AN: Hello Fanfiction! This is a fanfic idea that's been bothering me for a while and I just had to get it down. For those of you who might recognize the general idea I did get it from another story named Sound of Madness by NeonZangetsu. *whispers* it's not so good. But most importantly it's very unfinished and I asked him if I could use the "Naruto infects Sakura with Kurama's chakra" idea several weeks ago and he never got back so I'm just going ahead and writing this.

Anyway this story will be second fiddle to Goku the Gamer so it will probably be updated on a bi-weekly basis as to not interfere with the aforementioned story's update schedule.

In case anyone is wondering no bashing will occur in this fic… I think. I dislike Sasuke I'm a firm believer that he should have been executed or imprisoned for life for his crimes based on canon events and reasonable reactions to them. But Kishimoto wrote the characters with specific traits and flaws and that's just how it is. Any "bashing" that occurs will be plot relevant and meaningful, not a silly hate filled rant.

Summary: Naruto couldn't find his way back to his teammates after being knocked away by Orochimaru. He eventually finds them while Sakura is fighting for her life against the team from Sound. Unfortunately Sakura is fatally injured and Naruto has to make a decision that will change her life, and his, forever.

So the allowance I'm asking for here is that Sakura and Sasuke lived through their encounter with Orochimaru. And that Naruto could stumble across them later on and replaces Lee as savior… kinda. And I'm ignoring the other characters in canon, the idea of teams ten, specifically Lee, and nine just stumbling across the fight is ludicrous, the Forest of Death is huge. Canonically it's ten kilometers in radius! So yeah. And to stave off any confusion without the five element seal the pedo-snake put on Naruto he has access to the Kyuubi's chakra. Sorry I really have to cut down my Author's Notes. Anyway I hope you guys like A Fox's Touch.

Disclaimer: I do not own nor do I make profit off of Naruto, please support the official release.

~AFT~

Edit: New readers can obviously ignore this, but I did a pretty big revision in how the story is, the pacing of the chapters, yadda yadda yadda. Basically it's better and I hope that those who chose to reread the chapters see that. For those lazy readers who don't want to read a new chapter there will be a revision summary at the end that details everything I did.

~AFT~

Chapter 1: To Save a Dying Petal

'I'll keep Sasuke-kun safe.' Were the valiant thoughts of a smart, but weak, girl. But Sakura knew that, since the Wave mission she had begun to see the gaps between her teammates and herself. Unfortunately she hadn't done much to change, coasting along on her undeniably high intellect, which was why she had to resort to booby trapping the area she and Sasuke were in. She had been confident they would be safe, but the genin before her had cut through the traps they had triggered with little to no trouble.

"Hehe, look at her. Weak and alone, trying to protect a boy that's already dead. Just leave girl and we might let you live, hm."

To drive his point home and maybe scare the pink haired girl Zaku let his tongue loll out of his mouth and wiggled it a bit. Turning to look Dosu, Zaku told them his marvelous plan.

"Let me take care of her Dosu, this forest has been boring and I need something to take my frustrations out on, hm."

Without looking at him Dosu merely gave a short shake of his head in the affirmative.

"HEHEHEHE!" Was the crazed laugh Sakura heard come out of the boy with spiked black hair. She had only a second to prepare herself before he launched himself at her.

A dull thump could be heard as Zaku's fist landed on Sakura's left cheek. Sakura let out a small cry of pain, but that's all she could do. He immediately followed up with a strong burst of air from his palms that sent her rocketing into one of the gigantic trees that would commonly be found in the forty-fourth training ground. "Gah!" From her mouth Sakura let out a small cough of blood. She shakily stood up in a desperate attempt to defend herself, and this time Zaku let her.

"Why do you stand, hm? I'm going to kill you, you know that, hm?" Not hearing a response from the pink haired girl, just a harsh glare Zaku shrugged and smiled a truly sadistic smile. "Hehe, your funeral pinky, hm."

'I WILL keep Sasuke-kun safe, I have too.' Steeling herself for the incoming attack Sakura's brain worked overtime in an effort to counter the incoming boy. 'He can use some sort of wind jutsu so I have to stay close and make this fight a fist fight, but he's pretty good at that too, if his strength is anything to go by.' When she finished that thought Zaku was already upon her, this time she tried to angle herself so she would fall near one of her traps.

Gritting her teeth through the pain of getting launched by another one of those wind jutsu Sakura almost smiled. She had landed exactly where she wanted. Just a little to the left of the clearing she had set up a large kunai barrage. Backing up just a bit so that she wouldn't get hit, Sakura prepared herself once again.

