Monday came quickly. Sakura had managed to make one step forward over the weekend—she acknowledged that she had a new fear: not being a good enough murderer and getting murdered because of it.

Monday was there, and her class was filled with whispers. Sakura didn't have friends to consult, so she sent a flicker of chakra to her ears like her books had taught her and she listened.

"The Uchiha," her classmates whispered.

"They're all dead. The clan head's oldest son did it—"

"Poor Sasuke, all alone with nothing in that empty—"

"—gone before the ANBU caught him. There are rumors that he was ANBU himself though, so—"

"—still say good riddance though. My mommy doesn't lie and she says that the Uchiha controlled the Kyuubi and they're the reason—"

"—Sasuke to come back! I can comfort him so he won't be so alone and maybe finally—"

"—leave Sasuke alive? Could he not kill his brother? He killed everyone else there's no reason for—"

Sakura inhaled very slowly and pressed her back firmly against her chair. She could feel fear press against her heart, almost as if something physical had curled up in her chest. This was a real life example to make sure she remembered: they were killers and they killed and died. This was the cycle her village lived and thrived on, uncaring, not sparing her classmates, not sparing her.

She updated her training schedule during Iruka's boring lecture on chakra control, which she managed to pay attention to for only a minute before Iruka managed to repeat the books she'd read when she was six at least ten times. She regretfully emptied her lunch times of training to allow socializing, though she dreaded speaking with her classmates all the more now that the sole topic of conversation was the death of the Uchiha.

Sakura implemented her new plan that lunch. "Hello—" she tried, carefully clasping her hands in front of her.

"—the Hokage will release the reports?" the girl chattered on to her friend.

"Do you…." Sakura asked, trailing off as the girl didn't react. She glanced around the group of girls—none of them even looked at her. She gave up and turned to find someone else, but the interaction repeated itself with other girls in her class and Sakura retreated. Maybe she'd been right to keep away from these people, after all.

After school, her afternoons filled with training displaced from lunch. She solidified the kata and techniques they learned at the Academy and devoured every book and scroll she had access to in the library. Her chakra control exercises became less confined to set time frames; she tucked one of her smaller stuffed animals, Peony, into her right pants pocket and kept a chakra string attached to the tiny tiger, acting out mental conversations with him even while she used other strings to arrange her papers or subtly play with one of her classmates' pens.

"Hello," Sakura said to Shino, who she sat next to at the back of the classroom. He nodded to her.

She considered this a nice progression in her social life, which up until this point had consisted of being ignored for days, and returned to memorizing a scroll on Kiri's native plants and animals.

"Hello," Sakura said to Ino at lunch. She wasn't really expecting to be acknowledged; Ino floated above the social life of the rest of the class, an idol for the rest of the girls, and Sakura was used to being brushed off. Ino however, turned to Sakura with a smile.

"Hi!" Ino gasped delightedly. "You're…" she tilted her head, "...Sakura, isn't it?" Sakura nodded, and that was all it took to break into Ino's broad circle of friends. Sakura had labeled Ino as "will hold a conversation even if I cannot," and that characterization held true as Ino maintained a steady stream of chatter throughout lunch, happy to continue talking without prompt while Sakura struggled to understand an unnecessarily grandiloquent book on the politics of Iwa's formation. Ino knew everyone, and within a couple lunches Sakura felt that she had met everyone in her class and beyond just by sticking near Ino. Maybe she could do all her socializing through Ino and not have to speak a word.

Sakura's third year passed and she maintained a solid average-advanced placement through that year and the rest of her years at the Academy. She skimmed her report cards just enough to read the comments for improval and then left them on her mother's desk at home. Honestly, Sakura didn't care. The Academy lagged behind her independent studies and half of the theoretical knowledge it tried to give them was useless, designed to prepare failed genin for civilian jobs. Sakura did not plan to be a failed genin.

