~Chunin Exams (PT 2)~
Sakura was drenched in sweat, she had been practising non stop due to her not having a teacher to stop her.
"God it was one fucking kill can they stop bitching about it already!"
Inner complained dramatically, trying to make it seem light hearted but she was really pissed.
Obviously the more pragmatic of the twelve
Read: Neji, Shikamaru and Shino realised that it was a mistake on her part and that in all reality shinobi kill each other.
But people especially civilians gave her a wide berth.
The shinobi just thought she was bloodthirsty.
What sane child ,despite being genin, in peace time would be able to kill someone and not care the slightest?
'But you do care'
That was why she was training her ass off, whilst naruto trains with a SANNIN which was so not fair, and sasuke the bastard got to train with kakashi.
'Even though he didn't even make it to the next round'
Kakashi's response to this whole mess however was unexpected and made her feel like shit.
He was training sasuke even though sasuke didn't even win his match.
And she had to fight Temari, she had a fan as well so it's basically who ever wins, wins.
Luck basically.
Skill obviously played a part but the other girl was from suna where wielding fans was far more common.
So here sakura was, absolutely decimating tree after tree with her jutsu and fan.
She wasn't just mindlessly training though.
She was calculating the intensity of her jutsu when channelled through different mediums such mediums being her odatchi, her fan and her hands.
But she new deep down she wasn't actually doing it for the calculations.
She just didn't get it dammit!
When did ino suddenly become so disillusioned to the life of a shinobi?
She had to know that killing was part of a shinobis life.
And the people around her were just plain stupid.
She hated everyone.
"Amen to that" Inner chimed in.
She was twelve.
Give her a fucking break.
Even naruto was finding reasons not to be around her.
The ungrateful asshole.
~
"Sakura haruno vs Temari of the sand" the Proctor said.
Sakura walked down to the arena.
The silence was heavy.
She stared straight at the girl.
Temari wore an arrogant smirk.
Sakura gritted her teeth, she shouldn't react she knew that but the urge to was prominent in her mind.
"Awe pink, are you angry? What you gonna rip me to pieces like you did that sound nin? Become more a monster for your friends to ignore?" She taunted hitting all the places it hurt.
Sakura kept calm.
'C'mon you gotta whack her!!!'
Inners violent urges weren't helping her in the slightest as she sized up her opponent.
"Begin!" The Proctor shouted .
She lunged for the girl who was unsheathing her fan.
She didn't give her a chance to use it as she punched her with such ferocity her jaw broke.
Inwardly sakura flinched as her fist felt the impact.
She, in a blink, unsheathed her odatchi.
After long hours practicing and longer hours spent tying and untying her odatchi she is finally able to unsheathe her odatchi in a matter of seconds.
20 seconds.
'Not good enough'
Not fast enough though.
As Temari regained her wits she, with out any hesitance, sent a wind blast of epic proportions at the pink haired girl.
She flew backwards and Temari felt a vindictive sort of pleasure until she managed to stop the impact she would have had the with wall by slamming her sword into the ground.
Temari gritted her teeth, well tried to but a sharp pain made her all aware the girl had broken it.
'What monstrous strength.' Temari thought, grimly.
Sakura, even though she had only been blown back a bit and would seem fine by a bystanders view, was not.
She was acutely aware of the lancing pain in her left wrist, the one that took the brunt of the hit Temari landed.
Fuck, both hands were now injured.
Damn her weak bone strength!
Though really, she just didn't want to admit the cause was not her bone structure but rather was due to the pure backlash of Temari's attack.
'Fuck!'
She ran, like she had the devil on her heels, towards the blonde haired girl odatchi ready to inflict damage.
The girl brought her fan up to meet sakura sword but sakura hadn't been aiming for the girls front and so swerved her body around the other girls fan.
Managing to land on her feet and have her sword to the other girls neck.
There was a moment of tense silence before Temari put up her hands in surrender.
"The winner is sakura haruno!" The Proctor announced to uproariously loud cheers.
