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.)

12. Chunin Exams pt 3

A/N: Ugh man, I hoped to post this yesterday while it was Sakura's birthday but I didn't finish til early this morning. Well, here's the finals. I tried to limit the back and forth between spectators and fights to only important characters and information, so hopefully it's smoother and less jarring than the preliminaries chapter was.

"Inner Sakura..."

"Sakura's thoughts..."

memory

"Dialogue..."

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

---

Sakura awoke very early as usual, but something was different this time. This time, despite the early hour, her mom wasn't in her futon. There were sounds of food cooking coming from the kitchen. Sakura sat up, blinking the sleep away from her eyes.

"Go figure you're up already. I was hoping you'd sleep in at least a little later than usual today." Mebuki called.

"Mom? What are you doing up? You feeling ok?"

"I'm fine Sakura-chan…no worse than usual anyways. And mothers are supposed to cook breakfast for their daughters, you know…I've been sleeping on the job, but today's a big day for you and I'll be damned if you don't leave here without a proper meal."

The nerves hit Sakura all at once, her stomach turning uncomfortably. "Thanks mom…but I don't know if I can eat."

"Which is why I got up and cooked for you. Left to your own devices you'd just skip eating entirely, but you'll need your strength. I swear to god I'm not letting you leave this house until you finish your food, young lady. Is that clear?"

"Yeah…" Sakura sighed, although secretly she loved moments like this. They made her feel like there was someone looking after her after all, and reminded her why she worked as hard as she did—her mother was the best.

"Go wash up. They'll be tons of people watching, so look your best. Wear one of the outfits Ino-chan got for you, they look nicer then your old clothes, fit you better and will be better for you in this weather."

"I know, jeez, you act like I've never dressed myself." Sakura said with an eye roll, but they both heard the smile in her voice, as she closed the bathroom door behind her.

Mebuki chuckled lightly, but it devolved into a short coughing fit.

---

It was a struggle, but Sakura managed to finish her food, despite how her nerves churned her stomach. Sakura checked through her weapons pouch one last time, realized she forgot her sedatives and quickly threw them into the pouch.

Her mother watched her chewing on her lip as she leaned against the wall for support.

"Sakura-chan, what if I come see your match?"

"What?" Her wide green eyes fixed on her mother at lightening speed.

"She…she can't be serious…"

"But…it would be so amazing if mom was there to watch us fight…"

"I'm sure it'd be okay, just this once…and it's a stadium, so it's not like I'd have to stand the whole time…I'm sure I could—" Mebuki stopped short, desperately trying to hold back her growing need to cough.

Sakura hesitated. She really wanted her mom there. It would make her feel so much better.

"How much harm could it do? Just this once? Just this once can't we be like the other kids who have a family to support them? Can't we pretend just this once?"

Mebuki lost the fight with her lungs and began hacking, clutching the wall for support.

"Absolutely not. I'm not risking her just so I can feel like everyone else."

Sakura handed her mom a teaspoon of her bloodroot cough syrup and a glass of water, a stern look in her eye, her resolve firm.

"No, mom. Your immune system is already weak and that stadium will be like a petri dish for you. And if you came in this state, I'd be too worried about you to focus."

Mebuki sighed sadly, shuffling her way to the futon. Sakura knew better than to try and help her right now, it would only hurt her pride more.

"It's so unfair to you…" Mebuki muttered. She hated what her illness had put her daughter through. Hated that there was so little she could do for Sakura. Even the smallest things like waking up early to make her daughter breakfast wiped her out for the rest of the day. Today was a big day for Sakura and she just wanted to support her precious daughter, but she wasn't even able to do that. She was a failure as a mother.

"What's unfair? You don't need to drag yourself there and put yourself at risk just to prove you support me. You said it yourself. You're with me, always. That's way better than some kids get from their parents."

Her daughter truly was the strongest person she'd ever met. Way more mature than a thirteen year old should ever have to be. And more understanding and kind than she ever could have dreamed of.

"You're right." She said, gently fingering the cherry blossom pendant dangling from her daughter's neck. "I'm with you always. And don't you forget it."

"Never." Sakura promised, smiling brightly. Even though it was sad and unfair that her mother couldn't come see her, the words reassured her more than anything else could.

"Good. It's early—you still have plenty of time, but I'm guessing you're going for some last minute training?"

"Just a warm up run…maybe dance a bit…"

"Hopefully it'll help with the anxiety…"

"Alright. Go right to the arena after, you don't want to be late for this."

"I know, mom." Sakura whined, standing and heading for the door.

"Sakura-chan," Sakura turned to see her mother smiling proudly at her. "Kick some ass!"

"Yes Ma'am!" Sakura answered, with a bright smile and a salute, before taking off for her warm up run.

---

Her run was not doing anything to alleviate her nerves. She wasn't paying very much attention as she ran through various training fields, until the area started to look familiar. This was around where Kakashi had given them the bell test all those months ago. Struck with sentiment, she began to make her way towards the clearing where three logs stood—Naruto had been tied up on one back then…but stopped, ducking behind a tree when she heard her teammates voice.

"…Hinata…Neji's your cousin, right…?"

"Naruto's talking to Hinata-chan?"

"Why's she here?"

"Knowing how strongly she feels about him, she's probably here because this spot means a lot for him—it is a big day for Naruto too, after all."

"Maybe she'll finally confess! Shannaro, you can do it, Hinata-chan!"

"Maybe he'll finally get it…"

Sakura listened intently to their conversation from behind the tree.

"Y…yeah." Hinata answered quietly.

Naruto closed his eyes, a nervous frown making its way to his face.

"…He really is strong, isn't he…?" He asked finally, eyes opening and fixing seriously on Hinata.

"Y…yeah…" She answered again, but when she saw Naruto's face drop, she knew she couldn't leave it there. "B-But I really think…of all people, you have a chance to win against him, Naruto-kun! Cause…"

"Sure! Cause I'm strong too!" Naruto said, laughing with false bravado, but it faltered quickly, uncomfortable silence settling between the two.

"Naruto's nervous too…"

Hinata couldn't stand him looking so nervous and down hearted, so with a deep breath, she bolstered her courage the way Sakura kept telling her to.

"Y-You know, I…when you cheered me on, Naruto-kun…I felt like somehow I became stronger than before…and when the preliminaries were over, I started to like myself a little more." Sakura had helped her with that too, trusting her to coach Sakura, despite Hinata having lost her preliminary match. But this was about Naruto, and her journey of self love had started because of him, so she had to make sure he knew. Hinata needed him to know just how much he'd helped her. "From the outside, I might not seem any different, but…I…I feel like I've changed. N-Naruto-kun…that all started because of you…a-at least, that's what I think…" Hinata gave him a shy smile.

"Oh my…she didn't even stutter that much! I'm so proud of her!"

"Way to go Hinata-chan! Keep going like that and you'll totally win him over!"

"Wow! Because of me?" Naruto grinned, "I guess I am an awesome influence!" He laughed, but again he faltered, his grin falling. "Hey…Hinata…Is that really how you feel?"

"Huh?"

"…I might seem really strong, but I'm usually just trying to act tough…cause I'm embarrassed about how I screw up all the time." He said, looking downcast.

Sakura's eyes widened. "He's never opened up like this before…I know how that feels…putting on an act to hide how much you don't know, how wrong things are going…"

"Let's focus on positives, damnit! He's opening up to Hinata-chan! That's a major win for her!"

"…and a step in the right direction for him…"

"That's not true…" Hinata said firmly, despite her naturally quiet voice. "And even if you do mess up…I-If you ask me, you're a proud failure!"

Naruto looked up in surprise. He'd never heard Hinata sound so…declarative and firm. She was smiling at him too, although when he'd looked up, she'd blushed and looked away, but it didn't stop her from continuing.

"Y-You're really inspiring to watch, because you're not perfect…and…because you make mistakes, but still have the guts to get back up and keep fighting. That's what I consider true strength…I…I believe you're an incredibly strong person, Naruto-kun."

Naruto blinked, wide eyed. Someone actually thought he was strong…and not cause he'd won a fight, but because he kept trying even when he messed up. There was actually someone out there who was inspired by him because he failed so many times, but still soldiered on. This girl actually acknowledged him, just for his effort alone. The anxiety he'd been feeling about his upcoming battle lessened…after all, he was the king of effort! He'd worked hard this past month. He could summon a frog now! And most of all he'd never go back on his word, he'd promised her that he would win against Neji, and he would. He was a proud failure, and he'd beat that condescending, superior attitude out of that guy. He'd make him see that neither he, nor Hinata, nor Bushy Brows, were weak. A smile broke across the blond's face.

"Thanks, Hinata!" Naruto stretched up in excitement, his fists in the air. "You know funnily enough, I was actually feeling a little depressed earlier…but now…suddenly, I'm feeling a lot better! Y'know what I thought about you? Hm?"

"…Huh?"

"Is this it?! Did he finally figure it out?! Is he gonna tell her he likes her?!"

"I thought you were sort of a weirdo. Dark and plain and timid."

Hinata slumped sadly.

Sakura twitched, her jaw and fists clenching hard.

"How dare he say that to Hinata-chan!"

"That utter doofus! What the hell was that?! Shannaro, we're so pounding some sense into him later! Hinata-chan's adorable! What the hell does he think he's saying?!"

"But actually…I think I kinda like folks like you!"

Hinata looked up, her eyes growing wide and her cheeks flushing. Naruto liked people like her? Naruto liked her?!

"Well, I'm gonna head over to the exam! You should come watch me blow Neji away! Later!" He said, casting a grin over his shoulder as he walked away, throwing his hand in the air in a lazy wave.

Sakura sighed from behind her tree. If Naruto was headed to the exam, it was best she make her way over too. Making her way back the way she'd come, Sakura headed for the arena. Her nerves, temporarily forgotten by the overheard conversation, hit her with full force at Nartuo's mention of the exam. She wanted to throw up, and a part of her debated on taking a sedative, but she knew that was a bad idea.

"I never did get around to trying to stop attacks before they happen, but may as well start trying now…" One hand fingered her mother's necklace while the other tugged lightly on the ends of her hair, and her mind focused on how it felt for her chakra to rush from one weight to another. In that state, she meandered to the arena.

---

She'd been running a little late, so she barely had time to process before she was shoved into a line with the other contestants and marched out into the arena behind a jonin. The group fanned out on either side of the jonin: Dosu, Temari, Kankurou, Gaara, and Neji flanking his left, and Naruto, Shikamaru, Sakura, and Shino on his right.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto greeted with a sunshiny smile.

Sakura took one look at him and her earlier annoyance was forgotten.

"Naruto!" She really had missed him and his carefree way of being.

"Long time no see!"

"I know, it's been a while. You must have been training pretty hard—I never saw you around once."

"You better believe I did! This mega pervy sage took over my training from the super perv Kakashi-sensei got to teach me, and I've gotten so much stronger! Believe it!"

Sakura just blinked in shock.

"Did…he just say…pervy sage?"

"Honestly, there were so many pervs in that sentence, we lost track…"

"Oh like you're one to talk…"

"Takes one to know one!" Her inner voice cackled loudly, making Sakura shake her head to shut her up.

"What about you Sakura-chan? Did you—"

"Don't worry about that!" Sakura cut in quickly, afraid he was about to openly discuss her curse. "I've been training hard too! Shikamaru here can vouch for me, since he was one of my teachers."

"Huh? How much could you have learned from Shikamaru?" Naruto asked, confused. He was pretty cool, but he was just a genin like the rest of them. He couldn't have made Sakura that much stronger…

Shikamaru just sighed.

"Well, not only Shikamaru…Hinata-chan helped a lot too."

"Huh?" Naruto was completely confused. Hinata was tough, and that byakugan thing was plenty scary, but only the Hyuga could do that…how much could Hinata have done?

Shikamaru glanced over at Sakura quickly. She'd never told him what the other aspects of her training had entailed. Apparently he wasn't the only genin she'd sought help from…it was a clever move, making peers into teachers, since she didn't have a real one. But would it be enough?

"Troublesome…incase you two hadn't realized, we are kind of being watched…"

Naruto and Sakura truly looked around for the first time. They'd been so caught up in catching up, that they hadn't processed that they were being watched by spectators. And with their look around, they became acutely aware of one thing…Sasuke was absent.

Sky blue locked with spring green, reading the same questions in each others eyes.

"You don't think O—"

"No way, Sakura-chan! He's with Kakashi-sensei!"

"Who is always late…"

Both immediately started scanning for any sign of their sensei and teammate.

"Hey! Stop fidgeting!" The Jonin commanded over his shoulder. "Stand still and face forwards towards the guests. All of you are the stars of these finals."

"That's a different proctor than before…Where's Hayate-san?"

The Hokage stood and cleared his throat. "Ahem, ladies and gentleman, esteemed guests…welcome and heartfelt thanks for gathering here in Konohagakure for the chunin selection examination! We will begin the matches of the final round between the ten candidates who advanced in the preliminaries. Please sit back…and enjoy!"

The jonin turned to the candidates.

"Listen up, all of you. A thing happened so I'll be proctoring this exam now. My name is Genma. This is the last exam. The landscape may be different, but just as with the prelims, there are no set rules. You fight until one of you dies or admits defeat…unless I determine that a clear winner has already been decided, in which case, I'll stop the match before anyone gets killed. Understand…?"

"A thing happened?…I don't like the sound of that…"

"Hey! Hey!" Naruto called, putting his hand up in the air, as if they were at the academy.

"What?"

"Sasuke's not here yet, so what's gonna happen?"

"If he doesn't arrive by the start of his own match, he'll lose by forfeit! Is that all?"

There were no further questions.

"All right then…match one, Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuga Neji." Naruto swallowed hard, but his face was set in a determined glower. "You two stay down here. The rest of you proceed to the waiting balcony."

Sakura turned, placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder on her way out.

"Don't lose. Hinata-chan's counting on you."

"I never go back on my word, Sakura-chan." Naruto stated boldly, a proud smirk on his face. Hinata's words from earlier resonated through him. He was strong because he kept trying. A proud failure.

"Damn straight you don't." Sakura answered back, proudly, before blinking, a little confused as she walked away. It seemed to be happening more and more lately. Thoughts that would normally be voiced by her internal voice slipping out of her physical mouth.

Sakura followed the group up to the waiting balcony, leaning on the rail next to Shikamaru. She took another quick scan of the stadium with the hopes of Sasuke appearing. No sign of him, but she did notice Kiba, Akamaru and Hinata, surprisingly sitting next to Kotetsu. Ino was in a different section, looking up at a recently arrived Choji, who was settling in, and Kurenai and Asuma were sitting together, a little closer to the ring. She even made direct eye contact with Ikehara, who she was surprised to see. He gave her a smirk and a gruff nod which somehow helped soothe her nerves a little.

"No Sasuke-kun…for now focus on Naruto's fight…"

She turned her attention back to the arena, focusing intently on Naruto.

---

Naruto faced Neji's smirk with a determined glare.

"You got something to say?"

Naruto's teeth clenched. This guy was so friggin cocky! But he'd trained hard and he'd promised…He stuck out his fist, straight in front of him, never once wavering.

"I've said this once before…I vow to win!"

The veins around Neji's eyes popped as he activated his Byakugan, scanning for any sign of insecurity. He found none. The blond had absolute faith in himself, as if he didn't have a single doubt.

"Now then…match one, begin!"

Neji slipped into his gentle fist battle stance. "Heh, it's more fun this way anyway…I can't wait to see the despair in your eyes when the truth finally dawns on you."

"Quit yapping! Let's fight!" Naruto readied himself. He studied Neji's byakugan seriously, recalling when Kakashi had said about them.

These nodes are called chakra points, and in theory, if you can accurately hit them, you can halt the flow of your opponents chakra, or enhance it, controlling it anyway you wish.

In other words, if he got too close to him, Neji would press his chakra points and he wouldn't be able to use any jutsu…so he had to fight him from a distance.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" Four clones appeared around him, each readying a kunai.

Neji looked carefully, but Naruto's chakra was equally and evenly distributed between each clone. Even his byakugan wouldn't enable him to determine which of the bodies was the genuine article.

"But in the end, there is only one actual body."

"Heh! Don't be too confident!" One of the Naruto's said.

"Then come at me if you dare."

"Hey—"

"Don't—"

"Underestimate—"

"Me, okay?!"

Four Naruto's charged at him, two aiming for a low attack, but Neji leapt using their heads as a surface for a handspring, shoving them into the ground and pushing off them. As he flipped, the other two Naruto's charged him, hoping to catch him in midair, but he rotated himself fast into a spin, snapping his hips around and extending his legs and the perfect moment to land a kick to each oncoming Naruto. The first two Naruto's had recovered from being slammed into the dirt. They charged him from behind, kunai extended, but Neji grabbed both their wrists, elbowed them in the jaw, then whirled around, pressing into their chests with his gentle fist style and sending them flying.

The two clones skidded in front of the only Naruto who hadn't charged forward, before poofing away. Naruto squinted in frustration. Did this guy have eyes in the back of his head or something?

"You want to be Hokage, huh? I don't think that's gonna happen. I can pretty much tell with these eyes of mine. Abilities and talents are determined at birth. In other words, your entire destiny is set from the time you're born."

"Why are you so stubborn?! You're always so sure the future is all doom and gloom—Why?!" Naruto shouted. Neji's mindset was just so frustrating to him. Bushy Brows, Hinata, Sakura-chan, and obviously himself—they all worked so hard to get where they were. To change themselves and their circumstances. To overcome their handicaps. That made them strong. Stronger than anyone who was just handed it naturally. They had to fight and claw for their strengths and victories. That was much harder than anyone gifted enough to just cruise through without breaking a sweat.

"Well…are you saying that anyone can become Hokage if they just try hard enough? Only a select few shinobi are even considered for Hokage. Wake up and face reality! Those who will become Hokage are born with that fate. You can't get there by trying…you have to be pre-selected. Each person's life consists only of being swept along in the inescapable current of their destiny. All of us have only one thing in common…one shared fate…death."

What utter crap! Destiny didn't matter—everyone was capable of changing! No one's life was set in stone like that! "So what?!" Naruto barked. "I guess I'm just a sore loser! Multi Shadow Clone jutsu!" An army of Naruto's appeared around him.

"I'm not an idiot you know. I've seen through the pattern of your attack already."

"I told you! You shouldn't make assumptions about the future!"

---

"This is bad…if he keeps making so many clones, he'll run out of chakra in no time." Sakura murmured, gripping the railing tightly.

