Naruto 1. The First Time

**AN: I've gotten the impression that Sakura being a whiny fangirl turns people off in the first chapter. Don't worry that part of her personality goes away real quick. This story takes a couple of chapters to get going but once it does I promise you will enjoy it :) **

_**Hara **_**is the Japanese term for the lower Dantian. It's basically in the middle of the body about three finger widths below the navel. It's important in martial arts, Ki practices and Chinese medicine. **

* * *

When Kakashi-sensei killed Haku the pink haired kunoichi from Team 7 felt it. From her lower _hara_ felt a tidal wave of pleasurable sensations spread to every nerve ending of her body. The experience was so intense as to be pleasure almost indiscernible from pain in a way that was inexplicably fulfilling. Sakura's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fell to her knees, trembling, confused and overwhelmed by the indescribable sensation she felt throughout every inch of her body.

"Hey Sakura-san! Are you all right?" came the frightened loud whisper from Tazuna, the bridge builder she was protecting.

Sakura could hear the voices of her sensei, Naruto and the missing nin Zabuza. However she couldn't focus on what they were saying as she with some difficulty tried to shake off the absolutely unexpected and almost invasive sensations. She had to do her best to protect the bridge builder. Shakily Sakura got back to her feet.

"Y-yeah Tazuna-san," she said, trying to give him a reassuring smile she they both knew wasn't sincere, "I'm fine. Nothing to worry about." Sakura could worry about what the hell that had been later, her nerves still tingling and on edge.

He gave her a skeptical and concerned look but Sakura turned her attention away from him as it appeared the thick mist that had been completely obscuring their vision was now rapidly lifting. In seconds she could see what was happening on the bridge. Zabuza stood a distance from Kakashi, both arms seemingly maimed and Kakashi with no major injuries that she could see. Sakura breathed a sigh of relief now feeling secure that they would survive this fight after all. Naruto was shouting something at Zabuza and looking angry and for the first time she spotted the corpse of Haku. Sakura felt a little ill at the sight even from a distance. There was a group of armed thugs moving towards them from the very end of the bridge. But where was Sasuke-kun?

Her eyes scanned the area until a little ways off from where the others stood lay Sasuke unmoving.

"S-Sasuke-kun?" she said softly, her brain trying to process what Sasuke laying immobile on the ground and filled with senbon needles might mean.

Sakura felt a gentle hand placed on her back. Turning her head she saw the sad look on Tazuna's face.

"I think the fight is over. Go to him, I'll be fine," he said in a somber but kind voice.

Sakura hesitated for a moment before nodding in gratefulness and sprinting over to where Sasuke was, yelling his name. She knew there were other voices around, that she should be situationally aware but seeing Sasuke still and unmoving she couldn't bring herself to spare attention to anything else. Sakura reached him and knelt by his still form, checking for breathing and heartbeat and finding none.

"No… Sasuke… you-you can't be dead!" she said to him, the hands that had touched him to check for breath and a pulse shaking after having touched his unmoving form. She knew that that no breathing or heartbeat meant death. She knew that. But in that moment of shock all she could do was go into denial.

"No… no this isn't happening… this is some kind of joke, Sasuke-kun can't die," she said out loud near hysterically. Sakura grabbed his shirt and leaned over him with tears and shock on her face, muttering denials and feeling like her heart was being ripped apart.

That's when the next wave of painfully pleasurable sensations exploded out from her _hara_ and shot through her whole body.

This time Sakura did cry out from the sensations, a sound that was both pain and shameful pleasure. She lost control of herself and landed on top of Sasuke, some of the senbon in his body piercing her arms and torso. Before she could pull herself off she was hit by another explosion of pleasure, then another, and another. She flopped on top of Sasuke helplessly as the overwhelming ecstasy shot through her brain and every part of her nervous system and Sakura howled and moaned as the sensations continued. Tazuna had approached them, looking frightened and perplexed by whatever was happening to the young kunoichi. A few moments passed and one final surge of inexplicable sensation shot through her body and she collapsed, mind momentarily shut down.

Moments later when Sakura began to regain her fleeting senses from the experience it was to find a pronounced feeling of euphoria and wellbeing throughout her whole mind and body. She felt like she could walk on clouds or run all day. An inappropriate giggle escaped her at how amazing she suddenly felt from head to toe.

That was when she remembered she was laying on Sasuke's body. The though made her freeze. Her eyes were stinging again and she was about to resume crying when she felt a hand weakly try to push her off.

"Sakura… get off of me," said a tired and pained voice coming from the body underneath her. It was his voice. Sasuke's voice.

"Sasuke, you're alive!" she said in surprise and sudden joy. She sat up ad looked down at him, his eyes weakly focused on her and his breathing shallow but present. He was alive, her teammate who she was in love with was still alive.

Sakura bent down and reached under his head and pulled him to her, hugging him and crying in relief. Sasuke only allowed this for a second before he went still and started weakly trying to pry her off of him. After a few seconds Sakura acquiesced, moving away to give him a bit of space with a silly smile wide on her face.

Slowly, painfully Sasuke made his way to his feet Sakura for once having the insight to not to interfere since he would have rebuffed any offers for help. The raven haired boy really was much too proud but he did have a surprisingly strong will that Sakura admired.

"Oi, Sasuke! You're alive!" came the surprised and joyful cry from Naruto who Sakura saw was running over to where they were. Kakashi-sensei came towards them too walking at a more sedate pace behind Naruto.

Sakura let out a sigh of relief. They had made it. Everything was going to be ok.

* * *

A couple of days later Team 7 was back on the road taking a leisurely walk back to Konoha. Kakashi-sensei said they would start traveling at more ninja appropriate speeds after lunch and that for the morning he just wanted to walk and take in the sights. Sakura wasn't sure what sights he was taking in with his nose buried in that suspicious orange book of his.

Sasuke had recovered quickly with no lasting damage much to her relief and he was almost back to a hundred percent already. Naruto was talking loudly to Sasuke as the two of them walked in front of her and Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke doing his best to look annoyed and put upon but Sakura suspected a small part of him enjoyed the banter. Looking at the two of them walking ahead of her she couldn't help but feel kind of sad. It was strangely symbolic of how the team dynamic seemed to be shaping up. Sasuke and Naruto were both stronger than her, if she was honest she would say they were both much stronger than her. They were walking ahead and leaving her behind as the most useless member of Team 7 despite her considerable intelligence and near perfect memory. She had been almost worse than useless that last mission. It stung her pride and made her depressed but unfortunately that was the way things were.

"Sakura," said Kakashi calling her attention.

The girl looked up at his tall frame, "Yes sensei?"

"During the mission, I've been meaning to ask… what happened when those men died?"

The Haruno blinked up at him, "What do you mean?"

"When Haku died you fell to your knees. When Zabuza killed those thugs and Gato you collapsed on top of Sasuke. It's curious since both things were out of your direct line of sight at the time. I'm just wondering what happened to my cute little student," he said.

Sakura's jaw dropped open. Avoiding the most disturbing of the two issues, she first considered how Kakashi could have been aware of that happening to her. When Haku died the whole bridge had been covered in thick fog and from what she remembered Kakashi-sensei had been facing away from her completely when Gato's men attacked, not that she had really noticed them since she had been crying over Sasuke. For him to have been aware of what was going on with her along with everything else spoke of amazing skill. How he had managed to do that she had no idea.

The second point, she didn't want to think about. You'd think being shot through with the most pleasurable physical and mental experiences of her _life_ back to back would be a good thing but it had just confused and frightened her. She felt a bit violated and dirty since she knew that kind of thing wasn't normal. The other reason she had been refusing to think about it was because a large part of her that she didn't want to admit to wanted to feel that again. What she had felt had been like pure bliss and for days afterwards she had felt the aftereffects and it had felt simply amazing, like a whole new Sakura. But all that still didn't ease the uneasiness she felt about the experience as a whole.

Even now she felt only the scant residues of whatever it is that had happened to her and she already felt herself wanting more. Now Kakashi was suggesting that it had something to do with those people being killed? The very idea made Sakura sick. Whatever she was feeling must have shown on her face as Kakashi looked suddenly interested, which was two steps above any interest he had shown in anything else as far as Sakura could tell.

He was clearly waiting for an answer and she didn't know what to say. She wasn't going to tell him the truth. Besides, he was wrong. There was no way what happened to her had to do with those people dying. It had to be some sort of coincidence. Maybe one of her the channels in her chakra network spontaneously opened near one of the pleasure centers of her brain or something. There was no way that kind of feeling came from something as sick as death.

Sakura decided to tell Kakashi a half truth. "I don't know what happened sensei. There was this powerful sensation that spread from my _hara_ to everywhere in my body and it made me temporarily lose control. It happened a few times but I recovered just fine after that," she said.

Kakashi gave her an evaluating look and she couldn't tell if he completely believed her or not. After a few moments he said, "Well if anything similar happens again I need you to tell me, all right? If it does then we'll go get you checked out with the medic nins."

Sakura relaxed, relieved he wasn't going to push any further. "Hai sensei," she said.

They walked in silence for a few minutes and while she was a little envious of Naruto walking ahead next to Sasuke, the pink haired girl realized that this was one of the few times she had ever had her sensei to herself as a more-or-less captive audience. Deciding not to waste the opportunity Sakura spoke up.

"Kakashi-sensei… I'm a lot weaker than my teammates aren't I?" she asked hesitantly.

"Well, you still have a lot of time to learn. I'm sure you'll get a lot stronger over time."

_So basically that means yes. Well at least he tried to soften the blow for me,_ she thought sullenly.

"Sensei I felt completely useless in that mission. I scored the best in all the tests at the academy and I thought that would help me out here in the real world but all that knowledge feels worse than useless. Turns out that doesn't really help out in the real world," she said as a conversation opener before she angled where she wanted to take it.

"Well, sort of. The academic learning won't hurt you but it's true that some of it is more applicable if you're the one calling the shots and the rest requires good physical abilities make good use of it."

_Implied meaning: you lack the physical abilities to make good use of it _she thought feeling somewhat down by that assessment but also a bit hopeful. At least sensei was telling her that her book smarts were not a complete waste, something she had been doubting herself on since they finished the mission in Wave.

Sakura was starting to learn how Kakashi-sensei taught. He was never the encouraging and motivational kind of teacher, or even a teacher who would just come out and tell you things. He expected you to be self-directed and motivated and to figure things out on your own. At first glance it seemed like he wasn't teaching at all. After a little over a month with him she was learning that this was not the case at all. It was just so subtle it was hard to pick up on.

Probably the worst teaching style in the universe when trying to teach Naruto, but that was another story.

"What do you think I should train in then sensei? I wasn't really thrilled about being dead weight on the team," she flinched at her own frank assessment but she thought it might actually spur a slightly more verbose reply from her sensei than usual.

"You're a smart girl, you know where your deficiencies are. Work on that," he said offhandedly not even bothering to look up from his book.

She wanted to scream at him for his apparent disinterest but she restrained herself. She was NOT Naruto. Besides he had just told her in a roundabout way that her physical abilities were lacking. It was true that Naruto and Sasuke both had much greater physical strength and stamina than her. It made sense that those things were of fundamental importance to any student and even in the academy she had been slightly below average in those areas. If she wanted to be a good shinobi it made sense that she needed to get those things up to par.

"Hai sensei," she said firmly. It was a little disappointing that when she asked for advice he didn't offer to personally train her or teach her a jutsu but she wasn't Naruto and she could sort of understand where he might be coming from. She knew a sensei didn't need to supervise a Genin doing normal strength and stamina training so why would he waste his time? If that is what she needed she could do it on her own.

They walked for a few more minutes in silence and Sakura started to look around enjoying the look of the forests of Fire Country all around them. It was a while before Kakashi spoke up again surprising her.

"Water walking and being able to do the three academy jutsu without hand signs would be good too. Who knows, someone who could do that might be worth teaching something good to," he said nonchalantly as if he were just talking about the weather.

Sakura was surprised. He'd already given his advice and then he took the initiative to give her more direction. Maybe it was a reward for figuring out his previous direction, or had she misjudged her sensei that badly in thinking he only ever tried to teach in obtuse roundabout ways? Then again he did teach them the tree walking exercise. That was the only time she could think of that he had been plain straightforward about anything except when it came to teamwork.

"How do I do water walking and how do I do the academy jutsu without hand signs?" Sakura asked cautiously.

"Water walking is like tree walking, only harder. The other three? Practice," he said, then he walked ahead of her and turned the page in his book as he giggled about something he'd read. Sakura rolled her eyes at Kakashi-sensei being such a weirdo. Still he had answered her questions. On the other hand his response was a bit infuriating by how completely minimalist and slightly condescending it was.

_That's just how Kakashi-sensei is. I need to stop getting irritated, I think it only encourages him_ she thought wondering if ending up with someone as Kakashi as her sensei was a lucky or unlucky thing.

* * *

When Sakura finally walked through the front door of her house what she desperately wanted was a shower. "Mom, I'm home," she called out in the house knowing that her mom would probably be home and her father most likely at work or on a last minute trip. Not hearing any immediate reply she figured her mother was out and rushed up the stairs to her room.

A shower and a fresh change of clothes later Sakura was feeling more human than she had been, though a bit twitchy. She was hungry from her trip and decided getting something to eat and turning in early would be just the thing – she had been feeling restless and was eager to start her training the next day.

When she came downstairs she was a little surprised to find her mother in her house clothes sitting at the dining table drinking tea. "Hey mom, did you just get in?" Sakura asked bouncing over and giving her mother a quick hug and kiss on the cheek.

Her mother, Haruno Aiko, hugged her daughter and gave Sakura a smile that seemed just a little bit forced to the pink headed child. "No I've been here for a while. Did you make it back ok?" she asked.

It was a bit odd that her mother hadn't answered when she had called out when she'd gotten home but Sakura just shrugged it off as no big deal. "Yeah we made good time back. Sensei ended up pushing us pretty hard to make good time, called it 'endurance training' but I think he was fed up with the mission and just ready to get back." Sakura walked over to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator looking for something to make quickly. Maybe there were leftovers?

"How-how was your mission. First C-Rank right? Did anything unusual happen?" her mother asked maybe a little too nonchalantly but Sakura was too preoccupied to notice.

Sakura didn't want to tell her mother the details of the mission and that it had ended up a terrifying A-Ranked affair, she didn't want to frighten her. Besides her mother had never been a shinobi and part of the training that had been pounded into them was that shinobi business was not civilian business.

"There were a couple of hairy moments but nothing my sensei and team couldn't handle," she said, finding some leftover rice and chicken that she started to pull out.

"So was there any fighting?" her mother asked again. This time Sakura did pick up the decidedly strange tone in her mother's voice but she didn't know what to make of it. Maybe she was just being a concerned parent having heard that on C-Ranks they could encounter bandits and such.

"Meh, a little bit, no big deal though," Sakura said walking the her bounty over to the microwave.

"Did anyone die?" she asked. Sakura froze suddenly not thinking about why her mother was acting weird but about the strange reaction she'd had on the bridge when those men died. _Around_ the time when those men died, she corrected herself, because there was no way whatever she experienced and those deaths had anything to do with each other. Still Sakura felt the urge to cover up that anything untoward –_at all _– had happened.

"No, no one died. Just a couple of thugs that we beat up and handed over to the local authorities," she said chirpily. She set the timer on her food and turned and raced up the stairs with a mumbled 'forgot something' to her mother when in truth she just needed to get away for a bit. Aiko's gaze followed her daughter's passing, worry and anxiety clear on her face.

* * *

The next morning Sakura woke up early feeling restless and anxious. She wasn't especially a morning person and had to prod herself to do extra training but today there was no need to force herself to get up before dawn. All night she had tossed and turned and she needed to do something to take her mind off the strange feeling inside her. What better way than to start her training so she wasn't completely useless next time they went on a mission?

With that Sakura got dressed in something more practical than her usual red dress, some shorts and a long sleeved green top for the chilly mornings, and got out the door. Since she had to increase her endurance she decided to run laps around Konoha. 'Laps' became 'lap' as she barely made it around the city one time, stopping after she returned to her starting point to place her hands on her knees and try to force her heart rate and breathing to slow to something vaguely resembling a normal level.

_Does this mean I'm really out of shape? I don't really have anything to compare it to. But something tells me nobody is going to be very impressed when I tell them I can run one lap around Konoha._

However it did take the edge of whatever it was she had been feeling last night and this morning so that was a win. She forced herself to run over to the training grounds closest to her house and just about collapsed when she got there. Sakura contemplated doing some strength training but decided to start working on one of the other things Kakashi-sensei had 'assigned' her to work on since she was going to need some time to let her body recover after her run.

Luckily for her there was a small shallow stream running near the edge of this particular training ground. She went over to the stream thankful to let her racing heart and lungs have a break and now 'rewarded' herself by working on something she was actually good at: chakra control.

Pooling chakra into her feet as with tree walking Sakura tentatively put one foot in the water. Her foot seemed to hold over the surface for a fraction of a second before her foot fell in the stream. Sakura tried again using more and less chakra than she had to with tree walking but the result was the same, a split second of resistance before her foot sunk in.

'_Just like tree walking but harder'. Thanks for the useless crap directions Kakashi-sensei _she thought irritably.

Sakura began to experiment doing different things with her chakra when she tried to put her foot on top of the water. After a few attempts Sakura was pretty sure a steady continuous release of chakra from her feet was the ticket. By starting with a low chakra output and gradually increasing it wasn't long before she got the sense of how much chakra was needed to hold up her weight.

_Less than twenty minutes with terrible instructions and I pretty much got this figured out. Gotta feel pretty good about that _thought Sakura feeling rather pleased with herself. Shakily she kept her foot on top of the water and brought her other foot to join it putting out the same amount of chakra. Adding the second foot made her wobble and feel like she was about to fall in but after a few seconds and some minor adjustments she felt herself stabilize above the water.

Tentatively she took a step but moving on water was harder than just standing on it. Her feet sunk into the shallow stream a few times, but it was only another ten minutes or so before she was more or less comfortably walking on top of the water.

_This is so cool! I wonder if I'm a water type ninja? If I can train myself to fight and practice while walking on water that's going to do wonders for my control while working on my stamina at the same time. Double bonus! _

Like most people success made Sakura a bit giddy. She started moving around in the water as fast as she dared which wasn't much more than a fast walk with a silly smile plastered on her face. Being so focused on what she was doing she failed to notice two figures appearing on the training field so when a loud yell cut across the early dawn hours she lost control and fell on her butt in the water.

"LEE! Are you ready to fan our youthful fires together until they blaze across the sky?"

"YOSH! So inspiring Gai-sensei. I'll show you my explosion of youth!"

_What the heck? Did two people escape the mental ward at the hospital? _Wondered Sakura in fascination at what she was seeing, too surprised right then to be too upset about falling ass first into the stream.

They were standing on the other side of the training field and in the low morning light she could only make out a few details. Both were male and wore what looked like dark colored body suits and… were those orange leg warmers? Sakura's face curled in distaste at the fashion atrocity that was. One of them was wearing a flak vest so he was either a Chunnin or Jounin. They faced each other in a martial arts stance she had never seen before with one hand forward and the other almost completely behind their backs.

Technically all training grounds were for anyone to use but in practice teams staked out their claim on different training grounds. For some reason she had just assumed the one closest to her house would be unused but that had been a dumb thing just take for granted. The polite thing would have been to leave the training field and leave these two to their training. However Sakura was curious and the two of them didn't seem to be paying her any attention.

"Let's start with a light spar Lee. Even though we're warmed up from our youthful stamina training you should always get a feel for your own body and that of your opponent when you start taijutsu training," said the older one in the flak vest. Normally Sakura would not have been able to hear someone that far away but the wind carried the sound and these two seemed to have no volume control.

"Hai Gai-sensei."

"Well then. Let's go!"

And then they _moved_. They both darted forward towards each other and clashed with speed that left her slightly open mouthed and gaping. She had been able to see them move but there was no way in the world she would have been able to keep up with them. Not even Sasuke was that fast!

She almost slapped herself for saying something disparaging about Sasuke-kun but… damn if it wasn't true.

"Sugoi…" she whispered as she watched the scene in front of her unfold.

The two exchanged punches and kicks at what seemed like lightning speeds to Sakura, occasionally doing an acrobatic flip, roll or cartwheel to get a bit of space or find a better angle to attack from. Sakura could almost physically feel how much power the blows they were dishing out at each other had from this far away. The pink headed Genin was almost certain that if she tried to block one of those blows head on she would probably end up with a broken arm.

Now Kakashi-sensei's admonishment to increase her strength and stamina made even more sense. If she ever had to fight a ninja that outclassed her as bad physically as those two did then she couldn't see how any jutsu could possibly make up the difference. The gap was just that great.

Eventually Sakura pulled herself up out of the water and went to lean again a tree watching the two strangely dressed ninja go it with strength and speed she had only seen surpassed when Kakashi-sensei had fought Zabuza, but with the heavy covering mist she had only gotten to see bit and pieces of that fight. This was the first time she had been able to simply watch a fight between ninja that were clearly above her level.

She had to admit, it was more than a little intimidating. But part of her was also resolute. If other people could get to that level then she could too, there was no reason that she couldn't. She just had to figure out how it was done and reproduce the conditions that led to the result. Sakura was a thinking ninja and making the problem on how to improve herself an intellectual one put her on more comfortable and confident footing.

And though she didn't want to admit it this new uncomfortable gnawing emptiness she was feeling inside was also pushing her to train. When she had been running or water walking she almost didn't notice it anymore. Sakura pushed whatever it was she was feeling aside and decided to at least for now re-label it a 'good thing' and use it to push herself in training.

She watched fascinated for another thirty minutes until the older one – Gai-sensei from what she had heard the other one yell – called for them to take a five minute break before they began with 'serious training'. At this point it would have been incredibly rude to stay further or to just walk away without saying anything since she _had_ been standing out in the open and there was no way that the taller one she now assumed to be a Jounin had not noticed her. He was just being polite and not looking her way and giving her a chance to leave without any awkwardness if she wanted. Oddly enough it was that nice consideration on his part that gave her the courage to do the right thing, which was to approach them, introduce herself and apologize for observing their training time uninvited, something very much frowned upon in the shinobi world.

As Sakura got closer to them she got to see details that she suddenly couldn't un-see and which she concluded should be listed as crimes against humanity. Both looked up to see her as she approached and she was glad she had a few seconds before she had to speak because what she saw left her somewhat numb with horror. They looked like a big clone and little clone of each other, dressed exactly alike in a green spandex outfit with orange leg warmers. They both had the most horrible bowl hair cut and seriously overgrown eyebrows that were just that side of frightening. When they turned to face her Jounin was not at all surprised and gave her a big welcoming smile which she appreciated and the boy… were those little hearts in his eyes? Suddenly Sakura was reconsidering the wisdom of coming to talk to these two.

Well it was far too late to run away so Sakura decided to try and play the 'nice and cheery good girl card'. It always seemed to work on guys. Except for Kakashi-sensei. And Sasuke.

"Hi," said Sakura cheerily, putting her hands behind her back and trying to turn up the cuteness factor, "I'm Sakura. I'm sorry I looked in on your training without permission but I was doing my own training over there by the water and I couldn't help but watch for a bit once you got started. You two were really amazing," she said enthusiastically. And they had been even if she was laying it on a little thick.

The large muscular man gave a way too loud booming laugh that made her flinch and cringe internally. "Don't worry youthful Sakura! If we thought there was a problem with you watching our little spar one of us would have said something, it's nice to see a Genin such as you take such a youthful interest in our training. I don't believe we have been introduced. I-"

Then there was what must have been a minor genjutsu as suddenly Sakura was seeing a sunrise and waves crashing against the rocks behind him as he struck a dramatic pose.

"-am Konoha's Noble Sublime Green Beast of Prey, Might Guy!" He yelled dramatically from his utterly ridiculous and over exaggerated pose.

Sakura just stared numbly, her brain somehow refusing to process what she had just seen. The shorter boy must have taken this as a good sign because he went ahead with his own overly dramatic introduction.

"And I am Konoha's Beautiful Green Wild Beast-" the boy then did a flip and got next to Guy-sensei, striking his own dramatic pose to compliment that of his mentor, "-Rock Lee!"

Then the sun behind them seem to glow even brighter as a wave crashed against the rocks and a large spray of water rose up into the sky. When it fell away a rainbow was left hanging over the two posing spandex clad ninja.

_Oh my kami… does being a strong shinobi mean having some sort of crippling mental weakness or freaky habit? This, this… I will __**never**__ be able to un-see that! _

Might Guy and Lee left their poses seemingly oblivious to her face being frozen in a bewildered and horrified state.

Guy gave her a big smile, "So, anything we can help you with Sakura-kun?" he asked.

Guy's question brought her back down to reality. She was going to regret asking this, she just knew it, but for all the baffling weirdness Sakura couldn't deny that these two really seemed to know what they were doing, at least when it came to physical training.

"Err… well you see Guy-san when I asked my sensei what I should do to become a better ninja he told me I needed to work on my strength and stamina," not in so many words but that had been the gist of it, "and then he pretty much left me to work on that on my own. Since you two seem to be really good at that I was wondering if you could give me any tips or ideas about training."

Sakura felt a shiver of unease travel down her spine as already wide smile got even bigger and there was an almost palpable sense of joy and eagerness from the large man after she asked her question. However he controlled his smile shortly and took a serious thinking pose for a few moments before answering her implied question.

"Your sensei left you to train your strength and stamina by yourself? Well, it is certainly most youthful that you seem so motivated to train by yourself. How exactly were you planning on making your flower of excellence bloom?"

Sakura parsed that to be a question of how she had been planning to train easily enough. "Well I figured I'd just do what they taught us at the academy. Basically running for stamina and pull ups, sit ups and push ups for strength training." They'd occasionally had them do other exercises like squats but those four activities had been the core of their physical conditioning at the academy.

Guy's smile came back, "That might be good for teaching children the basics of the noble arts of strength and endurance training but only doing those things is completely unsuitable for a proud shinobi of Konoha. There are far, far better ways to train that yield much better results," he said in a lecturing tone.

Sakura deflated a little unhappily. She didn't doubt for a moment that what Guy-san saying was true but Sakura was somewhat disappointed that she hadn't known or realized that the same training they gave six year olds might need to be changed as you grew and became an official Shinobi. "What do you mean?" asked Sakura hoping he would elaborate.

"Well there is a careful balance that must be met between endurance training, strength training and taijutsu. Also once you are a strong enough there is considerable overlap between 'strength' and 'endurance' training. For example, doing one thousand one armed pull ups serves both purposes! To different extents of course. But for Shinobi one must also take into account something else; training taijutsu is also a fantastic way to increase one's speed and stamina! But there must be a careful balance between types of exercise, intensity, duration and even periods of rest to achieve the most effective results in maximizing the improvement of one's youthful body," said Guy enthusiastically, obviously very passionate about this subject matter. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lee had taken out a small notepad and was furiously taking notes.

Well, it turned out that the question of 'improving her physical abilities' was a lot more complicated than she had been led to believe. What Guy-san said made a lot of sense and she did want to work as efficiently as possible to improve herself physically. How was she going to research how to do that though? Her thoughts must have shown on her face because Guy spoke up interrupting her thoughts.

"If you like, young Sakura, you could join us in our early morning workouts. If you are eager to learn how to maximize your youthful physical grown I, Might Guy, would be happy to show you how!" He said with another huge smile, somehow the light shining and glinting off his teeth.

Sakura was flabbergasted. Teaching someone was a big burden and ninja in general were secretive and hoarded all knowledge, be it jutsu or training methods. It flew in the face of everything she thought she knew about Shinobi culture that this Jounin would be offering to train a perfect stranger. Most ninja would have been mad as hell with her for peeking in on their practice, not asked her to join their training!

"Why would you do that? And won't I get in the way of your training? I'm nowhere near good enough to keep up with the two of you," she said wincing internally at how ungracious that had actually sounded coming out of her mouth. Guy-san however didn't seem to notice.

"Excellent questions! To answer your first one, it would be most unyouthful of me not to nurture a growing sapling of Konoha when they have both the interest and drive to do so. Also it could be a precious opportunity to my student Lee-kun as well. Teaching is a skill that must be practiced just like anything else and this could be an opportunity for Lee-kun to learn how to teach others when he passes on his youthfulness some day," said Guy.

Sakura looked over at Lee who she had frankly almost forgotten was there when talking to Guy. He – blushed? – at her attention and said, "It's my dream to not only be an excellent shinobi but one day be able to take others under my wing like Guy sensei has done for me. Maybe as a Jounin instructor, or as a teacher of taijutsu at the academy," he said not quietly but sounding a bit embarrassed to be sharing that with her.

The pink headed girl gave him a small smile to reassure him. He might be really strange but he seemed nice at least. The boy's cheeks seemed to redden even further.

"As to your second question," continued Guy, "while our training might be minimally slowed down it is only our morning training and any deficiencies would be easy enough to make up with added time or intensity later in the day. With our afternoon and evening training it would be easy to make up any small lags behind while we work on your budding youthfulness. Our youthfulness would in no way be affected, but it's heartening to see you being so concerned about us. It shows you have a truly youthful spirit inside you!"

Again, the Guy might be weird but his seemingly spur of the moment offer really did seem to be well thought out. Then something of what he said registered. "Wait, this is just your _morning_ workout? And you have two more? Just how much do you train?" asked Sakura a little afraid of the answer.

"On a regular day when we have missions we train in the morning and in the evening, plus in the afternoon with the rest of our team. Sometimes they join us for morning or evening workouts but usually they like to do any additional training on their own time. On a normal days with missions we only train about ten hours a day. The rare times when we have a day off we aim for a youthful fourteen hours of training. We would do more, but there is only so much you can do in a day before it starts to become counterproductive."

Sakura gaped. Ten hours of training a day? She only trained maybe three hours a day with her team! Sakura would have called them stupid or insane if only she hadn't seen the amazing display between the two of them earlier. Is that what it took to be that strong a ninja? Ten hours a day of training along with missions would mean training almost every free moment of the day. Sakura couldn't help but look at the two weirdos in front of her with something like astonishment and respect.

She was interrupted out of her musings by Guy's still inappropriately loud voice.

"So what do you say Sakura-kun? Shall you be joining us for a youthful workout bright and early tomorrow morning?"

* * *

**AN2: For any of you wondering why Lee is acting shy around Sakura when he was so confident in the manga, asking her out on a date the first time he met her, well in that instance it was clear Lee already knew Sakura and had observed her for at least a short time beforehand. He'd had time to get used to the idea he liked this girl and get his confidence up to go up and ask her out. This time Lee is forced to interact with Sakura right away and he doesn't quite know how to deal with it. **

**This story will swing from humorous and lighthearted to pretty grim and dark. Just thought it would be good to say that so it didn't catch anyone by surprise. **


	2. Step

Sakura's alarm went off loudly at 3:45 in the morning. Theoretically that would have given her just enough time to get up, get dressed and head over to the training field for her new early morning 'youthful' training. In reality she had vastly underestimated how hard it would be to get herself up at such an ungodly hour.

It took about five minutes for Sakura to drag herself from lying down to sitting up on her bed. Examining her clock she realized with despair she had only gotten a couple of hours of fitful sleep. That feeling from yesterday hadn't gone away, the one where Sakura felt there was something wrong and _missing_ inside. In fact it had gotten worse. She had lain awake most of last night with a desire to do _something_, though what that was she did not know. After an eternity lying in bed she had finally dozed off well after midnight.

Still if there was one thing her parents had taught her was to always keep your word if you can help it and Sakura wasn't planning on disappointing Guy-san… or Guy-sensei as he had insisted she start calling him.

She threw on something comfortable and easy to work out in – the red dresses she owned were only for wearing in front of Sasuke after all – and half stumbled out the door at such an ungodly hour. Even jogging to the training field she was five minutes late.

* * *

It probably said something about her experiences with *other* sensei's that Sakura actually stopped and stared when she saw that Guy was waiting in the training field on time. It was almost like a universal constant had decided to pull out the rug from under her.

_Still it might be nice to work with some responsible people for a change_ thought Sakura, suddenly feeling more enthusiastic despite the early hour. Despite feeling tired she was eager to work. Anything to work off whatever weird thing she had been feeling for the last couple of days. But more importantly in her mind was her new found resolve to no longer be a burden to her team. With her chin held high in determination she strode towards the two spandex clad shinobi.

"GOOD MORNING SAKURA-KUN!" Said Guy in a booming voice that was so _not_ ok at four in the morning making Sakura cringe and hold her ears, "you are five minutes late, but it's your first day. I'm sure it won't happen in the future will it Sakura-kun?" he asked, his voice going uncharacteristically serious.

"H-hai Guy-sa…sensei," she said. Somehow Sakura got the impression that missing even five minutes of training time was a big taboo with him.

"Good morning Sakura…-san," said Lee. When she looked at him his gaze went to the floor. It was hard to tell but she thought his cheeks reddened. Funny, he had been acting weird the day before too. Was it that he didn't want her around? No she didn't think that was it. Heh, she'd figure out what his deal was. At least he was polite and hadn't yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Good morning Lee-kun," she said with a friendly smile. She didn't notice him nearly swoon as she moved her gaze back to Guy.

The Jounin of course missed nothing and he got a huge grin on his face. Ah, the dramas of youthful romance! It was like an injection of liquid youth straight into his soul.

"Well! Let's get started. Sakura-kun, since this is your first day it will be a sort of evaluation day. I'm going to cycle you through different exercises to get an idea of your endurance…"

* * *

They weren't human.

Guy… Guy-sensei was an _Oni_.

He had to be. How else could he be so cheerful while inflicting his sadistic 'training' methods on someone else?

For four hours he'd had her go from exercise to exercise with no break in between. Do push-ups until her arms and chest felt like pain filled rubber jelly… and then be forced to _somehow_ do twenty more. Sprints. Pull ups. Lunges. Squats. The back to push-ups, except he had wanted her to do them with one hand that time. It went like that for four agonizing hours with only the occasional one minute break.

Sakura lay sprawled on the ground twitching as her muscles were probably either all shutting down or having a seizure. There was a tiny chance that joining those two had been a mistake after all.

"YOSH! You were most youthful today Sakura-chan. Your determination to keep going shows you have potential to be a true genius of hard work," Said Lee standing a little awkwardly next to her.

She looked up at him and couldn't help but feel some resentment at seeing him look completely composed and not even slightly winded. Guy had given Lee his own brutal set of exercises – much more intense than her own – and she had only seen him ask for more while having few problems from what she could see in completing any of the ridiculous exercises. Sprinting around the training field one hundred times on his hands? What was wrong with these people?

Sakura wasn't really feeling up to speaking so she replied to Lee by weakly giving him a thumbs up. Even that hurt as the muscles in her forearms screamed in protest at being asked to do _anything_ else after the abuse she had just put them through. Lee seemed pleased enough by her gesture at least if his bright smile and what she had come to know was called the 'good guy pose' was any indication.

"Well done Sakura!" said Guy, "My Lee-kun is right, a most youthful effort today. Tomorrow I will evaluate your taijutsu skills and that should give me all I need to know how you best nurture the flowering of your youthful spirit,"

Unexpectedly Guy grabbed her and set her on her feet. Her leg muscles trembled and wobbled and had it not been for Guy steadying her for a moment she would have fallen flat on her butt.

