Ino was gone. The Akatsuki were as normal as they had ever been. The morning was calm, maybe even joyful, but underlying the outwardly peaceful vibe was a tension of some kind. The two girls knew that it was going to be their time to shine, or their time to completely fail soon.

Soon, the Akatsuki went to where the last fight had been, in similar seats. Everyone was noticeably at the edge of their tree branch seat.

Hurriedly, the two girls took their place in the center of the clearing, in order to fight. Both were worried. But they had to fight their best. The whole Akatsuki were watching them, after all. They could not afford to lose, even if they were on friendly terms.

"Sakura-chan. No hard feelings, eh?" Tenten said to Sakura.

Sakura replied with, "Of course not. I'll win."

The two did the respectful bow that shinobi did in a training fight. Tenten immediately planted landmines everywhere and flew up on her bird. It had worked for her last time, it could work this time.

Sakura grinned. "Not so fast, not this time." She'd marked each and every bug using a potion.

Tenten scoffed. "When did you make that?"

"None of your business, especially not when we're fighting. Unlike the majority of villains, I'm not making a speech. You're dead, Tenten." Sakura said, seriously.

"HA! I'd like to see you try, un." Tenten challenged her. She opened one of her scrolls, summoning her usual rain of assorted dangerous pointy objects.

Sakura wasn't even fazed, rolling out of the way with ease. Her only real problem was how she'd get up to where Tenten was, up there with her bird in midair.

Let's think this through logically. Clay bird. Clay bird must move to fly. Clay bird stops flying, Tenten falls and I can quickly dispatch her. Easy.

Tenten thought about what she should do, and Sakura thought about herself.

To recap, Tenten had her scythe, summoning weapons, could wield weapons with more ease than Sakura, Earth Style. She also had her explosives, and improved genjutsu, although Sakura would still likely win at that.

Sakura, on the other hand, had her medical skills, very basic wood jutsu, better chakra control, 100 Healings (which was rather depleted from last time), Tobi's power-up with the purple eyes, and Zetsu's plant power-up.

Honestly? It was rather even. Sakura definitely had more powerful power-ups, but Tenten was weirdly skilled with hers.

In order for Tenten to win, it'd have to come to taijutsu in the air. For Sakura, instead, it'd have to be at a mid-range distance.

This was fine. Definitely.

Sakura wiped sweat off of her brow. The atmosphere was tenser than ever. Sakura knew that losing wasn't an option. If she lost, the Akatsuki would likely deem her too weak to stay.

She jumped up into a nearby tree. This fight was more in Sakura's favour, as the dome had been lowered.

Sakura pulled out a few shuriken, launching them into the air at Tenetn's flying clay bird. The little ones hit barely any damage on the bird's wings, but the bird was off-kilter now. She continued to launch shuriken at the bird, dodging Tenten's explosives and Earth Coffin. Tenten's bird swooped down, and Tenten pulled out a sword.

For a second, it was Sakura's physical strength against the cold, sharp blade, before the bird took off again. Over and over this happened, drawing the fight out. Sakura presumed Tenten was trying to get to lower her chakra, but what Tenten didn't know was that Zetsu's power up allowed her to get chakra boosts every hour or so. It was pointless and futile for Tenten to do this, and Sakura decided to end things quickly, decisively.

She swung her heavy, one-bladed scythe against Tenten's two-bladed one. She fought with bitter strength, knowing the consequences of losing for a second time.

She fought like a battering ram, swings constant and heavy. Tenten retreated, showering Sakura with bugs of all sorts, but Sakura built a Wood Style hut.

Tenten was incredibly surprised to see the ancient art become alive again; she lost her train of thoughts and stumbled, providing ample opportunity for Sakura to strike her down. Tenten struggled as Sakura's ultra-strong strength came into play, but she was weak and pitiful in comparison to Sakura's.

That was it.

Sakura had won.

She got off of Tenten's back, giving a little smile to her friend, offering a hand up. Tenten graciously accepted the invitation. With minor wounds, the battle had been fought out and concluded.

The two walked to the infirmary to check up on the bruises and such.

That's weird, Sakura thought to herself, the atmosphere was so tense, but now it's soft and friendly again, as though the fight never happened.