The graduation test came fast and passed easily. Sakura walked out with her head spinning from one of Iruka's I'm so-proud-of-you smiles—the ones that still caused her chest to ache with pride like she was seven again. It took her the whole walk home to come down and really understand that she was out . She was out of school and almost officially a ninja, a legal adult. There were still papers to sign and a second layer of tests to pass, but she was almost there .

"I'm home," she called, loosening the wraps on her calves to slip her boots off.

"Welcome home, Sakura," her mother responded from the kitchen. She poked her head out and her face folded into a strong smile when she noticed the forehead protector hanging from Sakura's hands. "Sakura! You graduated! Congratulations! I'd hug you but my hands are covered in flour. That's a promise for later." She gave Sakura a proud look. "Talk over dinner. I've got to finish this right now."

"Thank you, mom. I'm going to be in my room." Sakura smiled back at her mother and ran her thumb over Peony's head in her pocket as she stepped up the stairs.

Her room was calm, her stuffed animals forming a nest on her bed with books and scrolls tucked between them and sheafs of paper stacked on her table. Sakura stood in front of her mirror and held the forehead protector up to her forehead.

Boring , she thought. It'll probably fall into my eyes at some point if I leave it there. She held it against her left bicep. Feels restricting . Against her right thigh, over the wraps holding her kunai pouch, the forehead protector looked and felt right. She tucked its backing cloth under some of the wraps and tied it. In the mirror, her stance was the same, she didn't feel more experienced or powerful. She looked the same. Annoyingly bright hair and eyes, boring face, boring body, boring clothes. Plus forehead protector.

There were much surer paths to survival than preening over a tiny change, and Sakura let out her breath as she easily abandoned the mirror for her new scroll on different types of knives, their common regional types, and the basics of their usage. She settled into Lavender's arms to read and fill those several hours of relaxing free time before she went back to school to get her team and take the final test.

After their long lunch break, the classroom was chaotic. Energetic Academy graduates spilled over the desks and filled the air with noise. Sakura waited patiently in the back of the classroom, without a book for once, simply watching her classmates. She watched Ino walk through the door, the rest of the Sasuke Fanclub following, and watched the commotion the entrance caused. She watched as the mob of fangirls accidentally shoved Naruto so that he fell face-first onto Sasuke's face. Sakura quickly scanned the room to make sure that none of the other girls were watching before she giggled a little to herself. Ino screeched for just long enough to seem distraught before joining Sakura in the back of the classroom.

"Sakura," Ino sniffed, delicately tipping up her chin. She only managed to hold onto her haughty air for a few seconds before she slumped down, hid her face behind her hands and giggled. "Oh my god. Did you see their faces? Naruto turned looked like he was going to throw up and Sasuke's face was so bright it looked like it was painted red, oh my god ."

Sakura frowned. "If you keep throwing them at each other one day they're both going to explode in a bloody mess and Konoha will be down one Rookie of the Year and one…" she paused "ninja."

Ino stared at Naruto and Sasuke for a couple more seconds before she giggled again. "Aww, they're both blushing but they're still sitting next to each other! So cute."

Sakura sideeyed Ino warily. "No. You're not going to try to set them up. They try to destroy the Academy every time they see each other. Setting them up would involve them being closer and therefore causing more destruction."

"You're probably right," Ino sighed. "It would be so cute though…." Sakura grimaced and felt a little like throwing up. Naruto and Sasuke were in no context cute. She had to admit that maybe… with both of them blushing and sullen she could see it. Still not cute though. Still the biggest assholes in the Academy.

The class didn't quiet or settle when Iruka entered and Iruka had to yell, inaudible under the din, for a solid five minutes before the class acknowledged him. He began a droning speech, pausing occasionally to yell at Naruto, and Sakura listened for a few seconds before deciding he was, once again, repeating information that she'd memorized years ago.

