Author's Note: this is my first-ever Naruto fic...written about Sakura, because she's a lot stronger than the fandom gives her credit for. Hope you enjoy it!
The Weapons You Have
(Naruto has the kyuubi chakra; Sasuke has his Uchiha blood. But what does Sakura have to fight with?)
Sakura isn't like her teammates. Her parents are both alive; they're loving and kind. When Sakura said she wanted to enter the ninja academy with her best friend Ino, they happily let her go. She isn't ostracized and feared like Naruto; she wasn't betrayed by her hero like Sasuke. She's just an ordinary girl.
When Naruto was twelve, he wanted someone, anyone, to pay attention to him and acknowledge him. When Sasuke was twelve, he wanted to kill his older brother.
When Sakura was twelve, she wanted her crush to like her. She was as boy-crazy as most twelve-year-old girls, and her parents smiled and shook their heads, knowing she would grow out of it with time. She kept her grades up and she seemed happy, and that was enough for them.
Naruto learned his signature Shadow Clone technique from a forbidden scroll; Sasuke learned his favorite fire jutsu techniques from his father.
Sakura doesn't have any signature techniques. Her parents aren't shinobi, and she has no legendary blood running through her veins. The Haruno clan doesn't have any secret techniques to pass down to her. So Sakura practiced all of the basic ninjustus she was taught at the academy until she could preform them flawlessly, because you fight with the weapons you have, not the ones you wish you had.
Naruto has the kyuubi inside of him, flooding his body with chakra in desperate moments; Sasuke has the blood of the legendary Uchiha clan, giving him power most shinobi can only dream of.
Sakura has an average amount of chakra, and as far as she knows, there's no way to increase the amount of chakra you were born with. So she practised making her chakra until she could call on precisely the amount she needed, never more or less, and get the most power possible from the chakra she has.
So when Kakashi-sensei taught Team 7 tree-climbing ninjutsu, Sakura thought it was a cinch. For the first time, she was more skilled than her teammates. Her heart almost burst with pride.
But Kakashi-sensei only spared her a glance, because it was Naruto and Sasuke he was interested in. Their chakra reserves were so massive that, with training, they would easily dwarf Sakura's abilities. So only Naruto cheered her accomplishment.
When they finally confronted Zabuza and Haku at the bridge, Sasuke awakened his Sharingan to continue the fight in spite of his exhaustion; Naruto awakened the kyuubi to keep fighting in spite of his many injuries.
Sakura stood in front of Mr. Tazuna with nothing but a kunai knife and her refusal to abandon the mission. She had no secret powers to awaken, no kekke genkai to bring forth. So at the first opportunity, she threw that kunai knife at Haku, because that was the weapon she had, and you fight with the weapons you have, not the ones you wish you had.
During the Chuunin Exams, Sakura was the only genin who knew all the answers to Ibiki's impossibly difficult test. And when the time came, although she had total confidence in her own ability to answer the unknown tenth question, she was willing to fail the exam if it meant Naruto wouldn't lose his dream to become Hokage, because no matter how much she griped about him, he was her comrade, and shinobi don't abandon their comrades.
With Naruto out cold and Sasuke in the throws of a raging fever, Sakura kept guard alone. When the three Sound genin showed up to attack Sasuke, she threw every kunai and shuriken she had at them, and activated what few traps she'd had time to prepare. And when they easily brushed aside her basic ninja tools with their air and sonic attacks, Sakura kept attacking, because that was all she had, and you fight with the weapons you have, not the ones you wish you had.
When Kin grabbed her, Sakura slashed through her own hair so she could stand up and keep fighting, because it didn't matter if she had no chance of winning: she was going to protect her comrades. So Sakura stood there with her back to her teammates, and she fought on alone.
Sakura fought Zaku with nothing but her last reserves of chakra and a substitution jutsu, because that was all she had left. And when Zaku finally gave her an opening, Sakura let his blades rip through her, because she was going to strike him no matter what it took. When she was on the ground with no weapon left to use but her own teeth, Sakura hung on and kept fighting, because all that mattered was that she would not give up, not when her comrades were depending on her. Bruised and battered, exhausted from too little sleep and too much blood loss, she kept fighting.
And when Ino dragged Shikamaru and Chouji into the clearing to save her, when Sasuke awoke to punish the Sounds for hurting his comrade, Sakura couldn't have been happier, because she wasn't fighting alone anymore, and she wasn't just sitting back and being protected. With her basic jutsus and simple weapons, with all the strength she had, she had bought enough time for help to arrive. Now it was the Sound genin who were outnumbered, and Naruto and Sasuke would be safe.
When Sasuke went out of control with Orchimaru's curse seal, Sakura ran forward without thinking and grabbed him, because no matter how dangerous it was, no matter what Sasuke might do, she wouldn't let her precious comrade lose himself like this. And with nothing but her own two arms, Sakura stopped him, and the curse seal faded back into a single mark.
When Sakura woke up after her match with Ino and discovered that they'd tied, she smiled with pride, because at last she had reached the level of the one she admired. She had gotten stronger, and with nothing but the most basic shinobi techniques, she'd reached the preliminaries for the third Chuunin Exam test.
And when it all went wrong, Sakura kept her head and deflected the Sound shinobis' genjutsu. She received her orders from Kakashi-sensei and left with Naruto, Shikamaru, and Pakkun, and when the monstrous creature that had been Gaara of the Sand charged her, she stood her ground, because Sasuke couldn't move and she was the only thing between Gaara and him. All she had was a kunai knife, so she held onto it with both hands and stared Gaara right in the eyes without flinching, because you fight with the weapons you have, not the ones you wish you had.
Sakura had hoped that the Chuunin Exams were a breakthrough for her, that from now on, she would keep getting stronger, just like Naruto and Sasuke were. That at last, Kakashi-sensei would acknowledge her, too, and she would no longer be seen as the weak link of Team 7. But Naruto had had to rescue her from Gaara. She couldn't stop Sasuke and Naruto's dangerous fight. She was still being left behind by the two of them.
Sasuke learned the Chidori from Kakashi-sensei; Naruto learned the Ransengan from Jiraiya. But Sakura had no one to teach her new techniques, so she just kept using the ones she knew, because you fight with the weapons you have, not the ones you wish you had.
And in spite of all the power he had, Sasuke felt weak. No matter how she tried, Sakura's words didn't reach him, and in the end, she couldn't stop him from leaving to seek power. When the rescue team set out after him, she was left behind. Again.
You fight with the weapons you have, not the ones you wish you had. Sakura knew that. She'd been following it all her life. And in spite of everything, she still believed in it. She might not have a tailed beast inside her to give her power. She might not have a bloodline limit that not even the Sharingan could copy. She might not have any treasured clan techniques, passed down from generation to generation.
But Sakura had her sharp mind and her refusal to quit. She had the strength of her determination and her prefect chakra control. And above all else, she had a heart that could not bear defeat.
So Sakura went to Tsunade, to the Fifth Hokage herself, and begged to be taken on as an apprentice. She studied hard, worked until she was exhausted, so that she could learn the arts of a medical ninja. She trained herself until she could focus her chakra into her fist in an instant, and shatter the earth itself with the resulting blow.
It's not that she had given up on herself. It's not that she had finally decided she was too weak. You fight with the weapons you have, not the ones you wish you had.
Sakura had simply decided it was time to get some new weapons.