Disclaimer: i do not own Naruto or any of its characters, just the plot. and the OC's.

Title: Bearing an Hourglass

Language: English

Form: Multi-Chaptered

Genre: Romance/Adventue

Rating: T

Pairing: Sakura Haruno/Sasuke Uchiha, Kushina Uzumaki/Minato Namikaze

Summary: What would you do if you found out you are one of the only two people exclusively chosen to trade your existing time line for another one to fix past mistakes, so that the entire fate of the ninja word effectively lies on your shoulders in just a single minute? That's what Sakura and Sasuke have to figure out.

Note: Okay! The second part' second part! Hope you enjoy! Please read the author's note at the end of the chapter.

Bearing an Hourglass

by fourthfireshadow

Act II

Chapter 14- A Test of the Body (Part II)

"Incoming. There's a team that's headed directly to where we are. They'll reach us in approximately four minutes at the pace they're going." Hitoshi said, Byakugan eyes roving over the peripherals before settling on them, the whiteness and bulging nerves unnerving to directly stare at. "What's our plan? Engage or escape?"

"They may be going in that pace only because we're stationary at the moment. Once we run, I'm sure they'll give chase." Sakura thought out loud, looking at Minato for his input.

"…We do need a scroll," he pursed his lips in thought, looking at the direction Hitoshi had been looking at, "And we only have six hours until this test is over. Why delay the inevitable."

"Hmm," Sakura agreed, checking the chakra she had left. If it came to an all-out team battle, she'll need it. "Alright, well, we should lead them away to a terrain most suitable for us and most disadvantageous for them."

"Our first spot?" Hitoshi affirmed, already starting to lead the way.

"Yup." Minato answered, "Plan 8."

A smirk pulled at Sakura's lips at that, anticipation already starting to bubble underneath. Team 10 had about fifty plans regarding elemental teamwork. The main strengths of Team 10 were mostly concentrated in fire and wind, with all of them having a primary or secondary elemental affinity in one of them, but also had a grasp on earth and water elementals as well, as Hitoshi had a primary water affinity and she had a secondary earth affinity. The one element that was missing in their team was unfortunately, lightning. So, as precautions sake, the Team 10's Elemental Agenda was born. Plan's one through ten were regarding fire, eleven through twenty on wind, twenty-one through thirty on water and thirty-one through forty on earth. The last ten were regarding defensive manoeuvres against lightning, should they as a team face such an element.

As for their first spot…

"Here's fine." Minato said the moment all of them reached. "How far are they, Hitoshi?"

"Less than a minute."

That anticipation that had been building steadily beneath her skin spiked sharply as the other team finally made their appearance. The anticipation got tainted only slightly with apprehension as she saw Sarutobi's team opposite them. Shifting her glance from the older boy, she understood why they'd been tracked so efficiently. Inuzuka Tsume was on their team. As well as Hitoshi's cousin, Byakugan at the ready. She wondered how Hitoshi was; was he excited to face his cousin, or apprehensive? She didn't even have an idea if the other was from the branch family or the main one since he was wearing his forehead protector the way it was traditionally meant to be worn.

This one was definitely a tracker team that could give Mikoto's a run for their money.

The moment Sakura spied the tensing of calf muscles on Tsume, she shifted her stance immediately to the defensive, eyes super vigilant at the prospect of an extreme fight. She knew Hitoshi would probably take the Hyuuga—his competitiveness regarding any member of his clan near his age group were very well-known—so that left her Inuzuka and Sarutobi to choose from.

Inuzuka Tsume, she remembered from the academy, but while she never really paid attention to her in terms of skills and technique—she was attending the academy for a second time! Most of the time, she was either freaking out or feeling disturbingly like Shikamaru, without the IQ of course—she had paid attention to Inuzuka Kiba and Akamaru, who was once her friend, and so she knew what to expect from her, this younger version of the Inuzuka matriarch.

On the other hand, worryingly, Sarutobi was a blank slate.