Noticing something was off Dosu called out to Zaku, "Zaku wait!" only to be ignored. He had already launched himself at the rosette, clearly frustrated by her unreasonable tenacity. He fell for the trap hook, line, and sinker. Surprised and in pain Zaku used a quick kawarimi to get out; unfortunately he didn't dodge everything and had to pull out a kunai from his right shoulder, left thigh, and the right side of his abdomen. It was more inconvenient than anything, he had dealt with worse, but it still pissed him the hell off.

"You fucking bitch! I'll kill you for this! You're going to hurt and scream so bad that you'll wish a million times you'd left earlier. And then I'll rip your head off and show it to the sleeping beauty over there right before I kill him too!"

Zaku was practically seeing red and Sakura was beginning to cower in fear. She knew that after his last attack that she didn't have much left in the tank, at this point she could only hope and pray that someone came to help.

"ZANKUUHA!"

She wasn't prepared, she couldn't defend, and so she was launched deep into the woods. Unfortunately for her that didn't stop her attacker one bit. Feeling herself being picked up by the collar of her shirt Sakura cracked her eyes open only to realize she was inches away from the black haired boy's face.

"Don't think that this is where you'll die, like I said I want your teammate to see what's left of your corpse, hm."

Unable to even gurgle back a response Sakura let herself be dragged by her hair back toward the clearing. Her assailant was purposely hurting her as much as possible, making sure she hit every rock, branch, or leaf that was in her way. In a last ditch attempt to free herself Sakura reach up with the kunai she was still desperately holding onto and cut her hair free from Zaku's grip.

Feeling a distinct lack of weight in his grip Zaku turned to look at the little bitch only to find her desperately and pathetically trying to crawl away from him.

"Hehe, I gotta admire your tenacity pinky, hm. But you've just made me madder!"

Grabbing her by her hair once again, but this time making sure his grip was a close to her skull as possible, Zaku lifted Sakura's head up about a foot off the ground before slamming it back down. Dull thuds could be heard for about a minute before Zaku was satisfied and resumed walking to the clearing, confident his plaything wouldn't be getting away again.

By the time Dosu and Kin could see their teammate again it took them several seconds to realize that what he was dragging was the target's female teammate. She looked like garbage, her qipao was so shredded it looked more like punk-style crop top, even the back had been inexplicably torn off, probably by Zaku… pervert. Her green biker shorts were in much of the same condition looking more like panties, but even then both clothing items had large rips and hole in them. Both pieces of clothing were completely covered in mud. For some reason she had really short hair and blood could be seen coming down her face like a waterfall, if Zaku didn't directly kill her blood loss definitely would. The skin that wasn't caked in mud was almost as torn as her clothing with sticks sticking out and rocks imbedded deep within her musculature, it could be easily inferred that the mud caked skin was just as bad if not worse as it had more contact with the forest floor. If they hadn't made careers out of being murders several years ago Dosu and Kin would have thrown up. She looked more like some sort of horrible parody of the human form drawn by a bloodthirsty psychopath than she did a thirteen year old girl.

All was silent as Zaku dragged her to the center of the clearing, clearly wanting to make of showcase of what he was going to do to her. Stepping away from her unresponsive body Zaku ran up one of the trees that marked the clearing border until he was about 100 feet in the air. Pausing to collect himself Zaku then dove down towards the rosette and called out his most powerful move.

"ZANKYOKUKUUHA!"

A massive gust of wind pounded into the girl on the floor, the inertia created by the attack causing her to lift up into the air a bit. He did the move two more times before landing on the ground.

"How was that bitch?"

Zaku meandered over to the blood splatter on the ground, for she barely looked human. Her clothing was none existence as the attack had destroyed what little was left. It had also broken several of her bones including her ribs and had created hundreds of small cuts all across her front. She looked like someone had dipped a brush in red ink and then put down the brush and dumped the entire container on her causing a large puddle to appear.

"Look, at you, you can't protect shit… but I gotta give ya props, not many people could take a beating like you have and keep living, hm. Maybe we could play a little more, hm?"

'I must protect Sasuke-kun, I must… live.' Were the thoughts of a dying girl as she fell in and out of consciousness.

Standing above her Zaku's calm face morphed into a maniacal grin. "Now you get to feel your head get separated from your body, how FORTUNATE!" But before Zaku could do the deed an animalistic roar startled him and the rest of his team.

"RAAAAAAOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRR." Naruto saw red. He had spent most of the night after a short nap searching for his missing teammates. He had been relieved when he faintly felt their chakra only to discover Sakura was dead, or at least damn close to it.

'Sakura! SAKURA! SAKURAAAAAA!' He could think of nothing else. 'THEY HURT YOU! THEY HURT YOU! THEY HURT YOU! I'LL KILL THEM! I'LL KILL THEM! I'LL KILL THEM.' No other thoughts could be articulated, all Naruto physically did was growl and roar. The red he saw was actually a chakra cloak created from the Kyuubi's chakra he had unwittingly drawn upon in his anger.

Dosu, Kin, and Zaku could only stare in confusion. A single collective thought ran through their minds, 'Who's this kid with the glowing red stuff?' Being the clear target of the new kid's anger Zaku turned to face him.

"And who the fuck are you? I was just about to wrap things up with pinky right here so if you give me a minute-"

He didn't finish his sentence, or more accurately, he couldn't finish his sentence. Having been completely encased by his one tailed chakra cloak Naruto rocketed towards the fourteen year old and buried his fist deep in his gut. A surprised and very hurt Zaku was launched into a tree.

He collected himself rather quickly, but put a hand over his abdomen in an effort to quell the intense burning sensation left behind by Naruto's punch. 'The hell is this kid?' Glancing at the part of his stomach that burned Zaku was disturbed to find the clothing that was there had been burned away and he looked like he had suffered third degree burns. 'The fuck? Is his chakra corrosive? Welp, not going anywhere near him.' If Zaku had been watching his attacker more closely he might have noticed the beginnings of a second tail forming at the base of the boy's spine right next to the first.

An absolutely wild Naruto had immediately dashed towards Dosu and Kin after punching away Sakura's attacker. Dosu jumped out of the way quickly… Kin was not so fortunate. Naruto had realized that Kin was the slower of the two given that she didn't react to his dash that quickly and mauled her with claws of bijuu chakra.

Kin's deafening wail tore Zaku out of his musings. He looked at her only to find her upper body lying a couple feet away from the blonde brat and her legs at his feet. His eyes widened in horror. 'I… what? I'm out of here!' Zaku turned to run away only to find the aforementioned blonde brat standing before him, still dripping from Kin's blood. The words he said were barely a whisper, but Zaku heard them loud and clear despite its gravelly roughness.

"You hurt Sakura-chan. For that, there will be nothing left to bury."

Desperate to defend himself Zaku attacked. "ZANKUU-" Unfortunately for him he didn't finish. Looking down in disbelief he saw Naruto's elbow sticking out of his chest, if he could see behind himself he would find a small hand completely covered in red chakra and lifeblood.

With a vomit inducing *shlick* Naruto removed his arm and let Zaku's body fall backwards, then he got to work. If Dosu hadn't run away he would have heard the telltale tearing sounds of a person being dismembered. Naruto threw Zaku's left arm deep into the forest. His right arm he took and held close to his body in an effort to completely disintegrate it, it worked. Before tearing off his left leg Naruto took a few moments to pulverize it into a mush that vaguely resembled a human leg, then he ripped it off and threw it into the forest, but it a different direction than the left arm. He ripped of the right leg without ceremony, but before disposing it he beat Zaku's face in using it as a makeshift weapon. He then snapped it in half, tore Zaku's jaw off, and shoved the calf into the exposed hole. He then tore into the thigh and ate it like a chicken leg finally tossing the bone into the forest in a different direction than the previous body parts. To finish off his spectacular job Naruto used his hands to tear open Zaku's chest and stomach vertically. He then pulled out the intestines and pried open the ribcage much like one would open a present. The final touch was taking Zaku's no longer beating heart and swallowing it whole.

Satisfied with his work Naruto realized one of the Oto Nin had gotten away. Not one to leave a job unfinished Naruto sniffed around for his scent and, once he found it, made chase.

~AFT~

Dosu was scared, rather he had been five minutes ago when he saw the blonde bastard tear Kin in half with a single swipe of his… claw hands? The chakra that surrounded him had clearly formed into claws around his hand kind of like a horrifying murder glove. But all of that was behind him, the Konoha Nin must have taken care of his dying teammate or something. Unfortunately without the rest of his team Dosu was going to fail the test, but he wasn't worried about that, he was more worried about what Orochimaru would do to him. 'Maybe I should just run away, probably join a minor village and lie low… naw he'd find me.'

