Chapter 4 || Changes

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There was a lot to be said about the looming monstrosity that was Training Ground 44, and even from the outside, Sakura could clearly see how it had earned its moniker of "the Forest of Death". She didn't understand how Mitarashi-san could be so relaxed – there was something inherently unpleasant about the aura the forest gave off, and she dreaded having to go in there.

Much less having to go in there and fight other genin for a scroll, of all things.

Logistically, five days for a distance of five kilometres seemed a bit excessive, particularly when one took into consideration that most, if not all of the genin gathered were capable of a chakra-enhanced spring. But, on some inexplicable, instinctual level, Sakura knew that there would be more waiting for them in that forest than just other ninja, and she would consider herself lucky if any of the flora found in the forest would be recognisable to her; the thick, succulent-resembling plant she could see at the very edge definitely wasn't native to Konoha.

Still, while they waited for Mitarashi-san to begin the exam, Sakura remembered one of the Academy lessons which Genma-san had made a point to stress to her; and she turned to her teammates, quietly asking: "Do we have a plan of action?"

Naruto blinked owlishly, as if shocked by the sheer notion before a contemplative frown appeared on his face and he seemed to really think it over. Surprised but pleased, Sakura's gaze moved to Sasuke-kun who didn't bother hiding his surprise at the question, but instead of making her blush, the expression made something bitter stir within her: she realised that what she'd previously taken as a compliment was anything but. His surprise only proved that he didn't think she'd be the one to propose a plan, despite the fact that she was a paper-ninja through and through – planning and strategizing were the only things she could really do on a team of powerhouses. Her mind alerted her to the fact that he had worn the same expression when she'd broken them out of the genjutsu, and she tried hard not to let herself show how much his lack of faith in her hurt.

To mask her sudden bout of sadness, she elected to prod them a little, since neither seemed keen to answer her. "Would you prefer to run straight to the Tower or bide our time by the gates?"

Surprisingly, it was Sasuke-kun who replied. "What would you do?" he asked, and Sakura blinked much like Naruto had a few seconds previous, dumbfounded. Sasuke-kun wanted her opinion?

"You want me to lead?" she asked dumbly, unsure she'd heard correctly due to his unusually considerate question, but hoping against hope that he wouldn't prove her pessimism right.

"Hn." the raven replied, shrugging, though a scowl twisted his lips. Then, he proceeded to prove her right, brutally so. "If you lead you'll set the speed which will ensure that you won't fall behind. And some kind of plan would probably benefit us anyway." and Sakura was torn between being furious that he dismissed her ability so easily, and grudgingly amused, as this at least meant that she was getting to know her teammates better if she could easily predict their responses.

Jerking herself out of her pensive spell, she took a deep breath and tracked back to Sasuke-kun's earlier question, reigning in her emotions as she allowed her analytical mind to take over. "Well, I'd do one of two things..." she began, chancing a look at her boys to find that both were listening attentively. "If I were confident in the superiority of my skills over those of the other candidates, I'd probably hang back, close to the gates and try to pick off teams which have the same idea, hoping that they have the scroll I need." she paused, choosing her next words carefully. In her mind, she'd removed herself from the situation, twisting it into a simple problem similar to that of the test she just wrote, nothing more than an evaluation of different factors and their possible products, the most basic of x+y=z

So if x is strength, and y is experience, z will equal hanging back by the gates. However, if x is speed not strength...

"But if I were more confident in my speed and, say..." She continued, thinking out loud as she tried to come up with a 'y', "say speed and trap-setting, then I'd race to the Tower and set up traps around it, hoping that somebody with the scroll I need will get caught in them." she finished, only then letting herself meet Naruto's literally sparkling gaze.

"Wow, Sakura-chan," he breathed, clearly awed. "you probably aced that theory exam, dattebayo!!" and Sakura fought hard not to blush at the praise, which she found came a lot easier when she faced Sasuke-kun glum figure instead.

She was startled to note that he was looking at her with an unreadable expression in his eyes, but he nodded sharply before she had a chance to study it more thoroughly. "I thought that too." he acquiesced, and Sakura barely reigned in a scoff.