She remembered whatever she had seen of Asuma-sensei before his untimely death, and she had a general gist of the powers the Third Hokage possessed, or rather, possesses. But the thing was, even back then, Sarutobi Ren was a mystery. Other than the fact that he was once an Anbu and the father of Konohamaru, nothing else was known. Which meant, she had no idea to expect other than to base him to be a fire elemental type based on his family.

"You guys must be one scroll short if you're so willing to fight, leading us and everything." Tsume remarked, an almost smug smile on her face.

"Seeing as you're just as willing, it's pretty obvious you must be too." Hitoshi snapped back, wiping the smug smile right off her face.

"Enough talk." The Hyuuga muttered, flicking his hands to release the shurikens at them. She really wanted to point out that it was his team that started the stupid talk as she jumped high, but refrained and instead locked eyes with Minato's blue ones. At his nod, she moved to the right while he moved to the left, hand signs being formed simultaneously, hands only a blur.

Plan 8 was this—If in a forested area and forced to face opponents, then the objective was to finish it fast and rough. As the team comprises of two fire types, primary and secondary, a quick fire jutsu only was needed to start a maelstrom of fire, thereby reducing visibility, disrupting sensory abilities, oxygen depletion resulting in short fights and creating extreme unfavourable conditions for the opposing faction. A major downside is that all the facts stated above also applied to themselves. The major play here is the element of surprise.

"Now!" Minato's yell reached her and she let the stream of fire steadily escape her mouth, the heat of it already slightly burning the inner skin and the outer corners of her lips, but it was worth it to see the destruction the flames left in their wake. Their first spot—the spot where they'd defended the scrolls was in the deeper part of the forest, a patch where the canopy almost completely covered the sky and foliage was too thick to see through. Apply that with the situation right now and you get a whirl of fire, the flames eating up the greenery faster than she'd even predicted. Knowing that Minato was doing the same on the other side meant this would only be bigger.

The downsides of this plan could be felt pretty quick. The air was getting thicker and heavier, tainted with smoke and ash, and the heat was almost unbearable as expected. In a few seconds, it would get slightly harder to breathe until all oxygen gets consumed. But the advantages were apparent as well. As the team comprises of Fire types, they have more of an advantage in such a condition, and the same applies to the Water type in the team, although to not such an extent.

They had time, was what that meant.

Not losing any time, Sakura shot towards the nearest target—the Inuzuka—and shot two shuriken at her that she dodged sloppily making them bite into the tree trunk behind her. The girl was clearly affected by the smoke and the heat, and her strongest weapon—her strong sense of smell, was also completely blocked, but still she valiantly tried to fight. She swiped her claws at Sakura in a rashness borne of desperation, and sending a quick apology to her mentally, the pinkette tugged at the wires that had been attached to the shuriken harshly, making it fly rapidly towards Tsume in a speed the girl couldn't comprehend at the moment which resulted in the shuriken imbedding itself deeply into the tendons of the girl's calves.

The girl's scream overlapped with the thunk of her knees harshly hitting the ground as she fell, unable to keep the weight on her feet. Unable to take the harsh breathing and the pain so clearly etched into her features, Sakura gave a final punch that knocked the girl out and reacting instantly, knocked the dog that had attempted to do a surprise attack out as well, laying the puppy in the girl's furry coat. Patting down the girl, she didn't feel any scroll, which was disappointing.

Short and sweet. Too short, actually, but she knew Tsume was severely disadvantaged in this situation and Sakura had just literally jumped her.

Coughing slightly, she could feel her lungs start to slightly struggle in inhaling pure air. The area was becoming too unstable. They had mere seconds before they'd have to scatter. Turning quickly, she saw Hitoshi facing that Hyuuga, but she didn't really need to worry since he looked like he was about to win. On the other hand, Minato looked like he was fighting the battle of his life against the Sarutobi, which was exactly what she was worried about. The boy didn't look as affected as his teammates had, which gave standing to her previous assumption of him also being a fire type, which just made things harder.

