Poppies
Sakura woke up to the smell of cooked fish and the familiar sound of bickering, she opened her eyes slowly to see both of her teammates sitting a few feet from the base of the tree’s opening with the fire going. Naruto was busy cooking the fish while Sasuke cleaned off the scales and guts, neither one satisfied with the job the other was doing. She smiled fondly at the scene, no matter the situation they would always bicker like if they were siblings and even if they won’t admit it, it’s purely due to both of them having the same stubbornness.
She couldn’t fully hear their whispered conversation, but whatever Naruto had said made Sasuke flick fish guts at him in retaliation. “GAH! THAT’S SO NASTY WHAT THE FUCK?!” he yelled while dramatically shaking it off, Sasuke smacked the back of his head with force, “Shut up! Sakura is asleep, idiot!”
“WHA-” Naruto began to yell but stopped himself midway, clearing his throat and lowering his voice, “Well! You’re yelling as well!” the blonde accused him with a pointed look, Sasuke gave him a smirk with a condescending look,“Why don’t you use your limited brain power to not burn the fish instead of trying to come up with a comeback.” Naruto sat back down with a pouty face “I’ve been feeding myself since I was like six. I know how to cook a fish, ok?”
“The fish on the instant ramen doesn’t count.” Sasuke counters without missing a beat.
“I eat more than ramen!”
Sasuke stops his task for a second and gives him an incredulous stare.
“I do! Well, I do more now!” He defends himself as he goes back to managing his task, “Sakura-chan’s mom is a really good teacher when it comes to cooking and I can make rice balls and dumplings now!” the blonde notes with content, then curls an eyebrow upwards with a thoughtful look “Next week she’s teaching me how to make omurice now that I think about it.” Sakura didn’t expect the praise for her mom’s cooking but she took some pride in it anyways, ever since her parents asked her to invite both boys more often for hangouts her mother had taken it upon herself to teach Naruto how to cook and it seemed like he was actually enjoying the lessons.
Sasuke sighed in resignation, “Just don’t burn the fish.”
“Duh.”
Sakura chucked at the banter, making both boys turn around to face her quickly. Sasuke was the first to catch her eyes, “Sakura.” he said with a softer tone. Naruto wasted no time standing up and rushing to her with the freshly cooked fish, “Sakura-chan you’re awake! Here eat this, you must be starving after all that fighting you did.” He smiled widely as he noted her accomplishments with a prideful tone, “I can’t believe I missed how you totally kicked those guys asses, but I know you completely annihilated them, atta-girl!” he cheers, making Sakura’s face flush at the attention.
“Thank you?” she awkwardly responds and takes the fish from his hands gratefully, earning a toothy grin from the blonde. Sasuke approaches them slowly with their water can, placing it next to her and taking the time to look over her injuries from where he stood. “Does it still hurt?”
Sakura shakes her head, “No. Well, not as much anymore.” Naruto huffs, “That’s a relief, nothing you can’t ice then?” She shakes her head, earning a satisfied nod from both boys. Before she could say another word they had heard rustling from the bushes. Someone was nearby and watching them.
Sasuke gave Naruto a look to stay and guard while he ventured out to investigate the noise, Naruto nodded and took up a defensive stand in front of Sakura. Slowly, he made his way forward and looked around him. Sakura’s nerves started to get the best of her, what if it was that same group from earlier in their entry trying to get even? Or another group waiting to ambush them? She couldn’t do much in her state, but she wouldn’t let both of them fight alone again, Sakura used her strength to push herself upwards, much to Naruto’s silent protest, and stood on a fighting stance, waiting.
From his position, Sasuke saw nothing yet. Above, below, left, right… He stopped his movement and zeroed in on a bush to the right of him, he waited one… two… three seconds, then sighed deeply before standing straight. “Just come out.” he said, annoyed, putting his hands inside his pockets and walking back to the fire. Sakura and Naruto shared a confused look before three familiar figures appeared from behind the bushes.
“Ino?!”
The full Team 10 came out from their hiding spot in the bushes, leaves and branches in their hair and clothes. Ino catches Sakura’s bewildered look with a sheepish smile before it immediately gets replaced with concern. “Sakura?! What happened to you, are you okay?!” she questions while rushing to her side with worry. The pink haired kunoichi could only give her a sheepish smile in answer, while her blonde best friend looked over her injuries to make sure she wasn’t badly hurt. “I’m okay, just some bruises here and there.”
Choji’s eyebrows flew up to his hairline, “That’s more than some bruises Sakura-san.” Shikamaru nodded in agreement, “I’ll say.”
