As always, the Hokage Tower was a looming reminder of power in the hidden village of Konoha. Though not substantially taller than the surrounding buildings, the great pillars that ringed the top cast an ominous shadow for blocks. While the lobby was open for people to come and go as they requested missions, the second floor and up were strictly for shinobi use. As such, they were under guard. This was the first time Sakura had ever been here, even in the lobby, so she wasn't sure where to go at first. Since it was so early, there wasn't anyone around to direct her so the girl simply walked over to the nearest guards.

She clutched her profile just a bit harder as she caught the attention of the guards on duty. The Chunin on duty gave her a dirty look that almost sent Sakura scurrying away, but finally relenting when they saw the hitai-ate hidden in her mop of pink hair.

"Business?" one of them asked.

"Reporting to the Hokage to log my name on the official ninja register," Sakura replied. This was something that everyone had to do once they had their official picture taken. She was the first one here, though. Given how early it was, that wasn't any shock.

The guards looked over the registration form and stepped to the side. "Second floor, third subsidiary meeting hall," the nearest Chunin stated as he opened the door. That was all the direction Sakura was going to get, apparently.

It took some doing, and several embarrassing instances of barging into someone's office, before Sakura finally found the room where she was supposed to be. Unfortunately, the Hokage was nowhere to be seen. In fact, there was no one in the room and it was bare with the exception of a table and chair set out in the middle. Stepping over to that, Sakura took her seat in the chair, expecting that the Hokage would take the table when he arrived. At least she had a great view of the village from where she was sitting; the meeting room was an open veranda of sorts. She could see the smoke coming from the morning burners, hear the faint "clang-clang" from the weapons forges that surrounded the tower, and see the crowds starting to form on the market street. In just a few hours the city would be filled with open-air shops and people browsing them.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Sakura jumped in her seat as someone caught her off-guard. It was an elderly man, probably in his mid-sixties, wearing the robes of a village elder. Half his head was bandaged up and his only visible eye was closed. If he had been looking at the scenery, he wasn't now.

The girl stood and bowed. "I-I'm sorry, Sir! I should have waited outside for the meeting to start and-"

Waving her off, the odd councilman walked around to the desk and brazenly took the center chair without fanfare. "It is no matter. Coincidentally, I am here to see the Sandaime as well."

Now feeling quite foolish for being so flustered, Sakura retook her seat. She didn't relax, though. It was like being under a microscope; alone in a room with an elder. Even though his eye was closed, Sakura felt that he was studying her.

"So, is this your profile?" the elderly man eventually asked, looking over a sheet of paper. Sakura was about to correct him when she realized her profile sheet was no longer in her hand. When had he taken it?!

Ignoring the Genin's amazement, the councilman went on. "Your marks are impressive for a female. Near the top of your class in tactical and analytical skills." Sakura's ego puffed up. "However, your chakra and jutsu skills are lacking even for an academy student." And then it burst like a soap bubble. "Are you certain you wish to graduate with these skills?"

What to say to that? Sakura didn't know how to respond to a councilmember basically saying she wasn't cut out to be a ninja. It wasn't like she could disagree or tell him that he was mistaken in his assessment. He had probably been a ninja longer than her or her parents had been alive!

Thankfully, Sakura was spared further embarrassment by a new arrival. "Basic abilities can improve over time, Danzo. What is important is a strong will and a drive to be great."

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, had arrived.

Danzo, the elderly councilman that had been speaking to Sakura, lazily rose from the chair he was seated in and hobbled over to the Hokage. "I wish to speak with you about your...pet project," he said, forgetting Sakura completely and disregarding Sarutobi's argument.

"I assumed you would. Find me after these interviews are over." That was all the Hokage was going to say on the matter and Danzo seemingly understood that. He inclined his head in acceptance and brushed past the other elderly man.

He was almost out of the door before Sakura found her voice. She again bolted up and bowed. "Thank you, Danzo-sama, for your advice." Even though it was short, she had just had a meeting with a village elder. A contact that high up in the food chain could only help her.

"...Indeed." With that, the bandaged man was gone.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room as the Hokage and his advisors took their seats. Since Sakura was early, she was forced to wait while they set-up for a long day of interviews. From the amount of paperwork they brought with them, it seemed that most of the class had passed. It wasn't unheard of, but it was rare. She wondered how they would gather up so many Jounin for them, though.