Seeing a chance, she ducked underneath Minato's arm to perform an uppercut, slightly coating her fist with unstable chakra. Unstable chakra, seeing as she didn't have perfect chakra control anymore, tended to damage tissue cells, and already she could feel how sore her arms would feel later, but seeing as she has regenerative powers, she could afford to be a little liberal with it. Unfortunately, Ren dodged it, but she didn't give him time to recuperate, pouncing on him with intent and hopefully giving Minato enough time to rest and stabilize his breathing for a second.

Ren was insanely good at hand-to-hand, that was apparent. She couldn't get a hit in, and his speed seemed to be superior as well. If his speed was superior, then she didn't have the option of using a jutsu, other than the headhunter, but that wasn't really an option if you were already having trouble breathing. He blocked another punch, but this one was coated with chakra and from the slight wince of pain on his face, she knew he felt it. Taking the opportunity, she brought her leg up for a kick and used the fist he let go of to twist into a hand stand, performing a variation of a butterfly kick. One of her feet connected, sending him flying back, but he downplayed the momentum by using chakra to stick to the bark. Leaping up and sticking to the branch high up, she shot down, using the momentum of gravity to increase her speed and pulled the boy down with her, holding the collar of his jacket as she kicked him hard in the ribs mid-air. With the breath knocked out of him, Ren twisted with the speed and catching hold of her shoulders, flipped off of her to the nearest branch.

Kunai in hand, she ran towards him after landing with a hand spring, intent on finishing him off in a taijutsu only match since the heat was starting to burn her skin raw, when they locked eyes, and for a moment the world stilled with time moving as slow as possible

Then it all unravelled from there.

Everything blurred around her, the focal point being Ren's narrowed dark eyes reflecting fire, the scratch Minato had given bleeding and wet, the sweat drenched locks of dark hair obstructing his eyes. The voices of splintering wood and call of her name all slowed down into nothingness. The trees, the foliage, the bright red and yellow flames all a mirage around her, blurry and spinning and hazy, until it seemed like the yellow and red overtook everything in her peripherals, the heat growing as much as the flames did, the haziness sharp and soft at the same time.

And then suddenly, almost as if a button was pressed, her whole world turned white.

And then there were two people in front of her.

Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno.

Now, Sakura was naturally a genjutsu type, and while she had never had the time to venture into the practical use of the art, she was extremely resistant to illusionary techniques, with perhaps illusions set by Uchiha as an exception, but even then she was better than most at detecting and dispelling them. This ability had thankfully carried over to this life as well, so naturally she had detected the pull of an illusion being cast upon her the moment their eyes had locked. She even knew what genjutsu it was.

But then her parents, her real parents, appeared before her and all logic in her head disappeared.

Kizashi's hair was as absurd as she'd seen it last, dull pink and pointy, his skin tanned as she only knew and his eyes just as kind. Mebuki was wearing that same top she'd always worn—off white, with no creases in sight. If she strained, she could recollect how the material had always felt in her calloused hands, always crisp with that scent of fresh cotton and that pure maternal aroma. They both smiled—his grin wide and unflinching and hers small, but sincere, and Sakura lost it.

Contrary to popular belief, Sakura wasn't really good at getting over things. One thing she was good at, undeniably, was coping. She coped throughout life. She coped through the bullying over her forehead. She coped through the ninja academy when her parents were slightly against her decision. She coped through breaking off her friendship with her best friend, over a boy. She coped with being put in a team with two boys. She coped with being ignored by her supposed sensei in favour of those same boys. She coped through the pain of ignorance. She coped through the heartbreak of rejection. She coped through the ache of abandonment. She coped through the anguish of being insignificant.

Then her life changed forever, but she still coped. She coped through a whole village's destruction. She coped through seeing her best friends smile in his mother, every single time. She coped through living through time again. She coped through having to see the face that still occasionally gave her nightmares every day. She coped through never seeing her friends again. She coped through never seeing her parents ever again.

