Author's Note: Oh my fuck.

"Hikari?"

At the sound of Sakura's quiet voice, the girl in question slowly turned away from the fading embers of the fire to look at her teammate. "Yes? Are you alright, Sakura?"

Sakura's brow furrowed slightly, and she quickly sat down beside Hikari and frowned lightly. "I just have another question. S-sorry if it's a bother," she stuttered, her throat unexplainably tightening with nerves.

"Don't be silly!" Hikari replied. "I hope you and Sasuke know that you can ask me anything you want—and Naruto can as well, when he wakes up."

At the mention of their male teammates, Sakura turned her head to glance behind her. Naruto was still out cold—had been for hours since they had arrived in the clearing—and Sasuke had only just chosen to lie down and make an attempt at getting some rest before morning arrived. However, it seemed that he was having no luck, as his dark eyes flickered briefly towards the pair of kunoichi at the mention of his name.

"It's just…" Sakura tentatively began, running her fingers nervously through her hair. Hikari blinked at the motion, idly wondering at the outcome of the next few hours. What would change? "I wanted to know… are we all really going to be alright?"

There was a brief pause, and Hikari saw Sakura hold her breath, stiffening in her wait for an answer. The raven-haired angel in disguise glanced down at the dying embers for a moment, considering how to respond. True, she had been overjoyed earlier at the thought that the past had been shifted, and therefore, the future as well. It had been her goal since she had purposely re-worked their world and threaded herself into their lives.

Yet, she knew very well that as much as she wanted to control the way things panned out, the world would attempt to stay the course it had been on the first time.

The devastating course.

"I think," Hikari began, bright gold meeting vibrant emerald as she turned, "that we will be alright if we remember the important things."

"The important things?"

Hikari looked past Sakura's shoulder, and seeing that Sasuke was still watching them, raised an arm to beckon him forward. When he had gotten up and approached them, she patted the cold ground and let him sit before beginning to speak again.

"There are things that you both must understand, the first being that there are some things I will not answer, and there are some things I cannot answer. The second thing that you need to understand is that no matter how much I wish otherwise, there are things that will happen that I won't change. Doing what I have done so far will drastically alter the way your lives turn out, there isn't a bit of doubt about that. It will change the way you handle things, and it may change what things come your way—difficulties, decisions to be made, et cetera, et cetera.

"But, as long as you all remember that you are a team, and that you all need each other, I believe that the changes that will happen won't all be bad. I believe you'll be okay."

There was silence for a few moments, save for the rustle of trees in a soft breeze and the faint chirping of crickets, before Sakura spoke again. "What about you, Hikari?"

"...What?"

"What about you? You talk about me, Naruto, and Sasuke, but what about you? You're a part of this team, aren't you?"

Hikari blinked, her thoughts halting. "Well, I—"

"It sounds like you aren't planning to stay," Sasuke spoke up for the first time, his voice low. "Are you required to leave now that you have apparently done what you needed to?"

Hikari felt Sakura stiffen beside her, and again, she had to pause in thought. How much longer did she intend to stay? Until now, the thought hadn't crossed her mind, or the importance of it. But now that it was there, staring her in the face, she was forced to wonder. "I—" she faltered, "I don't—I don't have to leave right now," she answered.

"But are you going to?" Sasuke pressed, and Sakura glanced between the two with wide, worried eyes.

"…No. I'm not," Hikari replied, glancing down at her regular black outfit, which she had brought spares of in case they were needed. 'And they had been,' she thought somewhat bitterly.

Hikari felt rather than heard Sakura let a sigh of relief. The pink-haired kunoichi sagged against her, exhaustion clearly taking its toll, and Hikari wrapped an arm around the other's shoulders and squeezing lightly. "Go get some sleep, Sakura. You'll need all the energy you can get."

Sakura gazed blearily at her golden-eyed friend and slowly nodded. She got up and trudged over to the sleeping bags, the true weight of her weariness beginning to seep into her bones. Within moments, she was collapsed on her sleeping bag in a deep slumber.

Hikari smiled softly and turned to look at her only awake teammate, finding him staring absently at the long-faded fire. "Do you have any other questions?" she inquired.

Sasuke didn't take his eyes away from the charred kindling as he responded. "Why are you doing this?"