Finally, the Hokage sat down in his chair and motioned for his two aides to do so as well. "Haruno Sakura: graduated with high honors in academics and secondary honors in tactics and teamwork." The elderly man was reading off of a secondary book he had brought with him. "Iruka's notes say you were always an exemplary student, but recently you've branched out with your studies. That's impressive for a Genin."

Sakura fought not to wince as yet another person brought up how much she's changed in the last year. "Thank you, Hokage-sama." It was bad enough that she had ran out of class yesterday; she couldn't do that every time someone complimented her.

Besides, why should she even feel guilty? The man sitting in front of her had hid something as dangerous as the Kyuubi in a school full of children for years. If they were comparing atrocities here, then spying on the village was surely ranked lower than endangering that same village.

"So, since you are qualified, do you have any questions?" the Hokage asked. His patient tone snapped Sakura out of her musing and she sat up straight. "I understand how nervous you must be," he said, misunderstanding the girl's reaction, "but now is the time to ask. Tomorrow you'll be meeting with your Jounin team leaders and I'm sure they'll have something for you to do on your first day so you might not get a chance to question them."

Well, since he insisted. "Do you decide teams? Like, who goes in which team?" Maybe she could get into Sasuke's team right now? It would certainly lift her spirits!

The Hokage nodded. "With input from the graduating class's instructor. We usually break teams up into specialized groups; infiltration, tracking, combat, etcetera. There are a few traditions that we still use, of course, such as family combinations that worked well in the past, matching the lowest-scoring student with the highest, and a two male, one female formation. It balances things out."

"For example, a combat team could get the best student, the worst student and the student who had a high level of procedural knowledge to guide them on how to act professional." The Hokage smiled he said this. "Such a team would likely already be decided. Hypothetically, of course."

Sakura's mind had already begun to fit her class into what the Hokage was saying. Sasuke was, of course, the highest-scoring student in the academy in everything. After him, it was broken up into specialties: Kiba was probably the best at taijutsu, Shikamaru was fairly good at ninjutsu when he serious, and it was anyone's guess who was the best at genjutsu since it wasn't something that academy students were really taught. So, that meant that Sasuke was the first in a team.

The lowest-scoring person was Naruto. He didn't stand out in any areas and he couldn't even do many basic academy jutsu without coaching. If he were being put on a team with Sasuke, then that would leave a girl with high marks in procedure and general knowledge. It couldn't be Ino, either, because she would probably be slated with Shikamaru and Chouji. The Ino-Shika-Cho formation was practically divine in some circles so Sakura doubted it would be split-up. Other than Ino, though, that only left Hinata and herself as talented kunoichi in the class. The rest just sort of blended in with the background, hovering around the middle of the class in terms of grades.

The Hyuuga heir would be a logical choice: she was from a clan background, the same as Sasuke, could probably tolerate Naruto's mouth. However, Hinata had never stood out as being very knowledgeable. She hardly ever answered general study questions, always sitting at the back and out of the way.

Couldn't there be anyone else to fill that gap? Sakura realized how her attitude had flipped from wanting to be on Sasuke's team to not wanting to be on Naruto's, but she didn't care. If she was on the same team as the Kyuubi container, then she would be on the frontline should Naruto lose it. Not even Sasuke could protect her from that thing! However, there was no way around it.

"...I'm going to be on the same team as Naruto and Sasuke, aren't I?" Sakura half asked, half sighed. It was a total catch-22: if she protested being on Naruto's team on the grounds of him being unsafe to work with, the Hokage would ask her reasoning which would lead to her sneaking around at night. From there, an official investigation would probably take place and they would find something that incriminated her as a spy and then kill her for that. Either way, her life was going to be in danger.

The Hokage's eyes widened a slight bit. "You figured that out already? Iruka wasn't exaggerating with his praise."

It wasn't exactly praise that the girl wanted. There was nothing happy about this situation, Sakura concluded. She wished she hadn't ever asked how the teams would be picked; now she would dwell on this all night and not get any sleep.

"I trust that you will be discrete with this knowledge. Tomorrow is the official day when teams are selected and we could have problems with students trying to bully their way into certain teams."