Ino cupped her face in her hands in worry as gently as she could, “This is serious Sakura! Your eye is swelling up and your nose is bleeding, not to even mention the cut on your lip! Oh Gods what if your nose is broken and it heals crooked?” she rambled while taking out a rag and pouring water on it to clean the bits of dirt and dried blood that still remained. “That happened to my cousin, do you remember Hori? Yes well him, and he never got over it and his girlfriend broke up with him because he was being soooo annoying about it and-”
Sakura hissed from the contact to one of her scrapes, not expecting the sting from the already healing wound. Sasuke’s hand flew upwards and grabbed Ino’s by the wrist, stopping her from moving the rag closer to her face again and catching the blonde off-guard. Ino’s cheeks flushed pink and her surprised aquamarine eyes darted to look at his unamused onyx pair, “Oh, I-”
He grabbed the rag with his free hand and then let her hand go roughly, “It’s already cleaned.” Ino smiled awkwardly at his dismissive tone and darted her eyes across his pokerface, trying to make some sense of his actions. “Oh, well I was just-”
“It’s clean.” Sasuke interrupted her again, narrowing his eyes at her in warning. “You’re being a bother.”
The tension that had formed was instant and Ino’s quick glance between her and Sasuke made her feel suffocated. She needed to redirect the conversation, “N-nevermind that, what are you guys doing here?” she asked the trio. Ino quickly looked her over to assess her injuries and once she felt satisfied, she flipped her long ponytail behind her and crossed her arms as she regained her composure, “We’re just trying to get to the tower. We came across this guy with round glasses and gray hair and apparently his teammates got killed in an ambush so he just gave us his scroll.” Naruto whistled, “That’s some luck y’all got!” he replied lightheartedly.
Shikamaru let out a deep sigh while rubbing the back of his neck. “If you wanna call it that then sure, we got lucky.” Ino turned to him annoyed, “Shikamaru can you like stop with your delusional theory?!” It was Sakura’s turn to raise an eyebrow, Sasuke followed with a questioning tone “Theory?” Ino flipped her hair again and placed both her hands on her hips with a scoff, “Shikamaru is convinced that the guy took out his own team to fail on purpose, which like? That’s so stupid why would anyone fail the Chunnin Exam on purpose?” she said while rolling her eyes.
Choji nodded, “She’s got a point Shikamaru, nobody would just fail on purpose.” Shikamaru crossed his arms and sighed deeply, “This is such a drag, can we just focus and get to the tower?”
Round glasses and gray hair? No, she might be totally overthinking it… But… Sakura bit her bottom lip, mulling over the idea. Gray hair wasn’t too much of a rarity in their village and wearing glasses wasn’t a big indicator either that the person they encountered was the same guy she met before the written test portion. Still, something feels off about him.
She didn’t get any time to ask questions or think it over any longer, Naruto had decided to take the initiative and offer for both teams to team up and reach the tower together. Ino agreed and then gave the two boys in her team an intimidating look before they could protest her decision. After finishing their meals and packing up whatever equipment they had managed to bring for camping, the two teams took off to the direction of the tower at the center of the forest.
The whole way there was filled with silence, everyone seemed to understand that catching the attention of any of the other teams fighting would mean trouble. That didn’t stop Ino from trying to stay close to Sasuke at the rear of the group in an effort to catch his attention, Sakura had wanted to put enough distance between the pair and herself and stayed towards the front of the group with Shikamaru while Choji and Naruto flanked each side. If she couldn’t see it then it couldn’t bother her, it wouldn’t bother her. If she quickened her pace after hearing a faint giggle from behind her then it was purely coincidental as well.
Once they had arrived, the two teams presented their scrolls and registered with one of the attendants as participants for the random matches they would participate in for the final part of the test. They were then escorted inside the arena and lined up with the other teams that had passed the scroll test and waited for the announcements. Sakura looked around and found Hinata’s team had managed to also make it in as well as Tenten’s group, she felt relieved to see them both in good shape, scrapes and cuts notwithstanding. Hinata had been also looking around with a worried expression which only seemed to calm down once she finally saw Sakura present. Her timid best friend smiled at her and waved her hand, but it quickly changed into a worried look as she noticed the cuts and bruising on Sakura’s body.
‘I’m okay, don’t worry.’ she mouthed at her, which didn’t seem to fully appease Hinata’s worry but she nodded at her anyways. ‘Please let a medic examine you later, just in case.’ the Hyuuga mouthed back which made her huff with a smile. Even amidst the chaos, Hinata still worried about the well being of others before her own, she really was a good and caring person from her very core. A few minutes later an announcer finally came up after getting help setting up a table with two random boxes and began explaining the way the matches would be chosen.
“The matches will be drawn at random from these two boxes, the winner advances to the next round and so forth until we arrive at our top two, from which one will win. All techniques and weapons are permitted, matches will continue until one or both participants are unable to continue.” the proctor explained mechanically, playing with the toothpick in his mouth with a bored expression. “Keep in mind, winning doesn’t mean you will be promoted and losing does not disqualify you either. We will be judging based on your performances and abilities, good luck.”
One of the present participants raises their hand, the proctor tilts his head back unamused “Yes?”
“What exactly do you mean by ‘unable to continue’?”
A sinister smirk appears in the proctor's face, “It means just that. If you can’t continue you lose, whether that is because of injuries or death does not matter.” A murmur started amongst the participants, “So if you don’t feel like dying today, you can decide to forfeit right now. Either way, I don’t really feel like filling up paperwork so as the proctor I will try to intervene before that point.” he taunted them further.
