed the mark on her, used her, and threw her away. She knew its effects intimately, and it was hell. If she were the naturing, pitying type, she would have felt bad for the boy and try to mentor him through it. But that would mean disqualification for him from the exam. And that aside, she wasn't the nurturing pitying type.

"It's a miracle a child like him is able to bear it at all. By all rights, it should have killed him already."

"My Lord!" Anko cried. She had a feeling that the Hokage was about to side with Kakashi on this one.

"I am still concerned about what Orochimaru said…let young Sasuke proceed as he is, and we shall keep our eyes on him."

"H-Hokage-sama…!"

"However," the Hokage continued, glancing at Kakashi, "it the curse mark begins to spread and cause his power to rampage, then we shall indeed take steps to restrain him."

"Yes sir." Ibiki answered.

"Ahhh…well then…we'll now begin the preliminaries which will consist of individual combat matches, as though this were part of a tournament. As there are a total of 20 combatants remaining, we will hold a total of ten bouts. Ummm…and the victors of those bouts will advance to the third exam. This is no-holds-barred combat. Each pair of combatants will fight until one of them is dead, unconcious, or admits defeat. As soon as you sense that your opponent is overpowering you, immediately concede your loss…if you value your life. Uhhh…since we don't want a total bloodbath on our hands, there may be cases where we ascertain that there is an undisputed winner and step in to end the match. But don't count on that. From here on out, the key to your fate is held in…"

A wood slat above the elbow of the hand jutsu statue rose to reveal a screen.

"ummmm…this electronic school board. At the start of every round, we will display the names of combatants competing in that match…so, ummm…not to hurry you all to the slaughter…but let's begin. We'll now announce the first two names. "

The genin all watched the screen with apprehension, as the board cycled through all their names. Finally, two names popped up.

Uchiha Sasuke vs Akado Yoroi

Sasuke smirked. He'd get to go right off the bat.

Yoroi smirked as well. Perfect. He could complete his mission immediately.

"Oh please no! Not Sasuke-kun! It's too soon…actually…maybe it's better he goes now…?"

Sakura was torn. She'd honestly rather he not go at all, but she'd lost that battle.

"Would the two combatants step forward?"

Sasuke and Yoroi stepped up, away from the group of Genin and faced each other, glaring each other down.

"…The only thing I can do now is watch…Sasuke-kun…please be careful…"

Naruto looked at his teammate, his gaze determined. If Sasuke wanted to fight him, then he couldn't lose now.

Ino noted that something was wrong with her idol, he was wincing.

Lee clenched his fist. He was rooting for Sasuke—he had to if he wanted to fight him again.

Neji watched on curiously. He wanted to see what Sasuke was made of.

Sasuke winced again as the mark gave another hard throb. The pain wasn't getting any better…

Yoroi smirked. The boy already looked weakened and in pain. That made his job even easier.

"Uhhhhh…It's time for the first round to commence…all right? Everyone other than the two combatants should move to the upper gallery now." Hayate said, gesturing to the balconies on either side of the space. Sakura started to head to the balconies with everyone else, but when she heard Hayate go into a short coughing fit, she stopped short.

"He said he was fine, but I can't just leave it like this! The last time I did that, mom ended up more or less bed ridden…"

She turned around running to Hayate.

"I know you said you're fine, but I don't believe you. Here." She said thrusting a small bottle of amber liquid into his hand. "This is bloodroot tonic. It helps to coat the throat and ease coughs. You don't need that much, just a sip should do." Now that she was closer to him and got a better look at his complexion, she was able to see more clearly the dark shadow and eye bags that marred his under eyes. She quickly dug out another small bottle from her pack, filled with a brownish liquid. "I'm guessing you don't sleep very much, which is essential for the body's immune system, and given your rank, I take it you don't get a lot of time to remedy that, so take this as well." She thrust the brown liquid bottle into his hand still holding the bloodroot tonic. "That's an immune booster. Swallow a mouthful of that in the mornings. There should be about four doses in there."

Hayate blinked in shock. That was certainly not what he expected. Especially not from a genin he didn't know. It was surprising she even cared enough.

"Uhhh…" He glanced over at Kakashi—he was this kid's sensei right?

Kakashi smiled at him. "I'd listen to her, Hayate. Sakura's good at this sort of thing."

"Right…Ummm…thank you." He told her politely, taking a small sip of the amber liquid. She smiled and nodded.

Feeling Sasuke's eyes on her, she turned and gave him a small smile.

"Remember what we talked about before, Sasuke-kun, do you best."

"Aa." He answered with a nod. Just because he insisted on continuing didn't mean he was dumb enough to completely ignore Sakura's advice.

She smiled and hurried off to join up with Naruto, who was making his way towards the balcony.

As Kakashi passed Sasuke on the way to the rest of team 7, he called out to him.

"Sasuke…Don't use the Sharingan."

"…I know. Sakura already warned me." Kakashi was surprised though he supposed he shouldn't be, really…she might not know what the curse mark was fully, but she probably connected the dots: Sasuke used his Sharingan, Sasuke was in pain, the mark started spreading. She must have recognized that pattern. That must have been a bit of what their argument earlier was. "…How did you know…?" Sasuke questioned quietly.

"If the curse mark on your neck is allowed to run rampant, the consequences will change your life."

So it wouldn't have mattered if Sakura told them. They already knew…did they know about her problem too?

"…I figured."

"If they see any sign of that, the match will be suspended. And I'll be forced to stop you. Please don't forget that."

Sasuke jolted. Suspended?! He couldn't let that happen. The mark seemed to respond to his chakra. If he used his chakra carelessly, the mark would take over his psyche, calling upon and expending all the power he had…so for the purposes of this match, not only was his sharingan off limits, but he'd also have to hold off on using his chakra even for normal ninjutsu.

Orochimaru watched smugly from the balcony. How unfortunate for Sasuke that Yoroi's abilities were just about the worst thing for him to face.

Sasuke studied his opponent. Now, how should he do this?

Everyone crowded around the railings above, excited to see the Uchiha prodigy in action. Sakura observed anxiously. Kakashi stood next to her, looking down on his student. He hoped Sasuke wouldn't over extend himself.

"All right…please begin!"

Sasuke immediately dropped into a defensive stance, his hand reaching for a kunai. Yoroi tossed a bunch of shuriken at him, but he focused carefully on their flight trajectory, and with a carefully placed swipe of his kunai, managed to reflect them back at his opponent.

His neck gave a painful throb, causing him to lose balance and collapse to the ground. Yoroi jumped, his hand smashing into the ground right next to Sasuke's head as he just barely rolled away to avoid him. Sasuke shoved his kunai into the ground for leverage and caught Yoroi's wrist between his ankle and heel, pulling his hand out from under him. In no time at all, Sasuke had Yoroi on the ground in a grapple hold.

"Yes!" Naruto cheered.

Yoroi turned his hand and grabbed his shirt. Sasuke kept tugging at Yoroi's wrist, trying to get him to release his shirt. But he was becoming increasingly alarmed to feel his strength fading. Yoroi released Sasuke's shirt and punched him in the jaw, sending him skidding a little.

Sasuke lay on the ground, panting. His head felt cloudy and tired. Where had all his strength gone?

"Sasuke-kun!"

He jerked, Sakura's voice clearing the haze in his head, but it was too late. Yoroi was too close, and his hand closed around Sasuke's face.

Naruto grit his teeth, his hands tightening around the railing.

Kakashi tensed.

"…You're…feeding on my chakra…." Sasuke gasped. He was like the complete opposite of Sakura, who'd somehow managed to share her chakra, increasing his strength and stamina.

"…Heh, so you finally figured it out, eh?"

Orochimaru smirked. Yoroi's unholy gift was the ability to absorb another's chakra. It was a brilliant art, whereby simply pressing the palm of his hand against an opponent's body gives him the ability to consume their mental and physical energies. And once all his chakra had been devoured, Sasuke would have no choice but to call upon the power of the curse mark. Soon he'd have to open himself up to all that delicious power! If he tried to resist, he would surely die.

"Oh…you…son of a…!" Sasuke managed to kick Yoroi about a meter and a half away from him.

"Heh heh…imagine a little vermin like you having any strength left to oppose me."

Sasuke panted. That was too close. If he made contact with him again, he would't have any energy left to move…it's what he was after, to keep Sasuke within his reach…this was his last chance, but how would he…?

"Uchiha Sasuke…this is all he can do?" Gaara rasped.

"If Sasuke-kun can't use his sharingan, why hasn't he used any of his other ninjutsu…unless he can't…maybe the mark responds to any of his chakra, not just his kekkei genkai…yeah, that has to be it. The sound nin recognized it when I mentioned it, so there must have been others without the sharingan that it was given to. But how can Sasuke-kun beat him without use of his chakras…"

She bit her lip hard.

That's right. No ninjutsu. No trickery. My moves are strictly physical…

"That's it! He could fight like Lee-san!"

Naruto clenched his teeth hard, glancing towards Sakura. She was chewing on her bottom lip, one hand tugging at the ends of her shortened hair while her other hand clutched at her chest. Her eyes were fixed on the battle, full of anxiety and concern. The bastard was making Sakura worry again!

"How can you call yourself Uchiha Sasuke?! You're a disgrace to yourself! Aren't you embarrassed to have everyone see you as a big loser?!"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as his head shot towards Naruto, a growl forming in his throat. What did that Loud Mouth—he saw Sakura's eyes widen suddenly and her head whip to Lee, before turning back towards him. His own eyes widened as he found his answer. That was it!

"Heh…You couldn't have picked a worse time to let yourself space out!" Yoroi shouted, charging at him. This time he'd absorb all his chakra! This was the end!

Sasuke suddenly appeared under him, his arm braced on the ground as his leg connected in a high kick to Yoroi's jaw, sending him flying upwards. Sasuke pushed himself off the ground so he paralleled Yoroi's flight path.

All of Gai's team stared in shock. This was Lee's technique!

"After this, I'll limit myself to my own special skills, but for now…!"