Sakura smiled to herself whilst she sheathed her odatchi.
A medic came up to her and asked if she had sustained any damage.
She replied that she wasn't sure if her left wrist was broken or just bruised.
Turns out it was broken.
'Go figures.' Inner drawled in a sarcastic way.
'Awe are you scared for me Inner?' Sakura cooed knowing it'd make Inner uncomfortable.
She cackled as she walked up to see the other matches.
When she managed to get up to the balcony area with the rest of the competitors, she sighed.
She watched as kankuro forfeited his match with shino and she watched as it turned to naruto vs neji.
She wanted neji to win.
Plain and simple.
She hated naruto at the moment and didn't know if she would ever be his friend again.
So when neji got defeated she was somewhat surprised and a little irritated.
The part that still childishly yearned for team though was proud.
But naruto hadn't cheered for her and sakura wouldn't cheer for him.
Next was shikamaru vs shino.
Shino won because shikamaru ever the lazy ass decided to forfeit in the middle of the battle.
It was quite Intense mind you but he took a tactical retreat.
She could see some of the jounin nodding there head imperceptibly at the retreat.
Next was Lee vs gaara.
She knew Lee had been training all month for this match.
She was rooting for him.
She didn't by any stretch of the imagination think gaara was a monster.
He was probably a jinchuriki, but so was naruto so she would be a hypocrite if she said otherwise.
Sakura watched as Lee became faster and faster whilst trying to penetrate gaara's sand defence.
Ultimately Lee was not and his leg was crushed.
She thought it could have been a lot worse.
Only a few people clapped.
Sakura wasn't one of them.
She would have its just she didn't need anyone think she was more of a monster for clapping for him.
She watched as Lee was taken out on a stretcher.
Gaara just appeared out of sand next to her.
Sakura didn't flinch because shinobi don't just flinch but she did scream mentally of course.
Everyone gave them a wide berth.
"Sakura haruno vs shino aburame."
The Proctor called out the second to last match.
Shino did not taunt nor did he show any outwards emotion, though the outfit he wore hid most of his telling features, so she didn't really know.
"Begin."
She decided to finish this fast but faster than she could punch sakura felt little bits of her chakra being pulled away.
It made her lag, but she pushed forward.
She ignored it and continued towards shino who was stock still.
He managed to dodge just barely.
But the second hit landed him straight in the shoulder.
She winced in sympathy.
His shoulder was probably fractured.
She was about to fry the insects on her with her chakra but then the match was called to a finish.
"Winner sakura haruno." The Proctor shouted.
This fight was going to be interesting she thought as she walked up to where the rest of the genin where
"Uzumaki naruto vs Garra of the sand" the Proctor called out.
Uzumaki gave a speech that dragged on until the Proctor finally called "begin"
It was instantaneous what happened, sakura would remember it for years to come.
After all first it was controlled fighting then it was a free for all.
Sound and sand nin had attacked.
An invasion.
"Shit" Inner bemoaned.
Sakura was feeling just about the same.
She jumped to dodge a kunai and grabbed another genin that she didn't know out of the way of a passing shuriken, that hit the wall directly behind him.
She looked around.
Kakashi was fighting off 9 sand nin at once with more joining the fray.
Sasuke was gone.
Shikamaru was also gone?
He had been behind sasuke and kakashi.
She wondered.
She decided to go up and help.
All the while wondering why no civilians were screaming.
She came upon the sight of all civilians and most shinobi under a genjutsu.
She started to release the shinobi from the genjutsu as it was all she thought she could help with.
She worked her way through the stands leaving civilians asleep.
They would only cause more panic.
Sakura woke up genin and chunin alike.
Some left to fight whilst some stayed and protected her whilst she broke others out of genjutsu
When they made it to the gate they were four.
One tall and lithe chunin
One muscled and also tall genin.
And one short (well taller than sakura but still shorter than the other two.)
and not really built nor lean but a mixture between the two.
The first one used ninjutsu and kenjutsu.
