"So what is it that has been demanding your attention at night, Sakura?" Shino asked her curiously as the three of them wandered around the village for lack of anything better to do. The food had been good and now they were just doing their best to walk off the bloated feeling in their stomachs, "It must be important if you're willing to go without sleep for so long."

Suppressing a burp, Sakura shrugged idly, "Well honestly, here recently I've been working almost exclusively on my puppet at night. It's gotten to the point that it requires my full attention so it might is the best time for me to do it because there are less distractions. Less chance I'm going to accidentally trip the seals or the hair-trigger springs that keep the blades locked."

Though with how exhausted she had been recently, there had still been a few close calls. She very carefully didn't look at her hands, her fingers littered with random cuts from where she hadn't quite been careful enough.

"Wait, you already have weapons for it? How? You said your sensei didn't give you any." Ino said, looking confused. Shino tilted his head, also curious as to how his friend had managed to acquire bladed weaponry despite their pending graduation.

"My parents got them for me." Sakura explained, "Or well, sort of. Sometimes when their caravan is attacked, there's stuff left over from the battle that they usually try to sell. Kunai, daggers, even swords sometimes. If the stuff's not in good enough condition though, they'll toss it. I just asked if I could have whatever they were going to throw away."

"You're using broken weapons to create your puppet?"

Sakura gave Shino an offended look, "Of course not, I'm not an idiot and my sensei would literally kill me if she ever found out I used damaged weapons to make my first puppet! I'm repairing them! Tachi can't sell me weapons but I'm still allowed to rent out his forge. I spent a lot of time fixing bent senbon and other junk just to get it in working condition. When I become a kunoichi though, I'm definitely getting some more high quality stuff."

Ino gave her a disbelieving look, "Wow. No wonder you've been so freaking tired all the time, Sakura! You're telling me you've been training, working on your puppet, going to the Academy, and learning how to blacksmith all at the same time, not to mention whatever else you've been getting up to!?"

Sakura blushed. When she had been doing it, it hadn't sounded that absurd. Now that she was hearing it in context though, she could see why her friends had been so concerned for her, "Yeah… I may have gone a bit overboard."

"You think!?" Ino actually looked a bit pissed off, "I'm surprised you didn't fall asleep on your feet!"

That actually had happened a few times over the last few months. Not for long, she usually woke up when she lost her balance and began to fall over, but she had still managed to catch a few minutes of shut-eye standing up.

She wasn't going to tell Ino that, of course. With how the blonde was glaring at her right now, she was pretty sure that wouldn't go well for her in the slightest. She looked away, avoiding her friend's eyes as she stared at some interesting potted plants sitting on the windowsill of a store they were passing by, "Yeah, I'm surprised too…"

Ino narrowed her eyes but Sakura stubbornly didn't look at the other girl for fear of having her ear screamed off. The three friends spent the next minute or so in an awkward silence as they wandered through the busy streets of Konoha and all the while Sakura could feel Ino's eyes on her, trying to bore a hole into the side of her head.

Luckily, Shino saw her discomfort and saved her from the agony of being visually dissected by a Yamanaka, "Do you believe that your puppet will be ready by the time that we graduate, Sakura?" He asked inquisitively.

Trying not to look too relieved by the topic change, Sakura nodded, "Definitely. She's pretty much almost finished already, I just have to go over the seals and internal mechanisms so I can make sure that nothing goes wrong when I finally put her into action. There are a ton of things that could go wrong if even one spring or gear is out of place, but I'm positive that I'll have everything done by then."

"Well I can't wait to see what the finished product looks like." Ino's gaze became much less piercing as she apparently gave up trying to read Sakura's mind, much to the pinkette's relief, "If you're already that good with your chakra strings without the freaking puppet, then you'll probably be the best in class with it."

Sakura grinned, elbowing the girl teasingly, "Yeah. Maybe I'll be even better than Sasuke, huh?"

To her eternal surprise, Ino just shrugged instead of getting angry, "Maybe."

