Oookay, I tried.

Time skip to the Chuunin Exams!!

▪▪▪

Where was the rest of her team?

The arena was absolutely packed.

Sakura felt a rush of nerves. She shivered, looking out on the hundreds of people gathering to sit and watch and felt panic grip her.

They were the first team to make it to the end of the exams together since the Sannin! People would be watching them for sure.

Naruto bounced up and down on the balls of his feet, brimming with excitement and energy. Sakura glanced at him sideways as he brushed her arm again on his way up.

What she wouldn't give to be a chakra powerhouse like her two teammates.

She caught the sight of a familiar head of black hair walking alone through the people. She made her way to the front and sank into a seat perilously close to the front.

Oh.

Oh, thank Kami.

If Gaara tried to kill her and her Earthbending failed, Toph-sensei would be right there.

Her teacher wouldn't let her die.

Sakura glanced around at the people clustered around the room. Besides her and Naruto there was Shino, Shikamaru, the puppet master and the spiky haired blonde, (siblings, if Sakura remembered correctly) and Neji.

Or, rather, Hyuuga-san. She knew it was petty but she still felt frigid about the way he had treated her after their fight. He called my Earthbending stupid...

Sakura counted on her fingers again. Shikamaru verses Temari, Shino and the puppet master Kankuro, Naruto and Neji, Sauske and some unnamed genin from Kabuto's team...

And her and Gaara.

Her stomach turned. It was supposed to be a tournament but her mind turned over the numbers as her hands shook slightly. There would be three at the end, and that would result in a three way battle or someone would have to fight a proctor or the like.

Oh Kami. She was so nervous.

Her eyes caught sight of a familiar blonde head of hair besides Toph-sensei. Hinata, Kiba, and Choji joined her.

Where was Sauske?

A new proctor stepped into the arena, a smoking cigarette in his lips. The crowd buzzed, chatted, and finally settled so that he could be heard.

She bit her nail and cast a glance at the pile of rocks sitting on the ground at the side opposite from Naruto. The proctor's voice echoed as he announced the rules, the first to fight.

Kami, she was going to throw up if she didn't calm down. Sakura grasped Naruto's arm before he could hurl himself down into the arena.

He squinted at her. "What's wrong, Sakura-chan?"

With a sudden fear, Sakura pulled him into a rough hug. "You'd better win, dummy."

He stared as she pulled back, then his whole face flushed a bright red. "S-sure, S-sakura-chan. Anything you say."

Still blushing, Naruto hopped out the window, missing his footing and falling to the ground. The crowd laughed and jeered, and she saw Neji facepalm.

Oh, gosh. They were all going to die.

She started pacing as the two began 'fighting'. It mostly consisted of Naruto yelling words rendered indecipherable by the distance.

Her team was so screwed.

And where was Sauske?!

▪▪▪

Toph leaned back and towards Ino. "So, what kind of jutsu is that?"

The Yamanaka let out a small huff, then explained. "That is Naruto's signature move, Shadow Clone Jutsu. He uses it practically every fight from what Sakura says."

"Hm," Toph felt the trample of numerous feet. They hadn't been there seconds ago and yet... "This world is so wierd."

"What?" Ino asked.

"Nothing," Toph remarked. "What's going on now?"

"Neji is busting out Hyuuga moves like they're throwing stars and Naruto is doomed," Ino said briefly, then turned back to Hinata. She totally missed the sudden sharp look Kiba shot Toph. His whole face creased in confusion as he leaned slightly closer.

▪▪▪

In a conclusion beyond all odds, Naruto used his head and defeated Neji. It was an incredible fight on both sides, apparently, but Sakura missed it because she had sunk down with her back against the wall trying not to panic.

And oh, Kami, it was hard.

She kept turning rocks from the slightly shabby pile beside her over in her hands. Toph-sensei had made them for her a few days after her duel with Neji; she had been training with them in secret, away from prying eyes.

Anyone who looked at her would never notice that the rocks were anything more then a pile of...

