Sakura woke up to the mechanical hum of medical equipment and the overwhelming tang of disinfectant.

She blinked slowly, to take in her surroundings. Was she in the hospital? Or a medical facility in the Forest of Death? There almost had to be one there, after all. She tried to look around, but the stark blankness of the room was hurting her eyes. The fluorescent lights buzzed over her head, bathing the already white room with obnoxiously bright light. Her whole head felt like it had been squished by a giant summons. Her ears rang and her eyes hurt and it was all just too much to take right now, so she squeezed her eyes shut again and desperately tried to think of a happy place. Her room, with her (much, much more comfortable) bed, the long pink curtains, the smell of her mother's cooking wafting up the stairs.

It wasn't working- the smell of disinfectant and soap was too overpowering for her to dismiss. Her lips felt dry, too- it was kind of painful. It wasn't nearly as bad as the soreness in the rest of her body or her migraine, but it certainly wasn't helping.

Sakura gave it up as a bad job and ran her tongue awkwardly over cracked lips- the taste of blood combined with her rank breath made her grimace.

'How long was I out? Couldn't have been too long. It's not like this bed is that comfortable- then again, I was probably unconscious.'

Sakura sat up slowly and painfully aware of the protest of each muscle group involved. She cautiously shielded her eyes from the light and scanned the room. Her belongings were stacked on the table in the corner- and there was a new outfit for her to wear (most likely brought by her mother, judging by the fact that it was a regular dress, and not any sort of ninja clothing). There was a solitary flower by the bed with a card- Sakura's heart jumped. Was it from Sasuke-kun? Or even Naruto- she honestly wasn't going to be picky today.

Her first reach was halted by the tubing coming out of the crook of her elbow. Sakura grimaced, using her left hand to straighten the iv as much as possible.

'Nice. I'm so powerless that someone hooked me up to a machine.'

That thought was gross and depressing, so she ignored it. She reached out to the table and strained for the card, weakly plucking it from the holder with the tips of her fingers.

It was from Ino- her heart sunk a bit. At least it was nice that Ino-pig cared enough to send her a card and flowers, even if the message she wrote was 'Good try, Forehead.'

Disappointment curled in her gut. Sakura let the card drop.

'I don't know why I thought my teammates might have sent me anything.'

They didn't really spend much time with her outside of team practices, and they were pretty clueless. And she probably had only been in the hospital for a day or less, they hadn't really even had time to visit yet.

Still, it hurt. She would have visited them in the hospital. Wasn't her team supposed to be there for her for these things? Hinata-chan's teammates were always right there with her, and Ino's team moved as a cohesive (if slow-moving) unit. It seemed like Team 7 was the only one that never got the picture. She saw Teams 8 and 10 out to lunch together, practicing (outside of mandatory practices), going to movies and festivals.

Team 7 didn't do any of that. She couldn't even get her teammates to spar with her seriously. Sasuke just 'tch'ed from the back of his throat and walked away, and Naruto continually tried to ask her on dates.

Maybe she should have taken him up on one of them- she felt pretty damn lonely right now.

'If it weren't for these stupid exams, this wouldn't have happened.'

Sakura buried her face in her pillow, trying to ignore that she knew perfectly well that the chuunin exams had only made obvious what had already been true.

She was dead weight to her teammates. They were kilometers ahead of her in ability, and they never worked with her like they worked with each other. It just wasn't even considered as an option. Occasionally they would go to her for a strategy or Sasuke-kun would throw her a bone by allowing her to point out something he'd already seen, but…

'That man… Orochimaru. He didn't even look at me. The boys were strong enough to actually fight him, but he didn't even acknowledge me. I'm so much weaker than Naruto and Sasuke-kun. No wonder they don't have anything to do with me.'

Sasuke-kun's performance hadn't been shocking- amazing, but not unexpected. He had always been cool and talented beyond his years. But Naruto had been the weakest, most pathetic graduate out of their cohort. Not only had he won his match against Kiba, but he'd been able to stand his ground against Orochimaru in the forest of death. Sakura couldn't even beat Ino.

'How am I ever going to catch up?'

She wasn't nearly that strong or brave.

No- what she was, was ANGRY.

At herself, at her teammates –they wouldn't have come to visit her in the hospital if she'd been there for a month- at her Sensei, who preached teamwork but never taught it, at Ino- who had been right all along and only wanted to support her (it didn't make that any easier to take, Sakura didn't want her pity), at Konoha- they wanted her to fight and die for a fucking stretch of dirt and a stupid mountain and didn't even know an S-class missing-nin was hanging out in their Chuunin Exams, at everything.