"So that Team 7 doesn't have all the horrible regrets that it had before. And I hope you know that 'horrible' is an understatement. You don't know what it was like for me, always watching you make the wrong decisions, hurting each other, hurting yourselves. You were pulling away from your own humanity, Sasuke. You focused on one negative thing after another, always looking for more power, always looking for someone to blame.

"And Naruto was always trying to catch up to you. He alone felt that it was his duty to get you back onto the right path. He never gave up on you no matter who else did. He wanted to get strong enough to match you, he wanted your friendship, and he wanted a normal, happy life for you all. The further away you got from that, the more determined he was, and he held on to that drive and hope more and more. It took a toll on him.

"And Sakura was alone. First, she felt that she was never good enough, so she threw herself into the task of making herself good enough. And when that was done, she was still alone because you were gone, and Naruto was training or trying to get you back, and she was stuck. So she clung to the same determination that Naruto had of making everything normal again, and it wore her down more and more, until finally, there was nothing more for her to hope for because she lost the strength to hope.

"So, that's why I'm doing this. Does that sound like the future you want, Sasuke?"

He didn't respond, his mind going numb as he tried to absorb and understand this new information. He hadn't known how devastating their life could have been.

Would have been, again.

He decided that he didn't want to know.

"I just want to be strong enough. I need to be powerful enough to kill—"

"What you need to realize," Hikari snapped, "is that what you need to gain your precious power is all right here, in this village, in your home! And you don't need to go anywhere else to get stronger!"

Sasuke almost flinched at the tone of voice his teammate was using. Save for when she spoke to Orochimaru, she had never sounded so venomous. He chose to remain silent and turn his gaze heavenward.

"Sasuke," Hikari began quietly, her expression softening. "You are so young. And I know you were even younger when the tragedy happened." She saw the young Shinobi's eyes narrow and his mouth twist into a deep scowl. Hikari continued, "But right now, the only thing we all should be focusing on is this exam, and getting out of it alive, together. And after that… when we have time, then we can focus on what happened with Orochimaru, okay? Besides, don't think that people in charge of the exam haven't noticed that something is wrong. Trust me, their focus is to keep things in order, and ours is to keep going. Okay?"

"…Aa."

Hikari grinned and reached over to ruffle Sasuke's hair. The vein in his temple began to throb, and she giggled and backed away. "Alright, alright, human contact is apparently a repulsive concept to you, even though I'm not really human. But whatever. My guard shift is over, so you just stay alert and wake up Sakura in a few hours for hers, alright?"

Sasuke nodded, and Hikari stood up and began to walk back to the little camp they had set up under the roots of a great tree. She suddenly paused and turned back. "Oh, and Sasuke?"

He blinked and turned to look at her. "What?"

She smiled, and her golden eyes glinted in the moonlight. "Sometimes, the only one who can protect someone you care about is that person themselves. Just something for you to remember."

And with that cryptic message, she turned and left him to his thoughts.

Within a few hours, the sun's rays peeked over the horizon, and the painful coil of fear that had been nestled in Sakura's gut all night finally unwound and disappeared. She had yet to wake the boys, but Hikari had risen with the dawn and was currently lying out in the clearing to soak up the rays that gave her strength.

Sakura felt herself teetering on the brink between completely calm and ridiculously hysterical. The words she had spoken with Hikari a few hours prior still bounced around in her head, never once trailing to the back of her mind, and it was honestly driving her a bit crazy. However, she knew what needed to be focused on, and at the moment, it was passing this part of the exam.

"Sakura!" Hikari called suddenly, "Be alert! Someone's placed an exploding tag on this poor squirrel's back!"

Sakura's eyes widened, and from her position under the tree's roots, she turned her head to see her teammate gingerly removing the explosive and setting down the little animal, which hastily scurried away. Emerald met gold, and both kunoichi simultaneously drew their kunai.

"Sakura, go and wake—Ah!" Hikari cried out as a set of wire strings shot out from the foliage behind her, winding around her body and immobilizing her. She fell to the ground hard, gritting her teeth as the wires bit into her skin. 'This is it,' she thought, her gaze landing back on Sakura, who had frozen in shock. 'Stay strong, Sakura.'

Sakura felt herself begin to tremble as three people stepped out of the bushes, all of them wearing identical headbands with an eighth note in the center. "You… What do you want?" she demanded, her hands shaking so hard that she fumbled with her kunai.

The one with the bandages covering his face cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. "Wake up Sasuke-kun. We want to fight him," he stated bluntly. When Sakura didn't move, he took a step forward. "Do as we say, little girl. Or we'll just kill you first."