"While it might be tempting to rest now you need to stretch your muscles or it will be much worse later on. I recommend a long soak in mineral salts sometime before tomorrow to deal with some of the soreness. Remember, eat plenty of protein, fruits and vegetables! Now me and Lee have to get going. We can't be late for our team meeting after all."

Sakura flinched a little at his mention of food. What was she going to do about her diet? She knew there was no way she could do this without eating more. Oh no, what if she became too muscular from all this exercise and Sasuke didn't think she was attractive anymore?!

"Hai Guy-sensei. Thank you for training me today," she replied trying her best to hide her new inner turmoil. Lee and Guy said their goodbyes and took off going to meet their team at their regular training grounds. Sakura was left alone to stretch and sort through her thoughts.

* * *

Luckily for Sakura her sensei was a lazy ass. Where most teams met early in the morning her team didn't meet until ten. Which is to say Kakashi-sensei would arrive sometime between noon and two in the afternoon. Since her workout ended at eight she had plenty of time to go home and get ready for meeting with her team.

In the end she had been too tired to overthink it and just took a shower and ate her fill of eggs, bread and miso soup while her whole body quivered like jelly as her muscles protested doing even the most basic day to day things. With some difficulty she donned her cute red dress that she liked to wear just for Sasuke-kun (because she had heard from a _very_ reliable source Sasuke-kun like girls in red) and left the house feeling oddly energized by having done so much already so early in the morning.

When she arrived at the training field she found both Naruto and Sasuke already waiting by the bridge. The seemed to be doing their level best to ignore each other and Naruto had what could only be called a scowling pout on his face.

"Good morning Sasuke-kun, good morning Naruto," she said. When the team had first formed she would have just flat out ignored Naruto but after some time being on a team with him it turned out that Naruto was actually pretty nice even if he was something of an annoying idiot most of the time. Sakura had decided to at least try to get along with him and not clobber him over the head unless he _really_ deserved it.

"Good morning Sakura-chan!" said Naruto enthusiastically with a big smile on his face. Sasuke barely glanced her way and made a grunting sound which Sakura interpreted to mean 'good morning'.

This was actually an improvement from Sasuke's part believe it or not. Before the last mission he would just ignore her flat out. Sakura hoped that meant he was softening up to her. In any case him saying 'good morning' to her in his own way could only be a good thing in her book.

Normally at this point Sakura would start to try to talk to Sasuke and get his attention but after the brutal training in the morning she just wasn't in the mood… especially given the fact he always ignored anything she had to say that didn't involve the team, missions or ninja arts. She contented herself with standing next to him leaning on the guardrail. Just being close to him was enough to keep her inner fan-girl happy for a while.

Their wait for their sensei was filled with the energetic chatter of Naruto who always seemed to be overflowing with energy and could neither keep still nor keep his mouth from talking. He chatted about ramen, complained about Kakashi-sensei, and generally made a lot of noise about how much stronger he was going to get, how he was going to become Hokage, blah blah same thing different day. Most days Sakura would at least hold up a bit of conversation as a middle ground between Naruto and Sasuke but that day she was quiet. Her unusual silence didn't go unnoticed. Eventually Naruto asked her about it.

"Hey, what's wrong with you Sakura-chan? Are you feeling sick or something?" he said looking at her intently

Sakura opened her eyes which she had been resting and looked at Naruto with some surprise. "No. Why would you think I was sick?"

"Well… you're usually more chatty, you pace a lot and try to get Sasuke's attention. Today you've been all quiet and sitting down almost the whole time."

Naruto classic, all the honesty and zero the tact. "I do not pace a lot, maybe just a bit. And what's wrong with trying to talk to Sasuke-kun?" she said in a tone that was almost daring him to give a wrong answer.

Naruto held his hands up, long experience teaching him that he was treading dangerous ground. "Nothing! Nothing wrong. Just you're acting a bit different is all. I just wanted to make sure there was nothing wrong."

She flicked her eyes at Sasuke-kun and was disappointed to see he looked to be completely uninterested in the conversation. Sometimes loving Sasuke when being on the same team as him was a lot harder than loving him from afar.

"Well if you must know," she said turning to face Naruto, "I got up really early to do some morning for some training. It kinda wiped me out."

The look of surprise both Naruto and Sasuke gave her made her angry with them. Was it really so unthinkable that she would do some early morning training on her own? Well at least Sasuke was now looking at her with something resembling interest in his eyes.

Before Sakura could reply there was a spark of chakra, a swirling of dust and leaves and suddenly Kakashi appeared in front of them.

"YOU'RE LATE!" shouted Naruto pointing his finger accusingly at him. Sakura would have joined him once upon a time. Now she was half convinced Kakashi enjoyed the over the top reactions.

"Only an hour late for once. Must be some kind of record," she deadpanned. That earned her a few curious looks. She blushed and silently cursed herself while inadvertently letting her eyes slide towards Sasuke. Sakura had a definite sarcastic streak to her but she often tended to keep it under wraps. She had heard from a _very_ reputable source that boys find sarcasm unfeminine and unattractive in girls. She didn't need to make her chances with Sasuke any worse.

Luckily for her Sasuke didn't even twitch. Or maybe unluckily. He never seemed to notice anything she did after all.

"Mah, mah let's just get going to the tower. I know just what mission to take today. Word on the street is that the Dynamo's wife has misplaced her cat for the third time this week…"

* * *

Two D-Ranked missions and two hours of stealth training later (which involved a ninja-version of hide and seek with traps involved) Kakashi dismissed them for the day. The sun was already starting to set and Sakura was physically exhausted. Still it was the kind of tired that made you feel good because it said you'd worked hard, not the type that left you wishing for painkillers or for some blissful loss of consciousness.

As the team started breaking up and through Naruto's near constant chatter Sakura eyed Sasuke. Pretty much every day she asked him the same thing after practice and the answer was always the same.

_Sasuke-kun, maybe we could go get something to eat together? _

_Not interested. _

_We have to eat sometime Sasuke-kun. Would you like to come over to my house and I can make you dinner? _

_No. _

_Do you want to hang out together? _

_Leave me alone Sakura. _

No matter what she asked Sasuke always said no. For once Sakura wasn't feeling up to butting her head against that immobile brick wall. She suspected it had something to do with her new desire to train hard that kind of softened the urgency she always felt in pursuing Sasuke-kun. Yes she would still win his heart but maybe giving him some space while she tried to get into a routine with her training wouldn't be a bad thing.

Come to think of it, maybe it _was_ a little over the top to pester him about the same thing every day. Sakura felt a little sheepish at only just then realizing it. She had been so into her pursuit it had never really occurred to her.

"Hey Sakura-chan! Want to go get some ramen?" Naruto asked. Funny enough he had gone from asking every day to only once in a while now. It made him a lot more tolerable. Maybe there was a lesson to be learned there.

"No thanks Naruto. I've got some things I need to get done. Maybe some other time, just as long as you understand it wouldn't be a date," she said to him firmly.

Naruto nodded looking both disappointed and hopeful. He was like a puppy. Sakura resolved to keep her promise to him sometime soon. Besides his antics weren't _that_ bad once you got used to them. As long as he didn't get any funny ideas there was no harm in it.

"So what do you have to get done? Anything important?" asked Naruto.

"Oh you know… _girl stuff_, if you know what I mean," she said trying to sound mysterious.

Naruto paled and Sakura had to struggle not to laugh at the deer in the headlights look on his face. She was pretty sure he didn't know what 'girl stuff' entailed other than it was probably something he should stay far, far away from and not comment on if he valued his family jewels. A mischievous part of Sakura wanted to ask what he thought 'girl stuff' actually was but she refrained in the interest of not giving her teammate an aneurism.

"I'll see you tomorrow, ok?" she said to him cheerily.

"Oh, ah sure, sure Sakura-chan. Tomorrow he he… bye!" he said before turning and running off at a dead sprint. Sakura rolled her eyes at his antics and headed off.

The actual truth was she wanted to keep training and if she had said that Naruto would have tried to invite himself along. If she got bored or tired of training alone it was something to consider but for the time being she liked the idea of being able to be off by herself and focus without any distractions.

She stopped by a food stall to get something to hold her over until she got home and headed over to the training field closest to her house. Sakura had found out no teams trained there so it was pretty much free to use. The pinkette reached the training field and walked to the edge where the stream in which she had practiced water walking on ran. Even though she had only been there a couple of time Sakura was beginning to think of this as 'her' training spot.

Well, she was physically mostly done in thanks to the training done that morning and all the additional training and work she had done with her team. However that did not mean that she couldn't train in jutsu or chakra exercises which were much more mental than physical disciplines to begin with. Even though she sometimes just wanted to kick Kakashi-sensei in the head she was determined to prove herself by completing the 'training objectives' he had given her. Namely master the water walking and be able to do the three academy jutsu without hand signs.

Sakura was a thinking ninja so before she did anything she needed to get a firm theoretical understanding of what she was trying to do. She sat down on the grass by the side of the creek and folded her arms in thought. Piece by piece she began pulling apart what she knew and try to figure out how and why she was doing this.

The how didn't seem too complicated when she knew chakra theory as well as any Genin possibly could. Hand seals were nothing more than a way to shape and move chakra in specific ways through the chakra circulatory system. It was also true that with intent and control one could make one's chakra move however they wished inside their own bodies, in theory. Therefore it was theoretically possible to do any jutsu without using any hand seals at all.

So why didn't everyone do jutsu without hand seals? Well hands seals was an easy way to get the chakra to move the way it was supposed to. Without that one wouldn't know how to move the chakra to perform the effect in the first place, since it had to circulate and move in very specific ways to produce a jutsu. So in theory if one did a jutsu enough to become intimately familiar with how the chakra moved in the coils and tenketsu one could reproduce it without any hand signs whatsoever.

That theory fit with what she knew and what Kakashi-sensei had said, that in order to be able to do a jutsu without hand seals (or by extension with less hand seals) the only way to do it was to do the jutsu over and over again and try to learn how the chakra moved in the body to produce the sought after effect. So, do them over and over and eventually try to do it with no hand seals. It seemed logical that you would need to drop one at a time as you made progress with the technique.

Satisfied that she understood what she was trying to do and how she was going to do it the knowledge hungry and logical part of her mind wanted her to work through all possible applications if she succeeded in her training. However right then Sakura didn't want to sit still and think anymore. She had kept moving all day and kept distracted by keeping busy but now that she was alone that gnawing feeling inside had come back full force.

It was driving her _insane_ and frankly she was starting to get worried. It felt like a weird hybrid of having a panic attack and an intense starvation like hunger. It wasn't either of those and she had already eaten but that was the best way she could describe it. She was ok when she was training and keeping busy but even a few minutes break and it seemed to come back worse than before. Whatever this was it was really beginning to getting out of hand.

Even though she hated to think about it she had started feeling strange after the Wave mission and after… whatever had happened to her on that bridge. Sakura however steadfastly refused to think about it. That was because deep down she felt she knew the truth… and what she suspected wasn't something she wanted to contemplate.

So she soldiered on. Sakura stood and began drilling the basic three over and over again. Ten kawarimi, ten bushin, ten henge. Even with her somewhat pitiful chakra reserves if she did the jutsus slowly and focused on being as efficient as possible she could create many more than she would if she were doing the jutsus in a high pressure situation. She drilled for hours with quick breaks to recover a bit of chakra, surprising herself with how much she was able to do. Eventually though she couldn't continue without risking chakra exhaustion. Reluctantly the exhausted pinkette dragged herself home.

* * *

Sakura was laying in bed trying to sleep. But something was seriously wrong.

The Genin tossed and turned and could not recall ever being in more maddening discomfort in her entire life. She needed something, _needed _it so badly she thought she would die. It felt like insects were crawling under her skin, moving and trying to claw their way out. Sakura buried her head in her pillow and screamed into it out of frustration. This was not in any way normal. What in the world was happening to her?

Sakura thought about dragging herself to the hospital but for some reason she really really didn't want to do that. She hoped that this was something weird that would just pass and leave and then she'd be over it. Her mind tried to come up with theories as she struggled not to thrash in bed, things like she could have an infection of her nervous system or accidentally ingested some kind of poison. All her theories made it sound like it would be in her best interests to go to the hospital but for some reason she just couldn't.

It was then she felt something weird with her chakra. For some reason it began to move on its own and pool in the top part of her body. Sakura tried to direct her chakra to move and flow in a normal pattern but it refused to do so continuing to rise higher and higher in her body. That was when Sakura finally began to panic but it was too late to go to the hospital.

The chakra flowing wrongly in her body disrupted her motor functions making her incapable of voluntary muscle movements. Sakura could do nothing more but lay in bed, scared and hoping that she could just ride out whatever the heck was happening to her.

The chakra continued to rise in her body until it started to pool in her skull. Her head felt like it was about to explode as chakra invaded her cranium and began to accumulate there in large amounts. Sakura instinctively felt that this was all building up to something and whatever it was she was terrified to find out.

After what felt like an eternity the chakra finally dived into her brain, washing over it and saturating every tissue with its life giving energy. A part of her mind that Sakura had never been aware of before began to come into her awareness, almost like a door in the far back of her mind.

With a strangled yelp the door flew open. Pain flooded her brain and from there to her entire nervous system. It was only a few seconds before Sakura passed out.

* * *

When Sakura regained consciousness it happened rather quickly with minimal fogginess in her mind. The first thing she did was glance over at the clock on her bedside table. It had been a couple of hours since… whatever it was that had happened to her had happened.

Intellectually Sakura was frightened even though the emotion felt strangely dull and far away. She had no idea what was happening to her and anything that had incapacitated her like that could in no way be thought to be a good thing. However her instincts were telling her something much different. They were telling her that this was natural and there was no danger. She also had the feeling that this would be the only time she would be so debilitated by the process.

Sakura didn't know how she knew any of that but even the most intellectual of ninja learned to trust their instincts and hers were telling her loud and clear that what had happened was something natural and that she was in no danger. Since she felt fine now and the feeling she got on the subject was so strong she decided to give it a chance to see if she was right. She suspected she was but she'd keep an eye open for any kind of relapse just in case.

Now though her head was much clearer. Whatever had happened had changed nothing yet at the same time changed everything. For one now she could be honest with herself and stop living in denial. Her instincts had been telling her all along what she needed and she had been doing everything she could to ignore them. No more.

She didn't really understand why but she needed to kill someone. It didn't matter who, really. She needed to take someone's last breath as much as she needed food or air. If had been a little over a week since the deaths in Wave and frankly she was surprised she had lasted this long without.

It was completely clear now that she had been a child denying a basic need, because intellectually she knew she wasn't 'supposed' to kill people and that it was something shameful. She could now see that naïve stance was beyond ridiculous. Now that she was more clearheaded and thankfully less insane she just needed to figure out who she could kill without getting caught.

Quietly she got out of bed and began to look for clothes to wear in the dark. She donned a long sleeved shirt and long pants in muted colors that would not be suspicious but at the same time would reduce her visibility in the dark. As she worked she began to contemplate where she could find a suitable target.

A rather brilliant idea came to her as she was strapping on her ninja tools. There was one place that was completely free of shinobi, even medical ones, and where people were expected to die anyway. Grinning at her idea Sakura went to use the bathroom before heading out.

After using the toilet she paused in front of the mirror to grab a tie for her hair. It was then that she gave herself a start when she saw her eyes. They were different now. Where her eyes had normally been a uniform sea green the eyes looking back at her in the mirror had a strange and alien color scheme. Around her pupils was a ring of pure white. The white slowly changed color to yellow as it moved towards the edges of her eyes ending in a ring of dark honey at the edge of the iris.

Sakura evaluated herself carefully in the mirror and then gave a wolfish grin. She didn't think it gave her any special powers but it was certainly more badass and intimidating than plain vanilla green eyes. Just ask a wolf or a snake. Real predators had yellow eyes. She decided she quite liked the change.

Finishing tying her hair Sakura exited the bathroom and hopped out her window. She decided to avoid roof hopping since at this time of night she might be stopped by a patrolling ANBU and be asked what she was doing out at this time of night. Instead she set a leisurely pace towards the more civilian parts of town.

After a good distance walk she finally arrived at her destination. The sign on the path leading to her destination read _Konoha Hospice_. It was a medium sized one story building that Sakura would have probably had had no idea existed if her grandfather hadn't spent his last days there when dying from renal failure.

Sakura took to the shadows and slowly made her way around the building. It was the perfect target for her. No ninja would ever need a hospice since they all either died young or their enhanced chakra would keep them able to run and jump better than any civilian even if they reached a hundred and were dying of cancer. There was no way a ninja would ever consent to die in bed in a civilian place like this. The staff were all civilian nurses and doctors. Security was absolutely minimal. Who would ever target sick and dying civilians?

Sakura crouched outside a window that was hidden in the darkest patch of shadows. Using a tiny hand mirror she looked over the lip though the window to the inside of the room. There were two beds, one person on a respirator and the other seemingly just asleep.

Using a trick with chakra Sakura unlatched the simple window lock and let herself inside. A decent shinobi would have probably detected her but to these people she might as well have been a ghost. Slowly Sakura went to both the patients and read what was on their charts.

The one on the respirator wouldn't be waking up since he was in a coma. Easy pickings except she didn't want to mess with equipment she was unfamiliar with if she could help it. The other one had a little plastic oxygen mask over his face. He was dying of heart and lung failure and the doctors weren't sure when he would finally kick the bucket. _Perfect_.

Quietly Sakura removed his mask so that the sick man would not wake up. He didn't even twitch. Quietly contemplating how she was going to do this Sakura quickly decided and ripped the pillow out from under the man's head. Before he could so much as open his eyes she had the pillow over his face.

Sakura watched with curious, dispassionate eyes as the man woke up and blinked in confusion. It took him a comically long time to notice her and realize he was being asphyxiated. The man clawed at her hands, trying to wrench her arms free and flailing about a bit. For a dying man he sure put up quite a struggle to live. In the end though even if he had been hale and healthy he could not have stopped a kunoichi from ending his life. He slowly stopped struggling and despite his best efforts lost consciousness. His nails hadn't even broken the skin on her hands. To Sakura the whole thing had been rather pathetic.

She held the pillow to his face and it was about four minutes later when she finally felt him die. As he died she felt herself absorbing something from him but what it was she didn't know. Then there was an explosion of chakra from her _hara _that rushed with almost instantaneous speed to every nerve in her body. Sakura couldn't contain a low throaty moan of pleasure escaping her throat at the intense sensations she was feeling. She managed to stay on her feet instead of collapsing this time but the feeling of death and subsequent release of chakra was no less intense.

Giddy, Sakura let out a soft giggle at the amazing sensations she was experiencing that she had been longing for since a few days after the wave incident. It was like a breath of fresh air after being suffocated, food after being starved, and water after walking from here to Suna all at the same time. Knowing she shouldn't dally long lest she be discovered Sakura replaced the man's pillow and mask and arranged everything to make it look like he has passed in his sleep.

After escaping the facility Sakura walked home with a spring in her step. Analyzing her body she realized much to her surprise that she found herself with a rather huge boost in chakra. Sure it was nothing next to a Jounin but she thought that at that moment she might have enough chakra to rival Sasuke. Unfortunately she suspected from experience than in a day or two it would all be gone. Still she could certainly enjoy it while it lasted.

She thought about going for a late night practice to enjoy the feeling of having so much chakra but she quickly dismissed the idea realizing that she had not slept well for the last few nights and she needed to get as much sleep as she could if she didn't want to suffer tomorrow in training. Guy-sensei was going to evaluate her taijutsu and she didn't want to disappoint.

Climbing back in through her window Sakura spun and danced around her room a bit in joy before changing into her pajamas. Snuggling under the covers she closed her eyes with a faint smile on her face and was almost instantly asleep. Her last thoughts were that she wished whatever it was that was happening to her had started a long time ago.

* * *

**AN: No, Sakura is not going to be in this new mindset for the rest of the fic. It will wear off and then she will have to deal with the consequences. **

**AN2: No, Sakura does not have a dojutsu or ocular powers of any kind. In Naruto changes in status, mindset or power ups are often reflected in the eyes. The change Sakura's eyes is sort of like the red slitted eyes of Naruto when he uses the Kyuubi chakra, just to let you know a change has happened and possibly to look cool. That is really all her white-to-yellow eyes are all about. **

**Like it? Hate it? Review and let me know, comments and suggestions welcome. **


	3. Secret Keeper

Sakura woke up once again at quarter to four in the morning to get up for training. Though she was sleepy she dragged herself out of bed and into the bathroom without too much trouble.

_Ugh… what a weird dream I had last night. At least I actually slept through the night. _

It had been so vivid and detailed though. However in hindsight the memories had that fuzzy around the edges dream like quality to them. Just to put any lingering doubts at ease she looked at her eyes in the mirror. They were just her normal everyday green color. Feeling herself relax she got dressed quickly and left for the training grounds to meet Guy and Lee.

A few minutes later she arrived at her destination.

"Good morning Sakura-kun!" said Guy cheerfully.

"Good morning Sakura-ch… er -san," said Lee a little awkwardly.

"Good morning Guy-sensei, Lee-san," she said cheerfully. Surprisingly she felt like she had a lot of energy this morning. She actually felt really really good.

Her added energy didn't go unnoticed, though she did notice Guy-sensei gave her an odd look for some reason. "Well Sakura-san, it's good to see your youthful fires burning so bright this beautiful morning. Let's do some light warm ups and then I'll evaluate your taijutsu," he said to her.

'Light warm ups' with Guy were definite workouts for a lot of other people including stretching and going for a ten mile run at what seemed to her a grueling pace. Still it made Sakura a lot less exhausted than she had expected. Guess she was just lucky to be extra energetic that day.

After they were done with that Guy sent Lee to do sprints around the whole of Konoha while he gave Sakura her 'evaluation'. Now that the moment had arrived Sakura felt a lot less confident than she had before. She knew her taijutsu wasn't anything special. Guy must have sensed her hesitation because he gave her a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry young Sakura-kun. There is no right or wrong, pass or fail here. Just do your best. Your objective is just to show me your skills, let me worry about the rest," he said while sliding into that fighting stance she had seen him and Lee use.

"Hai sensei," she said, getting into her own stance. As they stared at each other for a few seconds Sakura was reluctant to attack first. Guy obliged her and made the opening move by sending a kick towards her head.

It was slow as a snail by Guy and Lee standards but it was still plenty fast to give her a challenge. Sakura parried the kick a little awkwardly and moved to close the distance with the big man given that he had quite a reach advantage on her. She aimed toward his solar plexus and launched a punch which Guy deflected with what seemed like absolutely no effort. A little miffed she aimed a kick at his midsection which he knocked to the side – gently by his standards – and threw a punch that clipped her shoulder.

Determined to at least put on a good show Sakura went all out but she had never been especially diligent in practicing taijutsu at the academy. She had been more worried about things like clothes and Sasuke and now she was regretting it. As she exchanged blows back and forth with Guy she could only feel disappointed at her own performance. Everything she was doing felt like it could have been executed better.

Eventually Guy-sensei called for them to stop. Sakura immediately broke apart breathing heavily from the exertion but not feeling too bad overall.

"First the good points. Your balance is very good and you have above average flexibility. You also seem to be aware of your own limitations as far as strength, reach and speed and made some good attempts at countering your disadvantages. Those are good skills that will serve you well in the future,"

Sakura beamed despite herself.

"However your strength and stamina are absolutely abysmal and while you are a clever fighter your form isn't nearly all it could be. You seem to have no issues in striking out but you do have some problems committing yourself fully to an offensive," he said.

Sakura wilted a little despite herself. Well it wasn't anything less than she had expected, except for the last part.

"Don't worry though. In a way it's a good thing that your Konoha Basic taijutsu isn't that good. It will make learning a new style from the ground up much easier since you haven't drilled in the academy basics to the bone."

Sakura perked up at that. "New style?"

Guy nodded sagely. "It seems that it will work out very nicely with your goals. Lee and I primarily practice a style of taijutsu known as Goken, or Strong Fist. It is generally superior to Konoha Basic in almost every way and the training builds up huge amounts of strength and endurance. Those are the two things that you said you needed to improve, isn't that right?"

Sakura smiled. Guy-sensei might be a weirdo but he was an awesome teacher. "I'd be honored to learn anything you have to teach me Guy-sensei," she said just a tad cheekily, but meaning it. She even bowed to show how much she meant it. Whatever his reasons for doing so he was doing her an enormous favor.

"YOSH! No need for that Sakura-kun! Now follow me as I show you the proper Goken stance. Good. Your feet need to be a little closer together…"

* * *

After her morning training Sakura's muscles were very tired but she was still feeling oddly energetic. In fact she was feeling even better than she had when she woke up. The vigorous workout had circulated her chakra all throughout her body strongly and for some reason she felt like she was walking on cloud nine. Every part of her body had a feeling of strength and euphoria that made it very hard to be in a bad mood.

Sakura showered quickly and that day her mother was up at her usual time making breakfast for her. Her mother had been acting a little odd towards her recently, like walking on eggshells, but Sakura was too busy to really give it much thought. Aiko would tell her if it was important anyway. Sakura ate her breakfast and gave her mother a peck on the cheek goodbye before heading out the door.

The pinkette was the first to arrive at the meeting spot since she was at least an hour early for the team meeting. She was feeling so good she wanted to use the time to train. They always met on a red bridge that passed over a small river. Sakura pulled herself over the railing and landed on the water, deciding to put some time into perfecting her water walking.

It was while she was practicing Kawarimi with a log floating on the slow moving river that it occurred to her when she had felt so full of energy and felt so good in her body in the past. It had been after the fight in Wave. At the time Sakura though her amazing energy and mood had been from the joy of being alive and finding out that Sasuke really was fine, riding the high off that for a few days so to speak. Now she wasn't so sure. With some trepidation Sakura looked inwards to check her chakra stores.

They were huge. Well at least huge compared to her usual standards. Her eyes widened in as the impossible seemed to want to rear its ugly head. This was just like when she had checked her chakra stores in that dream last night and suddenly found them larger after she had…

She clamped down on that line of thought. It had just been a dream. Even if it hadn't been there was no way she could prove or disprove that at the moment. So she had more chakra – a lot more chakra today than usual. So what? It probably wasn't the strangest thing with chakra that had ever happened in the Elemental Nations. With a great deal of unease Sakura went back to practicing Kawarimi on the river.

Sakura was so focused on her practice on top of the water she lost track of time until she heard a voice yell at her from the side of the river.

"Whoa! Sakura-chan, how are you standing in the water? Can you show me how to do that?" came a familiar voice from the riverbank.

Sakura put her hands on her hip, feeling a little smug at being able to do something Naruto couldn't, even if he could kick her butt in a fight. "Maybe if you behave yourself today and work really hard on our missions I could give you a few tips on how to do it," she said teasingly.

"Pfft, I'm not surprised he hasn't figured it out. Only a dobe like him wouldn't have put it together," came Sasuke's voice. While Naruto was standing on the side of the river Sasuke was standing on the bridge looking down at them.

"What?! Teme come down here and say that to my face," shouted Naruto while pointing angrily at him.

Sasuke made a derisive sound and jumped off the bridge… landing perfectly on top of the water.

Naruto's eyes boggled. "Hey! Who taught you how to do that, bastard? Has Kakashi-sensei been teaching you behind my back?" he asked.

Sasuke snorted. "No one taught me. It was obvious. Didn't you see Kakashi and Zabuza fighting on top of the water in Wave? It made sense that water walking was the next step up from tree walking."

Sasuke really was a genius like people said. Normally Sakura would have fangirled over how amazing he was but… well she had other things on her mind. Before she had always had Sasuke in the brain all day every day. Now she had her training and she was worried about what – if anything – was really going on with her. Her priorities were being shifted around and while the realization was uncomfortable she couldn't say if it was a bad or a good thing.

But it was quite the relief for once not to feel compelled to fawn all over Sasuke like she usually did. Sakura had been starting to realize it didn't help anyway.

Besides she had more or less figured out water walking on her own too. It hadn't been _that_ hard.

"I'll show you bastard! Bet I can learn it faster than you did," said Naruto and with a running leap he jumped straight into the middle of the river. Sakura backed up as she felt Naruto gathering up an absolutely insane amount of chakra at the bottom of his feet. The pinkette was glad she's backed up as much as she could because when Naruto's feet hit the water it looked like someone had set off a bomb just under the surface. A huge volume of water splashed high into the air and everywhere in all directions. She caught a glimpse of Naruto himself falling like a stone to the bottom of the river.

"Baka," she muttered, half aggravated and half amused. There was never a dull day with Naruto around.

* * *

Two D-Ranked missions and three hours being drilled on the finer points of trap making later and Team 7 was dismissed for the day.

Sakura rushed home. She had been thinking about her 'dream' and how her suddenly increased chakra stores had made her think maybe it hadn't been a dream after all. The thought made her queasy so she chose not to focus on it until she could get confirmation so she could stop doubting herself.

Her chakra had been weird. Whatever the extra chakra she'd had was all about as she used it up during the day it felt like it left her for good. Normally chakra would restore itself to peak levels after enough rest. To Sakura it felt like the extra chakra she had was more a one time use deal and then her stores would be more or less back to normal. With all the weird things happening to her lately she really needed to get checked out at the hospital. It was probably close enough to her annual check up that she could go without arousing suspicion. She should probably see about setting that up.

When she got home she noticed both her parents were gone so she headed upstairs. There was one easy way to figure out if she had been dreaming or if it really was something else.

She 'remembered' what she had worn in her dream and that she had thrown it in her dirty laundry basket before she had gone to sleep the night before. Pushing the door to her room open she approached the covered basket with some trepidation. Taking a deep breath she opened the basket and looked inside.

Staring back at her were the exact same pants and shirt she had worn in her 'dream'. Sakura's mouth went dry as she stared at the clothes uncomprehendingly. It had been a dream right? Because nothing else made sense. People's eyes don't just change color unless they had the Sharingan or something. She would never have really thought the way she had done in her dream or done the things she remembered doing. There was no other possible explanation.

Then again the clothes were staring back at her from the hamper. Sakura worried her lip. Had she put them in there for some reason and just forgot? Did her mom put them in there? Or… did she sleep walk or something?

Feeling disturbed Sakura headed out the door and headed to the one place that would for sure tell her if she just had a very vivid dream or if she was indeed losing her mind. At this point she was starting to feel like she was going bonkers anyway. Things had been getting way too strange and troubling.

* * *

Sakura stood outside _Konoha Hospice_, fidgeting nervously and wondering if she really was going bonkers. Part of her wanted to just turn around and walk away. She didn't really want to know. Sakura always had a talent for ignoring inconvenient truths when it suited her. But as she stood in front of the squat building she knew she couldn't just walk away.

_Because what if something like that happens again? _

With a great deal of trepidation Sakura used Henge to turn herself into a nondescript civilian woman in her mid-twenties. Holding her head high she walked into the facility with all the courage she could muster. Sakura wasted no time in heading over to the front desk.

An middle aged woman with glasses gave her a friendly professional smile. "Hello Miss, how can I help you?"

"Hi, I'm visiting family from out of town and I wanted to stop by and see my great uncle. Would it possible for me to go see him?" she asked.

The receptionist seemed pleased with that. "Of course dear. Just tell me who you want to talk to and I'll send someone to tell him he has a visitor."

Sakura nodded, "Great. His name is Ikeda Yoshiro," she said remembering the name from the chart she had 'seen'.

The receptionist's face fell and her expression turned to one of pity. "I'm sorry to tell you this dear but Ikeda-san died last night in his sleep. The doctors didn't think he would go for a few months still but these things are never predictable. I'm sorry," she said with genuine sympathy.

Sakura didn't have to fake her distressed look at these words. Without another word she turned and fled the building.

* * *

_(Hours Later) _

Sakura had run as deep into the woods as she dared before finding a branch high up in the canopy and doing her best to hide herself. For the last few hours she had been huddled by the tree crying. She was both wracked with guilt and terrified of what was happening to her and the possible consequences of what she had done.

Eventually Sakura managed to calm down enough to do what she thought of as her best skill, the ability to sit back and think intelligently, calmly and rationally about a problem. She had to figure out what was going on and what she was going to do since she was potentially in a dangerous amount of trouble.

Because Shinobi relied on civilians for pretty much all goods and services outside of those of a military nature the rules were very strict in order to keep good relations with them. Any violence or exploitation against civilians by ninja was punished swiftly and brutally.

She remembered one time in the academy Mizuki had mentioned that the previous week the Hokage had ordered the execution of a Chunnin for killing a civilian in a drunken rage. Iruka-sensei had scolded him for mentioning that in front of kids but the point had been well made. Civilians were off limits.

What would happen to her if anyone was to find out she'd killed someone? Not in an adrenaline and alcohol fueled craze but a cold and premeditated murder? If the Hokage had been willing to execute a Chunnin for something like that there was no way he'd spare a mere Genin with no ninja clan to support her. If what she'd done became public knowledge it might well be the executioner's block for her.

As much as what had happened sickened her she wasn't prepared to die for what she'd done. She'd have to keep it a secret. If no one had come to drag her off to T&I yet she was pretty sure she was in the clear. Now all she had to do was make sure it never happened again.

And that was the crux of the problem. _What the hell had happened?_ If she didn't figure it out she might out and kill someone again while looking at the world like some kind of _psychopath_. What she had done had felt so right and logical at the time, nothing like the pain and confusion she was feeling now.

She could already feel the extra chakra in her system having largely been drained with her training and the rest that was left was leaving in a slow trickle. Forcing herself to replay all the events that had happened objectively Sakura realized that once that chakra ran out, the 'hunger' would very likely start again. If she had to make a hypothesis it would be that when she got 'hungry' enough something overrode those things that made it so she didn't 'feed' or whatever. If those feelings came back and Sakura didn't do anything about them chances were she would eventually be compelled to kill again. She had no proof but it seemed safest to assume the worst.

When thinking back to when this had all started she realized that maybe she didn't need to kill someone herself to deal with the problem. When at Wave that first time the people who had died had been near her but she wasn't the one who had killed any of them. So maybe it's possible she just needed to be _near_ someone dying so whatever it was that was going on with her would work.

While part of Sakura wanted to think she was cursed or dammed the truth was she didn't believe in any of those things. If she looked at it objectively what she had experienced could possibly be a Kekkei Genkai of some sort. The thought made a little thrill of excitement in her chest in spite of everything else. Killing someone and gaining chakra from it sounded exactly like the sort of Kekkei Genkai a ninja would want.

Sakura felt a little sick at that thought. Though she had killed she somehow felt a little disconnected from the experience because what she had been thinking during that time had been so completely alien to her. The fact however was that the more experienced ninja killed and killed often. Even Genin had to sometimes take lives. She didn't really like the thought of it and was thus both somewhat pleased and disturbed that she might have an ability like that.

Where had this come from? She knew there were no ninja in her family. Her father's family was the Haruno clan who were a moderate sized clan of merchants and her mother had been a civilian in northern Fire Country before marrying her dad. Sakura knew these abilities had to be genetic unless by some miracle she developed some brand new ability. She thought the chances of that would be ridiculously slim.

