Weak.
Useless.
Annoying.
Burden.
It was all true. Every single word. Every name, every term described her- Haruno Sakura completely. Why had taken her so long to realize this. Only now she notices how far behind her teammates she has gotten. Not that she was any competion is the first place. Now that Kakashi sensei is privately training Sasuke and Naruto has left the village with a new sensei to train. Which leaves her here. Alone. The only member of Team 7 that didn't pass the first round of the chunnin exams. The only female of Team 7. The one who was book smart but would never survive in the real shinobi world.
It was only when her teammates were gone and Sakura found she had nothing to do did she finally realize this. Sitting on the bridge that served was Team 7's meeting place did she realize she was being left behind. The thoughts didn't come suddenly or out of the blue. The feeling of being weak and useless has always been there in the back of her mind. Like a buzzing fly that she chose to ignore. But now, there were no excuses. There was no Sasuke to fangirl over. It was time for a wakeup call.
Sitting there on the bridge Sakura fingered her new shortly cut hair. Recalling her resolve and thoughts the moment she sliced through it, the rush of finally standing up for herself. Though yet agian that was a lie. Once agian someone had to step in and save her. If it wasnt for Team 10 she'd be dead maybe even Naruto and Sauke too. She told herself she had changed in that forest. She told herself that she was a kuniochi. But was she really? Maybe it was as Zabuza said a long time ago- genin really were just kids playing ninja. You weren't a real ninja until you've had blood on your hands or had your own stain the ground.
Enough reminiscing Sakura thought to herself. It's time for a change. A REAL change. From now on she'll be strong. Sh will be the one to protect her teammates. To be relied on. To have confidence. But first...
Sakura walked over to the forest that spread out around the training ground. Her body still while eyes searched the area until she seemed to spot something. The forest stilled. A shaking hand drew a kunai from its pouch.
She raised her hand.
Eyes shut.
Aimed.
*thunk*
The rabbit was pinned to a small tree. The kunai deeply embedded in its stomach. Dead almost instantly. It was the least she could do for the poor creature. But..this had to be done. Her body shaking she walked over to the now dead animal. its eyes were still open wide in fright while blood continued to poor from the wound. Sakura kneeled down and gently removed the kunai. Purposely let the blood stain her hands, her clothes, her soul. The scarlet life source colored the ground red. Turning the dead leaves brown. It would forever stain the treetrunk. Would always be there to remind her.
She had killed something. Taken a life of a creature. FOR a while Sakura stared at the blood on her rabbit's sacrifice was the first step. Her first kill. The first thing she ever injured. The first thing she robbed of life. Sure it wasn't a human, not even close to what it would feel like. But still, it was a start. Change was coming...
Sakura remained under that same tree the entire night. Crying...sobbing...pitying for both the rabbit and herself. It was time for a change and damn was it gonna be hard.
It rained that night...the sky cried with her too.
Chapter 2
When Sakura walked the streets the next day Kohona took notice. Something was different about her the citizens noticed but couldn't pinpoint what. Although her outfit had changed from her old long red dress to a red fitted top and shorts that cut off midthigh that wasn't the biggest difference. It was more of a subtle change. maybe the gleam in her eyes or the way she walked taller, straighter, like she had a pupose. But if you asked any civilian they wouldn't even have noticed.
It was early in the morning that Sakura arrived back at the bridge. She leaned on the railing with a sigh already a bit discouraged. Now what she thought. Where do I start. My sensei's gone and all the other sensei's are busy training their own students. The depression began to sink in along with the reoccuring feeling of worthlessness. Was she really not worth anyone's time?
sakura quickly shook those thoughts off and turned her head towards the direction of the small tree. The rabbit was deeply buried and the only thing that hinted at a diturbance was the freshly turned dirt and faded scarlet splatters. A reminder.
Sakura gave a bittersweet smile. This time for sure. She would prove herself. She would do it alone and show them all.
She reached into the kunai pouch and pulled out a small wrapped package filled with a few small riceballs. They would give her energy for the day and help her think clearly. While eating Sakura thoguht of ways to approch her new training. SHe made a mental list of areas that needed to be improved.
Taijutsu-severly lacking Genjutsu- alright at dispelling them, no knowledge about doing them herself Ninjutsu- terrible. none known except for the academy techniques chakra- weak stamina- easily worn down needs alot of work
Sakura sighed. Overall she needed alot of work. By the time the riceballs were finished she had come up with a plan of action. Might as well start with the most important thing. Taijutsu. If she couldn't dodge an attack she was dead. So first thing to do would be work on improving her speed and endurance, then move on to improving her stances and fighting techniques. Rock Lee instantly came to mind. Later she might even purchase a pair of wieghts as well.
Training started off with a few laps around Kohona. Not nearly the amount lee probably ran each day but she would gradually up the amount. After the third lap the adrenaline had worn down and the burn had started to set in. Sakuras pace slowed greatly and she decided three laps was the limit for now. After all she didn't want to be too tired to complete the rest of training.
