Sakura was sure that Sasuke tried his best in creating the genjutsu that would affect anyone who came close enough. It was simple and had he been in slightly better shape, it would remain effective for however long they stayed there.

But she shouldn't be surprised that it faltered and broke after a bit.

Sasuke had to haul both her and Naruto away from Orochimaru, who thankfully hadn't followed. Well, he probably became preoccupied and was forced to halt his advances on Sasuke. That was much more plausible than the Sannin merely giving up.

Orochimaru was also smart. He would continue to try. But that was a problem for later.

Though, it looked like they still had those sound ninja to deal with, if the explosion nearby was any indication. One of Sasuke's traps, she presumed.

She didn't even need to wake Sasuke up-- he was already fastening his weapon pouch to his person. He always was a light sleeper.

The sound-nin got past their traps easily and when a chipmunk came scurrying across the clearing, Sasuke was the one who through a kunai at it this time around. And while it was a lot different from the fight the first time, it was necessarily in their favor.

Sakura barely had any chakra, her body still pathetically weak. And though Sasuke was strong, he wasn't overflowing with power and rage this time around. He was exhausted-- and she knew it, no matter what the stubborn Uchiha said-- so the fight became much more defensive on their side, with Sasuke doing a lot more than she could.

The one ninja broke past Sasuke and all Sakura had was a lot of kunai, paper bombs, and some muscle backing her punches. She forgot about the thing this team based most of their attacks on-- sound waves.

When a blast came out of his palms, she was blown back and the breath was knocked out of her when she hit the ground, her ears ringing and world disoriented. Sasuke had called her name but that's when all Sakura could see was green.

"Lee-san!" She gasped in surprise. This really was just like last time, huh?

He proclaimed his want to take over the fight and protect 'his beautiful blossom'. And Lee was just as extraordinary in this time around, until things started to take a turn for the worst. She wanted to help out in some way, but she felt like every pound of her body was dead weight. Chakra exhaustion sucks.

And just like her previous life, Lee got taken out by sound waves. Lee was fast, but Lee didn't have the same advantage as Sasuke's Sharingan to keep him afloat. He was beaten, just like last time.

Sakura tried to go to Lee, but her knees started to buckle under her weight as soon as she started to stand and that was about the time she cursed her small chakra reserves.

Right before she could have stumbled, a hand wound itself in her hair and forced her to the ground. It was that girl ninja, the same one who did the same thing last time. Sakura's brain did not appreciate the girl tugging her head into different directions while going on about how soft her hair was.

She had soft hair because no matter what lifetime she was in, she was going to use the conditioner Ino swore by. She just refused to give it up. Granted, she swapped to a non-scented version after Pakkun had exclaimed that they used the same scented one, but it was the same maker.

The girl taunted that she could have trained and even though she did train this time around, it still stung. Because Sakura has been training. Her body is finally at a point where she could endure Tsunade's lessens without being absolutely destroyed after every single one. And she hasn't even started those in this life yet.

But she was still stubborn and determined. Because she wouldn't fall behind in this life. She would need to wait years to even remotely come close to fighting alongside her boys if it was anything like that time.

Sakura pulled out a kunai, flashing an innocent smile to the girl who disregarded her, and slashed it through her hair.

Call her nostalgic, but this moment in her past life was so important to her. She didn't even care that it had repeated. But before she could stand up, the sound ninja kicked her back into the ground and growled something that sounded an awfully like 'bitch'.

Sakura glared up at the girl, making eye contact and made her tremble.

Well, not her. The genjutsu she just managed to cast made the girl stumble back. It was probably the most fear-envoking genjutsu Sakura ever created. It did the exact opposite of what she did to Sasuke earlier-- she controlled the chakra in the girls mind and overwhelmed her fear response until the girl fell to the ground.

Sakura heaved herself up, taking slow steps to the girl, who was frozen in place, completely oblivious to her teammates shouting at her not to let some pink haired kid get to her. Offhandedly, she felt multiple chakra signatures arrive on the outskirts of the squabble-- Team 10, Tenten, and Neji if things were going to play out just as similarly.

Sakura knew her chakra reserves were shot. She couldn't afford a single chakra-infused punch. So she did it the old fashioned way-- as if she was punching Naruto for saying something inappropriate. And thanks to the genjutsu lowering the girl's defenses, the ninja was knocked out from the force.

She waved her hand, frowning at the pain that shot through her wrapped up knuckles. She saw the tracings of red begin to dampen the bandages. Great, she reopened her wounds with that punch.

