"Ahem," the Third Hokage coughed loudly, drawing all eyes back on him. "As I was saying, the finals will take place in one month. This is to make things fair; to give those who have been gravely injured the time to heal, and to give those who may have shown their entire hand in the previous exams the chance to learn some new tricks, to regain the element of surprise."
Sakura had basically already shown off all of her Jutsu in the preliminaries, which was slightly problematic. However, compared to the fact that she'd have to face some literal monsters in the finals, her new priorities would be more geared towards developing specific countermeasures against her would-be opponents.
Furthermore, there was also the issue of identifying the regressor; one of the people in this very room had returned from an unknown future and replaced their younger self, much like how the new Sakura had taken over the old Sakura's life. Depending on how far from the future they had returned, they could prove extremely dangerous to her…
"Hey, System," Sakura whispered into her hand, pretending to yawn. "Can't you tell me which one of them is the regressor?"
Beep! The System cannot ascertain the regressor's identity unless they make use of their chakra. Since the regressor's soul is not from this time, their spiritual energy will give their chakra a unique temporal signature.
'Well, so much for that,' said Inner Sakura glumly. 'Hang on, then what about my chakra? My soul's not even from this world!'
The System is already masking your uniqueness— it is but one of the System's many amazing functions.
'Is it just me,' said Inner Sakura, 'or are you still salty about what I said about your functions, earlier?'
…
As far as Sakura could tell, anyone present in this room could be the culprit; the Jōnin-in-charge, the Genin from the Leaf, the Sand or the Grass… Well, it could be anyone except the Third Hokage, since he would be murdered a month from now; he had no future to speak of.
'Unless the Third survived in some weird timeline,' said Inner Sakura thoughtfully. 'Maybe he loved being the Hokage so much that he leapt backwards in time to get seconds?'
Somehow, that felt unlikely.
At any rate, Sarutobi Hiruzen's death was necessary for the village to step into the new era, so Sakura wasn't planning on risking her hide to save him. Without Tsunade taking on the mantle of the Fifth, the village would forever be stuck under the Konoha Council's thumb, and Hiruzen's three best friends would continue to rule from the shadows without challenge…
…
While Sakura and the System were busy exchanging banter, Mitarashi Anko had stepped forward, holding a box filled with slips of paper. According to the Third's instructions, the Genin who had passed the preliminaries were now supposed to pick a slip out of the box at random. So, when Anko passed in front of her, Sakura mechanically reached into the box being offered to her, and drew a slip. Glancing down at the piece of paper in her hands, Sakura discovered that her match would be the first…
"All right, has everyone drawn one?" the Third Hokage called out, once Anko was done making her rounds. "Yes? Then, starting from the left, I would like you to read the number inscribed on your paper slip."
The third exam would be a single-elimination tournament: nine Genin had qualified, so each one of them would be assigned a number from one to nine. Each number would fight the following number in the quarter-finals, except number 7, who would fight against either 8 or 9, depending on which one of them had won their pre-quarter-finals match. (8 & 9 would have an extra match to fight, compared to the rest.)
"I got 7!" said Naruto.
"I'm number 1," said Sakura glumly.
"8," Sasuke grunted.
"3," said Gaara just as unenthusiastically.
"9," said Neji.
"I have drawn the number 2!" said Rock Lee.
'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!' Inner Sakura screamed inwardly. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"I've got 5," said Tenten cutely.
"…" Shino muttered. "…6."
"4," said Misumi.
"Good, good," said the Third Hokage appreciatively. "We now have the pairings for the tournament-style finals— Ibiki, show them the matchups."
Since Sakura had drawn the number 1, her quarter-finals match would be against number 2… Rock Lee, the invincible superman, the genius of hard work! …in the event that she did win against him, she would then have to face off against either 3 or 4… Except there was no doubt in her mind that her next opponent would be Gaara of the bloody sands, who would have no problem winning against a one-off character like Misumi!
"Sakura…"
Sakura gave Sasuke a sideways glance; he was wearing an expression not unlike the one he had worn right after Orochimaru had attacked them. But there was something else in Sasuke's eyes, something that she had never seen in him before— concern.
"If you ever have to face the guy with the gourd on his back— Gaara— give up immediately," Sasuke told her in a low voice. "The other Grass guy; there's nothing left of his body. They had to scrape him off the floor."
Sakura audibly gulped, before glancing to her left, to the man who was supposed to save the Leaf from Gaara's and Shukaku's rampage: Naruto. He seemed deep in thought; which was rather unusual for him.
"Could you tell me about the other matches I missed, Sasuke-kun?" said Sakura, turning back to Sasuke.
Much to Sasuke's relief, Sakura wasn't asking any questions about Gaara, so he took it as if she had accepted his advice, and had given up on fighting him.
"There's not much to say about the other two matches," said Sasuke haughtily. "They were over within seconds; the gap in strength was too big."
"You must have seen something with your Sharingan," Sakura insisted.
"The Hyūga clan member— Neji— He's fast," Sasuke recounted. "His opponent tried to grapple with him, but he got taken out in an instant by 64 consecutive strikes. His chakra pathway network got completely sealed off; they had to carry him away on a stretcher— just another weakling."
Sakura nodded; engaging a Hyūga clan member in melee range was just courting death. As for his opponent… Sasuke hadn't given her his name, but Sakura was pretty sure that it was the bloke with the Chakra Absorption Jutsu; the one against whom Sasuke had nearly lost to, in the original timeline.
"The girl you were interested in, the one who's got her hair in buns," Sasuke continued, "she used the same kind of technique as her opponent."
"Eh?"
"She summoned a bunch of puppets," Sasuke explained, beginning to sound rather bored again. "She had them tear the Hidden Sand guy's puppet to shreds, and he was forced to surrender."
"Wat."
So, instead of summoning weapons to launch at her opponent like Gilgamesh, Tenten had summoned puppets to fight on her behalf? Since when did she use puppets!? Kabuto's ninja info cards had indeed stated that she could use them, but Sakura had never seen Tenten using them in the show…
'Could it be that she used puppets on purpose, knowing that Kankurō's a puppet master?' Inner Sakura wondered. "But why? Just to beat him at his own game and humiliate him? Could it be…?'
"It's pointless to say more," concluded Sasuke, sounding as though he did not hold puppet masters in very high regard. "She won because her puppets were better than his."
"Better how, exactly?" Sakura insisted.
"For one, they didn't need to be controlled with chakra threads, unlike the Sand guy's primitive wooden puppet," said Sasuke, whose Sharingan could see chakra itself. "They were equipped with better armour plating and weapons, and they could also use elemental Ninjutsu."
"Fully autonomous puppets?" Sakura exclaimed in shock. "But that technology…"
'…shouldn't even exist yet!' Inner Sakura completed. 'It's Boruto-era scientific ninja tech!'