(Genma-san's dark humour and lack of inhibitions with his laughter as well as his willingness to call people out on their bullshit had been addictive and infectious, and she kept having to remind herself that that was not an aspect of her personality she wanted Sasuke-kun to see).

Still, she tuned in enough to register Sasuke-kun saying, "Dobe, Sakura, show me your weapons pouches."

Inwardly laughing at how similar this demand was to the request she heard the previous day, Sakura obligingly showed both boys the contents of her pouch, delighting in their shocked expressions, and sending a silent thanks to Genma-san for letting her experience that. (She took smug satisfaction in the fact that Naruto's weapons added up to less than a third of her total.)

Even Sasuke-kun had fewer weapons than her.

"Alright," the raven nodded, attaching his pouch back to his belt. "we'll go with option two, just as Sakura said – we'll run as fast as we can, as far as we can, then set traps. We should make camp close to the traps so we can scout and maybe try to lead some teams into them." Sakura nodded in agreement and even Naruto stayed quiet long enough to listen to the instructions and then started rambling on about bad guys and getting as many scrolls as possible and at some point, Sakura just shut him out as white noise as her eyes scanned the foliage before them. It did not look welcoming.

Then, just as she was considering using one of her bandages as a gag for the loud blond, the gates suddenly opened and a deep gong resounded through the forest, Mitarashi-san's voice joining it not a second later;

"Run brats, run!" she cackled. "The second stage of the Exams has officially began!!"

And then they were running, and Sakura knew little else but the blur of the trees and the frantic beat of her heart.

It was a good plan.

As a paper-ninja, she could admit as much. She had taken into consideration the strengths of her team, their abilities in comparison to the others, as well as factors like the potential complexity of the traps they could set depending on the amount of weapons available to them. If this were a theory exam, Team 7 would've aced it no problem. She would've aced it no problem.

In retrospect, Sakura should've known that something would inevitably go wrong – they were Team 7 after all.

But even in her worst nightmares, even in the most horrifying situations and various ways in which this Exam could have potentially gone wrong, Sakura had never imagined that one of the Legendary Sannin would appear in the forest.

Not only appear, but seem to have a personal vendetta against Sasuke-kun.

They had made good progress: though Sakura had initially set the pace, Sasuke-kun then made them push on till Sakura's body clock told her it was around 8 pm in the evening, the darkness quickly setting, her muscles and lungs alike were screaming in agony and her chakra reserves had never been emptier. With six hours of chakra-induced speed, only a few short water breaks in between and the path through the branches minimising the amount of obstacles they stumbled across, her team had made good time.

They made it to where the Tower was in sight, less than half a kilometre before them if Sakura were to estimate. They decided to stop for the night and Sakura was left to find something to eat after surrendering a third of her weapons to Naruto and Sasuke-kun for them to set up the necessary traps. After that, they established a schedule of two hours. First, Sakura kept watch while the boys slept; she cast a False Surroundings genjutsu on the root the boys were using as cover, making it appear as an inconspicuous branch. She would occasionally get up and check the traps to see if anyone was stupid enough to travel at night and get caught in them but was left disappointed each time. Then, when her turn to sleep came, she gratefully smiled at Naruto, crawled under the genjutsu-covered root they'd deemed suitable for cover and promptly fell asleep, exhausted.

She woke up to the sound of Naruto's victorious shout, and stilled. She felt groggy enough to realise that she slept for far longer than the agreed four hours, and that in itself was enough to make her snap awake. Carefully, Sakura gathered all the equipment they'd used, then, realising that Sasuke-kun must've already joined Naruto, she used her chakra, as per Genma-san's instruction to try and locate her teammates. The sight that greeted her when she arrived at the clearing their chakra had led her to was of a foreign nin desperately trying to parry the barrage of shuriken and kunai set up by Sasuke-kun, while two of his comrades were already on the ground nursing wounds gained from slower reactions. She couldn't help the sudden wave of vindictive glee that washed over her – her plan had worked.