"Dancing Leaf Shadow?!"

"Eat this!" But before he could do anything, his neck gave such a powerful pulse of pain he coughed up some blood. The black marks were beginning to spread across his body again, bringing with them burning pain. Crap! It was the same way, every time! It hurt so much…it made him shudder.

Anko and The Hokage tensed. Kakashi's eye narrowed. Sasuke had reached his limit.

Naruto didn't know what was going on, but he could tell something was wrong with Sasuke—and now was a really not good time for something to be wrong with Sasuke…He clenched his teeth tightly. The bastard had to win if he wanted to fight him!

Sakura leaned forward her knuckles white on the railing, jade eyes wide with concern.

Please…

Sasuke heard her desperate voice from earlier, echo in his head.

…please withdraw…

Sakura-chan is worried sick about you! Don't you care?!

Hn…she had enough worries. He already swore to himself, he wasn't about to add this to her plate. He wasn't just gonna lie back and let this thing consume him!

His mind locked onto the other time the curse mark had receded. When Sakura's arms were wrapped around him, and she was looking at him with so much fear and concern and that…familiar emotion he now saw in her eyes whenever she looked at him…

Just like last time, the marks began receding, sucked back into the base of his neck.

Kakashi and Anko were shocked. How had he done that?! Anko had never witnessed anyone actually able to control the curse mark.

No one was more shocked than Orochimaru. How had the boy done it?! Why had he done it? Why had he rejected the power the curse mark offered?

Sasuke smirked, now that one problem was taken care of, time to finish off the other.

"Let's go!"

He braced his hand on Yoroi's back, pushing off it and swinging his leg around in a kick, which Yoroi blocked with his forearm.

"Stupid amateur!" Yoroi spat.

Sasuke used the momentum of his rebounding off his kick to wind up and painfully backhand him in the chest. Continuing to use his momentum to his advantage, his other arm slammed into the older genin's neck almost like a brief choke hold. Snapping his hips around, he slammed his left leg in to Yoroi's stomach with a powerful hammer kick, slamming his opponent into the hard stone ground.

"Lions Barrage!"

He didn't flip away gracefully at the end of his attack sequence, the way Lee had with the sound ninja. Instead his momentum made him rebound off, flinging him a meter and a half away onto the ground, and causing him to flop face first on to the ground. The force made him black out for a brief moment.

Hayate looked between the two fallen boys. He crouched next to Yoroi, but he could tell even without looking the guy was down for the count. The ground around him was cracked. He heard a groan a looked behind him, an impressed smile making its way to his face.

Sasuke pushed himself onto his knees, breathing hard, wiping some blood from small scratches on his face.

"I'm halting this match before it goes any further. In other words, Uchiha Sasuke is the champion of the first battle, and advances past the preliminaries to the next level!"

Sasuke fell backwards onto his butt—he would have fallen over completely if he hadn't found himself suddenly leaning against Kakashi's knee, as his sensei appeared behind him.

"Hey! Well done!" He greeted casually, calmly reading his little orange book he always had his nose in.

"Hn…" He answered tiredly.

Kakashi looked him over. The techniques he used prior to the Lions Barrage were derived from Gai's fighting style…he must have used his sharingan to memorize those moves when he sparred with that Lee kid.

Sakura jumped down from the balcony, followed by Naruto who was shouting "He did it!"

"Hey, Sasuke! You won…but in such an uncool way! And you came out looking like you're the one who got beat up!"

"Shut up, clown."

"Are you alright, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, immediately kneeling in front of him. It looked like he may have hit his head earlier. That guy had also slammed his head into the ground earlier. "Do you have a headache? Dizziness or Nausea? Is your vision blurry? You might have a concussion, how many—"

Sasuke gently grabbed her wrist and gently pulled her hand down from where she was holding up two fingers. She ignored the heat rushing to her face and coloring her cheeks.

"Ugh how embarrassing—this is about his health, and he's grabbing my wrist cause I'm probably annoying him! This is no reason to start blushing!"

"Hell yeah it is! Sasuke-kun's touching us! And we love him! No shit we're gonna blush!"

A small piece of her wished she never realized the true extent of her feelings for her raven haired teammate. But now that she knew, she couldn't unlearn it.

"I'm fine, Sakura." It was too much to hope she wouldn't worry. She was Sakura after all, it was her nature. She'd grown up worrying and caring for others. "Thanks for the hint…"

"Hint?"

He looked over at Lee. He owed his life to what he was able to draw from him. If he hadn't seen his moves up close when they'd gone head-to-head, this battle would have turned out really badly. He flinched when a sharp pain shot through his muscles. That trick really wiped him out…it probably wasn't something he could use too often.

---

Lee watched the team 7 from the balcony, his eyes focused on Sasuke. In just one encounter, he managed to acquire and master the move Lee'd used against him. It was quite a secret weapon. Sasuke wasn't someone to underestimate! He'd only get stronger as time went on. If Lee was being honest…he felt a little afraid.

Gai watched as Lee tensed before turning his attention back to Sasuke. The moves of the Lotus series—a sequence of high speed taijutsu—required a body that had been gradually trained and honed over a long period. The Lotus was not a simple thing that could be mastered in a single day, even through the use of the sharingan. And the expressiveness of that final move…like student like teacher. Were all of Kakashi's kids the same kind of punk he'd been?

Tenten watched Neji's eyes narrow just barely as he looked at Sasuke. She could read him better than most. He was impressed. Hyuga Neji had been last year's top rookie, and it looked like this year's would be Uchiha Sasuke. If they fought each other, who would win? Tenten felt confident the answer was Neji, but it should would be one hell of a fight.

Kakashi watched his student with pride. He was quite a boy…coming into his the full power of his sharingan at such a young age! No wonder feared the power of the Uchiha.

Anko was shocked. It was amazing! The power of the cursed mark should have had full sway over him…yet he'd suppressed it by an act of sheer will!

Gaara blinked, his face otherwise completely blank. It was still enough to make Kankurou tense beside him.

Zaku smirked. "If it happened any other way, it wouldn't have be such fun." He stated cockily. He couldn't wait to kill Sasuke and that pink haired bitch. If Sasuke had lost now, he wouldn't get the chance to fight him. Dosu said nothing, just watching silently. He couldn't shake the little girls words from the forest of death. It seems to me your orders were designed to get you killed…

"Ooooh! Sasuke-kun! You're the best!" Ino cheered. It had been so amazing how he'd won that fight! She was a little put off by how he'd grabbed Sakura's wrist earlier, but they were teammates and clearly she'd been annoying him. It was expected that they'd be close and somewhat comfortable around each other. She and her team were close after all—even if they annoyed the hell out of each other, they were practically siblings.

Shikamaru sighed tiredly. If that was the level of ability of everyone here, then he and his team were done for.

Choji wasn't even paying attention. "I'm starving! My stomach could not be more empty!" He complained.

"W-wow…" Hinata murmured shyly. She'd been feeling outclassed since walking into the first exam room, and with Neji here…well, her anxiety was only getting worse.

"Come on! It wasn't that great!" Kiba grumbled defiantly.

Orochimaru shuddered with excitement. He'd picked well. The boy was brilliant.

---

Two paramedics carried Yoroi out on a stretcher. A third turned to the raven haired boy still sitting on the ground.

"Uchiha Sasuke…we must escort you, too, and put you under the care of the medical corps…"

Sasuke's eyes fell on Sakura. He wasn't that hurt. He'd be more comfortable if she looked after him. That way he could still watch the rest of the matches. He was sore, but nothing was broken or anything. Most of the damage was just exhaustion and minor cuts and bruises. Sakura could take care of that easily.

Her attention had been on the medic, but almost as if she felt his gaze, she turned back towards him, her viridian eyes locking with his onyx ones.

"Does he—why does it seem like…does he want me to heal him instead…?"

"EEEKKK! Sasuke-kun wants us more than them!"

Naruto's loud voice disrupted their thoughts, though he somehow seemed to be verbalizing exactly what they'd both been thinking.

"The Bastard's fine! It's nothing Sakura-chan can't handle!"

"How I wish that was true…but I can't really help him anymore than I can my own mom…After all, his biggest problem is that mark and I don't even get what it is…If I could heal him, I would have done it already…"

Sakura flushed in both embarrassment, frustration, and the fact that Sasuke preferred her to a professional.

"How many times do I have to tell you both, I'm not a doctor." She said, folding her arms and turning her head to the side, her eyes closing in irritation.

Sasuke's eyes softened. He hadn't thought about it before, but refusing professional medical care, especially when it was blatantly offered, was probably offensive to Sakura. After all, it wasn't an option for her mother.

"We'll make sure you get the best care possible." The medic prompted, a big confused by him trusting his health a genin who clearly wasn't a medic over a trained professional. Frankly, it was a little insulting.

"You have no idea what you'd be getting yourselves into." Kakashi cut in. "I'll handle him." Kakashi knelt next to Sasuke and put a hand on his shoulder. "He can come with me right now and…I'll seal that curse mark." Kakashi finished lowly, so only Sasuke could hear.

"Well then…right. Let's get the next match going." Hayate announced, attempting to gently nudge team 7 out of the fighting space with his words.

"Go on you two." Kakashi addressed Sakura and Naruto, angling his head to the balcony. "I'll be there soon."

Both nodded and walked off, Sakura casting a concerned glance at Sasuke as she went.

"Can't this wait? I want to watch everyone else compete."

"No! Don't let your emotions cloud your judgement! This thing is spreading like a disease, and it's already close to the point of no return. I let you have your own way once and it's only made you greedy." Kakashi admonished.

Sasuke watched Sakura retreat to the balcony. Sealing this thing would make her worry less, so he may as well get it over with.

"Fine."

Kakashi helped Sasuke rise and lead him away.

---

The digital monitor ran through names until it landed on:

Abumi Zaku VS Aburame Shino

Zaku grimaced, annoyed. "Who's that Loser?" He had hoped he'd get paired with Sakura, so he could kill the bitch for what she did to his hand.

Shino reminded silent as usual as he headed to the ground level.

