AN: Sufficient Velocity and Space Battles are super far ahead, like by a month, and the Pa tre on is on CH 138. If you wanna just get there. You can even find side stories that aren't here! p a treon . com (slash) Sendicard
"Why are you taking this?" Shikamaru asks, his footsteps taking him over to the grouping that's now starting to amass at the front of the classroom. Chouji's shortly behind him with a bag of potato chips, a special Akimichi brand too, they make the best snacks and product placement is important for big events like this. Even if he didn't like the chips he would probably be eating them here to get lots of sales from all the onlookers. "I thought you agreed with us and didn't like doing needlessly troublesome things."
"This isn't needless, I want to do this." Sakura answers swiftly, finally working to set Ino down with a look to Gaara who quickly and decisively takes the hint to help drop her. "There's a lot I can get done with Chunin status, and it's not like I have anything better to do besides study. I've felt kinda cooped up recently and I'm pretty excited to have the opportunity to go around and kick ass for once. You know I got scolded for a kill I didn't even do on my last mission? Here I'll get praised, especially if I actually do it. Hear that Gaara? No kill stealing, find your own enemies." The redhead beside Sakura nods understandingly at her.
"Being cooped up is good, Sakura." Shikamaru sighs to himself, before shaking his head towards the floor. "It means you don't have to do anything. And killing is hopefully avoidable, that'd be a real drag…"
"I hadn't thought of it like that… Ooh, you shoulda come and made a fort with me in the woods! I bet you would have loved that." Sakura beams, finally letting go of Ino to wave a hand up in the air at him, her hand quickly moving from side to side in front of her smiling face. She'd look incredibly innocent for a second if not for the glowing red eyes, "we should make camping plans sometime! You can bring your whole team, yes that does mean you Ino." She looks to Ino to make sure she knows she's invited and not feeling left out.
"I'll think about it." The quieter boy groans. His forehead protector is wrapped around his arm for some reason, which Sakura can't help but quickly try to decipher. He knows these things aren't for show right? They're meant to protect your skull from a stray kunai. She taps the one atop her head, she kinda wishes she'd gotten a helmet now that she thinks about it, she guesses Haku thought she'd look better without it when he ordered the equipment and she just never thought about it to get one herself. A helmet would block some of her senses though so maybe it's for the best. She quickly maneuvers her thoughts elsewhere, lest she get self conscious about not thinking of putting the protector elsewhere so she could wear a helmet.
"Ah, it's the idiot trio!" Naruto gasps as they stop talking.
"That's not…" Shikamaru groans.
"I'd beat you senseless for that but Kakashi already did it plenty." Ino snickers. "That's probably why your brain doesn't work, you got medical attention from an actual hospital after all that, right?"
"Ah, idiot duo, sorry. Habit." Naruto scratches the back of his head at the blonde girl's chiding.
Sakura's eyes catch Hinata, Kiba, and Shino as they approach, focusing in on them just in time to hear Hinata talk. "H-hello!" Hinata's breath hitches on her first letter. Sakura's never seen her stutter, but hitching like that is pretty normal for her. It's like she loses confidence at the start of her sentence and then locks in immediately after through sheer grit and force of will. She appreciates the Hyuga heiress being able to do stuff like that, it must take a lot out of her. She's never been so outgoing she'd struggle through when her voice wasn't working very well, if that happened to her she'd probably just run away and live in the woods for a bit or something.
A quick look behind Hinata reveals team Gai did in fact get here first despite the distractions and slow downs. Neji's over there watching them, while Tenten and Lee are trying to do anything but look at them. She quickly waves to her roommie, and then focuses back on Hinata. She was half expecting to see Haku for some reason, since she's seeing literally everyone else, but that'd be absurd. He's not even allowed to be a ninja yet, let alone try to get a promotion to Chunin without a team. Though she hears the Hokage was so generous and easygoing in their first meeting that she wouldn't be surprised to find out he has special treatment.
"I'm glad you made it, Hinata." Sakura greets while Naruto continues fighting with the 'idiot trio' and Gaara latches onto her side like it's the place to be. She can't help but be comforted by his presence, it's nice and warm and they are about to be in danger so she can be forgiven for enjoying having a protective shield around her. Too bad they'll have to separate soon. She hopes he can stay in Konoha a little bit after the exams, she'd love to introduce him to Ino more formally and maybe watch some movies together on the couch as a trio. "Kiba too, I see you brought Akamaru." The puppy barks in greeting as he's noticed, sitting atop Kiba's head with an enthusiastic wagging of his tail.
"I see you didn't bring your dog," Kiba says with a thoughtful frown which immediately grabs her attention, "you didn't think he'd be useful?"
