Rain has a way of changing many things. But in the case of one Sakura Haruno, this particular rain has changed everything. Her life was changed and everything that she thought was changed. Her eyes, normally a piercing jade color were now dull and lifeless. Like a zombie. Her body hung limply on the back of Lucien, an enemy shinobi who captured her.

To his left was a male with long black hair and white robes. His eyes were a pale lavender. To his right was a girl who had the same eyes, but wore a white coat with purple pants. In front of the shinobi was a girl with long orange hair and a gray tank top with black ninja pants and orange belt. And the shinobi himself has long silver hair and a gentle blue gaze.

Sure she had a slew of injuries from the attack that these ninjas gave her. And while they did hurt and were enormously painful, what hurt more was her heart. The man who she honestly thought was destined to be with her had betrayed her. He could have saved her from this, by heeding the warning that the ninja carrying her.

It was a sneak attack in the rain by their rivals and opponents in this war, the Village hidden in the Tanebi, a war that was only a year old. Her team, made up of Sasuke, Kiba, and an informant on the target, Larsa were tracking down a dangerous criminal known as a deep. They were then ambushed but despite that, held their own against the force when another ninja Sasame joined them. Kiba and Larsa both fell fast after that while Sasuke struggled with the Hyuuga male. Sakura had just gotten captured when the ninja made his demands of Sasuke that would set Sakura free.

She tried to think back to simpler times. Back to when she was younger and still thought that Sasuke was everything in the world. Back to when she first encountered an Tanebi shinobi at her first chunin exam. Back to when she met the ninja carrying her, Lucien. Also she thought about him. The person who she was born to hate and born to fight. She was always taught that he was pure evil and a demon incarnate. The enemy of Konoha. Ironic that he seemed to care more about her, then the so-called savior of Konoha who she was born to love. It seemed to Sakura, that everything that she learned growing up about everything was a complete lie.

FLASHBACK

It had been twelve years since a mass defection from Konoha. A mass defection that brought about the complete removal of the Hyuuga clan, the past hokage and family, multiple ANBU and the biggest prodigy that Konoha had ever seen.

What happened twelve years ago that caused this? Simple. A demon known as Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked the village and the Yondaime hokage sealed it into his son. However that was simply a cover up. The reality was that Yondaime led the Kyuubi there just so he could give his son Naruto the kind of power to make him stronger then anyone and control the world. At least, that's what the Uchiha clan said anyway. As a retribution, they demanded that Naruto Uzumaki, the child who was born of Yondaime, be killed on sight for a retribution for his father's crime.

The Hyuuga however didn't believe that story at all and kept Naruto in their care for protection. They said that anyone who tries to take Naruto would be killed on sight no questions asked. Several of Konoha's civilians were mercilessly slaughtered.

The situation was grave. Without the hokage, the entire village was in a state of martial law and the Hyuuga could continue to do whatever they wanted to do with Naruto. Punish them anyway that they wanted to. As a step-in the village knew that a new hokage, a hokage who would be neutral to both parties would need to be selected. A person who could easily diffuse the terrible situation. Most people wanted the previous hokage, but since he selected the present hokage, naturally he would have a bias.

Other then him, no suitable candidates could be selected so they took charge themselves. They demanded that the Hyuuga give up Naruto, or they would take him by force. The Hyuuga refused and a civil war seemed inevitable. But, when Konoha planned a raid on the Hyuuga estate, they found out that the Hyuuga fled along with several shinobi who supported them. Among those left were the previous hokage and his family, the entire Akimichi and Nara clans, several civilians and merchants, the best weapon maker in the village, Jiriya of the Sannin, and Fugaku Uchiha's oldest son Itachi.

Without the conflict of the Hyuuga, Konoha could freely choose a successor to the position of hokage and one was chosen. He was a man of great political power and the former head of the police force. A man who now had the single most powerful clan in the village. Their choice was Fugaku Uchiha.

Two years later, a new village was constructed in the fields of Rice Country. Though it was ten years after that before they would send a gennin team to the chunin exam.

It was Sakura's first year as a gennin and she was thrilled just to be that. Her teammates were a raven haired boy and the current son of the hokage and genius of the Uchiha clan Sasuke Uchiha. Her other teammate was the local dunce and flea breathed boy Kiba Inuzuka. As son of the Hokage, Sasuke had everything that he wanted. People would go out of their way to get Sasuke anything he wanted. Though what he wanted most of all was the head of the Uchiha traitor Itachi. Her other teammate, Kiba, didn't like Sasuke at all. He felt that Sasuke was not only a complete spoiled brat, but also that he was angsty and dark child. Sakura felt that being with someone as awesome as Sasuke was worth being with someone as terrible as Kiba.