But coping doesn't mean accepting and moving on. It meant surviving. Sakura survived, but she still held everything close to her heart, all scabs and regrets and tears and pain. There was never an outlet for her, after all. Everyone else's problems just seemed too catastrophic to an unreachable god-like degree that hers just seemed insignificant, which was sadly enough, a running theme in her life. Coping avoided confrontation. And her parents were the people she missed the utmost, to the point where she'd wished in the darkest of nights to take her back to the days of war just so she could see them one more time.

And just seeing this mirage of her parents was enough to bring destruction into her psyche. Sakura was frozen completely, her eyes roving over their faces hungrily, desperately, like remembering their faces to the utmost clarity after a long time. Her mind was going to overdrive; her body was shutting down.

"Darling…"

And then they vanished, blurring out of focus and then disappearing as easily as they did in life.

She cried out, loudly, achingly, only to stop short at the shimmering sight of Naruto now in front of her, orange and bright haired and tall and whiskered. A small smile appeared on his face as he walked forward to where she was kneeling down, tears silently trickling down. The soft smile was the one he usually wore when he was being understanding or empathetic, usually directed at her as he gave her a stick of dango or something of the sort. The pang in her chest hit her hard as she realized how long it'd been since not just replaying a memory of his. His deep blue familiar eyes were glimmering with kindness and openness as he spoke, his voice as deep and scratchy as it always was.

"Thank you for taking care of mom and dad, Sakura-chan."

Her viridian eyes widened at that, tears spilling and breath hitching at the not at all expected words until he vanished as well to be replaced by a very familiar silhouette of a very familiar back, dazzling blue sparking electricity running up and down his arms making light and shadow interact mysteriously with his visage.

And then he turned, madness and rage and apathy and loss swimming in blood red spinning eyes.

"Sakura."

And then there was black as her mind promptly shut down.

.

.

.

It was when he sensed a spike of uncomfortable familiar chakra that he abruptly changed direction and ran.

"Wha—hey! Sasuke! Where're you going!"

"Sasuke—the tower's the other way…?!"

Sasuke heard the confused yells and frustrated yelps from his teammates behind him, but he didn't particularly care at the moment. They could've gone ahead to the mission tower and left him behind with both the scrolls easily if they'd so wished and he still wouldn't have noticed with the tunnel vision he was experiencing right then. That chakra flaring like a bright, dazzling beacon in his senses. He couldn't have ignored it even if he'd wanted to.

But when he felt more than heard their presence right behind him, their less-than-steady steps falling in step with his, he could feel the relief and slight gratitude mingling in him. He knew this detour wasn't going to help them much—they only had three hours left until the exam was over and some of them had depleted their chakra way too much—but that chakra. The one he'd ingrained in his brain the moment he'd felt it for the first time in this new timeline, the one he'd felt for so many times in this timeline that he was pretty sure that even a strange discordance in the signature could be felt in his blood.

And now it was spiking and flaring like crazy.

Sasuke smelt the blood before he saw it, the abundance of it lining the dirt. And then he saw her in the midst of it.

Mikoto.

He was sure he felt his heart stop in his chest at her in the middle of all this red, his steps faltering in its speed and almost tripping at the sight, catching himself at the last possible second. He was sure his teammates had noticed his abrupt stop, the blatant fear shining in his onyx eyes, but thankfully, Kushina had been distracted by the same sight he was.

Sasuke could feel his mouth drying out and a very apparent tremble set into his muscles at the sight, at the onslaught of memories and nightmares slamming into him with the force of a sledgehammer. It wasn't a slow process, this one, like a heart attack. No, this was instead like someone simply ripping away all the walls he'd painstakingly built up after coming here, ones he thought were sky-high and impenetrable now that it was mostly behind him and he had a new life to live out, but he was so foolish, wasn't he? Because all those walls were in a mere millisecond ripped away piece by piece easier than a freaking band-aid, until only black remained around him.

Black and splotches of blood and pale hands and dead faces

He'd been foolish.

