ca·pa·ble (kp-bl) adj.
1. Having capacity or ability; efficient and able
2. Having the ability required for a specific task or accomplishment; qualified
3. Having the inclination or disposition: capable of greatness
Summary:
Some like Sasuke were born great. Some like Kakashi had greatness thrust upon them. And others like Naruto achieved greatness. Being overshadowed by her team, no one though Sakura was capable of greatness; but in reality, she was the greatest of them all. Slight-Major AU.
Sakura-centric, but mostly in the sense that the story will revolve around her. Romance is...not confirmed, but maybe in latter chapters.
Capable
Chapter 1: The Great
She lovingly traced a hand over the engraved names in the solid and polished KIA rock. Some achingly familiar, and others complete strangers, but the girl grieved anyways.
It was downcast, but it didn't rain, the clouds holding in the rain, just as many were holding in tears.
Aburame Shino
Yūhi Kurenai
Maito Gai
Akimichi Chouji
Hyūga Hinata
Yamanaka Ino
It was six days after the mass funeral of those killed in action. After 4 years of constant death, fear and blood, the dreaded war was over. Numerous names were freshly carved into the rock, forever reminding everyone of the valiant shinobi that once walked the very streets they died to protect. For many, the rock was a taboo, a thing to be hated because of it's purpose.
Sakura looked at it slightly differently. It was a memorial that reminded her of her loved ones that were gone in physical form, but never mentally. It served as something she cherished.
"I'm starting to develop some of your habits, sensei." Sakura's shoulders were tense and her voice wavered a bit, but it was filled with affection as she cast one last look to the flowers she placed at the rock's base. Standing up, she brushed her knees of the lingering grass and turned to look at her old sensei. This would be the first time she saw any of her teammates since the start of the dreadful war.
While Sakura assisted in the war immensely, she preferred to stay back and do what she did best, saving lives. As many lives she took in the war effort, she saved triple the amount. It came as natural to her as rushing headfirst without thinking came to Naruto.
Kakashi didn't have his characteristic orange book in front of his face. Instead, he was staring intently at his former student, trying to detect any significant change in her demeanor indicating grief. All he could see was the slight upturn of her lips, the pressure she put onto one foot and the fatigue in her eyes. She had been in the hospital since the end of the war, healing the injured, comforting the traumatized and just being simply Sakura. In many people's eyes, she was a comfort and a confidant. Sakura just had a natural way with people.
Both shinobi stared at the other, a tense silence surrounding the wooden grove. A split second later, Sakura dashed to Kakashi's side, wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her head in his chest. She shakily took a breath and breathed him in, making sure he was here, really here.
Even after 4 years, Sakura's small stature only just graced Kakashi's chin. She hadn't changed, but she had changed, the emotional, and temperamental girl from before.
She sighed sadly and stayed like that, relaxing slightly when one of Kakashi's hands gently landed on her head and ruffled it while the other came to wrap around her shoulders.
She cried the first time since the war started and the rain finally came down.
"Once the evil witch was washed into the sea by a very, very mad Poseidon, Ariel finally got her voice back!" Sakura turned a page in the storybook, and lowering her voice to imitate The Almighty Sea God's, she continued.
"'Ariel, I see that you truly love this Prince, so I give you my blessing.' Smiling, he saluted the fair couple while the sea creatures jumped out of the water in celebration.
Ariel looked at the Prince with love and they kissed under the rainbow that Poseidon summoned. The men and women on board the ship cheered along with the merpeople.
They couple got married on the spot and lived-"
"Happily Ever After."
Slightly startled, Sakura looked up and grinned. "Okay kids, story-time is over for today, but I'll be back tomorrow!" Smiling warmly at the kids, she stood by the door as they filed out, watching as they went to their guardians (if they were lucky) while others went to relatives or surrogate guardians. They all gave her big smiles and some even gave her a quick hug before departing. This caused a warm feeling to arise in Sakura, that something as little as this could make the village children smile in midst of all the rebuilding. The last child out, a little girl barely 3 years old, snuggled her head into Sakura's embrace and kissed the medic quickly on the cheek before running to Mariko, the woman who ran the Konoha orphanage.
"Didn't know you did storytime, Sakura-chan." The blonde-haired, blue-eyed future hokage leaned against the doorframe and watched his only female teammate before wrapping her in a huge bear hug and lifted her off the floor a few inches.
