"Hero, it's a nice boy notion that the real world's gonna destroy."
By they age of thirteen, no shinobi worth their headband should believe in childish notions like 'heroes' or going out to seek fame and glory without any repercussions or loss along the way. People in this world should know by the age of thirteen how rare happy endings were, and just what sort of 'happy' endings they could have even then.
Most of them didn't.
At thirteen the promise that 'soon, everything will go back to the way it used to be' sounded perfectly plausible and reasonable. They were all family, all a team and teams stuck together forever, for life, didn't they?
When her trusted sensei told her something with a smile 'I won't let my comrades die', 'Everything will go back to the way it used to be', Sakura believed him without question.
At sixteen, when he smiled, it never left his mask. She didn't believe a word.
Heroes
Her friends were all heroes now, to be remembered forever for saving the world, not a single person would forget their names perhaps ever again. If anyone ever did, they need only walk out to the plaque of heroes and read their names.
Naruto Uzumaki
Sasuke Uchiha
Neji Hyuga
Tsunade Senju
Heroes. Her friends were all heroes, that was all anyone in the village would say these days—all about how they knew the Konoha heroes as children, how they always knew they'd be something, how the Senju line had ended as proudly as it began.
A gloved hand touched her shoulder. Konoha's living legend, the man hailed as a hero for killing his oldest, closest friend.
He didn't smile. He didn't say a word of comfort, and not one promise of heroics or happy endings.
At seventeen, she believed every word he didn't say.