Darkest Before Dawn

Jounin Exams: Start!!

   Itachi slid open the glass door fully and met the warm, humid air of the greenhouse. Sakura looked up from mixing a strange orange liquid over a small flame. When he caught her gaze, she murmured something to the stranger before striding over to meet him by the entrance. They took a step outside, closing the door behind them.

   "Good afternoon, Itachi-san! What can I do for you?" she asked. He held up a bento wrapped in a cloth branded with his clan symbol.

   "Lunch, if you haven't had some already."

   Sakura stared at it for a long while before slowly taking it. She looked up at him with confusion.

   "You took time out of your day to make me lunch?"

   Itachi smiled softly.

   "I meant every word yesterday, Sakura. My intentions are true and I will do everything in my power for you to believe every word that I say." he said. He took her hands and placed the bento in them before flashing her another small smile, "I have a mission in a couple of hours, and I'm afraid I will not be able to see you until afterwards. I wish you luck on the exams."

   He turned and walked away before he could see Sakura's cheeks dust a bright red. She returned to her station in the greenhouse with Zetsu's teasing gaze to greet her.

   "How adorable. Your boyfriend made you lunch."

   She glared at him.

   "He's not my boyfriend!!" she snapped, face growing even more red. Zetsu chuckled and continued working on the poisons with a smug look on his face. Sakura puffed out her cheeks, like she had done so many times in her younger years, and also continued working on the poisons.

   "Next time I visit you, I'm burning your petunias to the ground." she muttered.

   Unbeknownst to the two in the greenhouse, Sasuke and Naruto were just a ways away, staring at her in confusion.

   "Another one of those weird friends of hers." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head, "She was only gone for five years, right, teme? How did she find all these people? First there was that blue shark and the masked guy, then she disappears with that one blonde for three days, and now she's making poisons with some dude who's half plant!"

   "Not only that, but the shinobi you just mentioned weren't just any random shinobi. They're dangerously powerful and well known."

   "That makes it even more weird!" exclaimed Naruto. Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed as he looked down in thought.

   "Maybe it isn't weird."

   "Hah?! What are yo--"

   Sasuke cast a gleaming glance sideways, effectively shutting Naruto up.

   "Maybe we're just missing something."

~

   It wasn't long before the first day of the Jounin Exams rolled around. A total of thirty-four people were competing and were standing before the Hokage about three miles away from Konoha. A fifteen meter tall stone wall stood between them and the exam with a large iron door the only way inside. As Sakura stepped through the iron door, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. There were several entrances that opened to below the ground, dark and gaping.

   "Good morning, everyone." Minato greeted with a smiles, eyes sweeping across the group of competitors, "And welcome to the first part of the Jounin Exams. Your task is relatively easy. Navigate through the underground maze and be wary of any traps or enemies you may encounter. Everyone please stand in front of an entrance-- there's enough for everybody."

   Sakura slipped on her gloves and thought about everything she knew about this particular test. Every year, the Jounin Exams were changed so that you could never predict what would happen nor the outcome. But in her research, there was a common thread that not many noticed. The first part always tested your quick thinking and your ability to get out of an unexpected situation.

   Sakura was confident that nothing would surprise her in this portion.

   "You may begin." Minato said, "Good luck."

   She jumped through the entrance and landed in a torch-lit hallway. Looking up, she saw the entrance close. Sakura turned her eyes back to what lay ahead of her and saw explosive tags, tips of spike projectiles, and the faint glint of a couple of trip wires. Behind her was a wall covered in seals.

   "No way but forward, huh..."

   At a walking pace, she journeyed forward, ripping the explosive tags off the walls and in half before the could activate, ducking and stepping over tripwires, and easily avoiding every weapon that was shot her way. At the end of the hallway were three other hallways she had to choose from. She took the leftmost one.

   It annoyed her a little bit that she couldn't sense a single chakra signature in any direction and that even more trip wires, explosive tags, and projectiles were in front of her. As if to add to her irritation, the next four hallways were set up the exact same way. At the fifth hallway, four shinobi with no faces attacked her. 

   She ripped out the throats of two of them, smashed her fist into one of their chests, and snapped the neck of the last.

   She raised her left arm, that was dripping with blood, and brought if to her lips. She grinned at the taste. It wasn't blood.

   "So what is the purpose of the genjutsu I was put in, I wonder..." she mumbled to herself, "If there's no exit, no end, and enemies with no faces..."

   Sakura looked over her shoulder and saw three more shinobi running towards her.

   Then this genjutsu is the one Konan-san told about weeks ago.

   Before her attackers could get to her, she unsheathed her katana and stabbed herself in the heart.

~

   Sakura's head shot up and she found herself at the iron door she had passed through before taking the exam. The other competitors were lined up beside her, heads hanging down and eyes glossed over. She guessed that they were still trapped in the genjutsu.

   "Sakura-chan...?"

   Minato and the handful of Jounin that came to oversee the exams were staring at her with wide, unbelieving eyes.

   "Hai, Hokage-sama?"

   "You... the fastest time it took for someone to complete the first part of any of the Jounin Exams was forty-five minutes."

...

   "You only took fifteen."

   Ibiki and Anko, who were amongst the group of spectators, shared a knowing glance while incredulous murmurs ran through the rest. Ibiki was worried. Sakura had indeed grown in her abilities, but to what extent? At the strength this eighteen year old was showing now, the council might deem her as a possible threat to Konoha.

   Just like they had done to Tsunade.