Chapter Text
"I told your boy-toy to ask me permission if he wants to spend the night in your bed," Tsunade announces casually, and the ANBU behind her coughs in shock.
Sakura gapes, opening and closing her mouth like a fish, then she shrieks, "You did what?"
The Hokage snickers, "Well, I didn't say that exactly. I said that if he wants to date my apprentice, he has to ask me for permission."
She slaps her forehead in relief, "Tsunade-shishou, I don't even think he asked Shikaku-sama permission."
"Did you?"
"He asked me out!"
Tsunade laughs.
Sakura lied. Shikamaru never actually asked her out. At least not verbally. He kept showing up and just being there. Sakura had never been so aware of a person before, whether that was a testament to her shinobi skills or not, but she felt him like the back of her hand.
"What he should've done," Ichigo swings an arm around her shoulder and grins, "Is ask us. We're her teammates, obviously."
Itsuki nods gravely, "Can we threaten him, Sakura-san?"
Sakura groans, and Tsunade bursts into a peal of laughter.
After sneakily – if sneaky can be called pinning Shikamaru to the bed with her fingers digging into his ribs, sitting firmly on his stomach with her feet tucked under her knees – prying the details from the chunin about the exams the night before, Sakura had a better idea of what she's against. Shikamaru stood next to some Kiri nins in the center of the field, uncomfortably with Iwa nins roughly slapping him on the shoulder as the Mizukage continued her spiel about the exams. It was a basic introduction to the country, international relations, all wrapped up in a competition to advance the ninja ranks.
The basics, truly.
The exam consists of two parts: a written exam and the physical exam stylized as a survival of the fittest—a nice reminder of why Kirigakure had the moniker the Bloody Mist.
Unlike Konoha – the nice village that tosses genin teams into the Forest of Death to make alive with their scroll and then immediately pits each other to fight one-on-one battles before settling into the last round with one vs one – Kiri, their final part of the chunin exams, required the participants to capture the flag, or in this case the chakra-infused lapis lazuli from Kiko Island.
Sakura's team would have to lay siege to Kiko's island or just get close enough to grab the stone to win.
Their team would have to get to the island first, which meant that they would have to fight all the three-man teams that came their way.
It's one for all and all for one.
Sakura, Ichigo, and Itsuki had come up with a plan.
—
"If you're going to threaten me," Shikamaru scowls, tugs Sakura underneath his jaw, and tightens his arms around her waist. He nods his head to the side, "Get in line, the Hokage is first."
Ichigo makes a sound of disappointment.
"Sakura-san," Itsuki says pointedly, "You have a Nara attached to you."
Sakura giggles, "He has separation anxiety."
"Oi!"
The written exams were a breeze. Not only did Sakura know all the answers, but Ichigo managed to grab information from more nins with more isolated diplomatic policies. Itsuki peered around the classroom by using the reflective surfaces of the exam room to pick up clues. Hidden behind his thick-framed glasses, he gave the illusion of a semi-blind ninja. Intelligence gathering was one of the pillars of survival; walking into a situation blind is a sure way to get killed.
Sakura was vaguely aware of Ino and Chouji whispering behind them. A random genin from the tactics department was made their teammate for their squad—at least that is what Itsuki had told her.
Kirigakure is made up of several islands, an archipelago. Its main and biggest island holds the capital, with the remaining islands supporting the center with either agriculture, mining, engineering hubs, and other various specialties that Kiri manufactures – she tries not to think about the kenjutsu specialty shops on the wayward side of the archipelago – nationally and internationally.
Itsuki had studied the map, and while Sakura had real-life experience in Wave country, she didn't qualify as an expert on the terrain.
They needed a real strategy in order to win this exam.
Sakura knows that genin are promoted to chunin based on performance – so even if they didn't make it to the top, they still had a chance of promotion – but fuck if she didn't want to win. Her team did too; they had gone over strategies with her, did recon on some of the opponents, and brought out the drawing board early this morning.
Team Seven was a ticking time bomb ready to happen. Their personalities and skills were ill-suited to work together in a three-man team. Kakashi-sensei – he was a can of worms she didn't want to re-open, their relationship still fragile and new, but now on equal footing – was not trained to teach children. It was the kindest thing she could say about her sensei.
