Chapter 101

[First, please allow me to apologise for leaving for so long. Some unforeseen circumstances arose in the family which forced me to put writing on hold for a while. Everyone has problems so i'm not going to complain much. Anyway, if any of you remember, i spoke about an inspiration for a cheesy cultivation novel so i started it and will start posting it today or tomorrow. That being said, it does not mean i have quit this fanfic. I'm just going to put more effort on the original novel, which i'll be naming, 'I am James' or something. Honestly don't know what to title it but let's go with that. What i intend to do is write and pile the chapters of 'I became Haruno Sakura?' and post at the end of the month instead.

Thanks for reading/listening to my long winded ramblings, and i do apologise once again for everything. Please continue to give support to the new novel and thank you all very much for all the love you have continued to show. Love you all.]

I left the trio behind to continue their exam. As for Anko, I did not particularly care if she went after Orochimaru or not. The reason I gave her a warning was because I was in a bad mood after the little fiasco, and knowing Orochimaru, he might be angry and kill her, unlike in the original canon. Plus, I had prevented him from marking Sasuke so I was sure he was definitely in a bad mood. Who knew? Maybe all my speculation may be fault. I may not know anything at all.

I made my way out of the forest of death. I was in a sour mood. It was the first time my plan had ever derailed like that. Most of it centered around getting most of the forbidden jutsus from Orochimaru in order to strengthen my body beyond the normal for what was to come and now that was a bust. The other problem was that Orochimaru was strong. Terrifyingly so. He held back a lot during our fight so I could not easily put him in the matrix and have Agent Smith take over. I was not even sure if it would work, with the way Orochimaru kept shedding and changing bodies, as well as leaving traces of consciousness after consciousness in the curse seals he gave.

It was then I realized, although I was powerful, I was still nowhere near the level I could get comfortable at. At some point I had gotten complacent and quite honestly, a little content with myself. How dumb of me. With monsters like Mebuki whom I still could not win against, I wondered how I ended up so.

When I got out of the forest Karin was waiting there. She quickly rushed to me the moment she saw me. "Is everything okay?" Seeing the look on my face, she asked in a concerned manner. I smiled at her and nodded. "So what do you want to do now?" I asked her. I very well could not just tell her to come with me, although that was the ultimate goal. "Family or belongings we need to go back for? I rather prefer you not return to such a place where they treat you as such." I continued and steered the conversation towards that direction.

Karin looked down slightly dejected and shook her head. I guess her mother was already dead. I was hoping she was not, considering so many changes that I had seen. I nodded in response, "Then come with me if you want." She looked up with hope and expectations in her eyes before looking down again with a slight blush before nodding. This Karin was especially quiet. The original was quite the chatty one.

I asked her to follow me we moved through the village towards the house. When we got there, both Mebuki and Kizashi were around. I explained the situation to them both which earned their sympathy, welcoming Karin with open arms. It may have been my imagination, but I could see a sly grin and a twinkle in mother's eyes. I shook my head and ignored it before running back to the Jounin building to wait for the end of the second stage exam. I did not need to, but I wanted to be on standby in case something even more unexpected happened. Thankfully it did not.

Early the next day I quickly rushed to the house to freshen up before returning to the arena for the preliminaries of the third stage of the exam. It was a spacious room with a statue of two hands forming the ram symbol. Waiting there was the Third Hokage. "Yo, old man." I greeted the Third Hokage who was leisurely smoking a pipe in the middle of the arena. He looked at me with a smile on his face before enquiring, "Are you alright?" I was confused by his question. Seeing my confusion, he continued, "I heard you fought against Orochimaru, are you alright?" It seemed Anko survived. Or did she take my advice and not go searching for him?

I nodded to his question, "As you can see, old man, I'm as fit as a fiddle." I almost didn't catch it, but he looked to release a sigh which got me confused. "How was he?" He asked once more. I understood he was not referring to his wellbeing. "He was strong. Very strong." I paused and reflected on the fight. "I lost this one, old man. I hate that feeling so much. But I know I can get even stronger. Much stronger." I finally realized why my mood had been so sour after my fight with Orochimaru. It was not exactly that my plans had derailed. It was more because I had completely lost to him.

I always had my battles easy, yet the snake could easily take me on, forcing me to not only release the seal, but use the lightning coat, and still not even be able to overwhelm him while he held back. Maybe it was because Mebuki was my mother that I did not count her as either being a threat or as one of those I needed to surpass.

"The Third smiled at me and puffed out the smoke. A short while later, those that passed the test came in along with their respective Jounin instructors. The participants lined up in rows of two while their Jounin instructors lined up behind the hokage in front of the hands. By his side were us the proctors in charge of the previous and current exams as well as a few medical nin and chunin. I saw Anko who was glaring at me. I was kind of relieved she was alive. There was someone else whose glare was threatening to bore a hole at the back of my head; The jounin instructor for the sound. AKA Orochimaru. The Third Hokage, Hiruzen, walked forwards and addressed the participants, "First off, for the second test, congratulations on passing." Hiruzen smirked to himself.

Just like in canon, Hiruzen began to explain the true purpose of the chunin examination. Quite honestly it was long winded and boring which caused me to space out. He went in a roundabout way for a while. 'This is bad. If I don't step in this will not end anytime soon.' I thought to myself as I stepped forward, "If you don't mind, old man, allow me to explain." I stood by his side and spoke. "By all means." Hiruzen nodded in response with his grandfatherly smile.

"Hi everyone. My name is Sakura. First, congrats on getting here. Can I get a HEY! HEY! HEY" The crowd was dead silent. Not even Naruto, who I thought would respond, did. I cleared my throat to clear the awkwardness "Tough crowd, I see. Okay listen up and don't interrupt. This is a preliminary for the third test to find out who will participate in the main event. The first and second test may have been too easy with too many of you passing. The preliminary will filter that number and they will participate in the main event. As the Hokage may have mentioned, there will be important guests arriving and if there are too many of you it will take too much time. Time, which we do not have." I spoke in one breath and allowed those that felt unfair to complain for about a minute.