Many of the groups present started to break off and talk amongst themselves as to whether or not to forfeit. Naruto wasted no time turning around with a toothy grin and confident stand, “Great! The less people we have to deal with the faster we can get promoted!” he exclaimed confidently, Sasuke sighed and stared at him with a doubtful stare, “With your mediocre taijutsu I doubt you can even pass the first round.”
“Hey!”
Sasuke shrugged uninterested with a taunting smile which only served to rile up Naruto even more, his right hand clasping the back of his neck where the mark of that snake guy had bit him.
While both of her teammates kept going back and forth with their taunting, Sakura finally took a look at both of them fully. Naruto was filled with scrapes and cuts from where he had fallen through branches, despite his confident stance she could tell he wasn’t putting his full weight on his left leg and she knew his left shoulder still bothered him from where she had awkwardly catched him.
Sasuke was in a similar state, the fresh bandages from where he had stabbed himself concerned her as well as his iron grip on the back of his neck where he had been bitten, even if his face didn’t show it she could still see the tremors from his hand. The exams were infamous for how dangerous they were, but nothing about what they had encountered in that forest felt… normal. Both of them were barely hanging on by their sheer stubbornness and if they fight today, they could risk serious damage.
Sakura bit her lower lip, “Maybe we should forfeit.” she suggested while lowering her gaze, not daring to look at them directly.
Both boys turned to stare at her immediately, “What?!” Naruto questioned with a shocked face. Sasuke stared at her like she had grown an extra head, his eyes darting across her face as if trying to read her mind. She closed her hands tightly and steeled her voice, trying to sound more determined, “Both of you are in no condition to get inside another fight to the death, what if the next punch seriously damages something?” she raised her stare again with more resolve. “You both need to see a medic.”
Sasuke cocked his head to the side and gave her a playful smirk, “That’s rich coming from you, if anything you need a medic more than us.” Naruto clasped his hands behind his head with a cheeky smile, following his playful lead “C’mon Sakura-chan, these little scratches are nothing! We’re totally okay, believe it.”
“I’m serious.” She responded, looking at them both defiantly. Sasuke stood straight, his playful demeanor replaced with a more serious look. “So am I.” he countered as he stared into her eyes with just as much determination, but she couldn’t waver from her resolve. They could always retake the exams next time, with more experience under their belts and a clearer understanding of what to expect, it was the safer choice. If they are too stubborn to look after themselves then she will do it for them, whether they like it or not.
Sakura turned to look at the proctor and with no hesitation, moved to raise her hand for their dismissal. But like always, Sasuke is one step ahead of her, grabbing her wrist and stopping her hand mid air.
By this time, about a third of the participants had decided to forfeit voluntarily or due to heavy injury. The proctor looked across the remaining groups with a bored expression, “Anyone else that would like to leave do so now, last chance.”
She tried yanking her hand off, but Sasuke’s grip didn’t budge as he stepped closer to her. Sakura could feel the air leaving her lungs as he stared down at her with his blank expression, but his eyes, his gentle eyes, always betrayed his emotions. “Sakura.”
She could feel her heart starting to quicken as she stared into his onyx eyes, as dark as the night time was. They were beautiful. “Don’t.” he pleaded to her in a gentle tone. His hand was so warm against her skin, she could feel the calluses on his hands from the daily training he surely puts himself through as if he’s desperately chasing after something. Behind him was Naruto, his expression just as gentle towards her. He is always so eagerly running after the Hokage mantle, never wavering and never stopping in his pursuit.
Sasuke slowly lowers her hand, letting hers go gently but never moving from his position in front of her. “Please.” His fingertips lingered on hers for a second longer, and she dropped her shoulders while she looked away from them with an exasperated sigh.
Who was she to deny them their right to progress? All she wanted was to be a good kunoichi while Naruto wanted to be Hokage more than anything and Sasuke…
She crossed her arms across her chest with an annoyed look, pretending her blushing was due to her annoyance, totally not from where Sasuke had gently grabbed her wrist. “Fine, but if you regret it later just know that I told you so!” she huffed. Naruto bumped her shoulder gently against hers, “Atta-girl!”, while Sasuke just nodded once, satisfied with her answer and finally moving back to his original spot.
Sakura smiled slightly to herself, she needed to learn to tell them no someday. She looked back into the crowd as the proctor moved forward with the present teams and from the corner of her eye, she followed the movement of platinum blonde hair.
Ino’s back was towards her with a hip cocked to the side while she looked at her manicure. It was her way to hide her nervousness, but… Had… Ino seen… her exchange with Sasuke..? Maybe it was just the adrenaline that had her nervous, not knowing how else the exam from hell would go wrong next definitely had Sakura on her toes. Besides, why would Ino be nervous about seeing her with her teammate?
The matches had been decided randomly from a box to show fairness and as a result, Sasuke’s match had been the first one on the list, followed by Ino’s, Shino’s match, and then hers in fourth. Afterwards, it would be Tenten’s, Naruto against Kiba, Choji against a Kusagakure nin, Lee’s match and finally Hinata…
Against her own asshole of a cousin.
Sakura hopes Hinata breaks his nose during the match… Maybe also give him a black eye… or two…