"Naruto, Sakura, check the two on the ground for scrolls." Sasuke-kun ordered when she finally joined them, then, not waiting for their affirmative, he threw himself into the melee of projectiles and with a swift punch, knocked the last genin unconscious.

Shaking off the mixture of awe and exasperation at her teammate's actions, Sakura obediently set to her task – she pressed the pressure point on the back of the fallen kunoichi's neck, then, once unconscious, she checked her pockets, absently noting that the team was from Iwagakure. Her hand found a cylindrical object which she pulled out in hopes that it was their much needed Earth scroll, but what came out instead was a scroll not unlike the jutsu scrolls in the library. Torn between curious and disappointed and spurred by something she couldn't quite explain, she shoved the scroll into one of the many pockets of her vest and resumed looking, letting out a dejected sigh when her hand pulled out another scroll, this time a Heaven one.

"Got one, but it's Heaven." she announced, rising from the unconscious kunoichi's side. Naruto joined her soon after, his hands empty and a pout on his lips.

"Let's hope Sasuke-teme had more luck." he grumbled, and just as he finished, their raven haired teammate joined them, an annoyed 'tch' falling from his lips though there was a satisfied smirk pulling at his lips.

"I don't need luck, dobe." he sniped, proudly brandishing the Earth scroll they needed. "I got it."

And then, just as things were looking up, all hell broke loose.

It happened so quickly Sakura wasn't quite sure what exactly transpired, but suddenly, a Grass ninja appeared between the trees, cutting off their only path to the Tower. Before any of them could fully get their bearings, two snakes with bodies the width of the tree trunks sprang towards them, and only one thing was on their minds:

"Run!" Sasuke-kun yelled and then he was off, and it took all of Sakura's energy and willpower to keep up with him and not panic.

But, it seemed that luck was not on their side; sooner than it should've been possible given their massive bodies, one of the snakes had caught up to them. Naruto, being the closest to the snakes, cursed and tried desperately to speed up, but the snake sprang and bodily destroyed the next branch the blond was going to push off, leaving him flailing in mid-air, a curse falling from his lips before the snake barrelled into him and threw him in the direction of its partner.

"Naruto!!" she yelled desperately as her and Sasuke-kun were left staring after their teammate, wincing as the snakes played ping-pong with Naruto as the ball, taking him away from where the two of them were standing. Then, flying through the air and cursing all the while, Naruto's head knocked against one of the trunks with a resounding thud and he stopped struggling, out cold.

"No-!" Sakura choked out, her hand reaching out as if she could somehow reach through the snakes and get to her teammate. She tensed, hand falling to her weapons pouch in the event that the snakes would turn on her, but they seemed content to circle Naruto almost protectively, and with no small degree of effort, Sakura forced her gaze away from the unconscious blond and onto Sasuke-kun. But Sasuke-kun's gaze was not on Naruto, but on their attacker, the mysterious Grass-nin who stood with a wicked smirk their face and with a jolt, Sakura realised that the ninja was a woman.

"Who are you?" Sasuke demanded, kunai pointed threateningly at the nin. "What do you want?"

"My, my, such hostility is truly unnecessary." The kunoichi drawled, her tongue snaking out, pointed and alarmingly long, unnerving Sakura to the point where she shivered. "Your teammate could be dead, you know." She observed as if she were merely talking about the weather. "It sounded like he hit his head pretty hard. And yet... you're standing here, entertaining me with pointless small talk rather than checking his condition. What kind of heartlessness is that, hm, Sasuke-kun?"

At that, Sasuke-kun winced and turned to Sakura. His eyes flickered to Naruto's prone figure before they settled on her, the intent behind the action clear. The rosette's eyes widened, not missing the implied command and she paled. He wanted her to get through the two snakes which looked like they could eat her as a pre-dinner snack? Had Sasuke-kun finally gone mad? She'd rather take her chance with the kunoichi!

