Sakura Blooms (#1 Sakura Trilogy)

Sakura Blooms: [Chapter 41]

All three genin belonging to Team 7 woke up with a start at the same time, finding themselves in a familiar room where they had taken Academy lessons. Then, they saw the face of their old Academy sensei, Iruka.

"What the hell just happened?" Naruto demanded loudly. "And why're you here, Iruka-sensei, dattebayo?!"

"Calm down, Naruto." Iruka chuckled and ruffled his blonde hair before turning to all three kids. "You all did very well," he informed them. "You're the seventh team in the second exam to have solved it."

"Really, —ttebayo?"

"Really," the brown-haired man confirmed with a smile. "Although, I was very nervous when I heard about the twist to the exams this year. Ibiki was especially sadistic this year. I'm proud of all of you."

Sakura decided to interrupt. "What would the outcome have been if both a heaven and an earth scroll were secured, and then taken to the tower?"

"Hn." Sasuke nodded in agreement to her question.

"You're sharp as always, Sakura." Iruka cleared his throat. "There was a puzzle at the top, and when you figured that you had to open both scrolls at the same time, you would be presented yet another puzzle, which would reveal the entire thing was an illusion. Anyone that opened one of the scrolls without the other was knocked out until the end of the second exam. You had about an hour left to figure it out, and then it would have ended. Genjutsu distorts time, remember?"

"Interesting." Sakura crossed her arms, and found that her theory was correct: she still had the wounds from fighting. "I assume this is almost like the Yamanaka clan's body-swap jutsu."

"What're you talking about, —ttebayo?" Naruto tilted his head in a questioning manner.

"When one uses the jutsu, their soul is sent into another body, leaving their own completely unprotected. However, in the other body, any injuries sustained are also inflicted upon the original."

"Continue." Sasuke crossed his arms.

"As I was saying, this genjutsu is very different. Most genjutsu are meant to harm the mentality and not the physical being. However, they must have created a new one specifically for studying the injuries we earned while fighting. We did fight other teams, and as our bodies in the genjutsu world were injured, ours were as well. This is why this specific genjutsu is unique."

Iruka nodded solemnly. "Good observation, Sakura! However, there are still eight teams that passed, and that's still too many..."

"What do they do when there are too many, —ttebayo?" Naruto frowned, not liking where this was going.

Their old sensei sighed. "Unfortunately, you have to do a one-on-one fight preliminary before the third exam. Actually, I should be taking you there right now..."

"We don't have time to recover?" Sasuke raised a brow. They must really want to get this over with.

"Again, unfortunately not. Let's go head over to the arena."

All three began following Iruka to where the preliminaries would take place, Naruto next to him, and Sasuke and Sakura behind. Suddenly, the blonde turned and gave a thumbs up to them. "I believe all of us will win, —ttebayo!"

"Obviously, Dobe," Sasuke replied, smirking again, then winced and grabbed his shoulder. If I was attacked by Orochimaru in the genjutsu, then does that mean...? While Naruto just laughed off Sasuke's remark, the dark-haired boy turned to his teammate. "Sakura, do I have the mark?!"

The pink-haired girl peered over, her face blank, and nodded. "Yes." Orochimaru would not be so ignorant as to make a mistake. However, I wonder how he managed to infiltrate the genjutsu.

"Don't tell Naruto," he immediately replied, grabbing her right wrist to make sure she listened.

She only glanced down and peeled his hand off. "I will not tell Naruto," Sakura promised, and Sasuke nodded before they started walking again.

:::

"Sasuke-kun!" The dark-haired genin winced as soon as the blonde's screechy voice penetrated his hearing. Soon, he found himself on the ground, being tackled by Ino. In the distance he heard a dog barking and quiet talk.

"I'm so glad that you made it! I didn't even realize the whole entire thing was a genjutsu! It was Shikamaru that figured it out," she gushed rubbing her cheek against his dirtied and bruised one.

"It was as I suspected, then," Sakura replied to the blonde girl, then looked up to see the lazy genius and his best friend leaning over the rail, watching the circle of jōnin down below. 

"Oh, I suppose you made it too, Forehead-girl," Ino sneered after being shoved off by a scowling Sasuke. "It was probably Sasuke-kun that figured out the puzzle, because he's super smart!"

"Actually, —ttebayo, Sakura-chan did," Naruto said loudly, catching other groups' attention as well, causing Ino to shout indignantly.

"Hey, Sakura," greeted Shikamaru as he began to slowly make his way over to them, Chôji in tow. "What took you so long?" He gave her a lazy smile.

The pink-haired remained blank. "Ramen-boy and Sasuke were injured, and I fought Otogakure's shinobi," she replied.

"Really?" Shikamaru raised a brow as Chôji's mouth was wide open in surprise.

"And you don't even seem hurt!" The rather...chubby boy exclaimed. Sakura nodded in agreement, then looked over to where Neji, TenTen, and Lee were.

"My dear Sakura!" The spandex-clad genin was by her side in the next few seconds. "I am so glad that you passed the second part as well! Now, we must fight in the preliminaries!"

Shikamaru sighed. "How troublesome."

"Hn." Sasuke agreed, then winced when the mark pulsed again.

Sakura, noticing his discomfort, decided to sit next to the railings, and put her legs in between the spaces of the metal bars, watching the jōnin converse. Sasuke and Naruto followed suit, each on the other side of her. I did not move because I care for the well-being of Sasuke, but to conserve energy, she told herself.

Suddenly, wind blowing past them caused all three to look over their shoulders where Kakashi was, smiling down at them. Knowing it was their cue to leave, the other teams left. "Well done, Sasuke, Naruto." Their grey-haired sensei looked down at them, and Sakura turned around again to continue watching the jōnin. Hashirama hadn't spoken to her since before she talked to Orochimaru in person.

She tuned out her sensei's speech until all the jōnin sensei in the center teleported back to their teams. Only one stayed in the middle of the arena. "The second part of the exam is finally over," a man wearing a bandana with Konohagakure's symbol called out before coughing into his arm. "I'm Hayate Gekkō, and I'll be your proctor for the third exam."

All three members of Team 7 stood up and looked at each other. Naruto gave a victory yell, interrupting the speech, and Sasuke smirked. Sakura looked across the arena where the Kage and foreigners were, and looked into the golden eyes of Otogakure's jōnin sensei.

Oh no! I wonder who that could be?!

Who will fight who?

Will Kakashi still seal Sasuke's curse mark?

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?!