Chapter 57. Dr. Sakura.

"Was that show really necessary?"

I looked over at Kakashi who didn't look impressed by our show of power in the land of waves.

"Yes?" it wasn't supposed to come out as a question. "Don't worry it was all a genjutsu and it didn't take anything to make. My chakra levels are stable."

He sighed with a hint of frustration. "You shouldn't push yourself too hard."

"I'm not," I objected. "I'm fine, I only needed some rest, is all. There's no need to hover over me much."

"Maa my cute little kunoichi thinks she's all grown up, huh?" His smile was sinister. "Perhaps I should rely on you more since you're so dependable."

"Ho?" I matched his smile. "Could it be that sensei is trying to cover his incompetence with by talent? It's okay to ask for help when you're out of your debts."

"You should take your own advice," Sasuke joined the conversation. "You have a bad habit of running head first into things, without any support."

I frowned, I was never alone, I said as much and pointed to the springflys around us.

"You'd rather a bug than me?" Sasuke muttered.

"I can make a thousand shadow clones in an instant, you don't see me neglecting my team?" Naruto leaped up beside me. He leapt through the trees with grace even as he wasn't watching where he was going. Our hokage was a money man, did that mean all shinobi brought fort under his rule are also monkeys.

"I didn't neglect you, I went to save Ino and Shikamaru,'' I defended myself. "Sure I could have come all the way to the bridge to get back up but what if the detour did more harm than good?" They had the decency to look ashamed. "Besides, it was a dwarf, nothing I couldn't handle."

"Except it wasn't just Gato," Shimamaru please shut up. "There were other guys protecting him as well."

"I would love to see what a team of genin could do against a legendary sannin." my voice was flat, I wasn't a match for him and I had Madara fucking Uchiha on my side. In me? What was the right term?

"No one could have predicted his presence here, but now we know he's involved with that woman somehow." Kakashi spoke, no doubt compiling a report for the hokage. I didn't have to do that right? When was the last time I did a report on anything outside of school. The memory of a broad back and blond hair flashed and I clenched my jaw. That had ended in a heated argument as well.

"Did he say anything that might be useful?" Asuma slowed his pace, and we fell into leap with him. Looking back I could see that Ino and Choji were having trouble keeping up. "Even trivial things might be useful."

"He was trying to protect Gato and his men, oddly. He even moved away from them so they wouldn't get caught in the fight." I told them. I'd already said what I saw and what happened, leaving out the part where I was possessed by a ghost, of course.

"You think he's that woman's subordinate?" Shikamaru asked a dangerous question. If she was able to subdue Orochimaru, then we had no hope. Well maybe Itachi could wop her ass but…

"Let's hope they are just partners in crime," Kakashi smiled, but it wasn't funny. Zabuza was first boss then Orochimaru and then Gaara. It didn't mean Orochimaru was weaker than Gaara, just that at that moment he wasn't a life threat to us.

I guess the plot is going as it should or at least somewhat. The key plot points are still there. Zabuza, Orochimaru and then Gaara; that is the order of the bosses , we'd be screwed if pain showed up during the chunin exam.

"... Kura!"

"Sakura!" I turned to Sasuke who called.

"Hmm?"

"Stop spacing out," he said, annoyed. "Were stopping to rest.'' I nodded and we descended from the trees. Ino and Choji were panting as they fell to their knees.

"Why were you guys going so fast?" Ino panted.

"Sorry, I keep forgetting," Kakashi laughed sheepishly, robbing the back of his head. "Sorry about that." Ino looked at Asuma with all the accusation. Kakashi had an abnormal team, what was his excuse?

"Shikamaru was keeping up so I thought you guys wouldn't have a problem," he explained.

Damn that was a good excuse. Shikamaru didn't meet Ino's look of betrayal.

"She's turned you into one of them!" Ino cried. "How did a lazy bastard like you become like this!?" Shikamaru had a bland look on his face for a while making Ino nervous. They were over reacting, I didn't torture the boy, we trained, that's what shinobis do.

I sat down under a tree and watched the chaos unfold.