She made a mental note to invest in gloves after the exam.

Somehow, Sasuke managed to knock out the one ninja and suddenly it was two on one. And while she wasn't complaining, the way the sound ninja surrendered felt too easy.

"Take the scroll and let us pass." He bargained, laying the scroll on the ground. He gathered his teammates, throwing back a glance at them. "I hope we don't meet again, Uchiha Sasuke."

Sasuke walked towards the scroll, picking it up and looking off where the ninja fled.

"What did you do to him?" Sakura asked cautiously, coming up behind him and placing a tentative hand on his arm.

His attention was drawn back to her and he shrugged. "Don't know what his problem was."

Her frown deepened when he averted her eyes. But Sakura let it go, her concern then drifting to Lee, who was not in good shape at all. If Sasuke didn't want to tell her, she'd respect that. For now.

She started for him but that's when Tenten dropped down and lifted Lee's arm over her shoulder. "I can take care of him. See you at the tower?"

"At the tower," Sakura confirmed with a nod. "Make sure Lee-san knows how grateful I am."

"Will do," She beamed, taking off with Lee.

Team 10 finally came out of the shadows and it went down just as it had in her old life. Naruto was woken up and he freaked over the snake person and then over her hair when he realized it was cut.

"It's so, so short!" He yelled, cautiously reaching to touch the strands. She swatted his hand in the air and simply gave a halfhearted chuckle.

"Well, it's about time I did something about it."

The difference in this time was Shikamaru's raised eyebrow as he walked towards her.

"You use genjutsu," He noted, sighing when she nodded. Ino was cutting her hair and promptly scolded Sakura for moving.

"Your team is odd," Shikamaru stated, leaving it at that when Ino announced that she was done. The teams parted ways not long after that.

"We have both scrolls," Sasuke said and then looked towards the tower in the distance. "Let's get this stupid exam over with and finish early."

Naruto and Sakura were both happy to agree.

At the end of it all, Sakura managed to skate by the curse mark and Kabuto's guidance. And she beat Ino within a minute or two this time, meaning she added an additional person to the roster, which actually evened out the number. Before she was forced to go to the hospital by her overprotective teammates, she saw that her opponent was Dosu, the sound ninja that had backed down earlier.

She vaguely remembers something about Dosu being killed before his match.

But they had passed and they had a month ahead of them. Naruto was training with Jiraiya and Sasuke had taken up lessons with both Shisui and Kakashi.

And her? She was on bed rest for two weeks.

"You know the boys mean well," Mikoto told her gently when she caught her pouting. She was taken by her team as soon as the preliminary exams were over and dumped into the hospital with promises to visit.

She hoped they would, so she could punch them all the way to Suna.

Today was the first day of her two-week long stay. Naruto, Sasuke, and Shisui came to visit her but she pointedly ignored all three until they left. Mikoto and Itachi came not long after they did.

"But I'm going to be fine," Sakura insisted and wasn't surprised when Itachi raised his eyebrow.

"You said that after the attack and you're back in the hospital a month later," Itachi pointed out, taking the seat to her left while Mikoto busied herself with whatever was in her bag.

"And I told you-- it was a normal result," She said through gritted teeth.

Her report was normal. And truthfully, she didn't know why she hadn't seen it coming. Traveling through time was bound to have some repercussions and this was purely logical.

There was trauma evident in her hippocampus. It caused concern because that's where memories are stored and while it was troubling for a normal ninja, who's memory could have been altered by some other means, Sakura knew why. Shisui had noticed, told Itachi, and they were worrying over nothing.

"The doctor said that the trauma from your concussion was greater than what they'd normally expect," Mikoto explained, her presence the only soothing one out of all of her visitors. The woman placed a bag on the bed and sat at the edge of it. "And it's causing something to act up whenever you use chakra."

"It's rather common," Sakura frowned. "Concussions for shinobi are considerably worse than for civilians. Usually, the chakra in our bodies are substantial enough protection to avoid most concussions. But when shinobi do get concussions, it frazzles the brain as much as the chakra system. Any added complication could lengthen the recovery time or make it difficult to use chakra properly."

"You should let someone heal it," Mikoto told her but she shook her head.

"The brain is the most difficult thing for medics to heal, even experienced ones," She replied with a sigh. "A single mistake, like applying too much chakra or not expanding it enough over the damaged cells could cause irreversible brain damage. I just. . . don't feel comfortable taking a risk like that."

"How long will it take to heal naturally?" Itachi asked.