"He has A LOT of chakra, but there's still a limit…the last time he made so many at once was in the forest of death against the Ame-nin, and making that many really did exhaust him…"

"Well, he should have near his full chakra level…he was past out in the hospital for three whole days from chakra exhaustion and only woke up yesterday. He wouldn't have woken up if he hadn't recovered most of his chakra…"

Sakura's head whipped to Shikamaru. "Naruto was in the hospital for three whole days and you didn't tell me?!"

"What a drag. Relax. I only found out yesterday and I was there when he woke up. Besides, you had enough to worry about. You've been training down to the wire."

"I would have taken a break to visit him…" Sakura muttered. "Was he ok? He didn't get out too soon, right? The medics actually cleared him to go?"

"Hasn't anyone told you it's a drag to worry so much? He was fine. Official discharge and everything…It's better you weren't there anyways." Shikamaru's voice dropped so as to not be overheard by the sand ninja on the other end of the platform. "Gaara tried to kill Lee. Naruto and I got in the way, and he threatened to kill us. That guys on another level…it was terrifying, even Naruto was shaking…it might have set you off…"

Sakura had told Shikamaru about her kekkei genkai during their shogi training…a little inadvertently.

'Hey Shikamaru…chakra's just a form of energy, right?'

'Yeah…why?'

'Well, if chakra is energy, do you think it has a similar feeling as heat?'

'Are you asking if I feel hot when I use chakra?'

'No…I mean…so Hinata-chan was explaining that with the gentle fist, you release small bursts of chakra through your hands into the opponents chakra network, and I asked her if she could do it with her feet too and she said she didn't think so cause there were less chakra portals in the feet. It's possible to release energy from any point in the body, but it's very difficult to do because there's less of a concentration of chakra portals…the hands have the most."

"…right, that's why ninja weave hand signs to cast jutsu…it's the easiest point to release chakra from."

"Yeah! But what if it parallels the bodies nervous system? The hands are one of the most sensitive to touch places on the body—each fingertip has about 3,000 nerve endings, most of which respond primarily to pressure."

"What's that have to do with heat?"

"Ok so, the lips and tongue are the other two most touch sensitive parts. We learned in the academy to say the name of our jutsu and techniques—"

"Because it helps to stabilize the jutsu."

"What if that's because there are chakra release points in the mouth too? Many of Sasuke-kun's fire based ninjutsu comes as an exhale through the mouth."

"Alright. All of this sounds fine. But again, what does this have to do with heat?"

"Most of the nerve endings in the fingertips respond to pressure, but the majority of nerve endings on the lips and tongue react to heat. Your lips are a more accurate temperature gauge for something like a fever than your hand would be. So if chakra is just energy, and thus generates heat, it might be easier to feel the movement of someone's chakra through lip contact."

"Why would you want to feel someone else's chakra?"

"To share it." Sakura answered, too caught up in her thoughts to process what she was saying.

"You don't have a lot of chakra. Why do you want to share it?"

"For when my chakra reacts and I—" Her mind caught up to her mouth.

"Chakra reacts?"

So she had to explain to him fully.

"Is Lee-san alright? He didn't hurt him did he?"

"He's fine. Slept right through it. And obviously Naruto and I are fine. Gai-sensei came in and broke things up. But it was troublesome. If you somehow end up facing him, quit. Or run."

"Like I said, I never really planned on winning after the first round…" She gazed out at Naruto watching as the shadow clones prepared to charge. "You don't think it'll work do you?"

"No. Neji said it himself. He saw through the tactic. The real Naruto will be the one hanging back, not fighting. He doesn't even have to waste energy on the shadow clones, no matter how many there are."

"You don't think he's gonna win, do you?"

"Naruto? No. Neji's not just strong, he's smart. Analytical and tactical. Naruto doesn't stand a chance against those odds…You don't actually think he'll win, do you?"

"Yes. He's chaotic and unpredictable. And he's stubborn. Even if he can only take hit after hit until his opponent's too tired to go on, he'll win. Regimentally tactical doesn't do well against chaotic trickery."

"…Troublesome…" Shikamaru said, shaking his head, his full attention settling back on the fight.

---

The crowd of Narutos charged, but they weren't landing any hits as Neji swiftly moved through them. He hadn't been lying. He wasn't an idiot, and he already knew which was the real one. He stabbed his fingers into Naruto's left shoulder, hitting his chakra point. All his clones vanished in a puff of smoke.

"…The one who hangs back, afraid to get too close, fearing any strike on his chakra points…the more the others attack, the more that one stands out…you're the real one!"

Blood spewed from Naruto's mouth as the damage started to really take effect.

"I told you it was useless…" But to Neji's surprise, Naruto began laughing.

"Heh heh, a-and…I told you…not to make so many assumptions." There was a poof and Naruto vanished in a cloud of smoke.

"What?! It can't be!" Neji whirled around to see two Naruto's bearing down on him. Naruto had anticipated his thoughts and deliberately steered him towards one of his clones!

"From the start, I came to this match fully prepared to lose!" Naruto shouted, as he pulled his fist back heading straight for Neji…it wasn't entirely true—he'd rather eat his own tongue than lose to a jerk like Neji. But he wasn't the type to hide even from an enemy attack, and he wouldn't let the fear of having his chakra sealed stop him.

He was so close, he thought his fist collided, but when he looked, it was like it was being stopped by a barrier of chakra. Then Neji began to spin, the chakra whirling around him like a protective bubble, sending Naruto flying backwards.

Naruto pushed himself off the ground, gritting his teeth. What just happened?

"You thought you had me beat?"

---

Tenten leaned forward, chuckling. She'd been helping Neji train and perfect this move for the past month. It was Neji's ultimate defense. The visual range of Neji's byakugan was almost a full 360 degrees…in other words, he could pretty much see a full circle around him…and with that all seeing eye, he could anticipate all of his opponent's attacks. From now on, Neji would be shielded within the eight trigrams palm rotation technique! The instant before an attack reached him, he emitted a large amount of chakra from chakra points all over his body halting the enemy's attack with a cocoon of chakra. And then he moved his body in a circle like a spinning top, repelling and reflecting the attack. Normally, chakra that was emitted from chakra points was difficult to control. Even Jonin could usually only utilize such chakra from a single body part at a time, like hands or feet. But Neji, a master of the gentle fist, could emit chakra from his entire body, and with that emitted power alone, could physically block attacks. It could be considered another kind of ultimate defense, that could be more powerful than what she'd heard about Gaara's! And that wasn't the end of it. Neji's true show of strength was only just beginning.

---

"Man!" Naruto grumbled as he sat up, wiping at a cut on his face. How was he gonna beat this guy if he couldn't even land a hit?!

"You're finished. You're within the boundaries of my eight trigrams." Neji said, sensing Naruto squarely in his range. He dropped into a stance, his legs spread wide, knees bent, torso bent, left arm running parallel with his forward left leg. "Gentle fist…8 trigrams 64 palms." He pivoted sharply towards Naruto, kicking up dust as he went. His arms were moving so fast they were a blur, it was hard to even tell where exactly he was hitting Naruto. "8 trigrams 2 palms!" His fingers jabbed fast and accurate across Naruto's torso, "4 palms!…8 palms!"

"Augh!" Naruto grunted in pain—but the assault was endless, too quick to counter or recover from.

Neji's foot pivoted again, pushing them both forward a little. "16 palms!" Some of his jabs even started coming at Naruto's face, head and, legs. "32 palms!…64 palms!" With a final push, Naruto was sent slamming into the ground.

Genma looked on, dully. There was no way the kid could survive an assault like that…this battle was over…

"I've pressed 64 chakra points all over your body…you can no longer even stand."

Naruto grunted, his muscles trembling as he kept trying—and failing—to push himself up.

"Heh…must be frustrating…Here, on your knees before my immutable strength. You must finally comprehend your own powerlessness. Believing that your dreams will come true if you just try hard enough? It's a simple fantasy."

Naruto glared up at Neji. Damn it…the image of Lee standing, unconscious but still trying to fight against Gaara flashed through his mind. Damn it! He saw Hinata, holding her side, panting, trembling with the effort just to stand, but still getting up anyways. He could too. He had too. He was a proud failure, just like Hinata said, and there was no way he'd go out shaking on his knees to this bastard!

Genma's eyes widened in surprise.

"…What?!" Neji couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Naruto, wheezing and shaking, managed to get to his feet, grimacing with determination.

"I told you…I'm a sore loser!"

Neji couldn't believe this. No way…why would he…"Listen, just give up, alright? If you keep going, you'll only be in for more of the same. And I don't really have a grudge against you, so…" He didn't want to kill the kid…

"Sh-Shut up! I…I do, alright?!"

"What are you talking about?"

"…I…I mean…you're so strong, and you…you act like you know everything…And when you were up against Hinata, who was fighting so hard, you played those horrible mind games with her!"

Neji blinked, his brow furrowing. Hinata? This was about HInata?…But this kid didn't know anything.

"That's none of your business." Neji warned coldly.

"…You mocked Hinata…calling her a failure and claiming you could see her fate. 'Main branch,' 'side branch,' I don't know anything about that stuff, but…I could never forgive…a jerk who goes around calling people failures!"

Neji was silent for a second, before grimacing. "Fine…alright…since you insist, I'll tell you about the hateful legacy of the Hyuga clan!" He spat, the hatred soaking in his voice. "There's a secret birthright passed down in the Hyuga main branch. It's…a curse mark jutsu."

"A curse mark jutsu?" Wasn't that like what Orochimaru had done to Sasuke?

"This curse mark represents 'a caged bird'…and it's proof that some people are bound to destinies from which they cannot escape." Neji reached up, unclasping his hitai-ate and tugging it off.

"Wh-What the…?!" Naruto stared at the emblazoned mark across Neji's forehead. A manji symbol with sickle-like ends, and two sickle ended horizontal lines framing it on either side.

"Th-That's the mark…?!" It wasn't anything like Sasuke's weird bruise thing…was there more than one kind of curse mark?

"…One day…when I was four years old…this abominable mark was branded on my forehead using the curse mark jutsu. That day, a grand celebration was being thrown in Konoha. There was a lavish ceremony in honor of the shinobi ruler of the land of clouds. Konoha had long waged war against his nation, but he had come to sign a pact of alliance. Every shinobi in Konoha, from genin to jonin, was in attendance…except for one family which was noticeably absent! It was the Hyuga clan. Coincidentally, that was also the day that the main branch's heir turned three. It was Hinata-sama's third birthday." Neji paused his eyes roving the stands until he found who he was looking for, the head of the Hyuga clan, his youngest daughter, Hinabi, sitting next to him. "My father and Hinata-sama's father over there…Hyuga Hizashi and Hyuga Hiashi-sama were twin brothers. However, Hinata-sama's father—Hiashi-sama—entered the world first, and thus was the eldest son, and member of the main branch. While my father, as second son, was relegated to the side branch."

He remembered that day well.

He stood next to his father, wearing a traditional yukata. He was only four years old, and it was his first time seeing his cousin, a year younger than him. She was so small, wearing a pretty kimono with flames pattered on the bottom. Her hair was short, a black color that tinted purple in the light. Her eyes were huge an innocent. She looked nice, shy, and a bit scared, clutching on to her dad's yukata, looking like she was fighting the urge to hide behind it. He smiled at her, and she gave him a very tiny smile back, attempting to shift so she was hidden behind her father's leg.

"She's a cute kid, father…" Neji whispered brightly. His dad just looked at him, tight lipped, his brows furrowed. Something was wrong. "…What's the matter, father?"

"Huh…? Oh, no…It's nothing…."

"Well then…I'll be taking charge of Neji. Hizashi…" His uncle spoke.

"…Yes, sir…"

"When the heir of the main branch turned three years old…I was branded with this curse mark and became a 'caged bird'…a member of the Hyuga side branch."

"…Why did they have to do that?" It just didn't make sense to Naruto. He'd lived his whole life alone—why would anyone intentionally cause separation and isolation? "Splitting into the main branch and side branch…what is it for? And what does that weird mark mean?"

"This mark on my forehead is no decoration?"

Even now, Neji still remembered how his uncle had caused his father to double over, screaming and clutching his head as Hiashi had activated his cursed seal, just after his father told him that it was his purpose in life to protect his cousin, Hinata.

"This curse mark signifies the absolute threat of death imposed by the main branch upon the side branch. The secret techniques of the main branch can easily destroy the minds of the side branch, so of course, killing us is a simple task. And this curse mark only fades after death…after the secret of the byakugan has been sealed away. The Hyuga clan possesses one of the most distinguished kekkei genkai. Countless numbers of people would do anything to gain the secret of such unique abilities. So…this curse mark was created to ensure the side branch would live for one purpose only…to serve and shield the main branch…and never disobey them…and to eternally protect the byakugan, the bloodline trait of the Hyuga clan. It's a brilliant, efficient, set-up."

Naruto's eyes widened. It was all so sick. These were the kinds of people the Hyuga were? It didn't seem to match with Hinata at all! He couldn't believe that she was anything like what Neji was describing. But Neji's pain wasn't coming from nowhere—clearly these were real experiences for him. The Hyuga's must have done a number on them both—Hinata's confidence issues had to come from somewhere after all…Naruto had always been alone. He'd never once entertained the idea that he might be better off without a family, but for the first time he found himself actively thankful that he hadn't been born into a family like the Hyugas.

"…And then…the incident occurred. Heh…" Neji still had a hard time talking about it…the first person he'd ever told had been TenTen. Who would have thought he'd reveal all this now—but for some reason, he needed this ridiculous genin to understand. People couldn't change their fates. "My father was murdered by the main branch."

"What?!" How could a family do that to one another?!

"One night, someone tried to kidnap Hinata-sama. Hiashi-sama rushed to the scene immediately and killed the perpetrator. And whom do you suppose that masked bandit was? It was…the shinobi ruler of the Land of Clouds…with whom we had just signed an alliance treaty. It became clear that they had been after the secret of the byakugan from the very beginning. However, even though their own ninja got himself caught and killed in their failed plot, the Land of Clouds claimed Konoha had breached the contract and began making unreasonable demands. Of course, things fell apart between and Cloud…the war was nearly resumed…But, eager to avoid battle, an agreement was reached. Konoha made a backroom bargain with cloud."

"Bargain?"

"Cloud demanded the corpse of Hiashi-sama, head of the Hyuga main branch, and carrier of the byakugan, the bloodline trait of his clan. And Konoha accepted that condition. War was safely averted…thanks to my father, who was sacrificed to protect the main branch. He was murdered to serve as Hyuga Hiashi-sama's body double! Heh…the only way to escape this abominable curse mark is to die. Even though they were identical twins with practically equivalent strength, The difference between being born first and second sealed each of their fates forever. And so…in this match too…the moment I was selected as your opponent, your fate was sealed. Your fate is to lose to me. That's a fact."

Naruto huffed. He was breathing hard, all of his chakra had been blocked, and based on what Kakashi and Gai had said about the gentle fist in the preliminaries—and what had happened to Hinata, his internal organs were probably in pretty rough shape. But he couldn't lose…not without knowing he gave it his best shot to overcome his circumstances.

"Ugh…! You can't know that for sure until we try!"

Neji didn't answer the obviously idiotic defense, opting instead to retie his hitai-ate.

Naruto wasn't done yet though. "I can't imagine how much pain you felt when your father was killed, but…I think you're wrong to conclude that everyone's destinies are predetermined!"

"You're hopeless…" He'd done his best, but there was clearly no making him see. His byakugan activated and he charged at Naruto, who was too caught off guard and slow to react as Neji's palm slammed into his chest. Naruto went sliding back meters across the ground with a strangled cry of pain.

"Proctor…we're finished here…what a failure." Neji muttered turning away from the sprawled out blonde.

"…D…Don't turn your back…" Naruto pushed himself on to his toes in a frog like crouch, his entire body trembling with effort. "I won't run away…I never…go back on my word…"

"Heh…" Neji smirked, looking at him over his shoulder. "I think I've heard that line before…"

"I refuse to be defeated by a coward like you…I won't lose to someone who believes in resigning himself to fate!" Naruto declared despite his shaking body, labored breathing, and trail of blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.

---

"Still think he'll win?" Shikamaru asked dryly, watching as Sakura white-knuckled the railing.

"He'll win."

"Naruto…Please, if there's anyone up there, just don't let him kill himself in the process…"

"Troublesome, don't you see the state he's in? It's impossible."

Sakura smiled tightly. "That's Naruto's specialty…the impossible…"

But Sakura did feel bad. For both Neji and Hinata. "Having a family like that…I've never been more grateful at having grown up outside of a formalized clan…but they're not all like that are they? Does Ino-pig have to worry about stuff like this? Or Shikamaru? Or Kiba?"

"Hey…Shikamaru, did you know about any of this?"

Shikamaru gave her a side long glance. "About the Hyuga clan? No. It's their clan's business."

"Is your clan…?"

"No. Not all clans are like that. Not the Nara, Yamanaka, or Akimichi, at least. I'm not surprised though. Most clans are set up like mini monarchies, with inheritance running through the main family, passed on to the eldest child. That's true even of my team's clans—probably of most clans in Konoha. It's a drag, but I'm eventually gonna become the head of the Naras. Ino and Choji are set to inherent their clans as well. Shino and Kiba too. My team's families tend to treat our "side branches" like extended family, not subordinates, so there isn't the animosity between the main and side branches like there is with the Hyuga."

"But if one of your extended family disagreed with the way your father ran the clan…"

"Then yeah. It'd be troublesome, but it might start a feud, since by blood right, the clan is his to run."

"Thank god this will never be something we have to worry about!"

"To go so far as to brand them…a curse mark that only disappears at death…I hope that's not the reality of Sasuke-kun's curse mark…Poor Neji, having to carry that curse all this time…He must feel that no matter how strong he is, he's never in control of his own life. Forced to serve the main branch who could kill him on a whim…I get it. It's always felt like no matter what, something was conspiring against me. A curse. Bad luck seemed to follow me everywhere—a walking jinx…Never strong, skilled, or capable enough to change what felt like a doomed fate…But that's not true. Naruto and Sasuke-kun showed me that. I could be useful. I could change the tide of a battle. When there's something worth defying fate for, like mom, or Sasuke-kun, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, Ino-pig…it's possible even if it's only small victories, even if it's only winning battles instead of wars, it's still possible…"

"Sakura. Your…condition is technically a kekkei genkai, which means you come from a clan as well…" Shikamaru stated lowly, so only she could hear. He didn't ask, but she heard the implied question. She'd only told him about it in one of their more recent sessions, and outside of what her chakra condition was and how it reacted, she hadn't gone into what little she knew of its history in her clan.