She leaned her face on her hand and twitched her fingers to thread chakra into shapes that only she could feel. She formed a flower flat on the surface of the desk, spinning it lazily. With a push, her chakra twisted from a simple daisy to the complicated folds of a rose. Sakura played with it for a few minutes, frowning as it refused to cooperate and look like a proper rose. When it was decent, she twitched her fingers to peel her chakra rose up off the desk and bit her lip as she knotted and molded her chakra to fill out the flower in three dimensions. With a tiny pulse of chakra, it began to glow faintly. Sakura fit a minor genjutsu over it to change the blue glow of her chakra to a pale pink. Ino glanced over.

"A pink rose," she said.

Sakura hummed and adjusted a few of the petals so they fanned out more. Ino reached out to poke it curiously and Sakura's control over her chakra failed, the rose bursting into pink light .

"Hey!"

"Sorry," Ino said sheepishly. "It looked really pretty though…"

From the front of the classroom, Iruka took on a tone that indicated he was imparting great wisdom and it was best they listen. "Remember what I've taught you. The way of a ninja is hard, but through hard work you can succeed and serve the village as best as possible. Now, until you reach chunin you'll be working in four-man teams with two other genin and your jounin instructor. I'll call out your teammates and your jounin instructor will come collect you." Iruka glanced around, trying to glare the unruly class, mainly Naruto and Kiba, into order as the excited chattering swelled. He gave up. "Team One…"

Sakura remembered the names and some characteristics of her classmates thanks to Ino, but she was still only really familiar with Ino and through her Shikamaru and Choji. She had never talked to anyone other than those three and Shino. Six teams were called before Sakura heard her name, and all of them were filled with the Academy students that even Ino had only ever briefly brought up.

"—Team Seven: Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke."

Sakura groaned, and slumped forward. Oh no. Oh no .

It would have been bad for only one of that pair to be on her team, but having them both was asking for double homicide. Double homicide by Sakura. She would murder them both. It was inevitable.

"I—" Ino said and turned to Sakura. "—am so sorry."

"You just finished riling them up too," Sakura mumbled, resting her forehead on the desk. She dared to glance at her new teammates from under her arms. Predictably, they were arguing. She let her arms cover her face again.

Ino was placed on a team with Shikamaru and Choji and was suitably bitchy about it.

"I know that I've known that we were going to be a team since forever , but do we have to be a team? Do we really?" Ino lamented, dramatically throwing a hand across her rolling eyes.

"At least you and your teammates can work together," Sakura muttered, still hiding her face in her arms. "Mine try to murder each other and I'm pretty sure Naruto doesn't even know who I am ." From his seat by Sasuke, Naruto was looking around the classroom with a confused expression.

"Holy shit, I think you're right."

"I'm going to call in the jounin instructors now," Iruka said. He opened the classroom door and team by team the students were taken away.

"Um," Iruka said when he reached Team Seven, without even glancing out the door. "You guys will have to wait. Sorry." He looked more angry than apologetic.

"Ooooh. Someone's in trouble," Ino singsonged. Sakura let out a stressed breath and pressed her face harder into her arms.

Another instructor called for Team Ten.

Ino stood and looked down at Sakura.

"Well. Good luck," she said. It sounded more like a question than a reassurance.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Sakura replied, muffled by her arms. Soon, the classroom had emptied and the only sound was Naruto's babble from the front. Sasuke's brooding felt like a tangible thing weighing down the mood of the others in the room, though Naruto's happy voice held up the mood somewhat. Sakura was at least glad that she was not one of Sasuke's fangirls—forcing Sasuke to deal with a squealing, attention-grabbing girl would likely drive him away from displaying any semblance of teamwork and trust.

"I'm sorry and I hate to leave you alone, but I really need to get to the missions desk," Iruka said from the front of the room where he was shoving papers into his bag. "Your instructor might be a couple hours late." He muttered something that looked suspiciously like "goddamn asshole can't even be bothered to make a good goddamn first impression," but Sakura might just be projecting her thoughts onto her poor lip reading.

"Bye Iruka!" Naruto yelled, bouncing in his seat.

Iruka smiled fondly and took a few steps to pat Naruto on the head. "Bye, kiddo."

