They were taking the Chūnin Exams.

Kakashi came and handed them the pamphlets, told them it was their individual choice and then took off. And he was incredibly pleased to see all three arrive together the day of the first exam. Mikoto had walked them-- she hasn't let any of them go anywhere without someone escorting them to and from.

Sasuke hated it, she knew, but he never protested.

"Good luck," She whispered to each of them, kissing them all on the cheek before she waved to Kakashi.

They heard snickers from some of the other genin, and when Sakura saw Sasuke's eye twitch, she hauled both of her boys into the building with Kakashi bringing up the rear.

"This is it," Kakashi told them, stopping as they reached the staircase. "Good luck."

They all grinned, pushing forward and made their way to the crowd on the second floor. They pushed towards the front and Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the two ninjas guarding the door. The transformed proctors denied their entry and that's when Sasuke noticed the genjutsu.

"You already noticed, right, Sakura?" He asked her, glancing back with a smug smile on his features.

Sakura grinned, not caught off guard by the compliment like she had been in her old life. "This is the second floor."

The crowd broke into whispers as the genjutsu broke at her words.

"Okay, so you can see through petty illusions," The shinobi taunted, stepping forward to hit Sasuke.

Her teammates kick was only stopped by Lee, who was in turn scolded by Neji and Sakura felt whatever air she had in her lungs promptly disappear. She didn't think something like this would still affect her, but seeing Neji like this: up and walking, insufferably narcissistic and honestly just a plain ass, it made her think back to the war.

They had to fight Neji when he was reanimated. She had been the one to knock him down long enough for Lee to seal him away. And he had thanked her and requested that she look after everyone.

Neji and Sakura were not exactly close friends in her old life, but his death still stung and seeing a chance to save him in this life made her want to cry. Fortunately, she was saved from breaking down when someone came walking towards her. Someone in green spandex.

Sakura shouldn't even be surprised that she caught Lee's eyes.

Oh, she did not miss this. She wondered if she could place Lee's more, erm, matured self into the thirteen year old in front of her. He proclaimed her beauty and his love for her even when they were older, but he had the decency to knock it down a notch or eleven.

"Hey, beautiful girl! Will you be my girlfriend?"

Sakura blanched at his words, taking a step back before both of her teammates appeared in front of her.

"Oi, bushy-brows, that's no way to talk to Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled at him. Though, it didn't deter Lee as he processed her name.

"Oh! Sakura-san! What a fitting name for a creature that embodies the life of spring!"

"We have an exam to take," Sasuke reminded them, his narrowed eyes focused on Lee.

"But Sakura-san has not answered my question," Lee protested and he suddenly appeared in front of her. "So?"

"Uh," She started weakly, plastering on a forced smile. The boys swiveled and stared at Lee with matching expressions of shock. "No, thank you. I don't even know your name."

Lee promptly berated himself for foregoing every basic there was when trying to court a lady. Sakura was distantly aware of Neji and Sasuke exchanging names.

"C'mon guys," Sakura said loudly, inching past Lee and grabbing ahold of her boys. They protested for only a moment but let her drag them all the way to the exam room. When they opened the door, Sakura wasn't necessarily surprised by the amount of ninja in the room.

The boys, however, were a bit caught off guard.

"So many," Naruto breathed out.

"Sasuke-kun!" Ino yelled, throwing herself onto Sasuke. Even though they were still close friends in this time, she still had a crush on Sasuke.

Sakura couldn't wait for Ino's crush to subside.

"Pig, get off Sasuke-kun."

Ino stuck out her tongue. "Make me, Billboard Brow."

"Troublesome woman, stop being so loud," Shikamaru complained, coming up to them with Choji by his side. "You three are here too?"

"Yeah, the rookie 9 are all together!" Kiba shouted, coming over and throwing his arm around Naruto. "Surprised the loser team managed to get an invite, though."

"I'll show you what the loser team can do-"

And things began to play out as they once did. They attracted a bit too much attention to themselves and Kabuto made his grand appearance. Sakura tensed as he introduced himself and pretended to be a friend rather than foe. He integrated himself into their little group like the slimy person he was, showing them cards and getting attacked by one of the sound ninja.

So, things were still the same? Orochimaru was posing as a ninja and he was interested in Sasuke?

Best to proceed assuming so.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke muttered while Kabuto explained something to Naruto.

"Nerves," She whispered back, trying her best to relax, even with Sasuke's questioning gaze on her. She wasn't even sure when he managed to detach Ino from his arm, having been too anxious over Kabuto. She needed to focus.