Sakura understood. She'd probably draw most of the female academy population's ire by being in a team with Sasuke. They'd probably even put up with Naruto for it. Of course, they didn't know what kind of risk he was, though that probably wouldn't stop a few of them.

The rest of the meeting passed with little more in way of surprises. There were forms on top of forms to sign, most of them relating to the passage of information to civilians and other villages. Of course, the penalties for spying were restated, even underlined, but Sakura signed them without skipping a beat. Next to dealing with a demon, getting caught for something like that was small potatoes. After an hour the Hokage cut her loose, saying that everything else would be taken care of by his staff. He did reiterate once more about keeping the team selection to herself, though.

Like she would tell anyone from her class! Sakura let out a snort as she finally got back on the street. It was mid-morning and she was feeling pretty wiped out. She had been out nearly all night and all morning, but she couldn't go to sleep and mess up her sleep cycle. Besides, there was still something to do before tomorrow.

The Hokage wasn't going to help with Naruto. From the little he had talked about the boy, it was obvious he held some kind of twisted fondness for him. Sakura couldn't understand it; the thing inside of Naruto had killed the last Hokage! Was the Sandaime so confident in his own abilities that he didn't care? Somehow, that frail old man didn't look like he could succeed where the Fourth failed.

All of this thinking wasn't doing anything, though. Sakura needed to take action. She had went over one year watching out for herself, avoiding being hung as a traitor, and she wouldn't let some demon locked in an idiot kill her. This would require more than subtly and quick-thinking, however. You couldn't talk a demon out of not ripping you into pieces. You just had to avoid being killed and that was something Sakura had trained herself to do.

Thus, the girl now found herself walking in the direction of one of the apartment complexes near the hospital. Konoha was a walled city and housing inside of the walls was always a concern for civilians. For active duty shinobi, though, there were special units that were rent-controlled and never full. That was where she was heading.

Before she had started eavesdropping in Chunin hangouts, Sakura would have never known about such things such as paying rent, utilities, finding a good apartment, or generally living as an adult. She was only twelve, after all. The Genin didn't think she'd have to worry about something like that...ever. Her plan in life was to graduate, get close to Sasuke, and move in with him after they got married.

Looking back, that was a very simple plan. Hearing Chunin complain about paying bills and actually living with a wife had put things into perspective. Besides, thanks to being recruited as a spy, any long-term plans were nothing more than wishful thinking. Who was to thank for that, though? Yakushi Kabuto. The very owner of the door she was now standing in front of.

One. Two. Three knocks and no answer. Maybe his team had a mission or maybe he knew who it was that was calling upon him? Kabuto had been adamant about not coming to his home unless it was an emergency.

"Coming," came a very groggy voice from somewhere in the apartment. When the door opened, he stuck his head out and was still wiping the sleep from his eyes. "Sorry, I was asleep."

"Glad I woke you up, then," Sakura spat as she pushed her way inside. Kabuto protested at first before realizing who it was and closing the door. His apartment was, just as the pink-haired girl remembered: immaculate. There was not a thing out of place.

"What did I tell you about coming here?" the older spy sighed. "If you were followed-"

"I wasn't," Sakura cut in. She didn't want to let Kabuto work up a lecture so she flopped down on his couch, taking a small delight in the young man's irritation at the pillows being messed up. "Look, I have a good reason for being here. I want to make an exchange."

Seeing as the couch was already messed up, Kabuto took a seat at the other end. "An exchange? You haven't tried this in awhile, Sakura-san." He was referring to the first few weeks of her "employment" as a spy. She had tried every angle to get out of having to do anything, promising everything from a cut of her yearly income to any one-time favor that he could call in at any point in her life. The arguments that Sakura had come up with had entertained Kabuto for hours each day.

"Nothing like that," the girl assured. "I want you to teach me something."

Now that was new. Kabuto didn't even try to stop his eyebrows from raising clear over the rim of his glasses. "And why would I do something like that?" he asked, genuinely intrigued.

Sakura shrugged in a lazy way. "Because I'm doing your dirty work? I could probably do my job better if you taught me something." Of course, she knew that Kabuto wouldn't buy that argument, but she had to try and get what she wanted for free first. "And because I can tell you something I guarantee you don't know. Something that would make you look pretty good to whomever you report to."

Now Kabuto was hooked. "This is a new tactic for you, Sakura-san," he pointed out, putting on his best poker face. "What kind of information could you possibly have that I couldn't get myself?"