But not a moment later, he and said kunoichi were engaged in a taijutsu battle so fast Sakura's eyes struggled to keep up, and she gulped. Or maybe not. Her eyes tracked back to the snakes who, to her surprise, were still circling Naruto, and she realised that their job was keeping her away rather than attacking her. The easiest enemy to beat was a divided enemy, and Sakura had to hand it to the Grass-nin – she'd managed to divide them very well.

Resigning herself to her fate as her eyes focused on her target, Sakura tried to sift through her admittedly limited knowledge of that particular species, annoyed when she kept drawing up a blank; snakes weren't exactly common animals in Konohagakure, particularly not ones this size – she didn't think she'd ever read about one that big being seen out in the open unless it was a summon–

I'm so stupid.

A summon. It was such a simple explanation and yet perfectly explained the size of the reptile, as well as its unusually tame behaviour – summons, at least most of them, were said to be harmless until provoked, or instructed to attack. Sakura spared a brief glance at the Grass kunoichi, wondering why she was so intent on keeping Naruto out of the fight.

That's a mystery for another time. She chastised herself, once again assessing the situation and trying not to let the hopelessness of it all get to her. All I have is basic genjutsu, chakra control, and an abundance of explosive tags and smoke bombs, hardly material to wage war against something that size.

And then, as if triggered by that self-deprecating thought, a skeleton of a plan began to form in her mind, and she winced. It seems like the only option... but it'll be a miracle if I manage to pull it off. Her eyes strayed to where Sasuke-kun's fire jutsu seemed to only irritate the mysterious kunoichi, despite the fact that she should've been burned to a crisp long ago. But I have to try. I have to make the first step towards my nindo.

With that in mind, she took out one of the smoke bombs she bought with Genma-san, this one crimson rather than purple – unlike the others filled with harmless, coloured gas, this one contained chili powder. Sakura's snake biology was pathetically limited, but a snake was a reptile, and reptiles were famed for their incredibly developed sense of smell.

Still, something made her hesitate. Even if I do manage to make them temporarily nose-blind, nothing stops them from lashing out in blind rage and confusion. She argued. If I get hit by even one of them, I can end up like Naruto. Or worse. And then Sasuke-kun will have to fend the crazy snake lady off by himself.

Sakura hated not knowing something. For a paper-ninja, being unsure of something that could be found in books was a nightmare – just then, she resented the genjutsu scrolls available in the library for not telling her whether illusions would be effective on animals.

Guess I won't know till I try.

Nonetheless, she dreaded the possibility of something going terribly wrong, but one look at Naruto's prone form and Sasuke-kun fighting a clearly losing battle filled her up with grim determination.

Let's go!

Sakura's plan, all things considered, was painfully simple. So simple, in fact, that it really shouldn't have worked.

But as she threw the chili bomb between the summons, the gas temporarily obscuring their vision, she mentally apologised to Naruto if he happened to breathe it. But, that aside, it had provided what she had no doubt was hell for the snakes' noses and that distraction was enough for Sakura to progress to step 2: the signs for an internal-effect genjutsu came to her easily, and she worked the illusion till she was as sure as she could be that the snakes believed Naruto was slumped against a tree a good twenty metres away from where he actually was.

Then, she sprang.

Sakura ran like the devil himself was on her heels, not trusting her hasty genjutsu nor the chili power to keep the snakes occupied for long. And indeed, her pessimism was right: not ten seconds after she reached Naruto and hefted him over her shoulder did an enraged hiss reach her ears. She spared a quick glance at the two snakes which appeared to have recovered from the chili powder and were temporarily frozen but she knew better than to trust their stillness. Making sure her grip on Naruto was secure, she powered off towards one of the trees a safe distance away from Sasuke-kun's battle and the snakes, scaling it easily and placing the blond on the branch, his back propped against the massive trunk. She checked his pulse, grateful when it thudded, weaker but there against her fingers. She still had no way of ascertaining the condition of what she had no doubt was a nasty concussion, but at least he was up and away from the goddamn snakes.

Then, a thought struck her.

She couldn't help Sasuke-kun with the Grass kunoichi if she had to keep glancing back to make sure the snakes

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