Naruto turned to his pink haired teammate after settling back into their spot along the balcony. Something was bothering him, and Sakura would probably know the answer since she was super smart.

"Hey Sakura-chan…during the fight, did you see that weird bruise on Sasuke? It was growing like a fungus!"

Sakura didn't turn to look at Naruto. She wasn't sure how to answer.

"Sasuke-kun never asked to keep it a secret, but he never told Naruto himself…and he had two days to do it…that probably means he doesn't want him to know…And he never told Naruto about what happened to me, so…so it's really not my place anyways…"

"I'm not really sure…"

"Hmm…" Naruto eyed her suspiciously. He didn't really believe her, but he knew Sakura enough to know that she never revealed anything she didn't want to unless it became absolutely necessary.

"Uhhh…All right, everyone. It's time for the second match of the prelims to begin!" Hayate announced.

Sakura watched Zaku and Shino sizing each other up.

"That sound Ninja, Zaku…Sasuke broke both his arms. How can he hope to fight?"

Zaku glanced over at her, and smirked evilly, drawing a finger across his neck.

The message was pretty easy to understand. He wanted to kill her.

"Oh what a surprise! Like armless can kill us!"

"I wouldn't be so sure…There's no hesitance in how he's holding himself right now…If he was helpless, I think he would be a bit more stressed right now…especially since his opponent in an unknown…"

"I hope Shino-kun's up to this…" Hinata murmured softly.

"He's pretty tough. Out of all the people here, he's the only one I wouldn't want to go up against…" Kiba answered seriously.

"Okay…you may begin."

Sakura's focus shifted from the battle to the sound ninja's Jonin sensei. She'd opted to ignore the option that he was Orochimaru in disguise for the sake of her mental sanity, but she'd payed close attention to his reactions throughout the course of Sasuke's battle and she found herself more convinced that she'd been right. He was too interested. Too excited when Sasuke had won. When the curse mark had started spreading, he'd smirked, and when Sasuke had managed to force it to recede, he'd been shocked. He was too reactive to a fight that hadn't even involved his own students. His eyes had followed Sasuke the whole way out. And now, when his own student was about to fight, the man suddenly vanished. For her it was confirmation she really hadn't wanted.

"Aw hell no! That guy's most definitely going after Sasuke-kun again! We have to do something!"

The battle started but she didn't pay the slightest attention. Her mind was racing trying to come up with something she could do to help.

"We have to go after him! Shannaro!"

"That…is a level of stupidity worthy of Naruto! Seriously?! The last time I faced him, within the first ten seconds my own chakra incapacitated me! It won't be helping anyone if that happens again!"

"Well we gotta do something! Sasuke-kun's in danger! And we love him!"

"Stop reminding me, damnit!…Alright…Sasuke-kun's with Kakashi-sensei right now, who'll probably be able to handle him…but if I tell someone, I might be able to get him some back up…who to tell though…The Hokage? Anko-san?"

She realized her access was limited. She wasn't allowed to go down the steps while a battle was going on, and The Hokage and Anko were on the opposite balcony. She wouldn't be able to get to them fast enough.

That left her with the Jonin on her side. Gai and Kurenai.

"Gai-sensei's…weird. But Shino is Kurenai-sensei's student…She'll want to focus on this, especially since Shino just got his with Zaku's attack…so Gai-sensei it is…"

Sakura walked over to him and lightly tapped him on his arm.

He turned to her.

"You're one of Kakashi's kids, right?"

"Yes," she answered quietly. "Um…Gai-sensei, can I speak to you for a moment?"

"And what would my old rival's student wish to speak to me about?"

"Well…When my team was in the forest of death…we were attacked…" Sakura proceeded a little unsurely.

"…I'm not overreacting, am I…?"

Gai nodded, his face becoming serious. All the Jonin had been made aware of Orochimaru's interference in the exams, and his targeting of the Uchiha boy.

"I think…I think he's here…the guy who attacked us…"

Gai's face darkened. "What makes you say that?"

Sakura chewed on her lip nervously. When Gai had seen how serious she was, and that she mentioned Orochimaru, he'd proceeded to step away from his team and speak quietly enough so no one overheard them.

"Well…when he first attacked us, he was disguised as a female grass ninja…I think now he was disguised as sound's jonin sensei…he referred to those sound ninja's as his subordinates, and his reactions through out Sasuke-kun's battle were too…he was too interested and invested. He watched Kakashi-sensei lead him away too closely, and even though his own student is currently fighting, he disappeared…I think he may have gone to follow them…or maybe I'm just—"

"What a youthful display of intelligence! Just what I'd expect from my old rival's students! Don't worry, I'll take it from here!"

"Thank you…Gai-sensei…" She gave an unsure bow, before rejoining Naruto.

"What was that about?"

"I just wanted to thank Gai-sensei for how he trained Lee-san…I made it out of a really tight jam cause of him, after all." Sakura lied easily with a smile.

Naruto bought it this time.

Gai vanished, reappearing next to Anko and the Hokage, and began whispering to them, before Anko vanished. Gai appeared behind his team once again, glancing over at Sakura and giving her a wink and a thumbs up.

Sakura returned her attention to the battle.

---

A swarm of bugs was creeping up behind Zaku.

"Do you like my little friends? They're called Kikaichu—parasitic destruction beetles. They attack in swarms and devour the chakra of their prey. There's no way you'll survive an onslaught of this magnitude…so if you value your life…you'd better surrender. It's your only way out. Use your left hand strike on me again, and they'll instantly be all over your unprotected back. Use your left hand strike against the Kikaichu swarm, and your front will be open for my attack. You're finished either way. Unless of course, you have the foresight to prepare a back up plan." Shino explained, his hands forming a sign in front of his face.

Zaku growled. He remembered Orochimaru smirking down at him when he was younger.

I see a certain potential in you, boy…would you like to see it develop? Join me, fight for me, and we'll develop it together!

He wouldn't…

Don't let me down!

He wouldn't be disgraced like this any further! First the pink haired bitch, then the damned Uchiha…he wasn't going to lose to this bug whispering freak.

"Who do you think you're talking to?!" He shouted, pulling his right arm from the sling with a grimace. "You wanna see a back up plan?!"

Shino didn't verbalize it, but he was caught off guard—Zaku had played his part convincingly, he really thought he hadn't had use of his other arm.

He wasn't the only one surprised.

---

"What?! He can use his right arm!" Kiba shouted in shock.

Dosu was impressed. Even he hadn't known Zaku's other arm still worked. The whole first half of the battle had been a scam to make it look like his right arm was still paralyzed.

---

"Take this!" Zaku had one arm pointing at Shino and the other at the swarm of beetles, but just when he was about to release his jutsu, his arms exploded. His forearms separated from his upper arms as if sliced in half.

Everyone was in shock at what just happened. Even Kiba and Kurenai.

"…It's like his own jutsu backfired against him…Shino's…good. And a bit creepy…I can handle beetles but if he's got anything with more legs than that…or no legs…"

Sakura suppressed a shudder.

"What the fu—?!"

"Just now, while I distracted you with all the helpful advice, my little friends were making their quiet way to the key points upon your body…creeping down the tunnels you blast your gale winds through. And that, my friend is a back up plan."

"Y-you…!"

He didn't get to finish his thought. Shino decked him in the face, laying him out. Zaku fell to the floor, his severed forearms lying near him. He let out a weak cough, before passing out.

"He's finished."

---

"Wh-what the…how did…Neji?!" Lee asked, turning to his teammate.

Neji held two fingers in front of his face. "Byakugan!" The views around his eyes bulged, as he looked at Shino.

"Whoa…I thought he'd used some summoning spell to marshal the bugs, but his whole body's infested with them!"

"Wh-what?" Lee asked, shocked.

Sakura felt her stomach turn just thinking about it—bugs crawling under her skin…she suppressed a shiver.

"There's a legend in Konoha of a clan of bug masters…" Gai said.

"Yes…now that you mention it…I've heard the birthright of anyone born into the clan…is that from the moment they enter the world, their bodies are given over to the crawling vermin to use as nests…the bug masters enter into a contract with the bugs, wherein the swarms will answer to their master's call. Fighting his battles and bending to his will…and the bugs are compensated by the abundance of the master's chakra, which they consume for food."

"And you're telling me that Shino…is a member of that clan?" Lee murmured.

Dosu and Kin looked down on their wounded teammate.

"Why did his arms explode?" Kin asked, her voice relatively calm, only holding detached curiosity in the face of her gravely injured teammate. What that pink bitch had said earlier was ture—none of her team, or anyone for that matter, cared enough about her as a teammate or a woman to lay down their lives for her…so why should she care if they got hurt or died?

Dosu studied the situation below him. From the looks of it, that Shino guy had directed the beetles to plug up the exit holes in Zaku's hands. When Zaku had tried to unleashed the slicing sound wave, the pressure built up inside his arm with nowhere to go, until…

"Like a gun barrel when the path of the bullet is blocked, Zaku blew his own arms off." He answered his female teammate. These leaf ninja were better than he'd initially given them credit for…well…maybe not that pathetic Sakura girl, though she'd proven unsettlingly clever…

It seems to me your orders were designed to get you killed…

…These leaf ninja were giving them quite the hard time. And while he didn't particularly care for Zaku, he decided to make it his business to ensure there was payback.

"The winner is Aburame Shino!" Hayate announced.

Shino walked calmly up the steps, as if he hadn't just destroyed another persons arms.

Kurenai let out a sigh. He was her student, and she was proud of him, but even she found his jutsu and fighting style unsettling.

"Aw man! Since when did Shino get so tough!" Naruto shouted.

"Seriously! He's always been a bit creepy, but this…?!"

"…He kept his cool that entire fight, quickly found the enemies weak point, and put measures in place to exploit it…He's a strategic thinker…Even if I had been able to figure out the key to Zaku's jutsu when I fought him, I couldn't come up with or enact a way to exploit it in the heat of the moment—the best I was able to do was stab near the exit holes and hope that was enough to disable him…And I didn't even get to that right away…I've been hoping my intelligence would get me through this, but…I'm not that tactically or strategically skilled…"

"So, uh…Shino-kun…nice job…" Hinata murmured when he rejoined their team on the balcony.