"Obviously you think I could get to some things or else you never would have recruited me," the young spy pointed out.

"You're only alive because having you gather gossip gives me time to do other functions," Kabuto countered. "Sitting hours upon hours in ratty restaurants and going through garbage to get financial records is not something I couldn't do."

"Could you find out who the Kyuubi container is?"

Kabuto's startled look was all Sakura needed to confirm that she'd hit pay dirt. The spy was only nineteen years old and he hadn't even been a Genin at the time the demon had attacked. Only the adult ninja or their spouses would have any inkling as to what Naruto actually was.

"You're getting better at this," Kabuto murmured as he let out a sigh. "I'm sure I could find out who it was, but I've never taken the time to do so." Well, he had to say something to salvage his image. "What is it going to cost me?"

"Something to make sure the container doesn't kill me if it goes nuts." Sakura only hoped that there was such a thing. "I'll be in close proximity to it so I want a way to get out of dodge. You do know something like that, right?"

The teen scrunched up his face in thought. "And how do you know you'll be close to the Kyuubi?"

"I'll tell you after you hold up your end of the deal."

Kabuto clicked his teeth and made his way into the depths of his apartment. Several minutes later, he came back with several scrolls and, oddly, a sheet of white paper. Kabuto held out the paper to Sakura, but held onto the scrolls. "Take it."

It didn't seem very dangerous so the girl did as asked. When her fingers touched it, Sakura felt something flow into her. "What is this?" It wasn't like anything she had ever encountered before. I seemed as if the paper would actually draw in her chakra like a sponge if she let it.

"That's a nice piece of paper you gave me. Do you want a written contract or something? You know I won't, or rather can't, double-cross you on this."

Kabuto shook his head. "Channel your chakra through it. I have to know exactly what to teach you."

Although she was confounded as to why screwing around with paper would help, Sakura did as instructed. The second she ran her chakra into the paper, it began to crinkle and warp in her hands until it turned brown and crumbled away.

"Earth nature, then," Kabuto mumbled, ignoring the confused look on Sakura's face. He took one of the scrolls he had brought out with him and handed it to the girl. "Doton jutsu. This is a copy of a scroll given out to Iwagakure ninja after they've been a Genin for a few months. There are a few jutsu in there for hiding under the ground, probably along the lines that you want." When Sakura moved to take the scroll, however, he pulled back. "Forgetting something? This is a trade."

Sakura scowled. "I haven't forgotten, but I don't trust you to give me the scroll after I tell you." She was being childish, but then again it was Kabuto: there was no reason to not act like a brat. "You give me the scroll first, I look it over, then I tell you who the container is. It's not as if I could get away from you."

Even Kabuto had to admit the soundness of that argument so he handed over the parchment. Sakura broke the seal on it and unrolled it a bit to get an idea of what was there. Just as Kabuto said, most were Doton jutsu, complete with instructions, seals, and effects. Somewhere on this list there had to be something she could use.

"Alright," the girl said after a moment, "I believe you. I overheard Mizuki speaking with Iruka last night. I assume you already know that Uzumaki Naruto stole something last night?" Kabuto nodded. "Right. That was a scroll of some kind that he took from the Hokage's private collection. I don't know why he did it, but if I had to guess it would be because Mizuki told him to. At least, Naruto wasn't in prison this morning when I saw him." Sakura was deliberately going around how she had came across Mizuki and Naruto in the woods. She didn't want Kabuto knowing that she was looking for a way around the seal he had placed on her. "I overheard Mizuki going on about the Kyuubi...and how it was sealed inside of Naruto."

The spy leaned back into his couch with a thoughtful expression. "And you're certain that this information is reliable?"

"Iruka was there as well and seemed really upset that Mizuki was talking about it. I don't think both would lie for no reason."

"Indeed." Lazily, Kabuto made a shooing motion with his hand. "I have to make a report on this, so..." he let himself trail off.

Sakura didn't want to stay any longer than she had to, so she happily obliged and hopped off the couch. Just as she was almost to the door, though, Kabuto began thinking out loud.

"You never did tell me why you were so afraid of the Kyuubi. Since our business is concluded, perhaps you could enlighten me?"

"He's on my team. I have to survive somehow." Sakura smirked when she saw Kabuto's frustrated expression: if she had told him that before time he could have deduced it tomorrow when teams were selected.

