Next chapter below! Enjoy.

On a good day Sakura didn't want to deal with Yamanaka, much less after the trial of a team test she just went through. How hard was it for a girl to get some rest around here? The last thing she wanted to do right now was deal with her while handicapped from the Burning, but Sakura was a girl of her word. Since Yamanaka was in her house she remembered, which Sakura supposed was good news. Though now she would have to deal with her, which wasn't.

"I would say it's nice to see you Yamanaka, but it's not."

"Sakura! Don't be rude to our guest! Your friend from the Academy came all this way to see how you fared on your test."

Sakura looked at the satisfied smile on the blonde girls face and wanted to punch something. Friend? In her dreams.

"Sorry Mom. Yamanaka thank you for checking in on me, I passed."

"Oh Sakura honey I'm so proud of you! I can't wait to tell your Father when he gets home!" Mebuki cheered as she wrapped her daughter up in a big hug. Sakura smiled at that.

"Thanks Mom."

Mebuki pat Sakura on the cheek.

"Anytime you need to hear it sweetheart I'm here. Why don't you take Ino-chan up to your room and catch up? I don't know much about being a shinobi but you might not see each other for a while."

"Oh that would be lovely Haruno-san, thank you for the offer! Though we will stay in contact despite our busy schedules wont we Haruno?"

Sakura did not appreciate the threatening undertones to her words.

"Of course, Yamanaka, I did say so didn't I?"

The two stared at each other wearing polite smiles.

"Aren't you two so sweet, I will be in the kitchen making dinner if you need me Sakura."

"Thanks Mom." Sakura gave her mother a kiss on the cheek and motioned Yamanaka to follow her upstairs.

Sakura led Yamanaka into her mint colored room, pulled her desk chair over to the edge of her bed and offered it to the blonde intruder. Yamanaka sat down as Sakura opened a drawer to her desk, and grabbed one of her incident files. Nothing too secret, but enough to hold the girl's attention while she went and washed up.

She tossed the folder at Yamanaka.

"Here, read this while I shower. It wont take me long."

"That explains the state of your hair." The heiress grumbled. Sakura shot her a look.

"I want to hear what happened to you before we dig into what I know, ok?"

"Fine, fine. Go get cleaned up, you need all the help you can get." Yamanaka said dismissively, attention already on the file in her hands.

Huffing Sakura walked out of her room and into the bathroom, this day just got even longer. When Sakura returned, freshly washed and muscles soothed, she was bombarded with a flurry of questions.

"Wait, so this green guy literally asked you for your name every time you met? Word for word? And he wore, by Sage, a green spandex suit?"

Sakura grabbed a pillow and laid on her bed, shaking her head from side to side.

"You first remember?"

Yamanaka groaned, tearing her eyes from the folder and tossing it on Sakura's desk.

"Fine. Geez Haruno, you really know how to leave someone in suspense."

"Family gift, so?"

"We really need to work on your people skills, anyways like I said from our conversation yesterday, I did some digging after our little... disagreement and noticed something was off."

"Off?"

"Yeah, that night I got home I went into my mind and looked at that memory again and noticed that it was too polished."

"Polished?" Sakura shifted her weight onto her arms in thought.

"Yeah, like the kind of memory a genjutsu leaves behind, too orderly. Wasn't nearly as chaotic as my real memories, yet it was so subtle! I had to really focus to tell there was something wrong, and for a Yamanaka to say that it means that whoever did this was good. There were no signs of chakra involved so I have no ide– what in the sweet hibiscus are you wearing?"

Sakura glanced down at the clothes she had on, black pants and a light yellow top. She didn't know what the big deal was, these were her lounge clothes, its not like she left the house in them. She wasn't going to waste clothing her parents bought her, but that was besides the point wasn't it? Weren't they having a serious conversation here?

"Just clothes I wear at home, can we get back on topic please?"

Yamanaka's mouth curled in distaste.

"It better stay that way too, that color so washes you out. Ok, where was I?"

Sakura sighed.

"Distorted memory? No chakra?"

"Right. There was no sign of chakra involved, so I have no idea how it got there. It got me thinking, if that memory was altered were my other memories too? So over the past year I have been reliving my life and noticed a few others, nothing major unlike my Father."