Sakura smacked Naruto lightly before returning the hug and whispering into the whiskered boy's hair, "It's been four years, Naruto." She closed her eyes. "I missed you."
Naruto wouldn't let go of her, the 4 year separation amplifying his need to just hold the teammate he missed so much.
Almost every team in the Konoha 11 had lost teammates, except hers. She had reunited with Kakashi three days ago and with a tearful goodbye to return to her hospital duties, promised to meet up again sometime soon. Naruto had been looking for her ever since he was done meeting with the Godaime. The war had taken a toll on Tsunade, and seeing the normally young and vibrant Godaime looking fragile and weak had convinced the Elders and the Council to let Naruto start his official Rokudaime training. The fact the sealed the deal however, was when Naruto and his dark-haired counterpart had defeated the enemy force's leader in a last epic battle. Uchiha Sasuke was currently hospitalized and being treated while Sakura knew Sai and Yamato were on a diplomatic mission to Konoha's allies to exchange information and some other favors.
The first few days after the war were a blur for the kunoichi. She rushed through the hours performing surgeries and healing life threatening injuries alongside Shizune and Tsunade. The first five days were filled with chakra exhaustion, chakra burns, and soldier pills. The three advanced medic-nin did everything they could to save everyone they could, but not everyone could be saved. Hinata, Ino, Chouji and Shino died in Sakura's arms. She didn't have time to process the loss because of the chaotic atmosphere, and once their life force faded, nurses quickly carried them away and brought the medics to other patients.
She crashed on the sixth day.
Sakura finally fainted from fatigue on the sixth day's morning and was promptly brought to the doctor's lounge and forced to sleep. By then, most of the shinobi that could be saved were in a somewhat stable condition and the lower leveled medics were taking over healing the lesser threatening injuries. That afternoon, Sakura awoke to the commotion of nurses, doctors, and medics hurrying about outside in the hallway. Once steady on her feet, she proceeded to the Hokage's office while shrugging off concerned nurses with a muttering of 'I'm fine.' There, she received the list of known casualties and that's when the losses hit her. Everything from the past few days hit her and she promptly crumpled to the floor in a state of shock. Luckily for Sakura (because she hated to show weakness), before she saw her apprentice's breakdown, Tsunade had had to leave the office to attend a meeting with the Elders and Council.
No tears fell.
It wasn't because she was happy they had died, but the tears just wouldn't come out. Finally re-gaining the memory of each of their deaths, instead, she had let out a bitter laugh. All of them didn't want her to cry for them. They wanted to see her smile one last time before they permanently left the world.
Later that day she ventured to the Memorial Stone, and there she met Kakashi.
When Naruto finally let go of Sakura, he did it slowly, as if she would disappear if he let go. Sakura flashed him the same grin he was giving her. She gingerly caressed the boy's bandaged cheek. "I'm glad you're safe, Naruto."
Showing an unusually serious side, he responded, "Yeah, Kakashi-sensei, Sai, Yamato are all safe too, Sakura-chan. The bastard's in the hospital, but he's supposed to get released two days from now. You...wanna go out for a walk?"
"Naruto...I can't, I have so much to do at the hospital, and there's just so many things that need to get done, but you know I really would if I could, but I can't, and, and I also have t-"
The blonde covered her mouth with his hand. Sakura realized his hand covered almost half of her face. "You're ranting again, Sakura-chan." he laughed.
Picking Naruto's hand off of her face, she laughed with him, "I guess I am! Maybe tomorrow, Naruto. Promise you'll be back? I...I don't want to lose you again." her grip on his hand tightened a little.
"I promise, Sakura-chan. It's the promise of a lifetime."
Sakura scowled while Naruto grinned cheekily.
"Save those kinds of promises for when you actually have a crowd to woo."
"Bloody HELL, Haruno. WHAT was that FOR?"
Said medic merely flicked the now empty needle she was holding with her fingers.
"Flea shot." she replied simply while glancing at the nin who was currently scowling while clutching his arm. "Don't be a little kid, Kiba. I've seen you get impaled by a kunai before. A shot should be nothing."
Akamaru barked in agreement. Kiba's scowl deepened. Sakura giggled.
"It was just a precautionary thing. Otherwise, you're free to go! Akamaru is nice and healthy as well." Sakura squatted down and put the pressure on the tips of her feet and gave Akamaru an affectionate belly-rub.