Kabuto let out a groan, knowing that exact same thing. "I said it once, but you are certainly growing into your role. I don't even know how you could have gotten that information before it was official." One of his biggest jobs was to get him and the other two spies on the same team. It had taken weeks of preparation and subtle manipulation of their academy teacher and grades.

Sakura ignored the knot that formed in her stomach because of the insinuation she was a good spy. She didn't know if it was a good thing it no longer affected her so bad or not, but there was nothing to be done. "At least I'm on the same team as Sasuke-kun," she sighed, not noticing the way the teen took a renewed interest in her. "I'll leave you to your report, Kabuto. I'm going to try and make sense of this scroll."

The bespeckled spy hmm'd to himself as the door to his apartment closed. "Sakura-san, perhaps you have even more uses than I had first thought." The Kyuubi and this new development to report: Orochimaru was sure to be pleased...

It was high noon in Konoha. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Haruno Sakura was doing her level best to turn a pebble into sand.

Not a rock, not a boulder. One. Single. Pebble.

The scroll she had been given was good. Too good, actually. It was clearly meant for students who had spent their entire lives learning various Iwa training methods and doctrine. In Konoha, one would learn chakra concentration by making a leaf stick to one's head. It was a simple and effective way to teach and had been passed down generation to generation in the Land of Fire.

In Iwa, however, chakra concentration was done by making two rocks stick to the tops of your shoe as you walked around. Such a little change wouldn't seem very different, but it created a lower sense of chakra concentration that Iwa-nin had to have since they were so close to the soil. Most of their jutsu also ran chakra through their legs and into the ground while Konoha nin mostly ran it through their upper body. It was very difficult, even for veteran nins, to adapt to a different concentration.

Sakura had finished all of that nearly an hour ago. Her own ability to manipulate chakra came in handy lowering her chakra center of gravity to her legs. Now that she had done it once, it was no problem to keep the rocks stuck to her feet no matter how she ran around or waved her leg.

The next step, though, proved far more difficult. The scroll only contained the most basic of reviews for Iwa academy jutsu and training techniques, assuming that whoever would use it was an Iwa-nin and thus had gone through their program. Sakura, though, was starting completely from scratch and had to fill-in any gaps with logical assumptions. So far it had worked, but the last exorcise, one designed to introduce Iwa academy students to the very basic principles of Doton jutsu, earth manipulation, was proving to be quite difficult.

It called for the destruction of a pebble. Theoretically, it could be a rock of any size and it wouldn't matter so long as you did the technique correctly. However, Sakura guessed that having a giant boulder placed in front of a student wouldn't be good for their confidence, thus the exorcise called for a small stone a few inches across. What she had to do with said stone was two-fold: one, she had to lace her chakra through it. This was incredibly difficult because it was actual nature manipulation, something not taught in Konoha's academy. From the little that Sakura did know about it, the process was akin to forcing her chakra to match the makeup of the rock. Without seals. And it should be instinctual.

The second part was far more difficult. As Sakura poured what little chakra she actually had into the stone, this became apparent. She had to basically alter the structure of the rock, changing it into something usable. In this case, she had to change it into sand, but that kind of drastic conversion was taking far more chakra than Sakura found herself having.

Disgusted and defeated, the girl tossed the aggravating rock away and slumped down to sit. She was completely wiped out from the events of last night and the earlier training. The jutsu she was trying to prepare for, the only one on the scroll which actually met Kabuto's promise, was a C-Class Doton which Sakura was certain she didn't have enough chakra for even with her amazing control and natural affinity.

The Moguragakure no Jutsu, otherwise known as the aptly-named "hiding like a mole technique", was one of the fundamental skills of Iwa, with it being the simple ability to hide, travel, and otherwise function underground. It involved turning the ground into sand and literally swimming through it. The scroll also stated that it could be used to surprise enemies, but Sakura was just focused on the hiding part. Should Naruto go insane, she would be able to put dozens of feet of stone and dirt between them. The only thing that could possibly limit the skill was how long Sakura could hold her breath.

All of that hinged on her ability to actually do the technique, though, and so far thing weren't going well. Manipulating the nature of stone was as taxing as it sounded and although she had completed the first real step, getting anywhere else was an effort in futility.