"That was awesome!" Kiba cheered.

"Yep. So…don't let the team down." Shino answered, primarily directing his response to Kiba. Hinata would crumble under the pressure.

"Hey!" Kiba growled, annoyed that Shino decided to suddenly act like their boss.

"So…uh…we're moving on to the next match." Hayate announced.

Sakura heard a whooshing sound behind her and turned to see her sensei.

"kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed in surprise.

"Yo!" His voice was calm and casual.

"What do you mean 'Yo?' Kakashi-sensei, is Sasuke-kun ok? Is he safe? Did O—"

Kakashi placed a hand on top of her head, rustling her silky pink hair. "He's alright. He's sound asleep in the infirmary as we speak. And he's under guard…don't worry." He answered calmly.

Just after he'd finished sealing Sasuke's curse mark, Orochimaru had shown up, telling him to move so he could take Sasuke. Of course he hadn't, even prepared to use his chidori against him, despite Orochimaru being of far greater strength as one of the three legendary Sanin. He hadn't accounted for just how powerful the Sanin was until he was paralyzed by Orochimaru's death genjutsu, but he hadn't even managed one step towards Sasuke, when Anko and three Anbu showed up. He'd decided to let Sasuke come to him instead, and disappeared. The Anbu chased him but were unsuccessful. When Kakashi asked how Anko knew, she told him that apparently Sakura was the one to alert them to Orochimaru's disguised presence.

He'd always known she was smart, but that seemed to be a gross understatement. He was beginning to see why Kotetsu had been so interested in her.

---

Not long after the first exam had ended, Kotetsu landed in front of Kakashi, who was sitting on a roof with Asuma and Kurenai. Kotetsu was one of the proctors—had Naruto done something monumentally dumb to have gotten team 7 banned for life of something?

"I've got a message for you, Kakashi."

"A message?" Did one of the chief examiners need to speak with him? It couldn't be Sakura, could it? The exam had only just started—and it was a written test. Surely that wouldn't have caused her…

"Well, we better be off. This sounds like a headache for you, Kakashi." Asuma said, grabbing Kurenai's wrist. "Bye!" The two took off.

"Sakura wanted me to give this to you." Kotetsu handed him a small piece of paper that looked like it was ripped off the corner of her test. The note contained a simple, polite, request to check in on her mother over the course of the test. Obviously he would. Even without her asking, there were things he needed to discuss with Mebuki privately. Though he was surprised Sakura had had the nerve to request anything from one of the proctors.

"She's an interesting kid. Did she come to you that sharp, or did you train her to be?"

Kakashi's eyebrows shot up. Normally he'd expect Sasuke or Naruto to be the attention catching ones—for different reasons, but next to her teammates, no matter how smart she was, she was far less…flashy or impressive. She didn't like to draw attention to herself in the first place, so why had Kotetsu taken special notice of her? Now he was curious.

"What caught your interest?" Kakashi asked.

"Well first, she offered me correct first aid advice. Didn't think too much of it because most genin know some basic first aid—it was weird though cause at the time I was posing as an enemy applicant using a transformation to make myself look younger. But then when we were handing out tests, she recognized me when no one else did. Made a smart assed comment about how it was good to see I took her advice."

"I see…" She always had been attentive to detail. She must have picked up on the visual similarities and the fact that the young Kotetsu was nowhere to be seen.

"There's more. It took her seven minutes to figure out the entire test. She was the first to get it. And then she answered all the questions by herself without cheating—it only took her 23 minutes to solve them. Didn't actually matter for the test, but I checked her results and they're all correct. She said she felt bad since she didn't actually show what we were testing for, but I told her there was no need to gather intelligence if you were able to deduce it by yourself. And then she was ballsy enough to ask me for a favor. Hard not to be interested in a kid like that. So what's her deal? From her record, she's not from any of the big clans."

"No…she's not. She was raised by a civilian mother. Her father died as a genin on a C-rank gone wrong when she was four."

"It was just her and her mom? She doesn't have any other family?"

"None."

"That's rough." Kotetsu muttered, eyebrows furrowing. "Single civilian mom with a young daughter in a shinobi village. She had to be smart to survive that…Sakura must get her brains from her then."

Kakashi knew that Sakura was very uncomfortable with people knowing the full extent of her situation, so he decided on only giving half truths from here on out—not that that wasn't the case already.

"Yes. She's observant. She realized her mother wouldn't have access to medical care when she read the villages regulations, so she started reading up and practicing as much basic first aid as possible." That was another gross understatement. The amount of medical knowledge Sakura had went way past basic first aid. The girl had been keeping her mother's unknown illness at bay for two years.

"Good kid. Real caring. I still can't believe she saw through the whole test in seven minutes. The second fastest kid still took a whole fifteen minutes to figure it out. She was really calm about it too, the pressure didn't seem to throw her off at all."

Kakashi was very happy to hear that last bit.

"Sakura's incredibly analytical and pays unnaturally close attention to word choice and syntax. Something probably wasn't sitting well with her when Ibiki first gave the instructions. She probably figured it out from that. Our team actually ran into some trouble on a mission because of a client being less than forthcoming, but she was well aware of the danger before anyone else because of some of his wording. She reads a lot too, so answering those questions was probably not an unthinkable feat to her, and she's the type who works well under pressure." He didn't need to go into why that was the case.

"I'll have to be keep my eye on her. Smart kid like that could go really far."

If she got physically stronger, trained, she'd be a force to be reckoned with. Kakashi just hoped she make it that long…

---

He wasn't sure quite how she'd put it together, but Sakura had seen through Orochimaru's disguise, and been sharp enough to take action by alerting someone. Thank god she had, or things may have turned out very differently.

Sakura visibly relaxed at his words. Sasuke was getting medical help and was under guard. He was safe and being taken care of.

"Thank god…" Now that her mind was cleared of one worry, in pure Sakura fashion, another set in. "Did he get my note?"

"Um, Sensei…Did you by any chance—"

"Your mother's fine Sakura. I checked on her daily. She misses you, but she told me to tell you she's very proud that you're doing this." And worried, but he wouldn't tell her that part yet. Although, if Orochimaru used the same genjutsu on them as he had on him, there was no way it hadn't happened yet. He seriously hoped she wasn't paired with someone frightening during these battles.

"Of course she's proud, Sakura-chan! We're totally crushing this test!" Naruto cheered. He'd been distracted for most of the conversation since the next opponents were about to be picked, but he'd caught that part, and just had to agree.

Sakura gave the first real smile Kakashi had seen from her since the chunin exams started.

"Oh!" Naruto cried. They'd finally picked the opponents, and it was that Kankuro guy Naruto had run into a while back.

Tsurugi Misumi VS Kankuro

Kankuro smirked. It was his turn at last. Baki, the sand trio's Jonin sensei, tried to hold in his frustration. Kankuro wasn't taking this seriously at all. Gaara simply thought his older brother a fool.

"Alright…you may begin…" Hayate said tiredly.

"Even though you're just a little brat, I'm not letting my guard down like that idiot Yoroi did. In fact, let me make one thing perfectly clear…you'd be better off forfeiting this match before you get hurt. This won't take long at all." Misumi said.

"i agree…I'll be finished with you in no time." Kankuro smirked removing the large, strangely shaped, wrapped object from his back and slamming it into the ground.

Misumi wasted no time in charging him. "Don't try any tricks. I'm going to win this with the first strike!"

Kankuro blocked his punch, but his eyes widened when Misumi wrist started wrapping around his arm like a snake.

---

Sakura gasped, drawing Kakashi's eye to her.

"That technique…it's similar to…"

---

"In order to gather intelligence, I've had my body altered so that it can infiltrate even the smallest space. I can dislocate every joint and manipulate my limp body by the power of chakra alone!" Misumi explained, as he wrapped his body around Kankuro, mobilizing him from behind. "And with this same power, I can keep squeezing and constricting until your bones crack! The longer you wait to surrender, the tighter I squeeze."

---

"So that's how it works…the chakra control for something like that…"

"Dislocating every joint? Is this guy psycho! That's gotta hurt like a bitch!"

"…I wonder if it's the same technique as Orochimaru, or if it's just something that looks similar…this guys…He's one of Kabuto teammates. If he learned this from Orochimaru, then Kabuto's probably working with him as well…"

"Sensei?"

Kakashi studied her, narrowed calculating eyes. Something about that guy was bothering her, and given how she'd managed to deduce Orochimaru's presence, he wasn't about to set aside any of her suspicions now. He thought of what Kotetsu had told her…

She said she felt bad since she didn't actually show what we were testing for, but I told her there was no need to gather intelligence if you were able to deduce it by yourself.

He was right. Sakura's deductions had so far provided more correct intelligence than anything they had gathered on their own.

"What are you thinking?" Kakashi asked.

"That technique he's using…how common is it?"

"Hm…It's not common, but it's not unheard of either."

"Oh…I thought…never mind."

"Sasuke and Naruto already talked to you about this. Stop holding back. What did you think?"

"Orochimaru did something similar when he…he moved like a snake…like he was boneless…"

"And you think he may have learned it from Orochimaru?" Kakashi asked, with a nod to the battle below them.

"…yeah…but if it's not an unheard of technique…I might just be seeing him everywhere…he was…terrifying…"

Kakashi's jaw clenched under his mask. There was no way their encounter hadn't triggered Sakura. It would have been impossible for a genin to stay calm durning that meeting, especially if Orochimaru had used that same death genjutsu that he'd used against him. Even without that trick, if Sakura was still this residually suspicious and paranoid afterword, then it must have been a traumatizing event for her. He had no doubt in his mind, her condition had activated. He'd have to talk to her about that later. For now, he'd focus on her suspicion.

"Like I said. It's not common. Your suspicion isn't unfounded. I'll look into it."