Sakura blanched. 'First? They want to… No! Not Sasuke!' She gritted her teeth and shouted, "No! I know who you are! You work for Orochimaru, and he… he wants Sasuke for something! First he tried to hurt him, and now you guys want to kill him? Just leave us alone!"

Hikari watched from the ground as the Sound Nin advanced forward. She glanced towards the camp and looked past Sakura, seeing that the boys had not yet woken. 'Just a little bit longer…'

"Zaku," the bandaged man called, and the other male tilted his head in acknowledgement. "We have no use for this girl. Kill her."

Sakura squeezed her kunai tight and deliberately swung out to her right, hearing a dull twang as the kunai sliced through the wire of the log trap that had been set up earlier. The tree groaned, and a massive trunk swung down from above, speeding towards the Sound Nin. Instead of the trio backing away as she had assumed they would, they leapt forward, and their leader pulled back his long sleeves to reveal the large metal object on his right forearm.

"A trap from above? Oh no!" he mocked, pressing his right hand against the tree trunk and forming a seal with the other. Sound pushed through the holes of the metal device and obliterated the trunk, the sound of splintering wood echoing throughout the clearing.

Sakura paled as the trio changed course in midair, charging right at her. "Frankly speaking," their leader began tauntingly, "you have no talent as a ninja. People like you have to work harder to survive. A weakling like you shouldn't mess with guys like us."

"Sakura!" Hikari hollered, her gaze flickering between the pink-haired kunoichi, the deadly nin speeding right towards her, and the two prone figures beneath the roots. And then she saw it. Movement. 'Yes!'

Before anyone could blink, Sasuke was up and charging at the other nin, aiming right for the metal gauntlet on the leader's arm. He drew a kunai and plunged the tip right into one of its many holes, then pushed off the ground and planted his feet firmly on the device. With all the strength he had, Sasuke kicked off and sent the other nin flying across the clearing while he himself landed beside Sakura.

The Sound trio moved back, eyes narrowing as they focused on the Uchiha. Zaku grinned maliciously and hissed, "So… You're finally awake. Unfortunately for you, I'm having a little too much fun right now with her… So you'll just have to wait!" With that, Zaku drew more wire strings and sent them hurtling towards Sasuke. His teammates followed his lead, and Sasuke and Sakura leapt apart to get out of the way.

"Sasuke!" Hikari called from her prone position. "Remember what I said!"

For a split second, Sasuke's attention was diverted to his golden-eyed teammate as he attempted to dodge away from the wires.

That split second was all the Sound nin needed. Their wires all simultaneously wrapped around their target, and Sasuke was sent tumbling to the ground and rolling to a stop beside Hikari.

And Sakura was alone in the battle once more.

"Augh!" Ino groaned in dismay, tugging at her blonde locks. "Why can't we find anybody weaker than us to take a scroll from?"

"You know, the only guys weaker than us are probably Naruto's team," Shikamaru stated tonelessly.

"What are you talking about, stupid?" Ino spat, glaring at her teammate. "Sakura and Naruto are losers, yeah, but they have Sasuke on their team, and he's a genius!"

"Bah, I don't know about that," Shikamaru countered, rolling his eyes. "Even geniuses can crumble under the pressures of the real world."

Ino whipped around and fixed him with a deadly glare, "Don't be stupid! There's no way Sasuke would ever lose to anyone!" She then crossed her arms and smirked smugly. "It's a different story with Sakura though. Ha!"

"But it looks like Sasuke's been immobilized," Chouji piped up, and his teammates turned in surprise to see him pointing off in another direction towards a clearing not too far from them. "And Sakura is the only one fighting."

Ino's eyes widened in shock. "Huh?"

And then she truly observed the scene, and all the blood seemed to drain from her face as she paled.

"Now then," the Sound trio's leader chuckled. "Let's finish this."

Sakura's eyes narrowed, and she drew three kunai and shuriken in each hand. She whipped the kunai forward and watched in dismay as they bounced off of the Sound nin's metal gauntlet.

Beneath his bandages, his mouth twisted into an unseen, demented grin.

"You guys," Chouji whispered from their position behind the foliage surrounding the clearing. "I think we should run! Their team is in serious trouble, and those Sound guys look really dangerous!"

