Chapter Ten: Day 2

Sakura's alarm clock jangled next to her head on the nightstand. Sakura reached over, hit it, and got up. The sun was shining in through her window. After her usual morning routine, she headed for the training ground.

As she walked by the flower shop, Ino was out front putting out displays. Sakura thought about running up to see Inoichi about the enemy ninja. Then she thought, forget it. I'll warn Kakashi early this time and then the one wall guard doesn't even have to be cut. At least sensei will be proud of us again after the fight.

As Sakura entered the field of grass that made up the majority of the training ground, she stopped. Sasuke was not on his usual patch of grass building chakra. Searching frantically, she spied him over by the target posts. He was throwing shuriken. Sasuke's throwing shuriken. Sasuke's throwing shuriken!

Sakura ran over to him and shouted, "Sasuke, you're throwing shuriken!"

Sasuke sighed and muttered, "you'll make an excellent ninja Sakura. Your power of deduction is impressive."

Then he had to stop muttering because Sakura got there sooner than he'd thought. "Sasuke, what day is it?!"

His teammate looked frantic and was grabbing his arms. "Tuesday, it's Tuesday, let go of me."

"It's Tuesday?! It's Tuesday!" Sakura screamed, jumping up and down, still not letting go of Sasuke's arms. She pulled him into a hug.

"Watch it, I have shuriken in my hands still," Sasuke said holding them away from her. He pulled free of her grip.

"This is amazing!" Sakura said. "I can't believe it. Naruto!" The blonde had just entered the field and Sakura sprinted over to him. "Naruto it's Tuesday!"

"Um, yeah," Naruto replied. She threw her arms around him. Naruto blushed.

Sasuke walked over, "she's really excited about it being Tuesday for some reason."

"Because it's the most amazing day of the week!" Sakura cried jumping up and down. "And," she gasped, "we're going to be in the chunin exams! We're totally going to kick butt."

Naruto spoke to Sasuke out of the corner of his mouth, "is she feeling alright?"

Sasuke shrugged.

Sakura kept celebrating until Kakashi arrived thirty minutes later. "Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura screamed upon seeing him. She attacked him as well. Kakashi went very still when she hugged him. "Oh sensei you freak out like that every time!"

Kakashi looked at the boys for help but it was way funnier when it happened to someone else. They watched on in glee. "Sakura are you feeling okay?"

"I'm great sensei, everything's great!" Sakura beamed at him.

"Good because I wanted to talk to you about that dream you said you had," Kakashi continued, prying her from his person.

Sakura's eyes widened even more. "You remember what I said yesterday! Oh sensei I missed you!" She hugged him again.

"You saw me yesterday," Kakashi sighed, resigning to the hug.

"I know but that was yesterday and yesterday was horrible!" Her voice was muffled when she said this because her face was pressed into Kakashi's vest.

"Sakura, are you feeling okay?" Kakashi asked again. He pulled her free of him at last and felt her forehead. "You feel a little warm."

"It's because she's been jumping around for the last hour," Naruto said, concerned that someone was more hyper than he was.

"Can we train now?" Sasuke asked. He sounded bored.

"How about some sparring?" Kakashi asked. "Two on one. Sasuke, you're first against Naruto and Sakura."

Sakura got her game face on, "you're going down."

Naruto looked at her and grinned. Then he turned to their dark-haired teammate, "yeah Sasuke, you'd better watch it. We're taking you down."

Sasuke had a tiny smile on his face, "you can try."

The mock fight began. Sakura faked an attack while Naruto charged forward. This split Sasuke's concentration and he wasn't ready for Naruto's second kick which knocked him off balance. Then Sakura came in from the left with a punch. Sasuke dodged too late and she clipped him, sending him sprawling. They let him recover, wiping his jaw with his hand, a fire in his eyes.

Sasuke went on the offensive, shooting a fireball at them. Naruto jumped away but Sakura appeared to get burnt to a crisp. Sasuke saw that Kakashi made no move, however, which meant she'd substituted herself. He was focusing too much on the fake Sakura though. The real one came flying down from above, kunai in hand. Sasuke pulled a kunai of his own and blocked hers, throwing her off but then Naruto was behind him, kunai to the Uchiha's throat. Sakura got up. All three of them were smiling. Even Sasuke was smiling, much to Kakashi's surprise.

"Okay, round two. Naruto, you're against Sakura and Sasuke." Naruto's clones helped him a lot but eventually Sakura and Sasuke beat their teammate. After that Sakura fought Sasuke and Naruto. By the time they were finished they were all panting.

"You all are making excellent progress, especially you Sakura. You've really been practicing," Kakashi said, pleased with her improvement.

Sakura beamed under her sensei's praise. She thought, you have no idea.

The End