The lack of response caused Sakura to share a look of shock with Shino. That hadn't been what she had been expecting at all. Ino seemingly noticed their shock and raised an eyebrow at their reaction, "What?"
"I guess I was just expecting a bit more of a reaction than that." Sakura answered, eyeing her friend, "I definitely didn't think you'd agree with me. Usually you'd yell my ear off for implying that I'm better than Sasuke."

Ino snorted, "Yeah well, that was before I started ranking higher in taijutsu. You can only have a crush on a guy for so long after he punches you in the stomach hard enough to make you throw up. Like, don't get me wrong, I'd date him in a second, but I still think about that punch." She flipped her hair over her shoulder, "Sasuke's good, but if you've been training hard enough to pass out every day, then you're probably just as good as he is."

Sakura wasn't really sure how to respond. Ino's fangirl crush on Sasuke had been borderline fanatical ever since they had started hanging out, and even if she was apparently over it by now, being so favorably compared to the Uchiha was still extremely high praise.

She decided to take the compliment for what it was, giving her friend a smile, "Thanks, Ino. Now I kind of want to see how I'd stack up to him with my puppet."

She was telling the truth too. Sasuke was extremely fast, faster than her for sure, but it wouldn't matter against what she had created, not in the slightest. Even so, he was still an extremely good fighter besides that and she couldn't help but wonder how the fight would go if they were allowed to go all out.

"It'd certainly be an entertaining battle." Shino chimed in, "Though in a battle without restrictions, Sasuke would have the ability to utilize ninjutsu as well and wood is highly flammable. Your puppet might not survive such an encounter."

Though the thought of her puppet going up in cinders made her fingers twitch in barely suppressed rage, Sakura shook her head, "All of the wood I used in my puppet's creation is coated in a fire-resistant lacquer. It would be pretty much impossible for even someone like Sasuke to set it on fire." She grinned darkly, "And even if he could, I have ninjutsu too and water beats fire every day of the week. I'd drown him on his feet if he ever tried to burn my puppet."

Ino's head sapped towards her, "Okay, and when the hell did you have time to do elemental training on top of all that other stuff?" She demanded, looking somewhat resigned despite her tone. It was clear that she was beginning to become less and less surprised at the absurdity of Sakura's training regime the more she heard.

Sakura shrugged, "Who knows? It all sort of blends together after enough time without sleep."

"If you were that exhausted, then how are you sure you retained the information?" Shino asked.

"Oh, I retained it." Sakura said confidently. Even now, her fingers twitched with the desire to go through the hand seals needed to perform the jutsu she practiced and her chakra jumped in their coils with the same anticipation, "I retain pretty much everything I learn no matter how tired I am. Otherwise there wouldn't be a point to all of it."

"Yeah, Shino, there's no way she doesn't remember everything." Ino had an annoying grin on her face and Sakura narrowed her eyes as the blonde gestured to her face, "I mean, just look at the size of that forehead! There's probably enough space up there to fit the entire Konoha Library!"

Sharing a look with Shino as Ino laughed at her own joke, Sakura slipped a hand behind her back. With a tiny amount of effort, she created a thin chakra threat that she then began to sneakily stretch out towards the Yamanaka.

Keeping half of her concentration on it, she kept her expression as natural as possible so that Ino wouldn't notice anything was amiss as her chakra crept up towards the girl's head, "So who do you guys think will be on your teams? They're teams of three, right? That means we could all be out together right?"

Ino shook her head, "It's possible, but I doubt it. I know I'm probably going to be stuck with Shikamaru and Choji because our dads asked for it or something."

"They can do that?"

Ino shrugged, "Probably. They're clan heads so they have some pull with the Hokage. Since all of us are in the same class, it's basically guaranteed that we're going to be on the same team."

Shino nodded, "I believe my father has been speaking to the head of the Inuzuka Clan for something similar. It is unlikely I will be on the same team as you, Sakura."

"Well that sucks." Sakura frowned, actually disappointed. She had been hoping that she might be able to be on the same team as one or even both of her friends.

To relieve herself of the disappointment, Sakura put her plan into action. Her chakra thread has been steadily sneaking its way towards Ino's hair tie and just a moment ago she had made contact. From there it was just a waiting game as she used her chakra to slowly and unnoticeably cut through the thin fabric until finally…

Snap*

Ino yelped as her carefully maintained ponytail fell around her face, obscuring her vision. Sakura had made sure to time it so that she wasn't in danger of tripping over something on the street so instead of falling on her face, she only stumbled a little while Sakura snickered at her misfortunes.