It wasn't half as bloody or gruesome as last time. Sakura knew she should be thankful for that... yet she felt strange. Her supposed "purple eyes" that Tobi had talked about hadn't appeared during the fight. It was almost as thought Tenten were weak, or playing down her strength.

"Tenten..." Sakura began, hesitantly, "Were you playing down your skill? Not using it so much?"

"You do know what would've happened had you lost, un?" Tenten shrugged, "I didn't go completely weak and useless, you still won the fight fair and square, but I didn't go to the last breath, and I didn't do everything that I could've done. I haven't described all that I learned with Kisame-sensei... let's just say I'm a weapons fanatic and he has one awesome sword. I just... I can't stay in the Akatsuki without you. So I couldn't afford to lose you."

Sakura stayed silent for a few moments. Then she nodded, and left. Sakura had a lot to think about... the fact that Tenten thought her so weak that Tenten hadn't properly fought her was insulting and Sakura didn't appreciate it. At the same time, though, she felt happy that Tenten did still regard her as a friend, and that Tenten wanted her here.

Tenten, on the other hand, was worried for Sakura. She tried to shake off her feelings with the mantra every shinobi was taught: Shinobi don't have feelings, shinobi don't have feelings, shinobi don't have any damn feelings.

She sat in the infirmary a little while longer, also in pensive, deep thought. Then Deidara exploded into the room.

"How are you??? I can't believe you let some immortal bitch win when you have true art, un." Deidara tried to be angry, then he noticed the almost meditative mood. He put his hand on Tenten's shoulder, flopping his head to one side and asking, "What's up? You're not usually like this."

"You're not usually like that either." Tenten retorted. Then she apologised for being so snappy toward Deidara. "Sorry, I know you just mean well or something. I'm just thinking."

"Whatcha thinking about?"

"Sakura, you, the whole Akastuki thing."

Deidara sat down next to Tenten. "Are you regretting Jashinism...?" He asked. His voice wasn't as loud as usual. In fact, it was quite quiet.

Tenten looked up, "No! No way would I regret Jashinism... but I am wondering if I could've done something different, or done something, you know, less shitty? D'you know what I mean?"

"Yeah. I do. When I left Iwa, I was really young and stupid - not saying that I'm not that now, but I've grown a lot since then. I also wondered if perhaps I could've done something different, if the Akatsuki was something I should do, so on. But in the end, I didn't do anything different. Now the world knows true art." He smiled at the last sentence. His whole mind must've only focused on true art or something.

"I know, I know, but...." Tenten's voice trailed off. All she knew was that she felt guilty, although she hadn't realized why she felt that way. "Anyways." She stated, gathering her mind together, "I'm happy I'm here now. You all make some really great friends, and even though I know shinobi don't have feelings, I'm still so fucking glad to have met you."

A silence fell over the room. It grew uncomfortable for the pair, so Deidara suggested, very loudly, that they go blow up some stuff at the training field.

Tenten immediately agreed.

///

In the Hokage's office, the Hokage herself stood. For once, she wasn't drunk beyond belief. She stared out of the window, watching as the village slowly pulled itself together again.

She turned to her desk, where paperwork overflowed and stacked up in mountains.

The Hokage thought, irritated, about how much work was to be done. Instinctively, she reached for her bottle of sake, but knocked over a small hill of paperwork.

The papers fell over, sliding to the floor. A long-forgotten photo frame was hiding beneath the pile. It contained a single image of Tsunade and Sakura, smiling. On top of the image, written on the glass in pink marker, was a sweet but short letter from Sakura to her teacher.

Thank you for teaching me!!!

Hmm... The Hokage pondered. Sakura hasn't been here in ages. She actually doesn't seem like the Sakura I taught at all. She didn't even come visit me while she was in the village! I wonder how her training journey's going.

Tsunade picked up the photo, reminiscing at the memory. She placed the frame back down, sitting in her chair to finally do some work, and noticed a letter from Sakura fall out.

It was infused with Sakura's chakra, written in black, light strokes on the bright paper. It spoke of leaving the village on a training journey, and not coming back no matter what, not until she could defeat her teammates.

That was weird. Sakura had come back, had she not?

The Hokage called up Ino to her office.