The team of prodigies were against Genins from their own village. The team of Sakura's best friend: Shikamaru. With him was Ino and Chouji, all three from known clans in the village. Fighting them is possibly more difficult than the previous team.

"I kind of had a bad feeling we'd bump into each other here." The Haruno heiress sighed with her hands resting on her hips.

"Troublesome..." The pineapple head complained.

"Shall we fight individually?" Sakura proposed.

"Definitely team versus team. We'd lose otherwise!" Ino shouted out.

"You would lose either way." Sasuke grunted softly, the sight of her made him cringe.

Sakura shot Shikamaru a wide smile, "I won't hold back, Shikamaru!"

"What a drag.." He sighed, his shoulders already slumping down in defeat.

"Team formation! Ino!" Ino ordered.

"Shika!" Shikamaru said lazily.

"CHOOOOOOOO!!" Chouji shouted enthusiastically.

The prodigies sweat-dropped, feeling the second handed embarrassment.

Sakura stepped forward to the two guys, whispering, "Guys, we have to watch out. Shikamaru's strategy is out of the box and it always work. Think more than you act!"

She thought for a moment, "Actually.. why don't we just knock them out? Surely, they wouldn't expect us to not fight them.."

"The faster, the better. I can't stand her presence." Sasuke shivered in disgust.

"I don't have a problem with that, it would be easy." Neji agreed.

With that, all three of them vanished into thin air, leaving the other three Genins in confusion. But Shikamaru was sharp, he shouted, "Watch your backs!"

But it was too late.

The prodigies were faster.

All of them were knocked out from hitting the points behind their neck.

Sakura bent down to Ino's body and reached for the pouch. Knowing Ino, she must have kept the gem because it was pretty and bingo. A smirk curved the tip of her lips and she found the gemstone and hid it in her scroll. Surely, no one would expect them to store the gems in a scroll. The scroll for storage was only popular for a long stay outside.

"Sorry, but time isn't something I like to waste." She apologised.

"So far it has been too easy.." Neji carefully said, trying to hint that the situation was too suspicious.

Rustle Rustle

Our bodies froze. "What was that?" Sasuke said in urgency.

The boys activated their kekkei genkai to see what was hiding behind the bushes and their eyes widened. Sakura was puzzled, but worry crept into her mind.

"We have to fight this instead.." Neji gasped.

What he saw stepped out to the clearing.

Oh.

My.

God.

"Dang it!" Sakura cursed under breath.

"Hn.."

All of them stared at the white tigress with black striped. It has huge violet eyes that looked so beautiful, but not so much when it doesn't look at all friendly. Especially when it's size is as huge at the three Genin prodigies.

"RAWRRRRRR!!"

They gulped.

"Are we going to fight this thing or are we breaking into a run?" Sakura asked.

"RAWRRRRRRRRRR!" Another tiger appeared, this time in black fur and white stripes. It's eyes were a refreshing lime green colour.

"Oh..God....." Neji whispered.

And there was another roar, from a tiger with bloody red eyes. It's fur was grey and it's stripes were a mix of black and white.

"How many are there??" Sasuke questioned in fear.

These creatures were nothing like they had seen or heard of.

They were surrounded by tigers of their own size.

"So.. Running away is out of the question?" Sakura muttered sheepishly.

"Running from the back might cause danger to Shikamaru's team." Sasuke said.

"I'm thinking of something extreme.." The Hyuga said.

"What? Fight them?" Sasuke asked as though his teammate was out of his mind.

"Ride on them."

Both Sasuke and Sakura shot him a look. "ARE YOU CRAZY?!" They yelled in unison.

"Fighting them.. I have little confidence. But I'm sure they can run fast and save our time. They would attract people and we could retrieve their gems easily by scaring them with these tigers." He explained.

"Easier said than do-" The pinkette was interrupted when the white tigress suddenly leaped onto her.

"SAKURA!!" Neji and Sasuke called in fear.

Instead of feeling sharp teeth tearing her flesh apart or watching their beloved teammate being ripped apart by a wild animal, the tigress was snuggling her nose into the pinkette's hair. She opened her eyes and saw the tigress licking her face. What's more, the large tigress from before shrunk into a cub.

Confusion was all they had in mind.

She turned to her teammates and they were in the same position as her, being cuddled by the little tigers.

They were speechless.

"Uhh.."

"I don't know, Sakura..."

Sasuke grunted, feeling unfamiliar with the tiger's affection. "What do we do?"

"I wonder if the they can understand us." As though they understood Neji's question, all three tigers roared but it sounded so small that they could be mistaken as cats trying to sound tough.

"That's a yes I suppose." Sakura sat up with the little tigress in her arms. She was so cute.

"Would you like us to keep you?" Neji asked.

"ROAR!!"

"Hey, it tickles!" Sasuke suddenly exploded in laughter. His other two teammates were amazed, they were happy to see their fellow teammate final smile and laugh.

"I like them." Sakura concluded.

The Hyuga placed his tiger on the ground and stood up, "Can you change into any size we want?"

His tiger nodded his head in joy. It's eyes were sparkling under the sunlight.

"We got ourselves three very surprising prizes." Sasuke uttered.

Sakura pat her tigress' head. "I'll name you Sumire, because of your violet eyes and both of us share a name with flowers." It purred happily under her palms, it liked the name.

"I'll name this little guy Aka for it's red eyes or should I call him Sharin-OW!" The tiger hugged his face but clawed it in the end. There my friends, is the side of the Uchiha we never seen.

"Aww Aka hates you." Sakura laughed and Neji followed suit.

"No he doesn't." He pouted and turned to Aka. "You don't hate me, do you?" It purred and climb to the top of his head.

"Well..I guess I'll call you Aka then." Sasuke sighed.

Neji scratched his chin, trying to figure what to name his new companion. His black tiger stared intently into Neji's lavender eyes, waiting for a name. "Raimu.. That's what I'll call you."

"A fruit? I hope you don't get hungry and end up devouring that little thing." Sakura joked and he glared at her.

"C'mon, let's leave before these three wake up." He sighed.

"Let's learn to ride on their backs." Sasuke suggested.

Sakura clapped her hands in agreement, "That's a great idea!"

After their encounter with the three mysterious tigers, the mood of the team became a lot brighter. Just for a little moment, Sakura forgot about the fight she lost to Kisame.

==

Dedicated to smthng103 for voting on this story!

Published: December 2014
Rewritten: 5 May 2018