"It seems that Naruto is unconscious, and Sasuke and Hikari are only restrained," Shikamaru observed. "Sakura is fighting alone. What will you do, Ino?" he questioned his teammate, whose gaze was riveted on the battle before them.

"What will I do?" she repeated numbly, eyes wide and face pale.

"Yeah, well, Sakura's in trouble. Didn't you guys used to be good friends?" he pointed out.

Ino remained silent, staring at the people in the clearing, her legs trembling with the effort to remain upright.

"Ino, what do we do?"

"What can we do?" she snapped, turning to stare at Shikamaru. "We can't just jump out and right into the battle!"

'If we do,' she thought, terrified, 'There's no doubt that we will lose.'

'I can do this!' Sakura thought, flinging forward the shuriken. 'I can do this!'

Zaku moved to stand in front of his male teammate, his hands forming a seal. "I'll deal with her, Dosu," he smirked. He stretched his hands out, palms forward, and a sudden blast of air pressure sent the shuriken spinning back.

Sakura brought her arms up to block her face from the attack, wincing as the shuriken sliced across the bare flesh. 'He blasted my shuriken back?'

The thoughts of a retaliation attack flickered across her mind before they dispersed as a sharp yank forced Sakura's head up. 'What? No!' she realized, her gaze flicking over her shoulder to see the only female Sound nin standing above her as she forced Sakura to her knees.

"You're hair's much prettier than mine," she sneered. "Pfft, trying to be a sexy ninja? If you have time to take care of your hair, then train, you female swine."

Sakura cried out as the hand in her hair twisted and wrenched, feeling her scalp burning with pain. Her vision blurred with tears, but she pulled her head up far enough to look at both of her restrained teammates.

"Sakura," Hikari mouthed, her gaze desperate and heartening. "You can do this. You are strong."

Sasuke, lying beside Hikari, noticed and turned to look at the terrified, injured kunoichi. "Don't be stupid, Sakura," he spoke aloud, startling everyone. "You know how to fight. Don't lose your head."

The female Sound ninja's eyes narrowed, and suddenly, a dark laugh escaped her as she noticed the pink-haired kunoichi's eyes brighten. "Oh, I see…" she murmured wickedly, turning to her teammates. "Zaku, kill Sasuke in front of her. Dosu, you take the other one. This little weakling deserves to be taught a lesson," she insisted, tugging Sakura's head back and forth, delighting in her cries of protest.

Sakura stiffened as she watched the other two advance towards Hikari and Sasuke. 'No… I can't move…'

Tears welled up in her emerald eyes, and she struggled to breathe. 'I am still… always getting in the way… always depending on others for protection… I can't stand it! I thought for once, I could protect everyone else…'

"Well then…" Zaku chuckled, standing above Hikari and Sasuke, who glowered darkly at him. "…Let's do this."

"Hey! They're in serious trouble!" Shikamaru hissed to his teammates, who had all blanched terribly. Fear beat down on them, making their throats tighten, hearts speed up, and heads throb.

Ino felt the familiar prickle of tears at the back of her eyes.

'No… What do I do?'

Feeling sheer, burning resolve well up in her, Sakura drew a single kunai, holding it against her outstretched hand that her knuckles were turning bone-white.

Behind her, the female Sound nin laughed. "Are you stupid? Something like that won't be able to hurt me," she taunted.

From across the clearing, Hikari watched with blooming pride as Sakura turned her head and grinned. "What the hell are you talking about?" Sakura hissed.

And then she moved.

Throughout the clearing, all watched with wide eyes and stunned expressions.

They all watched as Sakura willingly took away from herself, the one thing that she had been the vainest over.

And Hikari's eyes lit up as she stared, and she couldn't have been more proud.

Eyes blazing with will, Sakura took hold of her forearm, and in one clean, strong move, sliced the kunai completely through her hair. The dull thud of the female nin stumbling back away from her, and the clang of her own forehead protector hitting the ground beside her barely registered as Sakura rose, tall and proud.

'I always thought of myself as a proud ninja,' she realized dimly. 'I always said I loved Sasuke, and I always thought I was better than Naruto. But all this time… All this time, I have only been watching their backs as they strived to protect me.

'And Hikari… You did something that I can't even fathom. You literally changed fate for me, for us… so that things could be better. You taught me that I can take care of myself, if I try. You taught me that I can fight. That I am strong. So this time…

'…Get a good look at my back.'