Now, her team was nominated for the chunin exams and was walking through the streets when she met them. The three people who would change her life forever. They wore the symbol that she'd never even seen. The first person up front, had spiked black hair that was a complete wreck. He had on a simple blue shirt with black pants. On his forehead was the protector that had the shape of what looked like a volcano. To the right was a boy a little taller then him. At least, she thought that it was a boy. The bottom of his face was covered by a mask as was the top and sides of his head. He wore a baggy blue shirt with blue pants. He also wore his protector on his forehead. The last wore hers around her neck. She had long red hair with a white shirt with a yin-yang on the back. She had black pants.

Sasuke, Kiba, and herself had just finished a C-rank mission, taking out some bandits and getting out of the hokage tower when they saw the other team in the lobby sitting down. Team seven just stared at the group.

"Hey, what the fuck are you lookin at you pink haired bimbo?" The red-head yelled.

"What was that?" Sakura yelled while raising her fist and walking towards the other gennin. The masked gennin got in front of her.

"I'm terribly sorry," he started in a unique accent. "you must forgive Tayuya-san here. She meant no harm. She just talks like that when she meets someone new."

"Lucien, how many times have I told you to knock off the san shit around me. Just Tayuya got it?"

"Sorry Tayuya." The ninja bowed his head in apology.

"Who are you? Where are you from, and what are you doing here?" Sasuke asked the trio.

"I see duckass haircut over here doesn't screw around. Fine I'll tell you, we're from Tanebi, our names are none of your business, and we're here for the chunin exams. That enough for you duckass?"

"Hey, you can't talk to Sasuke-kun like that! He's the hokage's son so you'd better show some respect you read haired bitch."

"Really? Well Tayuya and Ruto are the children of the leader of Tanebi. Therefore by your logic, you can't talk to them like that." Lucien told her.

"So what? The slut over has no right to call Sasuke-kun over here anything. She should apologize before she gets herself into a mess of trouble with the hokage." Before Sakura could even blink, the black haired got up and got right in her face before. His Blue eyes dulled and drilled into hers like nothing that she had experianced before in her life. In her body was fear, but mixed in with that fear was a sense of protection that he had for his sister.

"Never call my sister a slut." He spoke calmly but clearly and sent chills down the young girls spine. "Come on guys, let's get out of here and settle this little mess in the exams, I need some ramen and I need it now."

"Tanebi? I've never even heard of that village before. Hey Sasuke, do you know anything about them? Did your father tell you anything?" Kiba asked.

"Not much. They're a new village but their leader is a complete unknown. We sent an envoy there to see what's going on, but they didn't find out anything. When asked if they would join an alliance with us, they disagreed for undisclosed reasons."

"Are they a threat?" Kiba asked.

"No. Need I remind you that I am the hokage's son. I have the power to bring that traitor to justice. Also with your combination attacks and Sakura's intellect, no team should be a problem for us."

"Yeah but at what cost? I mean in terms of practical skill us three were in the top five in the entire class. We're a stacked team for sure but the other teams are weak. Plus with two of their leaders children on the team, then we should also realize that this team won't go down easily."

"Don't worry about anything Kiba. We can easily take care of any of them. We're the best of the best for a reason. Just leave it all to Sasuke-kun and we'll all be chunin."

Team seven broke up into their own individual tasks after this. Sasuke went to train with his own personal trainer Ebisu who would try to shape Sasuke into a shinobi better then one ever seen and Sakura would watch him in his private lessons. After he was done she asked if he wanted to go out with her which he would always refuse. Today was no different and she found herself walking around the village trying to find a place who would offer her a simple salad. After all she had to keep her figure up.

Walking around she bumped into somebody sending both of them down to the ground. She looked up and saw the boy, Ruto there. He dusted himself off and then offered her a hand up.

"Oh I'm sorry about that, didn't see you there. Are you alright?"

Sakura just sat there for a moment and reluctantly accepted. "It's fine. What are you doing here without your teammates?"

"My sister disappeared so Lucien and I went out to look for her, but I can't find anything around here. But for some reason I always pass by the same ramen shop. Perhaps that's because I always ask my nose for directions." Ruto said which earned a small giggle from Sakura.

"Well, this section of town is like a jungle. Especially at this hour and with the exams in town."

"I see. Well anyway I guess it's good that we met because I'm sorry about earlier. I just don't like it when somebody insults my sister."

"Well, I was a bit out of line too. I took offense to what she said about Sasuke-kun and things just went downward from there. We're hosting the exams and as such we should treat our guests with respect."

"You sound like someone yelled at you too huh?" Ruto said while rubbing the back of his head and smiling. Sakura herself also couldn't help but smile. The other boy's smile was just that infectous.

"Yeah, Kuranai-sensei had a fit about it and told us to behave around the locals. She said that because we're hosting this year's exams others are going to be looking at us under the microscope."