"Make sure my classroom is still here tomorrow," Iruka said, looking at Sasuke, then Sakura. Sakura lifted her head enough to smile and nod politely. Sasuke didn't look like he had noticed that Iruka existed.

As soon as Iruka left, Sakura pulled out a book and buried herself in it. She breathed out and relaxed as Naruto's noise faded into the background and she focused. If she hadn't had something else to distract her, she was sure it'd only take five minutes for her to snap and wrap several layers of duct tape over his mouth.

Their instructor took, in total, three hours to make it into the classroom, where he promptly fell victim to one of Naruto's milder pranks. Sakura regretfully raised her gaze from her book when Naruto broke the shallow silence he'd fallen into and fell out of his chair laughing. Their instructor paused in the doorway with a cloud of chalk dust settling around him and clinging to his hair, though it looks like his hair had been grey even before it had been chalked.

"Hmm, how shall I put this?" The man in the doorway asked. "Based on my first impression, I'd have to say…I hate you."

If he's trying to look intimidating, the chalk dust all over his face isn't helping, Sakura thought incredulously. Based on her first impression she'd have to say that he didn't look respectable or powerful.

"Meet me on the roof in five minutes." He disappeared in a puff of smoke and the room was frozen, silent, for a second until Naruto scoffed.

"He doesn't look strong!" Naruto yelled. "Is that really our instructor? Maybe that bastard there deserves someone weak like that, but I'm the future Hokage and I deserve a better instructor! Maybe the Hokage himself!" Naruto's yelling devolved into something incomprehensible, involving a lot of pointing at Sasuke, who still looked dead to the world, so Sakura took the opportunity to grab her bag and leave the room.

"You're late," her instructor said when she stepped off the stairs onto the roof.

"Sorry," Sakura whispered, looking at the place where his left eye, covered by his forehead protector, should be, instead of the eye that she could see. Even though he didn't look particularly judgmental, she still wanted to turn back into the stairwell to avoid his gaze. He was an instructor, and she didn't want to disappoint him, powerful or not. Taking the next best option, she wedged herself between a tree and a wall with her back to the wall. It reminded her of her lunch hideout.

Naruto and Sasuke broke the awkward silence on the rooftop with panting breaths and heavy footfalls.

"I win!"

Sasuke scoffed. "No. My foot went through the doorway before yours."

"Nuh-uh! I won! You can go suck—"

"Not now, children," their instructor interjected, his visible eye closing in what could charitably be called a smile. "Now is the time for introductions! So sit." He flapped his hand at the steps across from him, just in front of Sakura's tree. Naruto glared at Sasuke and mouthed an insult, but Sasuke ignored him and took a seat on the steps, immediately lacing his fingers together and assuming his brooding pose. As Naruto finally sat down, with a lot of wiggling and tapping of feet, their instructor continued.

"Now, I'd like you all to tell us a little about yourselves." There was silence.

"Like what?" Naruto asked, his feet tapping out an odd syncopated rhythm.

"You know. The usual. Your favorite thing, what you hate the most, dreams, ambitions, hobbies. Things like that," their instructor responded, his eye tracking the flight of a sparrow as his words trailed off.

"Help us out here, sensei. You go first. Show us how it's done," Naruto said, switching from tapping his feet to tapping his fingers.

"Hm," Sasuke grunted. It might have been agreement?

"Oh…me?" Their instructor pointed to himself and raised his visible eyebrow. "My name is Hatake Kakashi. I don't feel like talking about my likes and dislikes. My dreams for the future are none of your business…. But anyway, I have lots of hobbies." There was a moment of silence as he stared blankly at the sky before focusing on his prospective students again. "Now, it's your turn. Starting with you on the right."

Naruto glanced around. "Oh! That's me!" he laughed. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto! What I like is instant ramen! What I like even better is when Iruka treats me to ramen at Ichiraku's ramen stand! What I hate is the three minute wait after I pour in the boiling water! My dream is to one day be a better ninja than the Hokage so that all the villagers will finally have to acknowledge my existence!"