Growing up is hard.
"You'd better get to the docks, Team Seiryū," Tsunade disrupts the flow and tilts her Kage hat downwards, "The test starts in ten minutes."
The team exchanges a look with each other.
Sakura exhales roughly and looks up at Shikamaru, who raises a thin brow. "Ready?"
"As I'll ever be," she bites the inside of her cheek and then peers out to the left, "I thought you wanted to talk to your team?"
Shikamaru shrugs, "I spoke to them this morning at breakfast, and besides, I wanted to see you off. The last exams were...traumatic, I think more so for you than us."
Sakura presses her lips together but doesn't disagree. Her relationship with Shikamaru swam against regrets, sharp truths, and unwanted honesty. It's built on patience, kindness, and friendship. Relationships are work, based on reliability, and grown with trust.
"This is nothing like the Forest of Death," she adds after a moment.
"But the Sea of Demise isn't any better, is it?" Ichigo snorts and pulls at her belt to drag her away from her boyfriend. "You can kiss your girlfriend when we win."
Shikamaru trails after her and grabs her shoulder before she can topple over the stairs. He sends her teammate a glare, "You don't have to win to become a chunin."
Itsuki rolls his eyes, "We know. We want to win."
Sakura grins despite Shikamaru's scowl and pecks his lips before disappearing with her teammates.
—
"A triple-layered genjutsu?" Ichigo blinks rapidly at Sakura's suggestion. Originally, they were going to use a one surround sound area genjutsu to mask their boat towards the island. Ichigo had made a joke about this exam and that becoming a pirate was the only way to win the exam—tournament.
Itsuki and Sakura had agreed immediately, though Ichigo wasn't all that serious.
Kirigakure's population, the natives, descended from pirates.
Sakura should've seen it sooner.
"A triple-layer genjutsu," Sakura reaffirms and looks at Itsuki, who monitors their surroundings. "We need a low-level auditory genjutsu, an area-based one, and a buffer genjutsu. We need the genjutsu to be as subtle as possible, by blending the genjutsu against the ocean, the hum of chakra from the sea itself will be the perfect cover until we get close enough to the main island."
A buffer genjutsu had been Itsuki's idea. It would allow Ichigo to sense any enemies or nearby ships, therefore avoiding a possible collision or procuring a future attack. It would allow seamless travel as they make progress towards the main island. Conserving their chakra until they get to checkpoint B is all that matters. She had a feeling that they would need it.
"If I do the genjutsu, I won't be able to focus on anything else," Ichigo frowns. "I don't have the level of control you have, Sakura-chan."
"I know," Sakura stomps on the curl of glee at the unintended compliment. "But Itsuki and I will watch your back."
Itsuki gives a curt nod, and that was the end of it.
Tenten waves from the side with her team, and she grins, "See you on the other side!"
Sakura waves back, but says nothing because Ao sounded the foghorn, and they leaped onto the ships.
Sakura didn't have to do it, but someone activated the Hidden Mist Technique, and the ships around her disappeared. Ichigo sat at the front of the boat and began the genjutsu layering. He had to sit there and hold on to the chakra as they made their way towards the main island. Itsuki created a funnel using a wind ninjutsu to give themselves a clear view while Sakura steered the boat.
It was working.
They were working.
She almost wants to laugh because this is how it's supposed to be. This is how a team is supposed to work. Together.
Sakura keeps close to the island based on Itsuki's directions. Blatant trust in her teammate is what allows her to steer blind. Sticking close to the surrounding islands would give them a good chance of fighting if they needed to. They would have to rely heavily on Itsuki for protection while Ichigo kept the perimeter and Sakura kept them moving. Itsuki couldn't produce earth ninjutsu out of nowhere, but a nearby island would give him a tremendous advantage over everyone using water ninjutsu or wind ninjutsu.
She could've used a water ninjutsu to speed up their boat, but doing that while blind and unaware of their enemies was a warning sign.
Someone would do it, but it wouldn't be her team.
Slow and steady.
Like the ocean.
"We have estimated thirty minutes for the main island," Ichigo announces and furrows his brows. "There's a boat on the starboard side, three hundred meters."