There had to be a trick to it that the scroll just wasn't showing. Then again, that wasn't surprising. So much was written on the thing that it would already be a security risk: it wouldn't be too far-fetched to believe a Genin would simply leave it behind somewhere during a mission. Improbable, but not impossible. Certainly it was at risk of being looted off of a corpse. It only made sense that the inner secrets of Doton jutsu, which Iwa prided itself in, would be omitted.

So annoying! Sakura slammed her hand down into the dirt, kicking up some dust. She was close to getting the basic theory of this jutsu, she just knew she was! It was all a matter of getting the precise nature alignment and using it to cut through the soil. Her train of thought had gone thus: If she could turn a stone into sand, then she should be able to do the same with the ground itself. Sakura was actually proud of that simple training method and she doubted Iwa itself was doing much better. The only reason she had gotten this far at all was because of her own ingenuity, after all.

She flexed her fingers and let the loose soil of the training ground sift under her hand. It wasn't packed very tightly, probably due to all the trees in the area loosening it up. There were quite a few rocks here, though. Sakura wondered if this really was the best way to learn as she scooped one of them up. Again, she tried to push her chakra into it and once again she was rebuffed. Something was disrupting the flow.

Maybe there was something else to it, some trick that only Iwa-nin knew. Perhaps in the food or water of their home village? That idea was discarded immediately, though. Sakura knew that ninja here used Doton jutsu. Perhaps not this exact one, but probably something similar. If it wasn't some outside stimulant, though, then the problem was something she herself was or wasn't doing. That was an even bigger hurdle, though, because there were dozens of variables Sakura couldn't control. She was just a fresh Genin, after all, and learning a jutsu that was meant for a seasoned Iwa shinobi that had been out of academy training for months.

"Damn it," Sakura sighed. She usually didn't curse to keep up appearances around her friends and family, but out here she could let down her hair for a bit. "What am I doing wrong? Mold chakra, push it into the stone and grind it into sand. I can feel my chakra going into it, but I can't get it to deconstruct the rock. God, and I thought starting small would be easier. I have to be doing something that's screwing it up." It was a very vexing problem and once again she felt the urge to just hit something in frustration. She didn't always used to second-guess herself like this, Sakura thought. Being precise and methodical just came with her life these days. After all, Kabuto was the same way. It was a spy thing.

Now there was a horrifying thought. Sakura shivered at even comparing herself to Kabuto in any way. Even though she had come to terms with being a spy, she didn't want to become like her creepy gray-haired coworker.

"If I can't do it his way, maybe I should do it my way." A year ago Sakura would have just plowed ahead, relying on her superior intellect to troubleshoot anything that popped up. "Not like it can hurt at this point," the girl told herself. Taking a breath and grasping the stone in her hand, she pumped as much of her chakra into it as she could, not even stopping when her hand began to burn. To her relief, her chakra finally started to invade the foreign substance of the rock, changing it. A short time later, the smooth surface of the rock began to split like a piece of balsawood, erupting in a small explosion of small chunks of stone and sand.

Sakura flinched as a piece of the rock smacked her on the forehead. She hadn't expected it to explode. Still, she had done it! "Moguragakure no Jutsu: Success!" A wide smile slipped over her lips as she gingerly rolled the sand around in her palm. All of the spying, disloyalty, fear and self-loathing was gone for a brief moment as Sakura tasted the first fruits of her labor. She felt good, tired, but good, and why? Because she had grown. True, she wanted to learn the jutsu in case the Kyuubi ever went berserk, but she could use something like this on other things, such as getting Sasuke's attention. And she had only gotten this far because she was a spy. It was to her benefit to continue to do this...so long as she didn't give Kabuto anything major. Perhaps she could tease out some other jutsu.

Her eyes drifted down to the ground benefit her feet. Sakura was getting ahead of herself; all she had done was complete her own self-prescribed training procedure. The real test would begin now. She made a standard concentration seal and pushed her chakra down through the bottom of her feet and into the loose topsoil below her. To her surprise, it only took about as much as she had put into the rock to get into the dirt. "So, it takes the same amount of chakra for anything, no matter how big it is."