"What the hell, Sakura!?" Ino demanded as she recovered, immediately figuring out who was responsible for her sudden wardrobe malfunction.

"What?" Sakura's face was the picture of innocence but she didn't bother hiding the chakra string that was fading into thin air.

"You know what!" Ino huffed as she pushed her hair out of her face with an annoyed look, "Do you have any idea how long it takes me to do my hair? We can't all just wake up and put it in a ponytail and look good like you do! This takes actual effort!"

"That sounds like a you problem. You shouldn't have made fun of my forehead." Sakura said smugly, only to balk as Ino turned a demonic glare onto her.

"Yeah? Well I'm about to make it a you problem!" Ino growled, stalking towards Sakura like an angry bear. The pinkette flinched as Ino suddenly teached a hand out, grabbing her by the wrist and beginning to pull her down the street, "Come on, we're going to my house. It's been too long since we spared and I think you need a refresher!"

Paling at her friend's tone, Sakura pulled against Ino's grip as she was dragged along, "W-wait! I thought I was supposed to take it easy today!" She cried.

"That was before you messed with my hair!"

"Shino, help me!" She turned towards the Aburame as she was dragged away against her will.

To her horror, Shino made absolutely no attempt to save her from her fate, shaking his head, "I'm sorry, Sakura, but I have a feeling that trying to stop her would be a detriment to my health. You are going to have to deal with this on your own."

Despite the apologetic time to his words, Sakura could hear him hiding a smile underneath the collar of his jacket as he walked after her and Ino. She let out a whimper, wondering how badly this fight was going to go with her as full and as tired as she was right now.

She should have stayed at home!

A few weeks later, Sakura just barely kept herself from fidgeting nervously as she stood in front of Iruka-sensei and two of her other teachers. This was her final test, the exam that would determine whether or not she graduated or had to retry again next year so she was understandably nervous.

Seemingly sensing said nervousness, Iruka gave her a reassuring smile, "First of all, I believe congratulations are in order, Sakura. You finished as the third highest ranked in class academics. That's a real feat and definitely one to be proud of."

Sakura wasn't able to keep the smile off of her face at the acknowledgement of her efforts and she gave the man a deep bow, "Thank you, sensei!"

"You deserve it, Sakura." Iruka said with a smile, before his face became more serious, "Now then, let's begin the exam."

"I'm ready." Sakura straightened, her face twisting in determination. This was it, she was nearly there. One last test and she would finally be a full-fledged kunoichi!

Iruka looked down at the papers in front of him, "For this exam, you will need to prove to us that you've retained the knowledge that we have gone over in class."

Sakura nodded. So this was an oral exam? That explained why the other teachers were here. She wasn't sure how well she'd do because she absolutely was not prepared for something like this, but she was pretty good at improvising. She'd be fine.

Just as she began to hype herself up, her mind flashing back to the most important lessons that she had participated in over the past several years, Iruka suddenly and abruptly took all of the wind out of her sails.

"Your test is to prove sufficient mastery over the Academy Three." He said, making her blink, "Please perform the transformation, clone, and substitute jutsus in any order you like. You will be graded on several factors including quickness, stability, and accuracy."

Sakura waited for the catch, only to blink as she was met with three expectant gazed instead of more information on her task, "Uhh… is that it?"

Iruka raised an eyebrow at her confusion, "Well, if you'd like, you can earn some extra credit by showing proficiency in another jutsu that isn't a part of the Academy Three."

Still somewhat believing that she was being pranked or something, Sakura did as she was ordered to. Maneuvering her fingers into a Ram seal, she glanced at a chair sitting in the corner of the room and pulsed her chakra in a way that she had practiced a million times before.

In a puff of smoke, she and the chair had switched places. She looked towards her examiners watching as they nodded happily at her display, before performing the task again and appearing where she had started.

Hidden from her instructors in the smoke, she performed another set of hand seals and when the smoke finally cleared, there were two of her standing there instead of one.

