——Bloom Again——

"No one ever hurt their eyesight by looking at the bright side,"

——————————

"Dobe,"

"Shut up,Teme!"

Sakura doesn't remember being put in an academy activity where they had to team up. She paled. Did her presence already affected the academy activity? Or was she really forgetful?

"Naruto, sit down!"Iruka sighed when he saw Naruto grumbles before finally sitting down and Iruka continues with his speech

"Anyway, as you noticed, you are all in a team of 3 members. Each team will be send deep into a jungle where they must find a special crystal each. These crystals have a myriad of colours so each team will be finding for a different colour crystal. Once your team manage to find the crystal, head back to the academy immediately following the map I gave and report back to either me or Mizuki-sensei. You are not allowed to be seperated at all times. If any of you face any trouble, flare your chakra like what I taught you to do and if you really need, you are allowed to use the weapons the academy had provided. Understand?"

Sakura shook her head in disbelieved at the given team activity. How could all the students be so naive about the activity given?

'We aren't even equipped with proper weapons. They are all dull and was not sharpen recently yet no one voice out about it?'She thought.

Iruka passed on a couple packets of food to the teams before confirming that everyone had gotten their packets of food. A chorus of 'Yes' was heard and everyone start moving out from the classroom. All except one team.

"There's no way we're going to flare our chakra for our senseis to run and save us dattebayo, so you better keep up Teme!"Naruto declared loudly, pointing accusingly towards Sasuke

Sasuke huffed before turning away from Naruto "You are the one who's supposed to keep up, Usaratonkachi!"

Sakura really felt like banging her head on the wall. Why was fate always so cruel to her by pairing her up to the most annoying pair in the class? Why couldn't Iruka just pair her up with Shikamaru and Chouji? Or why couldn't she be in a team with only one of them?

"You little piece of -"

Maybe if she ignore them, and her desire to get back as fast as possible are strong enough they'll shut up.

"What did you just say?!"

It didn't work. Sighing, she raised her hands and slam it on her desk.

"Both of you shut up!" Her sudden yell had both boys jump and turn to her. She fixed them both a glare. Sasuke and Naruto wouldn't admit it, but Sakura's glare send shivers down their spine.

"Now then, I do not want to hear any of you arguing like 5 year olds for the rest of this activity. So no provoking the other person. Understand?"

Both of them hastily nod their head, somewhat suprised at this new side of Sakura. Sakura huffed and turn away.

"Now,let's go. Maybe if you both quit yapping, we could stealthily get to our crystal and make it back as quick without needing to flare our chakra." Sakura move quickly towards the door

Naruto gaped at her words yet recover quickly before shoving away Sasuke and following Sakura like a lost puppy because after all, she's the one who's holding the map. Sasuke huffed, brush out the invisible dirt before following close.

::

"Okay, so according to the map, our blue crystal is on top of this mountain."Sakura said,and all eyes turn towards the mountain.

It was as if they could all hear the thunder roaring from right behind the background of the mountain. The mountain was steep, has dangerous trails that are very muddy, and there might be a cave fill with bats and other creatures waiting around the corner.

"Our crystal is right there?"Naruto gulped, his face turn pale and eyes were wide.

"I'm starting to doubt that this is just simply an 'activity' for us academy students,"Sasuke state, clearly as shocked as Naruto

Sakura considers this. Just what is the purpose of this activity?

"That's probably true. There must be something important about these crystals until they would choose academy students to fetch it at a dangerous place instead of Genin or Chunin."Sakura noted aloud, and Naruto turn to her

"You mean,we're gonna risk our lives to go fetch a crystal that we don't even know much about?"Naruto questions nervously

Sakura shot him a small sad smile"Well, I think the moment you chose the Ninja lifestyle, you're already risking your life. That's just what being a ninja is about," Sasuke and Naruto stayed silent to consider her words and a sad aura fall upon them

Seeing her teammates thinking thoughtfully about her words make Sakura thinks she have a chance to change the future to a hopefully better one. It gives her warmness that they could at least stay mature when it comes to certain topics.

"Besides, I don't think Iruka-sensei and the other senseis have authorisation to leave us alone here in the forest."She eyes the green forest around her. Surely they would have the senseis to guard them just in case anything went wrong,right?

The boys nod, yet Sasuke still had an unsure look.

"Well, what are we waiting for,Sakura-chan?! Let's conquer this mountain dattebayo!"

The blond eagerly move ignoring her words of concern to be more careful about his suroundings. Sasuke shook his head and deliver a smack at the back of Naruto's head and scoffed.

"Hey! What's your problem?"Naruto growled, gently rubbing the spot Sasuke had hit him

"Thanks, Sasuke. Anyway, Naruto, we got to be careful so that means no yelling. We must not attract any attention whether be it from other ninjas or other creatures...." Sakura's words was interrupted by a loud growl. Sasuke tenses up immediately and Sakura reaches for the kunai that she had snucked under her red qipau.

"What the heck is that?!"Naruto yelled, fear stricken in his eyes

A beastly looking hybrid between a tiger and a wolf about 8 feet tall stood proudly before their very eyes. Its red eyes glowed menacingly and its claws were sharp enough to pierce their body like a ragdoll if it wanted to.

Sakura considers the options they had. She knew attacking it is an idiotic move, as not only did they all lack training nor do they have good weapons but the current mini To-be Team 7 is not familiarize with each other's fighting style so attacking this monster as a team is definitely out of the option.