"You'll be fine," Sasuke reassured her and she looked at him in surprise.

"You said it before," He continued with a small smile. "We're Team 7. We have each other's backs. Always."

"Yeah," She agreed softly. In the background, she heard Ibiki order them to do something.

Sasuke lightly touched her arm, gesturing for them to listen to whatever Ibiki had said. She was almost embarrassed by how quickly her anxiety settled in that moment, but once she was seated and she was looking at the test in front of her, the anxiety returned.

She wasn't worried about this test-- she had aced it the first time around. And they would pass because Naruto never gave up, no matter what lifetime it was.

Things went about the same, more or less. She felt Sasuke's pain as Ibiki revealed they were scored as a team-- though she didn't worry too much this time around. Naruto made a rousing speech that motivated everyone to stay after the few gave up and Ibiki passed the entirety of the room.

It was as it should be.

When they were all led to the Forest of Death, Sakura felt her nerves return. There was so much that was about to happen that she needed to change. Or well, just one pretty big moment. Anko handed out the permission slips and everyone went their separate ways to read it over.

Last time, Sakura ran into Ino and spent most of the time swapping insults with her best friend. But this time was not the same.

She felt a hand land lightly on her shoulder and before she could even put a hand on her weapons pouch, she heard Shisui's voice.

"Hey, imouto, come with me for a second."

He didn't let her respond before they both vanished from the area. When they landed, Sakura felt a bit imbalanced for a few moments. She slowly looked up once the world didn't feel wobbly and saw that Itachi was there too.

"Is everything okay?" She asked immediately.

Both Uchiha's looked at one another. Shisui took the initiative to answer.

"The village has a. . . working theory about the attack," Shisui started, his normally charming demeanor falling into one of grim seriousness. "There's been talk about an old traitor to the village. Orochimaru."

Sakura tensed at his name, though she had known where this conversation was going.

"One of his supporters attacked Izumi yesterday," Itachi told her quietly. "She's fine. She was on her way back to the village and is resting at the hospital now."

"But it means that the attack wasn't isolated to a single strike," Shisui continued. "Someone is targeting the Sharingan in particular. Anyone with an awakened one has been presumed to be a target."

"So Sasuke-kun," Sakura started, stopping when the boys nodded.

"Is probably going to be the next target, considering you'll be out there for five days without any supervision," Itachi finished. "We are not sure what you are expecting to happen when you go into that forest. But, we wanted to warn you anyway."

"Is Sasuke-kun aware of this?" Sakura questioned, her mind reeling as countless visions played out before her.

Orochimaru's freakish neck extending and then the snake infecting Sasuke with the curse mark. Obito's early-- or late?-- involvement in a plot without Itachi convincing him to help.

Sakura has been preoccupied trying to think of ways to prevent Sasuke from receiving the curse mark to truly analyze the attack on the Uchiha clan. And the stupid concussion she got wasn't exactly helping her fumbling thoughts. But Sakura suspected one thing-- Orochimaru was not the one who ordered the attack on the Uchiha clan. He wasn't the one to enlist Obito.

Orochimaru was, by all counts, a vindictive bastard. But, in the worst way possible, he was a great scientist. He thrived on horrible knowledge and wanted to achieve everything life had to offer. And destroying Sharingans in an explosion? That would be wasteful, in his eyes.

So she now had to assume that there was not only a snake lurking in the forest, but an unknown entity determined to see Sasuke die. One who wanted him to live long enough to take his body and one who wanted the Uchiha leaving the arena as a corpse.

Splendid.

"He knows," Shisui confirmed, watching her with concerned eyes. He rested a gentle hand on her shoulder and she knew he was trying to get her to look at him, but her vision refused to focus on anything. "You okay there, imouto? You're looking a little pale."

"You said the scans came back normal," Itachi added, as she brought up a hand to her temple.

"They're normal for someone who traveled through time," She said, trying her best to hide the wince brought on by a sharp pain in her brain. "I have to go back, though."

"Sakura-"

"I'll be fine," She insisted, blinking multiple times until her vision seemed to lock back in place.

Both Uchiha's were looking at her, worry clear on their faces, and her weak smile only made it worse.

"I'm going to be fine," She repeated and took a deep breath. Green chakra slowly developed around her hand, the energy flickering a bit as it flowed into her body. She barely managed to reduce the inflammation and chemical imbalance in the cells surrounding her brain, but it was enough for now. It had to be.

