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Haruno Sakura is many things, she is someone who is strong, resiliant-–and she is someone with regrets.
You can’t help but regret things when you're in a war. Regret for not training harder, regret for not enjoying that era of fragile peace while it still existed, regret for not doing things out of shyness or fear of embarrassment.
So imagine her surprise as she dazedly focused her eyes on a white test paper in some kind of crowded room.
Is this heaven? Sakura thinks blearily, Heaven is an exam room? Or maybe Naruto was right and tests really are meant for hell–I think I’ve done enough to be put in hell. Wait did i die?
Sakura looks around
This place… its familiar its…
Chunin exams
“kai.” she mutters quietly to herself
Nothing happens, She can still feel people peeking over her shoulder, she can hear the idle scratching of pencils on paper.
If theres one thing she’s learned is that when a situation is out of her depth she should just make it into something at is in her depth.
Whether this is real, fake, reality or a dream shes going to do what she does best,
Cause some problems.
Abruptly Sakura stands up, chair making a loud squeak behind her as it’s pushed aside.
There is a bemused expression on the examiner's face as if he has been expecting her to do something this whole time and she's following through with his predictions.
Sasuke sends her a wrath-filled glare, face swirling with annoyance and audacity he hisses looking like he’s about to bark orders at her or yell at her in outrage.
Naruto looks at her in worry and distress but not confusion–ah, perhaps he’s been expecting this as well.
The examiner asks a touch too loudly to not be mocking, “Are you forfeiting already kid?”
“No.” Sakura states bluntly
The examiner blinks surprised as well as the rest of her classmates, shinobi from other nations only tilt their heads curious, her teammates look at her with puzzled expressions and bite their comments down and look at what she was doing instead.
Sakura ignores the stares entirely and walks to the opposite side of the room
As she walks indignant shouts are yelled at her
“Are you trying to copy off me?!” A girl screeches holding the page to her chest
“She's trying to steal a peek off our papers!” Someone else states as they try to block the contents of their page with their arms
More accusations are launched at her
“Stop trying to take our answers!” A boy she walks beside screams into her ear
“Why would I need to do that? I could think of a better answer for a question in 5 minutes than you would in the span of a day.” Sakura says clipped, barely sparing a glance, “Besides, I finished my exam 20 minutes ago.”
They rear back surprised
“T–The exam started 30 minutes ago!” Someone shouts with a half-disbelieving half antagonizing anger
“I know.” Sakura says curtly and the paranoid hall of genin are stumped silent
The examiner Ibiki coughs into his palm frustrated, “What exactly are you trying to do Haruno.”
“Pest control.” Sakura says half-heartedly. The crowd of genin doesn’t respond, unsure of what to reply.
Sakura strolls up to a grass-nin with long black hair and purple lipstick
The grass-nin raises an eyebrow amused and jokes, “You do realize we’re supposed to fight each other after the paper exams, not during it child. Are you trying to make your nation look bad, word of advice picking these little catfights is–”
Sakura hums, “I don’t care.”
The composed nin twitches startled and abruptly sweeps their head to the slide just barely dodging a punch sent from the small pink-haired girl
The swing of the punch looked feeble, weak. But the strong current of wind swept around the room from it leaves what many would call an impression.
For a stilted few seconds, the genin in the room watches the altercation with a stupified alarm, the jonin silently draw their kunai despite the stunned wide eyes on their faces.
“W-what are you doing foolish girl!” The grass nin hisses shocked
“Snakes aren’t allowed here.” Sakura replies bluntly
The nin shifts into the form of a man with sickly pale skin and venomous eyes, “You insolent brat! How dare you ruin my plans–I’ll make you a stain on the floor for that!”
Sakura laughs dangerously amused as she cracks her knuckles, “Try me.”
Screams and panic are festing in the air as genin run far away from the transformed nin, some recognize him, some don’t but they all recognize the danger and killing intent that exudes from him.
As people run, Sakura stands firmly in place with a fighting stance the frozen jounin watching on attribute to one an experienced veteran holds.
Kunai barrage her and she swiftly dodges only to be greeted by the Sannin himself sending a kick just inches away from hitting her
She catches his heel and hurls his body right onto the desks
“You fight better than expected.” Orochimaru says with a pained hiss as he leans against the desks, “No matter, you’re just a small speck in the grandeur of my power–”
“You talk too much.” Sakura says scoffing as she dusts off her knees
Orochimaru irritatedly points his palm toward her and a massive snake merges from thin air slithering quickly toward her with its jaw open and venomous fangs on display.
Terrified gasps chorus through the room–there is fear, and worry for Sakura
That is until she leaps and punches the snake sending it hurling back!
The massive body of the snake hits Orochimaru sending him crashing onto the floor as the snake disintegrates from the blow
Orochimaru coughs blood spluttering with his back on the floor, broken desks and chairs littered beside him.
Sakura watches him with cold eyes and punches him hard . A loud BOOM slams into the floor as Sakura with a smoking fist crouches beside him, sitting together in the newly formed dip in the exam room.
If the surprise of the sannin wasn’t enough the surprise of such a small girl being able to make craters in the ground with such tiny fists was terrifying.
Desperately Orochimaru switches his tune, “You–-you need to keep me alive! I see your potential, you feel underestimated, don’t you? I can make you something more–give you limitless power, give you–”
“Shut up.” Sakura replies with the line of her lips twitching into an annoyed frown
She punches him again. And again. And again–and again, and again and–
She hums inhaling a breath of fresh air, she holds the body’s cold wrist in an exhale of satisfaction. Orochimaru is dead.
She lingers crouched beside the body for an unnervingly still moment before standing
Sakura’s head ebbs up, the bloodied hair clinging onto her face doesn’t disturb her expression or lack thereof. Her mouth drawn in a line her hollow eyes only tinged by a faint feel of serenity she looks graceful–unperturbed.
The surrounding kids that watch her are anything but. There is disbelief, surprise, innocence, and fear that washes through the air.
Walking toward the front center of the room Sakura is unaffected despite it all, in the eye of the storm she is the calm as she asks–no, as she states, “Ibiki-san,” she looks to a dark corner of the room, “Anko-san,”
The dark corner twitches in surprise, Sakura continues, “I have eliminated the snake sannin, this qualifies me for chunin rank. I am a chunin now, am I not?”
Ibiki Morino nods dumbly at her
Sakura replies plainly with a bow, “Thank you for the promotion, I shall take my leave now.”
In the silence, her footsteps that click click click quietly echo more like drums than light taps. The eyes follow her. Watching. Unsure of what to say. Unsure of what to think.
She pauses in the exam room’s doorway and glances back,
Her piercing stare lands on her bewildered quite possibly horrified teammates, and with their jaws hanging they listen when Sakura politely whispers,
“Good luck on the chunin exams.” And leaves.