Thinking about it Sakura realized that the place where the most people die on a regular basis was the hospital. It would be suspicious for her to hang out there without a good reason so she couldn't just loiter. There was a small park behind the hospital for small children and patients who wanted to get a bit of fresh air. Maybe she could train there a couple of hours a day as long as she didn't draw too much attention to herself. She didn't think that would be too suspicious. The last thing she needed was to get people to start asking her questions that she didn't have good answers to.

For the first time Konoha did not seem entirely like a place of wonder, safety and protection to her. She was now feeling somewhat uncomfortable and uneasy being in the village. The knowledge that if anyone in the village found out what she had done could well lead to them killing her left Sakura feeling cold with dread. Though she knew it was patently ridiculous part of her couldn't help but worry that someone would take one look at her face and just somehow _know_ what it was that she had done.

She needed to find out more about what was happening to her. The idea to go to the hospital for a checkup was out for now because if they found something strange with her they would start digging and that could lead to all her secrets getting out. No, first chance she got she was going to go to the library and research all the Kekkei Genkai she could. Maybe she'd get lucky and read about something like what had been happening to her.

She needed to find out because as much as she wished it would all go away, she knew it was not going to be that easy.

In the back of her mind, she could still feel the 'door' that was back there. It was pretty clear to her that if she were to 'open' it again chakra would flood her brain and she would change to the yellow eyed version of herself she had seen in the mirror last night. She wanted to convince herself that wasn't her but on a deeply instinctual level she knew that would be a lie. White-and-yellow eyed Sakura was still her but in that state her mind worked in terrifying different ways.

The pinkette stood up and readied herself to return before she would be missed doing her best to wipe away any signs of distress. For now she was in the clear even if she suddenly felt a lot older than her thirteen years would suggest. What she needed to do was some research, she needed to monitor the situation to get more data and she needed to not kill anyone again. She could do this. As long and no one noticed anything was wrong she would be fine.

* * *

Though Kakashi liked to advertise that his only hobbies were to read porn and be chronically late wherever he went truth was he was still human underneath the caricature he portrayed to the world. He was still human and had other needs besides tardiness and the works of Jiraiya-sama. One of the things he had to occasionally do as a human was find food and drink to keep his body functioning. That is why he was sitting on the counter in a small hole in the wall restaurant frequented by many of the Jounin of Konoha. Sake and a simple bowl of noodles were slowly consumed as Kakashi re-read his latest book, _Icha Icha Step Mother and Sister Paradise_. Somehow he managed to both eat slowly and never show his face at the same time.

Kakashi felt someone slide into the seat next to him but he ignored their presence. Still it was a surprise. Rarely did Might Guy find him without screaming and talk about 'rivals' and 'youth'. Whenever he didn't act in his typical overbearing way it usually meant there was some important business afoot. Kakashi kept his peace and waited for the other man to make the first move.

Guy ordered a bowl of noodles for himself before speaking. "Just thought it would be common courtesy to let you know I've taken to training your student early in the mornings."

Kakashi thought about that for a second and then the pieces clicked together. "Ah, Sakura. That's why she's been so sore she could hardly hold a hammer for the last couple of days." He said nothing more as he had no problem with Sakura seeking additional help. He was actually a bit surprised that she had both taken him seriously and found somebody to help her improve in the areas he'd 'told' her she needed work on. There might be more to her than a fangirl who didn't take being a ninja seriously after all. He _had_ seen something of a change in her since the mission to Wave.

Guy correctly interpreted Kakashi's silence as unspoken consent and left the other Jounin to his thoughts while waiting for his own food. Despite popular opinion Guy did know discretion and knew his youthful spirit would not help in this environment or in his conversation with Kakashi. After receiving his noodles Guy brought up something else that had been puzzling him.

"Today Sakura-kun had much more chakra than she did the day before. It seemed most unusual. Is that something you've encountered with her before?"

"Maybe she was just feeling extra youthful this morning," replied Kakashi in a patronizing way.

"Tsk, so hip and youthful. But you must have noticed it as well," pressed Guy.

Kakashi debated how much to tell him and decided it wouldn't hurt to give him the whole story. "There was an incident on the mission in Wave. She collapsed during the fighting and for a few days afterwards had a marked increase in her levels of chakra. There were deaths involved. After a few days her levels returned to normal," he said leaving unsaid he didn't know what to make of it.

"You don't think she's taking any kinds of performance enhancers do you?" asked Guy with some worry. There were drugs that could temporarily boost a person's chakra but they usually came with short and long term complications. Using something like that regularly was a terrible idea.

"She doesn't seem the type and none of the symptoms of that kind of usage are there. So far there doesn't seem to be any harm. I'll keep close eye on her and see what, if anything, comes of it."

"Hm. Well, I'm sure it's nothing," Guy said, though both of them knew they would keep their eyes open for anything. In the Shinobi world knowledge was life, and lack of it was death. There was no way two veteran Jounin could just let it be.

"So Kakashi…"

"Hmm?"

"I challenge you to a ramen eating contest!"

"Hmm.. no."

"What? Is the great Sharingan no Kakashi afraid he will lose?"

"Yup."

"Tsk. So hip."

* * *

**Reviews Please!**


	4. A New Challenge

_(Three Days Later) _

"I have a surprise for you all," said Kakashi, doing the eye smiley thing Sakura thought was just a little creepy.

"What? What is it? Are you finally going to teach us some kick ass jutsu Kakashi-sensei? You know for supposedly knowing 1000 jutsus you're really stingy about sharing them with us."

"Now now Naruto if I just wanted students who shot around jutsus I'd get myself a chakra trained monkey. He'd probably pick them up faster than you anyway,"

"Hey!"

"-but what I've got for you is much better."

He paused then, letting the tension build. Sakura rolled her eyes and crossed her arms unimpressed by his antics. Sasuke had one eyebrow partly raised in mild interest and Naruto looked equal parts resentful and skeptical.

"So what is it?" Naruto asked dubiously.

"I'm so glad you asked. I've nominated Team 7 to take part in the Chunnin exams taking place in six weeks. Here are the forms to sign up," he said handing each of them a stack of documents.

Sakura scanned them briefly while thinking that she didn't really know what the Chunnin exams entailed. The forms were basic 'yes I agree to take this of my own free will' and 'yes I accept that I might be injured or worse during the exam' type forms. It didn't tell her much about what they might be facing.

"What are the Chunnin exams?" asked Naruto looking at the papers in his hands with a decidedly unimpressed look on his face.

"They're the exams Genin take to become Chunnin," she deadpanned. Seriously it was right there in the name.

His eyes widened and quickly surprise turned to excitement. "Oh hell yes! Once I become Chunnin I'm one step closer to becoming Hokage. Oh this is going to be awesome," he bubbled looking at the paperwork again with renewed interest.

"Now there's a few things you need to know. The exams are dangerous so consider it seriously before accepting. It's not uncommon for there to be deaths during the exams. We'll also be hosting teams from other ninja villages so you'll be competing against allies and enemies of unknown capabilities,"

That was a surprise to Sakura. She personally thought it sounded like a foolish security risk to let so many foreign nin enter Konoha. Since she'd had her 'incident' Sakura was becoming increasingly paranoid about things like security and covering ones tracks. Still if the Hokage had approved of this there must have been some good reasons for it.

"Of course it will be up to each of you individually to decide if you want to take the exam. You each need to make up your own mind if you want to participate or not."

Sakura wasn't a powerhouse but she _was_ intelligent and she had been trying increasingly hard whenever they were with Kakashi-sensei to see 'underneath the underneath'. He tended to hide important information in carefully chosen words and actions just like he was doing right now. He'd implied each of them could choose to take the exam individually without actually saying so but that flew in the face of his previous statements. He said they would be competing against _teams_ from other villages. That meant that if they wanted to enter they would have to do it as a team. The obvious assumption he wanted them to make about the structure of the exam was a ruse.

"Of course I'll participate," said Sasuke, his voice sounding surprisingly eager.

"Oi! Count me in of course, I'll show everyone just what I can do, dattebayo," said Naruto enthusiastically.

All three of the males on her team turned to look at her. "So what about you Sakura-chan? Are you going to enter too?" asked Naruto guilelessly. It didn't surprise her that he had missed the implications of what Kakashi-sensei had said. Sasuke was also looking at her like he was interested in what she had to say but wasn't terribly concerned about it either way. She realized that Sasuke had also missed Kakashi's little oblique bit of misinformation. Now that _did_ surprise her a great deal. She almost couldn't believe Sasuke had missed it, it hadn't been all that difficult a hint to pick up on.

Sakura shared a look with Kakashi-sensei, hers saying _why are you putting me in this position? _and his saying _They're idiots, what do you want me to do about it? _

The pinkette considered it. Even a week ago she might have balked at taking the exam but it's surprising what a short time of intense training can do for your confidence, not to mention your skills. She felt reasonably certain she had the skills to at least survive the exam especially with a certified genius and a stamina freak with Kage Bushin on her team. The only problem was her _condition_. Her plan of hanging around near the hospital had so far been unsuccessful and her 'hunger' was already starting to become a problem again. She didn't know what would be involved with the test or how long it would take. It was a risk and she wasn't willing to let anyone in on the secret of her new 'abilities' yet. For her own interests the smart thing to do would be to say no.

Then again looking at the faces of Naruto and Sasuke she knew she couldn't do that to them. She couldn't crush their hopes because she was afraid of what might happen. Besides Kakashi-sensei said people died in the exam right? If things got desperate enough…

Sakura surprised herself with that line of thought and shuddered slightly. Ever since the personality change had happened the first time she realized she had become a good deal more blasé when thinking about death. It was a tid bit that disturbed her and made her wonder just how much she had been affected.

When she realized she had been silent too long and everyone was still starting at her Sakura ducked her head and blushed slightly in embarrassment for leaving them waiting while her mind wandered. "I'll take the test. We'll go together as a team," she said.

Apparently it was the right thing to say since it made Naruto try to jump in to give her a hug and caused Kakashi to relax almost unperceivably. With Naruto she pushed him away along with giving him a lighthearted fist to the head and she wondered if Kakashi had purposefully let her see him relaxing and if this was another one of his mind games. Even Sasuke cracked a small smile before turning away. It felt really good. She gave a small smile of her own. Despite all their problems Team 7 felt like they were growing closer and closer.

She just had to hope her _condition_ wouldn't screw them all over during the test.

* * *

Kakashi released them hours early that day and that was perfect for Sakura. For the first time since she'd decided to do some research she actually had a block of time to go to the library.

Since her home was on the way she decided to stop by and grab something quick to eat. That's when she noticed there was an unexpected surprise waiting for her.

"Otousan!" said Sakura spotting her father sitting in the kitchen table with her mother nearby.

"Sakura! Come here," he said, all good natured smiles.

Sakura did and threw her arms around him in a hug. Her father's work in the Haruno clan kept him away from Konoha at least two or three weeks out of every month and even when he was in town he had a very busy schedule. Sakura loved her father who tended to dote on her and spoil her just a bit.

"So good to see you dad. How have you been? Where did you go?"

"Oh I've been good, been good. I was actually in the capital of Wind this time trying to hammer out an agreement to supply the noble houses there with our wine. They can't grow anything worth turning into alcohol there and their wine makers there are amateurs at best. Fire Country produces the best wine by far you know," said Haruno Ikari happy to share his trip with his daughter.

"That's great daddy," she said beaming.

"So how have you been Sakura-chan?" he asked. She told him, albeit heavily edited in some parts, and he seemed happy to hear about her life. Sakura's mother smiled at the scene from where she was working in the kitchen happy to see such a rare domestic scene in her family.

The talked for a while until Sakura looked at the clock on the wall and noticed the time. She had lost track of time catching up with her father. If she didn't leave soon she wouldn't have enough time to get a lot done before the library closed.

"Sorry dad I have to get going. But we'll catch up some more later ok?" she asked hopefully.

Ikari waved her off as if it was no concern. "Go, go you have things to do I know. A ninja's work is never done. I'll see you later tonight."

"Sounds good. Bye otousan, kaasan," she said. Quickly grabbing a rations bar for an unappetizing lunch she headed out the door and towards the library.

* * *

_(Hours later)_

She supposed she should have expected something like this. In many ways it could be said that Kekkei Genkai were one of the trump cards of the village so it made sense there wouldn't be an overabundance of information about them accessible to mere Genin. At least there was _something_ even if the information was so vague as to be almost useless. What was said about each ability amounted to only a sentence or two.

_Sharingan. Dojutsu of the Uchiha Clan. Grants the ability to see through an enemy's techniques. _

That's it. That's all the information that was publically available. While technically correct the description would hardly help anyone who wanted to figure out how to counter the Sharingan which she supposed was the point. From having both Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei on her team she knew there was a great deal more to the Sharingan than just that.

When she thought about it Zabuza had seemed to know a great deal more about the Sharingan that was in the library. It made sense from a security standpoint but it hammered home the point that any information she did find was going to be severely redacted.

Still her research was giving her a lot more knowledge about Kekkei Genkai than she'd had before even with carefully worded descriptions that were probably common knowledge to the more experienced Shinobi. Thinking that she may have a Kekkei Genkai herself it was interesting to read about others. Currently she was looking at scrolls that talked about Kekkei Genkai known to exist in the Land of Fire.

_Byakugan. Dojutsu of the Hyuuga Clan. Grants increased field of vision. _

_Mokuton. Kekkei Genkai known to appear in the Senju Clan. Most famous user was the First Hokage. Allows for creation of wood and other flora. _

The next entry on the list made Sakura do a double take. She couldn't have been more surprised if Kakashi suddenly decided to give up porn and act like a responsible teacher.

_Chen Chakra. Chakra Chains. Kekkei Genkai of the Uzumaki Clan. Tends to manifest only in female members. Enables user to create chains of pure chakra. _

Uzumaki clan? There was only one Uzumaki that Sakura had ever heard of and that was Naruto. But Naruto was an orphan. Could he be a different Uzumaki, same last name but not of that clan? And what had happened to the Uzumaki clan? Could Naruto be the last survivor of that clan? But that didn't make sense. Sasuke was the last of the Uchiha's and he was treated like royalty. If Naruto was the last of a famous clan wouldn't he had been treated the same way?

Sakura made a note to research the Uzumaki's a bit more when she had time, out of curiosity if nothing else.

Shortly thereafter the list turned to Kekkei Genkai that no longer existed in the Land of Fire.

_Shinkiro. Kekkei Genkai of the Ueno Clan. Enabled users to create realistic illusions. All users presumed dead. _

_Akasan. Kekkei Genkai of the Otsuka Clan. Enabled users to produce a strong acid. All users presumed dead. _

_Muketsu-no. Kekkei Genkai of the Sakamoto Clan. Enabled users to take massive damage without bleeding. All users confirmed dead. _

It went like that for a dozen entries. That so many clans with bloodline limits had gone extinct over the years was troubling. Probably at some point they had been targeted for their Kekkei Genkai and been killed. Still there was so little information there to go on. For all she knew some of these clans had existed and been whipped out five centuries ago or last year. All of that was vaguely troubling assuming she did have a Kekkei Genkai of some sort.

Still she hadn't found one entry that sounded anything like what had been happening to her. Sakura let out a huff of disappointment at not having found anything useful. Well that wasn't exactly true. At least she'd found out that with so many extinct bloodlines out there it wasn't impossible to think some of them might have survivors out there somewhere. It wasn't earth shattering information but at least it was something.

As she rolled up the scrolls and put them back where they belonged it occurred to Sakura that she should look up the known Kekkei Genkai from other countries as well. The pinkette walked over to the reception desk and asked the retired nin on duty where she could find that information.

"I'm sorry but that information is restricted to Chunnin rank or above. If the information is mission critical your sensei can fill you in on any details," the older man told her.

There wasn't much reason to stay in the library after that. Feeling discouraged at not having found any clues as to her _condition_ Sakura left and went to try and do something about her rising Hunger.

* * *

Lee was training with his team and for a change he had been paired with Tenten while Guy-sensei was giving Neji a real challenge while sparring with him in taijutsu. Tenten was unloading her weaponry at him as part of their practice. While Neji would stand in place and use his superior eyesight and coordination to bat every projectile out of the air Lee had to resort to the more traditional methods of running around trying to dodge. It was a challenging exercise for him especially with his newly increased weights. Lee thought Tenten just enjoyed throwing sharp weapons at people no matter what the occasion.

Eventually Tenten ran out of weaponry and they had to take a break for her to recover all of them. Being the gentleman he was Lee bent down with her to help her pick up all her weapon. Tenten gave her teammate an appreciative smile. While she liked working with Neji he never bothered to help her pick up all her weapons.

"Hey Tenten," said Lee sounding unusually shy.

The girl looked over and saw a blush coloring her teammate's cheeks. What was that all about?

"Yes Lee?"

"How… ugh, how do you, you know, … a girl…"

Now Tenten was interested. Lee was never anything but loud and confident and over the top. And what was this about a girl?

"Just spit it out Lee. I promise I won't bite," she said with no malice.

"How do you um… get a girl to like you? And how do you ask a girl out?"

That stopped Tenten in her tracks. Lee? Lee of all people was interested in a girl?

"Who is this 'girl' we're talking about?"

"Well you see… her name is Sakura," he said, blush intensifying, "she was watching me and Guy-sensei in our morning training one day and Guy-sensei invited her to start training with us in the mornings."

"And she accepted?" asked Tenten incredulously.

"Yes. It's been about a week and she's very dedicated. She's so nice, and gentle, and full of youth, and she tries really hard…"

Now Tenten had a big smile on her face. Despite the oddness of a girl agreeing to join their insane four AM workouts it was clear that Lee-kun had a crush.

"Is she cute?" Tenten teased.

Lee turned so red his face could have passed for a tomato. "Y-yes, she's very cute," he said.

"And you need advice on how to impress her, is that it?"

Lee looked like he might die from the embarrassment of having this conversation with her, but he nodded in the affirmative.

"I want to ask her out, and I want her to see me as a man, but I have no idea how to do that," he admitted.

This was just so precious. Tenten felt like a big sister giving her little brother advice. She took it seriously and tried to think how she could help her teammate.

"Well the first thing you have to know about girls is that we all find confidence attractive. I'm guessing from how you're acting that you get really shy around her don't you? That just won't do. You need to be assertive and confident in front of girls or they won't take you seriously," she said.

To her amusement Lee had taken out a small notepad and was furiously scribbling down notes. "What else Tenten-sensei?" he asked face suddenly very serious.

Tenten thought about it but the truth was she wasn't exactly an expert on love. She'd never had a boyfriend and she had always been more concerned with weapons and training than any sort of 'girly' activities. Still if this girl was dedicated enough to train with those two early in the morning then Tenten thought she and this 'Sakura' probably had a lot in common.

"Well," said Tenten drawing the word out, "you said you wanted to impress her and get her to see you as a man right?"

Lee nodded vigorously at this.

"I think you have a great opportunity for that coming up. She obviously cares a great deal about becoming a stronger ninja if she's training with you guys in the morning. I think that if you make Chunnin in the upcoming exams she will probably be very impressed and will definitely see you as more of a man. If you ask her out after that and show her that you are really confident in yourself I think you'd have a great chance," she said feeling confident in her reasoning.

"Really?" asked Lee, a surprised and hopeful tone to his voice.

"Absolutely. I can't think of a single girl who wouldn't be impressed by that," said Tenten sincerely.

"YOSH! THEN I HAVE TO MAKE SURE I TRAIN THREE TIMES AS HARD IN ORDER TO MAKE CHUNNIN! COME ON TENTEN, LET'S GET BACK TO TRAINING," he yelled at the top of his lungs and then he became a green blur picking up all her weapons at a speed that left Tenten impressed.

From where he was training his other student Guy had to wipe some moisture from his eyes. How brightly the youthful torch of romance shined! Though he would never interfere in his students' love lives he vowed to do all he could to help Lee achieve his goal of becoming Chunnin. Such vigor! Such drive! Such amazing Youth!

* * *

Sakura sat under a tree in the tiny park right behind the hospital. She had been there for the last few hours making bushin after bushin in an attempt to master doing it without hand signs. So far she had made progress and was ecstatic about it. Now she could do the bushin with two hands seals and drop the third seal entirely. Still not there yet but it was definite measurable progress.

However her other more serious problem had not been resolved. She looked at the hospital in front of her with frustration and the stirrings of panic. For the last three days she had been spending two or three hours each day in the small park practicing whatever she could that would not draw much attention. Her hope that she could feel and 'feed' off whatever deaths happened in the hospital had so far been for naught. She had not felt so much as a stiff breeze and her Hunger was growing.

Sakura stared hard at the hospital as if it would give her the answers she needed and thought about her current problem. The issue was that she didn't know the range that she could absorb at. Given her memory of the incident at Wave her best guess was maybe a hundred and fifty feet. That only covered a relatively small section of the hospital from where she was sitting. It was possible it was just a range issue. However there were so many unknowns. Could she even absorb from a person she didn't kill herself again? What if her range was only horizontal and not vertical? Did it matter if there were walls and windows in the way?

What would Sakura do if this plan didn't work? The thought left her feeling cold. Her only options would be to kill again or to turn herself in and hope that somebody could help her. If she was brave she would choose the latter option without hesitation but the truth was that Sakura was increasingly scared.

Would they punish her extra severely for having waited this long before informing anyone if she came forward? Would anyone even believe her if she told them she killed a man against her will? What if they decided they wanted to experiment on her or worse, breed her for her 'ability'? Normally Sakura wouldn't think anyone in Konoha would do something like experiment on her or force her to have children but her imagination and paranoia were getting the best of her. She'd heard whispered stories of how some places, especially Kumo, would force women with Kekkei Genkai to essentially become breeding mares for the village. It was even somewhat irrational but she couldn't help but picture every worst case scenario that might play out if she decided to come forward.

The other option of killing in secret did not appeal much either. Not only was she unwilling to go around killing civilians, even dying ones, but this was a Shinobi village. If she continued to do that eventually someone would catch on. Then it really would all be over for her.

Sakura sat there running everything again and again in her head. She rolled every option in her head and tried to look at things as dispassionately and objectively as she could. After a long time of consideration she realized she really only had one option. If this idea of sitting near the hospital didn't work out she would have to turn herself in and throw herself at the mercy of the Hokage. There was no way she would become a mass murder just to hide her secret. Logically it was the best option to come forward even if some of the possible consequences could lead to death or even worse. The alternative was getting caught after having killed who knew how many people. In the end it was really no choice at all.

The pinkette was thinking all this in resignation when she felt it. It was the same sensation she had felt before of her body absorbing something she couldn't describe. Then from her _hara_ chakra exploded out and rapidly flooded her system.

Sakura was so relieved it had worked she even cried a few tears right then and there. She really hadn't wanted to have to throw herself to the wolves and hope for the best. The chakra flooded her system and she felt relief, precious relief from the pervasive Hunger that had been growing inside her for the last few days.

Calming down a bit after a few more moments Sakura analyzed herself. Her relief quickly turned to apprehension as she noticed something. Though the absorption and the flood of chakra had been the same the amount of chakra she gained was considerably less. Also the physical and psychological pleasure she gained form the absorption process had also been diminished and she found to her dismay that part of her was extremely disappointed the rush had not been stronger. After taking careful stock Sakura estimated that the boost she had gotten had been perhaps a quarter to a third as effective as it had been when she had killed that man in the hospice.

What did that mean? Was it the distance she was from person who presumably had just died inside the hospital? Or was it something about killing the person herself that somehow made a difference? She didn't know how but somehow she suspected it was the latter.

Feeling part relieved and part disappointed Sakura left the small park and headed home. She didn't exactly understand what was happening but she feared absorbing deaths from outside the hospital like this wouldn't keep her satisfied for long.

* * *

Haruno Aiko sat in at a small table in the bedroom she shared with her husband, looking through an old expensive looking wooden box. She gently fingered the contents therein. Mostly they were just old notebooks and scrolls. The woman sighed sadly as memories from her past assailed her. Gingerly she withdrew one particular item and fingered it gently. Her eyes were distant as she remembered its previous owner.

"Aiko, what are you still doing up? I thought you were going to sleep," came her husband's voice from the door. When he saw what she was looking at his gaze softened. "Is it still troubling you?" he asked.

Aiko nodded. "I know chances are slim since she is a girl but… I can't help but worry. That curse should stay dead and buried. I can't imagine it happening to my baby girl."

The woman paused and ran her fingers along the grooves of the object in her hand. "She's about that age you know? And already going out on C-Ranked missions. She said there weren't any deaths in her first one. I guess I'm just worried about the next."

Ikari went to his wife and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him grateful for his comfort. "Don't you think we should tell her?" he asked.

Aiko shook her head without hesitation. "Some things are better off being forgotten. She probably has nothing to worry about. I don't want to burden her with that bloody legacy," she said.

Iraki was not convinced of that argument but he had always agreed that this issue was his wife's to deal with. "If it does happen we'll deal with it. It's not like we'd be the first in history to have to do so," he said softly.

"I know," Aiko replied and leaned into her husband. She took in his warmth as she looked at and softly stroked the object in her hands, an old Iwagakure headband.

* * *

**AN: Would love to know what you think. Good, bad or ugly I'm willing to hear it. Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading!**


	5. Increased Security

_(Four Weeks Later) _

Kakashi wasn't always as late as he wanted his students to believe. Sure he was usually extremely late no matter what but he would often arrive some time before he revealed himself. He'd always found that people revealed more about themselves when they thought they weren't being observed. Some might call it creepy but he had been watching people for so long without their being aware of it nothing about it seemed remotely odd to him. Frankly he was confused as to why some people objected to it.

As he observed his three cute little students he tried to see how they had grown since they had first become a team. Naruto for one showed both the least and perhaps the most growth. When he first joined the team the boy was both an idiot and a failure as a Shinobi. Now he was still an idiot but he was thinking and acting more like a Shinobi a little bit each day.

The Naruto who had charged a Jounin head on with no plan and with the certainty that guts alone would somehow let him win was thankfully gone. While his taijutsu and genjutsu were still terrible and he had not gained any jutsu beyond Kage Bushin he was starting to think as a ninja. He was starting to use strategy in his fights, using his Kage Bushin to probe for weaknesses and coming up with a plan to exploit those weaknesses in unexpected ways. He was surprisingly good at setting traps with his Kage Bushin and leading people into them. Now if the kid would start growing a brain that worked outside the heat of battle Kakashi would start feeling like he was doing a pretty good job.

Sasuke as far as Kakashi was concerned had experienced the least growth. Oh he had grown steadily in skill in practically all ninja disciplines be they trap making, tracking, stealth, taijutsu and so forth. What Kakashi considered 'growth' however involved fixing your worst weaknesses before going back and working on your obvious strengths. Having a glaring weakness will end you no matter how many high level skills and jutsus you have.

Though he had gotten better at it Sasuke still thought himself better than his teammates. Kakashi knew from personal experience that sort of attitude damaged team dynamics and could very well end up threatening missions and endangering lives. He was also impatient and tried way too much to be 'perfect' and 'hard' the way he thought he had to be so he could have his revenge. The problem was he was so hard a well-placed blow would shatter him. One resounding crushing of his ego and the boy was liable to have some kind of mental break. Kakashi almost sighed at the thought of having to pick up the pieces when that happened.

The most surprising change of all had been Sakura who in his book definitely got the award for most improved. She'd gone from obsessed fangirl playing at ninja to a Kunoichi devoted to her training who only occasionally gave the Uchiha puppy eyes. He examined her and noted the small but significant changes she had made in her appearance recently. Her long hair had been tied back in a no nonsense ponytail and her forehead protector now rested around her neck. The other significant change were the white bandages now covering her skin from fist to elbows. That was easily recognized as Guy's influence and was a necessary precaution for the first years of Goken training to protect your hands when training by punching a log.

Sakura had been the most successful in seeing underneath the underneath and had taken the advice she'd discerned from him and run with it. Her physical strength was now near that of the boys though being a girl it would probably never be at the same level. Her endurance had also grown by leaps and bounds and it went without saying her taijutsu had as well. Maybe it was time to see how much effort she had put into his other suggestions as well.

Well he supposed he had kept them waiting long enough. With a thought and an effort of chakra he appeared in front of them in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto jumped to his feet and pointed a finger at him, "YOU'RE LATE!"

Honestly he'd done the same thing every day for months. Kakashi wasn't sure whether to be impressed or take it as another sign of mental deficits.

"Well, you see there was this puppy hanging from a window sill and he didn't have a collar so-"

"LIAR!"

"Ok ok fine. It wasn't a puppy, it was an old lady's tanuki stuck in a tree so… it took a few hours."

Naruto was steaming, Sasuke looked faintly disgusted and Sakura was giving him the folded arms and raised eyebrow routine. Just another day with his cute little Genin.

"We haven't done any all out full contact spars for a while. Naruto, spar with Sakura. And don't hold any techniques back," he ordered.

"Huh?" said Naruto, "But I can't do that to Sakura-chan, I'll end up hurting her," he complained.

Kakashi filed away that Naruto's survival instincts must not be very good because he missed the furious glare Sakura sent in his direction.

"I mean why don't we just do taijutsu spars like we usually do? We haven't done one of those in a long time either," continued Naruto. The look Sakura was giving him now would have frozen glaciers and still the boy didn't notice anything was wrong. He'd really have to shape him up on situational awareness if the boy wanted to live a long life and keep his ability to have kids.

"What do you think Sakura? Do you think you need Naruto to give you a handicap?" Kakashi asked lazily.

A smile crept on Sakura's face that was anything but reassuring. "Oh I think I'll be just fine Kakashi-sensei," she said in forced sweet tones. Naruto had finally turned to look at her and started to realize something was wrong.

"Uh, Sakura-chan I just wanted to make sure you don't get hurt," he continued nervously not realizing he was digging his own grave even deeper.

"Just fight her all out if you have any respect for her you idiot. You're insulting her pride as a ninja," said Sasuke.

Realization finally dawned on his face and he turned to Sakura with an apologetic and frightened expression, "Oh, I didn't mean it like that! You're a great ninja really! I'm just not a big fan of hitting girls, and well, uh…"

Kakashi decided to have mercy on him and interrupted him before he could continue to rack up the number of bruises Sakura was likely to try to leave on him. "Naruto, that's enough. You will follow orders. Both of you get on the field."

They both walked into position Naruto looking nervous and Sakura looking angry. Kakashi noted that even her anger had changed since she first joined the team. At first it had always been an explosion of yelling and fists flying. Now her anger was more controlled, cold and calculated. Kakashi wondered what had brought about that particular change.

"Begin," he said.

Sakura didn't wait. She rushed Naruto in a direct way that screamed Guy's style of Goken. Naruto was caught flat footed as a fist caught him in the solar plexus, another cracked his jaw and a final kick to the chest sent him sprawling to the ground.

Naruto scrambled to his feet and backed away to get some space between them and Sakura allowed it. She put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow that said 'are you feeling stupid yet?' The raised eyebrow was sort of becoming her thing.

Naruto gave her a smile that was half apologetic and half determined. "Well I guess I should have taken you seriously from the start huh? Sorry about that," he said, raising his hands into a familiar cross shape, "But don't say I didn't warn you. Kage Bushin no Jutsu!"

Four Kage Bushin popped into existence. Kakashi was always a tiny bit jealous when he saw that although he would never admit it. Creating four Kage Bushin simultaneously would probably leave him with chakra exhaustion. Naruto didn't even feel the strain. The amount of chakra that Naruto had even without using the Kyuubi was absolutely unreal.

Sakura got into the Goken stance and made a come hither motion with her hand. Apparently Naruto was now taking this a bit more seriously since they fanned to come at Sakura from different directions all at once.

Instead of waiting for them to converge on her Sakura dashed towards the Kage Bushin that seemed to be just a little bit further away from the others. The Kage Bushin took a swing at Sakura as soon as she was close enough. Unfortunately for Naruto his taijutsu was still terrible and that translated to his Kage Bushin as well. Sakura parried the blow easily with one hand and with the other drove her fist into his chest. The Kage Bushin fell back for a long second before it popped into white smoke.

Sakura's strength had always been her brain and she used that in this situation. She danced away from one Kage Bushin reaching for her and positioned herself so when the others turned to go after they got in each other's way. Sakura wasted no time in their clumsy scuffle to land a kick in one's stomach and a punishing punch to one's ribs. Both of the clones stumbled for a moment before popping into smoke.

The final clone and the original Naruto finally regrouped and charged Sakura at once. With the flic of her wrist she sent a shiruken at one of them forcing it to dodge while turning to fight the other Naruto. With a punch to the face the last clone popped into smoke.

"That was dangerous Sakura-chan! That shiruken could have hit me for real. We were really close," Naruto protested sounding half outraged and half like he was whining.

"You heard Kakashi-sensei Naruto. I'm taking this seriously. I'm sure he'll step in if he needs to. Come at me with everything you've got or I'm not going to forgive you," she said her gaze and voice resolute.

Naruto seemed conflicted for a moment before resolution slowly came over his eyes. "Ok no more holding back. I'm doing this 'cuz you asked me to."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," she said with a hint of a smile and getting into her Goken stance.

"Kage Bushin no Jutsu!"

This time twenty clones appeared all around Naruto. This time when they attacked her in numbers Sakura couldn't handle them nearly as well as she had the first group. She had to keep moving trying to stay ahead of the group of blondes and not let herself get surrounded. Sakura managed to pop the occasional clone here or there but she was also taking a good deal of damage, getting hit by a lot of glancing strikes she couldn't quite block or avoid.

To Kakashi's eye it looked like only a matter of time before she was overwhelmed. She had been doing quite well but he hadn't expected her to be able to win against Naruto. If she had finished him off when she'd had the advantage that would have been one thing but this type of fight did not at all play to her strengths. The only reason Sasuke was able to keep up with that kind of assault was that he had some jutsu that could kill a large number of clones in one go. Even a lot of Chunnin would have trouble winning against the blonde horde.

Still something was strange. Sakura kept losing more and more ground and taking damage but she didn't always retreat towards the most obvious and easiest path. It was almost as if she were maneuvering towards something.

"Ah, so that's what you're doing," he muttered a little impressed despite himself.

Kakashi saw the recognition in her eyes when her target finally got close enough and then her suicidal charge straight into the pack of clones.

"Konoha Senpuu!" she shouted, doing one of the signature flying spin kicks of the Goken style. The heel of her foot connected against the head of Naruto, the real Naruto, and sent him flying. He landed in a boneless heap on the ground. All the remaining clones just stared disbelievingly for half a second before popping out of existence.

Kakashi went over to check on Naruto while Sakura put her hands on her thighs and tried to catch her breath. Naruto was fine and would probably only be out for a few minutes.

"How did you know that was the real him?" he asked her.

"I kept track of him from the beginning of the fight," she said still breathing hard.

Kakashi nodded. That's what he'd thought it was. The Jounin eyed his only female student and considered what he had seen.

Her taijutsu form wasn't terrible, certainly it was looking really good for a Genin. The form on that Konoha Senpuu could have been a lot better however. In fact it had been barely passable. However it _had_ been passable and that was not easy to do with only five weeks of training. It looked like his little Kunoichi had some talent in taijutsu.