"There are no more left living…at least none that are known about…the curse killed them all off." Shikamaru's eyes narrowed seriously at that, and immediately Sakura felt the need to divert his attention and concern away from her. People's concern made her condition feel more real and unmanageable, and even though she had strategies in place, none of them were foolproof. Especially not in truly emotionally tense situations. Genjutsu simulations allowed her time to calm down and get a grip on herself in a safe environment, but that wasn't going to be the case ninety eight percent of the time. While she had gotten to a place where she could self administer a sedative, it wasn't perfect and she was only able to do it eight out of ten times. She still required the presence of an ally to remind her to calm down, or administer the sedative if she wasn't able to. She could manage her condition, but she was still learning how and hadn't fully mastered it yet. And people looking at her like that, with worry and concern only helped to remind her that the odds were against her. She'd likely still only live to thirty at the absolute max and would truly be lucky if she made it passed sixteen. An entire half of her gene pool had lost to this, and odds were, at some point she would too. It was a reality she really didn't like to be reminded of.

"The good news is, I'll never have to deal with troublesome clan politics." Sakura glossed over lightly, her attention settling back on Naruto. "He's taken a lot of hits with that technique…"

Shikaramu studied her a few more seconds before allowing his attention to fall back to the battle below. "But you still think he'll win."

"Anyone else would be unconscious, dead, or dying right now. He won't lose…But that doesn't mean he'll be ok…the internal damage could be…"

"He'll be fine."

Sakura's eyes shot to him in surprise.

"Idiocy is its own immunity in a way. You say he's too stubborn to lose. I'd say that goes for dying as well…I still think he can't win this though."

"Heh."

"Not entirely the way he'd hope for, but people are already starting to acknowledge him…"

---

"What a joke…stop trying to lecture all of us as if you know anything! Everyone is born shouldering a destiny that cannot be defied. How could you understand anything about my fate…about bearing an indelible, inescapable curse?!"

Naruto looked down his eyes shadowed. He knew exactly how it felt. A nine tailed fox demon lived inside him, and doomed him to a lonely childhood, living as an outcast, ostracized by the village. Uncared for and looked down on. Forced into a fate he never asked for or had a say in.

"Actually…I understand it pretty well…" He clutched at his side, heaving and trembling, but he remained upright, his voice never quavering. "And…? So what?" He said, a tired grin making its way to his face.

Neji's anger flared, along with his byakugan. This jerk obviously didn't understand!

Naruto grunted. "You're the one who needs to quit lecturing…you're not the only one who's "special," you know! Even though she's in the main branch, Hinata's been suffering just as much as you! She's trying so hard to change herself…to earn respect…That's why she hung in there during that fight with you, even though she was coughing up blood! And you! The side branch is supposed to protect the main branch, but you used the exam as an excuse to beat up Hinata…It sure seems like you were trying to defy your fate, too!"

Neji twitched in surprise at that.

Naruto coughed, doubling over.

"Heh…I've blocked off 64 of your chakra points already. How are you planning to fight? You can't use any chakra. When we're through, you'll end up just like Hinata-sama!"

"Shut up! Stop acting all high and mighty with your all-seeing byakugan!"

"Well? Are you all talk, or are you going to try to prove your point?"

"Sure! I'll prove it to you! By kicking your butt!" Crap! He was talking a big game but he couldn't feel his chakra at all…it was just like the times he used up all his chakra during training…Oh! Naruto's eyes widened as he recalled Jiraya, the Pervy Sage's words.

You've got two types of chakra. That's why you have to develop the ability to draw on the gigantic other chakra that's been sleeping inside you all your life.

That was right. The fox chakra! He closed his eyes and focused on calling out to the fox, asking it for his chakra.

"I'm done talking. Proctor, I'm going in for the kill. Feel free to stop me if you have to." Neji announce imperiously.

Genma just sighed. This guy had an attitude problem and this whole fight was a headache.

"Hyaaaa!" Naruto had his hands in a seal, summoning up the fox's chakra. Right now, he couldn't bear to lose…He'd vowed to win!

"It's useless. I've blocked your chakra points."

"Hyaaaa!" He had to…He told Hinata to come watch him put Neji in his place. Bushy Brows had entrusted him with the task of besting Neji…

"Can I ask you something? Why do you keep trying so hard to defy your destiny?"

"Someone told me…I was a failure!" But he knew now. Hinata had shown him. Failure was necessary for learning. He failed more than anyone in their class—that meant he'd learned twice as much as them. Like Hinata said. He was a proud failure!

"Hyaaaa!" He felt the red chakra of the nine tailed fox flood through him.

Neji's eyes widened. It was impossible! His chakra was oozing out…what was going on?! As he stared with his byakugan, he began to see the demonic presence contained within Naruto. Just what the hell was he?!

"Here I come!" Naruto growled. He wasn't shaking or heaving anymore.

Neji watched with some horror as long tendril burst from Naruto, encircling him. What was it? What that chakra?

Even Naruto was shocked. The power was incredible! It was so much stronger than when he was training. He could feel it!

Naruto leapt into the air behind Neji, hurling shuriken at him but Neji caught them all with his rotation move, sending them back at Naruto, who'd planted on a wall. The Shuriken impaled the wall where he'd been moments before.

Neji grit his teeth. Naruto was quicker than before…what in the world was going on?

Naruto tossed a kunai, which Neji intercepted with his own, before pushing off the wall, straight for Neji, kunai in hand. Neji met him in the charge, kunai clashed, and both boys skidded away from each other.

"You…you like close combat, right?!" Naruto smirked, before pushing off the ground and charging right at Neji. Every mockery Neji had thrown throughout the course of the battle range loud in his head. The chakra encompassing Naruto grew so strong, rocks tore up in his wake.

"Look, I may not understand the tragic destiny of the Hyuga clan or whatever, but…If you think it's inescapable, fine! Then stop fighting it already! When I become Hokage, I'll change the Hyuga clan!" Naruto shouted, clashing head on with Neji's rotation. But to Neji's shock, Naruto wasn't immediately blown away. Naruto's chakra was combating his own!

There was a huge explosion, dust, dirt and rocks flying into the air. Two blurs were thrown away from the center of the dust cloud, smashing hard into the earth and sending up two smaller clouds of debris.

Two separate holes became visible, but it was impossible to tell who was in which. A hand clasped at the edge of one of the holes, pulling himself out to reveal Neji, coughing, dirty, and badly bruised. Breathing hard, he stepped towards the crater where Naruto was lying, seemingly down for the count.

---

TenTen let out a sigh of relief. She'd been really worried that Neji hadn't survived that explosion. When Neji did his rotation, he spun around in a circle, blocking and repelling his opponent's chakra! Naruto charged straight at Neji, it looked like he sustained some pretty sever damage…No genin could defeat Neji, but it was amazing that Naruto was able to push him that far…He was Sakura's teammate…TenTen hoped for her sake he'd be ok…

Over in the stands, Kiba's jaw dropped. Had Naruto been going easy on him? Where the hell did all that power come from?! Most importantly, he'd better not have actually been beaten. Hinata needed to see Neji go down…and she needed to see Naruto win. He didn't look too good, but he had better stand up, or Kiba would see to it that there was hell to pay for his loss. He glanced over at Hinata. She'd been watching the entire battle, tight lipped and unblinking. Hinata was always quiet, but the silence she'd emitted throughout the entire battle was tense and palpable. Now she was leaning forward, her eyes wide, hands clasped in front of her chest, biting down on her lip. Still silent. Still unblinking. She was sure Naruto wouldn't lose. He'd get through to Neji…if anyone could do it, it was him. It looked bad right now, but it couldn't be the end…

Over in the contestant waiting balcony, Shikamaru was wide eyed, mouth agape.

"D-Did you know Naruto could do that…?"

"…No…" She'd thought she'd sensed a similar power from him before in the forest of death when he fought with Orochimaru…but she'd been too out of it with her own pain to process much of anything…almost everything had been drowned by her own chakra.

"Since when did Naruto get power like that?!"

"This must be what he worked out during training…"

"So unfair—it's not just quick healing and insane amounts of chakra, but he's also got that power amp?!"

"Quit whining…There's probably some sort of draw back…there usually is with this kind of thing…"

"Still…looks like he's down for the count though. You were wrong."

"Don't be so sure…He might be faking it for an opening…"

"That's too smart."

"He's the master of unconventional. I wouldn't put a trick like that past him…"

---

"Sorry failure…It's too bad, but this is reality." Neji stopped short when he heard a slight cracking sound. He looked down just in time to receive a hard upper cut to the jaw from Naruto, who'd burst out of the ground at Neji's feet. Neji was sent skidding several meters before coming to a stop, his body too tired and beaten to move. The beaten Naruto in the crater poofed into smoke, revealing a hole it was lying on.

Genma smirked. He liked this kid. Naruto had been getting pummeled, but he never lost faith in his ability to win, and he never stopped planning his next move. Naruto knew instinctively that believing in yourself could give you the power to change your destiny.

Neji grunted. "In the middle of all that, you managed to create a shadow clone? Your signature ninjutsu…that was careless of me."

"I…I failed the academy graduation exam three times…because unlucky for me, the exam always tested the same ninjutsu…my absolute weakest ninjutsu. And my weakest jutsu was the clone jutsu. So shut up about "destiny" and "inescapable fate"…You shouldn't whine about such trivial stuff! Cause unlike me, you're not a "failure."

Genma smirked. "The winner is, Uzumaki Naruto!"

---

Hinata was the very first out of her seat, shouting a loud "Yes!" Much to the shock of Kiba, though he quickly moved passed it, cheering enthusiastically as well.

The stadium erupted in applause and cheers.

"That was amazing!"

"Good job!"

"What a great battle!"

Up in the contestants balcony, Sakura gave a huge cheer.

"Shannaro! Naruto won! Yessss!"

"He actually won! I can't believe it…I always thought Naruto was one of the unslick guys, just like me…" Shikamaru groaned.

"Unslick guys?" Shino asked from beside him.

"You know, the opposite of the cool guys who always have girls going gaga over them. But now…I think he's got me beat. This is bad…what a drag…"

Sakura chuckled lightly. "Told you he'd win. Besides. He's always had one girl rooting for him since the very beginning."

"I know you're not talking about yourself."

"Of course not. Hinata-chan! Seriously, what is it with you men? Do none of your eyes work? It's so obvious."

"Troublesome…you sound like Ino."

"You should pay attention sometimes when she talks, you might learn something." Sakura snapped, looking away from him in a pout. But the playful childishness melted off her as she really took in the thunderous applause and cheers of the stadium, before her gaze fell back on her teammate, who was prancing around, excited by the acknowledgement.

"Naruto just keeps getting stronger and stronger…I'm feeling a little jealous…somehow…watching Naruto fight makes me want to work even harder…that's a pretty impressive feat he pulled…"

"We got stronger too, shannaro! Just wait! They'll be cheering for us too!"

"I know I've gotten better…more skilled…but even so, it's no where near the raw power that he's got…guess I'll just have to work harder then…"

"What's up with you?" Shikamaru asked, sensing her change in mood.

"Oh! Uh, nothing…" She waved it off. He knew she was lying but was too lazy to press the matter.

---

Naruto hopped around the arena, basking in the applause and adding his own cheers of happiness.

Genma smirked. He couldn't believe that kid still had the energy to run around. He had stamina like crazy…

Naruto searched the stands until his eyes found Hinata, she really had come to watch like he'd told her too. She was out of her seat, cheering, a happy smile lighting up her whole face…she was kinda…cute, all cheery like this. Their eyes locked, and Naruto grinned up at her, giving a big thumbs up. Hinata stopped her cheering for a second, her eyes widening and face flushing, before she was beaming at him again, with a slight nod and her own tentative thumbs up.

Genma glanced down at Neji, who was watching a bird fly through the sky.

"Even a caged bird, when it smartens up, will try to open the door with its beak…never giving up its dream to fly free again. But this time, you got beat…"

Neji didn't say anything, continuing to stare up at the sky, while the medics moved him on to a stretcher, but there was a release in his eyes. Maybe it was finally time to let it go…

As Neji was carried off, the proctor turned back to Naruto. "Hey kid, go head up to the contestant waiting area so we can move on."

"Right!"

---

The second Naruto stepped onto the balcony, Sakura's hands were on his shoulders, eyes raking over his body checking for any wound. She found his pulse and began counting, pressed her ear to his chest to see if his heart was beating in the correct rhythm.

"S-Sakura-chan…" Naruto protested weakly, his face turning red.

"Does it hurt when you breathe at all? Does your chest hurt? Are your fingers tingling?"

"Sakura-chan I'm fine! Believe it! Totally normal."

Sakura stepped away, apparently satisfied that he was telling the truth.

"Thanks for winning."

"Huh?"

"It means a lot for Hinata-chan."

"Yeah! She sure looked happy! I actually saw her on my way here today and she said some stuff that really helped me…I'm glad she was here to watch it."

"Maybe he's not as hopeless as we thought! Getting those two together might actually be pretty easy, shannaro!"

"Don't count on it. Naruto has a talent for making what should be easy and obvious, incredibly hard and complicated…"

Naruto had joined Shikamaru and Shino and the railing. Sakura joined the boys there. The next match was Sasuke and Gaara. Sakura's eyes scanned the stadium, but there was still no sign of Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun…He's safe…right? Where is he?"

The crowed was growing restless, wanting the next match to start. Everyone wanted to see the face off between the last Uchiha and the Kazekage's demon like son. It was what most of them had come here for.

"What could he be doing? Is he not coming at all?" Shikamaru grumbled. It sounded more like something he would do than Sasuke.

"The wise man does not court danger…a prudent decision." Shino approved.

Naruto glanced at Gaara. Sasuke would never miss the chance for a good fight.

"…What are you guys talking about…? Of course he'll come…no doubt about it!" But where the hell was he? If he didn't show up soon, he'd be disqualified.

Sakura watched as another ninja dropped into the arena to confer with Genma, while the crowd grew more rowdy.

"Hey what's the hold up?!"

"Where's the Uchiha?!"

Genma sighed. "…Okay." He then raised his voice, addressing the crowd at large. "Everyone! One of the contenders for the match has not arrived yet. So…This match will be postponed…and we will proceed with the next scheduled match!"

The remaining contenders jolted in surprise.

Naruto sighed. That was a relief. Sasuke wouldn't be disqualified.

"Hey! You mean my match has been moved up?!" Shikamaru shouted indignantly. He wasn't exactly here by choice and he wouldn't mind if his match never came.

"Well…the next pairing is Kankuro against Aburame Shino. Please come down!"

Kankuro grunted. His match didn't matter, and if he revealed his puppets hidden mechanisms to the enemy so soon, it might jeopardize their plan. He glanced at his sister, who was waiting for his decision, ever the tough one to read.

"…I withdraw!" He shouted down to the proctor.

"Huh?!" Naruto exclaimed.

"That's weird…My read on him was that he was a show off…"

"Show off, hot head, blow hard…all apply…"

"Point is, he doesn't strike me as the type to pass on a battle…So why would he withdraw? Something seems weird…"

Shikamaru's jaw dropped. This was such a drag! That meant his battle was going to happen now!

Shino glared. He didn't appreciate being robbed of the chance to show his skills. He'd been training hard with his dad, after all.

Temari scoffed. Grabbed her fan, and with a great swipe, glided down to the arena floor.

"Well at least you seem willing to fight! Hey, Nara Shikamaru! Get down here!" Genma called.

Shikamaru clutched at the railing, his eyes widening. What was the rush?! He was always getting shafted in the match schedule, huh? Damn it…he should just withdraw too!

"All right! Go get 'em Shikamaru!" Naruto cheered excitedly, giving him a rough shove, that actually managed to send Shikamaru tumbling over the edge of the railing.

Sakura held in her laugh. "This must be such a drag for him."

---

Shikamaru thudded into the arena on his back, glaring up at the balcony. Naruto, that jerk! He made no move to get up, continuing to lie there, annoyed.

"Hey! Start the match already!"

"Just get it over with!"

"How long are you gonna lie there? Get up kid!"

Shikamaru sighed. Everybody's looking forward to Sasuke's match…and now they were being offered a poor substitute for the main attraction…everyone was annoyed. No one cared about the outcome of his match. Was there any point in fighting?

"What, are you gonna give up too?" Temari taunted. Sakura said that was probably a part of her fighting strategy.

"Hey, Shikamaru! Get up and fight!" Naruto called.

"Don't tell me I wasted my time teaching you how girls think!" Sakura shouted down. "Your opponent's sat down at the board, are you really not gonna play?"

Well…she had a point…

"If you won't come to me, I'm gonna go to you!" Temari yelled impatiently, charging at him.

"Hey! I haven't told you to start yet…"

"Sheesh, this girl really wants to fight." Shikamaru muttered, withdrawing two kunai as he watched Temari near him from his position on the ground.

Temari raised her closed fan above her. There was a loud boom, dust ballooning into the air as her fan slammed into the ground right where shikamaru had been. She looked up in surprise to see him standing on the two kunai he had embedded into the wall, right above where her fan had collided with the ground.

"I don't really care whether I become a chunin or not, but…I can't stand the idea of losing to a girl…especially after being forced to learn so much about how they think…so I guess I'm in!"

"They were helpful and you know it, jerk!" He heard Sakura shout at him.

"Yeah yeah. Whatever. This is troublesome so let's get this over with."

Temari smirked. At least she'd have an actual opponent. She opened her fan and gave it a powerful swing. Sharp gusts of wind erupted around them, kicking up rocks and dust. When the debris settled, Shikamaru was nowhere to be seen.

Temari smirked again. Not bad…he could be quick when he wanted to be.

Shikamaru looked out at her from behind a tree near the stadium wall. How was he gonna do this? Sure, he didn't want to lose to a girl, but it wasn't like he could just outright clobber her either. It wouldn't be respectful or appropriate and he would look like a crappy guy. Plus…he had the distinct feeling that if he tried to clobber this girl in particular, he'd be the one pounded into the cement.

Temari scanned her surroundings until she located him, placing her fan up in front of her like a shield while she considered her options. This guy used shadows in his techniques, right? He was probably trying to lure her into the wooded area where it was already shady, but there was no way she'd fall for that!

Shikamaru sighed and looked up at the sky. Oh how he envied the clouds. They were so free. He had absolutely no desire to fight. The whole reason he became a ninja in the first place was so he could live his life the way he wanted…looked like it wasn't going to be that easy. He scanned the area, his eyes catching on the hole from Naruto and Neji's fight. A smile made it's way to his face…he had an idea.