"Can we make it through?" Itsuki asks after a moment.
"A forty percent probability."
Sakura swears under her breath.
They would have to take them out.
There had been fighting on the western section of the ocean. Sakura and her team had heard the noise, the battle cries, and the disruption of the ocean. But she was keen on conserving their chakra and energy until they got to the main island. Her chakra reserves were nothing compared to Sasuke's or Naruto’s, but they were deep enough to summon at least two dragons.
A faint idea niggles in the back of her brain.
"What do you want to do, Sakura-san?" Itsuki asks after a moment.
"I can put the ship on autopilot. We can sneak on the enemy's ship and knock them out," Sakura offers and thinks, "We can't outright kill them, but we have to remove them from our way without accidentally drowning them. A sneak attack would be our best shot."
"And killing our allies would probably cause another war," Itsuki sighs, disappointed.
Ichigo snickers, and the chakra around them flutters.
"We should start with the back dock and make our way to the front," he adds. "Minimizing noise and movements will conserve our energy."
Sakura nods, "Ichigo, tighten your grip on the area ninjutsu if anything. If we're overrun, we're coming back to the ship. Light your flare after fifteen minutes. If we don't make it back, dispel the genjutsu."
Because of her chakra sensitivity, they wouldn't need a flare to bring them back to the boat—she could feel Ichigo just fine.
"Let's go," Itsuki leaps out of the ship to the adjacent island, Sakura hot on her heels. They take off from the trees before leaping high in the air and landing on the back of the ship within their boat's perimeter.
Sakura uses medical ninjutsu on the back of the skull to push them into unconsciousness. Itsuki covers one of the nin's mouths and pinches the nerves at the back of their neck. She makes a note that this ship carried Mist shinobi, and Mei is going to be pissed at Tsunade-sama for this subterfuge.
Unfortunately, the last ninja sees them after they knock out his last teammate.
"It's two against one," Itsuki deadpans and grabs his sword, "Don't be stupid."
Sakura rolls her eyes, "Don't be cute."
"I'm adorable, Sakura-san," he coughs and leaps toward the Mist nin, who curses at the suddenness of the strike.
"A Leaf ninja with a sword?" The mist nin spits, "How vile."
Sakura lets Itsuki play with him, even with the water ninjutsu the ninja spits at Itsuki, it's not enough to weaken her teammate's swordplay. The Kiri nin has more than enough of an advantage against the other shinobi here; however, they were losing time, and Ichigo was slowly losing his chakra reserves by keeping a steady stream of genjutsu for the better part of half an hour. Itsuki would tire himself out by using his earth techniques to subdue the enemy—they needed to get back to Ichigo before the remaining members awakened.
Sakura leaps toward the Kiri nin, and just as she was about to slap the back of his head with the mystic palm technique, Itsuki uses the blunt edge of his sword to knock him out. She snorts a laugh and huffs, "Looks like you didn't need my help. We need to get back to Ichigo and get to the island quickly—you two can't afford to waste any more chakra."
Itsuki nods and funnels his wind chakra to Sakura's direction to the northeast, "There."
Sakura turns to the team passed out on the deck. She inhales and makes the decision. She pulls them to the center of the boat to prevent premature drowning and glances at something shiny attached to the girl's hair—a pearl from Shinko's store in Wave's main village.
The faint idea she had before becomes brighter with every passing second—she stares at the hairpin and swallows her regret. She reminds herself that this is a do-or-die moment and takes the pin.
"Let's go."
—
"How much chakra do you have?" Sakura asks and tightens her grip on her gloves.
"A little less than a half," Itsuki admits after a moment and glances at the mountain. She completely forgot about his funneling technique, like Ichigo's layered genjutsu, which required a constant stream of chakra.
"I have a quarter left," Ichigo sighs, exasperated.
Sakura was pretty much full, which, as a medic, is ideally the best outcome. However, there were no knockout rounds for these exams, so grabbing the stone and high-tailing it to the floating island where the kage and delegation were was their best bet.
"I'm almost full," she says unnecessarily and glances at them, "None of you have any injuries, right?"
They shake their heads.
