Sakura Haruno: Game of the Year Edition

Disclaimer: I am making no money from this fan fiction, nor do I own any of the characters or settings.

Beta: This story has MinaBlahBlahBlahAnimeFan as a beta... and she does an excellent job of it too!

Note: In this story a few things have been changed from canon, the main difference is that Sakura will start the Academy at 9, with the standard graduation age being 14. I have also made Konoha a lot bigger, and although there may well be mention of OC's their presence shall be limited and they will have no important role to play. Lastly Ino and Sakura have not met yet – due to the fact that they have not started the academy yet.

Important! This is a rewrite so a lot of the content will be similar or the same to the previous story, however there is new content and hopefully it is an improvement!

The forest of death faded and grew black as Sakura Haruno's life ebbed away. Multiple stab wounds inflicted by Kin Tsuchi littered her body and once pink hair was stained red with blood. She had failed completely, both herself and her teammates. More blood showered down on her. This time it belonged to her friends. The friends she had failed. Kin's laughter echoed in her ears, she could no longer see. So she heard rather than saw the glee on Kin's face as she pronounced the words...

GAME OVER

The world went completely black for a few moments before small spots of light started to appear in front of Sakura. After a few moments of rapid blinking she realized that the dots had started to form several lines of words. Was this a dream? She would have thought that this was a genjutsu – except for the fact that she prided herself on being able to spot and break most genjustu's. She had managed to train herself to at the least be better than she was during her graduation test – where she had succumbed to Kakashi-sensei's illusion of Sasuke dying!

Upon turning her attention back to the words Sakura was quite surprised to see her name, and as she read the words below her name her astonishment only grew.

Player: Sakura Haruno

Level: 6

Status: Dead

Wait, how could she be dead? Sakura was pretty sure that this was not at all what death felt like. For one thing she was thinking, and feeling. A quick pinch to her arm and the sharp pain that followed also assured her that she was alive – somewhere at least.

The words which were proclaiming her death then started to disintegrate and form something called a scoreboard?

SCOREBOARD

THE GOOD

Highest Academic Score in the Academy: +100 points

Learnt Academy Taijutsu Style: +10 points

Graduated the Academy: +30 points

Became Genin: +60 points

Scrolls Read (210): +210 points

Completed 13 D Rank Missions: +65 points

Completed 1 A Rank Mission: +75 points

Mastered 5 D Rank Jutsu: +100 points

Learnt Tree Walking: +20 points

Chuunin Exam Part 1 Passed: +50 points

Perfect Chakra Control: +200 points

Lived to age 12: +120 points

Total: 1040 points

THE BAD

Only D Rank Justu's learnt: -100 points

Water Walking never learnt: -25 points

Poor Aim with Shuriken: -15 points

Poor Aim with Kunai: -15 points

No Advanced Taijutsu Style/s Learnt: - 30 points

Weak Chakra Coils: -80 points

Weak physically: -80 points

Total: -345 points

Well... that wasn't so bad Sakura thought. After all she had only been 12 at the time and she could have worked on all of these things later – had she survived. The thought brought some tears to her eyes and she had to blink rapidly to hold them back so that she could read the final list.

THE UGLY

Lost precious person Ino: -120 points

Lost precious person Naruto: -120 points

Lost precious person Sasuke: -120 points

? Precious People never met: -200 points

Never tried hard: -300 points

Never taken seriously: -300 points

Failed to protect self: -200 points

Failed to protect Friends: -500 points

Total: -1860

Overall Score: -1165:

Ranking 99/100 – With this score you would have done better not becoming a ninja!

By now the tears in her eyes had multiplied and were streaming down her face. She had failed, she had died and now her friends were dead because of her. Why did she even become a ninja in the first place if all she could do was be a hindrance? Why? Why? Why tell her now when all she could do was cry! Why not tell her when she was alive... when she could do something about it?! If only... if only she knew what she knew now, everything would change. She would do anything for a second chance... Anything! It was as she thought this that the darkness around her began to shake

REBOOT

DATA ERROR...

REBOOTING

"A SECOND CHANCE ACTIVATED"

INFORMATION BELOW

CLICK TO ACCESS

Now Sakura was thoroughly confused. Shocked from her tears she simply stared at the button hovering in front of her.

CLICK TO ACCESS

"Click to access what?" She thought briefly before glancing upwards... "A second chance – what is that supposed to mean?"

She was thinking quite logically for someone who had just died a violent and gory death, Sakura mused. But she supposed that it was understandable. Shock and trauma did not set in until a while after the event. Having reached that conclusion Sakura decided to get through this weird event before she started freaking out and having a panic attack. Thus resolved she reached out and tapped the "CLICK TO ACCESS" button. She then watched as another page of text appeared.

Sakura Haruno: Game of the Year Edition

Rule 4, Subsection a, paragraph 2

If a primary character dies...

After the start of the Chuunin Exams and...

Is below level 10

They will be given a chance to replay provided that they either

Play on maximum difficulty or...

Play in Expanded Universe: Ultra Mode

Does Sakura Haruno wish to replay?

YES

NO

It was an easy choice for Sakura. If she went back then she could help everyone. Sasuke was no longer a major interest, but her friends were. No matter what she would not die if her very existence had been a burden on the people that she cared about. So, with the most confidence she had had since the start of the Chuunin Exams she clicked on the "YES"

Once again the words changed and Sakura found herself facing yet another choice.

PICK YOUR HANDICAP

Play with difficultly permanently set to impossible

Play in Expanded Universe; Ultra Mode

This was once again an easy choice for Sakura. She was returning to change things and how could she do that if the difficulty level was impossible. Sakura had never played a video game in her life, but she knew that impossible was the hardest difficulty. She would rather take her chance with the unknown option, thank you very much. Although, there was still a nagging feeling that there must be something really bad about this "Expanded Universe; Ultra Mode" to make it equal to "Difficulty; Impossible" Still her hand shook slightly as she reached forwards and touched option B.

You have chosen Expanded Universe: Ultra Mode!

START NEW GAME
LOAD GAME
EXIT GAME

Sakura's hand was significantly steadier as she selected "START NEW GAME" What happened next knocked away all her newfound composure though.

NEW SETTINGS DETECTED

MAP UPDATE

To Sakura's immense surprise she found herself looking at a map of the ninja world. She could see the hidden villages of Konoha and Suna, and the numbers showing a scarily accurate population count - of both ninja's and civilians.

Then the map began to expand dramatically. Not only were the hidden villages that she knew of growing, both in size and in population – new ones were appearing! The world as she knew it was increasing in size – this must be what they meant by expanded universe she thought. By now the map was taking up the whole screen! The only space left was directly around her, and even that was being rapidly absorbed by the maps growth.

Then Sakura found herself floating above the map and being drawn towards the village of Konoha, as if through magnetism. The map started to fade once she was directly above Konoha, replaced with actual buildings and streets. Then she found herself falling through the clouds towards the ground. Sakura struggled in panic – she would die again if she hid the ground at this speed! Now she could see her house roof approaching her and Sakura closed her eyes and braced herself for the impact.

The impact never arrived. Instead a young Sakura sat up in bed gasping for breath. After a quick glance at the window told her that it was morning she looked around her room for clues about the date. It appeared to be shortly after her ninth Birthday, if the card from her parents with a big pink nine on the front was any hint. What did surprise her was the fact that there was none of her ninja equipment that she needed for the Academy there. From what she recalled, at the age of nine she had had kunai and shuriken scattered everywhere – yet this room was spotlessly clean.

Sakura was however disturbed from her thoughts by her mother's voice calling her from downstairs. After getting dressed and brushing her hair she rushed down the stairs, tripping on the way down and practically skidding into the living room. A living room with both of her parents in... And what about Iruka-Sensei, what was he doing here?

Her question was answered soon enough by her mother.

"Sakura, did you forget that today is the day your interview to attend the ninja academy takes place? Iruka san has been waiting for 10 minutes already!"

This only caused Sakura to have more questions but she had no time to voice them as Iruka-Sensei had started to speak.

"Sakura-san, could you please fill in this personal assessment form for me? It will determine your strengths and weaknesses."

The world then dimmed and the screen appeared once more.

Sakura Haruno: Current Stats

ATTRIBUTES

Beauty: 16
Chakra: 3
Control: 39
Dexterity: 15
Endurance: 8
Intelligence: 26
Luck: 12
Perception: 19
Social: 19
Speed: 15
Strength: 7
Willpower: 9

Points to spend: 20

The words then scrolled down to a new page, but to Sakura's disappointment all of the ninja techniques were locked. Still, she reasoned, entering the academy would probably unlock them. After all how could she learn the Academy Ninjutsu and Taijutsu if they were locked?

ELEMENTAL AFFINITIES: Locked
NINJUTSU: Locked
GENJUTSU: Locked
TAIJUTSU: Locked
KENJUTSU: Locked
FUUINJUTSU: Locked
KENJUTSU: Locked

PERKS: None

RELATIONSHIPS

Parents: 60 / 100
Iruka: 50 / 100

Having read the entire page Sakura then turned her attention to the question marks next to each of the attributes, and started looking at the information that was popping up.

Beauty: This is how you appear to other people and affects their initial relationship with you.

Sakura was quite offended at her score for beauty. None of the attributes were high, she would admit that much but still! No! She shook her head abruptly. She was not going to be the same this time. This time she would be a strong kunoichi, one who was determined and worked hard, and a kunoichi who would not let her friends die due to her weakness. She would spend those points on something useful, something like...

Chakra: This is your amount of Chakra that you have available for use

Chakra would definitely come in handy and it was in effect Sakura's weakest link, standing at a measly 3! But she was also incredibly hesitant to raise it. In the Academy her greatest strength had always been her intelligence, and her perfect control. Even the game admitted that it was powerful bonus and had awarded points for it! But what would happen if she raised her base Chakra levels? It could completely throw her control off which could lead to failing the Academy's entrance exam.