"It's easy to forget we're not like other genin teams," Naruto muttered standing next to me. I looked at him from the corner of my eye but his face gave nothing away. "You think they would be like us if they had the same experience?"

"Have you ever been strangled by a shadow you can't touch, mind controlled into fighting your friends, or squashed under a giant foot?~" I smiled at his pale expression. "That's the potential they have~" They were just kids now but they would turn into adults soon. It only takes a village shattering event to force boys to become "Men." I glanced at Naruto again. He was a bit broken from the Uchiha incident, his seal is weaker anyway. But he could still smile, that was all I could ask for.

"Hey Sakura." I turned to him but he looked down with a long face. "Do you think we will ever be strong like that?"

This guy…

"Strength that can level a battlefield with a single punch, a one man army, and eyes that can make an enemy willingly go blind," I smirked. "Yeah, you don't have to worry about us. We're strong and will only continue to get stronger. Just leave it to me." I fisted my chest. "I'll make you guys Konoha's strongest!"

Naruto chuckled in a very non Naruto way, more mature and a bit, glum?

"What is it?" I asked him first. He looked at me and his eyes were in fact glum.

"It's Sasuke," Naruto confessed. "He isn't dealing with the loss well." Lose? He was fine a while ago.

"The crazy Uzumaki woman?" I asked and he flinched.

"Y- yeah," his chuckle was nervous now. "I guess we weren't mentally prepared to see her again." his smile fell. "Or strong enough to make a difference."

"Oh sure, because rookie genins can totally win against an Uzumaki whose village was smaller than the leaf but required four whole nations to destroy it, and even then they couldn't get them all. Yeah we can totally beat someone like that." my face was flat as I stared him into submission.

"Right, I overestimated us, sorry." he said meekly. I sighed in frustration brushing my hair back rougher than necessary. What was with these kids and wanting to fight strong opponents despite knowing they have no chance? They've been winning too much. I think I need them to get their asses kicked a little so they wake up to reality.

"Where's Sasuke?" I asked, getting to my feet. Naruto nodded to the Uchiha perched in a tree looking at the chaos with a stoic expression.

"Right, I'll be back." I walked over to the Uchiha, mindful of the angry Yamanaka that was raging at everyone.

"Hey Sasuke," I called up to him, getting his attention. "Walk with me?"

He leaped down, landing gracefully beside me. I wasn't impressed. We walked off into the trees staying close to the group but far enough to go unheard.

"So, what is it?" I asked once we were a bit away.

"I don't know what you're talking about?" He denied it right away.

It was a bit unsettling that my first instinct was to torture him. I smiled instead, offering him a friendly face. "Come on Sasuke, you know I'm here for you." I tried again. "I can't counsel you if you don't talk to me."

"I don't need counseling." he turned his back to me.

"That's what someone who needs counseling would say."

"Then what would a person that doesn't need counseling say?"

"I'm not okay, could you help me for a little bit?"

"That doesn't make sense!" he objected, "They just admitted to needing help!"

"Admitting you're flawed is half the battle~"

"I hate you."

"As if, I'm your favourite kunoichi."

"I'm seriously going to stab you."

I laughed at his annoyed face, he was so cute when he emote.

"So are you going to tell me about your feelings?" I smiled at his frown. "How did the fight with your sworn enemy make you feel?"

Silence. He didn't say anything for the longest time. In the silence I thought it might be a good idea to put up a sound barrier. In doing so Sasuke finally spoke.

"I felt useless." he said, his face dark. "Even with all this power I still couldn't put a scratch on her. What's the point of all that training if I still can't touch her!?"

Hello canon you disgusting thing, why are you suddenly here?

"You're looking at the end goal while discarding the road leading to it," I sighed. How long had he felt this way? At this rate it will be a repeat of the original canon.

Like hell.

"You're stronger than Itachi was at your age," I tried. He looked at me with wide eyes. Good I got his attention. "That's already a feat in itself. You can't set unrealistic expectations for yourself. You can't walk on water until you learn the tree walking technique, and you can't do that without chakra control. Do you understand? It's a process. Don't get ahead of yourself, you'll only be lost and confused."