None of that mattered though because not even a second later the genin that had killed his teammates appeared before him. Dosu was too surprised to react to the very large chakra claw that was coming at him and as such could not prevent this death.

At Naruto's feet lay the two halves of what was Dosu Kinuta. Naruto had crushed his skull so the tendons and sinews that were his neck no looked more like desperately grasping tentacles. With nothing to hold them in Dosu's intestines spilled out creating a river of blood and guts. Now the body, if it could be called that, was nothing more than a revolting caricature of a canyon with a river that ran through that originated from the mess that used to be Dosu's head.

Having carried out justice, and grabbed the scroll he had on him, Naruto returned to his fallen teammate.

~AFT~

Upon returning Naruto still wasn't all there; the Kyuubi's chakra filled him with rage and made him act on primal instincts. In this case protecting and avenging Sakura was his only goal, which he had carried out beautifully. But as he kneeled before her prone form, her ragged breaths becoming shorter and shallower, Naruto wanted to scream. What could he do? He may have protected her and killed her attackers, but she could still die! Lost and without any real options Naruto did the only thing he could. He touched her.

"AAAAHHHHHH!" Sakura's pained yell startled him away; he could clearly see the burn left behind by his hand. But it was the only thing he could do! What else was there? So he steeled himself and grabbed her again. This time he embraced her fully, holding her so that he touched as much skin as possible. Her screams tore at his heart, but he used them as fuel to further pump the Kyuubi's chakra into her. After a few moments Sakura's keening wails stopped as her voice became too hoarse to be used. All of the skin that touched Naruto's blood soaked form had been burned black, her eyes had rolled up into her sockets indicating she had lost consciousness. Yet she breathed, yet she lived, Naruto could hear her heart pumping. Maybe it was working?

With a final push of effort Naruto filled Sakura with as much of the Kyuubi's chakra as possible and fell away from her onto his back. Exhausted the demon chakra slowly dissipated. With the final dregs of his stamina and willpower Naruto got back up and pressed his ear to Sakura's bare chest. He could still hear a heartbeat! Sure she looked like a corpse pulled out of a house that had burned down… and exploded. But she was alive! So he dragged her over to lie by Sasuke and completely covered the entrance to their little hidey-hole with other roots and branches and fell into a deep slumber.

~AFT~

Team seven had caught one hell of a lucky break. No one seemed to come across their "hiding spot" and as such they weren't attacked in the four or so hours that the entire team was asleep. On the other hand when Naruto awoke he realized that he was the only one to do so. 'What the hell! Now I have to carry the teme all the way to the tower? Jeez… Though I ain't got a problem holding Sakura-chan, hehe.' But it was the thought of Sakura that jolted Naruto to full wakefulness. He had to check whether or not she was ok!

Looking at the prone girl beside him Naruto was filled with unparalleled joy. Sure she still looked really bad, but she was breathing, and with strength too! The rise and fall of her, still naked, chest was strong and steady, clearly her life was in no danger. Tears of happiness streamed down his face, 'She's going to be ok, thank Kami, she's going to be ok.'

After a moment of staring at his beautiful teammate Naruto had to turn away with a furious blush. She was naked! Making an easy decision Naruto removed his jacket and his shirt, the jacket he made Sakura wear as a top and the shirt he made a skirt out of by ripping open the head hole so that it rested comfortably on her hips. She looked silly, but she was clothed. Naruto's innocent mind no longer had to be tainted by the glorious image of Sakura's naked form, those thoughts almost made him take back his clothes, but he knew if Sakura ever found out he was staring at her naked she would kill him. So the clothes stayed on.

After that little adventure Naruto took a moment to remember what he did while under the Kyuubi's influence. He almost threw up when he remembered what each body looked like when he was done with them, how each of their faces were contorted in pain and horror, but in the end he didn't feel too bad about what he had done. They had hurt his precious Sakura-chan and they deserved it, every last moment of pain and agony was their due.

Shaking his head in an effort to vanish those morbid thoughts another realization occurred to Naruto: using the Kyuubi wasn't all that bad. 'I'm mean sure it hurt like hell to use it, but I was able to avenge Sakura-chan. I mean if one guy could do all that to her then what could I have done? Maybe I should figure out how to use it without going psycho…'

When Naruto had finished thinking, he created sixty-one Kage Bunshin and set sixty of them to establish a perimeter and one to pick up Sasuke. If Naruto had to get to the tower alone he was going to do it well. "For Sakura-chan!" Was his battle cry and off he went.