Reluctantly she decided not to place any points on it. After all she had made it into the Academy before, and in her previous life they had not done any really strenuous chakra work until later on. The initial lessons had been theory and safety lessons. So yes chakra was out for now... but definitely would be raised at a non crucial time in the future – and when she had raised her control some more.

Control: This is your ability to control chakra, and is vital for medical Ninjutsu

Then again, her score in control was by far the highest. She probably should not overspecialize in one area – relying on her chakra control was a mistake she made last time. Also, this time she wanted to be able to hold her own in a battle, not just watch incapacitated from the sidelines. So maybe she should go for...

Dexterity: This is your skill in dodging attacks and landing them in Taijutsu, and ranged combat

Shannaro! Now that would be useful!

Sakura startled and her eyes filled with tears, but happy ones. She had completely forgotten about Inner Sakura – now she would not be quite so alone.

Inner Sakura was not quite as touched as Sakura about the reunion, muttering something about 'forgetting your other half'. Either way Sakura was currently trying to figure out how to give Inner Sakura a mental hug, she was not completely alone anymore!

Yeah, yeah touching reunion and all that, can we get back to deciding what we are going to be awesome at now? I vote to see what comes up next.

Sakura agreed and moved on to the next attribute description, which also happened to be one of her worst.

Endurance: How much damage/pain you can take before falling unconscious or dying

Now that would be good to have, Sakura thought... but it would be better to have the skills to not need the extra endurance.

But what if the enemy gets in a lucky hit – you could die you know, again.

Reluctantly acknowledging the fact that Inner might actually have a point this time Sakura added Endurance to her mental list of 'things to look at', alongside Dexterity. Next up was...

Intelligence: Affects general knowledge and speed of learning Justu's

This would be useful except that, much like control, the value for that attribute was already high. It was probably due to the fact that her scores appeared to match what she was like before she died. Still, the beauty score was haunting her... was her forehead that big? Honestly?

Snap out of it and get on with the decision making. Who cares what people may think? We'll just kick their ass with our amazing skills Shannaro!

Sakura was grateful to Inner for the encouragement... it was actually helpful, and allowed her to keep her focus as she moved on to the next attribute.

Luck: Affects everything and anything, but particularly the chance of scoring a critical hit

That would be useful as a secondary choice, but Sakura had decided that she would take the long road this time. There would be no more mooning over Sasuke and no more waiting helplessly for a situation to resolve itself. So while good luck would be nice she would prioritise the more useful skills first.

Perception: Your skills at observation and predicting opponents moves

Since this was at the already decent (for the current Sakura at least) value of 19, she decided to leave that as it was for the moment.

Social: Your ability to interact with, manipulate and lead people

This was tempting much like Beauty had been, promising to fulfil Sakura's dreams of popularity and Sasu-. Once again she pushed those feelings down, this time with the help of Inner Sakura, and moved on to...

Speed: How fast you are when moving, using Taijutsu and at using Ninjutsu hand seals

Now that is what I am talking about!

Well she could not deny that it would be useful, so she would consider it, but still... she would have to know Ninjutsu or Taijutsu in the first place in order for it to be really effective. A good general skill though.

Strength: How much damage physical attacks do, and how much you can carry

This would also be a good skill, Sakura thought despairingly – how was she supposed to choose when they all seemed to be viable options. And so another option was considered, along with speed, dexterity and endurance as needing the extra points put in.

Willpower: Your ability to break and cast genjutsu, resist bribes and interrogation

The last attribute on the list sounded like it could be useful, in a sense. She had never really come across many genjutsu users, but it could be a vital skill to have. In the end, after some discussion with Inner she decided to leave it for the time being. And as a student she shouldn't have to deal with interrogations... unless she seriously mucked up and was discovered by ANBU or something! That was actually an issue that could come with showing off knowledge. She might just attract the wrong sort of attention – in this case suspicion.

In the end Sakura decided to place 5 points each on Endurance and Strength, 4 points on Dexterity and Willpower, and the remaining points were placed on Speed. This made her final stats...

ATTRIBUTES

Beauty: 16 +
Chakra: 3+
Control: 39+
Dexterity: 19+
Endurance: 13 +
Intelligence: 26 +
Luck: 12 +
Perception: 19 +
Social: 19 +
Speed: 17+
Strength: 13+
Willpower: 13+

All of the other areas such as Taijutsu and Fuuinjutsu were still locked. But that was to be expected...she was not even an official student yet. The odd, and unsettling, thing was that try as she might she just could not remember any Taijutsu forms, even though she had been decent at the Academy Style techniques before. It was like her knowledge had been erased. Actually, that was probably what had happened.

Bah! How dare they?! We might not have been great but we worked to get those skills Shannaro!

With Inner inwardly raging Sakura tentatively smiled as she returned the form to Iruka-Sensei. Could it be possible that he knew about the game? He had handed her a sheet with statistics on after all. But he was acting perfectly normal. And she was pretty sure that video game style lives were anything but normal. So what did he see on that sheet!? She was curious Shannaro!

Iruka-Sensei looked up as Sakura handed the sheet back in. His face held a bland expression as he looked up, just another teacher talking to a prospective student with no hint that anything was out of the ordinary. Then he began to speak, his voice slightly robotic. It was then that Sakura realised that the game was controlling his assessment and his perception. Luckily it seemed to be a temporary thing that only occurred at crucial moments. The monotone continued and she switched to paying attention.

"Thank you very much Haruno-san. Now that we have your information I can see that your primary talents are your Control and your Intelligence. These are both well above the expected levels for your age. Your weaknesses are your Chakra, Luck and Willpower. Luck and Willpower can be corrected over time but the severe lack of developed Chakra Coils is a serious issue.

At 9 years old you have the Chakra levels of a 3 year old. As such you will be admitted to the Ninja Academy on probation for the current year, as no chakra manipulation techniques are begun until the following Academic year. Should you fail to meet the required levels then you will be dropped from the Academy program."

He stopped and started to write in neat, quick strokes on a small scroll. Sakura was in shock. Why oh why had she not increased her Chakra when she had the chance! She was on probation now... and might lose her chance to be a ninja altogether. So much for being an advanced student who was ahead of everyone, she would be lucky not to be laughed at with such a stigma over her head. A small voice in her head reminded her that even Naruto had not been placed on probation. It sounded like Inner.

Never thought we'd see the day Naruto would beat us in class ranking...we've got a whole lot of work to do!

Strangely enough Inner did not seem to be too upset; her response when Sakura questioned this was simple.

I guess its part of the Expanded Universe thing... but everything is probably going to be much harder from now on. Much as I hate to say it, it's probably a good thing they're being honest.

Sakura agreed inwardly... but still! There was honest and there was brutally honest! The conversation with inner finished just in time for her to catch the end of Iruka-Sensei's speech, and probably the most important part of it.

"All students will have a Chuunin-Sensei as an advisor who they will meet with twice a week. You will give them this note and they will assign you some basic exercises to develop and enlarge your Chakra Coils. I will see you in class Haruno-san."

With that he stood up and exited after giving a polite bow to Sakura's parents, who were looking at their 9 year old daughter with worry. That was not surprising... after all she had been a bit of an easily upset child who was also easily discouraged. They were probably concerned that she would give up after all the effort they must have put in to get her assessed. The path from civilian to ninja was not an easy one.

They were visibly shocked when the shy, timid, girl they knew turned to face then with a determined smile and stated that.

"I'm just going to have to show them how awesome I am then!"

Sakura was surprised herself... those words hadn't been Inner... they had all been from her. Maybe this game was what she needed to gain some much needed confidence... in addition to her second chance.

ACHIEVEMENT: Passed the Entrance Examination for Ninja Academy... Sort of: XP +100

You are now LEVEL 2!

HP UNLOCKED: Your HP is 65!
CP UNLOCKED: Your CP is 30!

NINJUTSU UNLOCKED
GENJUTSU UNLOCKED
TAIJUTSU UNLOCKED
FUUINJUTSU UNLOCKED
KENJUTSU UNLOCKED
PERKS UNLOCKED

ATTRIBUTES

Beauty: 16+
Chakra: 3+
Control: 39+
Dexterity: 19+
Endurance: 13+
Intelligence: 26+
Luck: 12+
Perception: 19+
Social: 19+
Speed: 17+
Strength: 13+
Willpower: 13+

Points to Spend: 20

'Cha, are we going to be the best or what?' Inner Sakura once again blurted out. 'If we keep on getting this many points we'll beat all the other students with ease!"

Sakura was still grinning as she considered. The idea did seem like a rather attractive prospect to Sakura. While she had been content to be merely average physically in her first life this was most certainly not the case now. She would still focus on her academics, of course, but she would also try her hardest in other areas – like Taijutsu. She would also have to expand her chakra reserves to be able to fight properly. It was a long list of things to do, but if she tried her hardest she might even beat Sasuke for the rookie of the year award!

That thought stopped her in her tracks. It was not the challenge that she had set herself was intimidating her, rather it was the fact that...

'Since when do you refer to him as just Sasuke?'

Inner Sakura voiced a similar question, and it was one to which Sakura honestly did not know the answer. If she had to hazard a guess she would say it had something to do with dying. She was quite certain that she had read somewhere that peoples perspectives could change due to shock. She was also pretty sure that dying and being reborn in a video game counted as extreme shock – if not cause for a complete mental breakdown!

'Medical hypothesis time over, we've got points to allocate!'

Sakura, agreeing with Inner, mentally shelved the ideas and took another look at her attributes. She had already decided to put 10 points into Chakra – she needed to get out of probation as soon as possible so it made sense to raise that attribute sooner rather than later. Inner gave her a mental pat on the back and muttered something about high intelligence paying off. Though the sarcastic... finally... was not missed.

Sakura now had 10 points left to spend, which she put into Control. Since her Chakra score had just quadrupled plus one she should probably maintain some sort of balance. This was so that she could keep her control at its perfect level and continue to get the benefits of that... while having more it in general. She made a mental note to Inner to focus on Dexterity and Intelligence next time. Taijutsu and Knowledge seemed to be the priorities at the moment.

