Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Summary: If you don't try, you will hit it. They all believe they will hit it, but it doesn't mean they don't try. ( Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto )
Sakura sweats.
Her chakra control was excellent, but even she struggles to heal the fish. She finally stops, heaving heavily. It was just a fish, she told herself. Just a fish. Her eyes narrow as she realized that it was just that:
A fish.
And if she had struggled healing that thing, then how was she supposed to heal a human being? She pounds her fist on the wooden table she was working on. She had asked Tsunade-sama to take her in as an apprentice for the ways of healing, but so far… Her fist clenched tighter.
So far, she wasn't doing a thing.
Her eyes had bags deep under her eyes from nights that she had stayed up just to practice the art of healing. How hard she had tried just to heal a stupid fish. Even Ino and the rest of her friends were showing signs of their concern toward her. They told her that if she kept doing all-nighters like that, she would kill herself.
In spite of all these worries, Sakura laughed, trying to lift up the mood. She ignored them and stayed up every night until she couldn't even tell the time anymore. And every night she thought of them.
Sasuke. Naruto.
How long has it been since she's seen any of them? How long has it been since Sasuke left Konoha and been branded as a traitor? Even Ino had given up her obsession with the man, and had moved on. Sakura still can't give him up. Or Naruto. Why?
Because we're a team.
She thinks back on the time when Naruto had gone to bring Sasuke back. He had given her that promise. She curses herself now for making him agree to it. Now he's probably training his arms off just because of some stupid promise. She wants to hate Naruto's way of the ninja - and hate Sasuke for leaving.
But I can't.
She chuckles to herself as she's thought of all the times she had glomped Sasuke. She's a little embarrassed, now that she thinks of it. She kept on wondering what had possessed him to go over to Orochimaru. She kept on wondering if he'll ever come back again.
When she thinks of Naruto, she always doesn't know what to think. He's strong. He's courageous. He's kind. He's stupid too. She laughs at that. She never knew much about him, she soon realized. She never asked him what he liked (besides ramen) and how he grew up.
I wonder if we'll ever be Team 7 again.
Sakura has always looked into the past. It was a small, tiny habit of hers that kept popping out of nowhere. Sakura had always thought how worse off she is right now in the present. How her life had just suddenly collapsed.
She always thought how better it was when she was the small child just growing up. She thinks of a red ribbon, the old Team 7, of teamwork, and of blooming flowers.
And then she thinks back to the reason.
I want to help.
And then she goes back to fusing chakra in her hands again.
And for a moment, she thinks of the future.
She thinks of how she and Naruto will bring Sasuke home again.
She thinks of how everything might go back to the way it was before.
She thinks of Team 7.
The fish flips once, then rapidly.
Sakura smiles.
"Watch my back."
The flow of time is always cruel...
Its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it...
A thing that doesn't change with time is a memory of younger days...
- Minuet of Forest ; Zelda: Ocarina of Time -