"My mom and sensei said the same thing. That we were a new village and people are going to amplify everything that we do. Especially since Tanebi only sent three teams." Both people stood there in a comfortable silence not really saying anything before Sakura broke the silence again after Ruto stared at the monument of Hokages and noticing that there were only four faces.

"Amazing isn't it? They're the pride of our village. All four of them protected the village with their lives and as such the people are grateful."

"Not that. Not to sound rude or anything, but isn't your current hokage the Godaime? If that's the case then shouldn't there be five faces on the monument instead of just the four?"

"Normally yes but Yondaime was a traitor." Ruto raised his eyes is shock after hearing this.

"What did he do that was really so bad?"

"He brought in a demon just so he could make his son powerful. As a result of this many innocent villagers and shinobi alike were brutally killed. I'm surprised that you never heard about this. We lost a few allies due to the scandal until hokage-sama cleared everything over with everyone else."

"That's not what we heard about the thing. We were informed that the assault of Kyuubi was a natural disaster and that the reason Konoha lost allies was because they handled the situation poorly. But I guess that that's the way perspective works eh ... uh ..." Naruto fumbled for the girl's name.

"Sakura."

"Sakura. That's nice you look like a Sakura. You can easily pass for a lovely cherry blossum floating in the wind." Sakura blushed at the compliment. It was strange. Not that long ago, he essentially threatened her, and now he was complimenting her in ways that Sasuke, or even Kiba had ever done. "So anyway whatever happened to the child and mother?"

"I don't know about the mother. We were never really told, but the child was taken in by another traitor clan who killed several innocent people before they fled the village with Sasuke-kun's brother."

"Are you referring to the Hyuuga incident?"

"How do you know their names?" Sakura said shocked.

"Tanebi has dealings with that clan. They told us that they took on an innocent child and got kicked out because they refused to hand the child over."

"Well don't be fooled by them. They're demons. A clan full of demons. I have nothing against the child, after all he didn't choose to be born of a traitor father, but the Hyuuga had no right to slaughter a bunch of innocents."

"I see. In that case, I shall be careful with how I associate with them from now on. I'm a little embarrassed to ask this, but do you think that you could help me look around the village? I'm new here so I'll probably get lost again and eat another ten bowls of ramen. Of course I'll compensate you." Ruto smiled at her.

"I don't know. I mean I barely know you and you are a rival team in the exams. How do I know that you won't use me to get Sasuke-kun out of the exams?" Ruto laughed and Sakura couldn't help but giggle as well at the boys antics. The boy's smile and laughter were just too infectous for her to fight off. But for some strange reason, she really didn't want to fight them off.

"If I did something like that, my mother would hit me with a barrage of swear words that would even make my sister blush. Besides, Sasuke seems to me like he'd be a decent challenge and a good test to put Tanebi on the map if we were to succeed. Think about it like an escort mission. I'll even give you C-rank pay. What do you say?"

Sakura thought for a moment before agreeing and Sakura guided Ruto around Konoha. Thankfully for her she didn't run into Sasuke, Ino, Kiba, or any of her other friends. She didn't want to give any of them a false idea about this guy. After about an hour of unsuccessful travel, Sakura decided to maybe ask Ruto a bit about his sister in hopes that maybe he would know something that would give them a better clue then just randomly walking around.

"Hey Ruto, where does your sister like to hang out? If we knew places that she liked to visit, then maybe we'd have a better clue about where to look for her."

Ruto put his hand on his chin and stayed in thought for a little while. "Well, I know that she dango. But I already checked a few dango shops so that won't be it. Other then that I'm sure that she likes flutes but I checked a couple music stores."

"Anything else that she likes?"

"Not too much. Wait, she likes sunsets in high places. Maybe she's at the monument?"

"That's a possibility. I'll take you to the top and if she's not there I'll take you back to your hotel because I doubt that you could find your way back." Ruto laughed at that joke and agreed with her as she took him to the monument. Instinctively, she reached out and grabbed his wrist.

The two had made it to the top of the monument and arrived in time to see Lucien walk up and approach Tayuya. Sakura could just sense that something important was about to happen, so she took Ruto's wrist and hid behind a part of the mountain where they could both see and hear the scene develop.

Tayuya just looked at the setting sun from on top of the third hokage's head. She sighed and just sat there before she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and was face to face with Lucien. "What do you want shitwad?"

Lucien just sat down next to the girl. "You disappeared on us and your brother and I were worried. Is this anything about that girl that we met in the tower?"

"It's just that ... she reminds me of all those girls that chase after my brother. They run around trying to get his ass in bed just so they can say that they fucked him and if they're lucky, pregnant so that they will essentially forced to be royalty. They know nothing about him. What he likes, what he hates. They don't know what his favorite color is or why he even wants to be a ninja. They don't know why our family struggled or how he struggled. They just know that he's the leader of Tanebi's son. A powerful, rich, and good looking boy. She's just like them and it pisses me off."