Once she had finished selecting which areas she would improve, Sakura had supposed that she would return to her (semi) ordinary video game life. Instead another screen popped up, this one entitled PERKS.

Note: You can pick a perk every time you level up. Perks provide you with special bonuses that cannot be gained anywhere else.

PERKS

Sharper than a Shuriken
25% Higher Accuracy with Shuriken

Keener than a Kunai
25% Higher Accuracy with Shuriken

Cherry Blossom Ballet
+5 to Beauty, +5 to Dexterity

Rolling in Ryo
Gain 3000 Ryo

Building a Bloodline Stage 1 of 4
at stage 4 chose a Kekkei Genkai to gain

Sakura just stared. She could get a bloodline limit! Already her mind was racing with the possibilities that were rushing before her eyes. Then reality kicked in. If she could gain a bloodline limit, there would be nobody who could teach her how to use it? How would she be able to use it effectively if she was unable to master other basic stuff such as Taijutsu and Ninjutsu? She would also need the equivalent of 4 levels perks to gain it, and right now in her current state she needed to get stronger as soon as possible. That decision also ruled out the Rolling in Ryo perk, and after some deliberation she decided on Cherry Blossom Ballet. Sure the name sounded ridiculously cheesy and it boosted her Beauty, but it also gave her +5 to her Dexterity... something she was sure that she would need.

Sakura groaned remembering how much she had hated Taijutsu training. Hopefully the total bonus of 9 points would help her greatly. Though she would still have a disadvantage against people like Ino who were from clans, they would have had extra training pre-academy. It was annoying, but it was just another obstacle that Sakura knew she would one day overcome.

That's the spirit!

The screen had faded now that her perk was chosen and Sakura was free to move around the room. After receiving hugs and congratulations from her parents she returned to her bedroom. After all she had not had much chance to search it for clues about this world... And so the search began.

This was actually harder than it looked at first glance. Sakura's mother was incredibly organised. Everything had a place and was kept in its place, which was preferably on a painted fairy bookcase or in a knitted pink bag trimmed with lace frills. The problem being that this Sakura did not know where everything's place was and by the time she had sorted out the useful stuff from the clutter her room looked as though it had been hit by a tornado!

Luckily for her she had actually remembered roughly where everything had come from, if not exactly how it was stacked or folded. Therefore she could technically get it back into place... it would just be incredibly boring to do so. And so Sakura examined the pile of factual books she had found, as well as a small pile of practical clothes and a hair band to keep the mass of pink locks on her head out of the way.

...

Several books later Sakura was on the verge of screaming. She had finally figured out what the Expanded Universe actually did! Her history books showed an almost exactly identical history of Konoha they still had the same Hokage's and the same founding clans. Rather it was the world's history – and geography – that had crucially changed.

There were still a total of 5 major hidden villages, but there was a rise of minor villages and towns that she had never heard of before. And it wasn't like they were hidden... their existence was documented in a children's book of all things! This was bad. This was really bad! Sakura had planned to focus on her physical training this time and rely on what she knew from her past life to ace all the exams. Now that plan was completely mucked up.

Perhaps this was the catch to the Expanded Universe option then, the part that made it just as bad as impossible difficulty. This messed up her whole future as she knew it! No, she calmed herself down, it would be ok as long as she remained in Konoha – which she would do until she graduated the academy. By the time that she would start taking missions she would be stronger, much stronger. Even if she had to completely relearn everything, she would study and practice twice as hard, so that by the time the Chuunin exams came around again... Shannaro! She would survive!

Just as she was about to start studying frantically, her mother entered her bedroom, holding her new student guide for the Ninja Academy that she had forgotten in her prior haste. Sakura started to read it, the black text appearing to glare at her as it confirmed just how much things had changed. The first page she looked at was devoted to her timetable.

Monday

Morning: History of Konoha
Early Afternoon: Taijutsu Techniques
Late Afternoon: Taijutsu Sparring

Tuesday

Morning: History of the Elemental Nations
Early Afternoon: Endurance Training
Late Afternoon: Obstacle Course

Wednesday

Morning: Ninja Laws
Early Afternoon: Kunai Practice
Late Afternoon: Shuriken Practice

Thursday

Morning: Calligraphy
Early Afternoon: Obstacle Course
Late Afternoon: Medicinal Studies

Friday

Morning: Understanding Jutsu – Theoretical
Early Afternoon: Taijutsu Techniques
Late Afternoon: Taijutsu Sparring

Saturday

Morning: Survival Training
Early Afternoon: Kunai Practice
Late Afternoon: Shuriken Practice

The next page that Sakura looked at was the introduction to "Konoha Central Ninja Academy". The slightly different name confused her at first until she read further and realised the reason. Now that Konoha was so much bigger, there were several Ninja Academies, of which "Konoha Central Ninja Academy" was the highest ranked. The introduction also provided a scoreboard, a comparison of the different academic options which were available to would be ninja's in this expanded universe.

Academics

First Place: Konoha Central Ninja Academy: Score: 83
Second Place: Tree of Life Ninja Institute: Score: 80
Third Place: Konoha Academy of Ninja Arts: Score: 61

Combat

First Place: Konoha Central Ninja Academy: Score: 84
Second Place: Konoha Academy of Ninja Arts: Score: 78
Third Place: Tree of Life Ninja Institute: Score: 70

Annual Inter-Academy Tournament

First Place: Konoha Central Ninja Academy
Second Place: Konoha Academy of Ninja Arts
Third Place: Tree of Life Ninja Institute

Now Sakura realised just why her low Chakra was such a big deal this time. It wasn't that it hadn't been before but the teachers never mentioned it as an issue back then. Getting into a Ninja Academy was difficult. This was particularly so as children from clans had an advantage in admissions procedures, and bloodlines and family techniques also acted in a potential students favour. While it had no effect on grades after admittance, this practically guaranteed that those with a bloodline such as the Hyuuga and the Uchiha would be granted admission.

There also was a lot of other information about how great Konoha central Ninja Academy was but Sakura focused on the most important parts – at least to her. The "Notable Alumnae" section informed her that the Uchiha Clan had sent all of their children there, and that the Ino-Shika-Cho trio had graduated as well. Reassured that she would be with people she knew Sakura turned her attention to the next page which told her that the "Annual Inter-Academy Tournament" was a series of duels between the best students from each Ninja Academy. After the temporary distraction given by flicking through the rest of the student guide...

"Hey we do have to study. Much as I hate it, well we have read the timetable!"

To say Sakura was overwhelmed by the timetable did not even begin to cover it, much less her shock, and horror, which had only been delayed from kicking in. Now that Sakura thought about it, she would only get Sunday's off to train by herself, lessons ended later, she had never taken some of the classes listed... and she started NEXT WEEK!

'Don't panic, it'll make things worse, you know' Inner tried to say, but to little effect. Sakura was already halfway down the stairs and was calling for her parents to get her the textbooks as soon as possible.

Social Check 19/16

PASSED: +10XP!

And so it was decided that Sakura was to go shopping for the equipment required, her textbooks, and some clothes that were not pink or frilly – she freely admitted that her former nine year old self had had terrible dress sense.

It was upon leaving the house that Sakura discovered the map function of the game.

MAP: UNLOCKED

Note: The map lives up to its name by providing you with a guide to wherever you wish to go. Unexplored areas however will be greyed out and unmarked. Opponents will show up on the map as a red dot, neutral as blue and friendly as green. Increasing your perception will increase details marked on the map as well as how soon other people will show up on it.

This had the potential to be very useful, but it was also quite uninformative at the moment. This was due to the fact that in this world Sakura had never been out of the house... so EVERYWHERE was greyed out. Sakura did however take extra care to note down directions, particularly to Konoha Central Ninja Academy, which Sakura and her parents had passed. Though there was no sign indicating such, she would recognise the building anywhere, and the onslaught of memories brought a tear to her eye. Which she then had to say was a bit of dust in her eye – it would not do for her to be to knowledgeable about things, well things other than what she could learn legitimately in this world.

After a long, long shopping session Sakura opened her inventory – another new discovery- and placed her parent's purchases inside it. As much as she had hated relying on her parents her current funds of 200 Ryo would not have covered half of the stuff she had required. The Rolling in Ryo perk looked much more attractive now! She had even seen a Jutsu scroll shop and a custom weapon crafting shop and so much more than had ever been in Konoha before! Grinning in excitement she looked at her Inventory status.

INVENTORY

Books

+1 Taijutsu Tricks for Beginners
+ 1 Basic Bukijutsu
+1 Ninja Encyclopaedia
+1 a Comprehensive History of Fire Country
+5 Plain Writing Notebooks

Equipment

+12 Kunai
+12 Shuriken

Clothes

+2 Dark Red Tunics
+2 Black Shorts
+1 Pair Sandals
+1 Utility Belt

After equipping her new outfit Sakura set about studying her new books as well as the ones she already had. Despite her limited supply of books, the information that they gave was quite comprehensive and so she was nearly certain that she would not make a fool of herself at the academy, and more importantly not give anything away about her life being a video game

Sakura sat at the desk in her bedroom, studying furiously. Thankfully one thing that had not changed in this new Konoha was her personality as a child. Therefore it was completely unremarkable that Sakura was studying most of the time. Her mother had even remarked several times about how nice it was that she was not running off and getting into trouble with other kids her age. While the praise had made Sakura happy initially, the feeling did not last long. Apparently this meant that Sakura had no friends at all, as she had discovered after some innocent sounding questions about her previous schooling.

"We took you out of the civilian primary school because of those nasty children. They were always being rude and violent. You hated it remember, you requested to be home-schooled and you have done so well darling. Your father and I are so proud of you! You even got into Konoha Central Ninja Academy on your first attempt; do you know how rare that is? Especially since you didn't have any special training – my little girl is so talented!"