"I sense about four teams on the island. One team is engaged in contact with another." Itsuki notes and walks up the muddy terrain behind Ichigo.
"They are probably fighting," Sakura comments lightly and rubs her nose, "Itsuki, we need to sabotage the terrain."
Ichigo stares at her with surprise and grins nastily, "And prevent any other teams from following us."
"Exactly," she grins back, and Itsuki starts on a series of earth ninjutsu to level the terrain. "Ichigo, you should take the lead and conserve your chakra. If you injure yourself, I want to be right behind you."
"I'll reign in the urge from tripping over a root," Ichigo deadpans and trips exactly over a tree root.
Itsuki almost chokes on his snort.
Sakura giggles and pulls him back up.
The moment they reach the base of the mountain. Sakura has Itsuki secure a five-hundred-meter perimeter before she slams a fist against the mountain and triggers a dozen landslides—incapacitating the teams that were already climbing the mountain.
The screams send a dozen flocks flying.
"Sages, Sakura," Ichigo gapes and stares at the avalanche, "How are we going to get up there now?"
"Do we know where the stone is?"
"It's supposed to be at the top, on the altar." Itsuki frowns and crosses his arms underneath his chest. "We should have one person grab the stone and the rest of us will protect that person until we're back on the island."
Sakura nods, "I agree. I think Ichigo should do it."
Ichigo startles, "Me?"
"You're faster than Itsuki and me, and even though you don't have that much chakra left, you won't need it," she smiles slyly and pulls out a scroll, "I'm going to get us to the top of the mountain, Godspeed. Ichigo, the moment you touch land, you need to run and grab."
He looks skeptical, "Okay, but how—"
"—summoning jutsu!"
Kiyohime swirls around her like a stream of smoke and stops in front of her, "You called, Sakura-hime?"
Sakura bows while her teammates gape in the back, "Kiyohime, we need to retrieve a stone from the top of the mountain for our exam while keeping the enemies back. Would you escort my team and me to the stone and out?"
Kiyohime tilts her head, "Of course. I require a sacrifice, however."
Sakura pulls out two Akoya pearls that she snatched from that team on the ship. "Will this suffice?"
Kiyohime grabs the pearls and grins, "You are by far my favorite summoner, Sakura-hime."
And then she transforms into a dragon before their eyes.
Sakura takes a seat on her head and turns to her team, "Get on! We need to move."
Ichigo pulls a faint Itsuki to the dragon and laughs manically, "You're crazy, Sakura-chan! Am I glad you're on our team."
She laughs.
And they set off for the stone.
—
I could love her.
Shikamaru believes this repeatedly, like a mantra, a hymn, an oath.
He watches in awe, with his hands fisted at his side, unknowing how to act, how to behave, how to proceed when he watches his un(knowing) girlfriend raise the lapis over her head on Mount Suijin, the stone glowing ominously blue against her pale features, Kiyohime twisting around the mountain in an infinite loop until Sakura leaps back onto her head and they fly over to the lookout tower where the Kage and their delegation stood.
Ichigo cackles hysterically, and Itsuki makes a sound between a shriek and a groan, blood on their face, and fear in their eyes, but they anchor Sakura to the serpent before they roll off onto the ground at the feet of their Kage.
Kakashi leans into Gai as the ground beneath them trembles.
And Sakura springs off Kiyohime's head like a mythical thing, all pink-cheeked and rose-hued hair tangling at the back of her neck like distressed seaweed. She tosses the stone at Ichigo to deliver to the Mizukage—because Shikamaru's arms are already reaching for her as she leaps towards him, legs wrapping around his waist and lips on his as she laughs into his mouth.
I could love her.
Shikamaru kisses and kisses her, ignoring everyone and everything until their lungs dare to demand sustenance.
He pulls back with a large gasp and hovers over her, unable to think.
The Mizukage shrieks faintly in the background at the unfairness to the Hokage.
Sakura grins, chest heaving and arms shaking from chakra exhaustion, but triumphant all the same, etched in malachite. She breathes, "I won."
Shikamaru grins despite their audience – how troublesome because he will never hear the end of it from his father – and pulls her close to his chest, "I know."
I do.