Temari's eyes narrowed. What was with that stupid expression he was wearing? Was he mocking her? She'd show him!

"Ninja art! Wind scythe jutsu!" She gave a powerful swipe with her fan, sending razor sharp gusts of wind at Shikamaru, who put his arms up to block his face and torso from damage.

"Whoa!" The gusts were sharp, actually physically cutting his arms and leaving slash marks in the surrounding trees. But he used the dust it kicking up as cover, casting his shadow, and sending it towards her.

Temari's eyes widened when she saw an inky streak of darkness shoot along the ground from the wreckage. She imediatly leapt out of the way, doing consecutive handsprings, until she saw the shadow begin to quiver and stop. It was shrinking at the tip. She landed and drew a line in the ground with her fan.

The dust from her attack settled, revealing Shikamaru leaning with his back against the wall, his hands forming a sign, breathing hard.

"Aha…The shadow possession technique…I was wondering when you'd finally pull it out. It seems there really are some limits to how much you can manipulate the size and shape of your shadow, hm? Even though you can stretch your shadow at will, you can't increase its overall size past its normal surface area, right?"

"Heh…right." He had to hand it to her. She was smart…she thought a lot like he did, analyzing an opponents attack and strategy carefully and dissecting it, placing all of its weaknesses. Smart.

Temari's eyes were calculating, her mind drawing up the diagram in her head. That meant…considering his choice of position at the point on the arena's wall where the shadows were deepest, she had to assume that he'd be able to use the shadow of the wall to extend his own shadow farther. But even so…She thumped her fan against the line she'd drawn. That marked the farthest his shadow could reach. So…subtracting the shadow of the arena wall, the line marked the maximum range his shadow could stretch across a sunlit area. Whether Shikamaru hugged the wall or stood on the edge of the wall's shadow, the distance he can stretch his shadow would be the same…15 meters and 32 centimeters.

Shikamaru glanced up at the sky as a cloud moved over the sun and then back down at Temari. He could see the calculating look in her eyes…she'd calculated his shadows reach in real time. Temari was smart. This was more challenging than he'd thought. He closed his eyes, bringing his hands together in an open circle.

---

"What's Shikamaru doing?! He's not fighting at all!" Naruto whined.

"That's not it…" She'd seen him do this during their close shogi games. Whenever she got close to beating him, he'd close his eyes and do that thing with his hands, and when his eyes opened again, the tables would completely turn. "He's thinking."

"Thinking? What good is that gonna do if he can't even get in a hit."

"That's why he's thinking. A good strategy changes the tide of battle. Shikamaru doesn't have the raw power that you or Sasuke-kun does, so he has to rely on outsmarting his opponent instead."

Naruto eyed her weirdly. "When did you two get so close?"

"I told you. We trained together."

"So you're not, like, dating, right?"

"Hell no! What? Why would you even—he's not the only one I trained with Naruto!"

"What kind of girl does he take us for?! He heard what we said about Sasuke-kun, shannaro!"

"Right. You said you trained with Hinata too. Did they show you how to do that shadow technique? But what did Hinata teach you? You're not a Hyuga, so you can't do the byakugan."

"No, he didn't teach me any ninjutsu or anything. Neither did Hinata-chan. You'll see what I worked on with Hinata-chan and Kiba during my match. And Shikamaru…we worked on strategy."

"But you're already smart Sakura-chan."

"It's a different kind of smart. He's able to come up with plans mid battle, where I would usually freeze up, and work with a lot less given knowledge. I'm analytical. I can analyze a situation, but picking something apart doesn't mean having a clear way to counter it. Even if I start with a plan, if my opponent counters, I'm not usually able to adjust so quickly. Shikamaru helped me get better about that."

"Hm…what about your…thing?" He didn't want to say something too loud and give away his teammates weakness, especially when her opponent was so close. He also wasn't entirely sure what to call it. He refused to call it a curse, because it wasn't. She wasn't. He refused to allow that dumb nickname to be true. She wasn't a walking jinx or born with a curse. She could beat this, he fully believed that. But kekkei genkai implied some sort of advantage or ability, and that certainly didn't fit either.

"I've got some ways to handle it, none of them perfected, but it should stop it from killing me." Sakura told him quietly. "Speaking of which," she reached into her pouch and pulled out an extra vial of sedative. "If It starts to happen, make sure I drink this, as quickly as possible. Calming down or knocking me out slow and stop the reaction. And the sooner that happens, the less damage is done."

Naruto blinked at the small vial of pale purple liquid in his hand, before pocketing it. "Wow Sakura-chan, you figured all that out already?" She'd only learned about her condition a month ago and she already had it kind of managed. He'd known about the fox demon for months now and he only just started learning how to use its chakra. Sakura really was smart.

"I had help…I couldn't have done it without Ino-pig and Kurenai-sensei…that was the other piece of what I was doing this past month."

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

Sakura glanced over at her blond teammate carefully.

"He's standing up straight. No huffing or wheezing. No complaints of pain. No clutching his side. No coughing up blood…whatever that power he used during his fight with Neji was, it had to be related to how he heals so quickly…but what is it? A kekkei genkai? He seemed to consciously access it, so it's something he has some level of control over…It's not really the time to ask though—any of these people could become his opponent and overhearing might give them a leg up…But as his teammate and friend, I wanna know…mainly so I know he's okay, and that this isn't some double edged sword like opening the inner gates or that curse mark on Sasuke-kun."

"Naruto," she spoke quietly, "that power you used earlier…when this tournament is over, can you tell me what that was? I noticed a while ago that you heal abnormally fast, and I think it must be related."

Naruto's face darkened, his head turning away from her, which only made her more concerned.

"Hey. Seriously, are you ok? I just want to know you're alright and…if this is some kekkei genkai, then you and I are in the same boat—neither of us have anyone to teach us how to master it…so…I might not be able to help much, but I at least wanna be there for you…"

Naruto's eyes widened as he looked back to her. Would she still be that kind when she knew what he was carrying inside him.

"You promise you won't hate me?"

"Hate him? Why would his ability make me hate him? Hell, my "ability" could end up getting him killed, and he still accepted me!"

She cocked her head to the side, regarding him curiously.

"Naruto…I don't even hate you because of how obnoxious you can be—something you have complete control over, by the way—why on earth would I hate you for something you have absolutely no control over?"

"…Sakura-chan…" for a second, he looked like he might cry, then he broke into a face splitting smile. "You're the best, Sakura-chan!"

"Hell yeah we are! Except for you, Hinata-chan's better…"

"Yeah. Don't you forget it!" She took a quick glance around the balcony to make sure no one overheard their conversation, but most of their competitors focus was elsewhere. "Then tell me later, yeah? Now's not the time. Too many people."

"Yeah." Naruto nodded with a soft smile. He looked back down at the match and almost shouted in excitement. "Look! Shikamaru opened his eyes! Maybe he'll finally start doing something!"

"He's come up with a plan…That means it's game over for her." Sakura murmured, her attention dropping back to the match.

---

Shikamaru watched Temari carefully as he reached for his kunai. She caught the movement.

"Looks like you've finally mustered up some fighting spirit! Wind scythe jutsu!"

The blades of air came slashing towards him, making him jump for cover behind the trees with a grunt.

"You can't hide from me!"

Another gust of powerful air was sent towards the trees, some of them bending to the force of the gale. When the gust subsided, Shikamaru slipped off his jacket.

"How long are you going to keep running around?! Will you quit it already?!"

She was becoming impatient which came with a pro and a con for him. The pro was that the more impatient she got, the sloppier her attacks would be. The con was that she wouldn't let him keep buying time anymore…

She gave another powerful sweep of her fan. This time when the gale subsided but the dust cloud hadn't, Shikamaru made his move, hurling a kunai towards her. She leapt to the side to dodge it, but as she turned another kunai was headed straight for her escape route. She quickly opened her fan to block it, but when she looked down, his shadow was heading towards her again.

It was useless…so long as she stayed behind the line, he couldn't catch her…no, wait! Shoot! His shadow was still coming. She leapt backwards, keeping out of the shadows reach until it started to quiver, reaching the end of its range.

"Nicely done…" Shikamaru drawled. This was frustrating. He had hoped to have caught her by now. He had a plan, but she was good…she kept analyzing and reacting quicker than he anticipated, and it was forcing him to work hard. Training with Sakura in shogi had been a good call after all. Temari thought a lot like Sakura did after she started getting better at strategy. Temari was like the middle ground between Sakura's analytic intelligence and his strategic one.

"I get it…you were buying time waiting for the sun to drop, so that the area of the wall's shadow, and thus your own shadow, would increase! Because as the day lengthens, so do shadows…"

"Hmph…" Shikamaru grunted. Temari was all around, well-rounded smart. And she was strong too. That wind scythe attack was no joke. Who knew a girl could be such a difficult opponent. He still had moves left. He was confident he'd catch her eventually. But the longer it took, the less it would matter…

Temari studied the tip of his shadow. Taking into account the sun's current position and his last maximum attack distance, she was definitely safe where she was, for sure.

"Temari! Look up!" She heard her older brother shout.

Temari's eyes shot upward. What the…? There was a…thing in the air…a thing that was casting a shadow. Her eyes widened, shooting down to the ground where the shadow of the object was growing at her feet. No way!

She quickly jumped back and to the side out of reach of Shikamaru's newly extended shadow.

"I won't let you get away!" Shikamaru growled.

Temari eyed the object casting the shadow as she maneuvered herself to safety. She never would have guessed he'd use his jacket and a kunai to make a parachute to give himself more shadows to work with! This guy really was something! With his shadow attacks, he forced her to keep her attention on the ground and kept her from noticing the parachute…and now, if she focused on the parachute, she'd be distracted from his ground attacks! What a nasty tactic…but now it was crystal clear what the shadow possession technique was all about! Shikamaru could use his own shadow or any available shadows in his attack! In other words, 1) He could utilize any other shadows (in this case, the parachute's shadow) along the straight line between him and his target. 2) He could extend his own shadow the additional length provided by the other shadow. However, other than the changes caused by the movement of the sun, the shape of both the wall's and the jacket's shadow had been fixed. Therefore, she could conclude that, 3) Shikamaru could not freely change the shape of shadows other than his own. And from having observed his pervious battle, 4) only when he had captured his target's shadow with his own shadow could he stop his target's movements. So, in summery, the shadow possession jutsu was like a flexible glue trap, where the user could freely change the shape of their shadow…as long as they maintain its natural surface area. Plus…they could use any other shadows in the path of their shadow to extend its length!

Temari watched as his shadow stretched to its limit, before receding. She opened her fan, sneering at Shikamaru.

"You managed to dodge me again…?" She really was good. He could tell by the look on her face that she had the mechanics of his shadow possession completely figured out. She probably understood it on a technical level even better than Ino or Choji. And that was saying a lot. This girl was something else…dangerous too. He'd gotten her where he wanted her, but she'd made him expend most of his chakra to do it, and she'd gained an in-depth understanding of his jutsu in such a short amount of combat time. He'd be able to catch her, but she'd removed winning from the table…Temari really was something else…

Temari cast a quick glance at the sun. If she didn't get this over with, his advantage was going to keep growing along with the shadow of the arena wall. She slammed her fan into the ground in front of her, blocking her body from his view. She needed to think. She could use a clone as a diversion…first she'd hide behind her fan and create a clone, and then while the clone jumped out and distracted him, she'd build her chakra up to the maximum and slaughter him with a full force wind scythe attack!

She peeked out to check the status of his shadow, seeing it retreating towards him. Perfect. Now for the attack. Her hands started to form the seals for a clone jutsu, but suddenly her movements froze. Her eyes widened. It was impossible! No way…She was frozen…?!

"Finally…Shadow possession, complete." Shikamaru smirked.

"What?! Why can't I move?! Your shadow shouldn't be able to reach this far! Besides…I can see the end of it…"

"I'll let you look behind you…" Shikamaru said, twisting his head to the side, the smirk had yet to leave his face. He'd never felt so accomplished for just catching someone in his shadow before. She'd be a fun shogi partner.

Temari's eyes widened as her head twisted, allowing her to look over her shoulder and see his shadow grasping her own, seeping out from a hole in the ground. He'd used the hole?!

"You saw it, didn't you? In the last battle, Naruto burst out of that hole to attack Neji! He tunneled under the ground from that bigger hole between us…so they're connected."

"Don't tell me…you used the shadow inside the tunnel between the two holes…?"

"Bingo." Of course she'd get it.

"Ugh…" Temari growled. He'd taken full advantage of her positioning…her eyes widened. The parachute was just another diversion to maneuver her into this spot! This…This Jerk!

Shikamaru walked forward, Temari forced to mirror his movements until they were only a few meters apart.

The stadium was silent, tense, watching with rapt interest.

Shikamaru, and thus Temari, thrust his arm into the air.

"…That's it…I'm done. I give up!"

There was a beat of stunned silence, everyone in shock.

"Wh…what?!"

"I used up too much chakra doing all those shadow possessions in succession…I won't be able to hold you for more than about 10 seconds. I had around another 200 moves I could have done to actually win…but you made me waste too much chakra, so I'm out of time. And this fighting stuff is a drag…one match is enough for me."

Genma smirked. He certainly was a weird kid…more like an old man, really.

"The winner is…Temari!"

Shikamaru's shadow released Temari.

"Ugh…I'm beat…" Shikamaru muttered lazily, kneading at the back of his neck.

---

"What the hell?!"

"…I can't actually say that it's surprising…and so far, he's probably shown the most promise to be promoted to chunin…more than Naruto or Neji, anyways…If chunin are squad leaders, than the calm strategic reasoning Shikamaru showed is more fit than the loud flashy combat from Naruto and Neji…even giving up, while disappointing was a good move, tactically."

Naruto didn't see it that way. "Why'd he give up?! Is he stupid or something?! That really makes me mad! I'm gonna go give him a lecture he won't ever forget!" Naruto shouted, climbing over the railing and jumping down into the arena.

"Wait Naruto!" Sakura shouted, leaping onto the rail to jump after him, but not before catching the eye of Dosu, who she could hear give a quiet, sinister, laugh. Her battle was next. The nervousness she'd been able to ignore before in favor of focussing on the other matches attacked with a vengeance. She swallowed it back hard before jumping after Naruto.

---

"Stupidhead!" Naruto shouted, pointing angrily at Shikamaru.

"Shut it, mega dork!"

"Why'd you give up?!"

"At this point, what does it matter? Let's go watch the next match." He said with a smirk, his eyes landing on Sakura, who was approaching the two.

"Oh…! Sakura-chan's next!" Naruto turned to look at her, beaming.

"Tactical retreat, huh? She must have pushed you hard."

"Ugh would you two lay off it already?" Shikamaru's face grew serious. "You do have a plan right?"

"…sort of…"

"The next match is between Kinuta Dosu and Haruno Sakura. All other competitors, please clear the ring."

"Kick his butt Sakura-chan!" Naruto gave her a cheery thumbs up before following Shikamaru to the balcony.

Dosu leapt down into the ring. Her annoying words had played through his mind relentlessly since she'd spoken them in the Forest of Death. It seems to me your orders were designed to get you killed… They had been. She'd been right. And he'd never forgive her for that. He'd prove to her how unexpendable he was by killing her. Then he'd prove it to Orochimaru by killing Sasuke.

She tried to tune out the murmurs of the crowd, but they were too loud.

"Who's Haruno Sakura?"

"She looks weak. This'll be a quick match. And then the real action will start."

"Isn't that the walking jinx?"

"This one's a no brainer. He's obviously gonna win."

"Who even let someone like her into this competition?"

"These assholes! We'll make every one of them eat their words, shannaro!"

"YOU GOT THIS FOREHEAD!"

"Pig…?" Her voice always was loud.

"You show this tool, Sakura! I didn't waste all those days after all!" That was definitely Kiba's voice. She could hear Akamaru barking, punctuating his statement.

"SAKURA-CHAN! YOU CAN DO IT!" Naruto had made it to the balcony.

Her eyes skimmed the crowd, finding Ikehara, who leaned forward and gave her a firm nod. Ino, who was already standing and screaming her head off, Choji next to her, giving an apologetic look to the people around them. Naruto and Shikamaru, in their place on the balcony, Naruto cheering, and Shikamaru watching with actual interest. Kurenai, who gave her a small smile. Kiba, Akamaru, and Hinata, who were cheering and watching closely, with warm smiles on their faces. Kotetsu was sitting next to them, looking keenly interested, his eyes trained on her. Kakashi and Sasuke were missing, but she knew they'd be watching intently, silently rooting for her if they were here. Sakura felt her mother's necklace against her chest, tucked under her shirt. She was with her too. They all believed she could do this. She took a deep breath. She had to focus.

"I'll give you this chance to back out, little girl. You won't get another once the match starts."

Sakura said nothing.

"This match will end so quickly it'll be boring…I'll be generous and let you make the first move."

"Who the hell does this asshole think he is?!"

"He's underestimating me…"

Use it! He's going to give you so many unintentional openings because he doesn't know that he should be scared—take advantage of every single one.

Sakura warmed at the memory of her mother's words. "Oh I will…And I'll make him regret it! Shannaro!"

Sakura closed her eyes. She had to focus and select the best song—the one that would elicit a dance that would inflict the most damage. This was her only shot—cause once he landed a hit on her, it was game over.

Genma looked between the two for any signs that she'd back out, but the girl gave none. He felt bad about this. It was clearly a mismatch. He'd seen the tapes of the preliminary battles. This girl didn't belong in this tournament. He figured he'd actually have to step in this time around…but whether from bravery or stupidity, Sakura showed no intention of stepping down. May as well get it over with and pray it wasn't a blood bath.

Sakura selected her song and began letting it play through her mind, counting through the intro.

"5. 6. 7. 8."

"Begin!"

She was moving immediately in a very fast sequence of flips and footwork. Dosu wasn't even sure what was happening when she was suddenly windmilled her legs out from what would have been a normal cartwheel, sweeping his legs out from under him. She rolled beneath him while he was still off the ground and kicked up hard, misapplying chakra with one foot to send him high into the air, while grasping onto him with the other to bring herself up with him. Then her barrage really started. She used him as a bar, floor, and beam, kicking and throwing him higher and higher into the air with carefully misapplied chakra while keeping herself anchored to him. She twisted and twirled around him, drilling her chakra into him with spins, sliding it across him with intricate footwork, and disorienting him with frequent flips in position.