She actually didn't know. A pile of rocks, maybe?

Naruto landed besides her. "I won, Sakura-chan! Did you see that?!"

Sakura let the rock in her hands fall into her lap as she reached up and squeezed his hand. "You did very good."

"...Are you alright, Sakura-chan?"

She bit back a bitter laugh. Kami, she was going to die in front of all these people.

"No," she managed. "I'm really nervous, and Kakashi-sensei is late, and Gaara will kill me like he wanted to kill Lee."

She felt her eyes start to burn but she refused to cry in front of all these stupid uncaring shinobi. She watched Shino descend into the arena, all spooky gracefulness.

"Oh." Naruto plopped down besides her. He was all dusty and covered in scratches. "Well. At least you still have two fights left before-"

Kankuro poked his head out the opening. "Excuse me! I surrender!"

"You sure?" The proctor yelled up to him.

"Very!" Kankuro asserted.

"Okay!" Genma waved his arm. "By defacto, Shino Aburame is the victor!"

"-one fight left before it's your turn." Naruto continued smoothly. "Don't worry. This one is Shikamaru's so it-"

He stopped, then looked up at the Nara. "Shikamaru! You'd better get down there!"

"This is such a drag," Shikamaru groaned. "I might just quit too."

Naruto leaped to his feet, speedwalked over to the lazy ninja, grabbed his arm, came back, and pitched him right over the railing, ignoring his yelps.

"You can do it, Shikamaru!" Naruto yelled down at where Shikamaru had landed. "Take all the time you need!"

Sakura almost laughed. Since when had her teammate become so caring?

He plopped down besides her again, ignoring the looks from those around him. The sand kunoichi gave him a wide berth as she headed out too, an odd look on her face.

This time she did let out a strangled, half-sobbing laugh.

"You'll be fine," Naruto continued as if nothing had happened. "After all, miss Toph taught you, right? And Kakashi-sensei. They're the most powerful people I've ever met! And you're both of their students. You can't loose."

She gave him a wobbly smile. "I'm not as strong as Kakashi-sensei or as tough as Toph-sensei."

He leaned in closer, his voice taking on a conspiratorial tone. "I don't think anyone is tougher than Miss Toph. She can break rocks with her face."

"Keep a secret, Naruto," Sakura said with a real smile. "I can do that too."

He jerked back in surprise. "For real?!"

Sakura nodded.

He looked speechless."Whoah. That's so cool!"

She grinned at him just as the proctor called Temari as the victor. Sakura managed to make it to her feet, then she turned to look out at the arena Shikamaru and Temari were vacating.

Sakura would not die.

She refused to.

She thrust her hands out, palms down and fingers splayed. The rocks in the pile flew into the air, each landing heavily on her hands. They fit together neatly until she was wearing heavy grey stone gloves.

"Whoah!" Naruto breathed.

Sakura turned, and leaped over the railing.

She was freefalling only for a quick moment before she used her right glove on the wall to slow her descent. It scraped, but not as bad or as loudly as she thought it would.

Time seemed to slow. She was almost in a daze, readying her feet for the impact, landing hard but controlled.

Sakura looked up. There, on the other side of the arena was the redhead. He looked at her with murderous eyes, KI spilling from him as he watched her approach.

When had he gotten there? Sakura was walking towards him until there was only a quarter of the arena between them. She felt herself sink into the stance Toph-sensei had hammered into her, gloves up in front of her face.

One heartbeat.

Two.

"Begin!" The proctor yelled, leaping out of the way almost immediately.

Sakura took a deep breath and moved.

▪▪▪

Naruto watched his crush as she fought. Sakura-chan was smooth and oh-so-cool! She fought with a sudden intensity, stomping to pull up huuuuge walls on either side of Gaara, then she sort of spun and twisted until she was rising up on a really tall pillar!

Shino came over to watch besides him. "Where did she learn that? In the academy? No, we weren't taught that. Is Hatake-san known for earth jutsus? Again, no."