Now that the ground was laced with chakra, Sakura stooped over and thrust a hand into it. Unlike the rock, rather than exploding the ground was simply split into. The Genin's hand cut into it like a hot knife through butter and she changed more of it into sand so she could get in deeper. When she was up to her elbow, Sakura had to make a decision: either continue and hope everything worked out or continue to play it safe on the surface.

"Playing it safe didn't work before," Sakura told herself. With that, the girl took a breath and dove into the mire of sand and loose soil she had created, her body slipping into ground as easily as her hands.

Once under, she at once realized why having a lower sense of chakra concentration was a must. Her legs were doing most of the propulsion, pushing her along at a slow clip while her hands made wide, sweeping arcs in the ground before her. Also, rather than see with her eyes she had to reach out with chakra and avoid any roots that were in her way, having found that she couldn't get past them otherwise.

Although she was low on chakra, Sakura continued downwards. She wanted to see how far down she could get in one breath. If she only stayed a foot or so beneath the top, the Kyuubi could certainly snap her up. She would have to get way down, probably to bedrock, before she would feel safe. Oddly, when Sakura reached that goal, she felt some resistance. Well, there was still a bit of breath in her lungs so it wouldn't hurt to investigate. A bit more chakra and she felt the slightest shift in the solid slab beneath her. A lot more and it started to cave in as well. It looked like rock did need more chakra after all. Not too much of a problem considering how much topsoil Konoha had, though. Smiling, the Genin continued onwards, blithely ignoring how deep she was getting.

That was, of course, until she felt a horrible lurch in her chest. Sakura stopped abruptly at the sharp spasm, curling her body up and creating a small cavity in the ground that she open her eyes in. She used the space to clutch her heart and let out a harsh, raspy cough.

"T-This is my limit? I feel like I'm going to throw up." It shouldn't have been too surprising really. Each few seconds that went by, Sakura expended enough chakra to make several regular clones and she was already pretty tired. Well, it wasn't a problem at any rate. The ground above her was loose enough to crawl back out of without much energy expenditure. Also, there was enough ambient air to breath normally in the space she had hollowed out.

When Sakura went to crawl back up the way she came, however, she felt resistance. Far more resistance than she should have felt. To her horror, the ground had already resettled and the path she had came down in was just as dense as it used to be. Although she wasn't claustrophobic, Sakura soon started to suck in alarming amounts of oxygen as the situation dawned on her: trapped underground, no chakra left, running out of air. Even though Sakura was only a few feet down, it might has well have been a mile considering that she couldn't get out. There was a little air left in the small pocket of rocks and sand she had created and it would run out in a few minutes.

Sakura wanted to laugh at the irony of it all. Here she was, about to be killed by the very skill she had wanted to learn to avoid being killed. Unfortunately, laughing would probably use up what little air was left that much quicker, so she refrained. Then again, it might be best to just get it over with. Why suffer?

In the last year, the girl had thought about her own death a great deal. From being killed by Kabuto, being caught by the village and tortured to death, or, more recently, being mauled by a rampaging demon, many different morbid fantasies crossed her mind. Being buried alive, however, was not one of them. What was more, this was her own fault. She should have never gotten so carried away with the jutsu. Had she just experimented on the topsoil, she could have judged how much chakra it would use and avoided this situation. But no, she had gotten carried away and went straight down until she got to a point where the tunnel could no longer support itself. How many overzealous Iwa-nin had done this exact same thing? Probably why it was a C-Ranked jutsu.

The air was getting stagnant now and sand was starting to creep in, packing the girl in even more. The metallic taste of blood was washing over Sakura's lips from the cut inflicted on her when the shaft collapsed. She was going to die out in the middle of a training ground, buried, and leave her mother wondering for months, if not longer, about what happened to her.

So, this was it then. Death. She had tried, and failed, to dig her way out and calling for help would lead to questions about how she had gotten herself into this position, leading to eventual death when ANBU figured out where her new jutsu had come from. Any medical exam would probably notice the seal on her as well. Sakura didn't want to die, though. As hard as her life was, she had done it all just to continue living. To keep her sad existence intact and continuing. Betraying her village, her friends, her family. Everything.

“Then why am I letting myself die here?” Sakura rasped. There had to be a way out, but she was so focused on dying that she hadn't really tried. Her chakra was gone, so there was no way. What kind of thinking was that? “I'm a damn spy, aren't I? I'm better than this!”