She wanted to rage at the sky, to scream and hit things and then go home and have a long warm bath and sleep for a year. If she didn't confront it- if she didn't talk to her teammates (not that they'd notice, the first time Sasuke had cared about her was actually an excuse to be horrifying and malicious), if she didn't deal with the anger and pain she was feeling… maybe it would go away. Maybe if she waited long enough the resentment and loneliness (she was so pathetic to never be able to be alone) would disappear and she could go back to pretending she was happy with the way her life was going.

Except she hadn't been pretending that well to start with, had she? She yelled at Kakashi-Sensei (she couldn't stand him and his obvious perverse preferences, his tardiness, his lackadaisical attitude towards her education), she hit Naruto (his yelling, his stupidity, his single-mindedness in treating her like a goal to achieve instead of a person), and she fawned over Sasuke (even when she intellectually knew it wasn't entirely about her crush anymore, but an attempt to return any sense of normalcy to her life- too much was changing, too fast).

If her team hadn't even noticed, and her Sensei hadn't talked to her about it (it wasn't like she hid her discomfort that well, hell, the dango vendor she frequented had noticed for fuck's sake), it was unlikely that that was ever going to change.

Sakura looked longingly out the window into the altogether-too-bright streets of Konoha and heaved a sigh. She could leave, but it was inadvisable for her to remove her own IV. She avoided looking down at it and instead fumbled with her other arm to find the call button for one of the nurses.

They removed her IV with a smile after running a few tests to make sure there wasn't any permanent damage and let her check out with no fuss. It wasn't surprising. A few scrapes, bruises, and being unconscious were a pretty tame list of symptoms for a patient in a shinobi village. They would probably want that bed available for somebody that was actually injured- not a pathetic little Genin with a few bumps.

Even though she was angry at her teammates, it didn't stop her from being hopeful as she asked the nurses if anyone visited her while she was out.

The answer was as depressing as it was expected. Sakura shuffled out of the hospital on leaden feet, unsure of what she should do. She could try to find her teammates and see if Naruto had passed on to the final round – but she didn't really want to know. They'd probably both move on to become Chuunin and she'd be left in the dust. Sakura didn't really want to deal with that today.

Maybe she'd go see Ino- Sakura was starved for company and missed Ino terribly, actually. But Ino-pig might just taunt her, and besides- seeing her would just make Sakura think of her terrible showing in their fight. Maybe she would just go home.

Her fist tightened around the solitary flower Ino had sent her- a sprig of Edelweiss, meaning 'courage'. Sometimes Ino really was sweet, when she wanted to be.

Courage would be seeing her teammates, telling them exactly how she felt. Courage would be asking her Sensei what she needed to do to improve, or talking to Ino and trying to rekindle their friendship. Ino had already even made the first move.

Sakura would try to be a little courageous today, she decided with some trepidation. 'Every journey starts with a single step.' she reminded herself. 'But I have to start today.'

She found Ino at the barbeque restaurant Team 10 favored. Chouji and Shikamaru were eating their food, but Ino broke away and leapt across the table at Sakura.

"Forehead! You got out of the hospital!" Ino gushed cattily. "I was afraid I'd have put you in there for a week." She leaned forward conspiratorially and lowered her voice a little. "Your head is messed up, Forehead. You should probably see a shrink about that."

Sakura stiffened. She had forgotten the oppressive (and insulting) nature of Ino's love. It chafed – because she wasn't broken, dammit, she just had two voices and there was nothing wrong with that. She hadn't had a psychotic break or anything, and it helped her keep things straight sometimes.

"Chouji! Shika! Move over, Sakura's sitting with us!" Ino commanded, pointing a finger at Shikamaru in particular. "And don't you sigh at me."

Shikamaru obligingly kept his mouth shut (smart man, Sakura commended, it was easier and less painful to just do what Ino wanted and crawl away on your belly once she'd turned her head) and Chouji scooted over and made some room on the bench next to him. He smiled and patted it in a kind invitation, so Sakura skittered over to take a seat. Chouji was nice.

"So, Forehead." Ino started, sounding imperious, "all of us are getting together tomorrow for dango. Kind of a pity party thing for those of us that didn't make it to the finals, and a celebration for the few that did."

"Who made it?" Sakura croaked, knowing that she didn't really want to know right now. But Ino didn't notice her discomfort and plowed forward.

"Lazy-bones over there, Shino, and your two teammates." Ino said off-handedly, picking at her salad. She appeared to have already eaten all the tomatoes out of it, and most of the cucumbers. Ino liked to eat things in organized groupings.

Then the last part of her sentence hit Sakura like a runaway cart. 'Did all the oxygen just whoosh out of the room?' Sakura felt a bit lightheaded.

'Of course they made it.' She balled her fists in her lap, hidden from Ino under the table. 'I already knew about Sasuke, anyway. Is it really so surprising that Naruto-baka made it, too?'