Even so she was worried about what would happen at the academy. Beforehand she had been friends with Ino, although they had fallen out over Sasuke which effectively ended the friendship in their later years.

"Well think of it as a brand new start," Inner chipped in. "Sure you don't know anyone but nobody will know you either. So what is there to be scared about?"

There was quite a lot in Sakura's opinion. Not only would she have to keep up with her studies, she would have to navigate a whole new world. She also was not used to the video game that her life had become. All of these unknowns were daunting alone, and positively terrifying together. But she would face it. And she would win. And right now she had to study. She would have preferred to have been working on practical subjects, but with no Jutsu to study she could not work on that. And her parents had been horrified at her attempt to practice throwing kunai and shuriken, so much so that she had had them confiscated until her first day at the Academy. She did not want to even consider what their response would be if she tried tree walking!

She had over the past five days read every non-fiction book she possessed, including her textbooks. All she had gained was more information that would be common knowledge in this world, nothing that would be of use to a ninja. The Ninja Encyclopaedia was aimed at children under twelve, and only contained stuff that she already knew. A Comprehensive History of Fire Country contained a basic historical background as well as lots of facts that had taken her a whole three days to memorise, but nothing else. Sakura had been excited about Taijutsu Tricks for Beginners. She had thought that it would teach her a Taijutsu style. Sadly that book was a disappointment as well. While it was full of basic moves, they were the academy ones – which she knew were not the best. She did however practice them in private.

It was after several run-throughs of the Kata's that she felt an understanding dawn, which concurred with the creation of the skill that did give her a Taijutsu style. Her knowledge was patchy, and this definitely showed in her skill level, but she was pleased with its potential. Apparently the Academy style was a basis for several more advanced styles which it could eventually be upgraded to. Sakura quickly re-read the description, and found that the list of moves was automatically matched in her head to the words she read. It was slightly disconcerting, but helpful insofar as she would not embarrass herself not come Monday's Taijutsu practice.

You Have Gained Leaf Dance Style Basic Taijutsu! +100XP!

Leaf Dance Style Basic: Overall Skill: 1/100

Throughout her practice she found out that she did not tire so quickly, and that the various techniques she tried seemed to be easier to learn. All of the moves were named after trees, and while many were greyed out, Sakura actually had the prerequisite attributes to unlock 2 random moves with which to improve her style.

You have Learnt Sycamore Elbow Slice! +25XP
you have Learnt Oak Branch Block! +25XP

"It's probably due to the points on Strength and Dexterity."

Sakura agreed with Inner Sakura on that. Though she was still far below an acceptable level in Taijutsu, as she had no practical experience in the skill her struggling was understandable. Rather the difference seemed to be in her physical fitness and flexibility, which Sakura could have trained in during her previous life if she had bothered. That thought had been quite upsetting for her, but she had resolved to get better and so she had started doing stretches daily in the garden as well as doing more errands for her parents. Doing the errands had multiple benefits as not only was Sakura able to exercise she was also able to gain a basic map of the immediate area. So far the furthest she had been was to the civilian shops and to the park but she had been able to gather information.

In this expanded universe ninja's and civilians lived largely separate lives. It was not discrimination, she knew that for sure – it was simply that the ninja's tended to live in separate clan compounds, or in areas with a lot of other ninja families. Ninja areas were usually built with defence in mind, and maze like streets with no maps available were common. In turn the civilians preferred to live in the more open districts, which were scattered with parks and other open areas. There was also the fact that many ninja families were ancient, and the ancestral homes that they lived in were in the older part of Konoha, compared with the newer developments built by civilians.

The academies for children were spread throughout Konoha, and Konoha Central Ninja Academy was located in-between the civilian area that she lived in, and the main ninja area. As Sakura mused on the new Konoha she could not escape one fact: she was nervous with waiting. She had studied all she could, and had practiced Taijutsu, but she was still shaking at the thought of attending the academy. It was not that she did not want to see her friends, because she missed them greatly, it was because she did not want to see if they had changed. If this world had changed so much, her friends and teachers might have as well. The curriculum was different enough, what if the people were as well? Her mind filled with sad memories Sakura fell into an uneasy sleep.

The next morning Sakura woke up early, and began to get her bag ready for her first day. Even though she would not need her Shuriken and Kunai she still packed them as she would be able to practice with them in break time at school, if that remained the same as before. After she had eaten breakfast she noticed a small gold question mark had appeared at the door. When she walked up to it the games text appeared once again.

NEW QUEST: Rogue Ranged Weaponry!

Objective: Your Kunai and Shuriken have fallen out of your bag, find them all!
Bonus Objective: Arrive at Konoha Central Ninja Academy on time!

Sakura gritted her teeth. The stupid game was doing this on purpose to make her life difficult, she just knew it! Inner Sakura echoed her sentiments as she lifted one of her Shuriken off of the butter. The following search of the house made no sense to Sakura whatsoever. The weapons were not even in realistic places! Honestly, kunai and shuriken could not move on their own – so how did they get into the fish tank, her sock drawer and the lampshade to name but a few places she located them in! It was lucky she had gotten up early, because a full hour passed before she once again had twelve shuriken and twelve kunai in her possession.

The time was now eight thirty, which gave Sakura 15 minutes to get to school in time for registration, a journey which would normally take her 20 minutes. This was not good. Saying goodbye to her parents hurriedly Sakura started running towards the Academy. Luckily the map was still working, and that she had mapped the area so thoroughly that she knew several shortcuts she could take. 13 minutes later Sakura Haruno, gasping for breath, arrived outside her classroom.

QUEST COMPLETE: +50XP!
BONUS OBJECTIVE COMPLETE: +25XP

Having regained some of her breath, and straightened her clothes she walked into the classroom. Noise surrounded her as 32 other children chatted, laughed and argued. Sakura could not remember feeling so isolated before. After taking a few deep breaths she found a desk towards the front of the classroom and sat there. It was just all so overwhelming, and the expanded universe was not helping by doubling her class size – there had only been 20 other students in her class previously. How were the teachers going to cope? Then Iruka-sensei walked in and the noise slowly dimmed as the other children noticed his presence.

"Good morning class. I am Iruka-sensei and I will be your teacher for this year. We will start off with registration and self-introductions. When your name is called please stand up and introduce yourselves."

Some of the names were familiar to Sakura, and some were not. What she was really waiting for was the "U" surnames as Naruto and Sasuke would introduce themselves then. She was so focused on this that she must have missed her name being called.

"I repeat myself, Sakura Haruno" Iruka-sensei announced.

Social Check 19\18: PASSED: +25XP

"Sorry Sensei," Sakura replied before standing up and introducing herself with skill that she had not known she possessed. Like most of the other introductions there was a light applause from the other students when she finished. A sigh of relief escaped her mouth as Iruka-sensei moved on to the next student, which happened to be Hinata Hyuuga.

It was then that she saw Naruto. He sat two rows behind Hinata and looked surprisingly serious, and was apparently rehearsing his introduction speech from the way that he was muttering under his breath. Hinata was speaking now, Inner registered, but all Sakura could focus on was her former teammate. He was here! He was alive! And her second chance really was happening!

Light applause followed introduction after introduction, in varying degrees of loudness. Then Iruka pointed at a black haired boy and called out...

"Sasuke Uchiha"

Sakura's fingers twitched as Sasuke stood up, and introduced himself in a monotone voice. Her emotions were in chaos. The problem was she now felt two very different things about Sasuke. Her mind was almost indifferent, thinking of him merely as a former teammate. Her heart however was a very different matter – it was beating so hard, her breathing was shallow, and her cheeks were flushed bright red if the heat she felt on her face was any indication!

Her mind screamed at her... Inner screamed at her... but all that Sakura could do was to restrain her wayward body before she ran forwards and hugged him. No! Not this time! She was going to be a strong kunoichi this time. "Must not be a fan girl, must not be a fan girl," Inner was especially vocal right now. Sakura grimaced, like Inner could understand, Inner didn't even have a body to restrain from rabid fan-girling! Her only consolation was that she at least was not drooling like half of the girls in the class. She was better than last time in that, and that was something wasn't it?

But the feeling was so familiar, it was almost like her body remembered... That was it! The reason why she was feeling like this! Having only just arrived in this new Konoha her new body did not have the maturity of her significantly older mind. That... kind of sucked. She made a mental note to avoid fighting Sasuke until she managed to overcome this. Something told her that ninja did not hug her enemies to death.

"Unless you're Mitarashi Anko" Inner interrupted. "That woman was scary,"

Sakura grumbled before telling Inner that sadists did not count as normal ninja, and there was no denying that Anko was a first class sadist. The game chose that moment to chime in.

Common Sense Check: Perception: 19/15: PASSED +25XP

Now that was not fair. Why would the game reward her for common sense unless... Oh no it had better not be implying... It couldn't possibly be saying that she had no common sense. She temporarily forgot that she was still in class and gripped the chair as hard as she could.

Strength Check 17/20: FAILED: You have a splinter! -5 HP

Sakura let out a small gasp. That splinter hurt! A lot... Could this game be a sadist as well...? If so that was just what she needed – a sadistic unknown being controlling her life sounded just wonderful. "Resist urge to throw chair," Inner ground out "The game WILL get revenge!" So as much as Sakura fancied grabbing her chair and attempting to smash the words that were still floating in front of her, she did not. Instead she would beat this game, so, so, so badly that it would beg for forgiveness!

Sakura was so lost in her own thoughts that she was completely taken off guard when she looked up into a face with a pair of bright blue eyes and distinctive whisker marks.

Perception Check 19/21: FAILED: You fell off your chair! -7 HP

Looking up into Naruto's eyes from her position on the floor, Sakura wished that a hole would open and swallow her up. Naruto had managed to sneak up on her, wearing bright orange, and from what he was saying, she had managed to miss him talking to her – at normal Naruto volume. Which was comparable to a fire alarm - or near that level anyway? So Sakura did the next best thing and hid her head in her hands. That way nobody would see her mouthing the rudest words in her vocabulary. It was official. Her new life sucked!