It was odd, taking some kind of strength from a position she despised not even a day ago, but it was working. Sakura's abused joints and fingers weren't aching as bad and she felt her nerve start to return. If she had gotten down here, then she would get out. Sakura tried to feel around for anything that would help her, managing to get down to her weapon's pouch. She didn't have much, though. Just some scrolls, emergency rations, and her kunai.

Wait, kunai. What was it that Iruka-sensei had said when they were learning the history of ninja back in her first year? Didn't kunai start out as common garden trowels that peasants had used when their kings and lord wouldn't let them have weapons?

Seeing as her air was almost gone and her lungs were burning, Sakura decided that she didn't have a choice. Grasping the tool like grim death, she fought to get her arm above the rocks and sand that packed around her body. When she finally managed it, spots were forming in her vision. If they were rocks that were falling down from her attempts at digging upwards or the result of being out of oxygen, Sakura didn't know. She just kept slamming the kunai into the dirt above her. Inch by inch, second by second, she was slowly rising. Her legs were burning from all the cuts the rocks were putting on them as she struggled upwards, but the pain was keeping the girl awake.

Her eyes were burning as well from the dust and sand, but there was more air getting to her lungs. Even though she was only a few feet underground, every inch was a war. However, every inch proved Sakura was making headway. Finally, the darkness was split by a single ray of light. Even with her eyes full of tears and sand, Sakura could see it. She grasped franticly at it, forcing her bloodied fingers through the small crack until she felt the cool wind of the afternoon sweep over them. The sudden rush of air whipped Sakura up into a frenzy and she started to pound her fist at the small crack, widening it enough that she could snake her entire arm out. Using the ground as a leverage, she pulled her near-limp body out and collapsed.

Had she really done it? Sakura let out a ragged breath that made her body shake. She didn't even care that she was face-down in the dirt and drooling; the feeling of the waning sunlight on her back was more than enough encouragement to stay right where she was. The Genin did tilt her head over to the side so she could examine her hands. As expected, her fingernails were caked with dirt, grime and blood, but they weren't as bad off as the rest of her body.

"At least the stupid jutsu works," Sakura groaned. Her hands had been mostly protected by her own chakra and they had done their job of cutting through the ground. It wasn't the jutsu's fault she had ended up in that hole, but only Sakura's own stupidity. She was paying for it now: Using that much energy and chakra, on top of already being tired, left her entire body as one big ache. In school, chakra exhaustion was one thing above all that the teachers warned against because it damaged their developing inner coil system. Sakura wasn't quite at that point yet, but if she tried to get home it certainly would start to cost her. If Sakura were found now, she'd have to answer far too many questions about what she was doing out here and the state of her body.

There was, however, a small stream flowing near the training ground Sakura had picked. If she could get over to that, the worst of her injuries could be cleaned up and lessen the amount of explaining she would potentially have to do if discovered.

It was a fight just to get to her hands and knees. Crawling about on the ground like an animal, Sakura made her way over to the flowing water. Really, it was more of a creek than anything; there was a larger river a few training grounds over and this was one of the streams that fed into it. Thankfully, she wasn't that far. When she finally reached the bank, the girl simply rolled over into the flow. It wasn't deep enough to sweep her away and Sakura doubted she could clean herself properly from just sitting on the riverbank.

The water felt good. Damn good. It washed out the muck from her eyes and allowed Sakura to clear her mouth of sand. With eyes that actually worked, she surveyed the damage done: her hands would heal in a day or two and the cuts on her arms and legs were superficial. The strain on her muscles, though, was very real; they wouldn't be top-notch for a few weeks at the very least.

That meant that all of this had been a waste. Worst than a waste, actually: now she didn't even have enough energy to use her new skill even if she had completely mastered it. Not only that, her life would be in danger on missions due to her injuries.

It was too much. The chakra loss, her injuries, being on a team with Naruto, accepting she was a spy. Everything came to a horrible crash inside Sakura's head, accompanied by the feeling someone was stuffing cotton balls into her ears. The spots were back from earlier and this time she could no longer count them as just falling rocks. Of course, she couldn't go to a hospital because they would turn her over to Interrogations!

That was the last straw. Doing the only thing she could, crawling back out of the cold water and collapsing on the moss-covered riverbank, was the course of action Sakura picked. Maybe just a few minutes of rest would help. Besides, it felt so good just to stay still...