That got Sakura's attention. Yamanaka Inochi, head of T&I had distorted memories? That's unheard of.

"Your Father? How bad is he?"

"Bad, I couldn't really dig during our lessons, but I noticed the signs on a lot of the ones I did see, and if they can get my Father then I certainly have no chance. I'm so paranoid something is going to change that I have been copying and storing key memories elsewhere as soon as they happen. Haruno, I don't know what to do."

Yamanaka held her head in her hands, her blue eyes watering. Sakura had never seen her look so defeated before, and it left an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. She was glad someone believed her, but she didn't want this reaction. Sakura has been dealing with this for years that she forgot how overwhelming it could be, but the only way left was forward.

Sakura hurled the pillow in her arms at Yamanaka. The pillow hit the blonde girl square in the face and the squawk that came out of her mouth made Sakura snicker.

"Just continue doing what you're doing, but keep it under wraps. If your memory is being distorted by someone, or something, the best thing you can do is not to let them know that you know. Store your memories, and if the original ones change don't make a fuss. If you can supply me information about discrepancies you see I can figure out the rest. You are capable of that much, right?"

Yamanaka stared at her in shock before she stood up puffing her cheeks. One hand landed on her hip and the other sprawled across her chest.

"Just who do you take me for Haruno? I'm the heiress of the Yamanaka Clan, gathering information is my specialty. Just leave it to a professional ok? I'm going to head home now, so if you discover anything don't leave me in the dark."

Sakura waved her off.

"Yes, yes. I will make sure you know." Eventually.

Yamanaka gave a suspicious glare as she stalked over to Sakura's desk and grabbed loose pieces of paper and the incident folder from earlier. Opening up the folder she did a string of hand signs and after coating both pieces in chakra Sakura noticed that the contents of the folder were copied. Oh, she wanted that. She wanted that very much.

"Yamanaka." Sakura asked in a soft voice.

The change in tone threw the mentioned girl off balance.

"Yes?"

"Do you think you could teach me that jutsu? There is something I want to copy."

Yamanaka's body relaxed.

"Sure Haruno, I will teach it to you, but only if you tell me about this." She waved her copy of the incident at Sakura.

"Deal."

"Good, I meant what I said earlier. Don't you dare leave me out of this or I will never leave you alone."

"Yes, I know."

Smiling happily Yamanaka left and Sakura was able to relax for the first time since she woke up. It was still early in the evening but she could fall asleep right there.

'Sakura, we should talk about what happened today.'

She rolled over.

'What's there to talk about? I got distracted and missed something simple.'

'You know that's not what I meant.'

Sakura didn't answer Inner for a moment, avoiding the issue until the silence around her became too loud.

'He looked so real, I was hopeful.'

'He has been dead for years Sakura.'

'I know, and yet I still fell for it didn't I?'

'No, I don't think you did. You wanted to see him, so you ignored it.'

'I guess.'

'We both know I'm right.'

'A rare occurrence.'

'I'm pretty sure I have heard, 'thanks Inner you're right' a few times.'

'No, you just have distorted memories like Yamanaka.'

'Only in your nightmares.'

'Isn't that the truth.'

'Did you notice?'

'Notice what?'

'Oh? So you didn't hehehe.'

'Inner!'

'Ahem, I'm sorry. Did you notice you couldn't feel the Burning in the genjutsu?'

'Oh.'

Oh!

She sat up in a flash, that's right! Sakura didn't feel the Burning when she was fighting her fake brother! Her excitement peaked for a moment before it fell.

'I didn't feel it but it still tore my body apart.'

'That may be true, but if you combine that with the medic-nin skills, here is your reminder to ask Kakashi by the way, then you could train and function with no worries.'

'That is an idea, but can I put myself in a genjutsu and really live like that?'

'You won't know until you try, so guilt Kakashi into teaching you some simple ones. He did show you your dead brother after all.'

'Hmm, I guess I could give him the eyes and see if I can get him to cave.'

'You can practice against Naruto's clone when it comes, and congratulations.'

'For what?'

'Making a friend, don't think I didn't notice the change from Uzumaki to Naruto.'

'Thanks.'

She smiled.

.