The examiners clapped politely at the show and Sakura gave a small bow as the clone disappeared without a sound.

Iruka marked something down on the paper in front of him, "Well done, Sakura. Now all that's left is the-"

He was interrupted by another puff of smoke, and he looked up and his words died in his throat as he was met with the stern gaze of a middle-aged mother staring him down. Sakura had been on the receiving end of that stare more times than she could count and so could completely understand the slight fear that appeared on Iruka's face.

Deciding to grant him the mercy of not having to look into her mom's disappointed eyes for any longer, Sakura canceled the jutsu, returning to her original form in an instant.

The examiners breathed simultaneous sighs of relief and Iruka coughed as he regained his composure, "Ahem. V-very well done, Sakura. The details on your henge were… very lifelike."

Sakura smirked, recognizing the nervousness in his face for what it was. She had seen it on her dad often enough, after all, "Thank you, sensei. May I do my extra credit, now ? I've got some jutsu that I can show off."

Iruka nodded, gesturing for her to go ahead, "Be my guest. Just please keep it to non-destructive jutsu if you can."

"Will do!" Turning around to face the far wall, Sakura brought her hands in front of her chest as she debated which jutsu she should showcase.

'Hmm… I need something easy that looks impressive but also won't break anything… That should work.'

Searching her mind for the correct seals for the technique, Sakura began to sign at a moderate but steady pace. There was no reason to rush and screw up here, after all. Slow and steady wins the race.

A moment later, Sakura's hands landed on the last seal and she inhaled deeply, feeling the chakra build inside of her lungs and throat. It was light and cool, like the air just after a spring rain, and she kept it there for just a moment before announcing the name of her technique.

"Water Release: Creeping Fog!"

Sakura opened her mouth and expelled a stream of white mist that quickly blanketed the area in front of her. It shot out of her mouth and immediately spread several feet in either direction, stopping only once it hit the walls of the room and couldn't spread any further.

It wasn't quite as thick as she would have liked but it was thick enough that she couldn't quite make out the seams in the floorboards nor the finer details on the far wall. Still, she'd have to work on it. She couldn't hide anything in fog this thin.

After expelling a sufficient amount for the demonstration, she closed her mouth and cut off the technique. Her chakra felt slightly drained which made sense considering this was a high C-rank jutsu, but that just made her happy at how much she'd grown over the past few years.

Smiling slightly, she turned around to face her examiners once more. Two of them were staring at her in wide-eyed surprise while Iruka was giving her a proud smile, "Wonderful job, Sakura. That's quite a useful jutsu you've managed to learn. I think you've more than earned the right to your headband."

He gestured to the box full of gleaming metal attached to dark blue cloth. Practically shaking with excitement, Sakura moved forward picking one up with gentle fingers. She gazed at her reflection in the polished metal, running her fingers along the cool surface as her digits traced the leaf symbol etched into the metal.

With the sensation of the engraving underneath her fingers, came a feeling of joy that welled up from deep inside. She had done it. Years of hard work and training had paid off! She was finally a kunoichi!

She'd have to replace that ribbon because blue was so not her color, but other than that, everything was exactly what she had dreamed of!

Smiling at her joy, Iruka gave Sakura a small bow, "I am proud to have called you my student, Sakura. Now wear that headband with pride and welcome to our shinobi forces."

Returning her sensei's bow, Sakura practically strutted out of the testing room with a bright grin, her brand new hitai-ate shining brightly as she tied it securely onto her right bicep.

As she walked into the classroom, both Shino and Ino were there to meet her. The Yamanaka took one glance at her before smirking.

"Looks like you made the cut too." Ino said as Sakura reached the two of them, holding her hand in the air.

Sakura slapped it happily, "Duh. Don't you know who you're talking to, of course I did!" She lowered her voice, "That test was barely even a test at all. I'd be surprised if someone actually managed to fail it."

"It did seem oddly simple." Shino agreed, "If anyone was paying attention in class at all, there's no reason that they should fail."

"You say that, but I've seen like, six people leave without a headband so far." Ino said.

Sakura gave her a disbelieving look, "Seriously?"