Sakura hid her head in her hands, but quickly raised it when she heard the all too familiar sound of Naruto being dragged away by Iruka-sensei. Apparently scaring classmates off their chairs, however unintentional was frowned upon now. But it was what she saw on Naruto's face that cut Sakura to the core. He was loudly protesting that Iruka-sensei was going to permanently stretch his ear, but his eyes... his eyes looked dull. Not the sad kind of dull, but a look of resigned disappointment. It was almost as if he had expected this to happen. Thinking back on her past life flashes of memories supplied by Inner linked together and started to make sense...

Intelligence Check 27/21: PASSED: +30XP

Naruto was hated, Sakura thought. She had to admit that it made sense from her recollections. In fact, it was the only logical conclusion. People... didn't like Naruto, and it wasn't because he wore bright orange, or played pranks, or even because he was loud and annoying. Strangers looked at him with a look on their face; even some of her previous academy teachers had had that almost-glare on their faces. Guilt came shortly after. She should have been more careful, despite the fact that she hadn't noticed this in her previous life; she most definitely shouldn't have practically recoiled from his presence.

In the short time her thoughts took Iruka-sensei and Naruto were nearing the classroom door and Iruka-sensei was telling him to stand outside. Sakura steeled herself. This was going to put a few cracks in her shy civilian girl image, but she, she just couldn't let this happen. No matter that in the past she would have probably ignored him – or maybe she should do this because of that. She would make things up to Naruto, starting now!

"Iruka-sensei, it wasn't his fault, it was an accident." She hated how weak her voice sounded, but this body of hers really wasn't used to speaking loudly. Unfortunately she had lifted the hand which had received the splinter up to get the teacher's attention. The splinter had been quite big and her palm was bleeding somewhat.

"Haruno-san your hand is bleeding! Uzumaki! What happened to cause Haruno that injury?" Sakura hastened to think up an explanation that would get both her and Naruto out of trouble.

"It was me! I'm sorry Iruka-sensei, but my chair broke and I was scared to speak up. But then Naruto saw it bleeding and came over to help me. He was just being kind Sensei, please don't punish him"

Iruka-sensei looked at her closely, most likely to discern whether she was lying. A few seconds later he turned back to Naruto.

"In that case Uzumaki you can take Haruno-san to the medical office." Naruto just stood there, mouth gaping slightly. "Within this century, if you please." Since Naruto appeared to still be in shock Sakura decided that a quick exit would be beneficial. Smiling first at Iruka-sensei then at Naruto, she took Naruto's right hand in her good one and proceeded to pull him out of the classroom.

"Thank you Sensei," she called out over her shoulder, before turning to face Naruto. He was currently staring at her as if she had two heads.

"Well you do technically have two minds. Minds and heads are actually pretty similar you know. Maybe it's the fact that they are located in the same place?" Having told Inner Sakura in no uncertain terms to take a long vacation to Suna she decided to make the first move, as Naruto still hadn't. She grinned.

"I think that Iruka-sensei forgot that this is our first day, why should we know where the location of the medical office is?" Naruto beamed back at her, but when he spoke there was a slight hesitation in his voice.

"Well the bleedings stopped and..." After a quick look at her hand he continued... "There's no splinter actually in the cut so LET'S SKIVE!" Admittedly the idea did sound attractive, and the first lesson was just History of Konoha, she thought to herself.

"Why not, and if they find us we'll say that we got lost, right Naruto?" Naruto opened his mouth, and pumped his fist in the air, but before he could actually say anything Sakura's hand found its way over his mouth.

"Keep it down; we don't want to tell the building we're skiving!"

"Oh, yeah, that would probably make sense. Thanks, Sakura-chan!"

ACHIEVEMENT EARNED: Skive your first ever class! +20XP

New Precious Person: Uzumaki Naruto! +100XP

LEVEL UP!

You are now Level 3!

ATTRIBUTES

Beauty: 16+
Chakra: 13+
Control: 49+
Dexterity: 19+
Endurance: 13+
Intelligence: 26+
Luck: 12+
Perception: 19+
Social: 19+
Speed: 17+
Strength: 13+
Willpower: 13+

Points to Spend: 20

As Sakura had previously decided 5 points were placed on Dexterity as well as 5 points on Intelligence. The remaining ten went to perception. No orange monstrosity would ever unseat her again! Seriously, though it was the little details that made a lot of difference in the Shinobi world and if it was going to be checked so often then it was definitely something that needed to be addressed.

AVAILABLE PERKS

Sharper than a Shuriken
Twice the accuracy with Shuriken

Keener than a Kunai
Twice the accuracy with Kunai

Rolling in Ryo
Gain 3000 Ryo

Building a Bloodline Stage 1 of 4
at stage 4 chose a Kekkei Genkai to gain

Slug Sannin's Student
+5, Strength, +5, Control

Stay Away From Sasuke-kun!
+10, Endurance, X2 Damage to Fan-girls

Sakura scanned the list quickly, seeing all of the old ones and smiling at the one named Slug Sannin's Student. That sounded pretty good, she remembered reading about chakra enhanced punches, which she had thought sounded ideal. Besides... they worked for a Sannin and Tsunade was a legend for her Chakra augmented strength. Also, since Sakura had such small chakra reserves any technique which allowed her to do significant damage with comparatively little chakra would be beyond useful. Though a small smile appeared again when she thought about how they were not so small anymore.

Her smile, however quickly died upon sight of the last perk. Did the game just cross that line? Sakura thought that it did cross that line, and this was a Sakura whose body was going through extreme Sasuke Withdrawal Syndrome, no matter how much her mind detested it. How dare the game taunt her with her past crush? The screen watched impassively as she launched a punch at it... only to stumble over her own feet. Sakura screamed in horror as her hand, carried by her body's momentum, headed straight for the perk "Stay Away from Sasuke-kun".

Dexterity Check 23/17: PASSED: +20XP

With all of her strength Sakura strained her body upwards as she fell, and with extreme effort, that left her panting, she was able to reach that little bit higher. Her selected perk was now the significantly better "Slug Sannin's Student". Thank goodness.

With her involuntary selection of a perk, the screen around her faded and Sakura was once again talking with Naruto. After some exploring they ended up in a tree in the middle of the Academy garden. The central tree did look a bit odd, but even an Academy student could tell you that trees, when placed next to a wall, were extremely hazardous. As in, rival ninja being able to sneak in and kill you in your sleep sort of hazardous.

When Sakura and Naruto had first arrived, Sakura freely admitted, to herself and inner only, that she might have been a little scared. She had, after all died in a rather nasty manner in the forest of death, as well as having some pretty awful experiences and memories associated. But for some reason that she couldn't quite fathom the game was actually nice, in the form of a willpower check.

Willpower Check: 14/14: PASSED: +20XP

She had barely managed to do it, but thanks to the game she had been able to pull herself together and climb the tree with ease. Mental thanks went to her improved dexterity and strength. Her social skill also served her well, as she enjoyed chatting to Naruto about all manner of things. Some were familiar, like his love of ramen and desire to be Hokage, while others, like his apartment in the seedy area of town, where he lived alone – well they were entirely new.

It was those new facts which made Sakura sad. No nine year old should live alone, and even more poignant, no nine year old child should accept it as his due. It was all she could do not to hug him, and break down in tears. The tears that he hadn't shed because he didn't even seem to realise that something was wrong. As it was she settled for placing her hand over his, until the bell rang, signalling lunch break. They had been talking for well over two hours.

Naruto seemed almost reluctant to leave their leafy hideaway, but was persuaded to by a promise of a shared bento – her mother always packed too much for her to eat, though her appetite had increased slightly as Sakura had increased her exercise regime. So they walked back, and Sakura flawlessly led the way, courtesy of the mini-map in the corner of the screen.

After making innocent faces at Iruka-sensei, who was suspicious, but could not prove anything, they were taken out to what resembled a civilian playground, except for the fact that all of the equipment was rather extreme. The swings did full loop the loops. The roundabout spun at fifty miles per hour. And last but not least the tree assault course involving tightropes, wires, traps and that was Sakura's conclusion after a few seconds examination. There was going to be more danger, and worse danger, hidden from immediate detection.

Deadly toys aside, Sakura scanned the playground, making mental notes on who she knew already, and who was new to this expanded universe. Hinata stood to one side glancing around nervously. Since there was no blushing when she saw Naruto, Sakura thought it safe to say that she did not have a crush on him... yet that was. Then there was Kiba and Akamaru who had turned around and had given them a quick glance, or more accurately a sniff in Akamaru's case.

A group of fan-girls were splitting up and searching the area for Sasuke – and doing a terrible job of it. They missed many obvious hiding places, and besides Sasuke at this age sucked at hiding. You could see his feet dangling from a tree, if you looked that is. Even Naruto wouldn't have made that mistake, though he was probably more visible in general thanks to the aforementioned orange monstrosity. Focusing on that helped Sakura overcome the urge to run towards the tree that Sasuke was hiding in.

Luck Check: 13/23: Failed: A bad thing happens

Just as Sakura finally felt in control of herself once more, fate intervened in the form of Naruto. He must have been more observant than she had given him credit for, or Sasuke really was that bad at concealment, because the next thing she knew she was part of an orange cannonball hurtling towards the tree. As Naruto called up to Sasuke, Sakura strategically positioned herself so that she had several escape routes from a fan-girl mob, should one appear. Double damage to fan-girls actually did seem advantageous right now.

"Yeah, but you really think that people in the Chuunin Exams will be fan-girls? I mean Ino, sure, but you know – the girl from sound who kind of KILLED us didn't seem to fancy Sasuke!" Annoying, but true, Sakura acknowledged. The remark about their death had been a bit of a low blow though. "Hello... We are ninjas, not samurai! Forgive me for pointing out the obvious to help you survive!"

