Sakura stared, blinking at the two shiny badges she held in her right hand.

She looked up at the silver haired gyn leader leaning over her with a friendly eye crinkle.

"W-we did it?"

But they hadn't won... had they? The gym leader's single Pokemon had knocked all of their Pokemon unconscious in under 10 minutes. Sasuke's squirtle had almost been kicked out of the fight first. The black haired boy had given his Pokemon the order to attack with a move that it hadn't even learned yet, and the blue creature had only been narrowly saved by a stupid move from Naruto, who had told his bulbasaur to make a direct attack, and by accident gotten it into the path of the attack from Chespin meant for Sasuke. After that, Naruto had rushed to his unconscious bulbasaur and been out of the fight. Sakura had tried to help Sasuke because of his Pokemon's type weakness, yet he had bluntly refused her aid, choosing to keep attack Kakashi's chespin with only his squirtle. And then when Sasuke's Pokemon had been knocked out with an effortless pin missile from the chespin, Sakura and her Charmander had been the only ones left. Sasuke had scowled, making no move to help his unconscious Pokemon, and had instead, arrogantly, idiotically, cruelly, commanded her to let him use her Charmander to continue his fight. Sakura's answer had been no, of course, but it still brought that mind-numbing rage whenever she fought about it. Charmander is mine.

So how did we win? Charmander is unconscious. I tried my best, but I already knew before I came here that I wouldn't be able to match up to Kakashi.

The gym leader, in question, continued giving that irritatingly fake, eye crinkle.

"Well, let's just say that I was impressed with your teamwork"

Sakura narrowed her emerald eyes.

What teamwork? Is he joking?

Kakashi chuckled.

"Oh wait, sorry. My mistake, I meant to say; I was impressed with your efforts of teamwork." The silver haired gym leader pointed directly at Sakura.

Turning to the two boys, he stopped smiling.

"Among the three of you, she was the only one who immediately realized that she had absolutely no chance of winning that battle alone."

All of sudden, turning another 180 degrees, he started smiling again, patting Sakura on the head.

"Which is why, I've decided to give you the two badges. You may do whatever you wish with. Perhaps keep one and choose who to give the second to?" Kakashi said.

Sakura blinked, finally comprehending what had happened as both boys turned towards her with hopeful looks, thinking that she would be nice enough -stupid enough- to give the second badge to one of them.

"I want to keep both of them" she proclaimed coldly. I'm her arms, Charmander finally began to stir, coming back to consciousness.

"I hope you realize how purely idiotic both of you were."

Sakura watched as both of the boy's eyes widened in surprise. Ha, had they really believed that she was some pushover? Sasuke tried to make a remark but she cut him off.

"You didn't even think about your Pokemon! Are they nothing more than a tool to you?"

Naruto bowed his head in shame. Good, at least he got it. Sasuke though, scowled, an ugly expression that made his face seem darker.

"Squirtle isn't a tool, but he also isn't human, and I won't treat him as such," he turned to his Pokemon, who had just woken up. "Squirtle, you understand that I need you to help me win gym battles, don't you?"

Squirtle nodded slowly, standing up wearily as if getting ready for another battle.

Sasuke patted his blue Pokemon on the head and held out a hand to Sakura. Changing his tone of voice, he spoke with a more polite demeanour.

"Please reconsider your decision, Sakura. I'm sure you didn't know how important getting that gym badge is to me when you made it."

Sakura raised an eyebrow, telling him to continue.

"I need to get all the badges so that I can enter the Pokemon league and defeat my elder brother" Sasuke explained.

Sakura scoffed.

"That's not important. Anyways, I've made my decision and I'm leaving now, I'm sure you guys can go to some other gyms and get badges there."

Naruto seemed to want to say something as he held an arm out towards her but was stopped by Kakashi putting his hand on the blond's head.

"Bye then, maybe I'll see you again at some point" Sakura said politely, bowing her head slightly, before turning on her heels and leaving the gym, Charmander still safe and secure in her arms.