Knowing Your Own Strength

Sakura was on the outskirts of Konoha, returning from a solo mission. As she traveled home, she came across a very old training ground which Team Seven had visited in the good old days. These grounds were specifically designed for strength training. Dozens of rocky outcrops formed around the perimeter of the area.

Sakura had always been quite strong. She recalled how they all took it in turns to crack and break apart the rocks. She was good at it, although she remembered how she used to break the boulders... usually with Naruto's body. She would love to see Team Seven train here now, just to see the difference, and thus she began to obliterate any stone that was unfortunate enough to be in her eye line.

Getting a bit carried away, she struck at the base of an outcrop a little too hard... or a lot too hard. The ground beneath her feet broke apart and she fell down, just about managing to get up and move before the rest of the earth and stone caved in around her. All of the light was swallowed up in seconds, leaving a very dazed kunoichi at the bottom of a deep hole.

"Well sh-"

"She's on a mission, Naruto!"

"But Granny, Sakura-chan was meant to arrive this morning!" Naruto whined.

"I know, Naruto, I read the report," the Hokage grumbled.

Tsunade was actually a little worried. Her apprentice should have been back by the morning, but knowing Sakura she would have been back before then. Usually she was back a day, or even a few days, before the time the report stated, sometimes before the report even got through for the Hokage to read... and it was unlike Sakura to get distracted.

Sakura praised herself physically and cursed herself mentally. It takes a lot of strength to break the rocks to such a standard, but she should have known the ground was unstable and now the roof above her head was unstable too. She couldn't just take out stones one by one and dig her way out. She imagined even a little upwards force could cause the ground to collapse on top of her. If a stone hit her on the head, she could easily be knocked out and that would mean trouble.

As a loyal ninja, Sakura had always imagined that she'd die protecting Konoha, not through self-burial. She would have to wait, wait for someone to walk by and hopefully notice the sticking out rocks or hear her shouting. Right... the entire platform was sticking out rocks and she was underground, people may not even hear her. It would be a while before someone would come looking for her. Damn her for being early.

"Graaaaaaanny."

"No she's not back yet, Naruto, shut up."

Naruto stomped into the office where Tsunade was currently talking to Kakashi, discussing Sakura actually. It had now been over 48 hours, not a major problem, but there was no way the journey could take another two days travel time and without any word from Sakura to say she would be back later than planned. Now she was a little bit more worried.

"Can I go and look for her?" Naruto pleaded.

"If it will get you to leave me alone, yes. Kakashi, go with him. Don't go too far and I expect you back by the end of the day... Trust Sakura, Naruto, she'll be fine." Tsunade smiled encouragingly. Despite her doubts, she had grown to have a lot of faith in her apprentice.

"I am definitely not fine," Sakura said. The stone surrounding her did not reply. The silence only furthered her frustration.

God knew how long she had been in this stupid hole. She was tired and covered in dirt. A couple of times she had prodded the soil above her with her kunai, either getting a stream of dirt to fall down or hitting rock and not getting any further. She considered punching a hole above her even if the roof caved in. Everything she tried either backfired or seemed to get her nowhere and she'd had enough. The options were die of starvation or die trying to get out of a hole. She would strike so hard that she would spread the ground on a massive scale. Even if it crushed her, at least someone, at some point, may actually find her. It was decided.

Gathering as much chakra in her palm as possible, she jumped upwards into the earth, cracking it with her fist... and for a moment she breathed in fresh air, saw the light, felt... something, but then everything went black.

She was dead. She must be. She could hear voices close by... Naruto? Well if he was in her heaven, at least it would be eventful.

"Sakura-chan, please wake up!"

Her eyes shot open. Sitting up, she rubbed the back of her head and coughed.

"Sakura-chan, are you all right?"

She looked around. Naruto, Kakashi and Pakkun were sat in front of her. Behind her was a destroyed outcrop and a massive hole in the ground.

"Yeah, Naruto, I'm fine." Her voice was a little dry and she wasn't really fine, but she smiled regardless.

There was a small silence as Naruto helped her to her feet before Pakkun spoke. "So, Sakura... what were you doing in the ground?"

The dog looked quite confused – everyone looked confused.

Sakura laughed nervously. "Well, I was training and as I hit the ground it collapsed and caved in."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "How hard did you hit the ground?"

"I got a little carried away."

"Ah, congratulations, Sakura, you managed to destroy an age old training ground," the masked man said with a hint of amusement.

Sakura smiled. "It definitely will not happen again. My head hurts."

She didn't remember at any point hitting her head...

Naruto shuffled nervously. "Umm... well when I saw you charge out of the ground, I ran to grab your hand, but kind of hit you on the head first."

Sakura laughed. "So that's what I felt."

Sakura felt slightly stupid and weak. She had been worse than the last time she had trained here, and had to be saved just like she used to. "Ugh, I feel so stupid."

"Yeah it was a stupid move," Kakashi commented.

"Thanks, Kakashi."

"I mean when was the last time Naruto had to save you, hmm? He's obviously a little rusty." Kakashi paused for thought and Sakura smiled... until he said, "At least you can actually break the rocks without having to actually throw someone at them this time."

This caused him to be the new 'someone' as she launched him into the nearest boulder.

They spent the rest of the day training there, so in the end she got the session she wanted.

Later, when they entered the Hokage's office, Tsuande raised an eyebrow. "What the hell happened to you?"

It dawned on Sakura that she was not going to live this down for a long time. She took a deep breath. "I was returning from my mission... and I was early so decided to stop and train for a while, but I hit the ground so hard it collapsed and caved in on top of me."

Tsunade laughed.

Yes, she wasn't going to live this down for a very long time.

Author Notes:

This was my first story... It honestly makes me cringe, but it's interesting to look back on. At least I get to see how far I've come in the few years I've been writing :).

Original notes:

OK this website is confusing xD. This is my second time uploading this. I tried last night and because I emailed this story to myself from my iPod then copied and pasted it into Word then uploaded it into this Document Manager thingy - I somehow deleted half a line of the story. It was all together, there were no spaces so I've been inserting these horizontal lines... I think I've got it now though... Hopefully.

Can you tell I'm new? :D I'm used to the mobile version... I had to delete the story whilst I was in bed, at least you can do that - I couldn't upload it from my iPod and the paragraph sizes are different from my iPod notes where I write the story, to Word and this editing thing.

Thanks for reading!