"I figured he'd draw too much attention, I plan to bring him into the next part of the exams though." Sakura explains, "you'll get to see him, probably. I don't know if we will meet up during the rest of the exams."
"I look forward to it." Kiba grins. Hinata quickly swerves around her to go fuss over Naruto, who's still arguing somewhat loudly, and Sakura bumps fists with Kiba. "How far do you think we can go? All nine rookie genin are here." Good for Hinata, she hopes that girl can make headway sometime, she needs more friends and so does Naruto. Maybe she can push them together sometime, what's a sister for besides helping her brother make friends? She's clearly good at it, everyone seems to love her even when she's not trying. She's not sure when she became good at making friends, maybe it's really just a matter of being friendly? She understands that a lot of girls can't be nearly as friendly as her, they have to worry about their safety, especially around ninja guys. She is strong enough she doesn't have to worry about that around anyone but Lee, and she's pretty sure Lee'd be bashing skulls in for her, he's not a problem. He's an anti-problem, a solution? Lee's a guy problem solution.
"I'll be making it all the way to the end of this, you?" Sakura smirks.
"You betcha, nothing can take me down." The wild haired boy smirks right back at her, sharp teeth and even sharper gaze focused on her. "We should work together if the chance arrives."
"I'll look for you if I can." She agrees evenly with him, "unless it's competition, then I'll actively avoid you. No need to take our own village out of the fight."
"That's what I'm thinking." The boy looks at Sasuke, "Are you sure your team agrees? He's glaring at me."
"He glares at everyone." Sakura shrugs.
"Well, if it comes down to fighting him, we'll win." Kiba grins with all his teeth, "we won't lose to the likes of those two."
"Unfortunately, you'd have to get through me." Sakura points out, her hand landing on her sword "and I have the means to reattach your limbs when I'm done with you, so I won't hesitate to take them off."
"Wha-but-um-" Watching everyone but Gaara take a large step away from her is a feeling, for sure, she kinda wishes she knew what causes stuff like that. "You too, Sasuke?" She asks, looking at the boy who suddenly looks quite disturbed. "Too far?"
"Way too far…" Naruto gulps.
"I thought it was eloquent." Gaara's words of approval only help reinforce just how bad that must've been.
"Sorry…"
"And now I know what to talk about at our next session." Ino claps to herself in the background, she's so wholesome. It's nice to have her best friend rooting for her.
"You should be a little quieter." A voice catches their attention, and her gaze moves to a silver haired man approaching them. He's covered in mostly purple, and has glasses on which is odd. Konoha is pretty good at eye transplants, he shouldn't have eye problems as a ninja.
[Kabuto Yakushi; Special Jonin Solo Elite]
That's unsettling. There's technically two different displays her Scan ability gives her. One that's mainly meant for allies and normal people, it gives her a good idea of how dangerous they are, tells her a bit about them, and even provides some info on their bounty book entry if they have one. Then there's one which is for bosses, and those that are very specifically only meant to be enemies. It's not perfect, Haku also appeared as a boss fight at one point and that worked out pretty well, so it's not conclusive and she's not about to go making accusations over bad data, but it's pretty indicative that something's wrong. The problem that really catches her eyes is the rank of the boss fight. This Chunin exam participant doesn't just rank as a Special Jonin - a rank given to those that are technically Jonin in one or more but not all categories - he ranks as a solo elite.
That means two or three, maybe even four Special Jonin should be required to beat him.
They'll die, they'll really die. Why is he here? What the hell?
Spy? Spy. Definitely a spy. But for which country? He has a leaf headband so she bets it's not the leaf! Does it matter? She'll alert someone when she can, for now, there's no reason to think he wants to hurt them. Well besides her system giving her an enemy card for him. That's concerning right? Haku should not be her standard, Haku's awesome and unique and probably the only enemy card she'll ever get that's friendly. Maybe she should report him directly to Ibiki, but when is she going to see Ibiki? He just seems like the perfect person for this kind of concern.
"You guys are the 'rookie nine' fresh out of the academy, right?" The man keeps talking despite her obviously conflicted expression. Hopefully he doesn't grasp she's onto him, but then his gaze is focused on her so he clearly does! Shit, shit, shit, shittt! "Carrying on like that with cute faces… man…This isn't a field tri-" He's cut off when Gaara's sand spills out, and flares towards him.
"Gaara no!" She tackles the redheaded boy, making the sand fall to the ground. The special jonin has already backpedaled right into the crowd before she looks up. "That woulda been bad…" She groans from atop the boy on the ground. And now every single person is staring at them for an entirely new reason, including his siblings who have complicated expressions about something they're not bothering to share, "shit."
"Shit?" Gaara asks.
"Shit." She confirms.