How could he have, even for a second let alone a few years, thought he'd risen above it all and come out of his tragedy of an original life with more than half a mind and heart intact? How could he have thought a second chance meant simply rewriting this history? How, when just the sight of blood from this person—because she was, would be, his mother. There's no use trying to escape from the fact. She was one of the few people that always, always haunted him. Always—sent him reeling into the past as easily as one walks, or breathes? Deluded himself into thinking that this was his life now, when he still couldn't let go of fucking origin story.

Foolish, foolish, foolish.

That thin layer that separated this reality from his previous one—the one that made it sort of alright to see his would-be-father as Fugaku and Fugaku only, to see his would-be-mother as Mikoto and Mikoto only—had disintegrated completely, memories and flashes of both realities colliding rapidly, destructively and whirling around his mind like a firestorm.

It was impossible to separate now. It was impossible to deny now.

It was only a moment later that Sasuke realised, through shaky breaths and trembling fingers that the blood wasn't hers, but of one of her teammates who lying farther back and seemed to be comatose, bleeding heavily. On the other hand, Mikoto was the only one facing their adversaries, fear and determination obvious in the set of her jaw, the glint in her hardened eyes.

She was still alive.

She was still alive.

It was that last though that sent him reeling in emotions he couldn't place right at the moment, the intensity of them too much, and the newness, the rawness of that feeling almost left him feeling bereft, because he'd never considered such an impossibility, had he?

Stop thinking, he screamed internally as he finally set to motion, that familiar tunnel-vision helpfully blocking out everything else other than the animalistic urge to rip and tear anything and everything that could be averse to that baffling epiphany he'd had, short lived as it'd been. He still had fear in his eyes, but at least he could move as he landed right in front of Mikoto, the thought of final protecting her making him feel slightly winded.

And to make it even worse, it was the same team that had attacked them before that was the perpetuator of this one as well.

"You already got their scroll! What are you still fighting them for, ttebane?!" Kushina burst out, landing next to Sasuke and laying a tight grip on his wrist. The message was clear—Calm down. But he couldn't fully comprehend it, the bloodlust in the air emitting from him abundantly clear as he glared something deadly at the other Uchiha, crouching slightly in preparation to lunge.

He relaxed fractionally at the presence of his other teammate on his right. He had support.

"Was it the ego-thrashing you took, fighting Sasuke here?" Kagetsu continued in Kushina's stead, voice calm but slightly trembling, "did you just want to prove to yourself that you are still a strong Uchiha, is that it?"

At that, the Uchiha's eyes widened before they narrowed in danger. "How dare you talk to me like that. It's not my fault that she's so weak she couldn't do anything to defend herself." He spat out, glaring venomously at the fallen girl. Sasuke growled at that, his chakra whirling inside him ominously. He had no curse mark this time around, but he knew that if he had, this would've been the moment he would've gone out of control.

"You're fighting her three to one, you utter clan moron!" the redhead yelled out in anger, now directly shielding Mikoto from his view. At the gesture, Sasuke felt a sharp stab of gratitude, throwing a slightly bewildered glance at the riled-up girl. "She's protecting her teammates! And you're the utter scum that's not leaving things well enough alone!"

"I'd given you a warning. Now," Sasuke's eyes flashed the colour of blood, the world abruptly turning brighter, sharper, clearer, purer.

"Now, I don't give a fuck about goodwill."

.

.

.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Sakura stared at the massive steel gate in front of her, with the sides of the gate intricately decorated as she's ever seen and the large parchment seal with intimidating strokes right in the middle of it. Even tilting her head up doesn't help in seeing the top. Shifting her stance, she looked at her surrounding—just a blank space of nothingness, other than dot like lights in the far off distance, resembling stars almost, giving off only slight white illumination in an otherwise darker than dark never-ending space. It was nearly at odds with the foreboding massiveness that was before her, or even the aura emitting from it.

Dark, chaotic, destructive, rampant, wild, encompassing, tempting, revolting.

It was eerily similar to something she'd felt in her previous life.