Sakura stared openly at him for a second before remembering herself and looking at the ground again. So far she had picked up two personality traits from him: loud and likes ramen. She pitied him a little. Did he ever get bored with himself?

"My hobbies are…pranks and practical jokes, I guess," Naruto finished. He adjusted his forehead protector and smiled widely.

"Next," Kakashi said.

There was a moment of waiting silence before Sasuke spoke.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are plenty of things I hate, but I don't see that it matters, considering there is almost nothing I like. It seems pointless to talk about "dreams." That's just a word, but what I do have is determination. I plan to restore my clan, and there's someone I have sworn to kill." Sakura pressed her back against the wall behind her. It was one thing to know that in her future she would bring death; it was another thing to make bringing death one's plan for the future. She didn't know that she liked Sasuke, even under his brooding.

"And finally, you hiding back there." Kakashi flipped an idle hand in her direction.

Sakura could feel the blush rising hot in her cheeks and she breathed like Ino had taught her to. Calm , she told herself.

"Uh. I'm Haruno Sakura. My favorite thing is...well, favorite person, is Ino. I hate, umm… I hate bullies. My dream is to become strong for what I love. My hobby is reading." Her face steadily heated until it felt like it could boil water. She'd grabbed for the first things she could think of and they sounded stupid.

"Okay," Kakashi said. "We all know each other now. Training begins tomorrow."

"Yes, sir!" Naruto shouted, with a grin so wide Sakura could count all of his molars. "What will our duties be? Our first real ninja mission! Wow!"

"Survival training."

"We did that in the Academy!"

"Well, this survival training will be you guys trying to survive fighting me. It will be the test that determines whether or not you become genin."

"What!" Naruto shouted. "We already took the stupid Academy test. We're genin!"

Sasuke scoffed in what might be agreement, his expression broodier than usual.

Didn't we learn about the secondary test in the Academy? Am I misremembering? Actually… that might have been in a book. Do they ever read? . Sakura sighed. Kakashi eyed her.

"The test has a 66% fail rate. We meet at 6am in training ground 3. Don't eat breakfast before the test or you'll throw up," he said, before giving them a two-finger salute and disappearing. Sakura stared at the leaves that slowly swirled to the ground where he had been.

She tipped her head back to rest against the wall and ignored the boys squabbling about who was going to pass. Training ground 3. That one was tucked behind the left side of Hokage Mountain and because of the memorial stone it housed, it was more often used as a site for mourning than training. She had passed through it a couple times on her runs. The stream running through it was fast, a little turbulent, and good for practicing water walking on. Open field, three training posts, the memorial stone. It was surrounded by thin forest. It wasn't really ideal for traditional survival exercises, but it was good for sparring, fitting Kakashi's sadistic version of survival exercises well.

Naruto and Sasuke were gone, without telling her goodbye. She stood, brushed off her clothes, and did a quick check of the Academy yard, both visually and with her tiny, inaccurate chakra sensing range. She didn't find anyone, so she pulled herself over the railing and walked down the Academy wall with a practiced application of chakra. Now that she had a team and they were almost officially genin and ninja, she supposed she could stop being so shy about the skills she had picked up outside of the Academy, but habits were hard to break and she could imagine the ruckus Naruto would cause. Sasuke would be annoying about it too, in his quiet way. She had seen how he treated those that dared to catch up to him in class.

Today, when her run took her through training ground 3, she stopped, did a few cool-down stretches, and explored. It was as she remembered. She didn't find any traps or hidden dangers, though it would be easy for a jounin to thoroughly trap both the field and forest in an hour or less.

She sighed. From just looking at the training ground, she had no idea exactly what to expect. Just controlled sparring? An actual free-for-all fight? Something else?

The stream rolled under her feet when she stepped onto it and slipped into a stretch. Her body folded easily as she shifted through stretches into a string of Academy kata. With so few clues, it was easier to train than think. Her kata ended and she ran again, on top of the stream as it wrapped around the side of the village.