Dosu's eyes were wide. What the hell was this?! Her moves were coming in a predictable rhythm, but they were so unexpected and quick that he couldn't even begin to counter them. Just what was this style? Where was this in the Forest of Death? Fortunately, aside from the kicks that knocked him higher into the air, and the spins, the assault wasn't too painful. What a waste. A move like this wasted on someone as weak as her…Still, those hits that did hurt, hurt a lot. He'd give her that much at least. And damn…just how long would this barrage last? It had been over a full minute already and she was still going.

---

Naruto and Shikamaru's jaws dropped. Naruto had seen Sakura dance before but not like this! How was she even doing it without falling? It was like she was somehow stuck onto him—like with tree climbing…but…you couldn't do that on a person, could you? And keeping them both in the air too—they'd been up, almost level with the balcony for a while now, how was she doing that? This was what she'd trained with Hinata and Kiba? And since when was Sakura this fast?!

"What the—she's like a completely different person from her preliminary battle…" Kankuro muttered, a little dazedly—her movements were hypnotically beautiful.

"She definitely moves well…" Temari agreed.

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed as the assault continued. "Oh no…this wasn't her only plan, was it? Maybe all those afternoons really were a waste…troublesome."

"What do you mean?! Sakura-chan's totally kicking butt! That freaky mummy guy hasn't been able to attack at all!"

"And how long do you think she can keep that up? On top of that, while she's moving a lot, she's not actually landing very many actual hits…This has to be using up a lot of chakra, and I don't know that there's a big pay off…what a drag."

"Huh?!" Naruto looked back in surprise and concern.

In the stands, Kiba and Hinata did not seem to share Naruto or Shikamaru's worry.

"Oof…she must have picked a good song…this one's relentless." Akamaru barked in agreement.

Kotetsu, and his best friend Izumo, who was sitting beside him, turned to glance at Kiba. "Song?" Izumo questioned.

"This attack isn't a solidified sequence of moves, the way many taijutsu attacks are. Because at its core, it's not taijutsu at all. She's just dancing. So it changes based on the song she uses to dance to. This must be a pretty fast one—long too, given the rhythm and how she's still going."

"But if it's just dancing, how's she doing any real damage?"

"I-It's similar to the gentle f-fist, in some ways…Sakura-chan u-used the same t-technique n-needed for tree climbing…"

Kotetsu blinked, before breaking into a smirk. Izumo stared at Hinata in shock. "Tree climbing? But that shouldn't be possible on a person—their chakra would push the other person off immediately!"

"She constantly monitors and shifts her chakra output to keep herself glued on. I didn't think it was possible either, until she tried it on me."

"So, the particularly powerful hits that keep them airborne…" Kotetsu murmured turning to watch Sakura's airborne dance.

"She purposely applies too much chakra. Just like on a tree, it causes so much force that it's damaging, and pushes the user off. A tree's a fixed point so it doesn't move, but on a person, it pushes them as well. Hurts like hell. But she keeps herself attached with her other leg or arm, using the correct chakra output."

"But…that level of chakra control…" Izumo muttered, dumbstruck. He'd never heard of anyone using chakra control like that. And the ability to pull it off…that required chakra control well above the genin level.

"Heh…that kid's something else." Kotetsu grinned.

"Th-That's not the most d-damaging part." Hinata said, causing both to turn to her, confused.

"She's right. Dosu probably has no idea how screwed he is either…More damaging than the actual kicks and hits, are the steps that keep her glued to him…"

Izumo and Kotetsu glanced at each other, unsure of what he meant.

In a different part of the stands, past Ino who was screaming her head off cheering, Asuma and Kurenai sat dumbfounded.

"How much did you say those chakra weights were set to?" Kurenai murmured.

"…50%…how's that possible? How's she moving that well?" Asuma couldn't believe his eyes. Sure, she'd seemed to go through the chakra weights Kakashi had regimented for her fairly quickly, so she had to have good control…but enough to allow for this level of complexity to her movements? He never would have guessed she could pull something like this off.

Nor did Kurenai, who hadn't been privy to that part of Sakura's training, having only worked with her on gaining some control over her kekkei genkai.

"She's a genjutsu type…so by definition her chakra control is well above average, but I never thought she'd apply it in such a way…" Kurenai said, her eyes never leaving Sakura's dancing form. "And she's got more stamina than I thought—she's been at this for over two minutes."

"It's definitely the longest combo I've ever seen…she's probably almost done though. This has to be a drain on her chakra, and she doesn't have all of it available in the first place."

---

Sakura was lost in the trance of the song, her dance movements, monitoring the ever shifting chakra output needed, and the shifting of chakra between her weights. The song was nearing the end, there were only a few eight counts left. It was time to finish this. She did a huge, very fast spin, as the music in her head crescendoed frenetically, before launching herself off him, flipping several times.

"Can't be the only one on my team without a move like this! Shannaro!"

She brought her leg down on his chest as hard as she could, latching herself on to him just briefly enough to misapply her chakra, adding its force to her kick.

"Dancer's barrage!"

Dosu went rocketing into the ground, hard enough to actually crack the earth a little and send up a dust cloud in his wake. Sakura landed not far, hand springing away and settling several meters away from him, gracefully, breathing hard.

"I only have about an eighth of my available chakra left…please stay down…that was pretty much my whole plan…"

Unfortunately and as usual for her, Sakura was not that lucky. Dosu came launching out of the dust cloud, fist aimed high. Sakura dodged the punch, but inevitably, his sound waves got her.

She could actually feel the physical pressure of it against her ear, dropping to her knees as pain raced through her head. Her vision swam hazily before her, rocks, dirt and patches of grass distorting dizzily.

"So you actually decided to put some effort in. You really are hopeless, if that was the best you could do. All that fancy footwork but hardly any decent hits. Pathetic. What a useless waste of space. It's insulting to think such a weak little girl really thought she had a chance against me."

"So that was it…all that training, and that was the best I could do?!"

"Hell no it's not! He just hasn't realized the full extent of our attack yet."

Sakura blinked at the spinning ground. Her inner voice was right…she'd heard him speak through both ears…it had been distorted and tinny in the ear that he'd targeted, but she hadn't gone temporarily deaf, nor was she only able to hear a ringing…And next to when her chakra reacted, the pain in her head was nothing she couldn't handle.

"Right…it's already starting to effect him…his attack wasn't as strong as he thought it was—I can still hear…I'm dizzy but I can still move. He's underestimating me again, only seeing what he expects to see."

"So we can use it against him, just like mom said!"

"…That was my only move…Come on Sakura, think! What would Shikamaru do?"

I guess I just worked backwards.

"Backwards…so, my goal is to win. Removing the option of him giving up, because I doubt he'll set his ego aside to allow that, I can win if I kill him, knock him out, or incapacitate him…But how? I'm almost out of my available chakra…"

The other pieces become the skills you have at your disposal. Your ninja tools, your jutsu, your combat skills, your chakra. Anything in the environment that you can weaponize. Those become your pieces.

"Ninja tools…" Sakura's gaze dropped to the metal cuff encircling her wrists. Her eyes widened.

"This…might be Naruto level stupid…which is why it might work…I don't have enough chakra on my own to get them off at the moment, but…I still have a few of Kiba's food pills left."

Sakura popped one of the food pills into her mouth, feeling her chakra increase to its maximum and then some.

"Sorry, I'm gonna have to break your rule, sensei." She focused her full chakra into each cuff one at a time, each loosening. She staggered up right, partially from dizziness and partially from the sudden lack of weight against her arms and legs. Her vision swam, the ground spinning, but she managed to find her balance. She was a dancer. If there was one thing she knew how to work through, it was dizziness.

"So you can still stand? I don't know what you hope to accomplish, you can barely keep yourself upright, little girl."

"I really hate being called little girl!"

"We're gonna kick his ass so hard our name will be burned into his memory, Shannaro!"

"My name…is Sakura. And I'm not finished yet, shannaro! Not by a long shot."

"You're such a nuisance. But once I kill you, it'll be one less insect in the way of me killing Sasuke."

Sakura gave him an icy glare, removing the weights from her ankles and wrists, holding them all in one hand.

"You should have removed your accessories before a match, little girl. This isn't a beauty pageant."

"Wasn't allowed to. But I think kicking your butt warrants breaking a rule, and I thought I'd lighten my load a bit." She answered coldly, dropping the metal bands to the ground. They landed with a soft clink…not nearly as impressive as the creators Lee's leg weights had made when he removed them.

Dosu sneered. "Lighten your load? Are you really that weak? I wanted to make this painful for you as revenge for Zaku, but I'll put an end to this farce now."

"Go ahead. Let's see who's faster: Me or your sound waves?" She stated brashly.

"Uh…can we really do that?"

"Probably not. But I don't have to outrun them, I just have to outmaneuver them…when he fought Choji, he said he couldn't hit him until he stopped rotating, so if I keep myself moving in a fast rotation, he shouldn't be able to get me immediately."

"You can't be serious…" Dosu drawled. She wasn't just weak, she was insane.

Sakura darted at him, in a very rapid movement of linked turns. She wasn't even prepared for how much faster she could move, but without carrying twice her body weight, she practically flew across the ground.

---

"Whoa! When did Sakura get that fast?! She might even be able to outrun Akamaru! Where was that during our training?!"

Hinata activated her byakuga, watching Sakura closely. "Sakura-chan's chakra is m-moving differently than before…"

"Huh? What do you mean, Hinata?"

"Th-There was always a p-portion of her ch-chakra that was c-concentrated into her ankles or wrists w-whenever we were training…but now…i-it's all flowing f-freely…" It seemed like she had more chakra than before as well, although that may have just been because of the food pill she took, so Hinata didn't bother mentioning that.

"What about him? I know it can take some time for the damage to sink in, but she did get hit with his attack, and he seems fine…" Kiba said, his eyes narrowing at the sound nin, as he watched him take a swing at Sakura, and miss.

Hinata smiled and shook her head. "He's h-hurt. He just hasn't r-realized it yet."

"What do you mean?" Kotetsu asked.

"Like we said before, the most damaging part of the dancer's barrage is the limb anchoring her to the target."

"Her ch-chakra seeps in t-to the target's chakra network."

"Or gets drilled into it, if she's spinning…that part hurts like hell too."

Kotetsu's eyes widened. "That's what you meant by it being like the gentle fist."

"It's not as precise or targeted, but it attacks the chakra network, just like the gentle fist does."

"S-Sakura-chan's attack doesn't release i-in bursts…the way the g-gentle fist d-does…so it isn't d-deadly to the internal organs…b-but her chakra lingers i-in their system longer, d-disrupting her t-target's chakra network."

"It makes her opponent's attacks weaker, causes them to burn through chakra quicker, and have a harder time controlling it as they normally would."

"So his jutsu wasn't as strong as he thought it was, that's why she can still fight." Izumo was beginning to understand why his best friend found Sakura so interesting. He'd been the only proctor to favor her, over some of the more obvious choices. He didn't get it at the time, but now he was definitely starting to see. "Why can't he tell?"

"It's not obvious at first and if you aren't aware and looking for it, it's easily ignored. While her chakra's seeping in, it doesn't hurt that much—nothing more than a minor slow burn, easily overlooked when the burst kicks are happening. It's only really noticeable after the attack, when it's your turn and your chakra's not reacting the way it should be. But in the heat of battle, it's easy to forget, ignore, or chalk up to some other factor."

Kotetsu laughed. "So it's a sleeper attack. Where'd she learn it?"

"S-Sakura-chan invented it."

"With our help."

"That kid really is something." Kotetsu said with a smile.

Up on the balcony, Naruto's eyes were wide. He was leaning so far forward over the railing, Shikamaru tugged on the back of his jacket to make sure he didn't fall into the arena.

"When did Sakura-chan get that fast?! She's even faster than before! And what were those bracelets she took off? Sakura-chan doesn't really have any jewelry…"

Shikamaru blinked. "I have no idea. You mean she didn't wear those before?"

"Nah. She doesn't have a lot of money, so she doesn't waste it on things like jewelry or anything…" He trailed off when it occurred to him that Sakura might not appreciate her financial situation being discussed with Shikamaru.

"Yeah I know. But she's been wearing those since she first asked me to train with her. I thought she always wore them, or maybe Ino gave them to her or something…" Seemed like there was more to it than that.

"Why do you think she took them off?"

"She came up with a plan." And just in time too. It seemed she really had rode everything on that opening attack. Shikamaru saw how she hesitated while she was down. She had no other ideas for ways to win. But thankfully all those afternoons hadn't been a waste after all. She'd come up with something. Whatever those bracelets were—she'd mentioned lightening her load, were they weights?—they were an important part of her plan. "She must have remembered Choji's fight with him. He couldn't hit Choji while he was rolling. She can't tuck her ears and roll the way Choji can, but the next best thing would be rapid frequent shifts while spinning."

"But…I mean she's faster now, but she said this guy attacks with sound waves right? She can't really outrun that, can she?"

"Why are you asking me? She's your teammate."

"But you trained with her!"

"Not like this! We just played shogi! Stop being so troublesome."

"You trained by playing shogi?" Temari asked, with a hint of derision, which was doing a marvelous job of hiding the begrudging respect she felt towards the lazy boy.

"Well, I beat you, didn't I?" Shikamaru countered.

"Actually, you gave up." Temari smirked. "You may have outmaneuvered me, but I forced you to waste too much chakra, which voided your plans."

"Whatever." Shikamaru muttered. She was such a troublesome woman, what with her smart smug attitude, and sandy blond hair…Shikamaru's eyes widened. Oh. That was Sakura's plan…

"She's trying to force him to waste too much chakra by outmaneuvering him."

"Huh?" Naruto asked.

"That's Sakura's plan. To get him to waste chakra."

"That's a risk. Your shadow didn't move that fast, and it had a fixed distance it could reach. Even with extensions, it was calculable. His jutsu moves at the speed of sound. She has no chance of outrunning it. The only one who might have been able to was that bowl-cut kid."

Shikamaru hated to agree with her, but she had a point. This seemed like a great overestimation of her own skill on Sakura's part.

"You have no idea what you're talking about! If she's got a plan, then she'll win. Sakura-chan's never wrong."

"You sound as sure of her as she did of you." Shikamaru drawled.

"And she was right." Naruto declared. "Sakura-chan will win. If she's got a plan, then she'll win. Believe it!"

He turned his attention back to the battle. "You can do it, Sakura-chan!"

Shikamaru blinked at Naruto. The faith their team had in each other…he was close with Choji and Ino, they were like siblings to him, but he didn't have absolute faith that they'd win against any enemy they were up against. Especially if the opponent was so above their level like Neji was to Naruto or Dosu was to Sakura. But those two…that entire team…where had that unshakable faith in each other come from?

---

"Whatever you do, Sakura, don't stop rotating!" It was easier said than done. His attack may not have been as powerful as it should have been, but it still shook up her inner ear…she was Dizzy.

She managed to dodge around his punch, and was now flipping for her life, dancing in dizzying patterns.

"The sound wave hasn't hit me yet, so I'm doing something right…"

"But this is exhausting…how long can we keep this up"

"…I'm working on it…"

Sakura flipped back, noting how close she was to the wall.

The board becomes your environment for you to utilize, like promotion zones.

Sakura stopped short for a nanosecond, before dropping into a split, just as a small crater burst on the wall where Dosa's sound wave made contact.

"I can't believe that actually worked!"

"That's…! That's not possible!"

Sakura stumbled up, her eyes locking on a point to help clear her double vision as she swayed a little. But Dosu didn't give her much time to recover, running at her again, determined to land a blow. Sakura was back to flipping immediately. Spinning, flipping, rolling, any sort of movement with rotation, Sakura did it, as fast as she could. Her eyes spotting a single point in the distance, Naruto's blond head, for as long as possible to help keep the dizziness at bay. She could practically feel his sound wave's pressure, waiting for her to stop rotating. It was like a deadly game of tag.

"I can do this! I know I can!"

Sakura once again stopped spinning for a nanosecond before rapidly leaping out of the way. The sound wave cracked the ground where she'd been standing a moment before. Dosu's breathing was becoming labored, his sound waves getting weaker.

"The barrage is finally starting to take effect. One more time, and I should be able to move on to part two—getting that damned thing off his arm."

Sakura took off again. Dosu didn't even try landing an initial strike on her, instead opting for punching the ground, pouring all his focus into the sound wave he emitted. Sakura moved in sharp spinning zigzags across the ground, so fast that she was more a blur of pink and red than a visible figure. She stopped abruptly, jumping high into the air, his sound wave cracking the earth. The fissures it made were notably less deep than the previous time.

She'd jumped higher than she expected, she wasn't used to feeling this light. But it worked out all the more in this instance. Her hands formed a seal, and the paper bombs she'd placed around the area while flipping and spinning, exploded, causing a huge dust cloud.

Dosu instinctively put his arms up, blocking his ears and head from the loud explosion. When did she plant those? While she was spinning? That had to be it…there was no other time when she could have. How did she have that much awareness? How was she even moving like this? She should be more or less immobile by this point.

While the cloud of dust and smoke obscured his view, Sakura began forming the hand signs for a clone jutsu. She couldn't make shadow clones like Naruto could—ones that could actually attack, only regular images. But for the first time in a month, she had access to her full chakra, and the weights had helped her increase her chakra levels. She had more chakra to work with than ever before, which meant she could make twelve clones, instead of the two she'd conjured in her battle with Ino, and still have chakra left to fight with.

The dust cleared, but when Dosu looked up, there were thirteen Sakura's bearing down on him from all sides, shuriken at the ready…and he couldn't tell which was the real one. He immediately put up his guard, arms in front of his face, unsure of where the real attack would come from.

Sakura had the clear view she needed. The strap of the device on his arm was a smaller target than she'd ever hit before, and she was nowhere near as good a marksmen as TenTen or as skilled with shuriken as Sasuke, but she had a steady hand and good enough aim…

"I can hit this."

She let her shuriken fly, just barely cutting one of the straps before thudding into the ground near Dosu's feet. He whirled around, but the four clones nearest her matched her position, making it hard to tell which body had thrown it. All the Sakuras flipped as they landed, adding to the visual confusion. The clones began charging him two or three at a time, popping into smoke as soon as they got within striking distance. The real Sakura charged at him with two other clones, each popping into smoke once close enough, while she slid under him, severing the other strap on his arm amplifier, before racing to scoop up her abandoned chakra weights, other Sakura clones grouping around her before the smoke cleared.

There was too much going on for Dosu to drop his guard, especially since he had yet to identify which one was really her. This brat only knew how to hide and dance around, but once he found the real one, it'd be game over.