She, of course, knew where she was. This was her first time being here, her first time ever being allowed into this space in her mind. This was her inner psyche, her subconscious, or more importantly, where her prisoner was locked up. It sure was an extravagant prison though. She'd heard about the experience from Naruto before, however vague it was, but now she could understand just why his explanation was vague, good with words or not, because how exactly do you explain this?

She stepped back in startled fright, her steps making squelching, wet sounds in the stark silence as a massive red eye stared at her through the darkness, the red seeming even brighter with the low light. She could see herself reflected in it.

"You finally made it, little girl."

Sakura almost took another step back at its—his, she reminded herself—voice, the gravelly timbre of it striking a type of stabbing fear that she suspects may never go away. She was an ant compared to this behemoth, and this was inside her? If he decided to kill her, she'd have no chance. Not that he would, she guessed, since killing her meant killing himself. She didn't even know how to respond to that, if she could even start to make her vocal chords work. Sorry it took so long? Did you wait long?

"I did, twerp. Years of it, although years feels like days to me now." The reply came, a hateful growl present in his echoing tone and Sakura's eyes widened, her hands trembling. He could read her mind.

He could read her mind, her memories. Memories of Na—

"I've seen it all." His voice floated over again, "All those…memories of yours."

At that, her wide eyes widened even more, hope beginning to fill her at how there was a possibility of this being easy, this process. "Then you know wha—!"

Her note of exclamation was swallowed by the pure, grating sound that filled every molecule of the space as the kyuubi in all his glory suddenly slammed into the bars of the metal gate with tremendous force, a disgusting, terrifying toothy snarl in place as he glared down at her from his incredible height with promises of death and suffering in his slit like eyes. His canines glinted ominously as he bared his teeth in a show of power and threat, his elongated claws scratching rabidly at the space it could reach outside of those bars holding him in place and all his nine tails rising up behind him in all its famed splendour.

This was the Nine-Tailed Fox that wreaked havoc and killed thousands upon thousands on the day Naruto was born, Sakura frightfully reminded herself from the spot she'd fallen to at the abrupt, horrifying sight. Not the Kurama that willing shared his chakra to all the members of the Allied Shinobi Force.

"I do not appreciate being made a fool out of me, girl!" He snarled loudly, the hate pressing down on her heart dangerously, his chakra filling every corner in spades making her want to throw up at the sheer amount of it. "You think fabricated lies, illusions, like that will soften me after centuries of being imprisoned? Do you? If you do, you must be as stupidly foolish as you look."

Her fingers shook noticeably in the water as she pushed herself up, her limbs shaky at the toll that fright took on her body and mind. It was with great difficulty that she managed to look up into his eyes, focusing on how she looks in his gaze rather than the accusation and deep revulsion swimming in them.

She looked wrecked.

"They're not lies."

A deep, thunderous growl was her response, spittle flying in the air as the rage became more pronounced. Sakura gathered up all her guts and looked at him head on this time, still shaking but more resolved. Determined.

Blue eyes and blonde hair and whiskers filled her peripherals.

Green eyes and pink hair stood defiantly against the behemoth, a dot compared to the beast as she stared, unflinchingly.

"You'll see when I make them all reality."

.

.

.

"Where are we?" Green eyes peered through half open eyes as Sakura blinked groggily, her surrounding all still foggy as she tried to make sense of things through the splitting headache she currently had.

Minato couldn't help the relief flooding his system as she opened her eyes fully and focused on him after a few moments of gathering her bearings. She looked unfocused for a moment looking at him, as if she was remembering someone else, before she returned to the present. "We're still in the forest. Far away from the forest fire we created though, don't worry."

"I fell unconscious, didn't I?" she groaned, sitting up slowly, not minding Minato's fussing hands at the moment. It was slightly heart-warming how worried he looked.

Hitoshi scoffed from behind him. "Yeah you did. First you make me go far away and get caught, yes that was your fault, don't glare, and then you go and fall unconscious. Nice going."

Sakura rolled her eyes at that, but Minato saw her softening up a little at the rant. Must've realised he was worried as well, even if it didn't look like it. They both were.