"I know right? Like, why even bother coming to graduation if you can't even use substitution?" Ino scoffed, before glancing down to the brand new scroll hanging from Sakura's hip. It was slightly thicker than the other ones, bright red with a green edge, and it didn't take a genius to guess what it was for.

"So is your puppet in there?" Ino asked, interest plain in her voice as she pointed at the scroll.

Sakura grinned, reaching down to caress the scroll holding years worth of hard work. It felt a little surreal to finally have her finished puppet on her person and Sakura was filled with a giddy excitement every time that she glanced down to see the scroll testing on her hip. "It is! I did the final tests last night. She's officially ready to go! I can't wait to finally put her into action in a real fight!"

Both of her friends smiled at the eagerness in her voice and Ino leaned forward, eying the scroll, "Well don't keep us in suspense! Bring her out! I want to see what almost made you flunk out of the academy!"

"I didn't nearly flunk out! My grades were fine!" Sakura defended herself, "And I can't show you in here. I'm still getting used to controlling all of the hidden mechanisms in her body. If I twitch my finger wrong, I could fill this entire room with poisonous fog."

Ino groaned, "Ugh, really? You spent all that time on that freaking puppet and we can't even see it? Lame…"

"I'm so sorry I don't want to possibly poison the entire graduating class, Ino." Sakura deadpanned, "If you really want to see it, I'll just come by your house after we're done here and show you there. Should make for good entertainment for the party!"

Ino's demeanor immediately brightened, "That's true. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Hey Shino, do you want to come over to my place after we're done here?" She asked, looking at the Aburame who stiffened in surprise, "Shikamaru and Choji are coming over with their families and we're all gonna celebrate with a big barbeque. I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you came too."

Shino's shock was plain to see, and Sakura quickly reinforced Ino's offer , "You don't want to miss it, Shino. It's kind of a given, but any barbeque with the Akimichi is gonna be a good one."

Faced with his friend's hopeful gazed, Shino nodded slowly, "I'll have to speak to my parents first, but I believe I can attend. Should… I show up with gifts?" He asked, seeming unsure.

"Just bring yourself." Sakura grinned, clapping him on the shoulder solidly, "Oh and uh, if you could help keep the bugs away from the food, I'm sure nobody will complain."

Shino nodded, "I can do that. I'm sure my kikaichu will enjoy the taste of insects scented with the fragrance of spiced meat. It will be a treat for them as well."

"Ooh, barbeque mosquitos. Yum." Ino made a face and Sakura giggled.

"Alright everyone, take your seats!" The three of them turned their attention to the testing room as Iruka came walking out, followed closely by Naruto who was sporting a smile just as large as the one Sakura had been wearing earlier.

"Huh. I'm gonna be honest, I didn't expect him to pass. Doesn't he usually have trouble making clones?" Sakura asked Shino as they sat in their usual seats.

"It's possible he found some other form of clone with which to pass the test." Shino postulated "Sensei said we had to make a clone but he didn't specify what kind. Maybe he learned how to create elemental clones instead of a regular bunshin."

That was true. Naruto's mom used to be a ninja so maybe she actually managed to teach him how to make a clone that didn't look like it belonged in hospice.

Mystery solved, Sakura turned her attention towards the front of the room as Iruka took his place at the podium. He gestured for them all to quiet down waiting until the room was at least somewhat quiet before beginning to speak

Sakura almost immediately tuned out the speech, quickly realizing that it was just general congratulations and him espousing about how proud he was of all of them. Instead, she turned her attention onwards, focusing on all of the things she would need to take care of once she was out of here.

Like she had told her friends earlier, her puppet was almost finished, but it was still missing a few critical pieces. Namely kunai, shuriken, senbon, the sorts of things that were needed in a much larger quantity than anything she had managed to get from her parents.

'Lets see… I'll also need to get a few spools of ninja wire too. Good quality stuff that won't break when I use it. That'll cost… a lot." She sighed, already feeling her wallet practically crying out in pain. She was gonna be broke again, wasn't she?

'Who would have thought being a ninja was so expensive?' She mused sullenly as she turned her attention back to the front of the room. Iruka had finished his speech and was now holding up a clipboard.