But telling herself these things didn't make the acid taste in her mouth go away. Sakura pulled the corners of her mouth into the practiced smile she'd used for years. She even crinkled her eyes for added sincerity. "That's great!" She chirped, noting the gnawing emptiness in her stomach that accompanied the lie.

"You're the only one on your team that didn't make it." Ino frowned, delicately picking out a slice of cucumber and popping it into her mouth with a crunch. "I mean, it's not surprising-"

"I have to go." Sakura blurted out suddenly. 'Why did I think hanging out with Ino was a good idea, again?' She shot up to her feet and gave a fake smile of apology to Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji. "I forgot, I have somewhere I really need to be. I'll see you later!"

She was going to avoid these people for at least a month, but telling them that sounded rude. Sakura just wanted to crawl under a rock and die. Or at least shower until the stink of failure was off her and she could stand going outside to train again.

Sakura bolted out of the restaurant like it was on fire.

Ino blinked slowly three times and turned to Shikamaru. "Was it something I said?" She asked with obvious confusion. "I mean, we didn't graduate that long ago. Tou-san says it would be odd for any of us to be promoted at all."

Shikamaru huffed. It wasn't worth the time and effort to explain to Ino that Sakura was obviously sensitive about the subject. Ino had handled the situation with her usual lack of tact and this was the inevitable conclusion.

They'd work it out eventually. Ino could be pig-headed sometimes, but eventually she'd swallow her pride and apologize.

Sakura didn't even make it out of the business district before she ran into someone she wasn't quite rational enough to deal with at the moment.

"Hey, Sakura-chan!" Naruto called from his seat at Ichiraku Ramen, noodles slipping out of his mouth and back into his bowl.

Sakura restrained a grimace. How had she forgotten that Ichiraku was right here? In her desperation to escape Ino, she hadn't remembered to take the long way around. Because while Naruto wasn't always here, it was the second best place to find him- right behind his apartment.

"Hey, Naruto." She said without any feeling. If she was lucky, Naruto would go on like he usually did- or maybe Sasuke would show up- and forget she was there. Then she could leave.

"You feeling okay, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked with mild concern. "You don't sound very happy."

'I was in the hospital unconscious, you unparalleled jackass.' She wanted to growl, but carefully didn't. Instead, she favored him with a thin smile. "I'm fine, Naruto."

"Bastard left earlier, didja see him?" Naruto slurped up the rest of his ramen and set the bowl down on the ramen bar.

"Sasuke-kun left?" Sakura asked carefully, avoiding the insult. She didn't feel like playing this game right now. It was tedious and she was exhausted and disappointed.

"Yeah!" He examined his bill from the waitress and carefully placed the correct amount of money next to his plate. "Kakashi-sensei took him to start training for the finals."

Of course he did.

"Sensei said they'd be gone the whole month, so not to worry about them." Naruto stood up and scratched the back of his head with a wide smile.

'It must be nice when your Sensei tells you things like that.' Sakura didn't move. She was frightfully close to throwing a massive fit and punching Naruto directly through a wall. Since this wasn't directly his fault, she restrained herself. Barely. She could feel the involuntary tightening of her muscles, begging to unleash hell on her poor stupid teammate.

"Did he say what we were supposed to do?" Sakura asked carefully.

Naruto jutted out his lower lip and twisted his face in concentration. After a moment, he shook his head. "He told me to meet my Sensei for this month at the hot springs. But he didn't say anything about you."

Sakura was seeing red, but she valiantly restrained the urge to beat Naruto into a bloody pulp. It wasn't his fault their Sensei was such a total pile. She turned away, no longer willing to endure Naruto's presence for the sake of politeness. Today had been a long and disappointing day. She'd just go to their team's bridge tomorrow, doubtless Kakashi-Sensei had arranged for her temporary teacher to meet her there when he realized she wouldn't wake up before he left.

She was going to take a bath and get some sleep. Then tomorrow she would be able to start training in earnest. Sakura just needed some time to gather her wits.

"Ne, Sakura." Naruto hadn't gotten the social cue that she wanted to be alone and was easily keeping pace at her side. "Since Sasuke-teme won't ever date you, want to go on a date with me?"

Before she could even think, she brought down an angry fist on top of Naruto's head. "NARUTO!" She bellowed, furious and entirely too done to deal with his shit today. He fell to the ground, stunned. Sakura barely registered the kind of brutality she was inflicting through her haze. Before she knew it, he was on the ground covered in dust, and she was walking away towards her home. She just had to get through the front door and this nightmarish day would be over.

Hopefully, Naruto would suddenly develop some sense and leave her alone for a while.

"Sakura-chan, come back! I didn't mean to imply you were an undateable hag! Honest!"

She just walked faster.