"…Did we get the scroll?" she asked after a moment, tone hopeful. At the silence that followed, the pinkette sighed, a crestfallen expression crossing her face, until she spied the navy blue bordered scroll in the blond's palm. Her eyes widened.

"What the—? So we do have both scrolls?"

Minato burst out laughing while Hitoshi grinned mischievously.

"After Ren put you in a genjutsu, I had the opening I needed to incapacitate him. The scroll was apparently with that Hyuuga, so Hitoshi and I finished him off and got it." The blond explained, still grinning at the baffled look on Sakura's face. It was a great feeling, catching her off-guard. He didn't like how he was always the one caught off-guard in this team—it felt good to be on the teasing side for once.

"Let's get to the tower."

And with that, they were off, Minato still occasionally looking over the girl of the team. Sakura must've known that they were worried about her fainting spell, but he knew she had no idea just how much. Especially in his case, since he was the one carrying her away from the destruction they'd caused.

Therefore, he was also the one that had seen the mysteriously foreboding red bubbling up from beneath her skin to the surface, simmering almost and effectively burning his jacket sleeves until they disappeared gradually. It was inhuman, the way the substance bubbled up and coated her skin lightly like a protective layer, but Minato knew it was chakra. Even if it didn't look like it, it was; he could sense it after all. Only, this chakra was deeply disturbing in its potent darkness. He remembered wincing at the heat he felt through the material of his jacket as he held her for those few minutes and looking at the troubled expression on her face. It was only when the expression melted away that the bubbling chakra faded away as well.

None of it was normal.

But looking at the determined, but relieved expression on her face, he didn't feel like bringing it up at the moment. He resolved to get to the bottom of it, however.

He'd ask her about it after the exams, Minato promised himself.

.

.

.

"Congratulations on passing the second stage of the Chunnin Exams, all of you." The Third Hokage announced, a pleased gleam in his eye as he looked at the turnout. The nine genin that had passed the exam stood in lines of three according to teams in the large auditorium hall they'd been sent to. Roving his eyes over the genin, he smirked darkly at the absence of Team 13. His team had made sure they wouldn't be able to pass after all. Though, in the back of his mind, he was pretty sure his cousin—labelling that person with such a familial term left an absolutely wretched taste in his mouth—was going to go off and complain to his parents about his behaviour in the exams. Now, he didn't particularly care about that; if that kid was a whiny idiot who never wanted to grow up, that was his problem—and what a problem it was—but it may prove to cause friction between their families. Sasuke represented his clan in the exams, sure, but he more intimately represented his family, second life or not. And in a way, he also represented Fugaku, ironically enough. His lips twitched downwards; this could prove to be troublesome in the future.

He was a bit disappointed to not see Mikoto in the genins that passed. He knew she wouldn't have been able to make it—both her teammates were down for the count and she wasn't so far off. But that just made him think of the drops of her blood on the dirt at the scene and he couldn't regret any of his actions that took place in the exams at all, even if there may be clan politics to fight off in the future.

It was completely worth it.

"The Will of Fire is something that has been passed on from generation to generation…" and on the speech continued with him tuning everything out. It wasn't anything he hadn't heard.

Sasuke scowled at the sight of the fidgeting Kushina in front of him and restrained himself from just holding her in place. Rolling his eyes slightly, he slid his gaze to the side, locking eyes with bright viridian abruptly.

Immediately, those eyes widened, making the green look so familiarly brighter, before strands of pale pink obscured them from view as she looked right forward, slightly rigid. His own had slightly widened at the sudden moment, having not expected it, before they roved over her person and narrowing minutely at the rips he found on her sleeve. However, he didn't see any bruises—the nine tails must've been helping in that aspect.

Seeing her like this was making him remember a past he never liked reminiscing. Reminiscing wasn't the right word, however, since that meant he was looking back at nicer memories, like spending time at Ichiraku or getting to hold his first sword. Not flashes of melting faces and fiery wires, blue eyes accusing him of being a coward and looking at death straight in the eye. Not stabbing a kunai in his thigh or crippling, agonizing, never ending pain. Not excruciating fear and being unable to move.