Naruto squinted at him. "Miss Toph taught her, of course. She's crazy cool!"

Below them, Sakura had reached the end of growing her pillar; now it hurtled down towards Gaara who was trapped by the walls on either side. She was either using her awesomeness or chakra to cling to the side of it while she fell.

"Destroy that jerk, Sakura-chan!!" Naruto yelled. Shino shifted slightly away, but other than that he stayed to watch.

"She does not use chakra," he mused aloud. "It will be very difficult to defeat her if she uses no jutsus."

Naruto gave him a squinty eyed glance. "You can't beat Sakura. She's too strong."

"You should hope I do." Shino replied, back glasses blocking out all emotions on his face. "Why? Because if not, you'll have to fight her."

Naruto froze in place. "Oh."

Shino pushed his glasses up a little further, then looked back out at the arena in silence.

Naruto slapped himself on the cheeks. "That's no problem, believe it! If I fight Sakura, I can see how strong she's become! A-and there won't be any danger of killing her like that guy!"

Down below them in the arena, Gaara screamed.

▪▪▪

~a few minutes ago~

Sakura was calm.

The suspense, the inevitability of this fight had been haunting her for days. She had gone to sleep, dreamed, and woken up in cold sweats thinking of all the ways she was going to die.

That he was going to kill her.

Now though, when the fight was finally upon her she found herself as composed as during any old class in the Academy.

As cool as Toph-sensei.

Well, she mused as she started moving, pulling up thick, tall walls on either side of her opponent. No one was as cool as Toph-sensei.

No matter. She felt cool, anyway. Sakura spun, then heaved up. She rose on a giant pillar, slowly coming closer and closer to the sky.

Gaara stared up at her from below.

She wasn't fast like Lee.

But even Gaara's impenetrable defense should have trouble holding up when she buried him in hundreds of pounds of rocks.

She reached what she felt was a suitable height, then punched forward. The pillar cracked at the bottom, then began to fall. It was almost painfully slow at first, then it picked up speed until she was flying along down. Sakura twitched her foot back, shoving chakra into her feet so she wouldn't fly off, then waited.

One heartbeat.

Two.

As Gaara's sand swirled up to meet her stone, Sakura jumped.

As the weight and momentum of the pillar crashed, she flew through the air and into to earth below. It parted as if to welcome her into its depths and she entered willingly.

Quickly.

Sakura would only have a little time for this to work. She spun around, almost swimming through the ground as she strained her brain to remember exactly where Gaara had been standing.

She heard him hiss something above her, felt his vibrations in the earth.

His sand was busy moving rubble so it wouldn't crush him.

It didn't have time to defend him as Sakura popped out of the ground right below his feet like a daisy and socked him with all her strength in the jaw.

Her rock-encrusted fist landed, and landed hard. Sakura felt him jerk back and away, saw his lip bust open as he accidentally bit it.

Saw him hit the ground, hard.

He'd obviously never been hit before.

Sakura felt a rush of blood in her ears. She had landed a hit on the untouchable Sand Nin. She had triumphed! She could do this!

And then he saw the blood.

▪▪▪

Toph shot to her feet, eyes wide. She heard Ino squeak in surprise, felt Kiba shift back, but she didn't care.

Were her feet lying to her?

What was that?

"Sakura!" She bellowed as loud as she could. "Get out of there!"

Because right across the hard packed earth was a monster.

▪▪

Temari thumped hard against the railing, staring down at the arena in obvious horror. Her hands were squeezing the lip of the wall so hard her knuckles were white.

"He's not supposed to let that thing out yet," Temari whispered. She was actually shaking.

Naruto was usually pretty clueless, but even he could tell something was wrong.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked in an unusually somber tone. "What so you know about what Gaara's doing? Tell me!"

If something was wrong...

Sakura-chan would be right in the line of fire.

Temari looked up at him, trembling minutely with a look of total panic plastered all over her face. "I don't-"

She was cut off as white feathers began falling from the sky.