"What the heck just happened…?"
The ANBU ninjas, trailing behind a powerful jonin, finally broke through the freezing blizzard that had sealed off the area and stumbled into what was now a full-on snow-covered forest.
Most of them were wearing standard ANBU armor with zero cold protection, so they were hugging their shoulders and shivering like crazy.
When they reached the exact spot where the fight had gone down, they saw a scene straight out of an ice-hell nightmare, plus a pure-white girl chilling against a tree, taking a little nap.
The ANBU just stared, mouths open, totally speechless.
"Sakura! You okay?!"
Kakashi bolted out of the group and rushed toward the girl in a panic.
But the second he got close, his legs got locked in the solid ice on the ground, and he face-planted hard.
Sakura, woken up by the commotion, cracked open her snowy-white eyes. "Oh, hey, Kakashi-sensei. You guys made it."
"What in the world is going on here?!"
Kakashi shattered the ice around his feet with chakra, flexed his ankles, and carefully stepped forward.
"Eh, Orochimaru. We fought, he ran off."
Sakura jerked her chin toward a pile of frozen snake chunks in the distance, pointing it out to everyone.
Hearing her casual recap, then glancing at the battlefield that had been permanently reshaped, the ANBU all twitched in unison.
Sis, that's Orochimaru. The guy who used to be one of the Legendary Sannin, terrifying the whole shinobi world. Current S-rank traitor.
Could you not describe your deathmatch with him like you just popped downstairs to grab rice from the corner store? It makes the rest of us—who can't even afford rice—look pathetic.
"You little… You run into a dangerous ninja like that and don't call for backup?!"
For once, Kakashi's dead-fish eye looked dead serious.
"I kinda forgot once we started fighting~ Plus, the flare was with Sasuke."
Sakura waved it off, totally unfazed.
She'd been skewered clean through by that snake, and all she'd managed was one solid punch. Even she was annoyed about it.
"You, you, and you—clean this place up. And make sure the Hokage gets the full report."
Sakura pointed at a few ANBU who were already collecting evidence, bossing them around like it was nothing.
The ones she pointed at instinctively followed orders and started blasting the ice with fire-style jutsu.
It took them a solid minute to snap out of it.
Wait—hold up. She's not our boss. Why are we listening to her?
"Do what she says. And somebody go inform the Hokage!"
Kakashi rubbed his forehead, sighed, and tacked on the official order. Then he turned back to Sakura.
"So, what's your plan now? How are Naruto and Sasuke?"
"Naruto and the others are fine. And next? Obviously keep taking the exam."
Sakura rolled her eyes and tied up her messy pink hair.
It wasn't just her—any half-decent ninja in the village knew the Third Hokage's personality.
There was no way a political animal like Hiruzen Sarutobi would halt the Chunin Exams over "just" Orochimaru, especially with every major nation watching.
That'd be like announcing to the world that mighty Konoha couldn't even handle one rogue ninja. Showing weakness while surrounded by wolves? Dumbest move possible.
So whether it was for pride or survival, the Hokage would push the exams through at any cost—even if he ended up being the cost.
"Anyway, the hard part's yours now. I'm out~"
Sakura spun around, gave Kakashi a playful wink with her left eye.
Then she let out a sharp, long whistle. Instantly, a massive sparrow swooped down from the sky, grabbed her arms, and lifted her light, tiny body into the air as it spread its wings and soared off.
Kakashi watched her disappear, scratched his messy white hair, and sighed. "Trouble just keeps piling up…"
Meanwhile, on the edge of the frozen zone.
A girl in a thick cotton coat, with an Iwagakure forehead protector, sneezed hard.
Her senior, Akatsuchi, had burned through too much chakra and was sprawled out on the ground, totally wiped.
Four hours. They'd been digging for four whole hours.
Buried deep underground, the two of them had taken turns using chakra to tunnel through the frozen earth, carving out a desperate path to the surface.
By now, a third of the exam time had already passed, and they still only had the Heaven scroll they'd been given at the start.
Kurotsuchi took a deep breath, let it out loud, and screamed at the sky:
"Damn you, Haruno Sakura!!!"
Instantly, a massive black shadow swept across the heavens.
A girl draped in night-sparrow feathers dropped from the sky like a phantom, frost still clinging to her hair and sparkling like stardust.
"What's up? Need something?"
The girl's delicate toes in her ninja sandals came into Kurotsuchi's view first. Pure white spread outward from where her foot lightly touched the ground.
Eyes shifting from emerald to white, beautiful like a flower on a mountain peak, the girl slowly walked toward Kurotsuchi.
Under the blood-red setting sun, Iwagakure's little princess took a deep breath… and let it out slow.
Come on, Kurotsuchi. You've got this.
That girl's already beat to hell. After all those fights, she can't be in great shape either!
Kurotsuchi clenched her fists, feeling the cool, fragrant air around Sakura getting closer.
A once-in-a-lifetime chance. Miss it, and you'll regret it forever.
Do it, Kurotsuchi.
Hit her with a flaming punch—no, wait—Weighted Boulder Jutsu!
Charge like a knight of fate toward this massive windmill!
Steal her scroll. Make her taste defeat. Force her to bow in shame right in front of you!
"Earth Style: Weigh—"
Three steps away, Kurotsuchi lunged forward with everything she had.
But her soaked ninja sandals slipped on the patch of ice Sakura had deliberately left on the ground.
Her half-formed jutsu exploded on herself. All the force she'd poured into that desperate leap got yanked down by gravity—turning it into a perfect dogeza bow.
The leftover momentum spun her in circles until she slid right up to Sakura's feet.
Dead silence. The whole forest went graveyard quiet.
Kurotsuchi's face, pressed flat against the ice, turned bright red with rage and embarrassment. Her whole body shook. Tears rolled down onto the frost.
"Haruno Sakura! I… sniff… I'll get you!!"
Sakura, who could read emotions with her observation haki, already knew exactly what was going through Kurotsuchi's head. She casually dropped the technique.
The mischievous girl crouched down, gently patted Kurotsuchi's head, and smoothed her messy hair.
"Aww, kid, it's not even New Year's yet. Why are you bowing so early?"
The second she said it, Kurotsuchi—who had been trying to keep a fierce, teary glare—started bawling even louder.
But the Weighted Boulder effect was still active, so all she could do was lie there in dogeza position, sobbing into the ice.
"sniff… Haruno Sakura… sniff… just you wait!"
Kurotsuchi, the pampered genius of Iwagakure who'd mastered Weighted Boulder and her kekkei genkai at a young age, had never been humiliated like this in her life.
Right then and there, she swore to herself: everything she'd lost today, she'd take back with her own hands someday.
Sakura kindly flipped her over so she was lying flat on her back, pinned by gravity in a big starfish shape.
Then she tilted her head, flashed a sly little grin, and went:
"Heehee."
Kurotsuchi: "…"
Haruno Sakura, you absolute—!!