More important in his mind was the strategy she had used to beat Naruto. She had maneuvered the flood of clones while taking punishment in hopes of creating an opening to attack the one she'd kept track of as the original. To have the presence of mind to keep track of one blonde in a sea of blondes while taking punishment and giving ground had been well done.

Of course they had both screwed up in the end and failed to follow his instructions. The reason Naruto lost is because he kept not taking his opponent seriously even after he said he was going to. Naruto is smart enough to replace his real self with his clones a couple of times precisely so no one is ever sure who the real Naruto is. That he didn't bother to do that in this case means he got sloppy and deserved a kick in the head.

Sakura on the other hand would have been better off backing away a distance and throwing ranged weapons to thin the mass of clones. Kakashi guessed she had been worried about potentially hurting her teammate which he could appreciate but she had still been instructed to go 'all out'. Actually if Sakura was smart she would have finished the fight when she first knocked him down in the first second of the match. Instead they were brawling like street fighters and not thinking or acting at all like ninja.

His little genin still had a long ways to go. It was moments like this that made him wonder if he'd been a little hasty in recommending them for the Chunnin exams so soon.

Kakashi glanced down and saw that Naruto was coming around.

"Yo. How you feeling?"

Naruto sat up slowly holding his head. "Ugh. What happened?"

"Hmm I wonder. You up for continuing your training?"

At the word 'training' Naruto shook his head and cleared the last of the cobwebs away. "Yeah I'm ready. But what happened…?" he asked then looked at Sakura. Suddenly it came back to him.

"Oh, ouch," he said rubbing his head, "good one Sakura-chan. You've gotten a lot better at taijutsu."

"Well of course," she replied in mock self-importance, but you could tell she was pleased.

"All right cut the chatter. Naruto and Sasuke you're up."

"Heh. I'm not going to start easy on _you_, bastard."

"Says the one who got dropped by a girl," replied Sasuke. Sakura bristled a little at that comment.

"Now now stop wasting time and get started. Sakura come stand over here."

Kakashi watched as the spar between Naruto and Sasuke started with half an eye but he wasn't all that interested. Though he didn't have them go at each other with all their abilities very often he'd seen the two of them go at it often enough on their own. Most of the time those spars ended with Sasuke the victor and Naruto a little more singed than before.

Instead he turned his attention to Sakura who'd come to stand next to him. He pulled out his latest book _Icha Icha Team Dynamics _and pretended to read it while he addressed her.

"Sakura."

"Hmm? Yes Sensei?"

"Ever make any progress on those other things?"

She looked at him until realization dawned on her features. Then without moving she transformed into a copy of him doing a passable impersonation of his lazy slouch. A second later she canceled then technique.

Then as she stood there two bushin flickered to life on either side of her. She made them bow dramatically before dispelling.

The third and final time she did have to use hand seals. Two hand seals later and Kakashi felt her replace herself with a log that held her image for a second before shimmering away. A moment later Sakura performed Kawarimi again and returned to her original position.

"Kawarimi uses more hand seals so it's been harder to get them down to zero," she said sounding a bit apologetic, "but I'll get it though. I also mastered water walking with no problems."

Kakashi hummed a noncommittal sound and kept his eye on his book. He could tell his non answer had irritated Sakura but she kept her silence. As the two boys battled it out rather loudly he contemplated what to do with his pink haired student.

Progressing as far as she had with the three basics did not take any talent but it did take a lot of repetitive, thankless hard work. He was not surprised that she hadn't quite gotten Kawarimi down since it took five seals instead of three like the others but he was pretty sure she would get it before long. Since she had been the only one of his students to actually listen and act diligently on what he'd told her maybe she deserved a reward.

"Sakura, follow me," he said heading deeper into the woods.

"Huh? What about those two?"

"They'll be fine."

* * *

Sakura had followed Kakashi-sensei into the woods a ways out of sight from her two teammates. She was burning with curiosity as to what this was about but kept her silence. Sensei probably wouldn't tell her until he was ready anyway.

Kakashi put his book away with some visible reluctance and turned to her. "Watch closely and keep an eye on that tree over there," he said motioning to one about fifty feet away. Kakashi made the Ram real in a deliberate fashion and channeled his chakra. To Sakura's eyes he seemed to disappear from sight and a fraction of a second later he reappeared by the tree he'd indicated.

"Whoa," said Sakura a little bit impressed.

"That," said Kakashi as he walked back to her, "is Shunshin no Jutsu. It's a D-Ranked skill that allows one to move at incredible speeds for a short distance in a straight line. Advanced users can fudge the straight line rule a little but generally that's how it works. Now make the Ram seal," he told her.

Sakura obeyed quickly even though she was extremely surprised that he was suddenly teaching her a new jutsu. As far as she knew he hadn't taught anyone else on her team any new jutsu yet.

"Right. Now you need to channel chakra to every muscle of your body and 'tag' your destination with chakra similar to how you would tag a log for Kawarimi…"

Kakashi drilled her on the skill until she had the general idea of how it was done even if she wasn't executing it very well. That was apparently good enough for Kakashi since he declared it was time to head back in case two idiots had decided to hurt themselves.

Still he did give her a useful short lecture on the skill as they walked back to the clearing.

"Shunsin no Jutsu is a common skill but if you don't train it hard it's of little use for anything except impressing impressionable Genin and civilians. However there have been some incredibly strong ninja who have made Shunshin no Jutsu the entire backbone of their fighting style so you get out of it what you put into it. Until you can drop the Ram seal and can use it quickly in any of the ten directions don't even attempt to use it in combat."

Sakura just nodded, her mind already whirling and coming up with possible uses for her new skill.

"By the way," he said almost as an afterthought, "don't teach that skill to any of your teammates. Consider that an order."

* * *

_(Hours Later) _

Sakura was once again sitting in the small park behind the hospital as had been her routine for the past month. She stood off to the side as much out of the way as she could and drilled Kawarimi over and over in an effort to drop those last two hand signs. Though she was really excited to start working on her new jutsu she knew the smart thing to do would be to finish mastering Kawarimi before spending time and chakra on something else. There was no guarantee that if she started working on the Shunshin no Jutsu now she would have improved enough for it to be of any use by the time the exams started in two weeks.

Sakura was looking forward to the exams but not for the reasons other people might think. It seemed everyone they talked to loved to try and scare them by telling them how at least a few Genin always died in every exam. As much as she hated to think about it Sakura _needed_ to be around more death. Hanging around the hospital had just barely been taking the edge off.

Deaths in the section of the hospital that was in her 'range' were fairly rare and sporadic. It didn't help that she didn't dare spend more than a couple of hours a day there. As it was someone would probably just think she had an odd choice of a training spots but if it became more than that she risked people noticing and asking questions.

Maybe after the exam she could see about getting a job at the hospital to give her a legitimate reason to be inside. She was actually surprised she hadn't thought of that sooner. After the exams she would look into maybe getting some medic training. If she was smack in the middle of the hospital for long hours she would probably be able to absorb all the death she needed.

It needed to happen soon though. Over the past month she had experimented and meditated to try and find out more about her Hunger. It turned out that stress made the Hunger worse and more difficult to keep in control. She was also sure that if the Hunger got bad enough the 'door' in her mind would open and what she had started thinking of as 'Evil Sakura' would come out. Except she had deduced 'Evil Sakura' wasn't _really_ another person or personality. It was just her with a shocking lack of any moral filters. Somehow the pinkette found that even more terrifying.

Sakura wasn't sure how close she had come over the last month to going over the edge but she had the feeling she had come terrifyingly close at least twice. Once when she had not felt a death for four days and she was sure she was at her limit. Another time had happened last week when her Hunger had been strong and Kakashi-sensei had caught her in the Hell Viewing Genjutsu again. She had realized what it was and broken the genjutsu in time but it had been a close call.

Now Sakura was on her third day without feeling a death and the Hunger was getting extremely bad. Part of the reason she had begun training obsessively was because it distracted her from that gnawing feeling that was present inside almost twenty four-seven. It helped a lot but at some point no matter how much training she did it just wasn't enough. If she didn't feel a death today or tomorrow she was going to be in some serious trouble.

Sakura stayed practicing for as long as she dared before giving up and leaving the park in disappointment. She just had to last until after the Chunnin exam. If she could just keep her secret that long then everything would be ok.

* * *

ANBU Rat readjusted himself slightly on his perch concealed on the roof of Konoha Hospital. For all that ANBU were considered the elite of the elite a fair portion of the time they were assigned more mundane duties like observing or guarding key personnel or structures around the village. It was a needed break from the assassinations and high stress assignments that comprised ANBU's missions outside the village but that didn't change the fact that in village assignments tended to be extremely boring.

Last week Rat had been one of the few ANBU assigned to observe the hospital. Even though it had been three weeks before the Chunnin exams the chain of command had been worried that even that early on enemy villages would start sending infiltrators if they had plans to do anything during the exam. Thus ANBU had been the deployed to keep an eye on the comings and goings of people in areas of strategic importance. Konoha Hospital just happened to be one such area.

Rat observed the pink haired girl in the park behind the hospital from where he was hidden. Every day he had been on duty had been the same. At roughly the same time each day the girl would come, spend two or three hours practicing some ninja skill or the other and then she would leave.

A less paranoid person would have thought it a strange quirk of a girl and not given it too much thought but ANBU were paranoid by both training and nature. Why did she always come to the same place? Why near the hospital? Was there a significance to the times she chose? Why would a Genin not choose to train at the training grounds like everyone else?

Rat had debated about whether to report it or not. On the one hand she could hardly be getting any sensitive information by spending time behind the hospital practicing jutsu every day. On the other they were supposed to report anything suspicious or out of the ordinary. Though probably ultimately harmless the pink haired girl's actions counted as both.

He would have to report it. The only problem now would be getting the girl's name so she could put it on his report. Rat tried not to feel too guilty knowing the kid would probably get dragged down to T&I and asked some pointed questions by some very scary people.

Rat felt a presence land next to him. Glancing over he saw it was Raven who was scheduled to relieve him.

"Isn't she a little young for you?" teased Raven as he saw the other operative looking at the pink headed girl who was now walking away.

"Just wondering who she is. She's been hanging around the hospital way too much and I'm going to have to report it. Pain in the ass I'm going to have to follow her around and find out who she is before I can write my report and finally get off duty."

"No need to do that, I know who she is. She's one of Hatake's brats," said Raven.

Rat looked at him in surprise. "She's a student of the Copy-Nin? Are you sure?"

"Hundred percent. I saw her in his team when they had me keeping track of the Kyuubi kid. Not too many kids with that color hair running around."

"Huh."

That was actually perfect. Rat _had_ been feeling a little guilty about being the one who got the kid dragged off to T&I. Hatake had been an ANBU captain and he was sure he could take care of this. He just had to let the man know and he'd figure out if his student was doing anything seditious… or more likely she was just being a dumb kid and he would straighten her out real quick.

* * *

ANBU Rat wasn't the only one who had noticed Sakura's repeated visits. In fact there was another highly skilled man who had noticed Sakura's activities from the hospital windows almost from the very beginning.

"Oh thank you dear, that feels much better," said the elderly woman who had just had her sprained wrist healed by a skilled med nin.

"It's no problem at all Satsa-san. I'm just glad I could be of help," said the man with a friendly warm smile he always wore for his patients.

As the woman left the room the man glanced towards the window catching one last glimpse of the pink haired girl as she rounded a corner. He adjusted his glasses as he thought about the girl's strange behavior. It had been clear to him from the beginning that she was nervous about being noticed and possibly thought she was doing something wrong. A minor puzzle but he made it his job to be thorough so he had spent the effort to find out who she was.

Imagine his surprise when he learned she was the teammate of both the Kyuubi container and of the last Uchiha. His sharp mind wondered how he could use this. It seemed like she had something to hide. Perhaps he could use that to his advantage? And she _was_ the teammate of those two and the student of the Copy-Nin. Maybe she had some interesting secrets of her own.

_Suspicious visits to the hospital_ sounded so ominous in a report. There was nothing solid to go on but the man's instincts told him there was something there he could potentially use to his advantage. Opportunities tended to crop up in the oddest places.

And Yakushi Kabuto _never_ missed an opportunity.

* * *

**AN: The ten directions are something from Chinese martial arts. The ten directions are front, back, left, right, the four diagonals plus up and down. Kakashi is saying she needs to be able to Shunshin quickly in any direction without hand seals for it to be useful in battle.**

**Let me know what you think. Good, bad or ugly I'm willing to hear all of it. Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading! **

_**Next Time: "Aiko-san," asked Kakashi, "do you have any idea why your daughter would have been spending time by the hospital?" **_

**Look forward to it!**


	6. Break

Kakashi walked around aimlessly thought the streets of Konoha with his nose buried in an _Icha Icha _book he was pretending to read. Though he was a huge fan of the series most of the time when he had the book out it was actually to discourage human interaction. When people saw you reading porn out in public they tended to steer clear of you and not speak to you for some reason.

As a Jounin instructor Kakashi now had a great deal of free time and he spent most of it wandering around town or visiting the memorial stone. Unlike virtually all his peers he only spent enough time training to maintain his current level of skills. It had been years since Kakashi had found the motivation to push himself to improve further. That drive to keep climbing higher had died along with all his precious people.

Not that it really mattered in his day to day career. His natural genius and the level of skill he had achieved was enough for him to come out ahead in virtually any situation against any opponent. Somehow he was still one of the strongest ninja in Konohagakure no Sato. If his peers knew he had been coasting on his skills for a decade now and he was _still_ better than most of them, well, he imagined a lot of them would be pissed.

As he casually strolled through one of the main avenues in the village Kakashi mulled over the conversation he'd had with ANBU Rat the previous night. That Sakura was possibly hanging around the hospital gathering intel for a foreign power in anticipation of the Chunnin exams seemed a stretch. It was hard to imagine what possible intel she could be gathering hanging out _behind_ the hospital where she couldn't even keep track of who was entering and leaving. The reason she was doing it was probably innocent. However there did have to be a _reason_ and he couldn't quite call himself a responsible Jounin-sensei if he didn't find out what it was.

He didn't feel like tailing Sakura to try and find out her intentions. It was boring and it would take away time from other things… like hanging out at the memorial stone. No the fastest thing would be just to ask her. A little Genin like her wasn't trained enough or experienced enough to be able to get away with lying to him and it wouldn't be hard to get the story out of her.

Still hanging out around the _hospital_ also tugged at some alarm bells in his mind at other things he had been noticing from her. Sakura's chakra had recently started fluctuating way more than was normal. One day it would be normal and the next there would be a marked increase only for it to return to normal a day or two later. It was strange but if her chakra didn't start dropping below what was normal there was probably nothing to worry about. Still, maybe that's why she was at the hospital? Perhaps he should have insisted she go get herself checked out.

That theory didn't make sense however if she wasn't even going inside. Well no use wondering about it since he was just going to get the story from the girl. He just hoped it wasn't something stupid or embarrassing. When dealing with kids it usually tended to be one or the other.

Coincidentally as he was thinking about all this he happened to spot someone he recognized from having seen her once or twice. Walking down the street looking like she had just been grocery shopping was one Haruno Aiko, Sakura's mother.

_Hmm lucky _thought Kakashi. If someone knew what was going on with Sakura it would probably be her mother. It was standard procedure when going to interrogate someone to get as much information as possible from other sources. It made it much easier to trap people in a lie when you were questioning them. Not that he felt the need to go that far with Sakura but Kakashi was a professional (most of the time) and old habits died hard. Besides who knew what it could be? If it was some family or girly problem he didn't want to probe too deep if he could help it.

He put the book away as he approached her conscious about not scaring her off.

"Aiko-san," he said in greeting and to get her attention.

The woman eyed him warily. "Can I help you with something Shinobi-san?"

Funny, he was so used to every ninja knowing who he was on sight it was kind of novel not to be recognized. "My name is Hatake Kakashi, I'm Sakura's Jounin instructor," he said.

"Oh! Pleasure to meet you Hatake-san. Sakura's told us a lot about you. That you're a well… err very competent Shinobi. Even civilians like my husband and I have heard about you," she said a little awkwardly.

_I wonder what Sakura actually told her parents about me. Probably nothing good_ he thought. There were some drawbacks to being known as an eternally late smutty book enthusiast.

"So what can I do for you Hatake-san?" asked Aiko politely.

"Aiko-san," asked Kakashi, "do you have any idea why your daughter would have been spending time by the hospital?"

Kakashi saw Aiko frown for a few moments as she considered the question before her eyes widened and all color drained from her face.

"I-," she stammered, still talking to him but clearly her mind was already a hundred miles away, "maybe. I don't know. Excuse me I have to go," she said.

Aiko started to walk away swiftly before Kakashi's hand on her arm stopped her.

"Aiko-san," he asked in a voice one might use when calming spooked animals, "what's wrong?"

The woman shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe it's nothing, I have to check. Please I have to go," she said with pleading in her voice. After a moment's consideration he released her arm and Aiko sped away into the crowd.

Something was definitely wrong. Before the end of the day he better go find his wayward student and get the story from her.

* * *

"Hey forehead! Haven't seen you in a while."

In another part of Konoha Sakura had been headed home when she ran into Team 10 coming out of an All-You-Can-Eat Barbeque restaurant.

Sakura turned to see Ino standing at the front of her team smirking in a way that told Sakura the girl was in the mood for a confrontation.

"Haven't seen you around either Ino-pig. I'd ask if you've been working hard but you've probably just been bossing Chouji and Shikamaru around the whole time," she said. She hadn't even thought about her response but bantering with Ino was automatic. Sakura thought she could be asleep and her mouth would still reflexively shoot off whenever her friend/ex-friend was around.

"They need a strong woman to keep them in line and I'll have you know I work harder than anyone on this team," Sakura could tell from Shikamaru's and Chouji's looks they didn't quite agree with that, "what about you? Has your big forehead and horrible personality finally soured Sasuke-kun to you for good?"

Sakura opened her mouth to retort that she would be the one to win Sasuke in the end as she normally would but she stopped. While she _did_ have feelings for Sasuke they had recently taken a backseat to everything else going on in her life. Suddenly Sakura found she didn't want to argue with Ino about who would win Sasuke-kun's affections.

"Sasuke-kun is too busy training to worry about girls," she replied instead, "in fact my whole team is too busy training. We have to be ready for when we start the Chunnin exams you know."

Ino didn't immediately reply and there was an odd tension that went through the group. Taking a guess at what it was Sakura asked, "Are you guys participating in the Chunnin exams too?"

"Of course!" Ino said right away.

"Troublesome woman bullied us into it," grumbled Shikamaru, "and all this extra training has been a pain."

"Stop complaining! How are you ever going to make anything of yourself with that kind of attitude?" yelled Ino.

"Tsk, annoying woman," he mumbled while deliberately turning away.

"So what's with the mummy bandages on your arms? And if you wanted to do your hair like mine you don't quite have it right," said Ino, ignoring Shikamaru and focusing back on Sakura.

Sakura had taken to putting her hair in a low ponytail as opposed to the high one Ino preferred. "These 'mummy bandages' protect my hands during taijutsu training. Plus my hair looks way better than yours."

"You wish!"

They bantered like that for a few minutes and it was an odd experience for Sakura. On the one hand it was familiar and in a way comforting in its familiarity, a way to reaffirm her friendship/rivalry with Ino who was one of her very first friends. On the other hand it felt sort of… _immature_ now. Whereas Sakura had once been passionate about the things they tended to bicker about now she just went through the motions and she found she cared very little if Ino's hair was better looking than hers. Sakura had more important things to worry about.

Eventually their sensei dragged them away and Sakura continued on her stroll home. She needed to get something to eat before heading back to the hospital. It was already day four and if she didn't 'feed' today she was almost positive she wouldn't make it through day five. She needed to stay calm and make it through the rest of the day. Maybe she would have to risk it and stay longer than normal or make an excuse to stay inside the hospital for a while. Maybe she would arrange for a 'training accident' and spend a few hours waiting for someone who would treat a sprained wrist. She was seriously reaching her limit and there was only so much more she could take.

When Sakura arrived home she saw her mom sitting on the kitchen table. She knew instantly something was wrong. Her mother wore an expression that was both extremely pained and resolute. She didn't look too well and frankly she looked like she was under a lot of strain.

"Mom, what's wrong?"

Her mother didn't answer right away. Instead she stood up from the table and walked towards her daughter. "Let me look at you," she said softly and firmly. Sakura was confused and worried by her actions but she let her mom do whatever she wanted to.

Aiko cradled Sakura's face in her hands. Then with some visible reluctance she used her thumbs to pull down on Sakura's eyelids. Whatever she saw there caused the woman to take a deep shuddering inhale. She released Sakura's eyelids and the hands she had on her daughter's face started shaking.

"Mom?" said Sakura feeling increasingly alarmed.

Sakura was flabbergasted as she saw tears start to stream down her mother's face. The woman put her hands on her daughter's shoulders gently and was examining Sakura's face like she had never seen her before.

"Mom? What is it? You're scaring me," she said a little panic in her voice.

Her mother started shaking. It looked like she was barely keeping it together.

"Sakura… How many have you… ?" she said before catching herself as a sob escaped her lips.

Sakura's eyes widened in panic as she realized what was going on. Her mother knew. Somehow her mother _knew_!

Sakura started to back away slowly from her mother, looking at her while internally having a panic attack. Her mother looked at her with the utmost sadness and heartbreak on her face. Then she did something Sakura would never have expected from her mother in a situation like that. She gave her daughter one last pained look then turned and ran out of the house.

The young girl looked after her mother for a few seconds before she felt sick. Sakura ran to the bathroom and knelt in front of the toilet in time to empty the contents of her stomach. Somehow she knew. Somehow her mother knew she was a killer. Somehow she knew she was… was some kind of _freak_.

After spending a few minutes emptying her stomach she dragged herself up to the sink and used the water to wash her mouth. Suddenly wondering what it was her mother had seen Sakura reached and pulled down her eyelid. What she saw was distinctly alien. Instead of the healthy pink one would expect to see the tissue underneath her eye was a bloodless bone white. She didn't know what it meant but obviously it had meant something to her mother.

Sakura looked at herself in the mirror. She didn't want this. It was too much. Why… why did…

The dam broke and the 'door' opened.

* * *

Sakura looked at herself in the bathroom mirror and saw what she had been expecting. Her eyes once again had a ring of white around the center that slowly changed to the color of honey around the edges. So her eyes always did change when she underwent her own 'change'. Good to know.

Her thoughts were brought back to the most pressing issue of the moment, that of her mother. For a moment she considered eliminating her mother before immediately discarding that thought. She had wondered to what extent her mind was altered while in this state. It seemed she still cared enough to not want to hurt her loved ones. Somehow that was a relief to know.

So what, if anything, should she do about her mother? After thinking about it for a while she concluded that the best thing to do would be nothing. Obviously her mother knew something about her situation. She'd have to ask her when she came back. The most important thing was that Sakura knew her mother and her mother would never do anything to intentionally harm her or put her in danger. Even if her mother somehow knew she had uncontrollable homicidal tendencies she would still do her best to protect her. In the end the situation probably wasn't as serious as she had initially feared.

But why did her mother suspect her in the first place? She didn't know. Possibly it was some other sign of her change that she was unaware of, like the lack of coloration under her eyelids. Sakura resolved to ask her mother when she returned.

In the meantime there were other problems that needed to be taken care of. While back to being undesirably 'normal' she had once again allowed the Hunger to get out of control. That was not good, not good at all. She could see the logic behind what she had been doing at the hospital but such a thing was a stopgap measure at best. Even if she lived in the middle of a war with constant death all around she knew she would need to kill herself eventually. Somehow she just _knew_ that was how she was built.

Sakura looked outside the window and saw the sun was already setting. The hospice had worked before and there was no reason it wouldn't work again.

She took the time to go upstairs and change into something more nondescript than her ninja attire. After putting on an outfit of muted colors that would let her go as unnoticed as much as possible Sakura left the house to find her prey.

In the thirty minutes it took her to reach her destination at a leisurely pace the sun had already set. Being careful to remain out of sight Sakura used all the stealth skills she possessed and went from window to window looking in to see the patients with a small mirror. If she was going to do this on a semi regular basis it would be best to do some recon, henge into a nurse or a doctor and look at all the patient's charts so she could carefully select her targets beforehand. As it was she was just going to have to play it by ear.

Five windows down Sakura found a potential candidate. It was an old woman who had a room all to herself and seemed to be sleeping. Carefully Sakura opened the window and let herself inside.

It was child's play. She had been dying of cancer and was too weak to feed herself much less put up any resistance. After checking there were no nurses or staff nearby Sakura used the woman's own pillow and suffocated her.

Sakura absorbed the full death this time. Almost indescribable pleasure coursed through her as chakra exploded from her _hara _to every channel and every nerve of her body. It was like Sakura was feeling whole and complete for the first time in over a month. There was no way experiencing death second hand could compare. Sakura allowed herself a few moments to enjoy the ecstatic sensations at the dead woman's bedside before turning and slipping back out the window.

Saturated with chakra and feeling like a million ryo she glided back out onto the street with an almost giddy air about her. Nothing in the world felt as amazing as this. Realizing she had missed eating dinner Sakura headed towards the part of town that tended to have a lot of open air food vendors.

After Sakura had arrived and purchased a bounty of fried foods and sweets that she loved she pondered what to do next. Although she would not hurt her mother she still felt somewhat resentful that the woman had run out without giving her any answers and that she had possibly been keeping secrets from her. A bit hypocritical, yes, but if her mother had any information on what was going on with her it was totally different. Perhaps a night away from home would be what they both needed to cool off.

It was perfect actually. Tomorrow was one of the very rare mornings Guy-sensei had declared they should take the day off. Sakura would spend most of the night training and then sleep outdoors. Not ideal but with the warm summer nights in Konoha it wouldn't be too unpleasant. In the morning with cooler heads she would go talk to her mother and sort all of this out.

With this in mind she headed for the training ground near her house where she usually met with Guy and Lee. She stood on top of the creek with her chakra and started to go through the Goken forms she had been taught as a warm up. Her body felt amazing and she felt lighter and more free than she could ever remember feeling. She felt light as a feather in the wind as she threw kicks and flowing punches under the moonlight.

It wasn't just the chakra flooding her system. She felt like she was suddenly carrying forty pounds less of baggage both in her body and in her mind. It was absolutely incredible and it was a shame she had never felt her body in quite this way before. If she had half a brain she would stay like this forever.

Of course she suspected once she fell asleep she would wake up and be 'normal' Sakura again, with all her angsts, doubts and silly moralizing that didn't get her anywhere. It was frustrating to see coming that she was going to go back to that state and not be able to do anything about it. She would probably cry about the old lady and gnash her teeth, punch the ground and all manner of other nonsense. Sakura sighed. There really wasn't much she could do about that so she might as well focus and enjoy her training while it lasted.

Several hours later an exhausted but satisfied Sakura found a suitable branch high up in the canopy. She leaned against the trunk of the tree in a little groove and used her long hair to make a tiny improvised pillow for herself. Probably she should have thought to bring at least a thin blanket but the night was warm and one evening outdoors wouldn't kill her. Resolved to speak with her mom in the morning Sakura bundled herself up as best she could and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

_(The Next Morning) _

In his many years as Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen had made it a habit to be in his office well before dawn. The hours before the sun rose were the only hours he was guaranteed to be able to make headway in his paperwork without interruptions. It was also a time his subordinates knew not to interrupt him unless it was serious business.

Which is why he was surprised when one of the Chunnin still on night duty knocked on his door.

"Enter," the Hokage said gruffly barely looking up from his paperwork.

"Hokage-sama there is a civilian woman here to see you. She says it's urgent," said the Chunnin looking nervous.

Hiruzen stopped writing and had to fight not to scowl at the man. He didn't like to be interrupted during his 'special' time with his paperwork. "You know all civilian concerns go through the proper channels. Why are you bothering me with this?"

"Well," said the Chunnin nervously, "she said it concerns an active duty Shinobi. She said something about grave danger and potential lives being at stake. When I pressed her for more details she said she refused to speak to anyone but you."

Hiruzen sat back on his chair and sighed. As much as he was tempted to just send the woman away Konoha citizens knew better than to bother the Hokage with frivolous business. Looked like his paperwork would have to wait until he figured out what this was all about.

"Alright send her in," said the Hokage. He only hoped this 'grave danger' could be dealt with quickly.

* * *

Sakura slowly woke up with the sun shining in her eyes. Sleepily she thought the light would have woken her but she didn't think that was it at all. Slowly she opened her eyes to see a tall figure standing right in front of her.

"Gah!" she cried out startled. Forgetting where she was she turned and fell straight off the branch she was sleeping on. Suddenly wide awake thanks to a flood of adrenaline Sakura looked for a way to stop her fall. Seeing a branch coming closer just barely in reach she stretched her arms forward as far as she could. She struggled to attach herself to the branch with chakra and for a second thought she would fall but somehow managed to hang on.

"Kakashi-sensei are you crazy! You could have killed me!" she yelled in anger and fright as the adrenaline surged through her. With a grunt she pulled herself up on top of the branch that had stopped her fall.

"Yo Sakura-chan! I've been looking for you," he said joyfully completely ignoring her anger. With contemptible ease he jumped down to stand on the same branch as her.

"I was having a nice nap until you scared me half to death. Did you really have to wake me up that way? And why were you looking for me?" she said, starting to calm down from fire breathing angry to just extremely irritated.

"I just wanted to ask you something," he said.

"So? Ask away," she said starting to brush off some of the bark on her arms.

"Why have you been spending two to three hours a day in the park behind the hospital?" he asked, playful mood suddenly turning serious.

Sakura froze in mid motion. Suddenly the events from the day before came rushing back to her.

Her mom knowing something about what was wrong with her and suddenly freaking out and running away.

How she had finally lost control like she had been afraid of and turned into 'Evil Sakura.'

How she had killed a helpless old woman in her bed and then gone out for food and training like it was nothing.

How amazingly _good_ it had all felt.

_Oh Kami._

Sakura sank down to her knees and started crying. Big loud sobs filled with everything she was feeling, grief, pain, confusion, fear, guilt. Kakashi watched on helplessly as his student completely broke down in front of him.

"Sakura," he said gently. Not knowing what to do he awkwardly started patting her hair like he remembered his mother doing for him when he was a little boy. "Come now there's no need for that. You're a big bad Kunoichi of the Leaf aren't you?"

Sakura couldn't live like this anymore. She had to confess everything. She _wanted_ to confess everything. "Kakashi-sensei… there's – there's something really wrong with me," she started. She kept her head down but her sobs subsided somewhat. Kakashi pulled his hand away but crouched down to be eye level with her.

"Hey, Sakura look at me," he said. She slowly complied looking at him through tear stained eyes. "As your Sensei I promise to help you deal with whatever it is that's going on. Remember my first lesson? Anyone who abandons their teammates is worse than trash. And I won't abandon my teammates," he said in reassuring tones.

Sakura looked him in the eye and felt a little better knowing that he meant every word. She nodded and gave him a look that she hope conveyed her gratefulness. Wiping away her tears Sakura took a deep shuddering breath as she thought about how she was going to start telling this story to Kakashi-sensei.

"It all started in the mission in Wave… when those men died. When they died… when they died I felt-"

"Haruno," a sharp hard voice interrupted them from above.

Standing on a branch right above her were two masked ANBU with their gazes fixed squarely on her.

"The Hokage has asked to see you. You'll need to come with us."


	7. Revelations

As Sakura was led through the halls of the Hokage tower she tried not to let her fear show. Thankfully Kakashi-sensei had decided to come along and neither of her ANBU escorts had objected to his presence though she suspected they weren't thrilled with it. She wished she could look at Kakashi to give herself some small reassurance but with her two escorts at either side and Kakashi bringing up the rear that just wasn't possible.

The whole time spent going to the tower Sakura wondered what the Hokage knew and how he knew it. She also couldn't help it as her mind went on a few tangents of worst case scenario things that awaited her in that office. Sakura did her best to compose herself and act like a real Kunoichi as they reached their destination.

Inside the office awaited her a much larger gathering of people than she had anticipated. To her surprise Iruka-sensei and Ino's dad were in the room looking rather serious. Two more ANBU guards were stationed in the corners of the room. The Hokage was sitting behind his desk with the most serious expression she had ever seen on his face and her own mother was seated in one of the two chairs in front of the Hokage's table. As one all of them turned to look at her when she entered the room. Sakura had to fight the urge to turn around and flee.

"Sit down," said the Hokage, his voice even but with unmistakable command.

Sakura gaped for a second before she moved and sat down as fast as she could.

Even though everyone in the room was staring at her she kept her eyes firmly on the Hokage. Finding she couldn't meet his gaze she looked down and kept her eyes on his desk instead. There was complete silence for a long minute and Sakura couldn't stop herself from fidgeting nervously in her seat.

"Sakura," began the Hokage, his voice severe and brimming with authority, "I'm going to give you exactly one chance to come clean about what you have been up to. If I find out at any time that you lied or kept anything from me the consequences will be severe. Do you understand me?"

At this point Sakura started shaking from fright and from the powerful aura of the Hokage. "H-Hai Hokage-s-sama," she said keeping her head lowered.

"Then tell me everything," he said.

And she did. She described everything in as much detail as she could remember so she couldn't be accused of holding anything back. She told him about what happened when Haku and those men died in Wave, about how great she felt afterwards but didn't think anything of it. About how the feelings she called the Hunger got worse and worse and she had no idea what to do about it. How one night she woke up with yellow eyes and a complete lack of morals holding her back.

She told about how and why she chose _Konoha Hospice_ as her target, who she killed and why she chose that particular person. At that point in the story she could tell her mother was growing very upset but she couldn't stop her story at that point. She told the Hokage how she had guessed being near people dying would help and she started spending time in the park behind the hospital. Finally she told him how that had worked moderately well for a whole month until the events of the previous day and her confrontation with her mom. After that her eyes had gone yellow again and she had killed an old lady dying of cancer the night before.

The Hokage took this all in with an unreadable stony expression on his face. When her story was finished Sakura sagged in her chair as if all energy had left her and tears were streaming down her face. Aiko looked like she wanted nothing more than reach over and hold her daughter but being in such a formal setting in the presence of the Hokage stopped her from doing so.

After a long minute of silence the Hokage asked Sakura a question. "Why was it that you didn't come forward after the first time you killed somebody?" His voice gave absolutely no clues as to what he was thinking.

"W-when we were in the academy Mizuki-sensei told us a story about how a drunken Chunnin who had killed a civilian was… executed," she said quietly. That particular statement caused Iruka to curse the man under his breath.

After hearing her response the Hokage's posture relaxed marginally and his gaze softened to something like pity in his eyes. "That was the case of a chronic violent drunk who managed to kill the son of a very important person. In cases of accidents or things out of their control we don't make it a habit of executing our ninja because of unfortunate circumstances," he said, his voice losing some of its harshness.

Sakura just nodded while keeping her gaze low, unsure what she was expected to say.

"I want you to know that at this time, with the information I now possess, I'm willing to rule these two as 'accidental deaths' and let that be the end of it. However my first and most important duty is protecting Konoha and its citizens and steps will need to be taken so this sort of thing does not happen again. Do you understand?"