"Kin! Kill her!" Zaku ordered, and the female ninja dropped the severed pink locks she held in her hand, drew her weapons, and charged.

"SAKURA! Remember what you trained on!" Hikari shouted, still on her stomach. Her gaze flicked to Sasuke, who had been focused solely on their pink-haired teammate, and she tapped the toe of her shoe to the ground. The sound drew his attention, and he glanced at Hikari to see her tilt onto her side just enough for the flash of a kunai to be seen from under her.

Realizing her plan, he smirked.

Sakura leapt high into the air, out of the way of the charging Kin, and then flipped back, landing on her feet. Focusing her chakra into her foot, she swung her leg up and swiftly delivered a brutal blow to the back of the Sound kunoichi's head. Kin went tumbling forward, landing on the ground with a pained groan.

Sakura turned away from her and charged at Zaku, who saw her coming and grinned. "Idiot… you really think you're strong enough to beat us alone?"

Sakura gritted her teeth, drew more kunai and hurled them all towards her opponent, watching as he formed a seal and held out his hands. She narrowed her eyes, waiting for the blast, and saw the exact moment her weapons were forced back by the air pressure erupting from his palms. She pumped chakra into her feet and pushed off of the ground, propelling herself high into the air as she pitched more kunai at Zaku.

Zaku fluidly dodged the weapons and looked up in time to see her forming seals for the Kawarimi Jutsu. He grinned and whipped four kunai at her, shouting, "Such a basic technique isn't going to keep you alive, little girl! Now, where did you go…"

Zaku stopped scanning the area around him as a warm drop of crimson splattered onto his cheek. His eyes widened, and he looked up in time to see Sakura launching straight at him with a kunai in hand. He brought his arms up to block her attack, but to no avail as she brutally plunged it into his forearm, blood spraying from the wound. Zaku hissed in pain and moved his free hand for an air pressure attack, but Sakura anticipated this and did the only thing she thought of.

She pitched forward, latched her mouth onto his free arm, and bit down with all her strength.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!" Zaku roared, landing punch after brutal punch onto her head and face in an attempt to send her flying. "LET GO!"

Sakura bit down harder to keep from crying out, feeling her face swell and her nose and cheek crack, blood pouring out of her mouth and nostrils. 'I have to hold on… I have to!'

But with one final, devastating blow, Sakura's head snapped back and she flew across the clearing, rolling to a stop with a pained wheeze. 'No…' she thought weakly, 'I need to protect everyone… I need…'

"Now you're gonna get it," Zaku growled, advancing towards Sakura and clutching his injured hand. "You little bi—"

"If you plan on taking her out, you'll need to take us out too!"

Sakura froze, and with effort, she pushed herself up onto her elbows and looked up.

Through her swollen, blackened eyes, she saw the smirking face of Sasuke and the beaming face of Hikari, both freed from their restraints and with kunais in hand. And she saw the pride glimmering in both of their eyes.

"Sakura," Hikari spoke, her voice wavering and tears in her eyes. "I am so proud of you."

Sakura felt tears gather in her own eyes, and a smile began to tug at the corners of her mouth. She looked at Sasuke then, dimmed emerald meeting not-so-cold obsidian.

He nodded once in acknowledgement, and Sakura felt joy bloom in her heart. She had done well. They were proud.

Hikari and Sasuke watched as the fight went out of Sakura and she slumped back to the ground. They turned to the Sound nin who were watching them apprehensively. Hikari bared her teeth and took a fighting stance, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sasuke do the same.

"Now then," she began, her voice belying the true wrath that she felt pumping through her blood. "It's time for us to repay you for what you did to Sakura," she murmured.

Beside her, Sasuke activated his Sharingan. "Trust us," he added, his voice cold. "You will pay dearly."

A/N: Whoa. Yeah. I know. Been gone a long time. LOOOOONG time. Also, I know Lee didn't show up. Didn't need him to, so I changed things. Also, Ino and her team won't participate in the fight. Don't need them to. This is where some plot aspects begin to deviate. Boom.

Also, I will be editing the previous chapters in my (very little amount of) spare time. I can't believe the way I used to write, but then again, I WAS thirteen/fourteen-ish. Damn.

It's been a long time.

Have any questions, feel free to PM me. I'll answer as best I can. A lot has changed. Shit's happened. Wow.

Not gonna lie, though... It's good to be back.

Like, real good. Haha. See you soon.