When Sakura finally stopped arguing with Inner, Naruto and Sasuke had managed to get into an argument. She supposed that some things would never change; they were already calling each other dobe and teme... Sasuke's main point seemed to be that Naruto and Sakura had missed a two hour lesson finding their way to the medical office to deal with a splinter. Therefore they were weak. Therefore they were not worth his time. The Uchiha logic was on full blast today. Sakura was just thankful that the raven-haired boy was not aware that she was on probationary status. Thankfully this was not about being embarrassed in front of Sasuke; rather it was about her being embarrassed in front of Naruto... a rather odd feeling for Sakura to have.

Naruto's voice was getting louder, and the only reason that the trio had not been discovered so far was because of the fan-girls inability to link the words "teme" and "Sasuke-kun" together. So before they were swamped by a fan-girl mob, Sakura spoke up.

"If Naruto and I are so weak then you'll beat us in a ninja contest right?"

"Hn" She took that as a yes.

"Then we'll race."

"Hn"

How could he convey so much with an HN? The one before had been agreement and this one was questioning. Konoha really should adopt a sign language based on Uchiha-speak; it would be great for times when you don't want the enemy to understand what you're saying. Switching her thoughts back to the challenge she pointed upwards.

"See that route; we'll see which of us three can finish it first."

"Hn" This time a sharp nod accompanied the syllable.

MINIGAME DISCOVERED: Treetop Touchdown!

Note: Mini-games are hidden around the map, and each may be completed a maximum of five times. Do well for hidden bonuses, secrets and rewards!

Sakura groaned... What had she gotten into!?

The time had come for the final showdown, and Sakura was shaking with nerves. Despite her changed feelings towards Sasuke, she was not an idiot. Since he originally was from a ninja family he would have had prior training, in all likelihood several years of it – if he had kept it up after the massacre, which he probably had. As well as that she knew that in her old life Sasuke was far superior to her at fighting. She was doomed.

"No we are most certainly not doomed! Use your common sense!"

The interjection from inner was unexpectedly optimistic, and she could not help but wonder why this was...

"Sakura think! What was the one thing you managed to master faster than Sasuke beforehand?"

Sakura thought back, and realised that most of her memories involving Sasuke were not really clear, and featured a lot of daydreaming. Pushing through her old academy memories she moved on to the team 7 training. The fight against Kakashi came up, so did the fight against Zabuza... And so did...

"It has to be TREE WALKING!" Sakura blurted out before she could help herself.

"Is it really? You have quite the knack for information gathering, don't you?"

Annoying inners took second place in Sakura's mind. She was formulating a plan. Her main advantage here was that Sasuke would not be able to tree walk, and since she had high chakra control, she probably could. Since the mini-game was called treetop touchdown, it was a safe bet that trees would be involved, and that would be her advantage, and her secret weapon, if the puzzled looks Naruto and Sasuke gave her were any indication.

Tree-walking as a technique was not taught in the academy, and was only mentioned in the second year and above. So no-one would expect her to know such a technique. Forget about not showing off her knowledge, this was about showing herself that she was a stronger person – one who could beat Sasuke!

BEGIN MINIGAME: Treetop Touchdown

YES
NO

A confident push of the yes button later and she found herself Naruto and Sasuke lined up on a platform, in front of a tangled web of branches.

TUTORIAL:

In Treetop Touchdown the aim is to reach the goal in first place! Various chests and power-ups await you along the way.

REWARDS:

First Place: 150XP +All Items/Bonuses Collected
Second Place: 100XP + Half of Items/Bonuses Collected: Random
Third Place: 50XP + 1 Collected Item/Bonus: Random

Hmm, that was what Sakura called a dilemma. She would have to strike a balance between getting the rewards and heading straight for the end. Not that she could see the end through the shadowy mass of branches. And there would be traps as well. Before she could think again a countdown appeared in front of her.

3... 2... 1... AND GO!

Sakura waited for the boys to charge along the bottom of the pathway, and when they were a few metres ahead she focussed her chakra to her feet, and also leapt forwards. The key difference in their behaviour, though, was that she had leapt directly towards a trunk feet first. As her feet met the trunk she moulded her chakra into a plate that was simultaneously connected to her feet and the tree.

Control Check: 49/40: PASSED! +25XP

NEW NINJUTSU LEARNED: Tree-Walking! +180XP

Running up the branch, Sakura was soon at the top of the tree, and upon looking down could clearly see a flash of orange, a flash of dark blue as well as a fair few traps. But she did not have time to waste and once again she ran forwards, skimming the tops of the trees. By rapidly manoeuvring herself backwards and forwards she was able to run through various lights that signalled a reward was present.

Various glowing objects stood out on the mini-map when she got close enough for her perception to pick up on them. Unfortunately most of them were in difficult spots to get to... one hovered right over a pitfall trap that would send whoever stepped on it to the ground below! But the good thing about tree walking was that it allowed Sakura to map the area easily and then choose the closest and most convenient bonuses that appeared when she opened the chests or walked through one of the glowing lights. She had even managed to open a rare chest which had required getting a key from an ordinary one!

But all good things must come to an end, and the trees eventually became coniferous, their pointed tops preventing her from any further tree-walking. Catching her breath she glanced at the mini-map. Instead of showing the playground as it had done previously it showed a basic map of the trees. A pink dot was the furthest along by a large margin, then there was a blue dot representing Sasuke steadily making its way along, and... The orange dot was stationary?

What had happened with Naruto? Sakura tried to reassure herself, to tell herself that Naruto had probably got caught in a net or something, or had gotten lost. Then the orange dot flashed red, and it was not stopping! Was he hurt! A faint yell reached Sakura's ears from behind, a pain filled yell. She no longer cared about the race. All she cared about was that her friend, her future teammate was suffering!

Her mind made up Sakura twisted herself around and launched herself towards the location of the orange dot, nearly colliding with a shocked Sasuke on the way there.

"How..." Sasuke looked completely bewildered that she had been ahead of him. But there was no time for that.

"Where is Naruto?! Is he alright?"

"Hn" This time the sound was coupled with an 'I could not care less' shrug before he ran past her, intent on winning.

The orange dot continued to flash red and as Sakura rounded the corner she came face to face with Naruto, struggling with a net of ninja wire that was digging into his skin! Pulling a kunai she quickly cut the wire, and a bloody Naruto tumbled down. This was not suitable for kids, ninja's or not!

"Naruto-kun, Naruto-kun, please be ok, please be ok!"

Then Sakura noticed the health bar above Naruto's head. The first shock was that he had a maximum health of 400! The second thing she noticed was even more shocking. Naruto's health had dropped to 90 out of 400 – which could have been worse, but as she watched his health went up to 91! His health was... regenerating?

"Thanks, Sakura-chan!" Naruto gave her a wide grin, despite his pain. "Come on lets beat the teme!"

"But... your injuries need to be seen to!" His reply made no sense whatsoever.

"What doctor would treat me...? Besides, no-one beats the future Hokage, believe it!"

The first remark threw Sakura off. Surely the village's hatred of Naruto did not extend to the doctors... and denying someone medical aid was against the oath all doctors swore! She could not continue that line of thought though because Naruto had grabbed her arm and was running with speed that she had not known he possessed.

Though they were gaining on Sasuke because he had disabled most of the traps, which left them with a clear path, he still had a significant advantage, and at their current pace they would not win. Something had to be done before they lost, Sakura reasoned as they raced straight through a power up. Digging her heels in she was able to catch Naruto's hand and turn him round to face her.

"I've got a plan, Naruto-kun. You saw me walking along the tree trunks right?" When she received a nod in response she continued. "You follow the path and I'll go higher up and tell you the quickest way to go, is that alright?"

"You bet, but when we beat Sasuke-teme by miles you teach me how to do that!" Matching grins appeared on both of their faces, and they started again. Sakura sprang into the trees and started calling out directions. Together they sped along the course, until they could see the goal, and unfortunately they were neck and neck with Sasuke.

By now Sakura's breath was coming in heavy pants, and they had reached the coniferous trees once more. Sakura prepared to jump down from the tree when a new message appeared.

ALERT: Chakra 0/130: Tree-Walking Deactivated

Apparently even with her increased Chakra reserves she was unable to keep going for long. Though that could also be attributed to her inexperience with the technique causing her to use more Chakra than necessary... something that her perfect control reduced but did not completely eliminate. However the more pressing issue was that she was at the top of a tree without any Chakra to continue sticking to it. She was going to...

And then she actually was falling, trying desperately to grab a branch, but failing. Twigs scratched her, and she prepared herself... for an impact that never came? Sakura was moving once more, but forwards – not downwards. Looking up she could see Naruto carrying her as he ran. But the burden she posed was slowing Naruto down, giving Sasuke the advantage.

They could do it. They had to do it. Leaf green eyes met bright blue ones. Sakura realised that, just like in the bell test, teamwork was important. She would have run out of Chakra before the end, and Naruto would have still been stuck in that trap. Together, however, they had stood a fighting chance, Naruto still had a fighting chance and so through her weariness she whispered...

"Put me down baka, go on and win..."

Naruto just shook his head determinedly as he forced his legs to move faster than Sakura thought possible for a child of his age. Slowly but steadily the gap between Sasuke and them shrunk. Then, at the very last moment, Naruto took the lead, launching himself over the finish line a split second before Sasuke. They had won!

Treetop Touchdown 1 of 5: COMPLETE

1st Place: Naruto Uzumaki
2nd Place: Sakura Haruno
3rd Place: Sasuke Uchiha

Total Rewards Collected: 9

Rewards Given: 2nd Place = 4

Sakura Haruno's Random Rewards are:

Stat Increase: +2 Beauty
Scroll: D-Rank Genjutsu: Ripples of Reality:
Set of Kunai (6)
500 Ryo

SECOND PLACE: +100XP

LEVEL UP! LEVEL FOUR!