"That means his team members…Kabuto, also." She was suddenly very glad she'd done her best to hide Sasuke's sharingan and curse mark from the bespectacled boy. If he was working for Orochimaru, he likely knew of both already, but at least he wouldn't have been able to gather more new information.

Kakashi nodded.

Reassured that Kakashi now shared her suspicions and would keep an eye out, she turned her attention back on to the fight.

---

Misumi squeezed tighter around Kankuro, who grimaced. "I don't know what your own Ninja art may be, but once your body is helpless in my hands, it doesn't even matter. And if you give the smallest hint of trying anything clever in order to avert defeat, then I'll snap your neck like a twig. You're running out of time…" Misumi hissed.

"Heh…no way…" Kankuro ground out stubbornly.

"Do you want to be the one who dies?" Misumi sneezed tighter, earning a cry of pain from Kankuro as crunching sounds were heard. "Do you? You're about to get your wish!"

There was a snapping sound and Kankuro's head flopped forward.

---

Everyone stared in grim shock. For all the talk about potentially dying in these battles, none of the Konoha genin truly believed it would happen.

"He broke his neck!" Lee murmured quietly.

"What?!" Naruto muttered in horror.

"What a waste." Gaara grumbled. He wasn't particularly upset by the loss, despite Kankuro being his own brother.

---

Hayate sighed.

"Hah! The fool!" Misumi declared. "He just wouldn't give up…so I killed him."

Suddenly Kankuro's head one eightied, turning to look at him. His face was chipping, revealing wood underneath with a strange bugging eye.

"And now I can return the favor!"

"Wh-what?"

Kankuro's clothes ripped, revealing a six wooden arms, which wrapped around Misumi tightly. The rest of the disguise fell off, revealing a vey creepy puppet.

"I-it's just a doll…a marionette!"

The bandages around strangely wrapped item that the fake Kankuro had been carrying suddenly loosened and unwrapped. The real Kankuro stood among the bandages, chakra threads emanating from his fingers and attaching to the puppet.

Misumi's eyes opened wide in panic. So that was the real body! He was a Puppet master!

"Think how much more flexible you'll be with all your bones broken to bits.

"G-give up…" Misumi barely managed to choke through the pain.

"But I'll leave your neck intact." Kankuro said with a smirk.

Hayate sighed. An interesting turn of events! He was glad he didn't stop the match before when it looked like things were going the other way.

"Due to Misumi's inability to fight back, the winner of the match is Kankuro!"

---

"Two of them against one guy…isn't that against the rules? Isn't it, Kakashi-sensei?!" Naruto shouted.

"Not in this case Naruto. The other guy is just another kind of ninja tool."

"It's the puppet master jutsu." Sakura explained. "He manipulates a lifeless doll by projecting the power of his chakras. The puppet is just a weapon, like shuriken or kunai."

"Everyone here wields their chakra perfectly…I was hoping my chakra abilities would give me at least a little bit of an edge…so much for that…"

"In any event…it's time it's time for the fourth match." Hayate called.

"Whoa! Whoa! This is like a never ending freak show!" Naruto complained.

"Look who's talking." Kakashi countered.

"Good one, sensei!"

Sakura giggled.

"I don't think you'll be laughing in a minute, Sakura." Kakashi said calmly, pointing to the screen.

Haruno Sakura Vs Yamanka Ino

Secretly Kakashi was glad. Winning or losing aside, Ino wasn't going to be a terrifying opponent. Sakura would be alright, regardless of the outcome.

Sakura on the other hand, wasn't of the same opinion.

"Why her? Why of all the people I could have been placed against, why did it have to be her?"

"Are we born under a bad sign, or something?! For reals, what god did we piss off?!"

---

Ino and Sakura stood facing each other, both tense. Sakura didn't say a word, just looked at her with her carefully practiced blankness.

"I…I don't want to lose…She's always been someone I looked up to, but I don't want to look up anymore. I want to look head on…I want to be equals with my classmates and team…but wanting doesn't mean I'll be able to make it happen…and Ino…If I deserve to lose to anyone, it's her…"

"Shannaro! What's this crap! We don't deserve to lose to anyone, damnit! We're giving this our all!"

"But—"

"No buts!"

"I never thought I'd be fighting you…at least, not this soon." Ino said coldly.

Sakura remained silent.

---

Asuma watched Ino carefully from the balcony. She was a standout among the rookie Kunoichi. An opponent of Sakura's skill shouldn't have been a problem for her. But she had a long history with Sakura. With that girl as her opponent, would she be able to bring herself to fight full out?

"Of all people for Ino to go up against, it just had to be Sakura. This'll be a drag, I hope Ino'll be ok…" Shikamaru muttered.

"That's for sure." Choji agreed, gloomily.

Asuma looked at his blond student carefully, trying to get a read on her. What would it be?

"Sakura-chan! Good luck! Don't lose!" Naruto shouted loudly.

---

Hayate knew he shouldn't take sides, but secretly he was kind of rooting for Sakura. That girl's tonic worked—he hadn't coughed once since drinking it. "Begin!"

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

Ino's teeth clenched, her eyes narrowing as her anger swelled. She immediately leapt at Sakura attacking with a flurry of punches and kicks.

Sakura was caught off guard by the barrage of attacks, and barely managed to dodge and block, her forearms taking some punishing hits. She finally managed to put some space between her and Ino, throwing shuriken to push her away more.

Ino caught some from the air and threw them right back at her, forcing her to jump out of the way. Ino wasted no time in charging at her again.

---

"Oh no. I knew it…" Choji muttered.

Shikamaru sighed. Ino was fighting hard, but recklessly. She was too emotional and riled up by Sakura and the girl hadn't even said anything—her silence may have been what was driving Ino so crazy.

"Sakura-chan! Stay on your toes! Fight back!" Naruto shouted.

"Idiot!" Shikamaru muttered.

"What was that?!"

"You're so oblivious."

Naruto would have retorted when he heard another comment that pissed him off even more.

"That's it? That's the best Kunoichi can do at hand-to-hand combat."

"What?!" Naruto whirled on Neji, infuriated by the belittling comment about his teammate.

Tenten shot Neji an angry glare. Sure she had a crush on him, but that didn't mean she wouldn't put him in his place if he was being a chauvinist asshole.

"It's not because they're girls. It's just that those two are lukewarm. There is no man or woman in battle."

Neji's eyes narrowed a little. He'd misspoken. After all, there wasn't anyone he trusted more in or out of battle than Tenten, and she was a Kunoichi too.

Naruto blinked in confusion. "Lukewarm…?"

---

"Ino's always been so strong and skilled—I have to try harder! This is a battle, I can't just let her win cause I feel guilty—it wouldn't be fair to either of us!"

"That's the spirit! Shannaro!"

Ino engaged in another round of close combat, and this time Sakura returned blows, all of which Ino blocked.

"Something…feels weird about this…"

"Punching Ino-pig? Of course it's weird! She's our best friend!"

"No…not that…this doesn't feel right…"

In Sakura's distraction, Ino finally managed to land a hit on her stomach, winding her and causing her to double over.

Ino's eyes widened. That was her opening. She aimed a punch at her head, but a flood of memories came rushing in.

A small pink haired girl curled up in a ball…

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

Happy late birthday, Ino-chan…

Cause she reminds me of you, Ino-chan! She's super cute but, really tough…

At the last minute, Ino's fist opened. The sound echoed around the room as she slapped Sakura across the face. Both girls froze, wide eyed, before Sakura slowly turned to face her. Ino was looking at her own shaking hand before her wide ice blue eyes slid to Sakura's.

A wave of frustration overtook the pink haired girl.

"She still sees me as the weak girl who bursts into tears—even though that hasn't been true for a while!"

"What was it she called us that one time? A bud?"

---

They were seven-years-old, sitting in Kunoichi class in the academy.

"A kunoichi needs to master not only the art of ninjutsu that every male ninja learns…but the feminine arts and womanly wiles as well. When you're within the borders of enemy lands, you'll depend on your ability to pass yourselves off as normal women. Without that skill, even the simplest of spy tasks becomes an unmanageable chore. Today, we'll be learning the art of Ikebana—flower arranging, which most women in any land learn at one point or other."

Sakura gulped. She wasn't good at this sort of thing. She knew about scents and what flowers made the hair shiny, or softer, or more pigmented, as well as those that were good for skin care too, but she'd never been great at the whole aesthetic part.

"To begin, everyone must go out and gather whatever flowers you please."

"Yes Ma'am!" The class answered excitedly.

...…..

"Hey Ino-chan! Wait for me!" Sakura called as she chased after her only friend. Her foot caught on the uneven ground, and she fell forward. Instead of flopping on the ground face first, she spread her front leg, falling into a split instead.

"Oof." Just because it was graceful didn't mean it didn't hurt—just the opposite in fact. The more Sakura danced, the more various parts of her body would ache, especially her feet and legs. But still, she loved moving like that. It was the only thing, other than Ino, that made her feel happy and pretty and free.

Ino turned to face her with a disapproving huff. "Y'know, I can't tell if you're clumsy or graceful. You could really hurt yourself like that!"

"Heh…sorry…" She sheepishly tugged at the ends of her short hair, getting up to follow Ino to another part of the meadow.

Sakura picked some fluffy white flowers miserably.

"I'm no good at this stuff…what about you Ino-chan?"

"Oh come on Sakura-chan! That's pathetic! You can make your own shampoo but not a flower arrangement? Seriously, how can you be bad with flowers when your name means 'cherry blossom'? This stuffs a breeze once you get the hang of it."

"Really?"

"The trick is to select one flower that will be the focus of the arrangement, and then build around it, adding other flowers as accessories to the first."

"Oh…" That didn't sound like a breeze to Sakura.

"The blossom's shouldn't be in competition. For example…" Ino said, pointing at some pink cosmos flowers. "If you start with a cosmos at the main attraction, then those thoroughwort flowers you picked are the accessories! You know, a cherry blossom is a 'sakura' and the cosmos is an 'akizakura,' or autumn cherry…the prettiest flower of the fall. The real meaning of the word 'cosmos' is harmony. And it does harmonize with almost everything."