There were five Sakura's left and all of them charged him at once. Four popping into disorienting smoke while the real Sakura leapt up, catching the arm amplifier on her foot with chakra, and flipping, kicking it into the air, in the process transferring the paper bomb she had stuck on the sole of her shoe onto the device. There was a loud bang as the device exploded in mid air, pieces of metal shrapnel raining down on them.

"Step two, complete. Now for step three…"

"You think I need that to beat you, or your teammate, you brat?" Dosu growled. He still hit harder than she did, and she was off balance. One good punch and the pink haired little bitch would be done. Sakura barely had time to duck Dosu's punch. He came flying at her with renewed vigor, attacking relentlessly with his fists. He finally landed a good hit sending her stumbling back and knocking her to the ground.

"This is the hard part—I have to get the cuffs on him without him noticing…I'm still dizzy and physically tired, and even now, I'm no good in an old fashioned brawl."

Sakura quickly rolled out of the way as Dosu stabbed down at her with a Kunai. She watched the knife impale into the ground where her head had been seconds before.

"But it's no different than pick pocketing in theory, yeah? Drive his attention to something else or somewhere else on his body and slip it on…"

"Well…since I've got no other ideas…why the hell not?"

"Shannaro! Sounding more and more like me everyday!"

"Gods help me."

"Jeez. I get you're pissed cause your master thinks you're expendable, but you don't have to take that out on me."

"I'll kill you and that Sasuke punk, and prove to him how wrong he was!" Dosu growled, wildly slashing at her. She rolled under him, slashing across his back with a kunai while quickly and carefully snapping on a chakra weight to his ankle.

"The hell you will, Shannaro!" She yelled, elbowing him hard in the back of the knee. He stumbled but didn't fall, kicking her across the face.

"Ow!"

She pushed herself up and away just in time to dodge the three shuriken that came racing towards her, though one managed to cut her forearm as she went. Sakura staggered a little, but jumped in close, throwing a punch, which he caught. Taking full advantage of her flexibility, Sakura kicking him in the chin, and used that moment to quickly snap a chakra weight on his wrist. He released her fist, but made a quick swipe with his kunai that she wasn't able to dodge, blocking it with her arm and gaining another deep cut.

"Just two more…"

Sakura dropped into a one handed back walkover, kicking him again in the jaw while the hand she wasn't supporting her weight with snapped the chakra weight onto his other ankle. She righted herself, but when her back pressed against a tree, she realized her mistake. His body was too close to hers, and she'd cornered herself. Dosu drove his kunai straight for her chest, and she had no way of dodging. Instinctively, her left hand shot out wrapping around the blade tightly to stop its motion. She let out a cry of pain as the knife cut deeply into her hand. But this was her chance. Eyes squinting with pain, she snapped the last weight onto Dosu's wrist and pressed two fingers against it, her hand grasping the knife painfully shifting position to allow her to raise two fingers straight up.

The weights activated, tightening around Dosu's limbs. His eyes widened as he suddenly felt huge weight against his hands and ankles, like a ball and chain. His muscles twitched but he couldn't make them move.

"Wh-What the hell is this?!"

Sakura painfully released the knife, no longer in danger of it pushing into her chest, and ducked under his extended arm, taking a few steps back towards the center of the arena.

"You don't recognize my 'beauty pageant accessories?' Those are chakra weights, a rarely used training tool for chakra control. Each weight requires a certain percentage of the wearer's maximum chakra capacity focused into them in order for the wearer to move. They also physically reflect that percentage of the wearer's body weight…mine are set to 50%."

Genma's eyes widened. She pulled off that whole barrage attack with 50% chakra weights on all four limbs?! Who was this kid?! This was one hell of a shocking turn. He never would have bet on the tiny pink haired girl, with the overall poor showing in the prelims, over Dosu. It seemed he would have lost his money on this one…

"Wh-What?!" Dosu gasped. It wasn't just him. The cries and shouts of confusion echoed through the stadium.

"Did she say 50%?"

"That's impossible!"

"Was she wearing those throughout that whole first attack?!"

"But how?!"

Dosu's eyes were wide. How could she have—how did she even move that quickly and fluidly? Just what the hell was this girl?!

Sakura eyed the wound on her hand. "Deep. If I don't get medical attention, I'm gonna need to stitch it." She dumped some disinfectant on it, wincing at the contact, before she began wrapping it.

"Your sound wave attack…the further and longer you have to direct the sound wave, the more chakra it takes. Right? You used up over half your chakra, so you won't be able to move no matter what."

He tried to focus his chakra into the cuffs, but nothing happened. "But…How's this possible?!" His chakra control was great—it had to be to attack the way he did. "I should have at least fifty percent of my chakra left!"

"So you really didn't notice at all? My Dancer's Barrage didn't just kick you around in the air for over two minutes. Using you as my mid air dance floor meant my chakra saturated your chakra network for that entire time."

"S-So…!" It couldn't be!

"That attack, depending on it's sequence, isn't meant to hit really hard and deal a lot of physical damage—it's supposed to do some, but more than that, it allows my chakra to infiltrate your system. It doesn't take effect immediately, but still, I'm surprised you didn't notice it at all. My chakra interfered with yours, making you expend tons of additional energy on a jutsu that would normally be basic instinct to cast. Preventing you from doing it right, destabilizing your attack, and making it weaker than it might normally be."

"You mean…from that first hit…you weren't effected."

"No, I was. It made me dizzy as hell and I still have a headache, but it didn't do the damage it did to Kabuto, Lee-san, or Choji."

"You…You weren't like this before."

"You caught me on a bad day, and speaking of before…" Sakura stepped close to him again, raising a kunai to his neck with her uninjured hand. "You come after Sasuke-kun or Naruto again, and I'll show you how expendable you are. No one threatens my teammates. Try it again, and I will kill you." Her tone was icy and her face unflinching, her eyes burning with the same cold determination she had when she told Zabuza her team could kill if need be.

She pulled the kunai away from his neck and walked back to the center of the arena.

Genma gave a disbelieving smirk. "The winner is, Haruno Sakura!"

---

"YESS! THAT'S MY BEST FRIEND! YOU GO FOREHEAD!" Ino was just short of screaming herself horse. Choji had to cover his ears with how loud she was, but it was nice to see Ino this excited and happy. He'd known Ino since birth, and after Sakura broke off their friendship, she was never quite as happy as she had been. This was more like the old Ino, and he was glad she was back.

In another part of the stadium, Kiba and Hinata had both jumped up out of their seats at the declaration.

"She did it! Nice goin Sakura!" Kiba shouted.

"S-Sakura-chan! I'm so happy for her!" Hinata clapped.

The chakra weights had been a surprise to both of them, but it explained a lot…why she'd been so slow at first. That day she was "tired" and slower than usual—she must have just moved up the weight level. How she had gotten so fast when she removed them…she could almost keep up with Akamaru while lugging twice her body weight, of course she'd be a hell of a lot faster with the weights off. The reason she ran out of chakra so quickly now made sense, she'd only been working with a limited portion of her chakra to begin with. It explained what Hinata observed with Sakura's chakra behavior…it filled in a lot of gaps.

Izumo turned to Kotetsu, who was out of his seat clapping. "You were right about her, man."

"Am I ever wrong?"

"Frequently. But not this time…that girl's…unbelievable. I only heard about chakra weights once, never met anyone who used them, and what I heard about it was that they were impossible to fight with. But Sakura really did it. With weights set to 50%…that kids got a future."

"And she was smart about it…planning out each step to accomplish the goal…she could definitely lead a mission…although, personally I think she belongs in the medical corps, what with her stellar first aid advice."

Kurenai and Asuma sat stunned.

"To think she actually managed to weaponize her chakra control and utilize a training tool like chakra weights to win…Kakashi really has some unbelievable students on his hands."

"In my training with her, Sakura consistently took full advantage of what little she had available to her…I'm not surprised that she did it with her combat strategy…but to pull something like that off…" Kurenai shook her head. Sakura had amazing potential.

Over in the balcony, Temari was wide eyed. Sakura had actually…won? With a brilliant strategy too…Shikamaru mentioned having trained with Sakura by playing shogi…Should she start playing shogi?! It seemed like the Konoha tactician's game of choice…not that it would matter soon, but maybe she should take a page out of their book before it got completely destroyed…it was almost time…

Naruto didn't even wait. He was leaping over the railing and into the arena with a loud shout of glee the second the words left the proctor's mouth.

Shikamaru sighed, but followed him into the arena. He'd gotten close with Sakura over the course of their shogi sessions, so it'd be a lie to say he wasn't proud of her.

---

The cheers were overwhelming. She hadn't ever had so many people cheering for her before. Any time she'd been acknowledged by a large group in the past, it had been overwhelmingly negative. But not this time.

"That was amazing!"

"Great job!"

"That was awesome! You're so cool!"

"You're so pretty, Sakura-chan!"

Apparently she'd picked up a few fans…but that didn't matter. She felt the smile stretching on her face.

"I really did it, mom! I won! You were right to believe in me, I won!"

"We kicked his ass, shannaro!"

"Excuse me Miss, but you should come with me so we can treat you." A medic called to her. She watched as a group of medics moved Dosu, stuck in a very awkward position, on to a stretcher to get him off the field.

"The next match is Sasuke-kun's…I don't want to miss anything."

"My hand is the only thing in need of treatment, really. Would you be able to heal it here?"

"Uh…" The medic glanced around uncomfortably. He couldn't heal wounds that fast… "Not fully, no."

"You don't have to heal it fully. If you can just close it up a little, I can take care of the rest."

"Oh…uh, I'm not really supposed to…"

"I'm not missing the next match."

He couldn't just not treat her, that would be his failing as a medic…

"…Fine." He unwrapped her hand and carefully began healing the deepest layers of the cuts, coating both their hands in a soft green glow.

"SAKURA-CHAN!" Naruto dashed towards her excitedly, followed by a much calmer Shikamaru. "You did it! That was totally awesome! That dance thing was so pretty! And you were so fast after you took off those bracelets—weights—whatevers! Where'd you get those anyways?"

"Kakashi-sensei gave them to me before he left with Sasuke-kun, along with some exercises he wanted me to master while wearing them. He thought it might help with my…chakra problem…"

"Does it?" Shikamaru asked quietly.

"Yeah, actually, it does a little…I hope he won't be too mad I took them off, he kinda forbid me from doing that…about that," she turned to the medic who was intently focused on her hand. "When can I get my weights back?"

"What? Oh…it might be a while. He has to regain his full chakra, and you interfered with his network, so it'll be a while until he can regain the control needed to get them off…"

"Ah…whoops…" She winced a little at that news, but couldn't bring herself to feel too much regret. She was too proud of herself for pulling it all off—it had been touch and go there for a minute…

"This is the best I can do for now," the medic told her, nodding to her hand. "The deepest layers are closed up, so it can heal on its own naturally, or even faster with stitches, but it'll leave a scar. If you come with me now—"

"No, this is fine, thank you. I'll take care of the rest." She told him with a disarming smile.

"…If you say so…" He turned and rejoined the rest of the medical corps struggling with Dosu. Sakura smeared on some ointment and rewrapped her hand.

"It was dumb to stake everything on one attack, but you came up with a good plan at the end there." Shikamaru drawled lazily, like he was critiquing a shogi strategy.

"Thanks, I worked backwards." She said with an easy smile.

"But is your hand ok Sakura-chan? You sure you don't want to get it looked at?"

"It's fine, I've got it. I don't want to miss the next match."

"Sasuke!" Naruto's eyes widened at the realization.

Now that the excitement from Sakura's win was fading, the crowd started to grow restless again. The next match was the one they really cared about seeing.

"What's up with the next match?!"

"Where's Uchiha?!"

Naruto looked around, his head snapping side to side rapidly. "What is that fool doing? He's still not here?!"

Several falling leaves caught his attention, before making all of them jump back as they grew into a whirlwind.

"What the…?!"

The wind settled to reveal Kakashi and Sasuke, standing calmly amidst the falling leaves.

Sakura blinked, her face reddening as for the first time in a month, she was seeing the real Sasuke, not a genjutsu version. His hair was a bit longer and more wild, his clothes were a bit different…all black, with his left arm wrapped up to his elbow, with what appeared to be both bandages and some sort of strap…

"Is he hurt?!"

"Ah, so sorry we're late…" Kakashi said with an obviously awkward smile beneath his mask.

"Your name?" Genma asked with a smirk.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

Naruto grinned excitedly while Sakura worked to calm her heart rate.

"All he did was say his name, chill out, damnit! I don't wanna be sent into an episode over something so stupid!"

"Cut us some slack! It's our first time seeing him since we gave him the crane!"

Shikamaru twitched in annoyance. He was acting all high and mighty even though he'd inconvenienced everyone!

"Hey! You're real late, huh?! I was wondering if you got cold feet about fighting me!"

"Heh…chill out, you big loser…" Sasuke smirked back. "From that loudmouth attitude of yours, I take it you won your first round battle?"

"Of course. And not just me! Sakura-chan totally kicked butt in her match!" Naruto said smugly, throwing his arm around her shoulders, making her stumble a little.

"Hey! Naruto—get off!" She protested, before her gaze slid over to Sasuke self consciously. All the genjutsu situations of love and arousal that Kurenai had ran her through suddenly hit her memory all at once, making her face feel drastically warmer.

"Seriously?! Why did I have to think about those now?!"

Sasuke, oblivious to Sakura's mental melt down, was busy sorting through his own rush of complex feelings at the sight of her. While he'd been away, he'd been laser focused on his training, except for the few moments where he was supposed to be resting. In that time, four people occupied the entirety of his mental space. Itachi, as always, Gaara, Naruto, and…Sakura. The first three came with varying degrees of resentment, jealousy, and rivalry, and Itachi of course came with hate. But Sakura didn't have any of those kinds of emotions attached to her. When he thought of Sakura, he felt…calmer. He wondered if she was ok, if she had figured out how to manage her condition, if her mom was doing alright. Was she taking care of herself, or had she once again deferred her own care for the sake of others? Was she training? Was it going well?…Did she think about him like this? Probably. But was that because it was him, or because she cared about others so much that this was how she thought about everyone? Did she…miss him? Was that what this was? Did he miss her? Since when? When did she start annoyingly taking up so much real estate in his mind? Those nights, he would toss and turn and eventually pull out the crane she'd given him, studying the cherry blossom patterns on it, before taking in the careful, delicate folds, thinking about the moment she gave it to him. The crane would eventually lead him to thoughts of his mother and how much she liked paper cranes, which would eventually spiral to the night she died which lead him back to thoughts of Itachi, and he was burning with hate again.

Now that she was actually standing in front of him, he was hit with an onslaught of those emotions…and it was making him feel uncomfortably warm. He scanned over her quickly. Her outfit was a little different. The skirt was a little shorter, as were the shorts she wore underneath it, and the top was sleeveless. She had a small cut on her arm, her hand was wrapped, and she seemed a little unsteady, which was unusual for her—she had the most solid balance of anyone he'd ever seen, but otherwise she seemed alright. Her opponent had been that sound ninja, who's attacks seemed to have a dizzying effect on people, so that was probably why.

"So you won too, Sakura?" Half of him was surprised. Her opponent had been strong enough to incapacitate Lee, and while Sakura was undoubtedly one of the smartest genin, and incredibly resourceful, she hadn't been much of a fighter—at least not until this point. Plus she had the handicap of her chakra weights (which he noted she wasn't currently wearing…had she broken Kakashi's rule? That was unlike her…). But the other half of him expected no less. Sakura was resourceful and determined. When she actually trained, she'd been able to master water dancing in a single night. So if she actually had used the month and trained, who knew what she was capable of.

"Yup!" Sakura answered with a beaming smile, which pulled a smirk from him. "Welcome back, Sasuke-kun!" Her musical voice sang happily, making…something…stir inside Sasuke's chest.

"Hn…" He quickly turned away from her, internally battling with how pleased he was to hear her say those words, and how annoying and distracting this feeling was. He had to focus on his match and getting stronger, not that warm look in Sakura's spring-like eyes.

She turned to their teacher, who was keenly studying his three students. "Uhh…about my win, Kakashi-sensei, I think I'm gonna need a new set of weights…"

"What?" Kakashi's gaze settled on her, eying her bare wrists. "I forbid you from taking them off…"

"You did. And I broke your rule to win my match…Sorry sensei…I have the 25% set with me… I'll put those on…"

"I see…we'll talk about it later." Kakashi said sternly, before his face and voice softened. "Congratulations, both of you." He really was proud of them, and wished he could have seen his matches…his habitual lateness really bit him in the ass this time. Speaking of his lateness…He turned to Genma, awkwardly rubbing at his neck. "Well, uh, flashy entrance not withstanding…don't tell me…Sasuke lost by forfeit?…See, I told you we'd be late, Sasuke." He said, trying to deflect the blame onto his student…it was 100% his own fault and he knew it, but what sort of self respecting teacher caused their own student to be late to an important promotional exam?

Sasuke of course knew what he was doing and immediately glared at him. Sakura and Naruto shared an exasperated look. Sasuke was always the first of them to arrive for mission briefings, meetings, and training sessions. There was no way he was the reason for his lateness. This had their sensei and his lame excuses written all over it.

"Sheesh," Genma snickered, "Maybe your tardiness is contagious?!"

"So…what's the deal?"

"Don't worry, you're safe! Sasuke's match was postponed. His match wasn't forfeited."

Kakashi gave an awkward laugh, scratching at the back of his head. "Oh, Good! Good!"

He and Sasuke both glanced up to where Gaara was glowering down at them. Sasuke glared back unwaveringly. Naruto and Sakura followed their gaze.

"Don't you dare lose to a guy like him!" Naruto said darkly. He'd seen Gaara in the hospital the day before—that guy was crazy. He was genuinely murderous. Sasuke needed to beat him. Both to stop him and to assure that Gaara wouldn't end up killing him.

"Yeah…" Sasuke answered, his tone mirroring Naruto's. He needed to get stronger. Beating Gaara was the first step towards killing Itachi.

Naruto stared at Sasuke seriously. You're one of the ones I want to fight…

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke jerked, confused by Naruto's sudden intensity.

"I…want to fight you, too!"

Sasuke's brow furrowed. The two glared at each other intensely. Sakura's eyes pinged between them.

"…It's like they're having a silent conversation…but…something's weird. They're too heated about this…it feels…"

"…Wrong."

"Yeah…" Sasuke agreed.

Naruto grinned, but it wasn't his usual sunny smile. This was more…combative.

