Chapter 74
Chapter 74: Therapy of Fist
Ino grimaced when she crawled out of her bed. Today was the Preliminaries, and she was nervous as her other teammates awoke and followed her to the lunchroom to have breakfast. In a few minutes, they would fight. She had just heard that she had been attacked by Orochimaru, a Sannin. Luckily, she got saved by her team and some team from Kiri. As she walked to the arena in the sticky walls of the Tower in the middle of the Death Forest, she spotted other teams. Some seemed still tired from the week-long survival challenge they had to do in the forest. They lined up with other examiners. Ino held her breath; so many teams passed. She looked at Choji, who was eating potato chips. Shikamaru yawned loudly, but she could tell they were nervous. She looked around and spotted Hinata, who was just as nervous-looking. Tenten's team too. It wasn’t visible, but all of Sakura's friends were shocked to see the pink-haired girl among the examinees.
Ino looked around. Where was Asuma-sensei? When she awoke with her team, she only spotted the sensei of the foreign team. But the Konoha team's senseis weren’t there at all... it was odd.
The place was dull green before her stood the proctor. She knew her; it was Sasuke's mom. She wore an Anbu uniform, and she looked a bit ruffled. Was something happening? Behind her were a few Anbu. Further in the back were the hand statues formed into the Seal of Confrontation. This was a battle arena alright.
Something was different about Sakura. Her hair was cut short, and she seemed so... numb. Her green eyes looked at the proctor of the exam.
"Welcome to the second phase of the exam. My name is Mikoto Uchiha, and I’ll be overseeing this part of the exam. Since too many passed, we have to eliminate some of you by doing a preliminaries round. Then in a month, you will have an official tournament in the public. As you know, there are many ways to get promoted as a Chunin in the Hidden Ninja Village. One via field operation, political promotion, and the one you’re taking right now—international test promotion. This is to simulate actual wars between our village and, at the same time, keep the peace. Think of this as a sacrifice but, at the same time, a blessing to avoid more bloodshed,” the Uchiha Matriarch said seriously.
Most of them were tense at that. Ino looked around for Asuma-sensei, Kurenai-sensei, Gai-sensei, and Kakashi-sensei. Many other Jonin from Konoha weren’t up. She spotted a Suna Jonin in the stance, and all the other foreign teams had their senseis. Ino took a deep breath. She’d be fine. She prepared herself. Shikamaru leaned over and gave her a soft shoulder squeeze.
Yeah, they were enemies in a way. Ino pulled on her hair and made sure that jutsu was charged up. She smiled at Hinata, who looked a bit nervous, and gave her a thumbs-up. Tenten looked like she was ready to kick ass and eat this place. But Sakura... her green eyes looked so empty, as if she was beating herself, or rather hated herself. Ino spotted a worried look from a Kiri ninja... right, his name was Haku. Even his teammates, one with red hair and the other a short blue-haired kid with a strange large sword, looked over to Sakura, worried.
Their sensei, a Jonin with a large sword, looked at Sakura very perturbed.
“Now, the rules are simple. You fight, use whatever you can. You are representing your village’s strength. Behind me is a screen, and whoever’s name is displayed, step down here to the arena. The rest go up. We have fights and a short break in between. Well then, let’s see who is first. The rest of the participants, go upstairs.” Most Konoha shinobi stuck together, Kiri shinobi stuck together, Suna shinobi stuck together, Kusa ninjas stuck together, Oto ninjas stuck together.
Ino froze when she saw her name being picked. The screen kept flipping and flipping and flipped.
Ino bit her lips.
She hoped it was someone simple, someone easy to defeat.
The screen... her stomach dropped.
The other name was chosen.
Sakura Haruno.
Her heart clenched when she heard Kiba whistle and Shikamaru curse loudly.
Ino freaked out. She had to fight her best friend, who was a battlemonster. She had no weakness (not that she knew of them yet but oneday!). On top of that, her friend had most of her special clan skills sealed off. She looked over at Sakura, who was not shocked but sighed. Shikamaru grabbed her shoulder. "Why don’t you just give up? We could try—"
"Shika. Shut up." Ino whispered angrily. The Nara closed his mouth, shuddering. Ino’s blue eyes glowed. Choji opened a new package of chips.
Ino grabbed the railing and jumped down. “SAKURA, GET YOUR ASS DOWN!”
The pink eyes locked on her. Her eyes regained some light as she nodded and quickly ran the stairs down to join her. Ino couldn’t tell if she was smiling. The awful mask she got along with Kakashi's outfit obscured her face, but she hoped Sakura felt a bit better.
Ino knew she had no way to win against Sakura. Before the Chunin Exams, they had match fights amongst the rookie 9 and Team Gai.
Sakura was a beast. Maybe because she was in ROOT, she’d been trained to fight and survive so many times. Sakura's training was unmatched. Ino felt Mikoto’s gaze on her and Sakura. "Ino Yamanaka from the Leaf vs. Sakura Haruno from the Leaf! Get ready!"
Sakura raised her hands in the Seal of Confrontation. "For real, if you hold back, I’ll be so mad, okay?"
Sakura’s eyes widened in surprise and mirrored her, doing the hand seal of confrontation. "Ino...?"
"I have a cool jutsu to show you. You won’t win this fight!" Ino hissed.