"Don't spoil him too much, Haruno...and I actually haven't ever had fleas." the last part was more of a mutter. "But thanks anyways, for the checkup. Hana has been bugging me to get checked up." Kiba stepped off from the medic cot and started to put his shirt back on.
Sakura's eyes lit up as the older Inuzuka female was mentioned.
"Oh, Hana-chan! Can you give her this for me?" Sakura shuffled through her clipboard of papers until she found the one she was looking for. "It's some information about the disease that she was researching regarding your clan's ninken. I've finally finished compiling my findings about the disease." she stappled the papers together with a stapler she found on the desk and handed them to the brunette.
Nodding, he took the papers, and prodded Akamaru with his foot in a silent gesture of 'get up' . Just before leaving however, he turned around to face the pink-haired doctor and uttered a simple phrase while putting a clenched hand to the height of her shoulders while still hovering about a foot away from her actual body.
"Pound it."
Looking slightly confused at first, Sakura mentally scrolled over the possibility that Kiba might have acquired brain trauma before catching on to his childish antics. She lightly pounded her similarly clenched fist to his and then promptly laughed lightly. "I'm glad you never change, Kiba."
Most have never known, but the brunette and the pinkette were actually quite close as friends. After being assigned a couple of missions together, they had realized that they had liked each others' company and got together to just hang out every once in a while.
Kiba just gave her a grin and headed out the door and made a left, while waving. Sakura turned right when she walked out the door, heading to her next patient, someone she knew extremely well.
Sasuke Uchiha
He had stubbornly refused to stay in the hospital, as most shinobi do, and had re-injured himself sparring with Naruto. She had yet to reunite with her more stoic teammate, but was excited at the prospect because from all the noise coming from the room in front of her, Naruto and Sai had started to argue, and that meant that they were also in the room. By default, it could be said that there was a good chance that Kakashi and Yamato were also in the room.
Sakura took a breath, put a smile upon her face and slid the hospital door open and stepped inside. She practically felt all the room's 5 occupants shift their gazes to her, but she just smiled even wider.
"I'm here for your checkup, Sasuke-chan."
The person in question's eyes only narrowed
A/N: Important Stuff Here: I Suggest you READ:
Comments? Questions? Wanna chat? Leave it in a Review!
Gosh. I was on Narutopedia for like hours on end, just reading Konoha history and clicking one link after the other over and over again. Actually, I learned a lot about the Naruto universe XD
Er, Yeah. This was kinda depressing, and you have no idea how hard it was to choose people to kill off T_T Ultimately, I was going to list TenTen as a casualty, but I couldn't find her last name anywhere, and I just didn't want to put her name on the monument without a last name, same with Sai. I was considering killing him too...they have been sparedddddd!
So, it starts out depressing, but it will get better. Mostly, this story is centered around the rebuilding of Konoha in a kind of AU setting. Obviously, Sakura-centric with little bits and pieces of romance, not sure who's she's going to end up with, if anyone at all. I'm still contemplating... This fic will be about Sakura achieving what I believe she will in time, but not without sacrifice and loss. She'll get stronger through the pain, but will also build new bonds with the most unlikely people. She will bloom into the legacy she was destined to be along with her teammates and Konoha through the Will of Fire. (Sounded cheesy, but whatever, I'm a sucker for that kinda stuff)
FYI: Also, contrary to popular belief, Tenzou is NOT Yamato's real name. It was his former codename when he was in ANBU. His REAL name is still currently unknown XD (Thank you, Narutopedia!)
LASTLY. I will NOT be giving up my other stories, I'll be continuing them, but I wanted to do this cause I've always wanted to write one of those really epic 100k+ stories with the amazing plotline and stuff , but I don't think I ever will...I'm still going to try, though.
I have been expanding into other animes/ mangas, so you might see some other fics up (Maybe...still tentative). If anything, put me on Author Alert so you'll know everything I'm doing, whether it be updating, or putting a new story up. And really, Reviews really do make my day because they encourage me and I just like knowing that people out there enjoy what I'm writing. A lack of reviews won't make me stop writing, but still, Reviews are just a nice thing to an author ^^
I also, don't know where I'm going with this story...I started out making it tragic, then veered slightly towards a happier trail towards the end. I don't know. It just might be a total mix of everything, lol. Like, I have absolutely NO IDEA. But it is going to get more serious in the next chapter? No idea when that's coming out...
Thank you so much for reading, and I'm sorry that I talk too much!
Much Love, SimplyCliu