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[GUtW]—❈—45:: Race to the Finish Line
🕑 Added 2023-08-19 19:55:01 +0000 UTCI am so sorry for the delay. I have no excuse. I suck.
—❈—
Sakura Haruno
At 03:00 a.m., on the morning after her idiot teammate and that Cloud-nin almost caused an international incident, Sakura, Sasuke, and said idiot teammate sat in a hall with the eighty-two other contestants of The Chūnin Exams.
From the little information Kakashi had given them yesterday, before promptly disappearing to who knew where, Sakura knew that they were all here to start the exams. Or, more accurately, they were all here to take the test that would determine if they qualified to take the exam at all.
It was quite annoying, especially as it came as a surprise to Sakura since she hadn't known anything about it beforehand, but in hindsight, it made sense.
The Chūnin Exams were essentially a tournament, and since it only had five rounds, that meant that it only needed thirty-two contestants.
Meanwhile, there were eighty-five genin present.
Ergo, fifty-three of them would need to go. And seeing as they couldn't exactly draw straws for such a thing, a test was needed.
Sakura wondered idly what it could be, this test.
It couldn't be anything combat related, she reckoned; there were an odd number of genin present, plus, matching them up to fight would essentially be the same thing as just putting them all in The Chūnin Exams and getting it over with.
It also couldn't be a mental test either, since, unfortunately, an intelligent ninja did not necessarily make for a strong one. And this exam was all about strength.
Up on the podium, a ninja in Leaf-nin uniform appeared in a burst of smoke, and the low hum of conversation buzzing around the hall immediately stilled.
Sakura recognized the ninja, a leaf jōnin by the name of Anko Mitarashi.
Anko had taught a few classes on pain tolerance in The Academy, and Sakura remembered the jōnin for two reasons; the first was the obvious sadistic pleasure she took in causing Sakura and her fellow classmates pain during her classes, and the second, was that she was the only surviving student of the leaf traitor, Orochimaru.
Guess the apple didn't fall very far from that particular tree, Sakura thought, then took a moment to reconsider that statement.
Well, hopefully it fell far enough, she amended. The Leaf couldn't really afford more traitors.
Up on the podium, Anko spoke.
"Alright, you little shits," the jōnin began, her voice easily reaching every nook of the hall despite her not shouting, "the name's Jōnin Mitarashi, and I think not a single one of you worthless pieces of horse dung is worth the time and effort my village is putting into this farce.
"Unfortunately, I can't just send the lot of you back home. In fact, thanks to my shit luck, it's my job to see which of you shitstains is least useless, so the exams aren't even a bigger snore-fest than they usually are.
"In light of this, and since I'm not allowed to keep flinging kunai at you until there's only thirty-two left, you'll be racing for your spot in the exam."
At the word 'race', Sakura felt a cold dread creep up her spine.
No, she thought, the word virtually a plea. Please, no. Anything but a race. And if it must be a race then please let it be a speed race.
Anko's next words murdered whatever hope Sakura had that she would have a chance of winning this.
"There are four tracks," the jōnin said, "each one exactly 1,032 km long, and if you're not among the first thirty-two to cross the finish line, then, for your sake, I hope you hadn't bothered to unpack."
—❈—
The race had five rules:
- All contestants must stay on their assigned tracks. Any deviation from it will result in an automatic fail.
- All contestants must finish the race without any aid. Receiving, or requesting, help from anyone will result in an automatic fail.
- All steroids, soldier pills, chakra boosters, or any such performance enhancing drugs are banned. Usage of them will result in an automatic fail.
- Any attempt to attack or sabotage another contestant will result in an automatic fail.
- Being pathetic will result in an automatic fail.
That last one was a bit of an eyebrow-raiser, but, Sakura could barely bring herself to care too much.
Simply put, she was fucked. Hard.
It wasn't that she couldn't run a thousand kilometres, because she could. Easily even. But doing so at her absolute top speed (because she had no delusions about how fast she would need to go to make it into the top thirty percent of this group) now that, that was impossible.
She just didn't have the stamina.
"Sakura," Sasuke said softly from where he sat beside her, and Sakura looked to him.
His beautiful, dark eyes were trained on hers. Steady, unflinching. Her stomach suddenly felt funny.
"You will make it to the finish line," Sasuke said, and Sakura felt her heart skip a beat. "It will be difficult, yes. And it will take everything you have. But you will make it there, and you will make it in time. I know you will."
Words said, Sasuke turned back to listen as Jōnin Mitarashi began to call names and assign them to different tracks.
Sakura stared at the boy for several seconds, the urge to dive him and wrap him in a hug almost overwhelming.
By sheer willpower, and the understanding that it really wouldn't do her any favours, she managed to resist.
"Thank you," she said softly instead.
Without turning, Sasuke acknowledged her gratitude with a nod.
Sakura took a deep breath, a small smile on her face.
A thousand kilometre race against oldest, likely faster opponents with potentially more stamina than her, huh?
Well, a good ninja was all about adapting and overcoming. Whatever the situation may be.
—❈—
There were four tracks, and somehow, Sakura and her teammates all wound up assigned to different ones.
It surprised her until she took a second look at things and realised that it was deliberate; they were splitting up teams.
It was understandable, of course, especially since requesting or receiving help was against the rules, but even so, Sakura would have liked to run with Sasuke.
It would have motivated her if nothing else.
Barely fifteen minutes later, she and her teammates had gone their separate ways, and Sakura found herself on the starting line of her assigned track, Track B.
She'd wished both boys luck, and while Sasuke had nodded to her, his eyes showing his unshakeable faith in her, Naruto had laughed about how easy this would be.
Sakura tried (and failed, a little) to not hold it against the boy; Naruto had a hard time comprehending that not everyone had his monstrous stamina…
His monstrous stamina that Sakura would probably trade all her "amazing" chakra control for right about now.
Damn it! She was losing focus.
At that thought, something buzzed in her trouser pocket.
What the hell?
She reached in and pulled out a small piece of paper.
It was a note:
You didn't survive two weeks of training with me to lose to these losers.
Kick their butts, Pinkie.
Sakura stared at the note for a long time, then she folded it and put it back into her pocket.
When the chūnin overseeing their track said the word "go!" Sakura was one of the first to blast off, her feet barely touching the earth as she ran.
—❈—
The race was a blur of speed, adrenaline, and determination.
A pounding heart, cold sweat on burning skin, and, near the end, a resounding mantra of "One more step! One more step!" even as her vision darkened around its edges.
Sakura had no recollection of what happened after the 95th kilometre.
She came to on a cot in what had to be the first aid tent.
Some of the other beds were occupied, she noticed, but Sakura paid no attention to who they might contain, her entire focus arrested by the boy seated beside her bed.
Sasuke.
He looked at her, expression calm, no sign of elation or disappointment.
"Sasuke?" she asked softly, throat a little dry, but nothing extreme. "What happened?"
"You collapsed," he said. "Chakra exhaustion."
Oh, no. Had she…
"Did I…?" she couldn't bring herself to finish the question.
She didn't need to.
"You finished thirty-first," Sasuke said. "Three seconds before last place."
"What?" she asked in disbelief.
Sasuke smiled. "You won, Sakura. You got in; I told you you would."
And he had. He really had.
With a cry of joy, Sakura jumped on Sasuke and hugged him. Hard.
He froze, going so still for so long that Sakura's elation had started to morph into dread that she'd ruined the moment, before, slowly he hugged her back.
"Congratulations," he said softly into her ear, and the word sent a tingle running all the way down her spine.
You know, Sakura decided, she really would not mind running that race a dozen times over.
Not if this would be her reward for it.