The very same training post that Naruto had been tied to was what Sakura was currently staring down at. It was time to work on taijutsu. In her mind Sakura formulated a training routine. First, 200 punches,then 250 kicks, followed by 100 lunges before it was time for a break. Then she would end the day by running three more laps.
By the end of the day Sakura was so tired she didn't think she'd make it home without collapsing. Fortunately it wasn't too far and she managed to make it at an extremely slow pace. After a nice hot shower and meal she fell into an exhaust induced sleep. Too bad tomorrow would only be worse.
The next morning Sakura found it wasn't too bad...until she moved. Sitting up to stretch nearly cuased her to fall over in pain. Muscles she didn't know she had screamed in pain. Surprisingly she let out a small humorless laugh. The pain ment the training was working just like she wanted. So she endured the aches everytimes she took a step. Continued on to the training grounds agian to do the same routine.
She took every pain in and embraced it. It seemed Sakura wasn't as big of a wuss as everyone would think. She never had to before and it was quite surprising. The day went by slowly. Each movement was a struggle but her resolve was strong. Everytime she felt her determination slip eyes wandered to the small scarlet stained tree.
It wasn't until a week had passed that improvement could be noticed. No longer did Sakura come home ready to pass out on the floor. Running the three laps no longer left her as winded. The routine had started to go by quicker each day. When the two week mark had passed Sakura decided it was time to up the difficulty. Thus, the new over the knee black leg warmers that hid her new wieghts. Each leg had two wieghts on it. Each weighed 5 pounds giving an added total of 20 pounds to her body. Even with the weights the routine had gotten a bit boring and quite lonely. Her interaction had been limited to barel seeing her parents in the morning and for dinner and waving at some people she knew on the streets. Fighting a post wasnt really going to cut it. She needed to find another ninja- preferably a genin to spar with. The options were limited as most were training for the chunin exam finals. Any male shinobi was also crossed off the list. They had a tendency to go easy on konouchi and be overly protective. She has enough of that with her own team.
Only three people came to mind then. Ino , Hinata, and the older genin, Ten-Ten was it? Hinata would have been a great choice as she would most likely keep the training to herself and be helpful. Unfortunately she was still recovering from she match agianst Negi. Ino- well even if they were on friendlier non rival terms she would be the last person Sakura would go to for help. Ino was a gossip and had a big mouth not to mention would probably try to compete with her. That left Lee's teammate, Ten-Ten as her last resort. Hopefully the older girl would be willing to help train a fellow kounichi.
The next day Sakura headed out with a goal to convince TenTen to train with her even if it required begging on her knees. Surprisingly Gai's team wasn't too hard to find. In fact there training field wasn't too far from Team 7's own. When Sakura walked up Team Gai had already started their warmups. Negi and TenTen were running laps around the field while Lee (who was still crutch bound) did simple excercises that wouldn't strain his injuries too much. Gai kept looking at Lee with a sort of sadness in his eyes but not pity-never pity.
She was a bit nervous about interupting there daily routine. SIt felt like intruding somehow. Fortunately she was spared by Lee taking notice of her approach. He quickly stood and waved when he saw her. A loud shout of " Sakura-san, my youthful flower! What brings you here?" made her presence known to everyone.
Great she had gotten their attention but this was kind of akward.
"Hello Lee-san it's great to see you,"
Lee's eyes lit up iin joy obviously beleving she was here to see him. " I;m sorry to interupt your team training but I was hoping TenTen could speak with me for a minute?"
Lee fell over anime style while TenTen seemed a bit puzzled. "Me," she questioned.
" Of course it's no bother TenTen would be glad to," Gai intruded," We'll all take a break anyway,"
Team Gai nodded. TenTen walked over to her from where she was standing next to Negi. Sakura noted how he looked angry about being disturbed. COme to think of it he was an arrogant ass at the preliminaries too, poor Hinata, she thought.
Sakura led TenTen a bit away from the field. Once they were far away enough to keep from being overheard she stopped and began to shift uncomfortably. TenTen took notice and decided to say something.
"Hmm, you needed to talk to me about something, your on Kakashi's team, ne?"
Sakura's head shot up," Hai,ummm...well...uh..I-I."
"Come on say it I promise I don't bite," TenTen let out a small laugh.
"Ok well...,"she mumbled.
Surprisingly TenTen was able to understand the jumbled words and arched an eyebrow.
"Why me?"
Sakura took a deep breath," I'm weak. My team is leaving me behind. I've been training alone but I need someone to help me. You were the only female genin I could think of to help me since the guys are always too protective. I want to prove I'm storng and not a burden." after leeting all this out Sakura couldn't help but blush. She had just told a complete stranger her secret feelings.
TenTen stared her down for a bit before breaking into a knowing smile.