It was as if Sakura had never been exhausted in the first place. She felt fully refreshed, almost as if she had just woken up. It was probably due to the automatic refill that her health and chakra got every time she levelled up. The prizes she had received were also alright. She wouldn't have chosen a Beauty upgrade, and she had never used a genjutsu before, despite falling prey to several, but they could still come in handy, much like having some extra kunai and money would. Actually she sort of felt like doing the mini-game again if she got bonuses like this each time! Maybe she could find someone else to race... after she levelled up that is.

ATTRIBUTES

Beauty: 18+
Chakra: 13+
Control: 54+
Dexterity: 24+
Endurance: 13+
Intelligence: 31+
Luck: 12+
Perception: 29+
Social: 19+
Speed: 17+
Strength: 18+
Willpower: 13+

Points to Spend: 20

This was a tough choice for Sakura; she could either play to her strengths or help eliminate some of her weak points. More Chakra could always be useful, but then again learning tree-walking had been pretty close and raising her Chakra too much could make a similar feat impossible. Willpower was awfully low, as was Luck so 5 points were placed on each, followed by 5 to Dexterity and 5 to Speed. Taijutsu was next after all. Even if Sakura had improved she was still only on an overall skill level of 3/100, so any help would be very, very welcome. Come to think of it, Endurance would have probably helped... but it was too late for that now and Sakura was now facing the Perks Screen.

AVAILABLE PERKS

Sharper than a Shuriken
Twice the accuracy with Shuriken

Keener than a Kunai
Twice the accuracy with Kunai

Rolling in Ryo
Gain 4000 Ryo

Building a Bloodline Stage 1 of 4
at stage 4 chose a Kekkei Genkai to gain

Stay Away From Sasuke-kun!
+10, Endurance, X2 Damage to Fan-girls

Elemental Affinity
Unlocks one elemental affinity
May be used (3) times

A Choice of Taijutsu
Choose any 2 Taijutsu Styles from an available list

A Choice of Kenjutsu
Choose any 2 Kenjutsu Styles from an available list

Sakura was torn. On one hand having a proper Taijutsu Style other than the Academy one would be great, but if she unlocked an elemental affinity she would be able to use elemental Jutsu. On the other hand she had very little money and very little experience so any elemental Jutsu could wait until she had more of both of those. A Choice of Taijutsu had been chosen.

AVAILABLE TAIJUSTU STYLES

Anemone Style:
Associated with Wind, An evasive style with a fragile defence focussing on reducing damage from many small hits. It is weak against strong and accurate hits at a close range but is strong against ranged projectiles.

Phoenix Style:
Associated with Fire, An offensive style focussing on sweeping attacks in mid-range combat. It is strong against multiple opponents, but is weak in enclosed spaces where manoeuvring is difficult.

Spiral Style:
Associated with Water, A defensive style focussing on a pattern of blocks and manoeuvres which lead the enemy into an opening for a strong, final attack. It is strong against common styles, and weak against unknown ones. Another weakness is the time it takes to eliminate an opponent, this is significantly longer than average.

Tempest Style:
Associated with Lightning, An offensive style focussing on alternating attacks which are effective against a wide range of defences, which is its main strength. However it is weak against evasive styles.

Nightshade Style:
Associated with Earth, a defensive style focussing on delivering continuous hits and blocks causing steady damage to key points. It is strong against speed based styles, but weak against bladed weapons.

Firefly Style:
Associated with Fire, an offensive style focussing on multiple quick attacks. Strong against evasive styles, but its main weakness is the low accuracy of its attacks.

Thanatos Style:
Associated with Lighting, An evasive style which focuses on using high speed to create and exploit openings in the enemy's stance. It is weak against multiple opponents, but strong against slower Taijutsu stances and those which are more complex.

Siren Style:
Associated with Water, it is an offensive style focussing on flexible, long range attacks to disable an opponent. It is strong against attacks which affect a large area, but is weak against large amounts of small attacks.

Chime Style:
Associated with wind, it is an offensive style which begins with small attacks to determine the opponent's style, then builds up to a large, critical attack. It is weak against consistent powerful attacks, but its strength is against mid-ranged attacks, and in areas where there is limited manoeuvrability.

Leon Style:
Associated with Earth, it is a defensive style focussing on defensive moves that affect a large area. It is strong against multiple opponents, but weak with teamwork orientated techniques. It requires more power than average.

Sakura looked at the list in detail... which ones should she pick? Even with her brain working at full blast, weighing up the benefits and downfalls of each style, and her increased Intelligence Sakura was still hard pressed to choose. She should choose one offensive style, and then one evasive or defensive style, that much was certain. She would also prefer to have one suitable for short range and one for long range attacks.

Nightshade style seemed good... Sakura was particularly risk averse following her previous death so a defensive, consistent style seemed to be a good basis. That much having been decided, maybe she should choose a Taijutsu style to counter its weakness against bladed weapons? No, she then thought, if she had to choose it would be a long range offensive style.

And out of the entire group of ranged, offensive, styles Siren seemed to suit her best. She had high dexterity and control, which would suit a flexible style. And so it was settled. Sakura selected Nightshade Style and Siren Style, from the Earth and Water categories.

Taijutsu Learned: Nightshade Style & Siren Style!

The level up screen then faded away, leaving her to face a gaping Sasuke, and a grinning Naruto. Another notification then flashed up as she accepted Naruto's shoulder to lean on. Kami, she was exhausted!

You have gained an Ally: Uzumaki Naruto

Tutorial: Allies are gained once their relationship level is over 80/100, and a quest has been performed together. Once you gain an Ally you may call on them for help, but if you ask too much you may lose this status, as well as the person's friendship. Complete more quests to unlock further relationship types!

Iruka-sensei called them in after that, and Sakura and Naruto sat and chatted while the rest of the class ate their bentos. No-one made to approach them, and a few civilian kids sent glares towards Naruto, but for once Sakura didn't mind. In her old life she recalled chatting with the others, with everyone really, but no-one had ever mentioned Naruto once. It was sad, and yet she tried to dampen the emotion.

She was friends with Naruto for who he was, not because she felt sorry for him, and it would be an insult to his inner strength to give pity. If there was one thing that she had learnt today, it was that Uzumaki Naruto never gave up, and always stayed positive. Looking over at the other tables she mentally evaluated who could be potential friends with them.

Hinata was watching Naruto with admiration... she must have seen the race. Sasuke was brooding in a corner of the room, which was a mistake. He was now entirely boxed in by fan-girls and it was probably only because of her increased Willpower that Sakura did not laugh. Also the fact that she was mentally thinking about how to introduce Naruto and Hinata, without having the latter faint might have had something to do with it. Perhaps if they could meet as friends, not as crush and secret admirer, that would help?

All too soon it was time for the next lesson, Taijutsu Techniques. This consisted of studying said techniques from a scroll, and making notes as Iruka-sensei lectured. Sakura already knew a lot of this but her page was soon filled with notes, mostly little asides that Iruka-Sensei mentioned such as which technique was more effective with extra strength, rather than flexibility and so on. They had never come up in a test but Sakura felt that by learning these from a Chuunin she would be much better at Taijutsu overall, and she could tell just by looking at her chosen 2 Taijutsu styles that they were way too advanced for the Sakura of today to learn. Even the 12 year old Sakura of her previous life would have had trouble learning them!

Besides she could learn Nightshade and Siren Style much better if she built up her skills using Leaf Dance Basic Style first. Actually the latter was a very, very rough mix of the two more advanced styles, containing both the strong offense and defence with an unusual flexibility that would probably increase as the style became more advanced.

The lesson eventually ended and they were taken to the sparring room. Sakura was tense because she knew from experience that they determined your initial skill ranking from the spars fought today. She would probably end up fighting 3 opponents and her use of techniques, strength and dexterity observed carefully. While she knew she would not be able to make it into the top set – over 20 of the 33 children in her class were from clans, she hoped to at least rank in the top half of the class. She had to prove that she was not going to be weak anymore. Iruka –sensei was giving the speech on the rules and she listened to check that they were the same.

"Alright now we are going to see your basic skills, you may use whatever Taijutsu you wish as long as it is not overly harmful. No Ninjutsu, Genjutsu or Kekkei Genkai may be used. I will now call out the participants in the first match."

Most of the class was visibly excited at the chance to put their learning into action, except for two people, but then Shikamaru found everything troublesome, and the day Sasuke was excited would be the day the world ended, expanded universe or not. Sakura watched the first few pairs fight with interest. Sure, she didn't have the Sharingan to copy the styles, but she could still learn from others, although at this level it was mostly from their mistakes.

Perception Check: 29/27: PASSED: +15XP

Many of the civilian children were fighting offensively, leaving many openings as they did so. The main fight that stood out was the one between Naruto and Sasuke. You could tell that Sasuke was still upset about being bested, and Naruto being Naruto just had to mention that the future Hokage would definitely win... again.

Naruto's style was well, not actually a style in the traditional sense, and against Sasuke's practised stance he was losing badly. But on closer observation that was not actually the case. Sure Naruto could not defend himself properly, and his stance was terrible, but there was something there... Then it hit her.

Naruto was taking sacrificial blows! He was attacking, leaving openings which Sasuke could take advantage of, but half of the time Naruto would get a hit on Sasuke when the Uchiha took advantage of the openings. It was clear that Naruto was not nearly as unmotivated as Sakura had previously thought. Rather he was showing good strategy, and trying his hardest to win by counting on the one thing that he knew he was superior to Sasuke in: endurance.

He had evidently realised that he would not be able to land a blow unless he himself took one. But in the end Sasuke did win, to a large round of applause from the spectators. Sakura clapped briefly before turning to Naruto to encourage him.

"You have really good endurance you know... If you practised a more suited style you could be really, really good."

Naruto just grinned, all traces of disappointment fading away. Sakura continued to talk.

"Would you like to train together after school? It would help both of us more than if we practised alone..."

"Yes! I'd love to train with you Sakura-chan!"

