Naruto: Reborn as Sakura with Manyuu Chifusa Template

"Did we really have to do this in my room?" Sakura muttered in displeasure, watching Akamaru lazily rise from Kiba's side and wander off to explore her bathroom. "If I had known the lot of you were coming, I might have tidied the place up a bit."

It was the evening before the tournament, and all twelve Chūnin exam contenders from Konoha had squeezed into Sakura's little room in the desert outpost to trade what the info they'd learned about their opponents— whether by interrogation, espionage, or first-hand experience.

From Team Asuma came Sakura, Ino and Chōji; Team Guy consisted of Sasuke, Karin and Lee; Team Kurenai included Hinata, Kiba, Akamaru and Shino; and then there was Team Komugi— made up of three faces Sakura could have sworn she had never seen before in her life.

"The tournament brackets are up," said Kiba, thumping a crumpled sheet of paper down in front of him on Sakura's living room table. "Who wants to be the first to share?"

"The seeding's anything but random," Sasuke remarked the moment he laid eyes on the white page Kiba had tossed onto the table. "Looks like the organisers have a decent idea of where everyone stands."

To avoid dull matchups in the semifinals and finals, the strongest teams had been placed as far apart as possible in the opening round. Naturally, this meant the weaker ones wouldn't get a sniff at advancing— but honestly, who was going to lose sleep over weaklings?

"I have learned that Shira is incapable of performing Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, but that does not mean he is weak by any means," said Lee, his eyebrows wriggling like caterpillars as he furrowed his brow. "I hope I get the opportunity to exchange pointers with him— he is truly strong."

Sakura glared at him.

"Ah, but that is not to say that I wish for you to lose, Sakura-san!" said Lee hurriedly, waving his arms in a panic. "I merely meant that I would like to compare our experiences, seeing as our backgrounds are similar!"

The way the tournament was set up, Team Asuma and Team Shira would meet in the semifinals, provided neither lost any matches. Team Guy was on the opposite side of the bracket to Team Asuma, so the only way Lee could possibly face Shira was if Team Sakura lost— and Shira made it through to the finals.

"We ran into the Rain's team during the second phase, but we didn't get to see much of their techniques, since we scared them off," said What's-His-Face from Team Komugi. "Though we did see the purple-haired girl unseal weapons and Jutsu from paper tags to attack."

In short, Ajisai was a Temu version of Tenten.

"Thanks for the info," said Sakura. "Er… old man…?"

"The name's Komugi," said Scraggly-Beard-Face indignantly. "And I'm not middle-aged, I'm only 23!"

"Right, I knew that."

The exchange of information resumed, though with a touch more awkwardness.

Ino recounted what Team Asuma had learned about Teams Ameno, Saya and Suigetsu, and Sakura added what she knew of Haku's powers. Then Shino described the members of Team Kazami from the Hidden Grass, which pretty much wrapped up the briefing on everyone who was anyone.

Of the ninety who had passed the preliminaries, only forty-eight remained after the second phase: sixteen teams in total. Some had been fortunate enough to pass despite their weakness, others… less so.

"Good, now if everyone's caught up," said Sakura irritably, "would you kindly get out of my—"

Sakura was cut off by a loud crash from the direction of her bathroom.

"Akamaru, get over here!" shouted Kiba. "You'd better not have made a mess in there!"

At the sound of his master's voice, Akamaru trotted obediently out of the bathroom— though Sakura could have sworn he was doing his best not to meet her eye.

In any case, the Leaf Genin's little catch-up session had come to an end. One by one, they filed out of Sakura's room and headed back to their own for a good night's sleep— there would be time enough for celebrations once the exams were over.

When the last of her uninvited guests had finally left (Karin, with the help of a well-placed kick to the backside), Sakura went to check on the little bathroom attached to her guest room.

As expected, Akamaru had rooted through her rubbish bin and scattered its contents all over the floor. But as she knelt to clean it up, Sakura realised that one particular item she had thrown away was now conspicuously missing. Which meant that, unless it had sprouted legs and walked off on its own... Akamaru had probably eaten it.

"That's does it," Sakura gagged. "From now on, I'm incinerating them the moment I'm through with them!"

…

Fortunately for Sakura, she woke in the early hours of the following morning in far better spirits than the night before. Her breasts were still a little tender to the touch, but otherwise, she felt fine— she'd feared her condition would keep her from fighting at full strength, but as it turned out, she needn't have worried at all.

After a light breakfast of dried fruit and miso soup in the cafeteria, the man who had murdered Gekkō Hayate led Sakura and the other Chūnin candidates towards the Hidden Sand Village beyond the Demon Desert.

It was Sakura's first time seeing Sunagakure in person.

Judging by the safety berms and the clean-cut walls of rock surrounding it, the village had been built inside an old, abandoned open-pit mine. In the vast emptiness of the desert, a hole in the ground was just about the only place a settlement could hide— and if you needed to prop up your economy with gold, well, where better to live than a mine?

As the exam applicants followed the murderer Baki through the maze-like streets of Sunagakure, Sakura was reminded of an old film she had seen in her previous life. The dome-like houses and buildings looked a lot like Tatooine's, in Star Wars… but Sakura's training quickly kicked in, and she stopped thinking about useless things and started building a mental map of the village in her head, in case she found a need to make a quick getaway.

"Akamaru, what's the matter with you?" asked Kiba worriedly, when his dog started whining pitifully. "Does your tummy hurt again?"

Eventually, the exam applicants finally reached their destination: a rather dull-looking colosseum built out of concrete that looked exactly like all the buildings around it. The third phase of the Chūnin exams was about to begin…