Sakura arrived at the training ground early, not that Kakashi-sensei was there to notice it. Uchiha and Naruto weren't there yet so Sakura took out a medical text to read until their arrival, having already finished her training routine. She was almost out of books, having read practically all of the civilian medical material in the library, though maybe now with her genin clearance more would be available to her. One could only hope.

"Good morning Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted as he pranced into the clearing. He was having a great morning, that makes one of them.

"Morning Naruto." Sakura answered somewhat surprised he beat Uchiha. She pulled out a pocket watch from her pack and looked at the time, it was still early. He was having a really great morning.

The closer Naruto approached the greater the Burning grew in intensity, as usual. When was Kakashi-sensei getting here? She had guilting to do. Sakura continued to read as Naruto frolicked throughout the training field occasionally drifting close to her before backing away. When her eyes met his for the fourteenth time Sakura beckoned him over. Upon acceptance Naruto grinned and ran towards her.

A puppy, he's a puppy.

Sakura tapped him on the head and gestured to the trees.

"Do you want to train?"

"Sure!"

Sakura took out a few kunai and some shuriken and walked over, she had been neglecting her throwing practice recently in favor of body conditioning. She really needed to add it into her routine otherwise she would get rusty, even though Sakura was not a big fan of throwing weapons. Sure they had their purposes, but it seemed like a waste of material you would often not get back. She would rather hold something in her hand like a sword or have nothing at all. Still, kunai and shuriken were shinobi weapons, and she was a shinobi. She still needed to be good at using them, it would hurt her pride if she wasn't.

Sakura was trying to make a cat with her kunai when Uchiha arrived, his quick approach igniting a flare that made her body seize and her kunai fly off course, hitting Naruto's tree instead of her own. She collapsed on the ground and dug her nails into her arms, hoping that the pain would offset the Burning.

It didn't.

She didn't have a problem being near Uchiha during the test, so why was it bugging her now? Is it really because she was training?

"Sakura-chan are you ok?" Naruto ran over concerned and crouched down, though his close proximity made her shuffle back.

"I'm fine Naruto, this happens sometimes. Can you go get my kunai please?" His blue eyes dimmed as he looked at her struggling to stand up, but he ran off without a word.

Uchiha hovered over her, stance rigid as he stood there awkwardly in silence. He made no move to help her, or look at her. His closeness was alleviating the Burning which her body appreciated, but made the rest of her frustrated. From his figure she could tell he was mad at her, but she wasn't sure why. She thought they were on better terms after the test, but maybe it was just wishful thinking. She didn't really like him but they were a team, she wanted to get along.

"Morning, Uchiha."

He ignored her.

Oh, now she wasn't good enough for a hello?

"Do we have a problem?" She asked stepping into his line of sight, his lips curled downward.

"Maybe if you trained more you wouldn't be so weak Haruno, pathetic." Sakura's mind blanked.

Her?

Weak?

She grabbed Uchiha by the shirt and pulled him down smashing her forehead into his nose, he didn't even try to move away from her grab, the arrogant prick. It was times like this that she was glad the Burning disappeared around him, she could enjoy every second of it. When Sakura tilted her head back she saw his eyes water and nose bleed, though from what she could tell it wasn't broken.

A pity.

She ignored the look of shock on his face and leaned into his ear.

"Do not mistake my sickness for weakness Uchiha, you have no idea what it's like to be me."

After she spoke she tossed him to the ground. She was not weak, she was not pathetic. She suffered every day just by existing because of the damn Burning. He had no right to comment on her strength.

'He is not worth your anger Sakura. You've made your point, let it go.'

Sakura didn't respond to Inner, but she was right. She was a Haruno, he wasn't worth her time, even though it still burned. Sakura walked away from Uchiha and went over to a tree and sat down. After a death filled glare Uchiha turned his back on her and headed over to Naruto, gently poking his nose along the way. The rush of satisfaction that ran through her at the motion calmed her vindictive needs. Uchiha watched Naruto struggle to pull out the kunai Sakura threw in silence, she must of used too much chakra on that one.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan, I almost got it!" Naruto commented, completely missing the exchange between his teammates.

"What Dobe, you aren't strong enough to take it out?" Uchiha sneered, lashing out. Naruto froze before he yanked the kunai out and grabbed his head in pain, stumbling a few steps.