When he said Sakura his voice overlapped with Iruka-sensei's as he called out her name alongside the name of the person who would be her opponent in the match.

"Will Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino enter the ring?"

New Quest: Defeat Opponent: Yamanaka Ino: HP 75/75
Victory Conditions: Get your opponent out of the ring, unable to continue or below half health.

After both of them were ready, in the starting stance of the Academy style Iruka-sensei gave the sign to begin.

Sakura launched herself straight ahead towards Ino, before darting to the side.

Ino swung around, but her stance slipped slightly as she moved, and left a gap in her defences. Sakura's leg swung towards her.

But Ino managed to step to the side, and while Sakura's leg did connect, rather than tripping Ino up, it landed a glancing blow

Ino then attempted to strike Sakura's side with her fist, but was unable to, and received yet another light hit for her efforts.

Sakura was sweating though, she had practised the moves before, but actually fighting used up a lot more energy than simply practising. The only good thing was that Ino had found herself in a similar scenario as she aimed a flurry of blows at Sakura.

You have been hit: -5 HP
you have been hit: -5 HP
you have been hit: -5 HP

That was bad news for Sakura, four more hits like that and she would be at half health, and lose. A quick glance at Ino's health bar revealed that she was on 60 HP. So far they had taken the same damage, giving Ino an advantage.

Intelligence Check: 33/30: PASSED: +10XP

Since they had equal skills, with Ino having higher health Sakura would lose unless she had a plan. So drawing on her memory she mimicked Ino's moves and continuously attacked, angling her body so that she took minimal damage from the counterblows. She was fighting like Naruto! As Ino blocked the technique she knew so well, her knowledge of the skill was her downfall.

This was because Ino was so used to defending the attack in a certain way that she was completely unprepared for Sakura next move.

Dexterity Check: 29/21: PASSED: +10XP
Speed Check: 22/23: FAILED

The elbow strike required high dexterity, and had a low defence. But while Sakura was able to sweep Ino's feet out from under her, she was not quite fast enough to dodge Ino's final attack.

"Alright, time out, you've reached a draw." Iruka-sensei's voice filtered through Sakura's gasps. She really did need air, and Ino's hit had been to the stomach!

"You both did decently, and responded well. But you both need to build up you endurance, and your response time. Next up..."

Quest Failed...

New Precious Person: Yamanaka Ino! +50XP

Now that was good news, she would be able to rekindle her friendship with her again. No Sasuke would come between them this time! Now... how to introduce Ino and Naruto... probably best to talk to Ino first... prepare her for the ball of energy currently manifesting as Uzumaki Naruto. So she waved at Ino and ran over.

"That was a really good fight; you were so quick I couldn't keep up with you!"

A smile was the blonde girl's response, followed with a glance towards Sasuke.

"Thanks! I'm Yamanaka Ino; my family runs the flower shop."

"Oh, I know that one. Do you know who makes the really pretty flower arrangements?"

...

The conversation continued along those lines for a few minutes, before Sakura decided to bring up the topic of Naruto.

"Would you like to meet my friend, he's called Uzumaki Naruto, and he's really nice once you get past the neon orange."

She was however, completely unprepared for the response.

"Isn't he that hooligan that all of our customers talk about... They said I should stay away from him..."

"That's not true! All he does is pull a few pranks, hooligan makes him sound like a criminal – and he is only nine years old, the same as you and me!"

Ino looked at Sakura doubtfully but her answer was cut off when Iruka-Sensei called out for Ino and a girl named Ami to enter the ring. Ino was evidently the most skilled of the pair, which gave her a decisive victory. Since Ino had drawn once and won once she was guaranteed not to be in the lower group for Taijutsu. That was a feat that Sakura hoped to emulate, and while she wished to challenge herself she hoped that her next opponent would be someone who she stood a chance against. She would get better, quicker, should she be in the advanced group due to the faster rate of learning.

"Will Aburame Shino and Haruno Sakura enter the ring?"

Sakura gave a mental groan of frustration. The stoic, sunglass wearing boy might not seem to be good at Taijutsu, but he actually was. Furthermore his strength was in analysing an opponent's moves – and he was better at it than Sakura, experience giving him the edge if nothing else. So Sakura's main strategy would be rendered ineffective. Still, she was going to do the best that she could... and you never know... there was a slight chance she might win.

New Quest: Defeat Opponent: Aburame Shino: HP 80/80
Victory Conditions: Get your opponent out of the ring, unable to continue or below half health.

The sign to begin was given and Sakura slipped into the standard stance, watching as Shino simultaneously did the same, albeit in a much smoother manner. He then proceeded to stand there and wait. It was apparently going to be up to her to make the first move. From what little Sakura knew this was pretty standard for him, in the past he had responded to the opponents moves rather than initiating them.

Quickly a plan was formulated and Sakura lightly tensed her body before springing at Shino, Sycamore Elbow Strike at the ready. She had aimed for the spot next to him, rather than at him, so that she could attack from the side.

Intelligence Check: 31/28: PASSED: +10XP

That part of the plan was a success, and the game acknowledged it as such. Unfortunately once again Sakura's physical statistics let her down. Her sudden attack had given her initiative and because of that her speed was sufficient this time.

Speed Check: 22/20: PASSED: +10XP

However she was unable to target Shino's body accurately due to the boy's trench coat. This meant that when the time came for her to strike...

Perception Check 29/40: Failed

... She had aimed for a non vital spot and while she tried twisting to change the angle of the blow it was impossible for her body to respond in time.

Strength Check: 18/22: Failed

And with her current strength the glancing blow she struck was not at all sufficient to do much damage at all to Shino, if any! He, however, took the chance given to him by her attack and caught her arm and locking it behind her back. She had lost now that she was incapacitated.

Quest Failed...

This time there had been no notification to tell her that she had gained a precious person. Was it because of the friendship/rivalry that she had shared with Ino previously? That could be it, either way Sakura trudged back to the benches lining the room and sat next to Naruto. She needed a dose of optimism after an overwhelming defeat like that.

Naruto was in a cheerful mood – he had won his second match. True, it was against a civilian but Naruto had not had any real training either, putting them on a roughly equal level she supposed. She guessed that he was just naturally stronger, or had a higher endurance. That or he did some remarkably quick thinking- which knowing him he might actually have done. Naruto was very unpredictable... and mysteriously good at certain things.

After all, he was able to regenerate health super fast in the treetop touchdown. He had also been able to run faster that Sasuke, while carrying her! A small pang of envy was pushed down firmly by Inner before being thoroughly eliminated. She was not going to let bitterness jeopardise her new-found friendship with Naruto.

"You did great Sakura-chan! He's really, really good... he managed to beat me too you know, and beating the future Hokage takes some skill!"

Maybe it was shallow, but having additional confirmation of Shino's skills did make Sakura feel a lot better about her loss. Continuing to make small talk with Naruto she kept track of her HP refilling at a snail's pace. When it finally had reached 65 her name was called out for her final battle. Fingers crossed, Sakura tensed almost unnoticeably in nervous anticipation.

"Will Haruno Sakura and Hamakaze Yuu enter the ring?"

New Quest: Defeat Opponent: Hamakaze Yuu: HP 40/40
Victory Conditions: Get your opponent out of the ring, unable to continue or below half health.

Already the battle was looking easier than her previous ones, the civilian boy having less health than her – and a mere half of Ino's total! The following fight restored a miniscule amount of Sakura's faith in her abilities and gained her a chance of not having to go into the lower group. The spar had mostly focussed on technique, and with Hamakaze-san's being non-existent Sakura had been able to practise. Her skill level had even increased, putting her at 4/100. Which was still low... but it was improvement and if she kept up this rate she should be competent after a year... or two.

QUEST COMPLETE: +250XP!

She hadn't levelled up, which was a pity though. But it was hard to remain in a state of self-pity when Uzumaki Naruto was around. The exuberant orange-clad boy was bouncing down the street as they headed towards the community training grounds, for both ninja and civilian children. While being nowhere near as dangerous as the Academy playground it still had several places where those without training would be hard pressed to get to.

One of these locations was the two students' goal. The small tree house sat on a wide branch of an old and knotted tree trunk. The upwards slanting trunk made traditional climbing impossible so Sakura set about doing the one thing that would enable them both to get there. That thing was tree climbing. Okay, so it took Naruto several days work in order to be able to learn it, but if he started early then it should help his control immensely. It was also a chance for Sakura to improve her own, extremely inefficient tree climbing... she was on 2/100!

In a twist that Sakura probably should have expected, she and Naruto improved at a similar pace. Naruto was still way behind her, but his high endurance and chakra levels meant that he did not have to stop and rest for long at all. The only reason she was still ahead was her lower reserves and prior knowledge of the exercise. Then Naruto slipped and fell, upon hearing a loud rumble she rushed over only to see Naruto rubbing his incredibly vocal stomach. Why hadn't she realised it was almost dinner time?

"Naruto, why didn't you tell me you were hungry?! I completely lost track of time!"

Naruto grinned sheepishly before rubbing his head, messing up his blond spikes even more.

"Well... you're the first person to teach me anything... outside academy that is. And besides! This future Hokage never says no to the chance to become even more awesome with his friend!"

He was met with a sobbing bundle of nine year old girl lunging at him, and latching onto him with all the tenacity of a certain bushy-browed ninja. After a few minutes of crying her heart out for a reason that was still a mystery to her, Sakura looked up and chuckled. She must have looked a sight, with puffy eyes and a bright red face that clashed horribly with her hair, because Naruto also chuckled before hurriedly placing his hand over his mouth.

"I'm okay now Naruto-kun!"

Sakura hastened to assure the worried figure before her that she was not offended.

"How about we meet here again in a few days to train some more...?"

The enthusiastic nod almost set her tears off again, but thankfully she managed to contain them. After that they fell silent in a kind of comfortable companionship and then set off for their respective homes, waving goodbye to each other. Naruto watched the girls retreating back and did not leave until she had rounded the corner and was out of sight.

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