Maybe

Or not?

".... She was finally ready..."

She was not.

The first part of the exams had been easy enough.
A written exam.
With all the books she had read over the years it had been like a walk down the park.

The second part took place in training ground 44. The forest of death.  With a name so omnious, the young girl should've known something wrong was going to happen.
But she had ignored the feeling in her gut and followed her teammates inside.

Then, frickin Orochimaru had attacked them.
A rogue ninja, one of the legendary sannin.

They never stood a chance.

He had bitten Sasuke and knocked out Naruto, leaving Sakura to take care of them.

The pink haired girl had tried healing them, but with her limited knowledge on iryo ninjutsu and her tiredness, she hadn't been able to do much.

After that, some Oto nin had attacked her to get to Sasuke.
But Sakura had been exhausted, alone and stressed.
Using some poisoned kunai she had managed to defeat one of the three sound gennin.
She had been about to collapse when one of the other Leaf gennin, some weirdo in green jumpsuit, had interfeered and saved her.
His name was Lee. Rock Lee.
He had been defeated too, though.

But then.. Sakura would always remember the look in Sasuke's eyes when he had asked who had hurt her.

This Sasuke wasn't the boy she knew, the one she had crushed on in the Academy...

He had mercilessly attacked the remaining ennemy shinobi, nearly killing him. Sakura couldn't stand to see her teammate become a murderer.
She was one, and the guilt that ate her everyday was something she didn't wish on the Uchiha.
Maybe it was selfish of her to stop him. He probably had no qualms ending someone else's life, (You're  training to be ninja, you shouldnt either...) but she had stopped him nonetheless.

::::

Now, she stood among all the remaining gennins in a small undergroung arena.
The Hokage was delivering some speech about war and the importance of the chunnin exams, but Sakura's mind was elsewhere...
When Orochimaru had bitten Sasuke he had put something on him. A 'curse mark', the Oto shinobi had called it.
From the chakra she had felt seeping out from it when the boy had gone in his killing rage...
It was bad.
The mark was unstable and seemed to cloud his judgment, making him go crazy when activated. It needed to be erased.

"psst, Sasuke." she poked him "Shouldn't you drop out? With your curs-"

"I will NEVER give up" he sneered at her and Sakura recoiled, the hatred in his eyes scaring her. "I need to become stronger to kill That man. I am not weak like you!"  He spat.

Ducking her head in shame, the pink haired girl waited for the next part of the exam to start, ignoring the hurt feeling in her chest.

::::::

The second part of the exam wasn't over. Apparently, too many genin had succeeded, and preliminaries, 1v1 matches, would be held.

Sakura wasn't stupid, and she knew that she didn't stand a chance.
Like Sasuke had so nicely said, she was weak.

Most! I won't stand a chance against MOST of the competitors.   She corrected herself.

The poisons she had brewed the day before were not entirely gone. The gennin had been reluctant to use the illusion enducing one, something she sorely regreted. She'd have the opportunity now.