"Take it out, take it out, must take it out..." He trailed off.

Naruto turned towards his two teammates, eyes red and whiskers more pronounced. His head tilted to the side.

"It will come out, I will take it out."

"Naruto." Sakura called, she could see he wasn't fully himself. At her words Naruto closed his eyes, and once they were back open they were blue again.

"Huh? Why are you guys staring at me like that? I got your kunai out Sakura-chan! You are really strong it was in there so deep!"

Naruto praised her, though he looked at them with a confused smile at their blank expressions. Did he really not know what he just did? That deserves an incident folder all on its own. Naruto did a double take at Uchiha.

"Hey what happened to Teme's fa– "

Naruto was cut off when Kakashi-sensei appeared behind him. He picked up Naruto by the scruff and brought him to his eye level. Giving him a quick scan he dropped the boy back on the ground and gave him a pat on the head before turning to look at his other students. His eye darted between herself and Uchiha, lingering on the developing bruise on the boy's nose.

He clapped his hands twice.

"Well it's been our time slot for the past half hour, shall we go take our picture my cute little genin?"

The four made their way to the photo location, Sakura trailing behind her teammates. She was tired, in a horrible mood, and her body hurt. Sakura noticed Kakashi-sensei drop back beside her, head in his book though she knew his attention was on her.

"Care to tell me what happened Sakura-chan?"

"Training accident."

"Oh?"

"It may have gotten a little heated, but it was related to training so yes, a training accident."

"I see."

Kakashi-sensei tilted his head eyeing her, but let it go.

"Kakashi-sensei, I want to take medic-nin classes, can you approve?"

He lowered the book completely from his face.

"Why do you want to take the classes Sakura-chan?"

She scoffed.

"Have you seen our team?"

He inclined his head.

"Point."

"Anything I happen to hurt I want to be able to fix. I am responsible." Especially if it's for herself.

"How nice of you." Sakura ignored the sarcasm.

"I know, so will you approve?"

"Maa, I guess. We do need someone to patch up their poor old delicate Sensei."

"You're not old Sensei, I can tell." Sakura felt his hand ruffle her head.

"And that's why I like you."

Sakura held out the sign up paper and pen towards her sensei, and he took both items and twirled a finger at her. Sakura turned around and assumed her role as a human table.

"Thank you again Sensei."

"Hmm."

When he was done Sakura took back the paper and pen and walked next to him.

"Oh, will you teach me some genjutsu? Just some simple area of effect ones would work."

"Aren't you getting ahead of yourself there Sakura-chan? You will already be taking the medic classes."

Sakura stopped short, Kakashi-sensei soon followed. She turned towards him, disregarding the eyes of her teammates.

"Kakashi-sensei, I'm going to be honest with you. During the test you hit me with a genjutsu, and I saw someone I cared about who has been dead for years. My emotions clouded my judgment and it took me a bit to break out of it, during that time I could have been killed."

Sakura took a deep breath.

"Just like you did to me, I want to do that to others. I'm smart Kakashi-sensei, I can handle more than you think."

Sakura widened her eyes, jutted her lower lip out as she clasped her hands together. This always worked on her mother, hopefully it worked on him too. Kakashi-sensei remained unruffled, staring at her with a bored expression. He grabbed her hitai-ate and pulled it down over her eyes, she squeaked.

"I've seen better puppy eyes, but your attempt at manipulating me was cute, so I'll humor you. Hmm ... you are more advanced than your teammates in chakra control so you may pick it up pretty quick. That reminds me, who taught you chakra suppression?"

"An Anbu." Sakura replied vaguely.

She surprised him with that one.

"What did this Anbu look like?"

"He had curly hair, was funny."

Kakashi-sensei put a gloved hand over his face and sighed.

"Shisui."

Sensei was wrong, but Sakura would take it. She smiled at him innocently.

Sakura was happy, she was able to get the two things she wanted today, and once she became proficient with it the Burning would no longer be a concern. Sakura chuckled lightly.

The world wasn't ready for a Haruno Sakura without the Burning.

Sakura gets approval to be a medic nin and things are starting to heat up. Thanks for reading!