It was a mystery to her, why everyone said that she was so smart. Sure, Sakura got good grades at the academy, but those were just from reading the books and paying attention once in a while. Anyone could read. Anyone could take a few hours to listen to the professionals. Iruka-sensei wasn't that boring, and if one had problems staying awake, there was an amazing invention called 'coffee' that could help you with that. Sakura practically lived off the stuff, which lead that damnable Inuzaka to tease her mercilessly about the smell--a single, well-placed fist soon remedied that.
It wasn't until the Wave Mission when she started noticing things, that she knew what should have been the basics, and Sasuke didn't. Naruto, she was expecting to be hopeless, but the Prodigy?…
Tree climbing had been scary. Not for the heights, of course, but for the fact that no one seemed to understand what was really going. The Uchiha was doing it all wrong-mostly due to Kakashi's inadequate teaching skills, but she didn't dare reprimand her teacher's instructions. However, the way that Kakashi used his chakra-it was, well, wasteful.
Inefficient.
The blue flames bled into the bark, and created dead spots on the tree. The leaves on the nearby branches began to shrivel. When Sakura made contact with the tree-nice and slow, none of that testosterone-fueled racing-it was like it hadn't been touched at all.
She glanced up from her observations to watcher her love, her genius, fail again after who-knows-how-many tries.
His and Naruto's trees were injured beyond repair with the combined pleats of kunai-scars and the inexperienced flares of chakra; hers was unmarked, and its leaves looked vaguely more… chipper than the surrounding foliage.
That was the last time she would ever channel chakra into a tree.
After all, she couldn't be different. She had no mysterious bloodline. There had to be at least one normal person on this insane team, and if Kakashi wasn't willing to tone down his oddities, she would. However, the differences in adequacy only grew between her team mates as time wore on. Enter the Chuunin Exams, and the so-called 'test'.
It wasn't that difficult.
Actually, it wasn't hard in the slightest; and yet, as she cast her eyes around the room, no one had a clue of where to start. They were all cheating.
A lot of them were cheating off of her.
Including her former best friend.
The only reason why she didn't squash the annoying mosquito invading her body was because she felt pity. Pity for this sad pathetic ghost of the girl she once admired above everyone else.
Beneath the insults and squabbles, she had still respected Ino for being so much more than Sakura; now she knew that it was all a lie. Ino was small, Naruto was small, and she was beginning to Sasuke-kun, the wunderkind, was an insect to her.
As the proctor announced the end of the Exam and Naruto started his usual banter, she realized that their confidence was a mask.
She wore a mask, too.
It blushed easily and made eyes at cute boys.
The true girl watched, and waited.
The mask began to take on a new purpose; not to convince herself that she was normal, but to convince others. It was a handy trait, to be underestimated.
She learned that from Naruto.
It was the sole lesson she ever received while operating under Team Seven.
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A/N: Naw, I don't think Sakura has a kekkei-genkai. This is just a beginning, to explain exactly how Sakura fits into the story that's coming up. As for the nature of the story… Well, I'm still working on that. For now, I'm just testing the waters, as it were.