Sakura Petals

One on One

Rewritten as of 09NOV19

Sakura's POV

The last two days of the exams in the Forest of Death went by quickly.

After Naruto and Sasuke apologized we all got some much needed rest.

The following morning we all went for breakfast, and in turn found Temari and Kankuro.

After Naruto asked, we found out that Gaara was nowhere to be found.

According to his siblings he doesn't exactly do well with others, and it was better that he wasn't around us.

It wasn't something one would expect to hear coming from his siblings.

Sounds like their team has a problem of it's own.

As for Team Seven, things were still a bit tense between the three of us. I'm assuming it's because of everything that we all talked about two nights ago.

I wasn't expecting everything to just change right away and think we'd be a perfect team, but at least I've noticed a change with them, even though it's only a slight one.

There's no telling how long it'll take for things to start operating smoothly, but I can only hope it would be sooner rather than later.

And now here we are two days after said apologies, the second part of the exam just ending.

Team 8 showed up a day before the exam ended, giving them a day of rest, but pretty much everyone else got here merely hours ago. All of them looked a little worse for wear to say the least.

We were all gathered in an arena of sorts, all the sensei's were in the stands, watching.

"Alright everyone, listen up. *cough* Before we begin the preliminary rounds there are a few things that need to be said. *cough*" My attention snapped to the Jounin that began speaking, coughing every other sentence along the way, he introduced himself as Hayate.

"First of all, congratulations to everyone that passed the first part of the second exam."

The first part?

I don't like the sound of that.

Hmm.

"Normally, there aren't this many teams who pass the test in the forest of death. You should all be proud of yourselves for that, however, that brings us to our second point. If there are any members who wish to leave now, do it."

"Why would anyone choose to leave, some of us just got here!" Ino yelled.

"Because we're about to have a preliminary round right now to get rid of some of you weak links, it's Hokage's orders." Hayate explained, coughing some more.

I looked to Naruto who in turn had a perplexed look on his face, that's doesn't sound like something his father would say.

Maybe it was just a ruse to get a certain reaction out of some people, and judging by the way some people looked offended, it worked.

"So then, who wants to leave?" A few seconds ticked by before Kabuto raised his had.

Well that's interesting. I don't know whether to be glad or suspicious.

A little bit of both I guess.

"What, why Kabuto?" Naruto asked genuinely confused.

Kabuto gave him a sheepish smile and rubbed the back of his neck.

"It's been a long couple of days Naruto, I'm chakra exhausted, tired, and over all just not ready for these preliminary rounds. I can always try again next year." He explained.