"I thought a month was sufficient time," She admitted, cursing herself. She hadn't taken into account that the trauma from time traveling would also affect her chakra pathways. "But the complications and everything that happened in the exam make it difficult for me to predetermine a possible recovery date. Unless Tsunade-sama suddenly arrives at the village, I'll just have to wait it out."

"Senju Tsunade?" Mikoto questioned, her nose crinkling when Sakura nodded. "I've heard she's quite the medical expert when she wants to be."

Sakura resisted the urge to frown-- she understood why Mikoto wasn't a fan of Tsunade. It wasn't necessarily because of her old master herself, but the simple fact that she was a Senju. Clan tensions were still prevalent, and if Sakura had learned anything from going to the Compound almost everyday for five years, it was that the Uchiha's could hold a grudge. Even Mikoto.

"She's Sakura's idol," Itachi supplied, sending her a soft smile before standing up. "I must go. I have a mission."

"Be safe," Mikoto called, giving her eldest a reassuring grin. "I've got this one covered for the day. Even if I'm not her idol."

Sakura's pout returned. "That's not fair."

"Neither is letting you go another day with that hair," Mikoto quipped, opening the bag she had set down earlier to reveal the necessary equipment for cutting hair. "Let's get you into a chair."

That was how Sakura found herself getting her hair cut by the Uchiha matriarch herself.

When Sakura first met Mikoto, she learned very quickly that while she was kind and gentle, she was quite strict. Not as much as her husband, but the woman had an entire clan following her example. And she's become a different sort of motherly figure to Sakura-- not that she didn't consider her own mother a motherly figure. It was just. . . different.

Haruno Mebuki was, well, a civilian. Both of her parents were. Her mother also instilled the idea of appearances and looking her best for others. She loved her mother dearly, especially since she supported Sakura's choice in becoming a ninja, despite not understanding it.

That support ended around the time Pain attacked. Her parents fully understood what it meant to be a ninja in their time and were vehemently against it. She hadn't seen them much after the invasion. She ultimately spent her time with Naruto and Ino in her old life before they all got whisked off to war.

And so, it was the total understanding of the shinobi world that made her bond with Mikoto much different. It also helped that Sakura now got to see where Sasuke's rare and gentle moments in her past life came from.

"You're my favorite Uchiha," Sakura admitted, as Mikoto brushed through her strands.

"Don't let Shisui or Sasuke hear you say that," Mikoto teased, pausing in her brushing to lean sideways and smile. "Though, I'm happy to hear that. I don't suppose it's because you're currently mad at those two?"

Sakura didn't shake her head but she pursed her lips together. "You raised them well, but even they have their flaws."

"Why are you mad at them?" Mikoto asked, resuming her brushing. "Is it truly because they had you admitted to the hospital?"

"I guess that's the reason with Sasuke-kun and Naruto," Sakura decided on after a few moments. "They're a bit overprotective at times. And honestly, I'd do the same thing if it was either of them."

"But not Shisui?" She inquired. "It's not because he broke into the hospital and took your medical records, is it?"

Sakura's eye twitched at the thought. "I take doctor-patient confidentiality very seriously."

"Hm," Mikoto hummed, finishing her brushing and swapped to a comb and scissors. "You'll be a great medic, Sakura-chan. I can feel it. Mother's intuition."

"Thank you," Sakura whispered.

"Well, there's not many people in this world that can get my youngest to listen to them, so I'm sure that skill will help with your patients," Mikoto continued, carefully evening out her hair. "Shinobi do make the worst patients."

"They say the same about doctors," Sakura muttered, her nose scrunching when Mikoto laughed.

"Ah, I guess that's why you're so taking this whole thing so well," She joked, then ran delicate fingers through her hair. "You're all set, Sakura-chan."

Sakura's hand went up to her hair. "Already?"

"Well, there isn't much of it left," Mikoto pointed out, taking the towel wrapped around her shoulders and shaking it onto the floor. "I'll get this cleaned up and afterwards, we can play shogi. You've played a few games with Itachi and Shisui, right?"

Sakura nodded, slowly getting up from the chair.

"I didn't know you played," Sakura said, letting Mikoto fuss over the loose strands on her clothes before the older woman guided her to her bed.

"Who do you think taught Itachi?"

"Honestly? I thought it might be one of the Nara's." Sakura told her, thinking back to the days in her old life where she'd play games against Shikamaru.

She almost always lost. She won a grand total of two times against the lazy genius. But, she could say it was the reason she could hone her strategy skills. She wasn't as cool-headed as Shikamaru in battle, but that was something she couldn't exactly stop. She had to mature as a shinobi, and that only happened with real battlefield experience.

