Inner = BOLD

Thoughts = "Italics"

She was falling through nothing, blank time and space around her. Inky black hands that pinned her and pulled her continuously through this portal. She didn't know how long she was in there, 5 minutes … hours… days? The rush of the space seemed to fill her lungs though there was no wind to speak off. It cut off her screams and stole her tears.

I want… I

"What is it that you want", the voice spoke and it resounded in her head. A pounding beat against her consciousness.

What do I want? The question turned in her head and all at once her Inner spoke out.

"We want to be FREE!"

As suddenly as the hands were pulling her they let her go and she fell through space. Whiteness consumed her vision and she shut her eyes against the brightness. Just as suddenly gravity seemed to take hold on her body again, quickly finding her equilibrium again she righted herself in the air and landed on concrete in a crouched position, a circle of dust swirling around her as she landed.

She stayed in that position, finding her mental as well as adjusting back to being on solid ground. Opening her eyes she found herself in a large underground room full of people… all of whom were looking at her, the animosity suddenly pressing on her from all sides. Her ninja training kicking in, she quickly concealed her nervousness and stood up.

Landing in a room full of people she didn't know, coupled with the overwhelming tension coming off of her audience would be enough to put even a jounin in a state of panic. She tamped down those feeling quickly, Tsunade-shishou didn't train her to panic and she wouldn't disappoint.

Willing the tension from her body she unsteadily walked over to the side of the room, highly aware of everyone's eyes following her trek. She leaned up against one of the pipes on the side room and waited till everyone slowly shifted their attention away from her.

Once she was certain she wasn't going to be attacked she started to collect herself.

She wracked her brain as to what led her to this place. She remembered showing Ino a new jutsu she found in one of the older sections of the Konoha restricted section. She had only explored those areas because Tsunade-shishou had encouraged her to expand her research and allowed her access as her apprentice. According to the scroll it had looked like a teleportation jutsu, but when she was practicing it she wasn't able to access it's power at all.

She specifically remembered Ino laughing at her and just imaging Ino mocking her was almost enough to make inner come out again.

She remembers, embarrasingly succumbing to Ino's petty taunts and putting all of her chakra into the jutsu instead of the conservative amount she had originally portioned off for it. She had felt her pathways light up and then Inner, still fuming at Ino, pushed her will into it as well.

It was then that she heard Ino's scream, she remembers snapping her eyes open and seeing Ino standing there in shock. She remembers turning around and seeing a cut in the space behind her that opened up into darkness and the hands that erupted and dragged her inside.

"What the fuck" she lamented, nothing in that recollection seemed like it would help her. She would try that jutsu again, but looking at her reserves they were incredibly low and if she did use it there was no guarantee that she would end up back home. The thought of going back into that...place...that was enough to make her shudder in distress, but she still had no idea where she was or what was going on in this place anyway.

It was then that she felt a presence coming towards her and she opened her eyes.

"Yo! Miss!", she opened her eyes to a stout, pudged-nosed man standing in front of her.

"You're new here aren't you!", the man's face was open and friendly as he regarded her, she could probably get some info off of him.

"How can you tell?"

He smirked at her question "My name is Tonpa. I guess you can call me a veteran of this exam, I've taken it 35 times now."

She raised her eyebrow at that. Either this man was especially inept, this 'exam' was especially hard, or like Kabuto he had an ulterior motive. A coldness came into her eyes at that thought.

"Shit, I've got recover or this rookie is getting past me!", Tonpa thought as he saw the mood shift that came over her. "If you have any questions about the exam I'd be happy to answer!"

Sakura mulled his offer over, "Very well, tell me all you know about the exam!" she smiled at the man, covering up her earlier hostility.

Tonpa breathed a sigh of relief, "Well, I have a lot of experience here, but there are also others. Such as number 255 Todo, the wrestler, he's unmatched in strength and he's smarter than he looks. On the other side, we have number 103, Bourbon, the snake charmer."

Sakura glanced at those two, the first just by looking at him wasn't going to be an issue, the second one however seemed like he might have more tricks up his sleeve.

Turning back to Tonpa as he spoke again, "He tends to hold grudges, so you don't want to end up on his bad side. And then… number 191, Bodoro, the kung fu master. He's getting old, but there still isn't a better martial artist around."

Tonpa then turned her attention over to a group of three guys in strange get ups with exaggerated face paint.

"Then you have the three brothers, Amori, Imori, and Umori. They perform consistently well, thanks to their excellent teamwork. And number 384, Gerreta, the huntsman."

This time it was a man in another non-traditional shinobi get-up.

"He specializes in killing all manner of creatures, by blow dart and club. There are many more, but those have taken the test the most times. In general, though I would be very careful around number 44, Hisoka, the magician. He took last year's exam, but was disqualified when he almost killed an examiner."

She followed Tonpa's eye-line to a tall, red haired man on the other side of the room. There was definitely something about him that screamed danger, she made a mental note to keep away from him.

"Ne, ne, that's very interesting but tell me more about this exam," Sakura smiled at him.

"Well the Hunter Exam is composed of various stages around 4 or 5 with a licensed hunter developing the tests as the examiner. It changes every year so there really is no telling how the exam will play out."

"Does this kid have any idea where she is?", Tonpa smirked, "What an easy mark!"

Sakura sensed she'd reached the end of his usefulness and something was telling her he was about to switch his tactic as well, "Thank you for the information, Tonpa-san, but I'll take my leave now."

"Wait! Before you go, we should drink to celebrate your first exam!", he reached into his bag and pulled out an orange can of juice and offered it to her.

Looking at the can she almost missed the grin spreading across his face. She narrowed her eyes, the bottle is probably poisoned. SHANNARO! YOU SHOULD KICK HIS ASS!

"I'm sorry, but I must decline I can only assume you must have done something to the drink," turning she left the gasping man behind her. She needed to conduct some more recon if she was going to understand what the hell a Hunter Exam was and why she was suddenly included.

Thank you for reading my first fic! I would love some feedback on the story! I hope to update pretty regularly, possibly once a week.

I used to watch Naruto pretty consistently when I was younger and rewatching it I realized how much Kishimoto can't write women and how much Sakura's character got jipped in terms of development. This kind of culminated with the lack of central female characters in HunterxHunter and how much I love that show as well.