Mikoto raised her hand and brought it down in a quick motion. "BEGIN!"
Ino smirked as she formed so many hand seals and quickly channeled chakra into her hair. "Today, I beat you! Ninja Arts: Hair Robe!" Her hair extended and wrapped around a surprised Sakura binding her. The pink-haired girl tangled in blonde hair looked at Ino, surprised. Ino smirked. "I created this jutsu just for you. Heck, I’m not the only one. Everyone in the rookie 9 has been inventing new jutsus because you're just so damn strong. I’m gonna catch up to you in no time!"
Sakura's green eyes regained some emotion. She squirmed in the hair binds before replacing herself with a log. Ino pulled her hair back and raised her fists into her Yamanaka clan stances. Good call, because Sakura delivered a strong kick to her head. Ino blocked. She staggered and flew back. The ground beneath Sakura cracked a bit, but Ino could tell. Sakura was holding back a lot. Was her chakra still unstable? No, she was holding back because she was scared. "Sakura..." Ino narrowed her eyes. "I said, do not hold back!"
She channeled the chakra into her fist and punched Sakura in the face. Sakura blinked, surprised, as she staggered back still hesitant but her face regained a sure stoic look Ino was familiar with. "Ino—right. Right, I won’t hold back anymore. But don’t get pissed. I punch hard."
Ino knew that. Sakura sighed, taking a stance. With a quick jab to the ground, it broke open like an egg. Ino always found it fascinating that someone like Sakura could do this. Ino dodged and weaved more hand seals. "Ninja Art: Enchantet by Butterflíes !" The arena was full of butterflies. The people watching gasped.
From afar, she heard one of the Kiri Jonin of the Kiri team cough. "Genjutsu, huh..."
He was right; it was a genjutsu. But still. Sakura looked at her, amazed. "Is that your own jutsu?"
Ino nodded. "I made it together with Kurenai. How do you think?"
Sakura smiled as she raised her hand and performed the release seal. The butterflies vanished, revealing poisonous flowers floating. Sakura started dogging as the flowers descended on her like dangerous needles. The pink-haired girl dodged and dodged. Ino threw everything at Sakura, dishing out kicks and punches. The Yamanaka heiress flipped into the air elegantly and delivered a spinning kick. Sakura blocked. Ino wrapped her arms and legs around Sakura's body and flipped her to the ground. Using chakra with every ounce of her strength, she tried to knock her out. Sakura somehow crawled out and gave Ino a devastating punch to the face.
Ino recoiled, let her go, and recovered quickly by giving her another spinning kick combo, cartwheeling against her. Sakura winced and dodged the footkick but didn’t anticipate the other, hitting her square into her abdomen. She was thrown back a few meters.
Sakura staggered to gain her momentum and stance. She delivered a chakra-enhanced punch to the ground and propelled herself to the front. Ino raised her fist and gave quick punches and jabs, aiming for ribs, and other critical parts, but not extremely. Sakura dodged by blocking all her punches. Their hands and arms collided in smacks.
As they exchanged blow for blow, Ino saw Sakura come alive again. Whatever sad mood or whatever was on Sakura's mind was gone. She was thriving off this battle.
Ino, annoyed, stepped back harder by channeling some chakra into her fists, coating them like some shield and tried to smack back. As their taijutsu battle continued, Ino was waiting for the right moment. A fist met foot, leg met leg. Sakura’s breath became a bit haggard. "You’ve worked on your stamina and endurance a lot. You can match me now... I’m amazed..." Ino did nag Lee to teach her some exercise. Boy was it paying off now!
Ino smirked as she weaved hand seals again. "Ninja Arts: Hair Robe!"
This time she made sure it was reinforced hard. Sakura bound up, surprised. She couldn’t just replace herself. Ino raised her hand into a singular seal. "Mind Transfer Jutsu!"
And she was in... or so she thought.
"I'm sorry, Ino. You have a monster as a friend. If I had been any other genin, you would have won. I'm sorry," Sakura said as she pushed back into Ino's mind with a devastating punch, sending the blonde flying back into the wall, into a crater. "Shanaro Ino."
"Winner: Sakura Haruno!" Mikoto declared into the half-destroyed arena. The onlookers were speechless. Naruto cheered, "Let’s go, Sakura! Good job, Ino!" "Idiot, Ino can’t hear you. She’s knocked out!" Sasuke chided.
It lasted maybe 10 minutes.
Sakura ran up, pulled Ino from the crater with a sigh, hoisted the blonde on her back, and began walking up the stairs to start treating her. Shikamaru kicked her. "Could you have held back, maybe just a bit?"
Sakura blushed sheepishly. "I was holding back a lot. This was maybe just 10 percent?" Shikamaru gave her a soft whack. Choji chomped on his chips. Naruto gave Sakura a hug. Sasuke blushed. "Good job for winning, Sakura... will Ino?"
Sakura nodded as she leaned against the wall. "I healed most of the worst stuff. She’ll be back to consciousness in 10 minutes. Let’s see who’s next." Sakura smiled. She felt better. Who knew fighting could be so therapeutic?
Sakura focused, and she looked around. Something was off. Dad wasn’t here, so wasn’t Asuma or Kurenai, let alone Gai. Gai was like glue. He stuck around his students like white rice!
What was going on?!