Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters, I only own my occ character and his occ village.
After a long day of training or should I say a brutal beating by Tsunade, apprentice to the Godaime Hokage, Sakura found herself walking past Ichiraku Ramen shop. Ever since Sasuke left and then Naruto she found that even setting eyes on Ichiraku made her heart ache, and when her heart wasn't aching she felt angry. The two closest people in her lives, her teammates abandoned her: Sasuke for what seems like eternity and Naruto so far for two years three months, fifteen days six hours and forty-eight seconds. She was being whiny and childish! She was a ninja for crying out loud, ninja's lives are unpredictable. Though it truly wasn't the abandonment that bothered her, it was envy.
Sakura envied Naruto and Sasuke, how valuable they were. Naruto and his Kyuubi, Sasuke and his Sharingan, Haruno Sakura what did she have? Chakra enhanced limbs, great medical abilities? Those things are tangible; if she died she could be replaced. When did all of this envy come to be? Was it when she was twelve at the Chuunin exams and she watched her teammate's abilities and compared then to how easily she went down against Ino pig?
No.
The envy that devoured Sakura's soul reared its ugly head after Naruto and Sasuke's fight on the hospital roof. Naruto had his Rasengan aimed at Sasuke and Sasuke had his Chidori aimed at Naruto each ready to destroy each other. Sakura watched in horror, she pictured in her head Naruto and Sasuke dying, and she couldn't take it. Sakura ran between her two teammates who couldn't stop their attacks in time not to hit her, but before death could pop up a Sakura's door Kakashi had stepped in and saved her causing Naruto and Sasuke's attacks to be deflected. Though it wasn't the fact that they had the power to kill each other that changed her life that day it was how both Naruto and Sasuke looked at her afterwards, like she was a pesky fly getting the way of their dinner. It was when they told her to stay out of it, to not get involved that it wasn't her fight. Her two teammates made her feel inferior, like a weak little civilian child. That day hurt a lot. That day made her envy Sasuke and Naruto. That day made Sakura want to be worth Sasuke, Naruto, Orochimaru, Kakashi, and the Akatsuki's time. From that day forth Sakura vowed to develop a strength all her own. Sakura vowed to be respected by everyone not as a fine medical ninja but a powerful, worthy opponent.
When ever she would train with Tsunade she would use the thoughts of wanting to be worthy to become stronger. She would endure her chakra infused punches and kicks imaging that each punch and kick can from Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi going full force not holding back on her because they saw her as week. Sakura began to enjoy the pain of training because it made her feel less numb inside.