Not jaggedly cut pink hair and ripping of arms out of their sockets and intermingling terror and worry in bright familiar green.

Sasuke drops his gaze to the linoleum floor at the abundance of flashes, all imprinted in the back of his eyelids. This wasn't reminiscing. This was remembering, in vivid clarity.

His gaze locks with hers again, green peeking through pale pink slightly. She looked a little different, something in her eyes had changed, he noticed. Something he'd have to corner her about later but other than that, at this moment with her stealing glances at him, Sakura looked too similar to the girl he first knew, way in the past. As her eyes widened once more at his continued staring, he couldn't help but think she wasn't subtle at all. But then again, when it came to him, was she ever?

Another flash, of worried coloured eyes. Of a hand clutching his for dear life. A feeling.

His lips quirked in a ghost of a smile on one side as he looked at her eyes for a final time. As he saw the tips of her ears flush red, Sasuke looked away to the other side of the auditorium, an odd sense of bashfulness settling in deep for a small moment. Since he was pretty sure his was the same colour.

"Now, I want each one of you to select one of these chits. Each one assigns you a number that will decide your first opponent in the upcoming tournament." A proctor said, passing along chits to everyone as he walked around. Unfolding the piece of paper in his hands, he stared at the number five in bold print.

"What'd you get?" Kushina turned around, hair almost whipping him in the face if he hadn't stepped back a millisecond before. "I got two and Kagetsu got eight."

Soundlessly, he showed his chit to the girl to appease her. At least he knew he wasn't fighting any of his teammates in the first rounds, which filled him with a small sense of relief. But then he could be fighting Sakura. Sasuke paused in his musings—he didn't know how to feel about that if it did come to that. He hadn't given it much thought, to be honest.

He never had.

This wouldn't be some spar or anything of the sort. This would be a battle to win. How would it be to go up against Sakura with an intent to incapacitate and win?

Strangely enough, the Uchiha could feel the first vestiges of anticipation at the thought.

"Alright. Now that everyone's been assigned their numbers, please look at the screen to see your opponent and the order of the matches."

Match 1: Inuzuka Tsume vs Uzumaki Kushina

Match 2: Uzumaki Sakura vs Sarutobi Ren

Match 3: Uchiha Sasuke vs Hyuuga Hitoshi

Match 4: Namikaze Minato vs Kagetsu Risako

Match 5: Hyuuga Hisao vs (Winner of Match 4)

Sasuke immediately looked at his first opponent, the Hyuuga on Team 10. He wasn't really worried about this match, to be honest, but by the way Hyuuga was glaring at him, it was pretty apparent he was. He tried to restrain his smirk but the way the Hyuuga's pale glare got even more deadlier, he wasn't sure if he succeeded. On the other hand, the pinkette in their team looked rigid as she assumedly stared at her opponent. Sarutobi Ren, was it? He must be related to the pipsqueak that had always followed Naruto around in the early days, but why did she look so worried, exactly? Did something happen with his team in the chunnin exams? Sasuke frowned slightly in annoyance; she always did worry about things for no reason.

"There will be a total of eight matches in the tournament, if everything goes accordingly,"—Sasuke couldn't help but snort quietly at that. That would've been the most ironic sentence ever regarding his first exams— "and the participants have to be present five minutes before their assigned match unless they wish to be disqualified."

The proctor looked at them all dead in the eye.

"The third exam begins exactly one month from now."

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Authors Note—

As always, please follow/favourite and review and let me know how my story's progressing! Constructive criticism and suggestions are always welcome, as well as encouragements, of course! I'm not sure if you guys remember a poll I'd kept at the beginning of the story, but these fights will have something similar to that. I want everyone to vote on who they think will win in these matches! Let me know and if you have any helpful tips for any of these matches or if you have something you specifically want to read about in these fights, let me know and I'll see what I can do.