Is fate set in stone? Or is it a road, with choices marking the turns, twists and bends in the highway of life? If you know what your destiny is, can you prevent it? Is your potential decided once you come into being? Or can you push yourself past what you can do?
Can you change fate?
"And I—I took the road less traveled by. And it has made all the difference." Robert Frost, The Road Less Traveled
Prologue:
Sakura's parents had decided what she was going to be when she was born. Her father, Haruno Takashi, was a chuunin with good chakra control, better than some, worse than others. His gift for low-level genjutsu had gotten him to Chuunin status, but no further.
When his little girl was born, he swore to her mother that she would make a fine kunoichi, and then left on another mission. Two weeks later, the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, rendering Sakura fatherless.
Haruno Sachiko, a civilian healer before she married a shinobi, decided that her daughter would grow up to become a kunoichi, as Takashi had indicated. Sakura would grow up smart, perhaps becoming a chuunin (Sachiko couldn't see her daughter going any further) and marrying into a shinobi clan, perhaps the Inuzukas.
For most of her life, Sakura accepted this cut-and-dried version of her future. Then her beloved teammate, Uchiha Sasuke, defected from Konoha. She had attempted to stop him, and he had left her unconscious on a cold stone bench.
For weeks, no, months Sakura drifted. Her training with Tsunade of the Sannin, begun before Sasuke left, kept her going, but still it creaked along like a machine that needed to be oiled. She only felt alive when she forced her chakra past her normal boundaries to give life and healing to those who needed it.
Then Naruto left, too.
It took someone specialized in reading Sakura to realize how she truly felt. Once, that would have been Ino, but now it was her teachers, Tsunade and Shizune, who realized how all-encompassing her loss really was.
Tsunade could empathize, but she also knew her student needed to toughen up. That week was when the blonde Sannin began training with the pinkette for real, teaching her to become stronger.
By the next time the Chuunin exams rolled around, Sakura was ready. Tsunade made sure of that.
Sakura tossed her keys into the mess that was her couch wearily. She had moved out of her mother's house when Naruto had left, now marking it a year. Her mother had been happy, though she tried to hide it, at the loud blond boy's leaving. Perhaps now her daughter could continue on to become the Chuunin Sachiko had always planned on her to be.
Sachiko never had any doubt that it was Naruto who had kept Sakura from being promoted.
When Sakura found out, it had been too much. Words had been exchanged, and Sakura had turned her back on her mother, finding her own place to live.
Sakura smiled tiredly. It had taken a couple of months, but she had landed on her feet.
Heaving a sigh, Sakura collapsed onto said messy couch, wincing when the metal keys bit into her back, but she was too tired to move. Training that day, as ever, had been difficult, but Sakura wouldn't have it any other way. It meant that she was pushing herself past her limits, to become better. When Sasuke and Naruto returned, they wouldn't recognize her for the weak little kunoichi she had been.
No, Sakura reaffirmed to herself. Not the weak little kunoichi. Not anymore.
Her eyelids drifted shut. Her back would ache if she slept like this, but her body didn't want to move unless it absolutely had to.
There was a knock at the door.
Sakura opened her eyes. Who was at her doorstep at this time of night? If it was an ANBU because there was an emergency at the hospital, they would just come in. If it was Tsunade, she would yell outside the door. Shizune would knock politely, calling, "Sakura?"
So there was no one who should be knocking at this time of night. Resolving not to answer it, she closed her eyes again.
The knock continued, a little bit more pointed this time. Sakura slitted her eyes, glaring at the piece of wood. Forcing her body to move, she padded over to the door, wishing for an eyehole.
She scanned whoever they were with her chakra. Their auras were controlled, meaning they were nin, and it was powerful, placing them at ANBU level at least. Sakura let her shoulders relax.
If it was ANBU, it wouldn't take long to get this over with.
She opened the door.
It wasn't ANBU on the doorstep.
For a moment Sakura was caught blind. The people on her doorstep had moved so quickly that she had been pulled in and met the floor face first with a kunai at her throat before she had known what hit her. It just didn't seem…right.
She hadn't even been able to catch a glimpse of who these people were, only what their chakra outlines were like (she blessed Neji for helping her train her chakra control). One person was huge, with a weapon on his back that also had a chakra outline. The other was more controlled, but his chakra was…tainted.
"Do you know who we are?" a silky purr sounded by her ear.
She attempted to shake her head, before remembering the kunai. "N-no."
"We are Akatsuki."
Akatsuki?
"Where is Uzumaki Naruto-kun?"
Sakura managed a small chortle. "You think I'm going to give you my teammate's whereabouts?"
The kunai dug in, and Sakura gasped when it broke the skin lightly. "Sorry, no," she breathed out.
The kunai removed itself, and Sakura could breathe again. Unbidden, green chakra flared around the cut, healing it. Then the person who had been holding her grabbed her hair.
"Look at me, kunoichi." That was the only warning she got when she was sucked in by spinning pinwheel eyes.
Sharingan…
She stood on a dirt field, under a red sky. To her surprise, she was wearing a strange black cloak. While it swirled nicely around her legs when she walked, she knew that if she got into a fight she would be hindered.
Deciding to walk, because there wasn't really anything she could do, she called, "Hello?" As if by speaking she had summoned her, Inner Sakura stood before her.
'Do you know where you are?'
"No. Do you?" she asked her inner self.
Inner Sakura snorted. 'That person got you into a genjutsu just by looking you in the eye. You're making us look really bad, you know.'
"Thanks," Sakura said dryly. "Never mind that it was prepared. Besides, I think this was the same man who got Kakashi-sensei hurt so bad a year and a half ago. So I don't particularly weak."
Inner Sakura pointed at her. 'We're stronger than him. Don't forget it. You'll need me to fight this guy too.'
Sakura turned to see her assailant leaning against a light pole. As if by seeing that pole, the entire scenery changed to Konoha, the training grounds, in fact. Inner Sakura snarled at the guy, her hands forming claws.
"That's interesting," he noted, looking at her inner self without expression. "One would never guess by looking at you that you house two spirits."
Inner Sakura seemed to need no further catalyst to attack him. She grew exponentially in size, until he was about the size of her knee.
Sakura fell to the ground. Her vision swam and she blacked out, her inner self taking all of her energy.
When Sakura awoke, her attackers were gone, and it was morning. They'd even locked the door on their way out, the bastards.
Other than her splitting headache, there was no other sign of her mysterious visitors.
Except…
On her table, there was a note.
Watch your back, hime.