~AFT~

In his mad dash to get to the tower Naruto was able to get there in less than an hour. It was only about midday of the second day, which meant there would be a lot of time for everyone to recuperate. Especially Sakura. Even now all Naruto could think about was making sure she was ok. Having dispelled his little clone escort when he reached the bridge right before the tower Naruto only had to dispel the clone that held Sasuke. He did so with gusto. Snickering at the dull thump caused by his male teammate Naruto gently laid Sakura down on the concrete floor and withdrew the two scrolls he held. Not sure what to do Naruto read the writing up high on the wall.

Left even more confused by the "advice" that was clearly missing words Naruto decided to open the scrolls anyway. "What's the worst that could happen?" Were the naïve thoughts of the foolish blonde.

Smoke immediately started pouring out of the scrolls; so thinking it was some sort of trap Naruto threw them away and stood in front of Sakura in a defensive stance. To his relief and confusion, instead of an enemy, Iruka appeared.

"Yo!" was his casual salutation, though his eyes widened when he saw Naruto standing in front of a clearly unconscious and badly burnt Sakura. Glancing around he saw the crumpled form of an equally unconscious Sasuke; both seemed to be breathing which was a relief.

"What the hell?" Was Naruto's magnificent response. "What the hell are you doing here Iruka-sensei?"

"You see Naruto, at the end of the second test it's set up so that we chuunin meet up with the exam takers and I was allowed to be the one to greet you."

"Whaa…"

Glancing at his large pocket watch Iruka's expression changed from mildly amused to downright astonished. "Kami Naruto!" He exclaimed. "It's only the second day, and barely past noon! Good job on passing this portion of the exam so quickly! I was going to say that we celebrate with some ramen but… your teammates clearly need medical attention. Let's bring them to the infirmary so they can get the care they need."

But Naruto was still stuck on the fact that he passed. By himself no less! He had literally put the team on his back and it paid off. 'Sakura is going to be so happy when she wakes up… maybe she'll let me take her out on a date!" Encouraged by what the future held, Naruto leapt at Iruka in incomprehensible joy.

"I did it!"

Surprised by the flying tackle, but not completely unprepared, Iruka tried to get Naruto to refocus. "H-Hey Naruto. We got get Sakura and Sas-"

Naruto cut off Iruka. "Oh Kami, Iruka-sensei! Sakura needs help, please!"

Shaking his head at his ex-student's excitable nature Iruka answered him. "I already said that Naruto. The infirmary is this way. I'll grab Sasuke and you can bring your precious Sakura-chan."

Naruto blushed at his old sensei's suggestive tone, though a warm feeling filled his heart that someone else recognized his undying love for the most amazing kunoichi that lived. He then gently picked up said kunoichi, cradling her like the most precious of porcelains, and followed Iruka to the infirmary.

~AFT~

Upon seeing the state of the genin the infirmary staff immediately took them and set to work. Sasuke was a bit of a problem because for about an hour none of the nurses could find anything wrong with the boy. That is until they stripped him down and one of them noticed the cursed mark on his neck. Confused at what it was, but confident it was the source of Sasuke's state of unconsciousness and mild pain, one of the nurses were sent to fetch the Hokage. Hiruzen was greatly surprised to hear about the Cursed Mark and immediately went to the tower with Kakashi in tow. Upon arriving they were greeted by Anko who had also been informed of Sasuke's mark.

Striding right in the Hokage stood before the last Uchiha and sent all but Anko and Kakashi away. "We're removing the boy from the exams and I'm going to summon Jiraiya so that he can look at this. I understand yours is the same as his Anko so I expect you to help him with controlling it. For added precaution I want to put a temporary seal on top so that it doesn't so heavily influence him. And if he throws a hissy fit about not being in the exams just come to me and I'll straighten him out ok?"

With a nod of understanding the three of them got to work and set up the same seal the Hokage had used to seal away Anko's (1). After completing the seal and activating it Sarutobi called in the other nurses so they could continue to attend to Sakura and Naruto.

Taking care of Naruto was very simple. He had passed out the second they got Sakura's unconscious form onto a bed and given his natural healing all the nurses had to do was bandage his injuries which were mostly light burns and the odd small scratch or two. The only weird part was that the burns, while not that bad, were extensive. After stripping the boy down it was clear they covered almost all of his body. Not knowing why and not caring to find out the nurses simply applied burn ointment to speed up the healing process. The small boy would probably be out by tomorrow morning or late tonight depending on when he woke up.