"I see."

"I mean I could see it in his eyes too. He's a kid that gets everything he wants with a snap of his fingers but we weren't like that. My mother wanted us to get strong on our own. No special classes, or special instructors anything."

"So are you mad at your mother then?"

"No I love my mother dearly. And I'm grateful that she did what she did. Just when I see a pathetic shit like that get worshiped like that while my father gets scorned and tossed around like some traitor piece of shit just pisses me off. I mean that shithead of a hokage they have gets worshiped for badmouthing my father and trying to kill my brother. Our best friends are talked about like a plague and our sensei is revered as purely evil. It just hurts you know." Tayuya started to weep lightly and Lucien pulled her into him.

"I know it does. You have to be so strong to protect him from those fan girls but you also need to know that somebody's got your back. We all want to protect you so that you don't have to be so strong. Speaking of which, I got you something for your birthday tomorrow. I wanted to save it but now seems like the best time." He reached into his coat and pulled out a rectangular box and gave it to her. She opened it up and was greeted by a flute.

"What's this?"

"Well I know that you're a flutist. But I also know that the only flute you have is your combat one. I thought that you might want a regular one in case you just wanted to play and not use it for combat."

"It's nice."

"Thank you. I wanted to get a nicer one, but this is the only one I can afford. Sorry."

"You don't need to apologize you know. It's sweet." Tayuya pulled down the side of the boy's mask and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Lucien blushed and brought his hand up to his exposed cheek.

"W-what was that for?"

"That's what a girl gives a guy who gives an abrasive girl who swears all the time. And this is what a girl gives a guy who listens to everything I say no matter how bratty or pathetic." Tayuya pulled his mask all the way down and kissed him fully on the lips. Naruto's eyes bugged out fully and Sakura turned as pink as her hair. Tayuya pulled away leaving a dazed boy to try to regain his thoughts. I think I broke him.

Even though Sakura was in the bushes hiding with Ruto, she could still hear what the two were saying. It angered her how carelessly Tayuya would badmouth her and compare her to all the other girls who wanted Sasuke. She was Sasuke's teammate and she knew that she knew him better then anyone in the village did and would ever know. At the same time, the kiss between Lucien and Tayuya was something that she always envisioned herself having with Sasuke.

Sakura had led Ruto away from the site. She figured that it would be best if the pair left Tayuya and Lucien alone for the time. Their walk back was primarily silent, mainly because Sakura was still a bit mad about what Tayuya had said about her, but she didn't want to bother the Tanebi gennin with her troubles.

"Sakura, is anything bothering you?" Ruto asked startling the pink haired gennin.

"Huh, no nothing is." Sakura responded.

"Sakura, one of my teammates rarely shows much emotion and I've gotten good at reading people and I can tell that something's bothering you. I'm not going to get mad or anything like that, I just want to know what's bothering you. Does it have anything to do with what my sister said?"

"Well, yeah it is. It's just … she thinks that I'm just like all those other girls that love Sasuke-kun only for things like his looks and status, but I'm not like that at all. I just hate being called a fan girl." Sakura said. She didn't know why she felt secure like this in front of a stranger, but it just felt right.

"I understand. You just have to understand that Tayuya is rather … judgmental about girls. You see what she said about some of the girls in Tanebi is right, but not about everyone. I'm sure that if Tayuya had spent the same amount of time with you as I did, then she would see that you truly care about him and not some fan girl."

FLASHBACK END

It was a memory that Sakura to this day never forgot. Until just a few hours ago she always told herself how wrong that Tayuya was about Sasuke and herself. Now in retrospect, she knew that Tayuya was right about her the whole time and she was blind to it. Blinded by Sasuke's looks, status, and power. She knew nothing about him, but now she could see everything. She wanted to be mad at Ruto as well, but at the same time she just couldn't bring herself to be mad at the boy for trying to comfort and console the her. Something that Sasuke would never even bother to do.

Sasuke never struggled for anything. Everything that he ever had was given to him. She didn't know anything about him. She didn't know his favorite color or food. She thought back to why she even liked Sasuke in the first place and what would happen if he did ask her out. Most likely she would rub it in the face of everyone. Treat him like some sort of trophy and accomplishment. Like she landed the Sasuke Uchiha.

But if that was the case, then why did she become a ninja? Was her entire life up to this point a complete and utter lie, a disgrace? Is that what all the training was?

Rain is an essential part of life. It makes crops able to grow and give water to have everybody drink. But in the case of Sakura, rain represented something else entirely. Rain represented the end. This rainfall marked the end of a life that she used to live. One where Sasuke Uchiha starred in everything. Where she would remain weak. But now, thanks to this rain and the people of Ember, she had a chance. A chance to start her life over to where she would no longer obsess about Sasuke and live for herself. That's the way it would be, if Tanebi decided to spare her life.