Maybe

Friends and rivals

".... Friends were nice..."

To Sakura's relief, Ino woke up only after ten minutes.

The blond girl looked worriedly around her, her eyes darting to the door before settling on the Haruno.

"What... what did you do to me?" she whispered, looking both afraid and angry.

"I... I'm sorry Ino" Sakura replied, looking down "I didn't want to hurt you, really! But... I had to win"

Finally gathering the courage to look up, the pink haired gennin peeked at her old friend.

"I understand."

Sakura sighed and offered her hand to the other girl who was still laying down on the bed.

"Why don't you join me to watch the other matches?" she suggested "I don't care about Sasuke anymore, honest!" she added after seeing the suspicious look Ino shot her.

"No." The Yamanaka answered.
"You have grown, you're no longer a flower bud, Forehead"

Sakura smiled a little at the memory of her time with Ino when they were younger.

"... But I can't be your friend anymore" The heiress continued ignoring Sakura's hurt look, "We are rivals, and that doesn't mean just with Sasuke-kun. I am going to train to catch up with you. And, then, we'll have a rematch!"

Ino swatted away the hand offered to her and pulled herself up before limping out of the room.

Sakura stayed where she was, dumbfounded.

That... hadn't gone as she had planned.

:::::::

When Sakura stepped back in the stands, the matches were already finished, and the Hokage had said his little speech, so the young girl was a little lost as to what was happening.

"Sakura-chan! Where were you?! You missed some awesome match!" Naruto said to her, moving his hands around as if he was reliving the fights.

"There was that creepy guy from Suna that completely destroyed Bushy Brows, that was not, cool... but you should've seen the fight, he was really fast!!  Oh! And the creepy guy's teamates were amazing too! I think you're fighting the wind lady in the next round..."

That caught Sakura's attention.

"The next round?"

"Yes. We have like... 2 months, I think, before the finals. It's one on one fights. Jiji announced it a while back, but I guess you weren't here? Anyway, I'll get to fight Neji-bastard, and I think you're against that girl from Suna. She completely obliterated Bushy Brow's teammate... Oh, yeah! And Sasuke is with the creepy guy with the red hair. He's soo weird, and even grumpier than Sasuke..."

Sakura froze. The Suna siblings were the same genin team they had encountered before the exams. Gaara of the Sand... Sakura looked worridely at Sasuke. She didn't 'love' him anymore, but that didn't mean she didn't care for him. They were teammates, he was... her friend. Kind of.

Now that Ino had so clearly declared their friendship over, Sakura didn't have any friends save for her teammates, and she wasn't even sure they considered her as such.

But to come back to matters at hand, she had an exam to prepare. With how great the first part had been, she had a very bad feeling for the rest of the exam.

What if Orochimaru attacked again? He was smart, to be able to infiltrate the village while being so high up in the bingo book... He was so dangerous, and he hurt Sasuke... what if he came after Naruto or I next? Or came back for Sasuke-kun?

There were too much blank spots, too many variables and it put the young girl on an edge. In addition to the unknown 'Orochimaru-threat' she also had a fight to prepare. Against the blond girl. The crazy boy's sister and the wind user, if the gigantic fan on her back was anything to go by.

And wind user meant long range fighter which, in turn, meant trouble. Why? BeCaUse ShE waS WeAk.

Weak. Useless. You think you're a real ninja? Really? When you rely on puny poisons you DIDN'T EVEN MAKE YOURSELF!!

The loud voice in her head laughed and Sakura knew it was right. She was weak.

But no for much longer.