Sakura was… concerning to say the least. Her wounds were the worst by far and stripping away Naruto's shirt and jacket only revealed their horrifying extent. Once again if it weren't for the years of experience each of the nurses and doctors had dealing with gruesome and grisly injuries, they were unfortunately commonplace in the shinobi line of work, many of them would have lost their recently eaten lunches.

She was disturbing to look upon. Much of her skin was burnt a deep red. Much of that skin, if it could be called that, was covered in gashes and cuts that even now wept blood. A second look at Naruto's clothes revealed that much of it was indeed stained with the girl's blood. While caring for her an incomprehensible amount of dirt, sticks, and rocks had to be removed from the rosette's body. Her legs more closely resembled meatloaf than they did actual legs and her arms resembled shredded paper.

It was a stressful three hours for the groups of nurses and doctors that were treating Sakura. They first had to bath the girl since most of her body was one big wound it was much easier than cleaning each wound individually before dressing it. Then they took some thirty to forty-five minutes removing sticks and rocks from her body having to plug up the weeping holes they left behind. The next step was to wrap her entire body in bandages; again it was easier than dressing each wound individually. Finally they assessed the extent of bone breakage in her body. The doctors and nurses were once again horrified to find all of her ribs broken, most of the bones in both of her legs, and some of the bones in her arms. Her skull had received several fractures and her jaw was broken. Luckily none of the ribs had punctured any internal organs so internal bleeding was one thing the poor girl wasn't suffering from. The biggest concern in the end was the several fractures and few breaks that could be found along the Sakura's spine. Even with the best medical attention and most advanced iryojutsu (medical jutsu) Sakura's chances of walking under her own power were slim to none. An exhausted team of medics realized at about 4:00 PM mere moments after finishing their final examinations, it was the end of her career as a ninja.

~AFT~

AN: So that's the end of the first chapter, I like to keep my chapter's around 5k words with a 2k word allowance above or below. Here felt like a good time to stop it anyway. I hope you guys liked it please tell me all of your thoughts and opinions in the reviews. Criticisms matter and in all of my works I strive to keep characters in character. So please criticize harshly as it's the only way I can grow as a writer. Thank You.

Oh and before it comes up I'll explain any notable changes or choices.

(1) It says the Hokage canonically sealed Anko's cursed seal of heaven and since she ain't (that) crazy I assume his was more permanent or strict than Kakashi's evil binding seal or whatever.

Again no bashing! Sasuke's removal from the exams makes sense it's a logical decision made by a wise man that has some experience with the seal. Not to mention Anko is there to influence the decision. Sakura wasn't removed on the off chance that she gets better in the three days left. Sasuke could have gotten up right then and Hiruzen still wouldn't have let him participate. It's a safety concern for Sasuke and the other competitors since Sasuke can fly off the handle at any time.

Sakura's not a lot better because even though she has Kurama's chakra flowing through her she's not as attuned to it was Naruto is as such it doesn't work as well when it comes to physical recovery.

Timeline wise the sound genin attacked the morning after the exam started so day two kind of. Since it was literally the break of dawn when they began to attack and Naruto found them half and hour later I'm saying that the fighting wrapped up at around 6:30 and he was sleeping at 7. I did a lot of calculations for when sunrise was so don't worry it's not an arbitrary or even plot convenient number. Sleeping for about four hours and getting to the tower in one, as well as Old Man Sarutobi sending everyone out for a couple of minutes makes the time in which the medics started working to be 12:30~ish, not long after lunch btw. If you notice Kurama's chakra is at work since Sakura never died from blood loss. This will be more evident next chapter. And yes given the time changes the ame genin did not stop Naruto nor did he run into Kabuto, it was much too early.

Uhhh the pairing is NarutoxSakura… duh. No harem, no way.

So the exam happens in April in my mind since we never see it snow in the manga though geography suggests it can in the winter, it's the first exam of the year, and the absolutely sublime weather that exists in Konoha at the time. Naruto swims without much issue and no one is seen dying of sweat, which suggest a very mild weather pattern that exists for about five days. So yeah, May. Also makes sense for the timeline I made.

And look how tiny canon Naruto and Sakura are lol. At 13 I was… 5'4" pushing 170 I believe. Huuu, I was a big kid.

(Naruto is 4'9" and 89 lbs) (Sakura is 4'10.5" and 76 lbs)

~AFT~

Edit: Didn't change much of anything, just some grammar and structure. Definitely doesn't need to be reread. Again, I'm trying to correct my own work so outside of reviews I don't have much to go off when it comes to editing, so sorry if the "update" disappoints.