Sakura gaped at her. Ino was so smart and feminine!

The blond held a thoroughwort up to her hair and winked at Sakura. "But I think I'm even prettier than a cosmos. Aren't I?!"

"Uhh…yeah!"

"Why did you hesitate?!" Ino pouted making Sakura giggle.

"Well it looks like the walking jinx is having fun." A snide voice said from behind her. Sakura stiffened, her eyes wide and sad. Why did Ami always call her that? She turned slowly to face the violet haired girl and two of her friends, feeling her good mood die. "You're doing a lot of primping lately! Trying to look less like a raggedy doll? What makes you think you're worth it?" Ami sneered.

"Ami—those are such pretty wisteria! They'd go great with tiger lily, or amur adonis! A warm color like an orange or yellow really makes a red-toned purple like your wisteria flowers pop!"

"Oh, you think so, Ino-chan?"

"Yeah! And wisteria definitely have a complimentary shape and height to tiger lily! I saw some over there!" Ino said, pointing to a far corner of the meadow where a blob of orange was visible.

"Thanks Ino-chan!" Ami said sweetly, before casting a final glare at Sakura. "Don't forget, just because you made your hair all shiny and soft, doesn't change what you really are—a cursed raggedy doll." Ami took off, her friends following behind her, each with their own glare to Sakura.

"Don't worry about them, they'll get bored and give up eventually." Ino told her gently.

Sakura only hugged her knees tighter. She wasn't so sure. Why couldn't she be more like Ino? Ino was so great! She was smart, stylish, and cute. Even her ninja skills were excellent. She was great with shuriken and ninjutsu. She was one of the best girls in the class…compared to that, Sakura was just…

A tear dripped onto the flower in her lap.

"Sakura-chan?" Ino asked in concern.

"Ino-chan, if you're a cosmos…then am I a thoroughwort?" Another tear dropped from her face.

Ino frowned. She could understand how Sakura may have come to that conclusion, but she shouldn't think so lowly of herself.

"What are you saying? Hm…let me see…in a manner of speaking, I don't think you're a flower at all. I think you're still a bud!" Ino said decisively.

Sakura gave her an awkward smile, but deflated more. Ino was right. She wasn't even a flower…

---

Sakura's fist tightened.

"That's it. I'm tired of being viewed as weak and underdeveloped. Even if it's true right now, I'll make it so it's not!"

"Shannaro!"

"So, let's start by clearing the air."

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

Ino jerked at the familiar, painful words.

"…I'm sorry, Ino-chan. I lied."

Ino's eyes widened in surprise. "Wh-what?"

"I was never bored of being your friend, and I didn't want to stop."

"Then…why?" Ino stared in her in abject confusion. Sakura wasn't wearing that blank look anymore. Ino could clearly see she was telling the truth.

"Well, for one, the only thing I could ever give you was my time, and I wasn't able to give it anymore…it would have been too unfair to you."

Ino frowned. That must have meant her mom got worse. Sakura told her when her mom first got sick, and how worried she was about her…but she didn't know if she'd gotten better, worse, or stayed the same…Sakura never told her or gave her any clue. At least, not until now.

"But when Ami or the others gave you an ultimatum…I know how much it mattered to you to be their friend…to be popular…I couldn't drag you down anymore…and if you picked me yourself, you might have ended up resenting me. You looked so lost and unsure and you never looked like that—it didn't look right on you…so I picked for you. I didn't have time to give you anymore, and I couldn't let you tie yourself to me and lose everything."

"Damnit Sakura! That wasn't your choice to make!" Ino shouted.

"But continuing to be friends with you would have been unfair to you!"

"That wasn't your call! I would have been fine so long as you told me why! I would have been fine! For just once in your life, could you have thought about yourself! You needed me but didn't let me be there for you!"

"You…would have wanted to? Even if I couldn't hang out?"

"Yes! Damnit Sakura! You were my best friend! And yeah—being popular and liked mattered to me, and it was a really uncomfortable choice to think about making, but if those girls really turned against me cause I wanted to stay friends with you—than I'd have given Ami a long deserved punch in the face!"

"You would have…?"

"I wanted to for so long! Every time they said anything to you! But I liked that they all liked me and didn't want to screw that up, so I just tried to get their attention away from you…But if they turned against me anyways—then hell yeah! I don't give a crap! I'd kick all their asses!"

Now it was Sakura's turn to blink in abject surprise.

"Ino-chan…thank you…"

"You're right, Pig. It wasn't my call. I'm sorry. But since you don't care and none of that popularity stuff matters anymore, let's be friends again."

Ino started. "H-huh? You want to?"

"I already told you, I never wanted to stop being friends with you…I've been calling you Pig in my head this whole time." Sakura smiled brightly.

"…Forehead…" Ino's eyes softened.

"But. In the interest of preserving our newly reinstated friendship, I feel like I should tell you…" Sakura's lively smile fell and she was looking at her with dead seriousness. "I'm in love with Sasuke-kun." She announced, her voice clear, confident, and carrying.

---

Kakashi blinked in surprise. He wasn't shocked that she was in love with Sasuke—it had been rather evident to him by how often she blushed around him and her abundant amount of care and concern she had for him. Normally, if a thirteen year old declared she was in love, he wouldn't buy it. Crush, yes. Infatuation, yes. Love, no. But Sakura was much more mature than the average thirteen year old, her empathy and compassion far greater. He fully believed she meant what she said. She truly loved Sasuke. What shocked him about it was that she'd confessed it so openly. She never would have done something that bold before. She'd never been confident enough. This was a very different Sakura. One who wasn't ashamed or embarrassed by herself, one who wasn't trying to hide who she was or what she thought. One who despite her skill level, looked ready to move mountains or die trying.

Naruto's jaw dropped. He knew she had a thing for the bastard—just like all the other girls! Of course, she had more reason, at least she actually knew him, unlike all those groupies. But he wouldn't give up! He'd beat that bastard no matter what and prove that he was better than him!

Lee had a similar reaction to Naruto. He would keep his fire of youth burning bright and win Sakura over.

---

Ino was shellshocked. She could sort through her feelings about the fact that they were both interested in Sasuke, later. She was more caught off guard by the confession itself. How confident and calm she was about it, despite the public nature of their setting.

"You're not his type—not even on his radar, actually! I doubt he even knows your name! And I'm not the weak, needy girl I used to be, Boar!" Sakura continued, smirking.

"Boar?"

"Pig but with a bit more anger."

"So we're trying to provoke her…"

"I'm tired of people pulling their punches."

"Watch who you're mouthing off to, Forehead!" Ino growled back, enraged by her taunts…but also a little…proud?

---

"Aw man…don't you think Sakura-chan may have crossed a line? That Ino girl kinda scares me…" Naruto asked uncertainly.

Kakashi shook his head. "Sakura's not trying to throw her weight around. And she's not the kind who'd bully someone just to be cruel. She hates callously hurting people. She's just making sure Ino is too riled up to think of going ease on her." He explained.

---

Ino glared at Sakura, but her rage was more focused than before. Not the blind, wild attacking she'd been doing earlier.

"So I'm a bud, huh?"

---

Sakura sat hugging her knees, thinking about Ino's response. A bud…less than a flower…not even a thoroughwort.

"Ino-chan…?"

"Yeah?"

"Wh-why did you…give me this ribbon?"

"Heh…because…I thought it was a shame to see a bud like you dying on the vine. What's the point of being a flower if you're never going to bloom? You might end up…being an even prettier flower than a cosmos!"

Sakura felt her eyes watering. She was so grateful to have Ino…

---

Sakura studied the blond girl in front of her.

"Pig…that day, you helped me to believe in myself for the first time. And I've hung on to that ever since…Thinking how cool it would be if all the nice things you said were true. I wanted to be just like you. And working toward that helped me progress to where I am today. That's why when we fight, I'm giving it everything I've got. It won't mean anything if you don't fight me full out."

"For real this time!"

Sakura charged at Ino, her hands forming the seals for a simple clone jutsu. Two other Sakura's appeared at her side.

"This isn't an academy graduation exam! you can't beat me with a plain old jutsu like that!" Ino admonished. Spotting the real ones from the fakes would be easy.

"Focus chakra into my feet for a burst of speed…"

Ino's eyes widened. Sakura's clones puffed away leaving confusing wisps of smoke, while Sakura was suddenly much much faster, landing a very hard punch right to the blonds face and sending her a meter and a half away, to the ground.

"Stop holding back, Pig, you're better than this!"

"If that's what you want, fine by me! The gloves are off!" Ino growled, pushing herself up.

---

"Look at Sakura-chan go! She's awesome!" Naruto shouted happily. Lee agreed readily.

"Sakura is a solid contender. With the fundamental movements of chakra, she's the best among all the rookies. I've never seen Sakura this good." And that wasn't even taking into consideration how smart the girl was.

"Even better than me?!" Naruto demanded, his pride stung.

"Uh…yeah. No question. Sending chakra all throughout the body and using it in conjunction with a well timed jutsu…those techniques alone are better than Sasuke. Well, from the start, her chakra control was superb…"

Lee watched, impressed by how gracefully Sakura moved as she charged at Ino. It was a pleasure to watch.

---

Ino met Sakura's charge, both catching each others fists, pulling a little closer in their attempt to overpower each other, before pushing away at the same time, each tossing a shuriken, which bounced off each other in the air.

"Something's weird…what? What is it…?"

---

Lee's fist clenched. No matter how good Sakura was, her opponent was also far above the norm. It was a fair fight…one that could drag on and on.

He was right.

Shikarmaru and Choji watched anxiously as the girls continued to trade blows as the minutes ticked by.

Kakashi looked on tightly. The way those two were going, this fight would never end. He couldn't deny he was proud…for Sakura, a girl who never trained—with a valid reason—to be able to raise her level to equal the top kunoichi in her graduating class, over the course of one fight no less, was quite a feat. And on top of that, she was keeping calm enough to keep her own disadvantage in check—not that she was aware of that…but it was still impressive. Keeping calm and in control in any battle wasn't a particularly easy thing to do.

