Summary: Naruto, Sasuke-kun, Kakashi-sensei…they were all broken in some way. But when they became a part of Team 7 that changed. They were jagged, broken, scraped and crushed pieces apart, but when they were Team 7 they became something so much more, even if it was just for a moment. They fit together in some amazing, incomprehensible way and if you looked from the side and squinted just a little you could see something great. Just for a moment. Sakura-centric. One-shot. R&R

Team 7

If you asked anyone in Konohagakure no Sato, the Hidden Village in the Leaves, about a certain blonde jinchuuriki named Uzumaki Naruto you would be sure to get a variety of responses. Dark, glaring mutterings about demons and death were the number one response. The second most common would be angry tirades about recent pranks that had besieged them, though the Hyuuga and Uchiha claimed that they were too dignified to indulge in something so crass and below them. Occasionally, you would get power-hungry looks or, even rarer, fond remarks about him from a certain chuunin instructor or ramen stand owner.

However, one thing that the general populace agreed on about Uzumaki Naruto was that he was a cheerful beyond belief idiot.

Worthless.

Some would say that it was all an act by the demon vessel to lull them into a false sense of security. Others simply believed that he was just that dumb. Shinobi would breathe a sigh of relief that his abuse and mistreatment hadn't broken his mind and caused him to unleash the Kyuubi on Konoha.

As time went on with no worrying signs of Kyuubi-induced rage, the village continued with their increasingly harsh treatment of the demon vessel. Stores would overcharge him on everything, so that he could only afford to eat ramen and wear blindingly orange jumpsuits given to him in the hopes that he would die on a mission from the striking color. People would glare and spit on him when he walked down the street, warning their kids against him and teaching them to hate him as well. Those who didn't believe he was the demon would simply ignore him most of the time, turning a blind eye to the discrimination.

Better off dead.

In some way the cold stares hurt more. Because if they shouted, if they screamed then that meant they felt some emotion towards him a little, even if it was anger. They cared just a little that he was alive. He didn't doubt that there was hatred. They broke him.

Monster.

Years later, on a C-rank mission with the rest of Team 7, his jounin instructor Hatake Kakashi would force the genin to talk about their childhoods, claiming that they would be able to bond and function better as a team. Of course, this ended with Sasuke storming off to vent his anger at his brother on the surrounding unlucky trees, their teacher following closely behind to make sure that he didn't get ambushed and killed by the bandits that they had been hired to get rid of.

In a rare moment, Sakura found herself curious about her blonde teammate for once, who had been strangely silent ever since Kakashi-sensei had introduced the activity. It was a stark contrast from his usually boisterous, annoying personality. Figuring that it was probably related to his childhood, she went about sating her curiosity in her usual, blunt manner towards Naruto.

"Oi, Naruto-baka! If I had known you were going to be this quiet about your childhood, I would have asked years ago." Sakura paused for a moment. Seeing that he had no outward reaction, she continued, even more mystified.

"Is it about your parents? Did they somehow foresee your future as a dead-last and abandon you out of shame?" She was internally cringing near the end at her harsh words, but reassured herself with the thought that it was only the brain dead dobe after all. Shockingly, Naruto stayed silent, though Sakura thought that she saw a twitch, so brief that she wasn't sure if she hadn't imagined it after all.

"After all, bottom of the class in genjutsu, kunai throwing, shuriken throwing, and you can't even manage to make a measly bunshin. I'm surprise you even graduated it all. I suppose it's for the best that your parents didn't waste their time and money on you. Then there's no one to care when you die." Sakura stopped suddenly. Naruto had finally turned to face her and his expression –

"SAKURA!" Kakashi's harsh shout pierced through the fog surrounding her brain suddenly and she flinched, seeing the anger evident on his face, even through the mask. She resigned herself to the lecture and punishment she would receive. After all, even she knew that she had crossed the line. The look on Naruto's face –

It had been like nothing she had ever seen before, least of all directed towards her. It was like a roaring typhoon spinning out of control with sadness and anger and disdain and most of all pure hatred. They were eyes similar to the shinobi she had sometimes seen at the memorial stone, eyes that were broken and had seen too much to ever be purely happy again or smile or trust ever again.

There was something inherently wrong about seeing it on Naruto's face, though. He was too happy all the time. And maybe that was it. He was too happy. Looking back, Sakura recalled the times when the smile and squinted eyes had seemed strained, almost overly happy. Most of the times were, she realized with mounting horror, when a villager had looked at him with what she now realized was loathing. Unadulterated loathing and wrath and ire that she had never thought people like that to be capable of feeling. She remembered how the baker had slipped in an extra loaf of bread in her bag and winked when she went grocery shopping for the first time with the shiny Konoha headband proudly displayed on her head. She remembered how the shop owner of a ninja supply store had always been so helpful and helped restack the pile of exploding tags that she had accidently knocked over with nothing but a gentle reprimand. She remembered their eyes filled with nothing but murderous intent directed at Naruto when she and the rest of Team 7 walked through town towards the Missions Office. And Naruto had smiled and asked Sakura on a date (which she had punched him for) and made fun of Kakashi's porn and Sasuke's duck butt hair (which she had punched him again for).

