(A/N: Lots of blood and gore! Involves an arm being separated from the rest of the body! Play music for more effect!)

Sakura squeezed the towel out again and let it soak more cold water before placing it on Sasuke's forehead again. The curse mark he has received does not fare the recipient very well. He has a high fever.

She looked up to see Lee stumble. Perhaps I have calculated wrong. Mini-Youth Man does not seem to be strong enough to handle these three. Will I be required to continue his fight?

Sakura watched in a disinterested fashion when Lee fell to his knees, then the ground. Deciding she had to fight, she stood and crawled out from underneath the uprooted tree. "Well, well, well...the little girl finally decided to show herself."

"You saw me earlier," Sakura pointed out, mildly confused with the Otogakure girl's logic.

"Whatever," Kin snarled, "I'll take her down!"

"No! She hasn't seen your skills yet! It would be wise to have Zaku fight, so we keep our skills hidden until later," the masked one spoke.

Sakura nodded to him. "It seems you are more intelligent than the other two shinobi."

"I wouldn't be too focused on him right now; you should be focusing on me!" Zaku made a hand sign and a spurt of air came shooting towards Sakura, which she dodged easily.

"You must attempt more complex techniques to defeat me," She announced from a branch above them. Then, she cut another nearly invisible wire that caused two man-sized logs to come from opposite directions. Had Zaku been a normal genin, he would have been smashed. However, he wasn't, and he sliced them with using very strong jets of air.

Sakura made a few hand signs and then called out, "Shokuton: Rifūshuriken!" From the trees above, hundreds of leaves folded into shuriken and launched themselves towards her targets. It was beautiful in a way, watching the bright green leaves simultaneously fold and unfold.

Her attack managed to wound the dark-haired girl, who cried out in shock before Zaku blew all the leaves away, attempting to send the sharp weapons back to her, but they only unfolded and floated down in a cloud, covering Lee and her hidden teammates.

I will not be able to engage in hand-to-hand combat. I do not have many long-range attacks, either. If I were to rid of those pipes in his arms...

Sakura sat on the thick branch and closed her eyes in concentration. I passed many mushrooms in the forest...like the Aburame clan, I may be capable of manifesting the spores, the same way with insects...

She felt a strong tug in her gut as she watched a large grey cloud of fungal spores collecting and rushing towards the the boy. The pinkette wrinkled her nose. The smell was quite unpleasant.

"H-huh?! What's happening to me?" Zaku twirled around and tried to mindlessly swat the clouds away from him. Sakura stood up and watched while crossing her arms.

By the time the Otogakure genin attempted to use his weapons to blow the spores away, they had succeeded in clogging the airways, resulting in both arms convulsing and then one flying off, all the while as the unfortunate boy screamed, the noise echoing through out the whole forest.

:::

Akamaru whined and bit Kiba, who was holding him to his chest, while attempting to get away.

"Ow! Are you trying to get us spotted and killed?" He hissed to the dog. Akamaru ran in the opposite direction, causing Kiba to leave. Shino and Hinata stayed behind but were forced to leave after they witnessed the horrifying death caused by the red-haired boy their age. As Team Eight ran away from Sunagakure's team, they stopped in their tracks when they heard a loud scream that seemed to travel throughout the entire arena.

"Ugh!" Kiba covered his nose and his ninken whined again. "It reeks of blood over there too! And," the boy sneezed, "Something else."

"Spores from mushrooms. How do I know? My kikaichū told me so." Shino lifted his finger for the beetle to land on. "It's from a battle between Sakura and Otogakure's shinobi."

"Only Sakura?" Hinata pressed frantically, "What about Naruto-kun?!"

"Hinata, you seem pretty concerned about Naruto, huh?" Kiba smirked gleefully as the Hyūga heiress blushed heavily.

"He and Sasuke are unconscious," Shino replied. "They must have faced a powerful enemy of those two are down."

"M-maybe we should help Sakura-san," Hinata suggested.

"I disagree," the Aburame heir replied. "Why? Because Sakura has the situation under control." And because I resent her for calling me 'Bug-boy'.

"Y-you mean...?"

He nodded and pushed his glasses upward. "Sakura is the one that caused the scream."

:::

Sakura listened to the heavy breathing of the genin below her. Kin was on the ground, whimpering, Zaku was unconscious from the pain, and Dosu was still upright. "I had been hoping to fight the Uchiha as well, but it seems you are too strong." He pulled out an earth scroll and laid it on the ground before picking both teammates up off the ground and running away, exponentially slower from injuries and the weight.

Sakura glanced at the scroll, then jumped down from her spot above the clearing. Slowly, she stooped over and picked it up, then made her made to Lee, who was nothing more than a bump covered with leaves.

"Sakura!"

The pinkette looked up to see TenTen high above, quickly making her way down to her. "And...Lee?" The brunette picked up the boy and shook him. "Lee! LEE!"

"Will that even work?" Another voice came.

"Of course it will, Neji," TenTen retorted before slapping the mini-Gai in the face multiple times. "LEE!"

"H-huh?! I have to defeat the enemy, my dear Saku—!" He stopped yelling when his large eyes landed on the pinkette. "You are alright!"

"Yes," Sakura agreed. "I fought the Otogakure shinobi when you passed out."

"And all of them are gone now?" Lee's eyes were even wider as he struck a pose. "Yosh! You have gotten stronger, I see! I will make it my goal to defeat you in battle!"

"Yes," Neji agreed, also jumping down to meet the rest of his team. "You have improved, Sakura." He didn't mention the blood that covered the leaves on the ground. Neji's all-seeing eyes scanned the pink-haired girl cautiously.

"I expect the three of you have also improved," Sakura said, her voice monotonous as usual.

"You're right!" TenTen gave a confident grin. "We've been training for this." She smirked to cover up the uncertainty that she had in a girl she thought she knew.

Sakura was about to nod until all four genin felt a dark presence. Immediately, she glanced to her two teammates. "Sasuke," she called out. "Check if Ramen-boy is up."

She turned fully when there was no response. "Sasuke?"

Lee gasped. "It seems my youthful rival is encased in a purple aura!" He moved skittishly, either still exhausted from his fight, or bothered by what he saw.

Sasuke was encased in a purple aura. It felt like...Orochimaru. It must be the curse mark Sasuke was given.

What will happen, since the Otogakure-nin already left?

What will Sakura do to deal with Sasuke?

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?!