Shikamaru shifted awkwardly, uncomfortable with having crashed this team 7 mini reunion. He really didn't belong there in that moment, although it was interesting to watch the dynamics up close. He'd talked at length with Sakura about her feelings for Sasuke over the course of their shogi sessions. How they started, how they evolved, why they evolved, what she saw in him, why she cared so much…and observing her brief interaction with him just now, he could see it clearly. Knowing what he knew about her feelings, it was obvious to him how much she genuinely loved Sasuke. It was totally different from Ino or all the other girls that went gaga over him. She was so subtle about it, especially in comparison to them…if you didn't know, you might miss it, but if you did know, it was impossible to not see. The interesting thing was that Sakura's feelings didn't seem to be as one-sided as she might think. He'd never been particularly close with Sasuke…never liked him much. And if he was being honest, he was a bit jealous of all the female attention the Uchiha got. But he'd still been in school with the guy for years, and occasionally had ended up following him courtesy of being dragged around by Ino. He knew him well enough to see that the way he looked at Sakura was…different. Sasuke had always looked at everyone with varying degrees of hostility, but not Sakura. There was nothing of the sort when he'd looked at her. It had been there with Naruto, but vanished when his gaze had drifted towards her. Shikamaru had seen the way his eyes scanned her, lingering on her injuries with something vaguely resembling concern. The way he said her name had been almost…gentle. Her smile had caused him to smirk—which was the closest thing the Uchiha ever came to smiling, in Shikamaru's experience. And the way he looked away when she greeted him, almost like it was overwhelming to him…It was impossible to tell if you didn't know him, hard to see if you weren't looking carefully, but if you did and you were, it was plainly obvious. Uchiha Sasuke felt something for Haruno Sakura—something he didn't feel with anyone else.

It was also interesting to see his and Naruto's dynamic up close. This was a relationship he was more familiar with, having clearly seen it play out throughout their time in the academy. But he had more insight to it now, after Sakura had asked him several questions about men and how they expressed rivalry. It had been obvious that her questions were about Naruto and Sasuke. She'd admitted as much. Their rivalry was more intense than any Shikamaru had ever seen, but there was a deep understanding that seemed to pass between the two of them. One he himself didn't understand at all, and could only witness it happening. It was like they were more than just rivals. More than just teammates. There was some sort of bond between them that ran deeper than anything Shikamaru had ever experienced.

Shikamaru blinked. Maybe those shogi sessions with Sakura had taught him more than he realized. He'd never been one to deeply analyze relationships between people before—Sakura was though…apparently she must have rubbed off on him. Shikamaru eyed Sasuke. It annoyed him that this jerk got away with everything, even being way late to his match…Oh well…he had to admit he was looking forward to this too, so he couldn't be too upset with having been rendered the opening act.

"Gaara, come down." Genma called.

"Naruto, Sakura, let's go back upstairs." Shikamaru said. Sasuke glanced over at him. What was Shikamaru doing down here anyways? The last match was Sakura's…had he come down to congratulate her? Why? When had they gotten so close? Sasuke tore his eyes away and forcefully shoved down his needling annoyance. He couldn't afford to think about it right now. It was a distraction from his short term and long term goal. Beating Gaara, getting stronger. Killing Itachi. That was all that mattered.

"Roger!" Naruto answered.

"And let's take the stairs this time, okay?!" Shikamaru called, pettily, rubbing at his shoulder.

"What! Are you still holding it against me that I shoved you?!" Naruto followed him towards the staircase.

Sakura looked over at Sasuke, her hand jumping to her hair and giving it a gentle tug.

"I don't know what I'm more concerned about…the fact that he's fighting Gaara—who's terrifying—of the fact that that curse mark is still there…and if it's anything like Neji's…it might never come off…"

"Be careful, Sasuke-kun…"

His eyes shot to her. Her eyes had that warmth in them and she looked…so worried. Why did she always worry about him so much? Ugh, he didn't have time for these kinds of thoughts! Why was she so annoyingly distracting?!

"Yeah…Get going already." He answered, looking resolutely away from her towards the stairs, waiting for Gaara to emerge.

"I'm in the way…he just wants to fight…"

She turned and followed Shikamaru and Naruto towards the stairs, trying not to let his cold dismissal bother her.

Genma put a hand on Kakashi's shoulder. "The matches are being recorded." He told him quietly. "You should check 'em out. Your kids are good."

"Good to hear…I'll do that." Actually it was a relief. He really hadn't wanted to miss either of their matches. Kakashi followed Sakura out after a brief nod to Sasuke.

---

"Hey! C'mon, hurry up!" Naruto called to the other three as he almost reached the landing.

"No good ever comes from rushing, you know." Shikamaru countered lazily.

Kakashi stiffened. He sensed a large and very murderous chakra making its way towards them…Gaara. It was enough to send a shiver down his spine…he couldn't let Sakura come across Gaara like this—she didn't even have any chakra weights on yet.

"You two go on ahead. And be careful. There's somethings I have to discuss with Sakura." He said, placing a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

Shikamaru and Naruto both looked towards them, their faces grave. They both understood at least part of what he meant…he had to talk to Sakura about her chakra condition. Shikamaru also caught the warning—something bad was coming, and if he had to guess, based on what he saw at the hospital the night before and whose match this was, that something bad was Gaara.

"But Sen—" She didn't even get to finish her protest before Kakashi whisked her away to the other side of the stadium, among a screaming crowd of spectators. Sakura blinked dizzily, swaying a little. She still wasn't fully recovered from her fight, and the speed at which Kakashi had moved her had been disorienting.

"First things first. Weights." Kakashi ordered.

Sakura nodded slowly, pulling out her 25% weights and putting them on. Kakashi activated them as soon as they were on her limbs, and she immediately felt the addition of her full body weight against her once more. She missed the light feeling she had without the weights, but she knew it was necessary. Not only for her chakra, but for her physical strength as well. She'd been shocked by how fast she could move without the weights, but she never would have gotten that fast if she never wore them in the first place. Besides, these were only 25%, so it was still less heavy than her 50% weights.

"I know what you want to talk about Sensei, but isn't this not really the best place or time?"

She asked, eyeing the screaming crowd surrounding them.

"It's too loud for anyone to overhear anything if we keep our voices down. And I'd never hear the end of it if I stopped you from watching this match." He said eyeing her bandaged hand and still bleeding cut on her arm. She'd clearly rejected medical attention for this. And Sakura was adamant about taking professional medical help when it was offered.

"If you say so…alright what did you want to talk about."

Kakashi turned to the railing, watching Gaara enter the arena and square up with Sasuke.

"Take care of your injuries." He ordered, eyes never leaving the ring. Sakura followed suit, facing the ring, while tending to the cuts on her arm and hand.

"I told you to never remove the weights."

"I know. I'm sorry. It was the only way I could think to beat him…and I was in an emotionally stable place, so…"

"I'm having you wear them for a reason Sakura."

"I know. I swear, I never took them off once during the past month, unless I was changing levels."

"So where did the 50% weights go? You took them off, but is there a reason you don't have them on you?"

"Uhh…yeah, well…I sorta put them on Dosu."

Kakashi blinked. When she said she took them off to win her match, he thought she'd just removed them to fight without a handicap…

"You put them on Dosu?"

"After I got him to waste over half his chakra…"

Sakura had always been analytically smart. He knew that, having seen it firsthand. But when it came to tactical thinking, especially in the moment, she had always frozen up. It happened with Zabuza and Haku. Her match with Ino had involved almost no tactical thinking at all. Weaponizing her weights to trap the enemy…that was a whole new form of intelligence…He'd long ago come to terms with the fact that Sakura had a lot of potential. It seemed she was living up to it, despite her curse of a kekkei genkai.

"…I'll get the medical staff to return them to me. Until then, you are to never remove the weights you're wearing. Am I understood?"

"Yes sensei."

Sakura looked down at the ring, where Gaara and Sasuke stood facing each other.

"…Kakashi-sensei…That mark on Sasuke-kun's neck…it's still…"

"It's nothing to worry about."

"Oh…that's a relief." Sakura murmured with a soft smile, though the concern hadn't left her eyes.

"Sakura…" She worried about others too much. Her own condition was fatal and she was worrying more about Sasuke's curse mark, which she didn't even fully understand. "I worked with Sasuke the whole month. He'll be fine. Naruto had a teacher overseeing his training as well. I'm sorry I didn't find someone to oversee yours…I was hoping…"

"I know sensei…it's okay. You left me the weights and gave me a direction to go in…"

"How did your training go?"

"I have a way to manage attacks now…to make sure I don't die from them."

Kakashi's eye shot to her. How did she figure that out? "What is it?"

"I have a notebook with my data, but essentially, if I calm down, or get knocked out the response slows to a stop. It takes about twenty minutes from the moment I calm or go unconscious for the attack to stop entirely."

"Begin!" Genma called. Sakura's attention shot to the match, her report temporarily forgotten.

---

Gaara glared at Sasuke, sand starting to flow from his gourd.

Sasuke leapt back rapidly. So this was the sand Kakashi had told him about…

Gaara suddenly grabbed at his head in pain. "Please…don't be so angry…"

Huh? Who was he…

"…Mother…" Gaara's voice sounded…insane. What was he talking about…? Weird. And unsettling.

"I…gave you bad tasting blood earlier, didn't I? I'm sorry…but…don't worry…this time…I'm sure it'll be really tasty…"

Sasuke eyed him warily. What the hell was wrong with this guy…?

Gaara's head gave another painful throb. His hands fell away from where they'd been clutching his red hair. He was huffing as if he were already well into the battle, but he seemed slightly less…unhinged. Finally he looked up. "Come."

"Here I come."

Sasuke chucked two shuriken at him, but the only collided with a pillar of sand, which slowly began to morph into a sand version of Gaara. A sand clone. It held Sasuke's shuriken in it's fingers. The sand clone suddenly sent a wave of sand from its center, straight for Sasuke. He quickly leapt up high into the air, throwing two more shuriken. The sand clone tossed the shuriken it was holding, countering the ones Sasuke had thrown. Sasuke landed on the ground on one hand, swinging his leg to kick the sand clone, which blocked with its hands. The sand burst at the contact. Sasuke brought his other hand to the ground and pushed off, flipping his body so his feet now were on the ground and his fist backhanded into the sand clones neck. The sand began to close around his wrist, trapping him, but Sasuke struck up at the clone's face with his palm, bursting the clone and freeing himself. He darted at Gaara, fist raised, but Gaara didn't so much as flinch, his sand shield coming up between him and Sasuke's oncoming fist. Sasuke smirked, his foot pivoting fast, the second before his hand came into contact with the sand barrier. He suddenly appeared behind Gaara.

Gaara's eyes widened. He was fast! Just like…him…Rock Lee. He could practically see Lee shadowed in Sasuke's movements. How was that possible?!

Sasuke's fist slammed into Gaara's face, causing the sand covering it to crack, and sending Gaara flying backwards into the ground.

"Is that your sand armor?" Sasuke asked, confidently, his fighting stance and exact copy of Lee's. One hand behind his back, the other extended out in front of him. "Come!" He ordered, as Gaara had done in the beginning of the battle.

Gaara didn't move. "If you're not going to come to me, I'll go to you!" He charged at Gaara so fast, he was just a blur, skirting around behind him. Gaara's sand rushed to intercept, but Sasuke wove around, unbelievably fast, back to Gaara's front and landed a hard kick to his face, sending him flying back, though his sand managed to catch him.

"What's the matter…that all you can do?" Sasuke taunted. That sand armor Gaara wore…he'd rip it off of him. Sasuke rushed at Gaara, just a blur and a dust trail. He ducked under Gaara's sand, planting one hand and leg on the ground to steady himself while he kicked up hard, breaking the sand around Gaara's chin. He pivoted, switching his supporting leg, grabbing Gaara's clothes with both hands and yanking him into meet his oncoming knee straight to the stomach, sending Gaara flying back once again.

---

Sakura's jaw dropped.

"It looks just like Lee-san's Taijutsu…and his speed is…How did he attain that level so quickly?!"

"Sensei…just what kind of training did you do with him…the way he fights…it's like Lee-san! But that took Lee-san years to master! How did you…?"

"Sasuke mimicked Lee's taijutsu using his Sharingan once before…so during his taijutsu training, I just had him visualize Lee's movements. Because Sasuke knew Lee, he was able to master those moves. Of course, it was still extremely difficult."

"That's…amazing. Sasuke-kun truly is a genius. He's so strong. Naruto too. It was like Neji's gentle fist had no effect on him—no that wasn't it, it had effected him, but he somehow undid it. And his chakra…it was so strong, it was visible. My teammates are unbelievably strong…but I…"

"The hell are you talking about?! We kicked ass, shannaro!"

"No…I don't have the raw strength that they do…dancing is something I'm good at and it took me a whole month just to turn it into an attack—not even a full combat style, just one attack. Sasuke-kun saw Lee's moves once and can copy them perfectly. And if Naruto could overcome the most skilled byakugan user's gentle fist, then my barrage would have no effect against him. They're on an entirely different level than me…"

"So? They live on the training grounds, while we have to take care of mom. Besides, they probably only focused on combat training that whole month—we had to worry about controlling our chakra condition, which cut our combat training time in half. We're totally badass for doing as much as we did!"

"But that's always going to be the case…which means I'll always be running behind them…"

Kakashi glanced over at Sakura's saddened downcast eyes. It was just like when she needed to take a break during her tree climbing exercise while the boys kept at it.

"Sakura. You didn't have the resources available to you that those boys had. Up until now you haven't had the time. When you got the time, because of the circumstances, you didn't have a teacher. All you had was one exercise to work with, and that wasn't even for the sake of your combat strength. Yet you still managed to win your match against a very tough opponent, who, if I'm being honest, practically no one expected you to beat. You don't have the raw strength the boys do, but if they were left completely alone without any teacher or direction, I don't think they'd be able to self teach the way you do. They'd only be able to train what they know, not learn something entirely new. Even Sasuke needs someone to show him something once. But no one ever showed you water walking, let alone water dancing, you just taught it to yourself. You're able to translate theory into practice better than some jonin I know. And your chakra control is kilometers ahead of any genin here…probably even better than some jonin present." Words of comfort really weren't his thing, but this girl got the short end of the stick one too many times…his whole team had, as far as personal lives went, but at least, in regards to their ninja careers, Naruto and Sasuke were both gifted, though in different ways, while Sakura was…cursed. Her outburst in the hospital had never left his head.

That's so unfair! Sasuke-kun gets awesome magic eyes, Naruto gets never ending stamina and heals from everything within a goddamned day, and I get to most likely die within the next three years?! What the hell kind of ability is that?!

It had been the most her age he ever heard her sound, and she was right…it was unfair. If there was anyone who deserved words of comfort, who needed an ego stroking, it was Sakura. So even if it wasn't his thing, he'd do his best to give them.

"Plus none of them had to learn how to manage a deadly chakra abnormality…speaking of which, you haven't finished filling me in."

Sakura's eyes were wide, struck by her sensei's kind words and gentle encouragement. It wasn't something she expected from him, so it caught her off guard. But even if her own head had made those arguments to her before, they hit differently coming from her Sensei. They held more weight and believability. Kakashi wasn't one for sugar coating, and he didn't hold back when it came to calling out faults. If he was saying this out loud, it was what he truly felt and thought. And that was a comfort to her. A small smile broke on her face.

"Oh…right…uh, thank you, Kakashi-sensei. So the faster the reaction stops, the less damage it does. I'm still working on calming myself down on my own, but I mixed an oral sedative of varying strengths that works. Sometimes I can self administer, but I'm still working on that, so it's likely I'll need an ally to do it. I have a few doses of each on me, and I gave one to Naruto, earlier, and explained to him what to do."

"Give one to me as well."

Sakura nodded and handed him a vial of dark purple liquid. "This is the stronger one, which will knock me out. I gave Naruto the weaker one, which helps me calm down. In a worst case scenario knocking me out by force works too."

"How'd you learn all this?"

"That's…a long story. I'll explain later—like I said, I have a notebook…but I know I'm right about this."

"At least…I seem to be…"

Sakura turned her attention back to the match. Kakashi seemed more worried about her and her curse than her own mother. If he'd gone as far as to try and discourage her from being a shinobi, then he probably wouldn't be happy to hear that she'd used herself as a test subject and repeatedly triggered her kekkei genkai. It would become an argument that would take too much attention, and she needed to focus on Sasuke and the match.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura and Kakashi both turned at the sound of Naruto's frantic voice. It was the first time she actually looked around this section of the stadium. Lee, on crutches, and Gai were standing on some steps a little ways away. They weren't far from where Ino and Choji were sitting either. It was the first time Ino noticed them standing there as well, because she broke into a wide grin and gave Sakura a thumbs up. Sakura returned her smile quickly, before she turned back to her blond teammate, moving up a few steps towards him. Kakashi followed her. Naruto stood at the edge of the steps, a tired looking Shikamaru plopped down next to him on the floor.

"Naruto!" Lee called in excitement. He was thrilled to hear that Naruto had beaten Neji…as well as being a little jealous. After all, Sasuke had copied his taijutsu and speed, which took him years, in one month, and Naruto had beaten his arch rival. He'd been told that even fair Sakura had won her match against the sound ninja who'd beaten him badly…he felt…left behind. Weak.

"Yo! What's up?" Kakashi called casually.

"Kakashi-sensei! Please stop this match right away! He's completely different from the rest of us! He's not normal!"

"Naruto…what are you talking about—?" Ino murmured. She'd never heard Naruto sound so…scared.

"He lives to kill others! And…if they keep going, Sasuke'll die! Don't just stand there, Kakashi-sensei, you have to stop this match!"

"Well, don't worry about it!" Kakashi said placidly. "There was a reason why we were so late getting here!"

"Sensei…what do you mean by that?" Sakura asked, looking up at her teacher.

"Hmm…? You really want to know?"

"I'm telling you, this isn't the time to be chatting!" Naruto shouted.

"Just be quiet and watch him…you'll be surprised." Kakashi answered calmly.

---

Sasuke watched in surprise as Gaara encased himself in an orb of sand. He ran at the shell, hoping to land a hit before it completely closed around Gaara, but this time, the sand was faster. As Sasuke's fist neared the surface, it closed around the only remaining part of Gaara that was visible—his eye—and spiked out, cutting Sasuke on his arm, face, and leg.

Sasuke grunted and stumbled back. He'd mobilized his sand into defensive mode…because of sand's density, he didn't think Gaara could create something that solid…but his throbbing, bruised, and bleeding knuckles were evidence to the contrary. So this was the meaning of an absolute defense, huh?