"Yes Hokage-sama," she said in the same subdued tone. Though inside she felt some relief at hearing she wasn't bound for the executioner's block she didn't have it in her to feel happy about it at the moment. The deaths of those two people still weighed too heavily on her conscience.

"Now," said the Hokage learning back on his chair, "I think it would be best if your mother filled you in on what she told me earlier this morning. It should answer the questions you no doubt have about what is happening to you."

Sakura finally managed to pull her gaze from where it had been glued on the Hokage's desk and turned to look at her mother sitting next to her.

"Mom?" she asked, voice shaking and uncertain and asking for answers.

Aiko took a deep breath and hunched forward a little as if a great weight had settled on her shoulders.

* * *

"I'm not originally from Fire Country," Aiko began, "I was originally the third daughter and seventh child of the head of the Saotome clan, Saotome Atsuo. I came to live in Fire Country after meeting and marrying your father who was apprenticing at one of the Haruno clan's holdings in Earth Country." Aiko paused momentarily. It was clear that speaking about this was very difficult for her.

Sakura was stunned. This was completely different from what her parents had told her. "So you're not from northern Fire Country?" she asked seemingly blown away.

Aiko shook her head. "Your father was born in Fire Country but he spent most of his youth and early adulthood in Earth Country learning his trade until we were forced to flee. We were fortunate that his family welcomed us back with open arms once we arrived in Fire Country."

Sakura was shocked at this information and angry no one had ever told her. "Why did you keep this from me? Why did you have to flee Earth Country? And what does this have to do with what's happening to me?" demanded Sakura sounding a little panicky.

Aiko sighed, "The Saotome clan was a powerful ninja clan of Iwagakure. After the end of the last war that ended in Iwa's defeat many of the shinobi were angry at the Saotome clan and accused them of treason. Shortly after the end of the war, on the orders of the Tsuchikage, the Saotome clan was attacked in the middle of the night and they were killed down to every last man, woman and child."

Sakura just sat in her chair looking at her mother, stunned. The pinkette needed to work her mouth a few times before the next hesitant question came out. "How did you survive?"

"I was born with a rare defect that crippled my chakra coils. When I was twelve and it became clear I would never be a ninja my mother faked my death and sent me away to be raised by civilians. It was the best thing she could have done for me, life would not have been good for me in the Saotome clan as a civilian. However it was still too dangerous for us to remain after the order came down that all Saotome were to be killed. It was possible someone would have eventually realized I had been born into the clan."

Sakura mulled this over. There was so much information coming at her at once she was starting to feel overwhelmed not sure what to think or feel. There were so many questions she now wanted to ask but those would have to wait until later. She needed time to process and there was really only one question that mattered to her right now.

"What does this have to do with what's been happening to me?"

"The Saotome line had… has… a bloodline. It's called Santengoku or Three Heavens."

Sakura swallowed thickly. "So it is a Kekkei Genkai…" she said almost to herself.

Aiko nodded. "It is a hated bloodline and with good reason. Iwa never trusted the Saotome clan even though they joined the village almost from the time of its founding. I hate to say it but the accusations leveled against them were most likely all true. The deeper they went into their bloodline the more treacherous and depraved they became."

While it was clear to Sakura that her mother was lost in her memories it didn't ease the fact that her mother was talking about a bloodline that Sakura herself apparently had. It hurt and scared her all at the same time.

"If you knew I could have this bloodline why didn't you say anything?" Sakura demanded.

In that moment Aiko looked lost and guilty. "In men the bloodline tended to manifest well over fifty percent of the time. However for the women it was closer to ten percent. I thought the chances were so small it wasn't worth burdening you with that knowledge. If you didn't manifest the bloodline then there was no chance your children would either. That cursed bloodline would have finally been wiped from the earth."

The occupants of the room seemed a bit uncomfortable as Aiko was seemingly lost in the past and not aware how her words could be taken by her daughter. Sakura for her part tried to be understanding but couldn't help but feel like her own mother was rejecting her because of something that happened that was not her fault.

Sakura decided she could process and be upset later. Right now she needed to get answers while she could.

"How do I control it?" Sakura asked.

Aiko gave a bark of laughter that had nothing to do with joy. "Control it? You _can't_. That's why I call it a curse."

* * *

After that outburst Aiko was embarrassed and managed to calm down some. Except for the Hokage who had already heard the story the woman had a captive audience as she began to talk about the finer points of the Santengoku otherwise known as Three Heavens.

"The Kekkei Genkai is known as Three Heavens because there are three distinct stages to it known as First Heaven, Second Heaven and Third Heaven. After a particular Heaven is achieved it takes at least a couple of years for the Kekkei Genkai to mature enough for it to even be possible to go to the next level. Once enough time has passed specific conditions have to be met in order for the user to advance to the next Heaven,"

"There is a little poem that goes like this,

_First Heaven breaks the bonds of society, _

_All rules cease to have meaning, _

_And you are no longer constrained by the will of others, _

_This is First Heaven when you first sample true freedom. _

_x_

_Second Heaven breaks the shackles of fear, _

_Be it for your own body, house or country, _

_You will not be hampered by the mind killer that is fear, _

_This is Second Heaven when you become the perfect shinobi weapon. _

_x_

_Third Heaven breaks your bonds with all others, _

_Loved ones, friends and family will no longer hold you back, _

_All become equal under your eye, _

_This is Third Heaven when you experience perfect clarity and joy."_

"Even that poem was supposed to be a clan secret. As you can see from the description the effects of the Santengoku do very little to inspire trust in others."

Aiko took a deep breath. "The worst problem is that for most people the Heavens become addictive. Even though they might be causing hell to others in their own mind they are experiencing a glorious superior mental state. It doesn't help that the Heavens also grant the user different abilities,"

"First Heaven isn't as bad by the virtue that it turns off automatically when one goes to sleep. It helps you to stay grounded in reality. However in Second Heaven you have to choose to turn it off voluntarily. Many Saotome who entered Second Heaven never turned it off. Third Heaven is the absolute worst, I've never heard of anyone who reached Third Heaven and came back from it except supposedly for the founder of the clan."

Sakura shuddered at that. From her own memories she wasn't sure if she would have come out of First Heaven if she'd had a choice. From what her mother was saying the others were even more addicting and you had to choose to return to normal.

"I never want to reach Second Heaven," she said quietly.

For the first time since Sakura had walked in that morning her mother seemed to perk up a bit and she even gave her a small sad smile. "I hope you don't honey. It's an awful thing. People who reach Second Heaven or above are never the same again."

* * *

"Well I think that's enough for now," said the Hokage once again taking control of the conversation. "Aiko-san was considerate enough to bring copies of all the materials she was able to salvage from when her clan was destroyed. According to her they contain detailed information on the Santengoku as well as first person accounts. If you're interested in reading about it you can ask me and I'll make them available to you," he said addressing the whole room.

"Now Sakura you killed somebody yesterday. I take it to mean you won't have any problems for a few days?"

Sakura was somewhat mortified about being asked if she'll be 'ok' for a few days without killing anyone. She simply nodded in response.

"Well then in that case I want you to report to Inoichi first thing in the morning. I expect you to cooperate with him fully. The report he gives me will greatly inform my decision on how we go forward from here."

"Hai Hokage-sama."

"ANBU will escort you and your mother home. You will be watched and be placed under house arrest until I've come to a decision. I would not suggest you attempt to deceive your observers or go outside. An ANBU will escort you to Inoichi's in the morning."

Sakura was a little freaked out at all this. It had sounded at first like she would have been let go without so much as a slap on the wrist. Now they were treating her like she was a dangerous criminal. Well… she supposed she actually _was_ a dangerous criminal, sort of.

"Hai Hokage-sama."

"I recommend you spend some time learning all you can about your heritage and your Kekkei Genkai. If all goes well I'll have made my decision by tomorrow or the day after. Dismissed."

As quickly as she could without being insulting Sakura fled the room, her mother following at a more dignified pace behind her.

* * *

Sakura and her mother were quiet as they were escorted home by ANBU. Thankfully being escorted home didn't mean they were walking next to them. Everyone across Konoha would have seen that spectacle. It just meant the ANBU followed close by on the roofs and made little attempt to hide their presence. Since even Sakura could sense them she guessed that was intentional.

When they entered the home they were quiet, not quite knowing what to say to each other. As the silence grew awkward Aiko moved into the kitchen to make tea just to have something to do with her hands. Sakura looked around the room to avoid looking at her mom. Finally Sakura had to say something to break the silence.

"When is otousan supposed to be back again?"

Aiko hesitated before answering. "If all goes well he should be back in ten days."

Well Sakura had thought that's how long it would be but that didn't make her feel any better. She could have really used a hug from her dad right about then. Sakura wasn't sure what she was feeling towards her mother. There was anger sure, and disappointment, and a sad feeling that she didn't know the woman in front of her nearly as well as she'd thought she did.

Aiko seemed to be debating something before she got up and went to her bedroom. She came back out with a fine wooden box and put it on the table. Going over to the counter she grabbed a piece of stationary and a pen. Suddenly unsure what her mother was doing she stepped closer to join her on the counter. Her mother scribbled a quick note and passed it to her.

_The walls have ANBU ears by now. I have to tell you something but we can't speak out loud. Play along. _

She looked at her daughter who looked at her mother in surprise at her sneakiness. Slowly Sakura nodded that she understood.

Aiko took the paper back and wrote while saying something else out loud.

"Honey I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. It's an ugly part of my past I really just wanted to forget. There were some traumatic things I went through before I left the Saotome compound that made me really despise the Santengoku."

_I did not copy everything for the Hokage. I held back some important things that should be for you and you alone. Do you have some place you can be reasonably sure you can hide them without being discovered? _

Sakura took the paper back, suddenly finding herself having two very different but intense conversations at the same time.

"Well mom, I mean… what happened? What made you hate your own family's bloodline so much?"

_What things? What are they? How big? Need to know. _

"I – well it was my older brother Tamoko. My mother loved me but she didn't have much time to raise me or spend time with me herself. My brother was five years older than me and I adored him, he practically raised me. I'm sure you can guess what happened?"

_Three scrolls, small size. Two hold secrets for techniques that can only be used in Second and Third Heaven. The third holds instructions on how to get the Saotome clan's summoning contract. The summoning contract is __very important__. Not sure why but everyone always said so. _

"I'm guessing Santengoku happened? Did… did someone kill him?"

_If no one knows you have them I think I can hide them safely. But why are you giving them to me? I thought you hated the Saotome from what you've said, and __especially__ the Santengoku. _

"No. That might have actually been better. He was considered something of a prodigy within the clan and reached Third Heaven at sixteen, almost unheard of. He-he stopped being my big brother Tamoko then. He became cold and cruel and things only mattered to him in relation to his goals. He became just like father. I always felt the Santengoku killed my brother and turned him into a sadistic, evil mockery of his former self."

Sakura was stunned to hear that story. There was still pain when her mother told the story but it was also heavily shrouded by a sort of weary resignation. It was extremely clear her mother had been hard hit by the loss of her brother all those years ago and even now there was still a resigned sadness to her even if he was long dead. Sakura was so involved in her thoughts she almost didn't notice when her mom shoved the note in her hand with an impatient push when she'd ignored it.

_I hated the Santengoku for all the people it ruined and I hated the Saotome for creating a culture that worshipped that cursed Kekkei Genkai. However I was still raised in it and it's still a part of me even if I hate it. At least in memory of my mother I can't let our summoning contract fall out of the hands of the Saotome clan. As for the other two I couldn't be sure the Hokage would allow you keep them if he knew you had them. I hate it but it's still part of me and I still have some pride in it. Do you understand Sakura? _

"Don't worry mom," she said pulling her in for a hug, "I have no desire to reach Second or Third Heaven. I'll just have to look in that pile of scrolls to find the 'conditions' necessary to reach Second Heaven and avoid them. Shouldn't be too hard if I know what to look for right?"

The truth was Sakura didn't understand where her mother was coming from when she simultaneously hated her former clan and felt compelled to protect its heritage. Maybe some of her peers who had been raised in clans like Ino or Hinata would understand but Sakura couldn't see herself doing the same thing in her mother's position for the same reasons. Still she was grateful her mother had thought that far ahead and had tried to preserve something like that just for her.

When the tea kettle started whistling her mother pulled away and used the noise for cover as she quickly crumbled up the note and ate it. Sakura's eyebrows flew up in surprise at that. Seeing things like that she really could believe her mother had been raised in a ninja clan.

* * *

The Hokage's office emptied out quickly after the two females left. The Hokage wanted Inoichi's and Iruka's input on the girl but he would rather wait until the next day after the psych evaluation before he had everyone put all their cards on the table. As the Hokage had predicted Kakashi elected to stay behind and speak to him.

"What is it Kakashi?" he asked knowing full well what was on his mind.

"I doubt you're going to do anything to her unless her psych evaluation is a mess. Why did you feel a need to pull the scare tactics with the ANBU?" he asked.

"Precisely because she could use being a little scared. Maybe even a lot scared. If the psych evaluation goes as well as you seem to think it will she'll need to be made of stern stuff and make sure to toe the line. Should things go well it is very likely there will be a lot of eyes on her soon."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed a bit. He didn't like the sound of that. "What do you mean?" he asked.

The Hokage sat back in his chair and lit his pipe. "Oh I think I'll keep my own council on that until tomorrow. Until then think about freeing up some time to give some special training to that student of yours. Consider that an order from your Hokage."

No. Kakashi didn't like the sound of that _at all_.

* * *

**AN: Dun dun dun! What did you think? For the big reveal chapter it actually turned out to be a lot shorter than I thought. Not every detail of the Santengoku aka Three Heavens was explained and that was on purpose. This chapter was already feeling a little information dump heavy anyway. **

**Review!**


	8. New Mission

**AN: I'd like to thank everyone who's read my story so far, especially Lori and xXRosexScorpiusXx who have given me such long and lovely reviews. On with the show :)**

* * *

After morning practice Lee was always in a good mood. His body felt full of youth after he had worked hard and tried to prove himself a master of hard work like he did every day. He'd even had an especially good workout today. However he couldn't help but feel his flames of youthfulness hadn't fanned all that high because something had been missing.

Or rather some_one_ had been missing from practice that morning.

Lee had gotten used to seeing Sakura in their morning workouts and looked forward to seeing her every day. He wasn't nearly as hopelessly shy as he had been before but he still got embarrassed easily. Soon after she started working out with them in the morning Guy had often started assigning Lee to teach Sakura some bit of taijutsu or correcting her mistakes. It was no secret to anyone who knew Lee that he had become quite smitten with his pink haired morning workout partner. It got him no end of teasing but as long as Sakura didn't find out before he was ready it wasn't really _that_ big a deal. He'd almost gotten used to feeling constantly embarrassed.

Now Sakura had missed her first morning workout. She was so dedicated to her training it was extremely out of character. Lee started imagining farfetched scenarios of her being kidnapped by an evil warlord and him having to rush in to save his Sakura-Hime. Shaking his head and scolding himself for letting his imagination get out of control he decided he needed to go check on Sakura. He'd worry about her all day if he didn't.

"Where are you going Lee?" asked Guy curiously as he saw Lee about to walk off. Usually the two of them had a lightning quick breakfast before their team meeting.

"Sorry Guy-sensei. I may have to skip breakfast today. I want to check on Sakura-chan before our team meeting today," he said.

Guy gave him a proud smile and Lee couldn't quite figure out why. "Of course! Go and check to make sure she is alright. Don't worry about being a few minutes late today. If she's sick tell Sakura-_chan_ that I wish her a speedy youthful recovery."

Lee flinched a little. He hadn't gotten up the courage to call Sakura by anything other than Sakura-san yet. He didn't want her to even guess about his feelings until after he made Chunin after all. When she wasn't around though he would occasionally call her that. It had earned him no end of teasing from Tenten when she found out.

"Hai Guy-sensei. I'll meet up with you and the team," he promised and left.

Guy had asked Sakura for her address in case of emergencies or if they needed to leave a note for her and she had given it to both him and Lee. The young taijutsu specialist had never been there before but he didn't think it would be too hard to find, he knew it was near the training grounds they used after all. After ten minutes of walking he finally found what looked to be the right house.

"Ok… have some youthful courage. Here goes nothing," he said as he knocked on the front door.

A minute later an attractive woman in her late thirties opened the door. He saw as she took in his appearance with an incredulously raised eyebrow. Maybe this is where Sakura got her expressive eyebrow thing from? Lee assumed this must be Sakura's mother.

Lee bowed very formally at the waist making sure to make a good impression. "Excuse me for disturbing you Haruno-san. I'm Sakura-san's training partner in the mornings," and how awesome that was, "and she missed practice today. I just wanted to stop by and make sure she was alright."

The woman gave him an appraising look that made him squirm a little. "You're not dating her are you? I'm afraid I can't approve of that. She's way too young for that you know," she said.

Lee's face got so red from embarrassment you'd think he'd been dipped in red paint. He raised his hands and waved them frantically in front of him as if warding off her words. "No! I never… we've never… I mean s-she never and me and and… we're just training partners! We're not d-d-d-dating," he said trying frantically to keep blood from dribbling down his nose.

That's when he noticed her playful smirk and the twinkle in her eye. Oh! She had been teasing him! Realizing that didn't make Lee feel any less mortified however.

"Well I just had to make sure you understand. You're the first boy to come to our door looking for her. It's really nice that you're worried about her. I'd invite you to come in but because of certain reasons… it's probably better that I don't. If you'll wait here a moment I'll go get Sakura for you," she said.

Without another word Sakura's mom turned and went back into the house. Lee fidgeted a little nervously as he waited by the door. Moms were scary.

A few moments later Sakura came up to the door wearing her normal ninja attire. She looked surprised to see him but greeted him warmly. "Lee! I didn't expect to see you. Sorry I missed practice today but uh it wasn't really something I could avoid," she said a little sheepishly.

Lee noticed that she looked a little stressed and her smile a little forced.

"I – er we were worried when you didn't show up today since you never miss practice. Is everything fine? You're not getting sick or anything are you?" he asked.

"No nothing like that," she said a little sadly. He had to suppress a frown, he didn't like seeing Sakura like that, "I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to tell you. It's just that I need to stay home for the next day or so that's all."

Need to stay home? Not allowed to tell him? "Are you in some kind of trouble Sakura-san? Maybe I can help," he said sounding concerned.

"Thanks Lee," she said and her smile was a little more sincere this time. It made his heart thump a little harder, "but it's nothing you need to worry about. The situation should be resolved soon."

"Are you sure? Because I could ask-"

"Haruno-san," a voice said right behind him causing him to jump, "it's time to leave for your appointment."

Lee turned and looked at the person who had spoken. To his utter surprise it was a masked ANBU who had snuck up behind him.

Sakura nodded at the man. "I need to go Lee. If all goes well I should be able to come back to practice soon. Apologize to Guy-sensei for me ok?"

Lee absently nodded as she walked passed him and went with the ANBU after yelling a goodbye to her mother. His mind whirled as to why an ANBU would escort a Genin anywhere but he drew a blank. He couldn't help but feel worried.

He should ask Guy-sensei. Maybe he could find out what was going on.

* * *

_(That Afternoon) _

"Well Inoichi, report," said Hiruzen.

Inoichi was in the Hokage's office along with Iruka and Kakashi. All of them had been gathered to answer the Hokage's questions about one particular Genin. Kakashi was uneasy since it had been hinted he had something potentially dangerous in mind for his student.

"The girl herself appears to be as normal as could be expected under these circumstances. With all the guilt, stress and unknown disturbing things happening to her over the last five or so weeks it's a bit surprising she's held up as well as she did. In my opinion if she had continued to try and keep this hidden as she had she would have broken down before long so it's fortunate everything came out when it did. As it is now with things out in the open and her knowing what is wrong with her I believe she will be able to make the adjustment,"

"She is experiencing guilt over the deaths that took place a fear and aversion to her Kekkei Genkai. That aversion needs to be bit in the bud soon before it had time to become more entrenched. She seems disturbed by her casual thoughts regarding death but it is truly no different than how experienced shinobi view death. It's unfortunate but she'll need to be made to accept that death is part of who she is now and probably will be for the rest of her life. I don't foresee any complications once these concerns are addressed. As far as I could tell she is loyal to Konoha and wants to protect her citizens."

There was silence in the room as they all considered these words. "You've read some of the descriptions of her Kekkei Genkai that Aiko-san gave to us. What is your opinion on it?" the Hokage asked Inoichi.

The man paused for a moment gathering his thought. "This is truly an interesting case especially given my family's specialty in dealing with the mind. From the descriptions and accounts I read last night the state of First Heaven is not even close to true psychopathy. The bonds with people she cares about remain intact so I do not believe she would be a danger to her teammates. However she truly would have no regard for anything or anyone outside of the bonds she has with those she cares about,"

"If it came down to a situation where it came down to her teammates or her mission she would choose her teammates every time. I believe her alter persona would act in Konoha's interests as long as she believed those close to her have a vested interest in Konoha's welfare. I'd like to at some point interview Sakura again while her Kekkei Genkai is activated but if the records I read are correct I'm willing to tentatively clear her for active duty. Of course if or when she unlocks the next stage of her Kekkei Genkai things will need to be reevaluated. "

Even though Kakashi didn't show anything outwardly on the inside he felt a great deal of relief. If Sakura suddenly stopped caring about her comrades when her Kekkei Genkai activated it would have just made it a liability. As it was her Kekkei Genkai wouldn't make her much different from some of the battle hardened, slightly unhinged ninja with a mean streak who he had worked with over the years.

"Thank you for your evaluation Inoichi. Iruka, you taught the girl for six years. What insights can you give me as to her personality and skills," asked the Hokage turning to the young Chunnin.

He paused to gather his thoughts and looked thoughtful as he began, "Sakura had some problems making friends at first but eventually she found her niche in the class. She is extremely intelligent and while diligent in her schoolwork I don't think it ever truly challenged her. It wasn't really a surprise to me when she ended up with the best theory scores in the class, a near perfect score. However she did seem quite focused on frivolous activities such as chasing after boys and worrying about clothes and latest hair styles and such. I suspect she only really started to get involved with that in order to fit in with the other girls,"

"As to her physical skills they were below average across the board. I got the impression that she was never motivated to put much effort into it, possibly because she was simply one of those girls more interested in silly things and the social pecking order than in her ninja skills. She was assessed as having potential in genjutsu because of her high intelligence, excellent chakra control and relatively low chakra capacity. I always thought if she got her head out of the clouds she had the potential to make an excellent ninja."

"I see," said the Hokage thoughtfully, "thank you Iruka. Kakashi what is your assessment of the girl and what can you tell us about her skills?"

"Hmm not much to say. After that mission in Wave that unexpectedly became an A-Rank she woke up, stopped being a useless fangirl and got serious about her training. I think the enemy deaths and one of her teammates nearly dying got to her. She's been working hard on the basics trying to get physically up to par. Hmmm I suppose she's done all right with that," he said. Sakura actually had a few bright spots worth mentioning but Kakashi had a feeling it would be best to downplay her abilities right now.

"I see," said the Hokage, his gaze saying he didn't believe that was the whole story, "thank you all then for your assessment. As of now I decree Haruno Sakura is reinstated to active duty. Arrangements have been made to keep her supplied with supplementary chakra."

Iruka paled a bit at the implication. Kakashi thought it was an amazingly delicate way of saying 'keep her supplied with a steady supply of people to kill'.

Now Kakashi started paying special attention. It was about time for the other shoe to drop.

"With that being taken care of I have a special mission in mind for young Sakura. If it goes well she will have done more good for Konoha than any Genin in recent memory. While there is some risk I believe with proper preparation this plan has a high percentage chance of success."

Then the Hokage told them of his plans for Sakura. Inoichi kept his face stoic but he felt uneasy placing such burden and responsibility on what was essentially just a girl from a civilian background. Iruka was the first to voice his protests,

"Hokage-sama, I can see how this could benefit Konoha but… isn't it too much? If you do this the girl with have a bounty on her head by the end of the week!" he said.

"I realize this Iruka," the Hokage said patiently, "but she is a ninja of the Leaf and it is her duty to put herself in harm's way if it will benefit the village. If everything goes according to plan the increased risk to her person should be minimal."

"Putting a little worm like her in the middle of giants is just going to get her smashed," said Kakashi, his normal bland tones giving way to displeasure, "you know the risk is much higher than that. This will paint a target on her back that she's not nearly strong enough to handle."

"I've made my decision," said the Hokage sharply, "This is no different than any other mission above D-Ranked. There are always risks. As much as I would like to shelter that girl and every other young Genin my duty is first and foremost to act in the best interests of the village. This is an opportunity Konoha cannot afford to pass up. Kakashi you will inform your team of it's new mission this afternoon. Thank you all for coming. Dismissed."

* * *

Sakura got back home from talking to Ino's dad in a surprisingly good mood. Somehow just talking about it with the man had made things easier to bear. Though the man was mainly there to assess her for the Hokage he had treated her as if she had been a patient and given her some sound pieces of advice. Things like how her Kekkei Genkai didn't make her evil or wrong or dirty and how she needed to accept it in order to get on with her life. He also told her to think of all the benefits that came with it like extra chakra and the ability to act against an enemy without freezing. It still scared the pants off her but at least she was now thinking about if there might be some positives to having the Santengoku.

She knew from what she had heard that the Santengoku was supposed to give her some other abilities. If that was true and she could be more useful to her team and help keep them safe then that might go some ways towards making up for the fact she had no choice but to become a habitual killer.

The pinkette hadn't been home for more than an hour before there was a loud knock on the door. Since her mom had stepped out for a bit Sakura went to answer the door. Standing outside was the same ANBU from this morning.

"What is it this time?" asked Sakura. She still found the ANBU intimidating in their white masks but after two days of seeing them so often it was starting to lose some of its shock value to her.

"You're to come with me," he said in flat tones. Sakura suppressed a sigh. Would it kill these guys to be a little bit more friendly? She wondered what would happen if she invited this one in for tea.

"Sure, let's go," was what she said, stepping out and locking the door behind her.

This time they took to the rooftops. Sakura struggled to keep up with the ANBU who set what was a hard pace for her but was probably an effortless lope for him. They ran until they reached a part of town she was unfamiliar with filled with what looked like low, nondescript gray office buildings. The ANBU brought them to a stop in front of another boring gray building whose most interesting characteristics were the bars on all the windows.

"Go inside, someone will take care of you," the ANBU said, before jumping on the roof and disappearing from sight.

"Thanks, I guess," Sakura muttered before turning to the building in front of her. She had no idea where she was or what she was doing there. Hesitantly she walked over to the door and opened it letting herself inside.

Inside was not at all what she had been expecting. It looked like a perfectly ordinary office foyer with a young woman sitting at a reception desk.

Hesitantly she walked up to the woman who looked up with a professional smile as she got nearer.

"Um, I'm Haruno Sakura. I was instructed to come here," she said hesitantly.

The receptionist looked her over once before she clicked on the intercom. "Anko, that girl is here. Come and get her," then she clicked it off without waiting for a reply.

"Hi," said the woman turning to her with a bright smile, "my name is Umeko. Welcome to Konoha's Torture and Interrogation department. As I understand it you'll be a regular visitor here from now on. Please fill these out so we can update your security clearance," Umeko said handing Sakura an inch thick stack of papers on a clipboard.

"Um… thanks?" said Sakura hesitantly. She really had no idea what was going on.

"You're welcome," Umeko replied, same bright smile on her face, "you can sit over there and fill those out. Mitarashi-san should be up soon to show you around."

Figuring that if the Hokage had decided to throw her in a cell and have her interrogated they wouldn't be being nearly this polite Sakura settled her nerves and sat down on a couch against the wall.

She took her time filling out the forms and making sure she didn't screw anything up. As far as Sakura could tell it was all pages and pages of legalese that basically boiled down to 'if you tell anyone not authorized about anything that you see or hear you'll be spending the rest of your short miserable life in a Torture and Interrogation cell'. She spent the better part of an hour filling out the forms before she was interrupted.

"So you're the new mascot? You sure as hell don't look like much pinkey."

She looked up to see the most outrageously dressed woman she had ever laid eyes on. The woman in front of her wore a fishnet bodysuit just wasn't quite doing the job of preserving her modesty. She had on the shortest miniskirt Sakura had ever seen, metal shin guards and to clash horribly with the rest of it a long tan trench coat. Her short-ish messy purple hair was pulled in a loose ponytail and she proudly displayed her Konoha headband on her forehead. She was an attractive woman but something about the look she was giving Sakura made that hard to appreciate.

"Who are you?" asked Sakura, sounding braver than she felt.

The way the woman flashed her teeth couldn't really be called a smile. "I'm Mitarashi Anko. While you're in here just know that I'm your personal God and you're my faithful obedient little bitch. Step out of line and I'll 'volunteer' you for some experimental interrogation techniques. Capiche little pinkey?"

* * *

Anko led her down twisting hallways deep into the building with many doors on either side. When they arrived at yet another nondescript one Anko opened the door and led them down a dark foreboding flight of stairs. While they were walking downwards Anko broke the silence, her voice echoing strangely on the concrete stairway.

"So pinkey is it true you get off on killing people? I got briefed on it and it sounded like you have an orgasm every time you end some poor bastard. Shit I get off on killing people too but nothing like you darlin'."

Sakura opened and closed her mouth a few times but no words came out. There was just so much wrong with what Anko had just said she didn't even know where to begin.

"Why am I here?" she asked eventually. There was no way she was answering that question.

"What, are you embarrassed?" asked Anko with mocking amusement in her voice, "Bet you're still a virgin huh? Well don't be. Down here in the dungeons you get to hear more nasty, depraved secrets than you can possibly imagine. Trust me creaming your pants when you kill some fucker is downright mild by comparison. Hell when it's a really good case torturing people gives me something like an orgasm too. Down here you get over that shit real quick."

Kami, just what in the hell had she gotten into? "Why am I here?" she asked again, her voice breaking a little at the end.

Anko looked over her shoulder and gave her a wicked grin, "Are you a virgin?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes, getting angry at the woman. "Why am I here?"

"You tell me first or else I'll just have you follow me around on my cases all day," said Anko, wicked amusement dancing in her eyes.

Sakura swallowed thickly. She had gotten that 'cases' referred to people getting tortured and interrogated. There was no way she wanted to be made to watch that all day. Looking at the older woman Sakura could tell she wasn't going to win this one. Looking away she grit her teeth as a blush colored her cheeks.

"Yes, I'm a virgin," she ground out behind clenched teeth. "I'm thirteen, it's kind of a given people my age haven't had sex."

"Oh I don't know about that. I'd already been introduced to hard cock by the time I was your age," said Anko still looking at her over her shoulder in the low light. Sakura could see she was getting a sadistic pleasure from making her uncomfortable, "But if you'd rather be introduced to sex by a woman I promise I'll be gentle your first time."

"What. Am. I. Doing. Here? I doubt Hokage-sama ordered me here for your amusement or to talk about… _those _sorts of things," she said feeling flushed, embarrassed and angry.

Anko huffed rather childishly and turned to look to the front again. "Your file said you were supposed to be as smart as a Nara but so far you're a fucking disappointment. Tell me what do you think we do with prisoners once we're done milking them for everything they're worth?"

Just like that everything clicked. It should have been so obvious. Suddenly Sakura felt like there was a heavy stone in her stomach.

"So, what? I get to be like… your part time executioner?" she asked, trying to imagine coming down that dreary staircase every few days to execute another prisoner. The thought of killing someone didn't make her all that uncomfortable and that bothered her more than anything.

"So I'm told," said Anko dismissively, "me and a couple of people in this dump got the full briefing about how you get chakra from killing people and how if you don't get it regular you're bound to get murder happy. Come on we're almost there. I got one set up nice and juicy for you."

There was a seemingly random door along the wall of the staircase they came across. Anko entered it without hesitation and Sakura followed.

"I don't really need more chakra right now," said Sakura in a low voice, "I'll be fine for another couple of days."

"Me, God. You , obedient bitch. Remember? If I tell you to rape a prisoner's ass with a kunai while you're down here you will do so with a smile after asking 'how hard and deep would you like it Anko-sama?'. You don't get to fuck around and stay lily white if you're going to be hanging around at T&I. Come on we're almost there."

There wasn't more for Sakura to say after that. Anko led her down more featureless corridors with identical looking doors on both sides. They took so many turns Sakura eventually lost track. It seemed that featureless halls and confusing floor plans were deliberate down here.

Eventually Anko stopped at featureless metal door and went inside. Sakura followed with growing trepidation. Inside was a small room with rough walls and a drain on the floor. A single light bulb hung from the ceiling and it didn't do much to relieve the dark and dank atmosphere of the room. In the middle was a man who was blindfolded, gagged and tied to a chair. The man jerked when the door opened but otherwise remained slumped and still.

Sakura just stared at the prisoner, unsure what to do. Anko started to get impatient and gestured at the bound man. "What are you waiting for? Kill him already," she said. That the man didn't flinch at the mention of his own death told Sakura something odd was going on.

"I…," started Sakura hesitantly, "I've never killed anyone before."

Anko looked at her incredulously. "Weren't you the kid that killed two civilians because she couldn't help herself?"

Sakura looked away and ran a slightly shaking hand through her hair. "It wasn't like that. My Kekkei Genkai activated and I was so… starved for chakra I didn't have a choice. When it's on I can kill and it doesn't bother me. I've never killed anyone without my Kekkei Genkai on."

Anko shrugged. "So turn it on, I don't give a rat's ass. Just so long as you kill him soon, I ain't about to waste any more time in here with this shit stain than I have to," she said nodding her head at the man.

Sakura shook her head. "If I turn it on I don't know if I'll be able to turn it off. It's not really safe and I'd rather not try it."

"Hmm. Well you'll have to show it to me sometime. Not many people have seen what you can do," she said.

Sakura wasn't sure how to proceed yet and she hoped she could somehow get out of this. She asked something that had been bothering her. "What's wrong with him? Why isn't he reacting at all to us standing here talking about killing him?"

Anko gave her a rather unpleasant and self-satisfied smile, "That little Genin is the result after you completely break someone. Someone who's well and truly broken understands and accepts that their fate is completely out of their hands. They've given up on life after spilling every last secret they ever knew, even if it damned their own mothers. It's an art getting someone to do absolutely anything for you," she purred, "there's no experience quite like watching a person break once you get a taste for it."

Now Sakura was sorry she had asked. Hesitantly she reached into her pouch and pulled out a kunai. She looked down from it to the prisoner and down to the kunai in her hand again. She didn't want to be down here. She wanted to go home.

"Hurry the fuck up I haven't got all day. That's an order."

She didn't know what would happen if she turned on her Kekkei Genkai and couldn't, or didn't, turn it off. It was not something she'd had any good experiences with and she thought it was a bad idea to spend the rest of the day running around in First Heaven. Besides it sort of felt like cheating a little bit if she took the easy way out by killing and not feeling it because she was deep in her Kekkei Genkai.

She couldn't refuse orders and besides this man was an enemy of Konoha or else he wouldn't be down there. This was different from those other two people. This was a completely justified kill.