But what about running away? She eyes the beast's legs. Its leg is muscular, so there's no way they are able to run away without being chase by it. The percentage of running away without getting anyone hurt would be very low. There's only one option.

They would need a decoy. And who else wouldn't be provoke enough to do stupid things? She sighed inwardly, she knew she would have to be the decoy.

"Battle formation 3,"Sakura state, and Sasuke quickly moves to her instruction. However, a certain blond was confuse.

"What the heck is Battle Formation 3, dattebayo?!"

Sakura bit her lip, they don't have any time to waste. She had forgotten that Naruto annually does pranks on the Hokage mountain and coincidentally on that day was the day Iruka had taught them the basics of Battle Formation.

"Naruto, Sasuke, start running towards the mountain on my count. I'll be the decoy and meet you there as soon as I lead this beast away,"Sakura ordered, her eyes never once left the beast. Their reactions were immediate.

"Decoy?! But Sakura-chan, Iruka-sensei said we are not to be seperated at all times! Plus, what kind of friend would I be if I do so?"Naruto yells

"And who decides for you to be leader?" Sasuke scoffed and stand his ground beside Sakura eyeing the beast as well.

Anger, annoyance, frustration and a tiny bit of despair boiled within Sakura. It was really simillar how Naruto and Sasuke is to her timeline's Naruto and Sasuke. The irony hit her hard,because if it wasn't for Naruto's 'Never leave a man behind' attitude,he would still remain alive today, and maybe, just maybe they would have won in the war.

"You both are risking our lifes now. The chances of us being able to defeat this beast is low, don't you both get it?"Sakura spat out and both boys went silent. The truth was Sakura was fully capable of taking this beast down, but she didn't want to show the boys her full capability and didn't want to risk unpredictable things from Naruto and Sasuke.

"But you're risking yours,"Naruto trailed off unsurely.

The beasts could no longer wait anymore, it jumps down from the tree branch it was standing on earlier. Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto moved out the way immediately.

Sakura send two shurikens hurling towards the beast and shouted to her boys "Run, now. Get to the mountain. I'll meet you guys there, I promise!"

The hybrid beast easily deflects the shurikens with his hands and roars loudly at them. If it wasn't already angry before or aiming to eat them, it's definitely is angry and aiming to eat them now.

Sasuke's hands move quickly and before Naruto could disagree to Sakura's decision, Sasuke mutter something and a massive orb of roaring flames bursts out of Sasuke's mouth. As soon as it hits its target, the target howl in pain. The fire style jutsu had burn the beast's skin and fur.

Sakura send a glare to Sasuke. Couldn't he just listen to her even once?

The beast strike its hands towards Sasuke in anger. Sasuke barely manages to side step the beast's attack. Sakura starts to feel the pressure on her shoulders as memories of her past life play out in her mind.

"You both, get out of here now! Get to the mountain and get those crystals. I'll distract it long enough,"Sakura tighten her leather glove and grin. It's time to show her result of training this past few weeks.

"Come here, you little prick!"Sakura's battle cry echoed throughout the jungle and the beast's attention were now directed towards her.

The beast waste no time to pounce on Sakura but Sakura's body disperse into a pile of logs.

"Dobe let's go, you heard Sakura!"Sasuke urges,but Naruto's eyes were glued onto the logs Sakura had switched to avoid getting hit

"She'll be fine, now come on," Once more Sasuke urges Naruto, but this time with reasurrance

Naruto hesistantly ran away towards the mountain with Sasuke beside him. The beast's loud roar echoed from behind them. He had just left the girl he like behind. He wonder if kami would ever forgive him for doing so.

::

As soon as Sasuke and Naruto was no longer nearby, Sakura jumps from a nearby tree branch and raises her chakra enhanced fist towards the beast.

"This is for threathening the safety of my boys, Shannaro!"

Her fist landed on the beast's body making it smash into the ground. The impact of her fist not only had shocked the beast,but it had also cause massive cracks on the ground. The beasts howled in pain, but was soon knocked out unconscious.

Sakura grinned at herself,she was proud that she had managed to make a beast this size fell on her feet. She let out a breath she didn't know she held and strech her arms.

"You should have chosen another team to mess with," She stated as she eyes the unconscious beast before moving towards the direction of the mountain.

Only to be stop once again. By a much, much bigger version of the hybrid beast earlier. Sakura couldn't help herself but gulped.

That beast earlier was only a baby. And now she's facing a grieving fill with anger mother who had just loss a child.

Oh for crying out loud, just why does she have to face all this trouble?

-To be continued-
Hehe so funny story,I didn't manage to finish this chapter on the publishing day so here's an omake for all of you.

Omake:

"Teme, are you sure we're heading the right way?"

"It should be."

"What do you mean it should be dattebayo?! We have to save Sakura-chan once we get the crystal!"

"I know that, dobe but I've marked a cross on a tree when we pass it yet we had pass by that particular tree for 6 times now."

"Couldn't it be another team's cross mark?"

"No,I had my initials too underneath the cross."

"Well,shit."

"Shit indeed"

"Sakura-chan! Help us, we're lost!!"Naruto cries out as a flock of crows watch their despair. A particular crow with seemingly red eyes that if were to see closer would resemble a Sharingan shook his head in disappointment before flying off to it's rightful summoner.

-End of Omake-

So,do you think Sakura forget about this academy activity or did her presence already change the past?

How did you enjoy the Omake?It wasn't plan actually.

What do you think is the true purpose of this activity?