The second used a quarter staff and taijutsu.
And the third used poison senbon and taijutsu.
She knew all this because as they were going along they told each other what they were capable of.
They had already seen her fight so she didn't really have to say anything.
They were all older than her, but she could see there nervousness.
Heck her chakra was probably a mess, bouncing under her skin, a tell tale sign she was anxious.
They didn't seem to mind though so she followed them and fought.
She spotted a sound jounin fighting three genin.
'Shit'
' I know right'
She had already unsheathed her fan, the sand nin was to preoccupied taunting the genin to notice the flash of pink in his peripherals before it was to late.
"Seijitsu Kaze-ken" ((Wind Style: Faithful Wind Blade))
It was murmured but they heard it anyway.
The look of shocked horror was something sakura was not going to dwell on.
'Not now'
She stood in front of the genin a decimated body behind her.
"Rather than fight high levelled shinobi you know you won't win against evacuate civilians and children." She said in a no nonsense tone.
She watched mechanically as she scrambled away from her.
Her temporary team for the moment was moving on forward.
She followed.
She came face to face with a grizzly sight.
Two jounin decapitated, still alive?!
'What the fuck'
The monster who had done it was staring at them like they were a particularly delicious looking teriyaki skewer.
She swore under her breath.
They looked at each other.
The older two signed in chunin sign to use formation 30 hoping against all hope the other two genin may know it.
Luckily enough sakura did and pulled back the other genin with her.
He was long range fighting and close combat but mainly long distance, the other two were close combat.
She could be both.
"When you see a blind spot that your sure you will be able to hit, go for it." She whispered, the other genin having to strain to hear.
He nodded his head.
She decided to try her hand at weaving genjutsu on the man.
Being a jounin he obviously got past sakura's lacklustre attempts, but seeing as he was being charged from all sides, and having to break genjutsu left and right?
He did not expect the senbon that lodged itself into his neck.
Just for good measure the one with the sword decapitated him.
The two heads finally died.
She morbidly theorize that the man used genjutsu to make the heads believe they were still alive.
Her team looked at each other solemn.
They then continued on there way.
'Woo yay team! Kill those sound and sand bastards sakura! Kill em!'
Sakura rolled her eyes.
The came across two leaf chunin fighting three sand chunin.
"Don't you think that's a bit unfair? Two against three I mean." Sakura said making the people whip around.
Her teammates had vacated the area so they could surprise attack.
"All's fair in love and war." One of the sand nin said, the others snort.
She looks at them, looks at the leaf chunin and gets in formation next to the chunin.
"Oo look little miss pink Is here to kill me, what ever shall I do akihiro!!!" One of the sand nin mocked.
"I don't know Yuta maybe rip her throat out?" The sand nin, akihiro, suggested.
There musings and mocking came to an abrupt stop as they fell, dead.
It happened in a blink and no one saw it coming.
The two chunin looked relieved and then on guard, how were they supposed to know that her team was here.
The senbon were quite but deadly, and those men were cocky.
She looked to where her team were hiding and signed
'Coast cleared'
In chunin sign, that was enough for the shinobi to crumple.
Her team tried there best to patch up the two chunin and took their leave.
'On to the next battle!' Inner said faux cheerfulness oozing from her voice.
She was running with her team when most fighting came to an abrupt stop as the snakes that previously surrounded Konoha were felled.
The sound nin retreated, the sand nin followed after a moment of deliberation.
Sakura slumped.
"It's over and you were a fucking badass!" Inner ever her most faithful fan boosted her.
She walked to her home hoping with all her will that kami-sama decided to spare her parents.
It wasn't to be though as she spied the lifeless corpses of her mother and father, under the decimated remains if their home.
Her mind halted.
'Fuck.'
Whilst she stood there she contemplated just turning missing nin.
But she couldn't.
'ever the faithful dog' , she thought bitterly.
After all what was she without her village.
And if she scavenged the remains of her home ,whilst crying her eyes out, for money and clothing.
Well no one needed to know.
Now did they?