Sasuke stared as an eye formed in the sand along the dome, watching him. He had no idea what he was doing in there…he could faintly hear muttering, but couldn't make out what Gaara was saying. Sasuke smirked and wiped at the cut on his face. It was time to really show what he'd been training that whole month. Sasuke jumped around the perimeter of the dome, checking for any weaknesses. It was no good, just as he figured. Well Gaara shutting himself inside there was fine by him, his next move was going to take time too…

Sasuke flipped back until he was half way up the arena wall, he planted himself the same way he would on a tree, and began weaving hand signs, focusing his chakra in to his left arm.

His arm began to heat, as his chakra surrounded it, manifesting around it like electricity. A sound similar to birdlike chirping filled the air. Sasuke tore down the wall, his arm dragging a cratering trail in his wake.

Gaara was unaware of Sasuke's encroaching move from inside the dome.

"Uh-huh…I'm going to tear his head off…and crack it open and spill his brains. Huh? His head. I said…If I do that, he'll bleed a lot…and I'll give it all to you. Heh heh! I'm always a good boy…Uh-huh, let's do it! Mother…I'll watch."

Sasuke sprinted at Gaara's sand dome. The sand eye removed itself from the dome, floating a little in front of it and watching him.

---

"The reason I took Sasuke under my wing, is because he's very similar to me."

"Flesh activation?!" Gai muttered, shocked. "I see, so that's why you had him focus on taijutsu and increase his speed so much!"

"Yup!" Kakashi smiled.

"Wh-what the?! What is that?!" Naruto shouted.

Sakura stiffened.

"That sound! I've heard it before…like bird song with no pattern…didn't…didn't Kakashi-sensei do something like this in the Land of Waves?"

"Sensei…you've used something like this before, haven't you?"

"That's right. Against Zabuza. I'm surprised you recognized it."

Sakura shook her head. "I couldn't see it before cause of his mist. But I heard this sound before…you called it, chidori, right? What kind of move is that?"

"It's just a hand chop…" Gai answered.

"Huh?"

"However, it's a unique original move…crafted by Konoha's top jutsu master, copy ninja Kakashi. It's a move reserved for assassination. The secret is in the speed of the thrust and the immense chakra produced by super activating one's flesh. By narrowly focusing massive amounts of chakra from the dominant hand, a pulsing fluctuation forms in the thrust, resulting in a unique attack sound that resembles the crying of birds. Accordingly, the move is called Chidori: 1000 birds. Also known as Raikiri—lightening blade." Gai explained.

They watched wide eyed as Sasuke thrust his hand into the dome, managing to pierce through.

"Lightening blade?"

"The lightening blade is its nickname, because Kakashi once sliced lightening using this jutsu."

"Huh? How's that…possible?"

Ino wasn't sure she believed it, looking skeptically at Kakashi.

"Its formal jutsu name is chidori, and its secrets lie in the almost impossible speed of its stroke and the immense chakra focused in the arm that transforms it into a blade that can cut through anything. But how could you have taught him such a reckless move…?"

"Like you really have any right to criticize me…right, Lee?" Kakashi chided lightly, though his eyes fell on Sakura. Gai had more right to criticize than he realized.

"That's an incredible move!" Sakura muttered. "His chakra's visible…it looks like lightening."

"It is. Sort of. His chakra manifested as lightening due to his elemental proficiency. Like a much more intense version of his fireballs."

Lee swallowed hard. He understood. If it had been him, he wouldn't have launched a head-on full-speed attack on his opponent like that…or rather, he couldn't have. A beeline attack was easy to counter or avoid, and he didn't have the eye to perceive and see through that counter…he truly envied Sasuke's genes. When he'd faced him that first time, he'd said "it doesn't matter what your eye can see if your body's too weak to act…" He'd been basking in a sense of superiority back then. But now…Sasuke had attained a high-speed body just like his…and he possessed the sharingan as well! Sasuke…was truly a genius.

Naruto's knuckles were white on the railing, his teeth clenched. Sasuke had learned a move as strong as that?! No fair! He'd have to work harder if he wanted to beat him. He had to have a move as powerful as Sasuke's to counter him. Could he learn the chidori?!

Shikamaru smirked. Their relationship was just like Sakura had described. He'd been so worried about Sasuke before and now he was totally jealous!

---

Sasuke's hand pierced the sand dome and Gaara. The sand tightened around Sasuke's arm, preventing him from easily tugging it out.

Gaara's eyes darted to Sasuke's arm, invading his dome. "What…is this…warm moistness? Mother…what happened?" Gaara's eyes widened as he stared down at his shoulder. Was he…was he actually…Gaara screamed. "Blood…I'm bleeding!"

Sasuke's arm gave a painful throb. "Ugh!" He tried to pull his arm out, but he was caught by the sand. He focused his chakra into his arm, strengthening his chidori even more. He managed to pull his arm out a little, but it was like something was gripping him, holding onto his arm. As he pulled out more, it became evident that that was indeed what was happening. Something was gripping him—something large with claws. Something not human. Sasuke yanked his arm away and jumped back as the thing swiped at him. The claw slowly receded back into the hole Sasuke had pierced in the dome.

With his sharingan activated, Sasuke could see Gaara's eye through the hole…but it wasn't Gaara's…that eye was something…inhuman. A shudder ran through him…whatever that thing was…it was terrifying.

Genma felt the energy sizzling around him…what was this sensation?

The sand dome slowly collapsed, revealing Gaara clutching at his shoulder as blood dripped down his arm.

Sasuke stared in shock. No…those weren't his eyes! Wh-what was that earlier?!

---

Sakura felt a ripple across the back of her neck that she had grown very familiar with.

Feathers started falling around the stands. One by one spectators began to drift off to sleep. Kakashi and Gai looked around sharply. What was going on?!

Naruto's mind felt hazy. Huh…what the…why did he see feathers…where…Naruto fell fast asleep.

"Kakashi! This is…!" Gai shouted.

"Yeah…genjutsu!"

"Release!" They both shouted.

"Genjutsu?! Where's it coming from? Who's casting it?"

"Maybe ask after we break it, shannaro!"

"Release!"

There was a loud explosion from the central viewing tower. Smoke filled the air obscuring the view. Kakashi, Gai, Sasuke and Sakura all looked towards the explosion in shock.

"What the hell is going on?!"

"Obviously, we're under some kind of attack!"

Ninja in hoods and masks began jumping all over the stadium.

"Are those…Anbu?"

There was a blur of movement from the central viewing tower as the Kazekage leapt up onto the roof, holding the Hokage in a headlock, a kunai poised at his neck.

Four ninja in masks leapt after them, their disguise falling away to reveal sound ninja.

"After them!" An Anbu called.

The sound ninja surrounded the Kazekage and Hokage on all four corners of the roof.

"Do it!" The Kazekage ordered.

"Ninja art: Shishienjin! Four flames formation!"

A flaming barrier surrounded the two Kage.

Sound ninja leapt up converging on an Anbu standing along the stadium, who had his fingers in a hand sign.

"Sheesh…" Kakashi murmured…that made nine enemies that had successfully disguised themselves as Anbu.

"There was a ninth traitor…" Gai murmured, confirming his thoughts.

Everything was in chaos. "If those are sound ninja, then Orochimaru has to be the one behind this!" Immediately her eyes found Sasuke in the arena. Temari and Kankurou had jumped down and were now standing on either side of Gaara, while their Jonin sensei stood in front of them. Genma had placed himself in front of Sasuke.

---

Sasuke looked up in surprise as Genma slid himself in front of him. His arm was throbbing painfully, but too much was happening to focus on that. Temari, Kankurou and their Jonin sensei, Baki, had joined Gaara in the ring.

"Gaara, the plan…" Baki stopped short when he saw Gaara clutching at his head.

"Hey…" Temari knew that was a bad sign.

"What's wrong?" Kankurou asked.

Gaara collapsed to his knees, clutching his head, groaning and shaking.

"Idiot…I can't believe he would try to undergo complete possession without waiting for the signal…" Baki growled.

"He's suffering a reaction. He can't do it anymore!" Temari shouted, kneeling next to him. He may have been a monster but he was still her baby brother…

"Then what are we supposed to do?! You want us to go ahead without Gaara?!" Kankurou shouted back…the plan was going all to hell!

Sasuke jolted. What were they talking about? All of this was pre-planned?

"Ugh…" Baki grunted watching Gaara tremble in pain. "I'm calling it off! You two take Gaara and withdraw for now!" He ordered.

"What about you, Master?!" Temari challenged, while Kankuro knelt and threw one of Gaara's arms around his neck, muttered a curse under his breath.

"I'm going to help fight. Go!"

"Y-yes sir!"

The three leapt away.

"Is the host of this little party…Orochimaru?" Genma asked.

Sasuke stiffened at the name. That guy…he was the one who cursed him with that stupid mark and set Sakura's curse off…so he was behind all this? Somehow it wasn't surprising.

"Who knows…? Let's just amp things up a bit, shall we…?"

"Hey! Wh-what's going on?!" Sasuke had enough—he needed answers.

"Sorry, but the chunin exam is over. You go after Gaara and the others, right now!" Genma ordered.

Sasuke's jaw dropped, unable to process what was just said to him.

"You're already at chunin level. If you consider yourself a Konoha shinobi, do something useful…"

Sasuke grew serious looking at the scene around him…sheesh, what the heck was going on? But when it was put to him like that, he supposed he had no choice…Sasuke quickly leapt away after the sand trio.

---

It was a mess. Sakura watched as Sasuke hopped away, chasing after the retreating sand trio.

"It's quite a crowed…" Kakashi muttered, examining the sound ninja standing at the ready nearby.

"That's not all. There's something even worse. Look over toward the roof of the central viewing tower."

"That's a barrier ninjutsu…!"

"Wh-what on earth is going on?"

"Kakashi, look closely inside the barrier!"

Kakashi's eye widened, as a cold feeling ran down his spine. "Orochimaru!"

Sakura stiffened. "Orochimaru?! So he's not just behind it…he's actually here! What's he doing here? Don't tell me he's after Sasuke-kun again!…At least he left but Orochimaru must have something in place to account for that…right?! He can't just be attacking here, he must be attacking the whole village somehow so…any of them might catch Sasuke-kun! This is really bad!"

"We really do attract the worst luck, don't we?!"

Sakura whirled to face her sensei, to warn him, but froze when she saw two sound ninja rushing at her. Her first instinct was to jump out of the way, but she stopped herself.

"There are civilians behind me! If I move, they could get hurt!"

"Well do something to defend us then, shannaro!"

She pulled out a kunai, holding it out in front of her and silently counting her blessings that her left hand was the one that was wounded instead of her dominant right.

Kakashi's eye shot to Sakura…she was still awake…and she was in danger. He was in front of her in a second, shoving a kunai into the side of both sound ninja's heads. He had to get Sakura out of here and as far away from Orochimaru as possible, because that man would definitely set her off…he was also worried about Sasuke…the weird chakra he sensed from Gaara, and that demonic arm that had burst from the sand dome were concerning…Too much was going on at once and none of it was good.

"Sakura, stay there and stay low for a second…I'll go thin out the enemy ranks." He said, giving her a reassuring smile that he didn't feel in the slightest.

"But Sensei—" He jumped away before she had a chance to warn him of the danger Sasuke was in.

Gai and Kakashi fought back to back, knocking down enemy after enemy.

"Damn it…I'm worried about Hokage-sama, but…" Gai trailed off to pound another sound ninja's head in.

"Leave that to Anbu black ops agents. Besides, Hokage-sama isn't the type to be taken down so easily…he is the Hokage, after all."

Kakashi leapt over to where Sakura was kneeling between rows.

"Sakura! You really do have a talent for genjutsu…"

"…I've been training a lot with it…" She answered,

"You'll have to tell me about it later. For now, undo the genjutsu on Shikamaru and Naruto and wake them up! I've got another mission for you…"

"Naruto'll be happy to hear that…What do you need us to do?"

"It'll take your full focus…an A-rank assignment, the likes you haven't seen since The Land of Waves mission!" Even as he said it, he couldn't shake the feeling that this was a mistake to send her.

"An A-rank assignment under these conditions?! Plus I have my curse…can I really handle this?!"

"We wanted to do this, shannaro! We can't back out from a hard mission just cause of our curse—otherwise we should have quit a month back at that hospital!"

"That's right! I have to do this! I can handle this!"

"What do you need us to do, Sensei?"

"Sasuke is pursuing Gaara and the other sand ninja. Sakura…you undo the genjutsu on Naruto and Shikamaru and chase after Sasuke…there's something concerning about Gaara's chakra. You probably noticed something off with him, too. You need to be careful, Sakura, and stay calm. No matter what. You said both you and Naruto have that sedative on you?"

"Yes. I understand. Do you want me to wake Ino-chan and Choji, to give you guys back up?"

"No need. I don't want to risk them getting in the way. And I suspect there's a large number of sand and sound ninja in the village, taking to large a group with you might attract too much attention."

"Right. The basic principal of three man squads." Sakura nodded.

"Four."

"Four? Are you coming with us, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Summoning jutsu!" There was a poof and a small droopy looking dog with a vest and a Konoha hitai-ate appeared in front of Kakashi.

"Not me. Pakkun will track Sasuke for you!"

"That's one of the dogs he summoned against Zabuza…"

"Our fourth teammate…is a little doggie?" If they were gonna track him this way, she'd rather go find Kiba and Akamaru…although that would probably take too long. He and Hinata had been on an entirely different side of the stadium.

"Hey, you! Little girl! Don't you dare call me a cute little doggie!"

Sakura twitched.

"I didn't even say cute, you ugly mutt!"

"Don't call me little girl, and you got a deal." She growled back.

"Heh, I like you, you're spunky and you smell like flowers and rain."

"…thanks."

"All right! Sakura, you're clear! Undo the genjutsu on Naruto and Shikamaru. Stay low."

"Okay!"

Sakura quickly and carefully made her way over to Naruto. She focused her chakra and tapped two fingers to his shoulder. "Release!"

"Huh?" Naruto mumbled groggily. "…Eh? What happened?…Sakura-chan?" He sat up sleepily rubbing at his eyes. Sakura's arm was immediately around him, shoving him down.

"I'll tell you later! Stay down!" She ordered.

"Huh?!"

Sakura crawled over to Shikamaru, preparing to break the genjutsu, but paused, her eyes narrowing.

"Shikamaru, you…from the get go…?!"

"I know he's lazy, but seriously?! Now's so not the time!"

Pakkun bit down on his calf. Shikamaru suddenly shot up with a yelp of pain.

"You knew how to reverse genjutsu too! Why were you pretending to be asleep?!"

He grunted, holding Pakkun up by the vest and pulling at his cheek. "I didn't want to get dragged into it! No thanks…I don't care about Sasuke…"

Pakkun chomped down on his hand at the same time Sakura punched him across the face. Naruto stared wide eyed. Outside of a battle, Sakura hardly ever punched anyone other than him. It was weird to see her go off on a different person.

"Oww! What the hell?!"

"You may not care, but that's my teammate you're abandoning." Sakura replied heatedly, though her eyes swam with hurt.

Shikamaru stared at her, holding his bruised cheek. His expression softening. He and Sakura were good friends, and he knew how much Sasuke meant to her. He might not care for Sasuke, but he did care about Ino, Sakura, and…hell, he cared about Naruto too. And if anything happened to Sasuke, they'd be devastated.

"This'll be a drag, but whatever." He muttered.

Naruto stared out at the sleeping stands of people, the blurs of black whizzing around and the sounds of metal striking metal. "Wh-What the hell? What's…?!"

Sakura turned in time to see a sound ninja rushing at Naruto from behind.

"Naruto, behind you…!" She shouted as she tackled her blond teammate to the ground. She felt a whoosh of air pass over her back, and heard a loud slamming sound. Looking up, they saw Gai, his fist buried in the sound ninja's stomach, pinning him against the back wall, which now had several large cracks in it.

"Fast…" The sound ninja choked out.

"I'm not just fast." Gai smirked, before giving a cry of spirit, drilling his fist so hard into the man, that he punched a hole through the stone wall, sending the enemy ninja flying through it.

"Gai-sensei!" Sakura cried in relief.

Kakashi slid in front of Naruto. "Okay, here's your mission! Once you've heard it, head out through that hole! Chase after Sasuke, converge on him, and stop him! And then watch and wait somewhere safe until you receive new orders!"

"Did something happen to Sasuke?!" Naruto shouted, confused.

"I'll explain on the way! Let's go!" Sakura said, grabbing him and gracefully leaping out the hole, completely ignoring Naruto's shout of surprise, Pakkun at her heels.

"Sheesh, why me…" Shikamaru grumbled, following after them.

Gai turned to Kakashi. "Do you think just three of them will be enough?"

"Pakkun's with them. They'll be alright for now…as long as they don't push too much…" He really hoped he hadn't just made a huge mistake sending Sakura towards Gaara…But it was that or keeping her here near Orochimaru. Neither were good options. Hopefully they caught up to Sasuke before he engaged Gaara. Sakura didn't scare easily and had a lot of emotional control. With Shikamaru, Naruto, and Sasuke there, all of whom seemed to care about her in their own way, she should be safe. Ideally. If not, he'd just have to trust her sedative and ability to calm down…he shook his head and turned his focus back to the situation at hand, trying to fight the sinking feeling that he just sent his student off to her death.

---

Author's note: So there was Sakura utilizing her training to win her battle with Dosu. This was a scene that was rattling around in my head for a long time. In my head when I say she dances to music, I imagine it's various pieces of the Naruto/Naruto Shippuden Soundtracks, including openings and closings. Although for this particular dance, I was listening to Taylor Davis's instrumental cover of the Attack on Titan theme-which is on Spotify if you want to check it out.

Aside from the entire additional battle, I think the biggest change is that Hinata's present for Naruto's fight. In the Manga she isn't fully over her injury from Neji, and has some kind of stress induced relapse. But becasue I have her training with Sakura for a whole month prior, that wouldn't make much sense. I also want the other canon ships to have a stronger foundation, and I think having her there lays the ground work for NaruHina a bit more. It's also why I included Shikamaru actually being impressed with Temari during their batttle. I believe it's retconned in that Hinata gets kidnapped while she's knocked out during the finals/invasion, and Neji saves her which is like Neji's clean slate...if anyone cares strongly about that, it happens when Hinata and Kiba get put under the genjutsu and fall asleep, having recognized it as genjutsu but not dispelling it in time.

I hope this chapter read smoother than the preliminaries did!

Thank you so much for all the follows/favs and especially the reviews! You guys are the best! I'm so happy you enjoy reading this! Please keep it up, reveiws keep me writing!

Thank you so much for reading this far! :)