"Whoa!" Naruto cried, as the two girls exchanged particularly hard punches.

---

Ino was breathing hard. Sakura had always been so timid and passive…just when had she gotten this tough and strong?!

"We can do this! We can!"

"…why can't I figure out what's off though?!"

Ino and Sakura both landed a hard hit on each others cheeks, sending both girls flying apart.

Hayate looked between the two as they pushed themselves up. The battle had already been going quite a while…they'd been at it for almost ten minutes…if nothing else the stamina was impressive.

"Unbelievable! Just when did you get to be my equal, Forehead?" Ino shouted. What Ino found most upsetting wasn't that Sakura was evenly matched with her, it was that she seemed so calm and unbothered. They were both tired, both breathing hard…but either Sakura wasn't as tired as her, or she was more graceful about how she hid it. And she was so mentally unflappable that any annoyance, irritation, or anxiety seemed to bounce right off her and back on to Ino.

Sakura smiled. "I don't know, maybe you haven't been training hard enough, Pig." A joke if she'd ever told one—it wasn't like she trained. She had no idea how she was doing so well. "Or maybe, that pretty, long hair of yours is diverting all your blood from your muscles to your head to help it grow longer." Another joke. Sakura was well aware that was not how hair worked.

Sakura was smiling a real smile at her. Joking around. So calm and unaffected, even though they were in the middle of a battle. How did she do that? Was this fight not a big deal to her? It was driving Ino crazy! She had to do something to rile Sakura up, or unbalance her, the way she was doing to Ino.

"You and your science…I see. You think you're all tough now cause that stunt you pulled earlier, cutting your own hair, right? Fine. I'll show you. I don't need this!" Ino grabbed at her ponytail and raised her kunai to it.

Sakura's eyes widened.

Guess what I just heard, Forehead! Sasuke-kun likes girls with long hair! I'm gonna grow mine out the way you've been doing with yours! I'll look super cute with long hair, I just know it!

---

Shikamaru and Choji stared wide eyed. They'd know Ino since long before they were placed on the same team. There were all close family friends. And the boys knew that Ino cared about her appearance and hair immensely.

"Ino's…she's an idiot if she's actually letting Sakura get to her this much…" Shikamaru muttered.

"I don't like seeing Ino like this…" Choji agreed.

They all watched in shock as Ino sliced through the long ponytail, leaving only a short blunt stub in place.

Shikamaru winced. She must have completely lost it.

---

"Um…I mean, I doubt that'll help much…" Sakura said, blinking in surprise.

"This is nothing!" Ino declared tossing the hair so the strands littered the space between them. "I don't need it to win Sasuke-kun, and I don't need it to beat you!"

"If you say so." Sakura said, keeping her tone disbelieving.

"The more riled up she gets, the more reckless and prone to mistakes. If I can take advantage of that, I might be able to pull a win, despite how low I am on chakra…wait. Why am I so low on chakra? I know I don't have much but…This battle has been primarily taijutsu…I only used one actual ninjutsu…I have been using my chakra to give myself a bit more speed and hit a bit harder, and taijutsu does require chakra…but I shouldn't be running this low…"

"This ends now! I'm gonna make you say 'I give up!' with your own mouth!" Ino shouted, her hands coming together in front of her chest in a ram sign.

---

All of team 10 leaned forward in alarm.

"Don't tell me…She couldn't mean…!" Shikamaru couldn't even finish the sentence the idea was so stupid.

"She's thinking about it…" Choji said nervously.

They watched in horror as Ino thrust her hands out, her fingers forming an open circular window for her to look through.

"Just as I thought! It's her clan's signature mind transfer jutsu!" Shikamaru shouted.

"That idiot!" Asuma growled, bringing his palm up to his face.

---

"I recognize that sign from a scroll I read on the clans of Konoha…I know I wanted her to be reckless and make a mistake but this…"

"…Is sheer stupidity…"

"I was gonna go with a sure way to lose for her, but yeah…"

"I get you're impatience, but that's a bad idea…"

"We'll see about that!"

"Ninja art: Mind transfer jutsu. A jutsu where the user can take over the opponents spirit and control their body for a few minutes by discharging all of their own spiritual energy and striking the opponent with it. But, there are major flaws to this formidable jutsu. First, the discharged spiritual energy can only fly straight and at a low speed. Second, even in the case of failing to hit the enemy and missing, the user can't return to their own body for several minutes. And during that interval, the user's main body, your body, will essentially be unconscious—just an unmoving doll…This is a really easy way for you to lose, Ino-chan, are you sure you want to risk it?"

---

Team 10 jerked in shock. It was unusual for anyone outside a clan to have such a thorough and in-depth knowledge of that clan's jutsu.

Shikamaru had to hand it to her, Sakura was smart, and came prepared. Why she happened to know so much about the Yamanaka clan jutsu, he didn't know. But he wouldn't put it past her to have an in-depth knowledge of his and Choji's clan jutsu either.

Asuma was impressed by Sakura's knowledge as well. She was right. The mind transfer was an unparalleled tool for espionage and infiltration, but using it in a heads-up fight was suicide.

Kakashi figured he should really stop being surprised by how much Sakura knew. Sasuke had once called her a walking encyclopedia. It was an accurate description. Most knew of the various clans in Konoha, and their specialties. But it was rare for a civilian born and raised, clan-less genin to know so much about a clan's specialty techniques. She must have read about it somewhere. And as she clearly already knew, she was in no danger so long as she presented a moving target. And if Ino tried the jutsu and failed, she'd be able to attack Ino's defenseless body freely and Hayate would be forced to call the match. Kind hearted as she was, she was trying to dissuade her friend from such a flawed tactic.

---

"What of it?! No one knows what will happen here until I give it a try!"

"You only get one chance at this…if you miss, it's over. You know that, right?"

Ino didn't budge.

"Her funeral."

Sakura started moving.

---

Shikamaru gripped the railing tightly. In a combat situation, Ino was only ever supposed to use her jutsu in conjunction with her teammates. She was never supposed to use it until he froze the opponent first with his shadow possession jutsu…This was absurd.

Asuma watched grim faced. She wasn't even going to hit her mark…

---

"Ninja art! Mind transfer jutsu!"

Sakura skidded to a stop and looked over at Ino, whose head was bent forward heavily as she fell to her knees.

"Damn…she really did it…"

"She always was the type to follow through…"

"Well…I guess that's it then, Ino-chan…"

---

"I guess it's all over now." Shikamaru grumbled.

"I can't believe she actually tried it." Choji agreed dejectedly.

---

Sakura went to take a step towards her, but found she couldn't move.

"Huh?!"

"Th-this is…" Sakura looked down at the chakra thread wrapping around her ankles.

"Gotcha Forehead!" Ino said with a smirk. "I set a trap for you and you fell for it!"

"So…the hand signs earlier were fake…"

"Think…I've gotta come up with some way out of this…Think!"

"Yep…They were just to distract you from the real trap. I zigged, you zagged, and you fell right into it! Can't move at all, can you? I made a living rope by running chakra through my own cut hair. And now that I've got you where I want you, I can take up occupancy and make you surrender. You like numbers, Yeah Forehead? I think the odds are 100% I'm gonna hit my target, don't you think?"

"Think damnit!"

---

"Looks like it…" Kakashi responded to Ino's remark. Sakura was a goner.

Shikamaru smirked. Crazy girl…making herself look like a loser so she could win. It was a good tactic. Reckless, but good.

---

"And so…Mind transfer jutsu!"

Ino's body slumped forward, Ino's spirit no longer animating it.

Ino smirked, the expression translating onto Sakura's face. "Heh…too bad, Forehead."

---

"What? What just happened to Ino? And…and…what's gotten into Sakura-chan to make her act so weird?" Naruto asked, grimacing in confusion. "Doesn't she see this is her chance? Go get her, Sakura-chan!"

Shikamaru smirked. It was over.

"Ino's mind transfer technique hit Sakura head on. She's finished." Kakashi explained.

"Mind transfer…? Then Sakura-san's not even…" Lee trailed off.

"Exactly. Sakura's psyche has been overtaken and supplanted by that of Ino. Right now, Ino is inside of Sakura…so her goal is probably to…"

---

Sakura's hand began to raise. "I, Haruno Sakura, wish to with—"

"Don't do it! Come on, Sakura-chan! You've come so far! What would your mom say if you lose now?! And Sasuke?!" Naruto shouted at her.

Ino almost laughed it wasn't like he could hel—

Her head suddenly began to pound. She shivered. What was happening? Why did she feel so cold?

"That loudmouth! We can't even hear ourselves think, damnit!"

Ino, in Sakura's body, clutched at her head. "Ow…"

"And there's no way in hell Ino-pig's beating us! Shannaro! Not after all that shit we dealt with to get here!"

Ino gasped. Sakura?! But that was crazy?! How?!

She doubled over in pain, clutching at her head.

Hayate looked on in confusion. What was going on? "What's wrong? Are you withdrawing from the match?"

"No way in hell do I withdraw! I've never given up! Not once in my god damned life, so why the hell should I start now?! Are you kidding?! I'm staying in! Chaaa!"

Hayate blinked in shock. Who was talking now? It couldn't have been Ino…but that didn't sound quite like what he'd come to know of Sakura either. It had to be Sakura…but that wasn't possible. Not in a jutsu like the Yamanaka mind transfer.

Inside Sakura's mind, Ino's spirit was literally being shoved aside by a stronger, much angrier version of Sakura. Ino struggled against her, but Sakura's spirit was overpowering her. What the hell was this? Her spirit should have been knocked out when Ino took over. It had been! She'd had control! So what the hell was this?!

---

The entire balcony leaned in, in confusion. Even Neji, who'd been fairly uninterested the whole time, was now curious as to what was going on.

"What's going on?! What's up with Ino?!" Shikamaru shouted, unusually panicked. He'd never seen Ino this way before. She'd never had trouble with the mind transfer in the past, even when she had first learned it—she could even do it well when she was low on chakra, so what was going on?