"I will now begin reading off the team compositions." He cleared his throat, "Several teams are still in rotation so we'll begin with…"

Sakura waited patiently for her name to be called as the teams were listed. Groans and cheers rang out in the room as people were sorted with those they liked or hated, and Sakura held back her disappointment as both Ino and Shino were sorted into teams without her.

At least they didn't seem happy about it either. Ino looked mostly resigned, having been right about being forced onto a team with both Choji and Shikamaru, while Shino actually seemed somewhat content being placed on a team with Kiba and Hinata.

Naruto and Sasuke were paired up which came as less of a surprise than it probably should have. Despite how much Naruto claimed to dislike the Uchiha, the two of them were practically joined at the hip. Hopefully they wouldn't mind Ami crashing their little rivalry because judging by the girls scream when her name was called, she still hadn't gotten over her crush.

At least it wasn't Sakura. She wasn't sure she could stomach Naruto's yelling more than she already had to.

She turned her attention back to the front, eager to hear who she would be paired up with. As more names were listed off though, Sakura's never seemed to come. More and more people were called, more and more teams were assigned but never her. And by the time that the last unassigned person had been given their team of three, Sakura was practically biting her nails with worry and confusion.

And then Iruka turned to her, and something in his eyes took her aback. They weren't like anything that Sakura had ever seen from the man, deep and solemn with an undertone of something that she couldn't identify.

"And finally…" He gave a deep sigh, "Sakura Haruno will be joining Team 3 to replace a recent vacancy in their numbers."

What.

Sakura's face went blank and she stiffened at her sensei's words and beside her, Shino noticed this, giving her a curious glance as he wondered what had caused the reaction

She only had eyes for Iruka though. The man was still staring at her and now as she looked into his brown eyes, she had a name for the feeling she couldn't place. Sorrow.

"Sakura, your sensei is waiting for you on the roof. You may leave when ready." He told her in a soft voice, before turning to address the rest of the class, "Everyone else, your senseis will be here shortly so please be patient."

Feeling oddly numb, Sakura stood up and began to leave the classroom. As she passed him, Shino watched her worriedly but didn't speak up, not really sure what to say.

Ino on the other hand, wasn't nearly as shy. Just as Sakura passed the other girl's seat, Ino's hand shot out and grabbed onto her wrist, forcing her to stop and look at her.

"Sakura?" The Yamanaka asked, her eyes staring into Sakura and searching for what had caused her friend's sudden shift in mood, "What's going on?"

Sakura just shook her head, not saying a word. Her ears were still ringing with Iruka's proclamation and she was having trouble getting her thoughts in order. She had to get to the roof.

She slipped her hand out of Ino's, ignoring the worried look that the blonde gave her as she made her way towards the front of the classroom. Around her, her classmates seemingly picked up on her mood as the happy chatter of the teams getting acquainted with each other faded into an uneasy silence.

The moment she stepped out of the classroom, the noise returned, but Sakura ignored it in favor of making her way towards the staircase that would take her to the roof, her mind racing a mile a minute behind her eyes.

Team 3 was missing a member? How? When!?

Since her friends had managed to talk her out of breaking herself with her training, Sakura hadn't visited the usual training ground nearly as often as she had before. She only went there now to practice ninjutsu or test out some of the more volatile functions of her puppet. She was there maybe two or three times a week at this point, and rarely for more than a few hours.

Now that she thought about it though, the few times that she went there, none of Team 3 had shown up. She had just figured that maybe their times hadn't been lining up or something but now…

She picked up the pace slightly, her heart beginning to beat faster in her chest as she ascended the stairs and her mind spiraled.

What if something had happened to one of them? Sure, people could technically leave a team and retire from the shinobi forces early but they needed proof of significant injury or an actual, credible reason to do so. It was a military occupation, you couldn't just quit. That meant that something had to have happened to one of them, and Sakura's hands shook with worry as she opened the door to the roof, praying that she was wrong and her friends were fine.

Standing on the edge of the roof a few feet away was a man in a jonin flak jacket. He was tall and had dark blue hair and a cigarette in his mouth, the smoke curling lazily above his head. He didn't turn around as she opened the door, and just as Sakura opened her mouth to ask if he was the one she was supposed to meet, he spoke.