"Easy for you to say, you're already strong," he glared at me. "You didn't struggle against her at all!"

Is that what he thinks? Oh so you didn't notice my pain? Typical men.

"There are different kinds of strengths," I told him. "You shouldn't compare yourself to me, my "strength" is different from yours. And Naruto's is different from ours." I pointed to him. "You should only use yourself as a reference," he looked confused so I went on.

"You're stronger than you were as a child, and you're stronger than you were before we left the village. You're stronger than you were yesterday. We all are." I can't believe I'm quoting Might Guy. I turned away in shame. "I- If you don't believe me we can fight the other genins. Y- you know, test our strength against them. We already fight Neji and Hinata on a regular basis but we never fought their teammates." I tilted my head in thought. "They are pretty strong ya know, only a fraction of the teams that graduate the academy become genin, remember." I turned back to him and his face was stoic as usual. He looked over to where Ino was still giving Shikamaru an earful and frowned.

"Then are our enemies just that strong.

Ah, no, those guys are just weak. I couldn't say that.

"The Uzumaki clan are overpowered, ya know. It took four nations to pose a challenge and even then they failed to kill them all. Then again they are the first hokage's cousins so it's only natural that they would be overpowered." i grinned at him "Don't worry about it, you're still young once you grow a bit more, you'll be aboul to match her."

He scoffed. "What makes you so sure?"

"The Senju and the Uzumaki share an ancester, so they are almost the same in power. And everyone knows the only person to ever challenge The First, was Madara Uchiha." Sasuke's eyes widened a bit before he bit his lip.

"Isn't Madara on that woman's side?" he asked, reminding me that Obito existed.

"Yes and no." I answered honestly. "Madara isn't like the Uzumakis, he doesn't have a long lifespan so that man wasn;t the legendary shinobi. Besides, he's too short."

"Huh?"

"Madara's a hulk his way bigger than that guy. In fact, that guy looked more Kakashi's size then. He was barely taller than the third hokage."

"Maybe he was oldman?"

"Ha!" I couldn't stop the outburst. He was impressive, sure but you'd have to see the Madara slaughter people with nothing but taijutsu before you understood. "I don't think I would be alive if that was the real Madara." I scoffed. "Which is good for us since that means we won't die young." I cheered.

Sasuke returned to his stoic face. "You sound like you like him or something."

…

"Huh?"

"You sound like how Hanabi talks about Hinata."

Once again… "Huh?"

"Is there something you wanna tell me?"

My brain stopped working.

"Well I was going to tell you that you are his direct descendant and that you probably inherited some of his badassery?" That was what I was going for, right? I wasn't fangirling, right?

Sasuke blinked in surprise before blushing.

"Right sorry I was just thinking you sounded like I did when I talked about Itachi so…"

You said I sounded like Hanabi!

He smiled a rare smile. "Thanks, Sakura." Oh~ did my madness work!?

"Of course,'' I said smugly. Let's just roll with it. "I'm always here for you Sasuke."

I took his hand and led him back to the chaos.

"When we get back, let's train together," I cheered.

"Yeah i can't wait!" Naruto cheered with me grabbing Sasuke's other hand and grinning at him. "When did you!?" Sasuke yelped in surprise.

"I think we should see Neji's team first, I'm sure sensei would love to see his best fri- ahem. "Rival" again!"

"Huh?" Are we going to greet their team?" Naruto, clueless, asked.

"Yeah we're gonna bet up all the genins in our age group~"

"Sounds fun!" Naruto really was the best.

"You guys are idiots," Sasuke sighed.

"Hey!" Ino yelled pointing at, me? "Just what were you doing with my Sasuke in these trees huh!"

"YoUr SaSuKe?" I glared at her. "You MoSt b3 TiReD oF liVinG."

"This is the part where you run Ino-chan~" Kakashi warned but it was too late. I launched into the air my fist aimed for her.

The forest exploded with a boom.

Next chapter is going to be battle heavy and looooong~ I hope. I plan for it to be since its filler but you never know with me.

Next chapter

May 10

Until next time

Night Song~