Almost mechanically trying not to think about what she was doing she stepped behind the man. She almost felt like a stranger in her own skin as she did exactly as she had been taught in the academy. Sakura pulled the unresisting man's head back and slit his throat.

Sakura stepped back and looked at anywhere but the prisoner waiting for the death to hit. Even with no blood to the brain and unconscious it still took a few minutes for the blood starved brain and heart to die. After what seemed a small eternity she finally felt the man die absorbing whatever it was she absorbed from him.

The chakra exploded from her _hara_ in a way she was becoming accustomed too but that made it no less intense or pleasurable. As she rode the incredible feeling Sakura thought she understood why her mother said a lot of Saotome became monsters. If one let themselves one could easily become addicted to the sensations that came from killing.

"Heh, that was almost an orgasm face but not quite. It doesn't feel like that does it? What _does _it feel like when you kill?" asked Anko conversationally like there wasn't a fresh corpse and a pool of blood in the room.

"It's like," Sakura said in a slightly husky tone, "it's like a runner's high but a hundred times more intense. That's the only analogy I can think of, it's hard to describe what it's like."

Anko seemed somehow a little disappointed. "Well, whatever. You made a mess so I have to show you what to do to clean up and how to get rid of the bodies. Come on let's get this orientation over with."

* * *

It was a few hours later that Sakura finally made it out the dark bowels of hell known as Konoha's T&I department. She had just seen a man that had been broken by torture, killed him and disposed of the body. Then she's had to fill out even more paperwork and get threatened by no less than three different administrators about the importance of secrecy and discretion. She was feeling emotionally drained which is why she was planning on heading straight home and crashing into bed. Her potential freak out about having killed for the first time in cold blood as one hundred percent herself could wait.

"Yo, Sakura," called out a voice behind her as she was halfway home.

Sakura turned to see the man standing behind her. "Yes sensei?" she said a little warily.

"You've been reinstated to active duty. Meet me at our team's training grounds," said Kakashi, "we have a new mission."

Then he dissapared in a swirl of leaves and completely vanished from her senses. Even though she knew it was just Shunshin no Jutsu how Kakashi-sensei pulled it off was still impressive.

Sakura groaned, realizing she wasn't going to get to go home and pass out as she'd planned. Knowing there was nothing to be done she ran towards the training grounds at top speed. She was just feeling mentally drained but since she had just killed someone she physically felt like she could run all the way to Suna.

When she arrived she found the training grounds empty. It took her a few minutes of looking around to find Kakashi-sensei high up in a branch of a tree reading one of his dirty books. Rolling her eyes as a matter of course at his immature behavior she climbed up the tree to join her sensei.

"So," she began, "I guess since I'm back on active duty everything is ok with the Hokage?" she asked a little nervously.

"Inoichi decided that you're not going to go on a killing rampage even with your Kekkei Genaki activated. Hokage agreed and didn't waste time in assigning you a high priority mission."

Sakura was glad to hear that though she wasn't sure herself if she absolutely wouldn't go on a rampage if she entered First Heaven. At least being back to doing missions felt like life was getting back to normal. But something about what Kakashi-sensei had said was odd.

"What do you mean he assigned _me_ a mission? I thought you said the team had a mission. And where are the other two anyway? Are they late?" she asked looking around but seeing no sign of them.

"No, I just haven't informed them we have a mission yet," he said.

Sakura blinked at that. "Why not?"

"Because this mission revolves around you and I wanted to brief you on it before we went to the other two."

Sakura was starting to get apprehensive about this. Kakashi was being more dodgy than usual. Hadn't she had enough surprises for one day? "Ok… well. I'm all ears I guess. It's not like I have much of a choice."

Kakashi nodded at that and put his book away. He motioned for her to sit down and she did. They were seated facing each other with Kakashi leaning up against the tree trunk when he began.

"First you need a little lesson on economics and international relations. What do you know of our relationship with Iwa?"

Sakura was caught unawares by this line of conversation. She took a minute to recall what she'd heard on the subject. "In the academy they taught us that in the last war our main opponent was Iwa. We had fought with them to basically a standstill until the Fourth Hokage developed the Hirashin and started turning the tide of the war decidedly in our favor. The war ended fifteen years ago though. I don't know anything about our relations with Iwa today other than to guess that they probably still don't like us."

Kakashi nodded in acknowledgement. "Since the end of the war Iwa and the Tsuchikage have held a particular hatred for us. Over the past ten years the Third has made several overtures to improve relations between us but they have all been soundly rebuffed. The last attempt was two years ago. After the diplomatic envoy was turned away and were returning home several Iwa Jounin had a 'training accident' that left the diplomatic envoy badly injured. After that the Hokage decided to stop trying to make nice with Iwa. As long as Onoki is the Tsuchikage it seems unlikely that our relations with them will improve."

Sakura was shocked that a Iwa had dared attack a diplomatic envoy. Attacking diplomats was absolutely taboo because no one would trust a nation that would attack those intent on peaceful negotiations. Sakura was no great political mind but even she could see such an act would have a great many tangible and intangible repercussions. If they did in fact attack a diplomatic envoy then nothing they said or did could be trusted by Konoha and other countries would take a seriously dim view of such an attack.

"So what does this have to do with our mission?"

"Lesson time is not over yet, you'll hear everything about the mission at the end. Now then between our history and Iwa's actions they are clearly enemies of Konoha. Unfortunately we are still recovering from the attack of the Nine Tailed Fox which devastated our forces much like Iwa is still feeling the effects of the devastation of the last war. The intelligence guys think that Iwa's forces are at roughly the same strength as ours right now. Since Iwa hates us so much we can't let their increasing military strength go unchecked. However the Hokage doesn't want another war. Knowing all this tell me what you think the Hokage's strategy against the resurgence of Iwa is right now."

Sakura took her time and thought about it. After a few minutes of considering and tossing out options she came up with an answer that she thought was most likely correct. What Kakashi had said about having a discussion about economics and international relations had given her the vital clue.

"We're in a cold war with Iwa aren't we? Since we don't want to risk open war it's risky to conduct operations inside Earth Country that will draw attention and can potentially be blamed on us. If sabotage and assassinations are out the best way to hurt Iwa would be to hurt their economy, or in other words to lure away or otherwise take away potential clients. If we could cripple their funding enough they wouldn't be able to keep up with Konoha as we recover. That sort of strategy is also oblique enough that it would be unlikely to start a full scale war in and of itself. If we make more money relative to Iwa in the long term we will definitely be stronger."

Kakashi nodded and she could feel his approval. That made her feel nice and she had to stop herself from smiling. "That is essentially what the Third's strategy is. Now the conversation about economics is going to get a little more abstract. The people who pay for the most expensive missions and who contribute by far the largest percentage of the money a village makes are the nobility. If a town in Fire Country wants a bandit problem taken care of they have no choice but to take their request to Konoha. However if a Fire Country nobleman wants his political rival assassinated he can hire ninja from Konoha, Iwa, Kumo, Ame or anywhere he likes. All it takes is a carrier pigeon and an arrangement for funds to be transferred."

Sakura frowned at that. "Isn't it unpatriotic or illegal for a Fire Country nobleman to hire an Iwa shinobi instead of a Konoha one?"

"Actually pretty much all missions nobles ask us to do are illegal in the civilian world. If the Fire Dynamo had clear evidence a noble paid to have another assassinated he would have that man made an example of. By definition all dealings with ninja are clandestine. What village the nobles choose to hire is all to do with perception and reputation. If a Fire Country noble got the impression that Iwa ninja were especially fierce during the last war, for example, he might decide to only hire out missions to ninja from Iwa."

Sakura worried her lip as she thought about that. "I guess that makes sense. So the nobles hire out to whatever village they think has the best or strongest ninja but it doesn't really have anything to do with reality necessarily. It's all about what village has the best name or can make the best impression."

"That's all correct. Reputation is also very important. For example Konoha has a reputation for being one of the more 'gentle' villages and generally leaving less collateral damage while Kiri is called the Bloody Mist for a reason. Their Shinobi have the reputation of being especially violent and bloodthirsty," said Kakashi.

The conversation lapsed into a momentary silence as Sakura absorbed all this. She had never thought about the finer details of how the ninja economy worked. It added a whole different perspective to what the role of the Hokage must be like.

Still… "What does this have to do with our mission? We haven't gotten to that part yet."

"Patience, patience. Now one of the things that draw people to a particular ninja village are its famous Shinobi and famous clans. For example in their day the reputations of the Sanin and that of the Fourth Hokage brought with them a substantial increase in business. But more well known to the public are the individual clans that are famed for their prowess. Uchiha. Senju. Hyuuga. Sarutobi. The mystique and power of the various ninja villages are inextricably tied to their clans in the minds of the public. You wouldn't believe how many incoming missions have a request that someone from a famous clan be included. Of course the Hokage will send whoever he thinks is best but it illustrates the point that famous clans often play a large role when wealthy clients are deciding what village to hire for a mission."

Now finally Sakura was starting to get an inkling of where this was going but she didn't have the full picture yet.

For some reason it hadn't occurred to Sakura until that moment that she was the last living member of a ninja clan. The last living member of a _famous_ ninja clan from Iwa.

It seemed so surreal. She was just Haruno Sakura, civilian girl from Konoha who got good grades but otherwise was perfectly average. Now it seemed like her previously unknown heritage was going to come and bite her in the ass yet again.

"Ok fine. So I have the Santengoku. So what? I'm a Haruno. The Saotome clan is dead and gone," she protested. Kakashi gave her something that could have been a sympathetic look.

"Think of it this way," he said, "Saotome was not a founding clan of Iwa but they were there from almost the beginning and were one of the bedrocks of the village. A good analogue for us would be the Hyuuga clan. Now imagine this hypothetical situation from the perspective of a rich, savvy potential client. After the end of the last war which we had lost we for some unknown reason turned on one of our oldest and most powerful clans, the Hyuuga, and killed down to the last man. This was all done on the orders of the Hokage but again the potential clients don't know why. The Fire Dynamo and many Fire Country nobles are angry because in losing the prestige of the Hyuuga both Konoha and Fire Country look weaker as a whole. However the Hokage assures them it was necessary and that he took care of it and all will be well,"

"Then fifteen years later we hear that Iwa has a Genin with the Byakugan. Turns out that not only did the Hokage lose the war and then seemingly inexplicably turned on the Hyuuga clan but now we see he also screwed up in wiping them out. Not only has Konoha lost the strength of the Byakugan but we allowed our most bitter enemies to acquire it. Pretty horrible isn't it? That is the exact situation Iwa is about to find themselves in. As a politically inclined and smart client what would you think of that situation?"

"I would think," began Sakura slowly as what Kakashi was saying began to gel, "I would think the Tsuchikage was an idiot. Even if I believed his 'it was necessary' line he messed up in the worst possible way. He lost the Santengoku and the name Saotome forever and practically gifted that power to his worst enemies. He will look weak and incompetent and by extension the whole of Iwa will look weak. If I was a perspective client I would think twice about hiring from Iwa if that failure was fresh on my mind. Furthermore the perception might be there that Konoha has suddenly gotten even stronger because it now has the Santengoku. Never mind one Genin won't make a village any stronger but symbolically we would be stronger and it would look like we got one over on Iwa. All of that could potentially draw a good number of clients away from Iwa and into the arms of Konoha," Sakura gaped as her mind put together the full implications, "it would be a black eye on the reputation of Iwa and it would have the potential to cause them very real economic damage."

"It would be more like a black eye and broken nose that would last for years. So even if you don't think you're anything special it's not about you. It's all about the fame of the Santengoku and perceived prestige of the Saotome name. The Hokage is going to use this situation to do as much damage to Iwa as possible."

"How?" asked Sakura.

Kakashi gave her one of his trademark eye smiles, "Why by making you into an international celebrity of course! In a few days there will be messager birds sent out to all the noble houses and wealthy people across the Elemental Nations. They will be carrying a message inviting them to the Chunnin exam finals and outlining all the reasons they should attend. We will have the last Uchiha, many clan heirs and prodigies from Konoha taking part in the exam. There will also be a section on that message going into some length about how Konoha took in the last survivor of the Saotome clan that Iwa unjustly destroyed fifteen years ago. It will rave about how we now have a Genin with the Santengoku and how the strength of the Saotome now belongs to Konoha. Pretty much every potential client across the Elemental Nations will realize what a monumental screw up Onoki has made of this situation and many will be curious enough to want to see the last Saotome in person. There was also some talk about hanging up posters in major cities advertising the event and letting everyone know Konoha now has the power of the last Saotome and the Santengoku."

Sakura looked at Kakashi disbelievingly. "You're joking right? Tell me you're joking. _Please_ tell me that you're joking."

Kakashi sighed. "I'm afraid not. Your name is going to be on the lips of a lot of people by the end of the week. You're going to be one of the, if not_ the_ main attraction of the Chunnin exams. Which is why you and your team are getting an A-Ranked mission."

Sakura swallowed thickly. "What mission is that?"

"To make sure that you make it to the Chunnin exam finals alive and in one piece. With your name spread all over the place like that there are going to be a lot of people trying to kill you."

* * *

**AN2: This chapter ran the spectrum from light and funny to pretty darn dark. That is what I want in this story to have moments of lightness and fun and moments where the grimdark badness of the ninja world is in full display. However I'm a little worried that the contrast might be a little too jarring especially if they are both in the same chapter. Let me know if you think it worked or if it was too much. **


	9. New Enemies

**AN: This chapter has scenes out of order that skip around time. I hope it is not too confusing. The reason I did this is because I couldn't think of a better way to get in all the scenes I wanted in one chapter. The last chapter was fourteen days until the exam in case you wondered. Enjoy!**

* * *

_**(Six Days until Chunnin Exams) **_

Sakura looked at her red dress laid out on the bed in front of her and frowned. She owned several dresses of the exact same design that she had started wearing because she had thought they were cute and would get a certain boy's attention. Now though she looked at it with a much more critical eye. It was passible as ninja attire as far as design went but after wearing it for so long Sakura knew from experience it wasn't the best either. She also didn't know what she had been thinking when choosing a bright red color. More than once she had criticized Naruto on how orange is absolutely terrible for stealth but the fact was that bright red was only marginally better when hiding in the forests around Konoha.

However the main problem she was having with her normal ninja attire is that it looked so unbelievably _girly_. Sakura just wasn't that girl anymore. The girl who only thought of chasing after Sasuke and could not be bothered to seriously think about the life of a ninja was gone. That girl would never have killed two prisoners tied to chairs in cold blood nor have killed two innocent civilians after losing control. Sakura felt different and she would feel ridiculous going into potentially a life or death situation with a pretty red dress now. That old Sakura was probably gone forever. It was time for the new (if not necessarily improved) Sakura to get a new wardrobe.

Looking at the dress Sakura suddenly felt disgusted at ever having been a girl who would wear something like that on a mission to impress a boy. Not that there was anything wrong with Sasuke, quite the opposite actually, but her priorities had been so wrong. On an impulse she gathered up all her red dresses and took them to them into their small backyard. Looking in the small shed they had she got out a metal trashcan, matches and lighter fluid. In moments she had dumped all her red dresses in the metal garbage can, sprayed the lighter fluid and lit them on fire.

It felt good. Looking back on it Sakura hated that girl she had been, just a little. Even though she wouldn't wish her Kekkei Genkai on anyone she couldn't help but feel like it had made her grow up. The real world of ninja wasn't all about love, techniques or trying to prove just how big and bad you are. It was a dirty, violent place filled with death. If she had really realized what it was all about sooner the little girl she had been back in the academy might have run screaming.

Well, it's not like she'd ever really had a choice. Her world would have been filled with violence and death even if she had never gone to the academy. The Santengoku would have happened regardless.

Putting on some civilian clothes Sakura headed out to the ninja shops to find something to wear. There was one large emporium that had the best selection so she made her way in that direction. That's when she saw something that made her stiffen just a bit.

Walking in the opposite direction from her were three teens and a large man all wearing forehead protectors with the symbol of Taki. She eyed them warily as they passed but they barely spared her a glance without her ninja gear or forehead protector. That was fine by her. She didn't want to draw any attention.

The Chunnin exams had been advertised all over the Elemental Nations and now everyone knew Konoha had a Kunoichi who was 'the last Saotome'. At least they didn't include her name or picture. However Kakashi-sensei had told her that she couldn't count on that to keep her anonymous. There was no telling who could find out that Haruno Sakura was the so-called 'last Saotome'.

When she arrived at the store Sakura began to browse unsure of what she was looking for. Something comfortable and professional that said 'ninja'. She was also going to stay away from anything remotely resembling bright colors this time.

There was a lot of traffic in the store so she almost missed it when three more teens walked in. Sakura saw their forehead protectors having the symbol of Kusa and frowned. Great. More foreigners. With her new celebrity status and fresh painted target on her back Sakura was starting to feel more than a little bit xenophobic.

Sakura almost went back to browsing when color on one of the Kusa Genin caught her attention. She saw a Kunoichi several years younger than her teammates with bright red hair and black rimmed glasses. Despite herself Sakura found she was a bit curious about this girl with odd colored hair so she observed her. She was fidgety and to Sakura she didn't look confident or comfortable in her own skin as she trailed behind her teammates. The girl must have sensed her watching because the girl turned her head and locked eyes with Sakura.

The girl's eyes widened slightly and Sakura's eyes hardened. Even if it was probably stupid to have a stare down with a foreign nin when she was trying to keep a low profile now that their eyes had met Sakura didn't want to be the first to back down. She was almost tempted to go into First Heaven a hit the girl with a small dose of killer intent to show her who was boss. However the girl's will broke almost immediately and the redhead turned away, clearly uncomfortable. To Sakura it seemed clear that she wasn't a very confident person. The pinkette couldn't help but feel a tiny bit sorry for her.

After going back to looking at the clothes and found something she could see herself wearing and could feel good about. She picked a few pairs of black shorts in the style that was popular with Konoha Genin and a mostly form fitting, forest green top with a high collar. The top's sleeves reached just above mid bicep and the whole thing was made of a sturdy thick material. When she tried them on she looked at herself in the mirror and decided she quite liked it, especially when her hair was back in a low ponytail like she had taken to wearing it.

A few identical tops and shorts saw her headed home pleased with her new bounty. Now she just needed to break her clothes in before the week was over. She had only six days left until the Chunnin Exams.

* * *

_**(Fourteen Days until Chunnin Exams)**_

Sakura stood looking at her teammates trying not to fidget as she waited for their reactions. There had been a lot of yelling and surprised looks as she and Kakashi-sensei told Naruto and Sasuke everything. Well Kakashi had done most of the talking and Sakura had mostly stared at her teammates anxiously wondering what they were thinking about her. Would either of them not want to be on a team with her anymore? While Sakura had been tempted to hide some of the nastier parts of her Kekkei Genkai Kakashi had made a very convincing argument on why holding information back from her teammates could be a very bad idea. The only thing they had held back was how Sakura had killed two civilians. Everything else, needing to kill every few days, Saotome, the mission and the Hokage's plan was laid out in the open.

Sasuke's face had shown surprise as the story really got going but he had schooled his face into a stony mask as he listened to the story, only occasionally glancing in her direction as Kakashi spoke. There had only been an occasional tightening and loosening of a fist from Sasuke to tell her he was affected by the story one way or the other. Sakura had no idea if that was a good or bad sign and having no clue what her teammate and object of her affections was thinking frayed on her nerves.

Naruto had been infinitely easier to read thankfully as the story picked up steam. At first he gave her some weary and even a little scared looks when they got to the part about killing on a regular basis to absorb chakra and truth be told that had definitely hurt somewhat. She knew it was just Naruto showing his initial gut reaction to hearing his teammate kills people and he didn't know about it but still it didn't feel good. After that Sakura thought most of the explanation went over his head if the look on his face was anything to go by. However when they got to the part there was a good chance people would be trying to kill her during the exam his face got a serious determined look she had rarely, if ever, seen on his face. That he seemed to take protecting her so seriously warmed her heart.

That's when she stopped thinking of Naruto as just a teammate and started thinking of him as a friend.

Still he hadn't _said_ anything and that was odd for Naruto. So she was still nervous about him too.

In the end to her surprise it was Sasuke who broke the silence. "It's pretty clear you've been working hard since the Wave mission and in a short time you've become a lot more dependable than you were before. I guess having the blood of a famous clan explains how you improved so quickly once you set your mind to it. Shinobi kill, and if you have to do it a little more than others so be it. As long as they're enemies it shouldn't matter anyway. It should go without saying that I won't treat you any different," he said, the softness in his voice taking any harshness out of his last statement. Sakura almost gaped. That was the most words she could ever remember him saying to her, or to anyone, at once. Even though she had a crush on him the support he had just given to her as a teammate was so much more precious to her at the moment.

Naruto was still silent and he had his face scrunched up in what was an almost comical expression of thinking hard about something. She fidgeted with her hands for a few seconds until he finally spoke.

"Well, I always had this idea that being a ninja was all about protecting people. Thinking about killing people, especially you killing people Sakura-chan kinda freaks me out to be honest. But I mean, the Fourth Hokage became a hero by killing a bunch of those Iwa bastards and protecting the village right? I guess you're just helping k-kill the people some other Konoha ninja would have had to kill anyways. Maybe they should even thank you because if you're there they don't have to do it themselves. As long as you don't try to kill me or the teme I guess it's not a big deal,"

Sasuke scoffed at that. "As if she would try to kill us, idiot. Didn't you hear that she wouldn't attack her teammates even with her Kekkei Genkai?"

For once Naruto ignored Sasuke's barbs and went right on talking to Sakura. "But what the bastard said is right. You're a part of this team and you always will be Sakura-chan, no matter what freaky Kekkei-whatever you pick up. You're one of my precious teammates and I'll never let anything happen to you."

After that he seemed to take a deep breath and suddenly it was like normal overly enthusiastic Naruto was back, "And just let one of those Iwa bastards or anyone else try to hurt you and I'll pummel them into next week! So what if Jiji is using you to make them look bad? That's no excuse for those idiots to come after you. It's their own damn fault in the first place! Don't worry Sakura-chan me and the teme will follow the mission and protect you. Right Sasuke?"

"Actually," said Kakashi, "your mission is to make sure Sakura makes it to the finals. Konoha has a lot riding on making her look good in order to further embarrass the Tsuchikage. If she doesn't make it it will look like Konoha created a lot of hype and it couldn't deliver."

Sakura saw Sasuke nodding his understanding and was relieved. She knew he was proud and she had been afraid he would resent her for being the center of attention. It seemed he was taking this seriously as a mission for the good of Konoha and not as a personal slight. She wasn't sure if she would have blamed him if he had been upset… after all for all her improvements thus far Sasuke was still better than her.

"That's a stupid thing to worry about Kakashi-sensei since we're ALL going to make it to the finals. We don't have to make a special effort to get Sakura-chan there since all of Team 7 is going to get there anyway, even someone as bad as Sasuke," said Naruto with a huge amount of confidence. Sakura had no idea where he pulled all that self-assurance from but she liked it. It made her smile and start to feel pumped about all of them pushing through to the finals together.

"Whatever dobe, if anyone holds us back it will be you. I wouldn't be surprised if you're the weakest member of Team 7 now. But don't worry, me and Sakura will drag you through into the finals," Sasuke said with a faint smirk.

"Mah mah, well as long as you all take your mission seriously I guess I can't argue with that strategy," said Kakashi lazily, but something in his voice said he was happy at their attitude.

Before Naruto could build up to having another argument with Sasuke the pink haired girl cut in.

"Guys," she said and instantly all eyes were on her. She cleared her throat a little.

"Guys I just wanted to say… thank you," she said with as much sincerity as she could while wetness filled her eyes. Her chest filled to overflowing looking at her boys who had accepted her right away even with all the new things swirling about her in her life. Right then Sakura felt she perfectly understood why people were willing to kill and die for their teammates.

* * *

_**(Seven Days until Chunnin Exam) **_

Hibiki Onoki, the Third Tsuchikage, re-read the promotional piece of garbage that had come the night before. Some of his ninja had gotten wind of what was being distributed amongst the nobles and had acquired a copy to show him. The ninja who had given him the rag had fled as soon as he had presented the Tsuchikage with the document. He had been smart to do so.

He would remain calm. It was only surprising Konoha had taken this long to make some move against him and Iwa. There was no need to get angry. It was just last month he'd gotten his desk replaced. Just breathe and calm-

The door to his office opened letting in his long time secretary. "Tsuchikage-sama there is a priority message from the capital," he said without preamble.

"What does it say?" said Onoki in a deep rumbling voice filled with barely disguised wrath. His secretary ignored it and plowed ahead.

"The Earth Dynamo formally 'requests' you come to the capital at your earliest convenience. He says he wishes to 'discuss' these new revelations about the fate of the Saotome clan."

"I see," said Onoki in a deceptively calm voice, "you may go."

The secretary had no sooner closed the door behind him that the Tsuchikage raised his fist and with a bellow of rage brought it down on his solid stone desk smashing the rock to smithereens. Two halves of the incredibly heavy desk fell with a crash and papers flew everywhere.

"Fuck that asshole Fuyutsuki! Fuck Saotome's in the grave! AND FUCK YOU HIRUZEN AND YOUR WHOLE FUCKING VILLAGE WITH YOU!" Screamed Onoki at the top of his lungs. Outside the office his secretary just shook his head. He was used to this sort of thing.

Fuyutsuki Kuririn was the Earth Dynamo, a man who had given the Tsuchikage no end of grief about his decision to wipe out the Saotomes fifteen years before. While in practice more or less equal in standing formally the Kages answered to the Dynamo that ruled the country they resided in. Onoki would have to answer Fuyutsuki's summons and he knew exactly what this was about. The bastard would subtly insult him while being polite and subject him to what amounted to a flowerly phrased 'I told you so'. That the man expected him to come running like a dog just to insult him pissed Onoki off to no end.

Hibiki Onoki clenched his fists and forced himself to calm down. It didn't escape him how serious this situation was. Image was everything and this was going to smear shit all over him and over all of Iwa. It could really be a tipping point that would determine if Iwa would keep up with Konoha's remilitarization or if it would begin to fall behind. Something had to be done. He needed to act decisively.

"You," said Onoki turning sharply to one of his ANBU concealed in a corner of his office, "go find my granddaughter and bring her here this instant."

The man departed in a flicker of shadow and Onoki went to stand by the window as he thought about how to deal with this situation.

He hated the Saotome and was glad to be rid of them but they had caused him almost as many problems in death as they had in life. Onoki had underestimated the political backlash when he'd had them all eliminated even though everyone knew they had been a pack of sick, treacherous bastards, perverse hedonists of the worst kind who did anything they thought they could get away with. It had reduced the strength of the village but it had been necessary and in his opinion long overdue. Onoki did not regret his decision.

However that decision was costing him yet again. Worse still it seemed poised to cost Iwa a great deal. Luckily there was a simple solution. If they could eliminate Konoha's 'last Saotome' during these Chunnin exams the majority of the damage this would do would be mitigated.

It wasn't even a question. The Saotome in Konoha had to die. It was just a matter of making it happen.

It was then that the doors to his office opened without announcement. Only a few people could get away with doing that and one of them was the fifteen year old Genin that walked through the door.

"You wanted to see me, Honored Grandfather?" she asked in that way of hers that was polite and with just a bit of cheek. She looked around at the mess in his office, "Another desk destroyed? Who screwed up this time?"

Onoki looked over his granddaughter, the oldest of his five grandchildren. She cut a fine figure as a Kunoichi with short black hair and black eyes. Hibiki Kurotsuchi wore the earth reds preferred by Iwa Shinobi along with a tactical vest over it. She had an attractive, vaguely vulpine face that was filled with mischief but would quickly turn to malice when she came across her enemies. He was rather proud of her even if he would not express such a sentiment often.

"Here," he said using a casual exercise in wind mastery to float the Konoha advertisement up to his hand, "take a look at this."

Kurotsuchi read it and he watched her face carefully. By her expressions of surprise and frowning concern it seemed she understood the situation.

"Well… that's certainly a problem. We're not going to let this stand are we?" she asked waving the paper in his face.

He batted it aside with a huff of annoyance. "Of course not! Which is why I called you in here. I'm giving your team an A-Ranked mission. You will attend the Chunnin exams in Konoha. As I'm sure you can probably guess your mission is to kill this Saotome Kunoichi while still adhering to the rules of the exam. If she's killed during the exam by Iwa nin most of the problems this _issue_ will cause will be resolved. It might even look quite good actually if you can kill her while in Konoha while playing by Konoha's rules. Those Leaf bastards will look incompetent losing her after making such a big deal about acquiring a Saotome."

Kurotsuchi narrowed her eyes in thought. "You're just sending my team? Why not send more? It would increase the chances of someone getting an opportunity to take her down."

Onoki shook his head. "That wouldn't be a good idea. The most important thing is that we can't afford to have this Saotome defeat any Iwa nin publically. If after all this she's seen wiping the floor with some of our Genin it will add even more fuel to this clusterfuck. Konoha is almost guaranteed to have given her specialized training from an early age hence why your team is needed for this mission. The three of you are by far the strongest team of Genin we have and are probably the three strongest Genin in Iwa. All of you are at least Chunnin level. Makes me glad I held off on promoting the lot of you for so long."

Kurotsuchi nodded at this understanding her Grandfather's reasoning. Still she looked worried. "Is it really smart sending us into the belly of the beast? Including Gari-sensei there are three Kekkei Genkai users on our team. How do you know we won't 'disappear' during the exams and end up in some dungeon as Konoha breeding stock?"

"You're my granddaughter. I'll make it clear that any suspicious 'unfortunate accidents' or 'attacks by missing nin' or any such horseshit will mean war. Hiruzen wants to hamstring us with this stunt but he isn't willing to engage in open war. Besides the aggressor in a war always loses clients and Gari would never go down without making a hell of a mess. You should be relatively safe outside of what the exam entails so long as you don't do anything stupid. I'm also sending Gouken with you as a diplomatic envoy."

Kurotsuchi blinked at that. "Gouken? That old bastard? Why are you sending him? I thought you let him retire."

Onoki chuckled, "Old Shinobi never retire granddaughter, we just take fewer missions. If they decide to turn hostile even with what it would cost them that tough bastard will turn half of Konoha into a raging inferno before they take him down. With someone as strong as Gari there as well I imagine it will be too risky for them to try and start any kind of fight in their own village."

"Gouken the Burning Sky…" mused the Kunoichi, "yes I don't imagine anyone will cross him lightly."

"Indeed," said Onoki, "but at the same time neither Gouken nor Gari will be able to act recklessly. The best resolution to this is if your team kills this girl during the exams. In fact the absolute best outcome would be if you were to kill her personally. The poetry of my granddaughter going to Konoha and killing the last Saotome in my name will play well with all our clientele and it will make us look even stronger."

"You do realize the opportunity for my team to engage hers may never come during the exams right?" asked Kurotsuchi a little dubiously, "we have no idea what the format is going to be. What happens if because of how those Leaf bastards set it up we never get our chance?"

"Of course I realize that! Don't worry about it. I already have someone in mind to take care of it if she somehow survives the exams," Onoki said, sounding annoyed.

The Kunoichi's eyebrows rose at that. "You DO realize that if an Iwa nin assassinates that girl it will mean war with us as the aggressors. I thought that was exactly what you didn't want."

"I said don't worry about it. There is more than one way to skin a cat," the Tsuchikage's smile became so predatory it made the girl shudder, "and I'll tell you this girlie. That Saotome girl won't live to see the day after the Chunnin exams no matter what happens. I won't let Konoha damage us like that. One way or the other _that girl is already dead_. That is my word as the Tsuchikage of Iwagakure no Sato, mark that in stone you brat!"

* * *

_**(Thirteen Days until Chunnin Exams) **_

"We're here to work on that special ability you should be able to use while in First Heaven. Supposedly you should take to it like a fish to water so hopefully two weeks of training will be enough to make it useful," said Kakashi as he began his first private tutoring lesson with Sakura.

"Um…" said Sakura, "what special ability?"

Kakashi gave her a deadpan look. "The one described in the scrolls your mother copied for the Hokage about the Santengoku. You telling me you haven't read them yet?"

Sakura flushed bright scarlet. "Well it's not like I've had a chance to since then, it's been an insane couple of days. What with the mission, and T&I and Inoichi, I haven't had time to read any of that! It's not my fault, it's not like I want to be slacking or anything."

Kakashi sighed. "Well then I suppose I should explain it to you since I was gracious enough to read the scrolls in order to help you out. First you need a little overview of Kekki Genkai in general and then we'll get to your 'special skill'."

As much as Kakashi's attitude annoyed her Sakura couldn't deny that she was excited to learn what she was supposed to be able to do. Eagerly she nodded her consent for them to get started.

"Very well. You have to understand that Kekkei Genkai tend to never give its users just one additional talent. They gain a number of at least tangentially related abilities. For example the Byakugan allows for one to see through objects, to see chakra, to see great distances, to see with amazing accuracy and to see in an almost three hundred and sixty degree field of vision. Many Shinobi would give an arm for even one of those abilities and the Byakugan grants them all. Similarly the Sharingan grants partial ability to see chakra, the ability to predict movements based on the movement of said chakra, enhanced visual acuity, the ability to cast genjutsu with eye contact, the ability to break genjutsu, and the ability to copy ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu,"

"Similarly the Santengoku grants a number of different abilities. In First Heaven it grants the ability to gain chakra from those you kill and those who die around you, it frees the mind from all hesitation to kill an enemy, it dulls emotions so they won't overwhelm or distract you, and it frees you from any subconscious hesitation. That last one is perhaps more useful than you might realize," said Kakashi.

"I don't understand," said Sakura, never having heard of the concept before.

"If somewhere inside you think what you are doing is wrong your body and mind will subtly fight against what you're doing. If for example deep inside you hold thoughts like maybe killing this person is wrong. Maybe killing this person is not necessary in this situation. Maybe hurting others makes me a bad person. Maybe they don't deserve it. While none of these subconscious thoughts or worries will stop you from killing someone the fact is your aim will not be quite as good as it could be. Your stroke will lose a fraction of its power. You might hesitate for the length of a muscle twitch on that one particular hand seal. Pretty much everyone, especially Genin, has to fight some inner resistance like this,"

"You on the other hand have no such doubts or hesitations when in First Heaven. According to the scrolls with all your subconscious doubts and reservations gone you should feel mentally and physically light as a feather when in First Heaven. Have you experienced anything like that?"

Sakura thought about it and quickly realized that she had. After killing the second person at the hospice she had gone to train for the first time ever while in First Heaven. Her movements had never felt so smooth and flowing, her mind had never been more focused and she felt so light she thought she might be able to fly if she jumped high enough. So that was the result of having no moral concerns hold you back even in your subconscious. As much as she didn't like to admit it the experience had been truly freeing and amazing.

"Yes I've felt what you're talking about," she said simply.

"Good. Then you should know that just having the Santengoku active improves all your base skills precisely because of that mental advantage. There is a reason ninja are urged to 'kill their hearts' after all."

"Well… good to know," and it was. She wondered just how much of a difference it really made being rid of all internal conflict and hesitations, "but that doesn't sound like a skill I need to 'work on'."