The war helped cool most of her rash, impulsive strikes, but if this round in the Forest of Death taught her anything, it's that she had to work on it all over again.

Mikoto and Sakura played shogi for the remainder of the day, talking about the exams and her training. It was rather nice for having been in a mood earlier in the morning.

Sasuke ended up coming after his training for the day ended, citing that he was there to walk his mother home. Sakura merely crossed her arms and watched him with a bored expression, even as Mikoto told Sasuke to wait there while she talked to a nurse.

"I'm not mad anymore," Sakura announced after a few silent moments. Sasuke raised a single eyebrow, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he leaned against the wall by the door.

"It was dumb of me to get mad at you and Naruto for caring," She continued, folding her hands together in her lap.

Sasuke blinked a few times before he fixed his stare ahead. "You're in the hospital because something about your medical scans worried Shisui. I didn't say it's because I care."

"Okay," She accepted, even though she was fighting the urge to tell him that the whole cool facade was old-- especially to her. "I guess I'll just have to take Naruto on a date or something to make up for it."

It was a low blow, even for her, but the way Sasuke's eye twitched made up for it.

Really, she was planning on treating Naruto to Ichiraku when he got back from training with Jiraiya. Calling it a date would be stretching it, but she was still petty enough to cherish the way it annoyed Sasuke.

"Don't tell me you'll take my cousin on a date to make up for being mad at him too," Sasuke replied and had it not been for the slight warning tone in his voice, she might have thought it a joke.

"No, I'll make him take me on a date," She corrected and when his eyes narrowed and looked towards her, she conceded. "Relax, Sasuke-kun. I'm just joking."

"I think the better term is teasing," He sighed, looking back towards the wall in front of him. "My mother is a horrible influence on you."

Sakura smiled. "Your mother is the reason I'm still not seething in this bed." She paused and focused on his hands. "Training going well?"

She could see the beginnings of the Chidori's backlash on its user when it's first developed clearly on his skin. They way the skin looked strained and had almost an ashy layering where the lighting began to burn the hand wielding it if they released too much chakra. He used too much when he was learning to walk on surfaces too. That was always Sasuke's issue as a kid.

"Fine for the first day," He answered with a yawn, glancing at the door. "How long before my mother stops eavesdropping? Shisui had me using the Shunshin all over the village while trying not to leave a chakra trail behind. And Kakashi says I need to come with more chakra in the morning so he can properly teach me how to use a jutsu he created. And I'd like to go home to replenish it."

Mikoto opened the door then, placing a hand on her son's shoulder. And just like when they were kids, Sakura knew it was a rather strong grip from the way Sasuke tensed.

"I was not eavesdropping," Mikoto clarified. "I was talking to your doctor, Sakura-chan. They'll be discharging you after you get tests done tomorrow."

Sasuke stood straight and the smile on Sakura's face grew wider.

"What?"

"Really?"

Mikoto nodded. "So long as you promise to take it easy the next two weeks. No training and," She looked at Sasuke. "No bringing her to the compound using your jutsu. I'll be very clear about that with your brother and cousin. You'll just have to walk her over when I invite her to dinner."

"Is it really okay to discharge her?" Sasuke asked, sparing her a single glance before focusing back on his mother.

"They said she should be fine so long as she doesn't exert herself," Mikoto assured him. "Plus, Sakura-chan understands why using chakra or over-exerting herself is bad. She'll be disqualified from the final exam if her injury worsens."

Sasuke didn't seem relieved at all with that explanation.

Mikoto just smiled. "Don't worry; she's tougher than she looks."

"I know that," He muttered before holding a hand up. "Good night, Sakura."

"Night, Sasuke-kun," She responded, waving goodbye. "Thank you for everything today, Mikoto-san."

"Of course, sweetheart," The older women replied with a small smile and the two made their way out of the hospital room.

"You didn't compliment her hair," Mikoto noted, eyeing her son.

Sasuke at least looked confused, so it could be that he was as oblivious as his father. "What about it?"

"I evened it out," Mikoto answered, watching her son's attention grow distant.

"Am I supposed to notice stuff like that?" He asked in a genuine tone, probably still trying to remember what his teammates hair looked like now-- other than the fact that it was short, of course. "It's not like it's important."

"And if it's important to Sakura-chan?"

"That still doesn't mean it's important."

Mikoto frowned at her son but ultimately gave it up.

"Maybe." Not yet.