Sakuragachamon!

Pt2: My second teammate watches me fight neck-deep in the dirt!

I found Sasuke's head. There is a saying about ostriches burying their heads in sand. Uchiha Sasuke was currently a very grumpy-looking reverse ostrich.

"What the heck happened to you?" I said as I knelt down.

"He came from the ground. Ninjutsu." Indeed the earth around him was disturbed and not packed tight. Good, he could have suffocated if it hadn't. He could dig himself out eventually, but I started taking a kunai to the ground to help him out. Jounin were scary. What if Hatake was swimming beneath the earth right now. Sasuke flinched. "Look out!!"

"Mamoru!" I had just enough time to make a handseal. A green barrier sprung into existence inches away from my skin, deflecting away the kick aimed at my back. Opportunity missed, I tumbled away, setting into a fighting stance a distance away from Sasuke's head.

"Oho. That's an interesting jutsu." Hatake retracted his leg, only briefly looking away from his book.

"You can use ninjutsu?" Sasuke was boggling at me from the ground, a fact I'd find amusing and vindictive, if Hatake hadn't put his foot on his head like it was a football.

"That's a misconception." I told them, hands held in front of me ready to move. "I can't use regular j–Hinoko no Waza!" I spat a blast of fire, forcing him to dodge back.

"Fire as well... not on the level of Sasuke's Gôkakyû." Bitch I don't care! "What about taijutsu?"

Hatake jumped towards me and I found myself in a familiar position, facing a superior opponent ready to plummet me. Thankfully, I'd had the forethought of raising my toughness with as many Hardens and Defense Curls as I could. He was going at it stronger than Lee did, but nothing like Gai-sensei, I could withstand that. Every blow that looked like it would matter, he would skillfully deflect, taking no actual damage.

I was being tested.

If he wanted killing intent, I could give him that. I herded him away from Sasuke's struggling form so it wouldn't hit him. Point-blank, I screeched. Nômaru-ton: Iya na Oto no Waza! I rarely used this one because it required too many handseals to focus on a single target, but this should be far away enough. Hatake actually winced at that and I took the opportunity to grab his wrist, do a half Electric seal and unleash a shock, or rather, a thunderwave. "Denki-ton: Denjiha no Waza!"

My body sparked up, before shooting a weak but paralyzing shock in the area around me. Hatake was no longer in my grasp. In the blink of an eye, he'd twisted his arm away and substituted. I'd lost him again.

"Sakura!" Sasuke's voice came from– My legs were swept away and I slammed into the ground, breath leaving my body. I rolled, crouching and glaring at the jounin carefully opening up his book again. He was immaculate and I was panting harshly.

"Is that it?" He asked.

"Well... I have one more trick." I had no idea if this was going to work. I didn't bother with handseals. I just pushed my power to act in its most natural form, chakra flaring around me.

Niramitsukeru. Nenriki. Four Leers hit him in the space of a second, my eyes glowing dementedly, before my mind rushed forward as an invisible, intangible hand. It grabbed the bells, ringing sound echoing, the threads holding them snapped.

Hatake grabbed them, disrupting my weak Confusion. He sighed. "That's twice now. Maybe I should be taking you more seriously too." His hands flashed. "Magen: Nara–"

The ground rumbled. Not thunder, something else, something more dangerous– I had to get to cover, a wall, a doorstep, a table– Away from the trees– I tripped, covered my head and waited for the worst to pass. Whatever came, it was too late!

"-kura! Sakura! SAKURA!" A hand shook me.

I gasped, eyes opening. Half into the ground, Uchiha Sasuke was holding onto my shoulder. "What–"

"You got caught in a genjutsu." He let go of me and made quick work of releasing the rest of his body from the ground as I caught my breath. Of course it had been a genjutsu. Konoha didn't have earthquakes. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, still on the ground. I didn't feel like my legs were steady yet. "Y-yeah. Just, never been caught in a genjutsu like that."

The dark-haired boy frowned. "You should have been able to release yourself. Your grades were good in that area."

I chuckled. "Kind of. My chakra flow makes it that regular genjutsu are less effective on me. The things they had us break in the Academy only ever half-worked on me." What Hatake had hit me with had been the real deal. Had he overpowered the thing because of my resistance? That was a jounin for you.

"I thought you couldn't use ninjutsu or genjutsu." There was a question there.

I pushed myself up and tested my limbs. "Like I said, that's a misconception. My chakra pathways are distorted, so the handseals and jutsus everybody can use just don't... work for me. But it's not like I can't use chakra. I just had to find my own way of doing it."

Now Sasuke was looking at me somewhat contemplative. Probably. He had a good poker face. "I see. I'm going to try again. Are you coming?"

"Let's go. Hey," I remembered, "Naruto decided to go for the lunches. If Hatake hasn't taken care of him yet, we should get him on board."

Sasuke scoffed. "That idiot. What do we need him for? We have a better chance with the two of us." He didn't say what we were both thinking. One of us three was going to fail... so Naruto...

Something was really bothering me. "Look. Don't you think there's something suspicious about this–"

The clear sound of an alarm clock rang in the distance. I checked the sun's position. We had run out of time. Sasuke cursed.