"No, there is one last thing you can do in First Heaven. With what it does to your mind it actually makes perfect sense."

"So what is it?" she asked impatiently. Sometimes sensei liked to drag things out and she swore it amused him watching them get more impatient as he started to talk in circles.

Kakashi sighed dramatically. "So uncute," Sakura bristled at that, "the Saotome have a special kind of killing intent. With their complete disregard for human life generating an incredibly powerful will to kill is incredibly easy for them."

"Killing intent?" Sakura muttered to herself. It made perfect sense in a way. Thinking back to herself in First Heaven it was almost scary how much will to kill she thought she'd be able to generate if she put her mind to it.

"Yes but it's no ordinary killing intent. Normally killing intent from a Shinobi washes over an opponent one time. If they are mentally strong enough to resist it the first time then for the rest of the fight there are no do overs to try again. Once an opponent has the measure of your killing intent it is relatively easy to counter and ignore. However Saotome killing intent is different. They can use it over and over again to batter away at an opponent's mind like taking a hammer to stone. According to the texts even exceptionally strong minds will eventually crack with repeated assaults from their killing intent. Once you break through their defenses the person will be completely paralyzed with fear. It is an extremely powerful attack and it has the advantage of consuming no chakra."

Sakura's mind flashed back to their mission in Wave and how Sasuke had reacted when he had been hit with the full force of Zabuza's killing intent. He had been completely paralyzed and almost looked like he was thinking of stabbing himself. If Kakashi-sensei hadn't stopped him maybe Sasuke would have been overcome with enough fear to do something stupid. It certainly sounded like a powerful skill if she could get it working. It wasn't hard to see how a skill like that would come naturally while she was in First Heaven.

"This is an ideal skill for you to learn especially right now. Very few Genin have the ability to resist even one powerful attack of killing intent. We will drill it relentlessly until the exams. It should give you the edge you need to get you to the finals in one piece."

* * *

_**(Three Days until Chunnin Exams)**_

"I hate loudmouth little runts like you and on top of that you disrespected me," said Kakuro as he held up Konohamaru with one hand, "It makes me want to break you," he said malevolently. With that the Suna boy with the face paint drew his arm back as if to punch Konohamaru in the face.

Naruto rushed forward to stop it but he had hesitated and wouldn't be able to reach him in time. Sakura had been ordered to keep a low profile but this was too much. Sakura readied herself to step into First Heaven and blast the guy from Suna with a spike of killing intent. It was time to see if her training had paid off.

She didn't have to do anything as suddenly a pebble struck Kankuro's hand at high speed, forcing him drop Konohamaru.

Kankuro flinched in pain and looked around for the where the attack came from. Sitting on the branch of a nearby tree sat Sasuke casually tossing another pebble up and down in his hand.

"Just what do you think you're doing in another person's village, foreign nin? Did you think we'd just let you run wild?" he said in a cool and challenging manner.

_And people wonder why every girl crushes on him_ she thought now wearing an amused smirk on her face.

Kankuro glared darkly at Sasuke, sizing him up, but didn't say anything.

"Get lost," said Sasuke, and in a feat of chakra enhanced strength crushed the pebble in his hands and let the dust flow out from between his fingers.

Damn but her teammate could play at being cool when he wanted to.

"Hey!" called out Kankuro to Sasuke, "come down here you little punk. You're the kind of smart ass little shit I hate the most." The painted boy pulled off the huge bandaged item he had on his back and set it down with a menacing air.

Now Sakura's eyes narrowed and she shifted stance to move if she had to. It looked like that Sand idiot was itching to pick a fight.

"Wait, you aren't thinking of using Crow here are you?" said the girl with the Suna boy, seeming a little alarmed that her teammate was quickly escalating things.

"Kankuro, stop that," came another voice. Standing on the bottom of a branch opposite the one Sasuke sat on was a red haired boy about their age with a large gourd on his back. "You're an embarrassment to our village," the redhead continued.

"G-Gaara…" stammered Kankuro, suddenly looking terrified of the other boy, "P-please listen to me. It was them, they started it-"

"Shut up," the boy said in a flat, threatening tone, "or I'll kill you."

In that moment Sakura believed him. She didn't know what it was about that red haired boy but there was something about him that practically shouted dangerous.

"I-I understand. I was wrong. I-I'm sorry… I'm really sorry," stammered Kankuro.

The boy made a hand seal and used an almost lazy sand-disguised Shunshin to get down next to his team. It looked impressive but wouldn't be a lot of use in a fight.

"Let's go," he commanded and started walking off. His two taller teammates followed without question.

"Hey you," interrupted Sasuke as they were walking off, "what's your name?"

"Who, me?" asked the girl sounding excited.

"No," replied Sasuke as bluntly as ever, "him," he said pointing at the red headed boy.

The boy turned slowly and leveled his disturbing gaze on Sasuke. "I am Sabakuno Gaara… Gaara of the Desert. I have an interest in you as well. What is your name?"

"Uchiha… Sasuke," her teammate replied.

"Hey, hey what about me? Don't you want to know my name?" said Naruto.

"Not interested," replied Gaara curtly. With that he turned and he and his team took to the rooftops.

"More people here for the Chunnin exams," Sakura grumbled.

"Things are getting interesting," said Sasuke with a look Sakura had come to know meant he was eager for a challenge.

"Come on guys let's go. You too Naruto," said Sakura a little grumpily, dragging Naruto off the floor where he was wallowing in depression after being ignored in favor of Sasuke.

"Hai, hai Sakura-chan," he said.

The three of them turned and started walking in the opposite direction the Suna nin had gone. They didn't get two steps before they stopped. Standing in their way about ten feet distant was another team of Shinobi. In the middle stood a tall-ish girl with short black hair and red clothes with a tactical vest over it and a tanto strapped to her lower back. Next to her stood a mountain of a teen at least seven feet tall with a bulbous nose and round face who was at least a hundred pounds overweight. On her other side was a muscular teen with dark skin, bare arms, round sunglasses and long blonde dreadlocked hair.

"Did I just hear right," the girl almost purred with a predatory gleam in her eye, "Your name is _Sakura_? It wouldn't happen to be _Haruno_ Sakura now would it?"

Sakura finally looked at their headbands and instantly tensed. Two rocks diagonal from each other. This was the team from Iwa they had been warned about.

"Who wants to know?" she asked, trying her best to go for calm and not intimidated. It was a bit hard knowing they almost certainly had orders to kill her. Sasuke instantly took up a flanking position on her side and Naruto, though looking a little confused, did the same on her other side. Having the two of them next to her suddenly made her feel a whole lot better.

"You are Haruno Sakura aren't you? Maybe I should introduce us seeing as you're going to be seeing a lot more of us, _Saotome_," the Kunoichi said.

"She's the one? She's the one we have to paste?" the really large boy asked, his voice sounding surprisingly dopey and childlike.

"Certainly looks that way," the boy with dreadlocks said in an incredibly raspy voice. He subtly moved his body but it was obvious he was getting ready to move at a moment's notice if he had to.

Sakura and her team tensed at that. The two teams stared each other down, the tension growing thick enough to cut with a knife.

"What makes you think Sakura is the Saotome that's supposed to be in the village? Her name hasn't been made public," Sasuke said in that superior Uchiha tone.

"Please," scoffed the Kunoichi, "this place is terrible at keeping secrets. We knew by the end of the first day. Haruno Sakura of the pink hair. You Konoha Shinobi really need to learn a thing or two about gossiping around foreign nin. It makes it easier for us if you're incompetent though so I guess I can't really complain."

"Hey, who the hell do you think you are talking so big? Bet you're just a stuck up windbag who likes to hear the sound of her own voice. I don't see why we have to stand here and listen to you, hag," said Naruto puffing up in anger at the foreign Kunoichi's words.

The girl just smirked at him. At some unseen signal the really large guy stomped one foot on the ground. Suddenly the earth under Naruto's feet cracked and fractured causing the boy to cry out in surprise.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried out in alarm.

The ground opened up and Naruto fell unceremoniously into an impromptu sinkhole with rock debris all around him.

When she saw Naruto was all right Sakura whirled on the Iwa team in anger. "Attacking Konoha nin in their own village when you're here all alone? If I were generous I'd call it brave, but I don't think you could have possibly done something more stupid even if you tried."

"Please," the Kunoichi scoffed, "you call that an attack? If that is the level of attack Konoha has to offer you might as well save us the trouble and fall on your own kunai. It will be a lot less painful than what I'm going to do to you."

"What are your names?" asked Sasuke. Though he sounded calm Sakura knew him well enough to detect an undercurrent of anger.

The Kunoichi smirked but acquiesced. "Of course. I suppose you'll be wanting to know the name of the team that will be hunting you down in the exams. The big guy here is Ito Akatsuchi. Muscles and sunglasses is Miyagi Kisuke. And I am Hibiki Kurotsuchi," her piercing gaze turned to Sakura. "We may not be able to touch you here but trust me. Come exam time? We're going to burn you and crush you to ash little girl."

Sakura refused to be intimidated. Showing weakness was as good as admitting it. Biting back her apprehension at never having done this outside of practice Sakura activated her Kekkei Genkai feeling her eyes bleed from green to their white-to-honey coloration. The slight narrowing of her eyes and tightening of her jaw told Sakura that Kurotsuchi knew perfectly well what it was.

She'd promised Kakashi she would keep what she could do hidden as much as possible so she couldn't hit Kurotsuchi with a full attack of killing intent like she wanted to. Instead she let her killing intent spread out creating an oppressive atmosphere around the team from Iwa. Any carefree attitude turned decidedly more serious when they got a taste of her desire to rip them apart.

"What makes you think we'll be the ones being hunted? As polite as you've been I can't help but want to show you some of my… appreciation," Sakura said menacingly, acid dripping from her every word.

Naruto who had just pulled himself out of the hole shuddered. Sakura's Kekkei Genkai made her scary as hell.

"If you think you can come here and threaten my teammate you couldn't be more wrong. If you lot try to lay a finger on her," Sasuke said, then activated his Sharingan showing his red eyes, "I'll kill you." You would have never guessed he'd never killed before with the violent way he said it.

"Like we'd let you hurt Sakura-chan, baka nin," said Naruto wanting to get his piece in, "I'm the future Hokage and I'll protect my teammates with my life, dattebayo!"

"Come on we're wasting time," said Kisuke in his low gravel-like voice, "Gari-sensei will kill us if we make a scene."

Kurotsuchi hummed in agreement and turned to leave along with her team. However before they left she had one last parting shot.

"Say your prayers Haruno Sakura… because one way or another you're not living through this exam."

With that they jumped to the rooftops and disappeared from sight.

"So that's the team they sent here to kill you, huh?" said Sasuke, sounding even more serious than usual.

Hidden in a tree nearby three Sound nins had watched the whole interaction.

"What do you think?" one of them asked.

"I don't think the ones from Suna or Konoha are anything special, except for maybe the red haired kid from Suna and the black haired one from Konoha. Maybe the girl since she had a half decent killing intent. They will need to be checked out. The three from Iwa though…" he trailed off, "also dangerous. Looks like there will be a lot of interesting people in these exams."

* * *

_**(Five Days until Chunnin Exams)**_

"Turn it off Sakura," said Kakashi patiently.

_No,_ she thought, _why must we always go through this you bastard?_

"Come on we've been over this a hundred times. I know you don't want to turn it off but running around as a half sociopath all the time is dangerous and you need to learn control."

"I am in control. I'll never understand why everyone always insists this is necessary. I'm a much better ninja in First Heaven and I haven't stepped out of line even _once!_"

"Yes you're a much better ninja. But when you're not being a ninja you need to learn to turn it off. You won't be able to relate to people like they expect you to in that state."

"And that is my problem how exactly?"

"Sakura…" he said an edge of frustration to his voice, "don't make me make it an order. Turn it off now."

With a death glare she privately admitted he was right. People who knew of her situation wouldn't be very comfortable seeing her walking around Konoha with white-to-honey eyes. Being in First Heaven felt so amazing it usually took a great deal of prodding to get her to back out of it. Slowly it was getting better as Sakura better understood the benefits of returning to normal and the changes got easier. Still if all else was the same she might decide to just stay in First Heaven all the time.

"Fine," she said a little sulkily and focused on getting her bloodline to recede. After maybe ten seconds of concentration her eyes started bleeding back to their normal green color.

The change was always jarring and her thinking always changed with it. Now, like every time they went through this exercise, Sakura felt like an ass for forcing her sensei to badger her into returning back to normal.

"Sorry sensei," she mumbled as usual.

"Its fine," he said as always.

He made her wait a few minutes until her mind felt like it had adjusted to the change and everything was back to normal.

"Great," he said happily, "now turn it on again."

Stepping to First Heaven was always a thousand times easier than leaving it, both in the effort it took and the psychological willpower involved. While in First Heaven she was loath to go back to normal. While she was normal Sakura wanted to be in First Heaven even if part of her felt that desire was ultimately unhealthy.

She felt her eyes change again and the amazing clarity of thought that came with First Heaven washed over her. It was like her whole body and mind gave a sigh of relief at coming back to its rightful state.

"Right. Let's take it from the top."

Using the Saotome killing intent technique was a little like molding chakra, except that she had to mold her willingness to kill instead.

"Try the heart this time. And see if you can increase the speed," he said.

The technique was simple and was only possible because of her Saotome blood. Mold the killing intent into a sharp shape like a spike or an arrow and then send it to pierce either you opponent's head or heart. Either was supposed to work since taking out an opponent's mind or heart out of the battle ended in a victory either way.

Supposedly against opponents who were very weak by comparison killing intent could stop the heart or send the person into a coma depending on what was targeted. Against most opponents it was supposed to make them freeze up in fear if it worked.

While she had been improving using the technique she had never gotten a chance to test it against anyone other than Kakashi and that sucked as a field test. First since he was one of her precious people, like an insane and eccentric uncle or something, she couldn't conjure a 'pure' enough killing intent to really affect him. Added that to the fact he was a Jounin and even her especially strong killing intent was unlikely to do anything to him unless she battered him with it many times over… well its simpler just to say that while she felt she had been improving she had yet to _see_ any results from her training.

Kakashi didn't even have the decency to pretend to be affected.

"You've gotten much faster over the last few days. Now it only takes you about two seconds to ready and launch your attack. Still too slow if you're under pressure but at least it will now be useful in a fight," he said. "Let's keep working on the strength of the attack too."

At least he _says_ he feels it, and he must feel something in order to be able to give me feedback. Still would reducing him to a quivering mess of fear even one time be too much to ask?

Guess she wouldn't find out if her training had been useless or if it became the ace it was supposed to be until the exam got under way. The prospect didn't fill Sakura with confidence.

Damn you Kakashi-sensei.

* * *

_**(One Day until Chunnin Exams) **_

Uzumaki Karin sat in a small restaurant eating with her teammates. Though in reality teammates was too much of a stretch. They were both eighteen and needed someone to round out their squad. The only reason she'd been brought along was so they could use her sensor abilities and so the other two could bite her when they got injured. No one on her team even pretended to be nice to her. Being ignored was actually preferable to how the other two treated the 'useless kid'.

The redhead lamented that she was pretty useless as a Genin. No one had ever bothered to train her beyond the academy so she didn't know anything other than what they had taught her there and even at those things she wasn't particularly skilled at. Her sensing and her innate ability to heal were the only things she had going for her. She had a feeling that was the only reason she hadn't been killed yet in Kusa who was insanely distrustful of outsiders like her. It was also why her other master deemed to keep her alive.

When she noticed a silver haired teen enter the restaurant she nearly jumped. He didn't even look at her but twisted his fingers in a casual way she had been taught to interpret. She waited a few minutes before speaking to her team.

"Sora-san, Homu-san, I'll be right back," she said timidly.

"Heh? Where are you going?" Sora said aggressively.

"Just to the bathroom," she said nervously.

"Well hurry up runt, we're not gonna wait for you once we're done," said Homu dismissing her and going back to his food.

Karin got up and headed towards the restrooms. Instead of stopping there she kept walking and stepped outside the service exit of the restaurant.

As soon as she stepped out a rough hand grabbed her arm and spun her, slamming her against the wall. She looked up to see the silver haired teen smirking down at her with a sadistic gleam in his eye.

"K-Kabuto-san…" she said shakily.

"I'm glad you haven't forgotten. I have a new mission for you from Orochimaru-sama," he said cutting straight to the chase. It wouldn't do to linger having a meeting in a back alley.

Karin swallowed nervously. She hated missions like this. It was always all risk and there was never any reward. "What is it?" she asked. She knew she had no choice but to comply.

"There is a special team in the Chunnin exams we want you to gather information on. Orochimaru-sama is most interested in the team with the last Uchiha. He should be with a pink headed girl and a loudmouth blonde. You're to keep your eyes and ears open and find out anything you can. Also once they enter the Forest of Death during the second exam you are to take note of where they head and use the chakra pulse method you were taught to relay that information to Orochimaru-sama."

Karin's eyes widened into huge panicked saucers. "H-He's going to be here? At the exams?" she asked, her terror of the man clear in her wavering voice.

Kabuto bared his teeth. "Yes he will be. And he'll be very disappointed if he has to waste time in the forest looking for them when you could have just told him where to go. Your reports from Kusa haven't held any interesting information lately. If you were to fail again, who knows what would happen to you?"

Karin sunk even more fully against the wall she was pressed against and tears threatened to fall out of her eyes. "N-No, I'll do it. I promise it'll be good you'll see. I-I'll find out about the team and figure out where they go during the second exam, I s-swear," she begged.

"Good. I hope so Karin, for your sake. You would make such a lovely laboratory specimen."

* * *

_**(Day of the Chunnin Exams) **_

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura stood outside the doors of the academy.

"What are we waiting for, dattebayo?!"

"Just taking in the moment Naruto."

"Relax dobe, we have plenty of time."

"Yeah well let's take it from the inside. I'm going to stomp on those uppity bastards from Suna and especially those assholes from Iwa. They won't even know what hit 'em."

"Hey don't forget we have a mission. We have to make sure I make it to the finals remember? And I don't want to be the only one on my team to get there."

"Don't worry, we'll all get to the finals together. Even if we have to carry the dead last on our backs the whole way there."

"Hey!"

"Come on guys. Time to see what we're made of."

* * *

**AN2: I just want to spell out how Sakura looks because while not exactly story critical I like how it looks in my head and I want to share it with you. Her outfit is essentially identical to Neji's in part 1 including how the top is designed. The only differences are that the top is forest green, it is less baggy and the sleeves are a little shorter. With her Lee-style bandages (because she's been practicing Goken) and her hair pulled back in a low ponytail I think she looks pretty bad ass for a thirteen year old. **


	10. Exams Begin

**AN: I'm copping out a bit and skipping the first exam. It's boring to write and nothing significantly changes. The second exam is where the story picks up and interesting things start to happen. Enjoy!**

* * *

Team 7 stood in front of the gate marked 13 with a bored looking Chunnin leaning against the fence. As a whole the lot of them were twitchy and varying degrees of impatient. Sakura thought that worse than actually being in a five day fight for your life was the waiting for it to start. At least she'd have a direction to focus her nervousness then.

None of them commented gate thirteen was something of an ill omen in a land that still took things like the stars and prophecy at least somewhat seriously. Surprisingly even Naruto seemed to feel the atmosphere and decided not to comment on it. That wasn't to say he was keeping quiet though. It would be a strange day when Naruto could stand around patiently waiting for something to happen.

"Hey, Chunnin guy! How much longer?" badgered Naruto incessantly. The Chunnin just gave him a bored look.

"I'll open the gates when I open them. It's not for you to know," he said in a slightly condescending tone. Sakura couldn't blame him since this was the third time had told Naruto the same thing.

Before this could set Naruto off Sakura laid a hand on his shoulder. "Let's not bother the proctors Naruto. You don't want us to get disqualified do you?"

Sakura didn't think Naruto being annoying would be enough for them to get disqualified, but by the suddenly horrified look in his face it didn't seem her teammate reached the same conclusion. He firmly pressed his lips together so hard they went white and turned decisively away from the Chunnin. It was kind of childish, but then again when wasn't Naruto immature? If she was honest, the horrifying truth was that she was secretly sort of starting to like it. It was a bit of innocence when Sakura was desperately trying to hold on to the tattered scraps of her own. In a way his childish antics had become somewhat comforting.

She looked at Sasuke, looking outwardly calm but Sakura thought she could detect his impatience and eagerness in the tense line of his shoulders. For all his stoicness she knew that so far the exam had been a roller coaster ride with him, what with their mission, the plethora of seemingly strong foes, the looks from the Iwa team and him getting beaten by Lee right before the exam. She trusted Sasuke but occasionally he could be as much of a hothead as Naruto. His decision to fight Lee right before the first exam, for example, had been monumentally dumb in her opinion.

Sakura took a deep breath and tried to settle her own nerves. If she entered First Heaven during the exam she would almost certainly go for the kill no matter what. It didn't matter if killing was technically allowed in this part of the exam. She didn't want any more deaths than absolutely necessary on her conscience. Also, she was afraid of what would happen if she encountered other Konoha teams out there while in First Heaven. She knew she wouldn't hurt her teammates but what about her fellow Leaf-nin? She probably wouldn't seriously hurt the people that graduated with her or Lee's team. But what of everyone else?

It was a scary thing to not know how you would act. The scariest thing was that she wasn't as concerned about hurting her fellow Leaf nins as she thought she should be. Was part of the remorseless mind of the Santengoku leaking into her normal consciousness? She hoped not. The possibility of that chilled her to the bone.

She was snapped out of her musing when she saw the Chunnin move and step closer to the gate. The man put his hand on the mechanism to open the door while his eyes were trained on the watch on his wrist. Sakura and her whole team moved into position and lowered themselves slightly in anticipation.

"Second test of the Chunnin exams," said the Chunnin, "begin!"

With that he opened the gate and threw it wide open. Sakura and her team dashed through the door, the adrenaline and anticipation of the wait driving them to rush in at full speed. Swiftly they took to the trees positioning themselves at perfect distances from each other like a well-oiled machine. In moments they were racing across the canopy of the forest as fast as their legs could take them.

"Hey, so what's the plan?" asked Naruto, "How are we going to find the scroll we need?"

"We have five days and rushing to pick a quick fight would be an amateur move," said Sasuke, "since we only have rations for half a day we should secure food and water before we do anything else. Then we can find a relatively safe place and you can use your Kage Bushin to scout for possible targets."

It made sense, Sakura had thought up much the same plan while waiting for the second test to begin. While training them Kakashi-sensei had finally told them that the Kage Bushin had at first been used as a scouting tool as all the memories of the dispelled clones returned to the user. Sakura wasn't sure if she had been more exasperated at Kakashi for never having bothered to explain that before or at Naruto for being so dense he'd never noticed he got the memories of all his clones.

To her surprise both Sasuke and Naruto were looking at her. It took her a moment to realize that they were waiting for her input.

"We need to plan to potentially stay here for the whole duration even if we end up not needing to. Supplies first is a good plan. I'm not thrilled about going blindly looking for other teams either with things like the Byakugan and the sense of smell if the Inozuka's running around. We're fairly vulnerable until we can find a position to secure since we don't have anyone with special tracking or detection abilities on our team," she said.

"I can have a bunch of Kage Bushin all around us to keep watch, make sure we're not caught by surprise," suggested Naruto.

Sakura shook her head. "With that many bodies near us we'll draw far more attention to ourselves. We also need you to save your stamina for when it counts. It's true you have insane chakra stores but even you will start to get tired holding clones up all day."

Naruto nodded and Sasuke grunted his acceptance of her analysis. A tiny smile appeared on Sakura's face. This is what she was comfortable with, for all her training to improve and learn new skills recently Sakura was at heart a thinker and a planner. It made her feel good to be able to use her mind to come up with strategies for her team. Even if things eventually went belly up at least she was confident they'd had a sensible plan to start seeing them through the second exam.

"What about the team from Iwa?" asked Naruto, and through he tried to hide it the worry was still easy to pick out in his voice. She knew it wasn't concern for himself since the boy had no sense of self-preservation but rather concern for her.

Sakura wished she had a good answer for Naruto. Unfortunately she didn't. "The only thing we know is what little Kabuto had on Kurotsuchi. I don't think there's anything we can do except play it by ear."

Both Naruto and Sasuke were clearly unhappy with that but there was nothing else they could do. She suspected that they had probably been placed to start as far away from her team as possible so that would reduce the chances of running into them. Finding one specific team would be very challenging in a forest this size. With any luck they could avoid them altogether.

* * *

Karin breathed a sigh of relief as it turned out she would be able to do what Kabuto had instructed. As she and her team left the gate to enter the forest she could feel the signatures of the team Orochimaru-sama was interested in near the edge of her sensing range. If they had not been close enough for her to sense she didn't want to think about what might have happened to her. Given that her max sensing range was only a couple of kilometers she knew she had been extremely lucky that they had been close enough for her to detect.

"Girl, where is the closest team?" asked Homu roughly. It made Karin feel small and insignificant that her temporary teammates refused to even use her name and simply referred to her as 'girl' or something even more derogatory. She hated that these pigs could make her feel anything at all but Karin couldn't help but feel pain at such treatment. She really should have known better by now but she had always been a sensitive girl.

"About one kilometer that way," Karin said, pointing off to their right.

"Hmm. Well keep us away from any of the other teams girl. First we'll get water, then food. After that we'll pick the closest team and go after them," said Homu decisively.

"Don't mess this up. If anyone manages to sneak up on us I swear I'll fucking kill you," said Sora. For some reason he had always been especially hostile towards her. She couldn't figure out why. It probably had to do with her and her mother being immigrants to Hidden Grass and how many Kusa ninja had an almost inbred distrust and hostility towards outsiders.

"Hai Sora-san," she said quietly, intimidated by the older and larger teen. Sora merely made a rude sound in her direction then turned away, pointedly ignoring her.

Idly, she wondered if life living in Orochimaru's village of Hidden Sound would be better than living as essentially an unwilling spy for him in Kusa. As much as Orochimaru frightened her she also couldn't help but find herself drawn to him. He was the only one aside from her mother who had ever taken any notice of her. On top of that there was no doubt the man was incredibly powerful. Karin had always been drawn to power and powerful people for better or for worse.

Maybe one day Orochimaru would order her out of Kusa and have her work for him directly? She knew her abilities made her valuable and she knew she was a lousy spy. She could hope. However she also knew she was perhaps equally likely to end up dead or strapped to a medical table if Orochimaru's mood, or Kabuto's for that matter, ever turned in that direction.

Karin shook her head to clear her head of all her extraneous thoughts. She had to complete her task or all this thinking would be never add up to anything.

Searching she found the powerful and somehow slippery diseased aura of Orochimaru. It at once disgusted her with its slithery corrupted feeling and fascinated her. Whatever else you might say about him Orochimaru-sama was an impressive individual.

Discreetly she brought her hands into the rabbit seal hidden from the line of sight of her teammates. In a move that only a sensor with great control could pull off she sent small bursts of chakra directly towards Orochimaru in code. She didn't know how he could sense her tiny directed chakra bursts from such a long distance, it should have frankly been impossible. Yet for Orochimaru-sama it seemed to take no effort whatsoever.

He was a monster. A fascinating, powerful monster.

Moments after she had finished transmitting the Uchiha's team location and direction she felt Orochimaru-sama and the two with him change direction and head on an intercept course. Karin had observed the Uchiha's team discreetly while in the first exam. They all seemed so young and carefree. The redheaded Uzumaki couldn't help but feel a spark of guilt at sending someone like Orochimaru straight towards them.

But what could she do? It was obey or die. The same way it had always been.

Idly she wondered if other people had a life that didn't feel like it was always hanging by a thread. The last time Karin had ever felt safe was with her mother before she died. Secretly Karin wished she could somehow get some of that back again, though as much as she might hope it was clear that her chances of finding that were probably as close to zero as you could get.

She just had to stay alive. Maybe things would get better with time.

* * *

"Use it now Kisuke. We don't have time to waste if we're going to find that team," said Kurotsuchi.

The team from Iwa had raced into the forest just enough so it wouldn't be immediately obvious to anyone where their team had gotten to from their starting gate. Any additional precaution they could take was well worth it. They were deep in hostile territory, inside the borders of the damn Village Hidden in the Leaves itself. Who knew what dirty tricks the Leaf nin might have set up to slow them down or get rid of them.

"As you say," said Kisuke in that scrapey, gravelly voice of his that always made Kurotsuchi think that he gargled rocks in the mornings. He flicked his golden dreads to the side and produced a scroll that he opened up and laid down on the ground. Nicking his thumb with a kunai he smeared blood on the scroll and began to go through a series of hand seals.

Their team was by far the strongest Genin team in all of Iwa. By all rights they shouldn't have still been Genin. All of them easily had Chunnin level skill coupled with some Jounin level techniques and all of them were proficient at using them. If there was one thing they were not as proficient in however it was tracking. Kurotsuchi had a lead on a summoning contract that could help solve that weakness but so far as a team they had nothing. Which is why they had been provided with a little help to aid them in tracking down their prey.

This was probably the most important mission for Iwa any of them had ever undertaken. On top of that Kurotsuchi couldn't help but feel a personal resentment towards that girl with her stupid pink hair. No matter what happened both her grandfather and Iwa had already been humiliated. She was going to make sure the Saotome suffered long and hard before the end.

Kisuke completed the string of seals and slammed his hand down on the scroll. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)!"

There was a large puff of white smoke as the technique was completed. When it cleared the team was looking at fifty tiny sparrows standing closely together on the ground. They were all brown and perfectly ordinary looking and looking up at the team with curiosity as they turned their heads from side to side.

They were cute, though Kurotsuchi would rather cut out one of her eyeballs than ever admit such a thing.

"Greetings sparrow clan," said Kisuke with grave formality. The fact he was using that tone with a flock of miniature birds looked more than a little ridiculous. "We request that you find someone for us in this forest. I've been instructed to offer you ten pounds of bird seed in return for this task."

The birds all turned to look at Kisuke for a few long moments before turning into a huddle and chirping loudly to each other. There seemed to be a vigorous discussion going on for a few minutes before they seemed to settle and turn back to Kisuke as one. The sparrow at the forefront chirped something at the dreadlocked teen.

"What?!" he said, sounding incredulous. "That's highway robbery!"

The bird continued and let out another long string of chirps directed at Kisuke.

"What are they saying?" asked Kurotsuchi sounding annoyed. She wasn't comfortable wasting time messing around.

"The greedy little bastards say they want fifty pounds of bird seed instead. Something about how the forest is extremely dangerous and we need to make it worth their while. I think they are just aiming high and expect me to try and haggle them down. However, Gari-sensei said not to let them push you around and really that's just extortion-"

"Kisuke," said Kurotsuchi sharply, cutting him off, "just give them what they want. We won't have to pay up for a while and we can take the cost as a mission expense. We don't have time to sit here while you argue with little birds."

"Little birds are cute," said Akatsuchi in his childish tone.

Kisuke sighed. "We're getting scalped by the little bastards, I swear," he muttered. "Fine," he said louder towards the birds, "agreed. Find a girl with pink hair in this forest. Take us to her. Do that and the agreement is complete."

As one all the tiny sparrows straightened up and lifted one of their wings in what could have passed for a salute. Then all of them took to the air and scattered in all directions in search of their prey.

"Let's see if we can't find a team to take down in the meantime. Pretty much everyone in this exam looks weak. We still need to make sure we have the scrolls to continue on to the next part of the exam. When the sparrow clan comes back with something then it will be time to go hunting," said the Kunoichi.

Her teammates grunted their assent and followed her as she leapt into the forest. Kurotsuchi couldn't suppress a wicked smile. They were tigers in a forest of mangy dogs. Privately Kurotsuchi thought they were the strongest Genin team in all the Elemental Nations. Whoever they ran into was about to have a very bad day.

She just hoped it was a Konoha team they bumped into first.

* * *

"I need to take a piss," blurted Naruto as they were running close to the ground.

Sakura made a disgusted face at that. "You can put things more delicately you know. I never want to hear about your bodily functions that graphically ever again Naruto," she said to him while giving him the stink eye. "In fact I don't ever want to hear about your bodily functions again at all. Ever."

At least Naruto had the good grace to look embarrassed and look away from her gaze before she took it as an excuse to revert to her old self and clobber him over the head.

As a team they all dropped down to the ground in a small clearing. Without another word Naruto scampered off behind a tree and some bushes doing a funny dance as he ached to relieve himself. Sakura and Sasuke pointedly looked away as they focused on keeping aware of their surroundings.

"Sakura…" began Sasuke, surprising Sakura enough that she started a little. He trailed off giving Sakura the impression that he was looking for the right words.

"Yes Sasuke?" she asked, curious about what he had to say.

"If it comes down to it don't hesitate to use all your skills. We have an important mission. We can't afford to let scruples get in the way," he said.

His words made her feel surprised and a little defensive. She hadn't considered that Sasuke would have picked up on her conflict of how she didn't want to use her Kekkei Genkai unless it was absolutely necessary.

"You don't understand Sasuke. I _will_ try to kill whoever we come up against unless I have a compelling reason not to if I use that. The people I have to kill just to survive are bad enough. I don't want to add any more to my conscience unless it's a last resort."

"It will just increase the chances of one of us getting injured or killed if you hesitate in using your full abilities. You heard Kakashi, this mission is extremely important to Konoha. You have to toss your fear of killing aside and come at this exam with everything you've got," he replied in his usual blunt way. Sakura hadn't noticed before that sometimes he could come across as an insufferable know-it-all.

Sakura was about to retort that she didn't need that kind of lecture from someone who had never killed before when she was stopped by Naruto returning from the other side of the tree and bushes.

He walked towards them with his hands behind his head in a carefree way. "Man, I peed a lot! That felt really good," he said as he got near them.

Already irritated Sakura geared herself up to yell at him and possibly hit him over the head for real this time. However Sasuke beat her to the literal punch. He stepped up to the blonde and surprised him with a right cross across the jaw. Naruto was knocked off his feet and crashed on his rear end in front of a tree several feet away.

"Sasuke, what are you doing?" she barked at him. She was suddenly pissed at hell at him, how dare he punch Naruto?

Sasuke however ignored her and kept his eyes firmly planted on their third team member. "Look closely at him Sakura. That's not Naruto," he said in his trademark detached and arrogant tone he liked to use in tense situations.

It took a split second for what he said to register in her brain before she turned her eyes sharply back to 'Naruto'. Now that she was looking she could see the differences. The weapon's pouch was on the wrong leg and he carried himself subtly different than Naruto even sitting there on the base of the tree, doing a fair impression Naruto's guileless look.

"Sasuke! What's the hell did you do that for?" the blonde at the base of the tree asked as he pulled himself to his feet. The movements were just a bit too fluid. That confirmed it for her. The person in front of them wasn't Naruto.

A horrifying thought suddenly struck Sakura. Where was the real Naruto? Had this guy killed him to take his place?

The thought almost caused Sakura to fall into First Heaven against her will. It was only Sasuke's calm demeanor and response that kept her from charging the Shinobi and unleashing the horror of her Kekkei Genkai on him. She knew that acting rashly wouldn't solve anything but it was difficult to reign herself in.