And then…it was gone. His eyes returned to their normal, cheerful position and he put his hand on the back of his head, laughing. But it seemed so fake to her now that she had seen that split second of raw emotion. She felt like screaming at him, at everyone in the village, at Kakashi, at Iruka, at the Hokage even for letting this happen to him, because no one, no one deserved to look like that, like they were broken and knew it and couldn't be fixed and like they didn't deserve to be alive and would be better off dead because it was wrong, so so wrong.

The next time Naruto asked her on a date, she said yes, because if no one else was going to pull their head out of their ass and notice something was wrong then she sure as hell would. And yeah she probably never would have given him the time of day if he wasn't on her team or never saw that look, but she did and there was no use thinking about what ifs.

The last Uchiha.

Poor boy.

Sasuke-kun!

Unnoticed, he clenched his fist tightly, the fingernails digging in sharply and drawing blood. He didn't care.

You don't have enough hatred.

His fist clenched even tighter, and the blood began to trickle down in rivulets.

Poor little brother.

He could hear them, after all, most civilians weren't very subtle, especially gossip mongers. They looked at him and saw Uchiha. They saw the last of the Uchiha, the last of the Sharingan. They saw someone who had the potential to be dangerous, someone like…that person. They saw someone that they could mold and coerce and bribe into a weapon for Konoha. All for Konoha. After all, Konoha had Power. And that was all it came down to, wasn't it? Power. Power was everything.

I wanted to test myself.

They were expecting something. Didn't everyone? They expected a scared, little boy who knew nothing but hate for the person that had snapped one day and killed everyone and all that he knew in one night. They expected someone with only one thought on their mind. Revenge. Oh sure they might delude themselves into hoping that everything would be okay, that he would be okay and become the ideal Konoha shinobi focused on teamwork and puppies and rainbows, but really, they expected him to break. In that way, they were both right and wrong at the same time. He was already broken. Wasn't that what they wanted? His entire life was based on what other people wanted of him. Why not give up every last shred of himself and become what they expected of him? The day that person killed every last Uchiha but him, he killed all of the Uchiha because Sasuke broke. He became an avenger. After all, wasn't this what they wanted?

Hate me.

Sakura prided herself on understanding Sasuke-kun. After all, she had devoted hundreds of hours of her life on watching him. If she had more courage, she would almost be tempted to put Sasuke-watching under her list of shinobi skills. He had twenty three different eyebrow movements: ten on the left and thirteen on the right, six sneers, four smirks, and exactly one genuine smile that she had seen when she had been…conveniently standing nearby casually (hiding in the bushes) and watching him with his brother one day with a dreamy look on her face. That's why when Sasuke-kun missed school one day (which was cause for alarm in itself since that never happened, even when he was sick) and came back to school with blank eyes Sakura knew that something was wrong. Sasuke's eyes had never been that empty, that dead ever. It was as if he was hollow inside.

That's why she was shocked when no one, not even any of Sasuke's fan girls, not even Ino-pig, not even any of her other classmates said anything about it. Some might have noticed, but no one did anything. Sakura felt as if she was still the helpless child she used to be that was bullied and cried about her over large forehead, except this was much worse. She never said anything either, but inwardly vowed to do anything that she could to help him.

Years later, Iruka-sensei announced team placements. "Team 7 will be Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto. Your jounin-sensei will be Hatake Kakashi." Once she got past the involuntary cringe at hearing the dead-last's name on her team, Sakura found that she wasn't really all that upset at her team. Sasuke-kun was on it, and she didn't miss the brief spark of something that she saw in his eyes when Naruto provoked him. It wasn't because of her despite how much she wanted it to be, but it meant that Sasuke-kun was still alive somewhere deep down inside. And that was what really mattered to her most of all.

"Bastard, come here and fight me!" Naruto yelled obnoxiously. He was on the other side of the clearing from her, but Sakura could hear him loud and clear.

"Now, now," Kakashi-sensei said, his face buried behind his orange-covered book as usual. "We're supposed to be looking for the Fire Daimyo's wife's cat." He paused, and Sakura waited for him to say that the cat would surely be driven away by the sound of fighting like a normal sensei would. "I'm just getting to the good part right now, and I can't picture Misaki-chan with Naruto and Sasuke fighting in the background." …she should have known that Kakashi-sensei was never normal.

And yeah even though Team 7 wasn't exactly what she had dreamed of, there was Sasuke-kun and there was Copy-nin Kakashi and now there was Naruto. And sure Kakashi was a dirty pervert who like reading porn, and sure Sasuke-kun seemed a tiny bit off sometimes and had a brother complex to say the least, and sure Naruto had been broken too many times to count and sloppily pieced together again, but they fit each other in some weird, incomprehensible, quirky, amazing way. They were a team. And sure they weren't perfect, but really who was? They were Team 7…and that was good enough for her right now.

…This originally was supposed to be a jinchuuriki bonding fic between Gaara and Naruto years later, but somehow Sakura, who seems a bit out of character, ended up dominating this, and then I just had to make this into a Team 7 bonding fic. Well, I guess you can't choose how things go right? I started writing this a LONG time ago, so the quality isn't really consistent. -_- Just had to get this off my hard drive though. Review please!