"Thought you couldn't do medical ninjutsu?" Shisui asked and though he tried to make it seem playful, Sakura was well aware it was forced.

"My chakra has always had a soothing nature to it," Sakura explained, pulling her hand away as the chakra spluttered out of sight. "I can barely reduce inflammation, but that's what I have to work with. Sort of like applying a bandaid to the issue until it heals naturally."

"You said it should have healed within two weeks," Itachi reminded her. "It's been close to a month."

"I'm going to steal your medical records," Shisui decided, looking over at Itachi who raised an eyebrow. "Don't wait up. And good luck, imouto."

He winked at them, before he vanished.

"Itachi-nii-chan," Sakura warned and he placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"I will ensure he isn't jailed for stealing your files," Itachi sighed, trying to reassure her with a small smile. "That's all I can promise. Knowing him, he's probably reading them by now and has a pot of water on for tea. Let's get you back to the others."

Itachi brought back her back to the boys, who were waiting rather impatiently. Naruto jumped up from his spot on the ground and Sasuke's posture straightened itself.

"Why are you always with Itachi or Shisui?" Sasuke questioned immediately and she muttered an apology.

"Thanks, Itachi-nii-san," Sakura called, managing a small wave before he wished all of them luck and disappeared. The world started to tilt again and she placed a hand on Sasuke's arm to ground her.

Maybe she was fine. Maybe it was the Uchiha's annoying ability to practically teleport that made her still healing brain spasm.

And because she was irritated, she was going to blame the famous body-flicker ninja.

"Sakura-chan, no offense, but you don't look all that great," Naruto said, poking her arm. She swatted it away and gave him a fierce glare. "Not that you still don't look good! You do! Promise! It's just. . . you look like you're in pain. And angry. You look angry."

"I'm going to bludgeon your cousin," She said darkly.

"Oh?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "It's not Shisui-nii-chan anymore? But 'your cousin'?"

"Teme, you aren't still jealous that Sakura-chan's his favorite, are you?"

"Shut it, dobe."

"After these exams," Sakura huffed, finally pulling her hand back and standing up straight. "We are going to get revenge on Sasuke's cousin. I don't care that no one can catch him. We are getting revenge."

"What did he do?" Sasuke asked her, gesturing for them to start walking as Anko called for everyone to gather again. Both of her boys were hovering, even as they moved, and Sakura wasn't sure if she should be happy or annoyed.

"Made my brain hurt," She said truthfully, and when Sasuke's expectant look didn't let up, she continued. "Wanted to see how the whole post-concussion thing is going. I'd like to believe it's just because they care so much, but I get the feeling it's because they know the exams are brutal and wanted to assess my health."

"And?"

Sakura felt her eye twitch "And your cousin didn't trust me when I told him I was fine, so he stole my medical file. And he's probably preparing a cup of tea as we speak while he reads it. What sort of thing is doctor-patient confidentiality if someone faster than everyone else in the world can just take the file and read it like it was a newspaper? He's reading my medical file. My private records. Over tea."

The boys let her fume as they turned in their papers and received the Heaven scroll. In her old life, Naruto once described what he thought when she was angry at something that she couldn't pummel it right then and there.

"You're like this gorgeous flower that's drooping slightly, ya know?" He told her with a soft smile. "And you want to help the flower, because you feel like it doesn't deserve to have its radiance, I dunno, dimmed or whatever. But as you approach the flower, thunder starts to sound. And if you dare to bother the flower, you're struck by lightning."

"Is that really what you think when I'm angry?"

Naruto laughed, sheepishly clasping both hands behind his head. "Actually, Pervy-Sage said that once and I thought it was actually sort of cool compared to the boring stuff he usually wrote. Before that, I reminded myself to never say anything stupid around you. Pervy-Sage used to say either worked."

A loud noise sounded and the gate in front of them opened, bringing her back to her current time line. She glanced over at Naruto, who was now too exited about the exams to worry about crossing her and invoking her wrath.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was still watching her closely, like he wasn't sure what she would do. Break down into tears? Pass out from pain? Suddenly launch someone into the sky?

She took a deep breath, collecting her thoughts once again. She could do this. Stop Sasuke from getting the curse mark. Keep an eye out for whoever was targeting the Sharingan. Ensure said person doesn't even get the chance to look at Sasuke the wrong way. She could do this.

Naruto threw his fist into the air, practically jumping from his excitement.

"Yes! Let's do this!"