"Where did the cut on your face that the examiner gave you go?" asked Sasuke acidly, "Also your shuriken pouch is on your left leg. Our teammate is right handed. You're even worse at Henge than Naruto, you pathetic loser."

The Shinobi gave a very un-Naruto like rueful grin. "How unlucky. I guess I've got no choice since you figured it out."

The Henge dispelled in a cloud of white smoke revealing a ninja with a mechanical mouth breather and the headband of Ame. The ninja took out a kunai and charged the two of them surprising Sakura with his reckless boldness.

"Which of you two has the scroll?!" the foreign ninja howled.

Sasuke used his chakra and jumped high in the air. Guessing what he intended to do Sakura moved away from him and the incoming Shinobi.

The Uchiha sped through a set of hand seals and brought his hand to his mouth. "Katon: Housenka no Justu (Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu)!"

Fireballs twice the size of a man's head shot from Sasuke's mouth, forcing the foreign ninja to jump and dodge as the flaming balls exploded around him with concussive force. He avoided all of them with an impressive display of agility. The Ame nin jumped high in the air to meet Sasuke striking out viciously with the kunai in his hand. Sasuke drew his own kunai and blocked the strike from the Ame nin, creating a few sparks from the force of the blow.

As much as Sakura wanted to join in the fight she instead ran up the side of the huge trees and sought to gain the high ground. Chances were high that guy's teammates were around and she needed to get in position to cover Sasuke or do something if and when they decided to join in. Frustratingly she knew she would just have to watch and trust in Sasuke to come out on top.

She lost sight of the fight momentarily while positioning herself high above and frantically stretching her senses looking for anyone else ready to ambush them. The sound of an explosion and ripping tree limbs drew her eyes back to the fighting ninja. Sakura felt a small flash of fear as she saw Sasuke awkwardly falling away from the point of the explosion while trying to right himself in mid-air. He landed heavily on all fours and the enemy nin wasted no time running speedily to attack his open back.

In a flash Sakura threw a spread of kunai at the ground directly behind Sasuke to intercept the enemy. The Ame nin dodged her attack by jumping high into the air.

This proved to be a mistake. Sasuke stepped on one of her kunai that had landed next to his feet and stuck it to his foot with chakra. He kicked out with that same leg and released the kunai, sending it hurling at the enemy shinobi at high speed.

_Wow… that was a really sweet move_ thought the Kunoichi.

The shinobi twisted in the air for all he was worth to dodge the launched kunai. He was so concerned with it he didn't notice Sasuke jump into the air after him. Sakura saw a flash of steel and then there was Sasuke, Sharingan blazing, with one of his kunai sunk deep into the shoulder of the enemy.

The Ame nin gave a cry of pain and kicked Sasuke away from him sending Sasuke to the ground while he landed high on a tree limb. Immediately seeing his intention to flee Sakura began to move into position to intercept.

He was too far away from her and looked like he might make his escape. On the other hand he hadn't noticed her yet. Praying she wouldn't screw this up since she'd only had limited practice with the technique Sakura formed her hands into the Ram seal and began to focus her chakra.

She felt it flood all her muscles while at the same time tagging a spot ahead of the rapidly fleeing enemy with her chakra. With one last mental nudge she activated the Shunshin no Jutsu for the first time ever in battle.

The pinkette felt her chakra grip her body and literally hurl her to her destination at blinding speed. When she arrived at her destination she was disoriented for maybe a fraction of a second. Luckily for her the enemy was too surprised by her suddenly appearing in his path to take advantage of the small opening she'd given him.

She stepped forward and launched a roundhouse kick at his head which he scrambled backwards to dodge. Sakura pressed him with rapid punches and kicks while the Shinobi was clearly looking for a way to flee as Sasuke had to be only seconds behind. In desperation he rushed her and threw a hasty punch at her face. Big mistake.

The body memory of her training with Guy took over. She deflected the punch with one hand and slammed her other elbow viciously into his head. The Ame Shinobi fell on his back clearly stunned and dizzied by the blow. It was then that Sasuke arrived on the other side of the downed Shinobi which left him surrounded between them. The Ame nin tried to stand and looked ready to try and bolt again. Sasuke stepped forward and gave him a sharp chop to the neck that made the enemy flop forward and lose consciousness.

"Good job," said Sasuke in a business like tone as he approached the limp Shinobi while drawing ninja wire from his pouch.

Despite the situation Sakura flushed a little at the comment. It was rare to get such direct praise from Sasuke.

"Thanks. You didn't do too bad yourself," she replied a little awkwardly.

Sasuke finished securing the enemy's hands in seconds while looking around warily. "Search him for the scroll. I'm going to go look for Naruto," he said sounding grim. Sakura just nodded her assent and Sasuke took off to look for their missing teammate.

The Kunoichi knelt down and began searching the unconscious Shinobi feeling like there was a heavy rock in her stomach. What if this guy had killed Naruto? He had been good enough to do it if he had caught her blonde teammate completely unawares. It… would be devastating losing Naruto like that. Absolutely crushing. Also their mission would have failed almost right out of the gate.

Because she didn't think anything of letting Naruto out of her sight for him to relieve himself she may have just let their teammate get killed. Wasn't she supposed to be the smart one of the team?

Looking down at the unconscious boy she was searching Sakura wondered what she would do if Naruto was dead. She didn't have to think about it long. She would slit his throat just like she had done those men down in T&I. It was all right to kill enemies. Enemies deserved death.

They had been sloppy. This wasn't a game… or if it was a game it was clearly one where they put their lives at stake. Was Sasuke right? Was hesitating to use her Kekkei Genkai going to get to get them all hurt or killed? That wasn't what had happened here but now the thought wouldn't leave her head. She didn't know.

Her search turned up empty; he wasn't carrying the scroll for his team. Sighing she kept him in sight while keeping alert to her surroundings. It was only a few minutes later when she felt two figures approach and land on the tree branch next to her.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried out in relief at seeing him in one piece. He looked embarrassed and dirty like he had been rolling in the dirt but not much worse for wear.

"Idiot got himself tied up and gagged after taking a nasty blow to the head. Luckily nothing else seems to be wrong with him," informed Sasuke. Though he hid it well she could also see his relief at having Naruto back in one piece.

"Oi oi oi! Bastard attacked me while I had my junk out and was peeing. How sick is that? Isn't there some kind of rule against that? It's kind of perverted if you ask me, dattebayo!" Naruto said angrily, obviously embarrassed at having so easily been caught.

Sakura was so relieved she wanted to go over and hug him. But really all this talk about peeing was making that so not an attractive proposition.

* * *

**Omake **

_Strange and Random Crossover # 1 _

Naruto and Sakura stared at Sasuke, eyes so wide they were likely to pop out of their skulls. They had fallen through a random and inexplicable portal and fallen through into an unknown location. While Naruto and Sakura had landed on dry land Sasuke had landed in a natural pool of suspiciously chakra saturated water.

"Oh, so sorry! Usually I warn people away, but you fell out of the sky. Your friend here fall into Spring of the Drowned Girl. One Thousand Year ago pretty young girl drown in pool, very tragic story. Now anyone who fall in Jusenkyo pool cursed to turn into pretty girl," said the old man who was the caretaker of the so-called cursed training grounds.

Sasuke sat in front of the other positively fuming. He tried to cross his arms across his - her - chest (damn pronoun confusion) but she found she now had these large... these large... Sasuke had never been more mortified in his life when his arms brushed his - _her _- breasts and accidentally sent a pleasurable shiver through her.

The Uchiha used all her mental discipline to decidedly _not_ think about her situation. If she actually did then she was a hundred percent sure she would start screaming.

In front of Naruto and Sakura now sat a short, curvy redhead. She was gorgeous and while Naruto intellectually knew it was Sasuke - _Sasuke! _- his eyeball to libido connection apparently hadn't been informed yet. The horrible mental dissonance it gave him gave the blonde a new appreciation for the devastating effects of his Sexy no Jutsu. He couldn't look away. Mentally he made a note to cut some more slack to all of those he kept calling 'perverts' if this messed up situation is what they went through all the time.

Sakura for her part had her brain frozen on the fact that Sasuke was not only a girl, but she had a much better figure than she did. How was that even fair? Sakura was a real girl and she didn't have a chest or hips like that! And she was even prettier than Sakura. But wait, this was Sasuke. Her hottie crush. She cradled her head in her hands trying to keep her poor abused mind from falling apart at the seams.

Sensing the communal distress the caretaker was quick to tell them the small bright side of the curse. "Don't worry friends, Jusenkyo curse can be reversed."

Sasuke snapped her head at the man. "Why didn't you say so in the first place?" she snapped. At hearing her own higher pitched cultured voice she couldn't help but visibly cringe at yet another reminder of her new femininity.

"Oh, cure not hard. You see cold water turn you into girl, and-"

Suddenly the sky turned dark and ominous, lighting crashing from seemingly out of nowhere. The caretaker stopped and all the people gathered looked up at the sky in sudden alarm at the unnatural weather.

Suddenly the sky ripped open and the Shinigami stepped through.

"You three Shinobi! You're in the wrong universe. Get back where you belong before you mess anything up!" it bellowed.

With that he wrapped the three ninja in chains and dragged them back forcefully to their world.

All the caretaker could hear as they were dragged away was Sasuke's high pitched yell,

"What about my currrrrrrrreeee!"

Then the portal closed and they were taken back to their world.

The caretaker sighed. "That is easily top twenty strange things I have ever seen. I'm sure grumpy boy figure out cold water hot water curse eventually."

* * *

**AN2: The Chunnin Exams are underway! Let me know what you thought of the fight scene. Promise I'll have the next chapter updated soon. **


	11. The Snake

In the end they decided not to kill the Ame ninja they captured. It was sort of a 'thank you' for being relatively gentle with Naruto, all things considered. Then again they couldn't exactly let him meet up with his team as there was a danger they would come after them again.

Sakura took all of the Ame nin's equipment leaving him with just a single kunai. With his shoulder injury and no equipment he should hopefully be a minimal threat. It was not a perfect solution but Sakura found herself reluctant to do anything more to the bound and helpless prisoner. She couldn't help but be reminded a little bit of the bound prisoners down in T&I. If she started killing not because she had to but because she could then she really would be a monster.

They left him tied up and hidden high in the trees and took off as a team confident he would be able to get himself loose when he regained conciousness. After maybe thirty minutes of travel Sasuke called for them to stop at a small clearing.

"What is it?" asked Sakura.

"Let's take a small break. Also I've been thinking about it. We really should set up a password in case we get separated again so we can make sure whoever we meet up with isn't an enemy using Henge."

"Ok… that sounds prudent," agreed Sakura. Naruto observed and nodded his agreement. All of them made their way to the forest floor and sat down near the base of a tree hidden as much as they could from view and took out their canteens sipping from their limited supply of water. Dehydration would become an issue soon if they didn't find a source of water to resupply.

They sat in companiable silence for a few minutes sipping water and letting their bodies rest. It was funny how as if by unspoken agreement they had all taken out their canteens to drink as if choreographed. Eventually Sasuke broke the silence by speaking up. "Now for the password. We'll set up a challenge and a corresponding reply. Listen carefully because I'm only going to say this once. The challenge will be, 'what is the value of war'?"

"The response will be 'The art of war is of vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death, a road to either safety or ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected. The art of war then is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions in obtaining the field. These are as follows; the moral law, Heaven, Earth, the commander and the harmony of method and discipline'. That is all."

Sakura nodded once. "Ok, got it," she said with confidence.

Naruto however looked blankly at Sasuke. "Ugh, can you repeat that?"

Sasuke let out an annoyed huff. "I told you I was only going to say it once. Are you telling me you didn't memorize it?"

"Of course I memorized it!" said Naruto not too convincingly, "I just, um, wanted to double check I memorized it right is all."

Sakura shook her head. "Didn't you work on those exercises to remember long codes we had at the academy?" she asked sounding a bit exasperated.

"What… err of course I did! Didn't everyone?" he said chuckling nervously. The truth was he didn't even remember having exercises like that. He probably had been skipping that day.

"Enough," said Sasuke standing up, "come on we need to get going."

They had all just stood up when some little debris moving at high speed hit Sakura in the cheek, breaking the skin a little. Confused and a little alarmed she looked deep into the forest. Then there was a strange rumble before all three of them were suddenly overtaken by an insanely powerful wind coming from the forest.

"Another enemy?!" Sakura barely heard Sasuke yell over the din of the blowing gale.

Dust and particles forced the whole team to close their eyes. They all struggled to find cover and get away from the sudden windstorm and lost track of each other. Against all their wishes that one technique managed to separate the three of them.

* * *

Sasuke hid under a set of bushes looking over the destruction the attack that had been aimed at them had caused. The wind attack had left a shallow trench starting from where the attack originated and continuing on deep into the forest. That had been a powerful attack. Much more powerful than he would have expected from the Genin in the exam.

He strained his senses trying to spot either the enemy or his teammates. That the enemy hadn't immediately followed up the attack with an aggressive move was worrying him. It probably meant the attack was meant to confuse and disorient while the enemy proceeded to pick them off by stealth.

Behind him he heard someone nosily crashing through the foliage headed in his general direction. Weighing his options Sasuke turned as much as he could to observe. It was Naruto walking close by.

Sasuke stood up with a kunai in his hand letting his teammate see him.

Naruto spotted him right away and began running over. "Yo, Sasuke! Are you ok?" he said.

Sasuke brought his kunai up defensively causing Naruto to stop and shoot him a questioning glance.

"The password Naruto. 'What is the value of war?'" said Sasuke coolly.

Naruto stood there and gaped at him. "It's… urmm… the art of war, something and some shit. Dammit I don't know Sasuke! Why did you have to pick out stupid long code anyway? Bastard," he said, crossing his arms in angry frustration.

Relieved, Sasuke brought his kunai down. "Ok then," he said approaching Naruto.

Naruto himself tensed up. "Wait a minute, that's it? How do I know you're the real Sasuke? Tell me the password," said Naruto challengingly.

Sasuke scoffed. "As if you remember it anyway to know if it was right or not, dobe. I haven't called you dead last at all during the exams have I?" asked Sasuke.

"Err… No I guess you haven't," said Naruto dubiously.

"Then there is no way for the enemy to know you were dead last, dead last. That I know that is proof enough of who I am for now," said Sasuke putting his kunai away.

Naruto didn't look happy but accented to the point. "Fine bastard, only you would be such as an asshole, I don't think an enemy could fake that so well."

"Come on," said Sasuke, "we need to look for Sakura."

It turned out they didn't have to because right at that moment they heard someone walking through the thick foliage. A moment later Sakura walked through and spotted them both.

"There you are," she said eyeing them warily. Clearly she wasn't a hundred percent sure they were who they looked like.

"'What is the value of war?'" Sasuke asked her keeping himself ready in case of deception.

Sakura relaxed her shoulders seemingly relieved. If they knew the challenge phrase then they had to be her allies. "'The art of war is of vital importance to the state," she began "It is a matter of life and death, a road to either safety or ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected. The art of war then is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions in obtaining the field. These are as follows; the moral law, Heaven, Earth, the commander and the harmony of method and discipline'."

Sasuke relaxed his guard and gave a subtle nod to Naruto who relaxed as well and gave Sakura a wide smile. "I'm glad you're ok Sakura-chan," he said brightly.

"Thanks Naruto," she replied smiling back at him in turn.

"Come on let's go. We need to either find the enemy nin or get away from here," said Sasuke turning to go. As he was walking away he turned back to Sakura almost as an afterthought.

"By the way, I'm glad you're ok too Sakura. Maybe after the exam we could go out on a date together?" he asked her.

Naruto gaped, his mouth literally falling open. He would have complained about the bastard asking Sakura-chan out but he was momentarily in too much of a shock to say anything. Had the icy Uchiha who had never shown even the most remote of romantic interest suddenly started liking Sakura?

Sakura for her part looked surprised for a moment before smiling warmly at her teammate. "Sure Sasuke-kun. I'd like that," she said.

Before the words had finished leaving her mouth Sasuke had whipped his arm at high speed and thrown a kunai with everything he had at Sakura. The girl threw herself out of the way and onto the ground only at the last possible second.

"SASUKE!" yelled Naruto in surprise and outrage, "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Looks like we have someone who can actually dodge an attack this time," said Sasuke ignoring Naruto, his eye firmly trained on Sakura. "That's not Sakura Naruto. It's another impostor."

Naruto looked at Sasuke before looking back at Sakura who was laying on the ground looking at the two of them with a mixture of alarm and fear. Suddenly Naruto wasn't sure which of his teammates was the real one and which one was fake. Both Sakura and Sasuke looked perfectly like he remembered and they both knew about the code.

"Naruto," said Sasuke sensing the blonde's conflict, "think about it, what would Sakura say if I were to suddenly ask her out on a date? She would probably look at me shocked and in disbelief. Or she would cross her arms and raise an eyebrow if she thought it was a trick. At best she would trip over her words before accepting. There is no way she would just smoothly accept and just leave it at that like it was no big deal. That isn't who Sakura is. Also, did you see how he dodged my kunai? This guy's movements are totally different from Sakura's."

He turned and addressed 'Sakura' on the ground. "Why don't you quit with the games, you pathetic faker," he said.

Naruto looked on as Sakura's face transformed from one of surprise and shock to a profoundly creepy predatory leer. She slowly stood up with a boneless fluidity that was more alien than impressive. Sakura's tongue spilled out of her mouth and it was abnormally far too long, like a twisting and moving pink appendage that looked disturbing on her face as it licked the air. Despite himself it made all kinds of chills go up and down Naruto's spine.

"If you weren't going to trust the code from either of your teammates why did you make it in the first place?" asked 'Sakura', sounding genuinely curious.

Sasuke gave the enemy a self-satisfied smirk. "I knew you were lurking underground listening to our conversation. Now that you're out in the open we'll take care of you and take your scroll," he said.

'Sakura' chuckled at this. "Well you can certainly try. It does seem like you're not the type to let his guard down," she said. Then with a puff of white smoke the Henge was undone. In Sakura's place stood a very tall Kunoichi holding the brim of her straw hat. From where he was standing Sasuke could make out the symbol for the Village Hidden in the Grass.

Seeing the enemy appear before them like that both Naruto and Sasuke drew their kunai. Naruto for his part was surprised and worried about the real Sakura. There was just something off about this Kunoichi, and something was telling Naruto's instincts that this was the kind of person who would kill without hesitation. Shaking off the direction those thoughts were going Naruto focused on the here and now.

Still the question remained. Where was Sakura?

The Grass Kunoichi produced a scroll of Earth from her back. The boys tensed at seeing the exact scroll they needed to pass the exam, feeling a rush of excitement run through them at seeing their goal so close at hand. The excitement turned to disgust and horror as they saw the Kunoichi unhinge her jaw like a snake and wrap her inhumanly long tongue around the scroll, pulling it into her mouth and swallowing it whole.

Sasuke and Naruto could only watch dumbfounded and with a growing feeling of dread after seeing that. The Kunoichi turned to them and gave them a disturbing, condescending smirk.

That was when she struck without warning. Suddenly Naruto saw the Kunoichi right in front of him, a sadistic smile on her face as she brought down her kunai. It slashed across his chest and opened up his belly, spilling out his intestines. Naruto tried to cry out as he saw the kunai come around again and tore open his throat. With a strangled noise Naruto fell to his knees.

He was… he wasn't dead? It had all been some kind of illusion. But why was he shaking? Why was he so afraid? It was all he could do to not fall over from where he was on his knees, shaking as his mind howled in fear and his chest felt like ice. He had just had a clear vision of his own death and he had never been so terrified in his entire life. It was like he knew he was going to die and now he knew exactly how it was going to happen. He was sure the Kunoichi in front of him was going to be the instrument of his death and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

With a start Naruto realized that this was killing intent. He had been exposed to it some in Wave but then it hadn't been nearly this bad or this powerful. Shooting a shaky glance next to him he saw Sasuke was in a similar state to him, on his knees and looking at the Kunoichi with fear naked on his face. His teammate had a kunai gripped in one hand but it was shaking badly.

"That's it? Is that all you have?" said the Kunoichi lazily sounding somehow disappointed. She drew two kunai from somewhere and held them casually in one hand as she started walking slowly towards them. "Don't worry I'll send you both quickly into the next world. You won't even have time to feel it."

She slowly lifted the two kunai held between her fingers. Naruto tried to force himself to move but couldn't do it matter how much he screamed at his body that he needed to do something, that he needed to _move_. With a shaky hand he reached into his pouch and produced a kunai – he had dropped the one he had been holding before – but reeling with fear as he was he could only barely bring it up in front of him. There was no way he would be able to deflect a thrown kunai like he was.

"Die," said the Kunoichi almost lazily, flicking her wrist and sending the two kunai flying at him and Sasuke.

Naruto tried to force himself to move as he saw the kunai approaching his head but for all his struggling he could barely do anything. Panicking Naruto thought for a second that he really was going to die.

At the very last moment he felt himself being tackled from the side and into the ground. Looking up he realized it was Sasuke who had pushed him out of the way, his face contorted in a mask of fear. Half dragging, half carrying Naruto the Uchiha took him and fled into the forest and trees as fast as he could.

* * *

Sakura groaned as she lay face down on the forest floor. There was a root painfully digging into her hip but she couldn't move to get up quite yet. The gale had seemed to single her out and had sent her hurling for what felt like a solid mile through the forest. When the technique ended she had been sent skidding and tumbling along the ground until eventually the base of a tree stopped her. Miraculously nothing seemed to be broken but the wind had been knocked out of her badly and she was willing to bet she'd have a record number of shiny new bruises to show for it tomorrow.

Slowly she dragged herself to her hands and knees. What in the world had happened? Sakura was having a hard time believing that giant gust of wind had been a ninja skill. Creating a gale of that magnitude and directionality would take chakra reserves and control that would simply be impossible for a Genin. Then again her own experience _was_ rather limited to the other Genin she had dealt with in Konoha. With a shudder, Sakura decided she better assume the powerful freak windstorm had been created by another Genin taking the exam until proven otherwise.

As Sakura was rising to her feet she froze as she heard the sound of something large scraping across the forest floor. It sounded like something very big was directly on the other side of the tree she had landed against. Struggling to get to her feet Sakura stood and backed away from the tree, turning her body to look at whatever it was that was making that noise. It sounded like whatever it was was coming around the tree towards where she had landed.

Sakura stood in awe and fear as the largest snake she had ever seen came into view. As it reared up in front of her it was easily thirty feet tall with a mouth large enough to swallow her in one bite. Yellow eyes locked onto her as its tongue slithered in and out of its mouth tasting the air. It had yellow eyes, what Sakura herself had dubbed as the eye color of a predator.

The pink headed Kunoichi instinctually took a step back which only caused the giant snake to seemingly lock onto her more intently and begin to coil its body. Sakura lowered her own body in preparation to dodge knowing that if she took off running now she would just make herself easier prey to be struck from behind. She silently cursed herself for not having practiced the Shunshin no Jutsu in the last few weeks before the exam. Looking at the hungry eyes of the snake readying to strike she would have given her right arm to be able to get away instantly at high speed.

At some unseen signal the snake struck, it's coiled body propelling it forward almost too fast for Sakura to see. The snake sunk it's fangs into Sakura's body, only for the image of Sakura to fade and be replaced with a damp log that shattered in it's mouth. It hissed in anger and it whipped it's head around, unwilling to be denied it's prey.

By smell and by the thermo sensitive organs on it's face the giant snake quickly spotted Sakura crouched on a tree limb above it's head.

Sakura looked down at the snake, eternally grateful she had completed her seal-less Kawarimi training as it had probably just saved her life. With the speed of it's strike and it being so large it was unlikely she would have been able to dodge the serpent's lightning quick attack. The snake quickly spotted her and it propelled itself forward, coiling around and climbing the tree after her with surprising speed. When it reached high enough it struck at Sakura with a quickness that the Kunoichi thought should have been impossible for something so large. Sakura was prepared for it and jumped away with all she had to another tree limb, the one she had just been standing on shattering as the snake bit down on it viciously.

_Shit, shit! That thing __**really**__ wants to kill me, what do I do?!_

Despite all her training and the mission in Wave this was the first time she found herself in a life and death situation where people were relying solely on her to get them out of it. Namely, she was relying on herself to not get eaten by the mother of all snakes. With a fright she realized she was all alone. Neither her teammates nor Kakashi-sensei were likely to bail her out of this one.

Sakura saw the giant brownish creature stretch it's body out from where it was on the tree next to hers and wrap itself around the trunk of the tree she was now standing on, clearly intent on chasing her down yet again.

Sakura ran with all she had and jumped to another tree before the serpent had the chance to reach her. Behind her she could hear the creature swiftly making it's way through the thick foliage after her. Desperately she tried to think of what to do but she was too panicked by what was chasing her to really think of up a coherent plan. Whatever strengths she had Sakura was relatively inexperienced and it was unfortunately starting to show.

The snake was gaining on her, this time almost getting in range to try to bite her again before Sakura managed to climb higher and throw herself off the tree, landing on another tree limb further away and setting off at a dead sprint.

_What do I do? I can't keep running forever. Think, Sakura, think! _

Surprising her with an unexpected burst of speed the giant snake threw itself and landed on the limb she was standing on. However it couldn't support the enormous bulk of the snake and the thick branch broke, sending the both of them crashing towards the forest floor.

Suddenly with nothing to stand on and seeing that she was about to fall sixty feet towards the hard forest floor with nothing in reach to break her fall Sakura panicked and screamed. In her terror her mind spat out an extremely unhelpful but relevant question.

_Oh by Kami, is this where I'm going to die?!_

* * *

Naruto was crouched down, trying to get his breathing under control after their mad dash through the high forest to get away from the terrifying Kusa Kunoichi. He had sent some Kage Bushin to distract her and make sure she couldn't follow and he at least thought they had been successful. The viciousness which she had killed his clones sent a shiver down his spine as he got the memories back from their demise. Thankfully he and Sasuke were now concealed and more or less safe high in the forest canopy.

The blonde had always been a resilient sort, he had to be with the kind of childhood he had, and thus he was already shaking off the effects of the massive killing intent the two of them had been hit with. Sasuke he noticed wasn't doing nearly as well. His eyes were still too wide and they had a manic, panicked glint to them. Naruto looked down at the bleeding thigh of his teammate. Sasuke had been with it enough to break through his paralysis by stabbing himself in the leg and that had been enough to save them both. He hated to admit it but he'd more than likely be dead without Sasuke pulling him out of the way. Now however it looked like Sasuke might be falling apart.

"Hey Sasuke," asked Naruto in a whisper. No sense giving away where they were unnecessarily, "are you ok?" he asked lamely. It didn't seem quite the right thing to say but what else was there?

Sasuke turned to him sharply and the wild eyed look on his face reminded Naruto of a frightened animal.

"I'm fine. But we really need to move and find a better hiding spot before that woman finds us," he said, his voice coming out in a rushed whisper that was just a bit too loud.

Naruto frowned at that. Sasuke wanted to keep running? They had seen what that creepy bitch could do now and could probably take her down if they ambushed her. She seemed like one of those types who was always so high and mighty until he got them with one of his pranks. On top of that they still needed to look for Sakura.

"Listen Sasuke, I don't think running and hiding is such a good idea. We need a plan not to mention we need to find Sakura. Why don't you put a bandage on that leg before we decide what we're going to do."

"No! Don't you get it?" snapped Sasuke. Naruto narrowed his eyes, he had never seen Sasuke in such a state before, "she's much too strong for us. We don't have any choice. We have to run while we still can."

Just like that? Since when had Sasuke become such a coward? He was just about to reply with an angry retort when disturbingly effeminate voice they both recognized interrupted them.

"Ku ku ku, it seems the little Uchiha has the right of it after all. When a predator has your scent the only thing the prey can do is run, run in hopes of saving their pathetic little lives," said the voice from seemingly all directions at once.

In the open freefalling space off the branch they were concealed on there was suddenly that looked to Naruto like massive ripples in the air. One second there was nothing and the next there was a snake the size of a building. Naruto barely had time to gape at it stupidly before it struck. It dove straight at Sasuke pushing Naruto aside with it's massive bulk.

Thankfully even with whatever weird thing was going on with him Sasuke jumped away in time. The snake turned and went to go after him again.

"Get away!" Sasuke yelled at it and threw a volley of shuriken at the monstrosity. The blades went into it's mouth and cut it inside deeply. The snake stopped and looked at Sasuke angrily when it inexplicably went rigid. It fell to the side, it's head landing on a gigantic Y-Branch of the tree. Sasuke and Naruto watched on anxiously, knowing that Sasuke should not have been able to kill it with that attack.

A second later the side of the head of the snake began to crack and rip open as if being pushed up from the inside. The two Genin watched in fascinated horror as the Kunoichi that had been chasing them rose out from the body of the snake covered in slime and ichor.

* * *

Though she didn't mean to her panic and fear caused her to lose control. In the split second of hanging in the air before the fall began Sakura's eyes changed and she entered First Heaven.

For a moment the world seemed to slow down. Sakura could still feel all her fear and panic but it was somehow muted, just faint enough to allow her to think and function. Hesitation left her body and all of a sudden Sakura knew that she would at least be able to fight that irritating snake with all she had to her last breath.

Time seemed to resume again and both Sakura and the giant snake began freefalling towards the ground through the open air. Sakura desperately looked around her and quickly spotted what she was looking for; a large chunk of wood from when the serpent had smashed the tree limb was now falling to the ground adjacent to another of the gigantic trees.

With an effort of chakra and her will Sakura used Kawarimi and replaced herself with the falling chunk of wood she'd spotted. Suddenly finding herself in freefall next to the giant tree Sakura used both her hands and her feet infused with chakra to stick to the trunk and halt her fall. She skid down a few feet before her hands and feet stopped her descent altogether.

There was a large fleshy thunk from underneath and a loud hiss of pain and anger from where the serpent had fallen to the floor down below. Sakura clung to the side of the tree as she looked down at the snake that was just now righting itself and already moving to come up the tree after her again, albeit seemingly a bit slower than before.

With a few seconds to think Sakura realized now how she could kill the creature. It was large, fast and strong but at the end of the day it was still just a dumb beast. Every time it came after her it did so in the same way, a direct attack with a bite attempting to swallow her whole. That simple minded repetitive strategy would be it's undoing.

As the snake began to climb the tree Sakura ran up the side aiming to get to the higher canopy. In moments she was hundreds of feet in the air near the top of the tree where the branches were all thinner. Looking around she found a relatively skinny branch that would serve her purposes just fine. After making a few preparations Sakura moved out as far as she dared to the end of the branch that could barely support her weight. She only had to wait a few moments for the giant serpent to reach her level, it's girth coiled around the trunk of the tree.

She could see the creature hesitate, obviously being smart enough to realize the branch she was on would not support it's massive weight. Sakura readied herself as the snake seemingly made up it's mind and coiled it's body in preparation to strike, consequences be dammed. With blinding speed it launched itself at her with it's jaws wide open.

Sakura used the log she had prepared beforehand and pulled the fastest substitution of her life letting the snake take the whole thing into it's mouth. The tree limb snapped and the snake began to fall well over two hundred feet towards the ground.

Unknown to the snake the explosive tags Sakura had placed all over the log in it's mouth began to burn. A second later they all detonated, the force of five explosive tags in an enclosed space ripping through the snake's skull and tearing the top half of it's head clean off. From her hiding spot Sakura watched with satisfaction as the nearly headless snake plummeted to the ground far below.

Sakura let herself stay on her perch and just breathe in and out for a few minutes. As she calmed down she realized something was nagging at her about this situation. That snake had been unusually determined to get her, even going so far as to risk a large and potentially lethal fall just to get at a little morsel like her. It was unusual behavior for a wild predator. Usually they would never risk serious injury because it could easily lead to death.

The snake and the suspiciously strong gust of wind that had separated her from her teammates were giving her a bad feeling. To her dismay Sakura found that she had been completely turned around during her fight with the snake. Starting her descent from the tree Sakura determined to get her bearings.

The whole situation felt off. She needed to find her teammates as soon as possible.

* * *

Sasuke watched in horror as that – that _monster _held Naruto by wrapping her unnaturally long tongue around him. After Sasuke had tried to give the Kunoichi their scroll so she would leave Naruto had decked him and called him all kinds of names, mostly consisting of coward. Then the blonde had gone on a rampage striking at the impossibly large snake the Kunoichi had summoned with enough strength for him to feel the shockwaves of the impact. Sasuke could almost not believe that had been Naruto unleashing that kind of power and fury on the creature.

It had been for naught however. Naruto had tried to shield him when the snake suddenly turned to attack him and the blonde had somehow managed to stop the attack of the giant snake through sheer physical strength alone. Naruto had called him a coward again right before that dammed Kunoichi had stretched out her unnatural tongue and used it to wrap Naruto up helplessly. Sasuke could only watch as the Kunoichi examined Naruto while the boy struggled and raved at the ninja.

Then for whatever reason he couldn't understand the Kunoichi lifted Naruto's shirt and hit him in the stomach with one hand. Whatever technique she used caused Naruto to stop struggling and lose consciousness.

With a casual flick the snake Kunoichi threw Naruto away into the air like he was garbage. Sasuke could only watch in mute horror as Naruto's figure fell through a gap in the cris cross of impossibly large tree branches and plummeted towards the ground floor over a hundred feet below. He wanted to move and save Naruto from the fall but he couldn't make himself move.

It was just like that night. The feeling of complete helplessness when he was just a boy as he faced his brother, his brother who had just killed his entire family. Sasuke had never felt that kind of utter helplessness and fear before. And that was before his brother decided to show him all the multiple ways he had decided to kill their family that night with his Sharingan.

Sasuke had always struggled and trained day in and day out since then so he could kill his brother and have his revenge. Another deeper, hidden reason that no one else knew was that he trained to the bone nearly every day was because he never wanted to feel like his life was no longer in his control. He had never wanted to feel that helpless and overmatched in front of another person ever again. If he trained hard enough he would never have to fear being at the mercy of someone stronger than him ever again.

This Kunoichi had completely disabused him of that notion and brought him to his knees with only her intent. Despite what Naruto may have said he knew that she had only been toying with them the whole time. Knowing he was so completely outclassed and that there was no one who would help was just like being back in _that_ night. No matter how much he wanted to Sasuke couldn't shake the fear that weighed down his mind and body like lead.

"Ku ku ku, both of your teammates are out of the way now, most likely dead. Are you really a member of the Uchiha clan? So far you've shown yourself to be nothing but an embarrassment to the Uchiha name. If you don't show me something interesting I'm going to take my time in killing you."

Sasuke swallowed a lump in his throat as his whole body shook. All he could do was pray that someone would come and save him.

* * *

**AN: Don't worry Sasuke someone will come and save you! Though it might not be who you all expect. I wasn't too happy with this chapter since I had to rehash some canon things and that is always kind of strange for me. Thankfully I think this is the last time for a long time anything will adhere strictly (more or less) to the canon story. **

**BTW I hated my story summary so I changed it for now until I come up with one I like. If anyone has any ideas feel free to send them my way :)**


End file.