"Are you Sakura?" He asked, still not turning to face her. His voice was slightly gravely, a deep baritone that she could practically feel even from several feet away.

"...I am." The newly-minted-genin said in a small voice. Her words finally made the man turn around to face her.

Bright orange eyes stared at her from an aloof face. Running overtop one of said eyes was a thick and almost grotesque line of scar tissue that ran vertically down his face towards his chin, narrowly missing the ocular organ itself. Sakura tried not to stare at the scar as he looked her up and down, seeming utterly unimpressed by what he saw, "So you're the kid who's been using my training ground, huh? You don't look like much."

Sakura ignored the comment with practiced ease, instead getting straight towards the question that was practically eating her alive, "What happened?"

Iwabi raised an eyebrow at her question, "Well now, you don't beat around the bush, do you?"

Sakura's fists clenched and she took a step forward, glaring angrily while trying not to seem too desperate, "Tell me what happened." She demanded, her voice much stronger this time as it rose with her anger.

The man took another drag of his cigarette, looking unconcerned, "What do you think, kid? What all sensei's fear might happen the first time they take their genin out of the village. I failed to teach them and they got in over their heads and paid the price for it."

Sakura swallowed heavily at his words, her worst fears coming true, "Hikari, Tsu… Are they…?" She couldn't finish the sentence, the words catching in her throat and choking her up.

Iwabi raised an eyebrow at the specific mention but shook his head all the same, "Hikari and Tsuyoka are fine, physically at least. They aren't the ones you're replacing."

Then that meant…

"Jin was the one who didn't make it back from the mission." Iwabi finished her thought for her. She watched as the man practically inhaled the rest of his cigarette, bright embers falling from the burnt stub onto the concrete below his feet. He exhaled a long stream of smoke and as he did so, the lines on his face deepened and made him look much less unbothered than it had only a few seconds ago.

That was good. Sakura was beginning to think that he didn't care at all that one of his students were gone.

"It was my fault." Sakura's gaze snapped to his, shock written all over her face as the man outright confessed, "I thought that they could handle themselves and I was wrong. In the battle, I took my eyes off of them to go deal with someone who I thought would be too much for them to handle and missed the second ninja who caught Jin's attention. I couldn't get back to them in time to save him before it was too late and by that point, Hikari and Tsuyoka were too injured to continue fighting. The only thing we were able to recover was his sword."

That was… Sakura didn't even have words. She wasn't sure how to feel either. She hadn't really known Jin all that well, usually spending time with the other two when they happened to be training at the same time, but even so, the knowledge that someone her age had been cut down so early in his shinobi career rattled her.

If she was reacting like this, how would Tsu and Hikari feel? Though he and Tsu argued all the time, it was lighthearted and almost routine, even bordering on playful sometimes. It was clear that they had been extremely close, probably even closer than what Sakura had seen. She was probably taking this much harder than Hikari was.

"...How are Tsu and Hikari?" Sakura asked, worried about her friends.

Iwabi's jaw clenched and that was all that Sakura needed to know what he was about to say. "About as well as you could expect. It's been rough, which is why I hope a familiar face might do a little to fix things."

"Was that why I was assigned to Team 3? To help them?" Sakura asked uncertainly.

To her surprise, Iwabi shook his head, "No. You're being assigned to Team 3 because your skill set meshes almost perfectly with both Hikari and Tsuyoka's. I wouldn't request you to be the team therapist and they wouldn't want you to be. You're a genin, not therapist."

Iwabi flicked his cigarette off of the roof, blowing the last of the smoke into the air, "Anyway, that's enough talking about that. I came here to take your measure and I've got it. I'll see you at Training Ground 3 at twelve o'clock sharp tomorrow afternoon. Eat a light lunch."

He then disappeared in a gust of wind and swirling leaves before Sakura had the chance to say anything else, leaving her staring at the tiny pieces of green foliage as they were caught by the wind and began to soar off of the roof.

And as Sakura was left alone with the wind whistling in her ears, staring out across the vast sprawl of Konoha, the glow of her recent achievements faded quite a bit.

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