Kakashi blinked in shock…Sakura?!

---

Ino found herself staring at a much larger spirit—Sakura, though the words 'inner Sakura' were written across her forehead. How was this even possible? Ino's technique was unbeatable!

Inner Sakura's hands closed around Ino, squeezing her hard.

"Ino…If you don't hurry up and get out of our body, you're gonna regret it! Shannaro!" She growled.

"No…!" Ino screamed in disbelief, vocalized through Sakura's body.

Another wave of pain shot through her head. At this rate, she'd be lucky if she could even hold on to her.

Inner Sakura decided she was taking too long.

"Shannaro!" She lifted Ino in one hand and threw her. Ino screamed, before she was completely thrown out of Sakura's body and painfully slammed back into her own.

Both girls were on their knees, breathing hard and staring at each other in what was half glare, half confused respect.

Ino was mildly horrified. Her family were masters of jutsu pertaining to the mind. As a byproduct, she'd been learning about the human psyche since she was five. Never had she heard of a mind transfer failing in that way. Nor had she heard of someone having a whole separate spirit in them that wasn't the result of some sort of possession.

---

Shikamaru couldn't believe what just happened. It was incredible! Sakura was actually able to break Ino's hold—not just break, completely throw her out! It was unheard of. He always knew Sakura was book smart but she'd never seemed to have much skill. He knew she got bullied, but she never really stood up for herself nor acknowledge the insults in any way. She always just seemed sort of…blank. How did a girl like that beat Ino's jutsu—a jutsu she'd mastered no less. Clearly there was more to Sakura than he'd realized.

Asuma was also trying to process what just happened. He'd seen Sakura's scores at the academy, taught a few classes she'd been in…never had she given an indication that she'd be able to pull something like this off. She'd always been so quiet and a little preoccupied. Maybe Ino expended too much energy before she tried the mind transfer, and therefore lacked the chakra to do it properly…? It was the only thing he could come up with, though it hadn't been a problem ever before…

---

"There were two different psyches inside you before I got there! What…what on earth are you?" Ino gasped between breaths.

Sakura looked up at her, tiredly. Oddly she almost wanted to laugh. It was a bit embarrassing for anyone to know about the tough, immature, angry, fighty version of her that said everything she thought and felt confidently without any filter. She'd hid that part of her for so long, and although it came out sporadically in small doses with her teammates, they didn't know the extent of it. But if anyone were to, and get it, and be ok with it, it was Ino…

"Oh, come on, Pig…you should know! Even the sweetest girl's gotta have a tough center to survive a world like this! You didn't really think I just took and accepted all that crap from everyone, did you?"

"Heh…Thank god you didn't…" Truthfully it was something Ino had always worried about. Sakura's passivity, especially after she'd ended their friendship, had always concerned her. She'd knew the polite detachment got to Ami and the other bullies more than anything else could, but smiling in the face of all the horrible things they said…Of course it had to take a toll on her. Ino was glad that while she may have taken it, she clearly hadn't accepted what they said as true. The fact that a piece of Sakura had been screaming at them to shove it where it hurt the whole time was actually very reassuring to Ino.

---

Kakashi watched as both girls rose unsteadily to their feet. Sakura was similar to Naruto in a lot of ways—the biggest being that they both were constantly surprising him. He should have just expected it at this point. This case, for instance. Once a victim was possessed by that technique, it was almost impossible to drive the invader out. Ino's lack of chakra may have been a contributing factor, but that alone wasn't enough. What had really won the battle was the fighting spirit Sakura housed in her heart. Naruto's razzing seemed to have awakened Sakura's drive and egged her on to chase Ino out. It wasn't that strange, when he actually thought about it. Like Naruto, Sakura possessed a heart that didn't know how to give up and refused to be beaten. She'd displayed it time and time again, though not in a battle like this…but what other explanation was there for a ten year old girl to teach herself about medicines and illnesses because seeing a doctor wasn't an option. Many other children, or even adults, in that situation would simply watch helplessly. But Sakura had always refused to give up despite impossible odds. Why should he be surprised that that tenacity translated in physical battles too?

At this point though, he doubted either had much chakra left. The next attack would be the last.

---

Sakura and Ino both rose, shakily. They knew this was it. This attack was going to be the last. As the two charged at each other, time seemed to slow down for Sakura.

"Why doesn't this feel right?! Why do I feel like I'm eating through my chakra so quickly?!"

You're pushing so hard in your movements that your chakra can't flow correctly…

Her own voice bounced back through her memory…it was her own advice to Sasuke back in the Land of Waves, when he'd been struggling with Tree climbing.

…Your body knows what to do, so trust it and just let it happen…

Sakura's eyes widened.

"That's it! That's why this has felt so wrong this whole time! I'm not moving like me! This is how Ino-chan moves! I've just been mirroring her! It's been making me use more chakra cause I've been forcing something unnatural to me! It's like Lee-san's attacks—his movements are so natural to his body that they flow from him and actually end up being stronger because of it!" "We'll never win by simply mirroring Ino-pig! We gotta attack in the way we move!"

"Right! So what movements are as easy as breathing for me?"

"That's easy! Dancing!"

"Dancing—so I have to translate dance into an attack!"

As Sakura and Ino came within punching distance of each other, at the last minute, Sakura stepped out and quickly twirled around behind the blond. She planted one leg, and using the momentum of her spin and her remaining chakra, landed a beautiful, and incredibly hard kick to Ino's head, sending her flying two whole meters to her left.

She landed the spin kick gracefully, completing the move fully before swaying, a little unsteady in her exhaustion.

"That was it…That was everything I had left…Please please please stay down…"

Ino began to push herself up, froze, and collapsed back down.

Hayate looked between the two girls. A small smile made its way to his face. He'd been hoping Sakura would pull through—he had no idea how she broke out of that jutsu, but he was glad she did…and that move at the end was certainly…different.

"Since her opponent is no longer able to battle, Haruno Sakura is the winner of the fourth battle and moves past the preliminary round!"

Sakura didn't process the words. She only registered that the battle was over.

"I have to check on Ino-pig and make sure she's alright!"

Sakura wanted to run towards her friend, but she'd barely managed two steps before she was falling forward.

"I've got you…"

She vaguely registered being scooped into Kakashi's arms.

"Ino-chan…"

"She'll be fine."

"She…might…concussion…" Sakura passed out.

Kakashi smiled down at her. How like her. She couldn't even stand and she was more worried about others. He jumped up to the balconies with Asuma, who had Ino in his arms. They leaned their unconscious students against the wall.

"Hey Ino!" Choji and Shikamaru came running over.

"Are you alright Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted, as Lee crowded around in concern.

"Shh!" Kakashi ordered, holding a finger over his masked lips.

"Neither one of them is hurt badly enough to need treatment from the medical corps…They should regain consciousness within the next half hour." Asuma explained.

The boys smiled in relief.

"Your girl's impressive Kakashi. I never would have thought she'd beat Ino…Even though she lost, I'm proud of her. She put up one hell of a fight."

"Yeah…Despite her success with Naruto and Sasuke, I wasn't sure if Sakura had what it took to make it through a one on one battle, but…It was a good thing she decided to take this test…she's been through a lot…She's tougher than I realized, and she's grown a lot." Had there not been extenuating circumstances, he would have been glad he'd recommended her to take the test. But because of her condition, even though she'd clearly gotten stronger, he still felt it was his failing as a teacher to have allowed her to go through with it.

He wouldn't deny he was impressed though. In that final moment, everyone had been hanging onto the railings, watching tensely. When Sakura had danced around Ino and sent her flying, there'd been an audible gasp. No one, aside from Kakashi and Naruto, had known that Sakura was that agile and graceful. No one knew she could move like that. To them, it had seemed to come from nowhere. Even Neji's eyes had widened in surprise. Lee's eyes had watered with the youthful beauty of it—as had Gai's…

While Kakashi had known that she could move like that, it had been so unexpected. She hadn't moved in any way remotely close to it the entire battle, and then suddenly her whole style changed. He knew what must have happened—to think throughout the whole course of that battle, and all the emotional, mental, and physical trials it had presented for her, she'd still been self analyzing. It was just like when she'd been tree climbing—well, tree dancing, really. Throughout the entire process, she'd analyzed and identified exactly what the problems were with her chakra output, balance, and speed, and self corrected. It was a valuable and precious skill to have, but he'd thought it was something she'd only employ during training, when it was just her and a task, and there wasn't an opponent actively defying her and putting her through a mental and emotional wringer. But no. That whole fight, Sakura had actively been analyzing, and realized that the fighting style she was using wasn't right for her, and mid punch, she'd self corrected. Not only that, but in that window of milliseconds, she'd identified her ideal movement style—which had nothing to do with fighting—and adapted it to fit her needs. The intelligence, self awareness, bodily awareness, and reaction time needed to pull something like that off—as she had done—were unthinkably high…well above that of the average genin. Sakura may not have had the raw strength, skill, or chakra levels that Naruto and Sasuke had, but she was a master at working with what she had available and using it to its maximum effect. If that girl had the Sharingan, she'd be terrifying. Kotetsu had been right. She truly could be something great…if it wasn't for her condition. He understood why Mebuki had insisted on allowing her to do this, she was truly impressive and she had the right to prove herself. But no matter how good she was, she wouldn't be able to survive it…no one else had.

---

Author's note: Ok! More to come soon I promise-I'm in the middle of Neji and Hinata's battle and I'll only have two more after that, so it won't take as long. And it'll be during the training arch after the preliminaries where you'll get the full explonation of what's going on with Sakura.

Anyways, thank you so much for all the favs, follows, and especailly the reviews! I'm so honored that you like my writing and the ways I've changed Sakura's character. I'm really not trying to make anyone too out of character from the anime/manga except Sakura, and even then I'm still trying to keep a lot of what the manga/anime gave us about her, so I'm really glad that's coming across and that you all like it! Please keep reviewing, I love reading them and it's reallly excellent motivation!

Thanks for reading! :)