It's Miyuki here for another story.

This was supposed to be a one-shot. However, that's just not gonna happen. Full on story, people. Get ready.

This story is inspired by the song "Just a Girl" by No Doubt. Not exactly a song-fic, but inspired by a song. This is also non-canon. So a lot of what you know from the story arc didn't happen or it happened in a different way. Don't worry about it too much, it'll explain itself as the story unfolds.

And if you like this, please check out my other Naruto stories.

Come What May: One Shot - Pairing SakuraXSasuke

And with that, let's get this show on the road!

There were a lot of things on the mind of seventeen year old Haruno Sakura, and considering her age, they were no longer about faithless, unrequited love that she never seemed to obtain. Instead, it was about more serious and important topics. Well, maybe not that serious, but they were very important to her. These thoughts symbolized the changes she had gone through on her journey of life.

One was the intense training she had gone through over the last five years that resulted in how she was today. Because of it, she had grown into a strong and determined woman, and was quite proud of herself. But she also had Tsunade to thank. She had been a wonderful mentor, teacher, and almost a mother figure to her. They shared a deep bond, that was for sure, and she was very happy that she had been able to become so close to her.

Another thing was how everyone else had seemed to grow. It still shocked her when she tried to think back to years before, when they had all started out. Naruto had gone from a lazy, immature youth to… Well, a lazy immature teen. But he had gotten much better at that, and was definitely one of the stronger shinobi in the village for his age. Years ago, she would have laughed at his self-proclaimed dream of being Hokage. However, it was clear that he stood a very good chance at it. His skills kept improving, and his determination could not be rivaled by anyone.

Her other teammate, after having been gone for three years, had returned to show his own dramatic improvement.

Sasuke had to go through two years of probation, which had ended a month ago, and during that time, had done tremendously for himself. His fighting techniques became sharper, better, and deadlier. He was about as strong as Naruto, and it was always difficult to choose one who might best the other. Sakura herself couldn't do it. However, he was still the same brooding male he had always been, getting easily annoyed by anyone that tried to even talk to him. His favorite things to say, to quote:

"Hn."

"No."

"Yeah."

"Dobe."

And the best one of all, in Sakura's mind…

"You're annoying."

But even if his vocabulary seemed a bit redundant, he had matured as well. No longer did he act like he was the king of everything. Okay, scratch that, he still had an ego to match Japan's population. However, he was able to recognize everyone else as an equal.

And that brought up the last thing Sakura was thinking of, and easily, the most important thought of the day. Although, truthfully, she had been thinking about this for awhile. He was able to recognize people as his equals…

Except for her.

As a matter of fact, almost everyone seemed to have the same mentality as he did about such a thing. That made her feel even worse about it all.

They all felt as if she would forever be the damsel in distress, and that she needed saving every goddamn moment of her existence. In truth, the only one who seemed to realize that she could do something on her own was Tsunade. She even showed Sakura her faith whenever she assigned her solo missions.

But to hell with it if she could get one bloody foot out of the gate before Sasuke or Naruto were there, both trying to stop her or warn her off in their own way. In Naruto's case, he would be telling her to be careful, and that she should try to avoid fights much as possible. But Sasuke, being blunt as ever, had decided to just tell her that her shinobi skills sucked and she'd better not do something stupid.

That was her team.

'You should be soooooooo proud, Sakura.'

Sakura ended her mental sarcasm at those particular thoughts before Inner Sakura could go on a major rant, and let out a heavy sigh.. One day she showed those bastards what she could do. But for now, she just had to put up with it.

She didn't understand why they still thought her as weak though. She would have thought that Sasuke of all people would have recognized her strength. After all, when he had returned, she had refrained from even looking at him for three months.

The main reason for that was that she felt if she had seen him, she would have reverted to her old self and clung to him, crying for him, and basically proving just how annoying he had always said she was. But by staying away from him for so long, she was able to slowly get used to the fact that he was here and she still didn't need him.

Finally, after so long, she had ended up running into him at the market. She was able to finally greet him properly to the village, and the entire time, she had never once said "Sasuke-kun" and tried to pronounce some undying love for him. Sakura had noticed the look of surprise on his face during the whole conversation, and when she had walked away from him, she could feel that something was off with him.

She never quite understood that, but after that first meeting, they had been able to talk to each other on a frequent basis, and it seemed to everyone around them that perhaps Sakura had fallen out of love with him.

She herself was not sure if she had or not. She was still, even two years later, trying to decipher what her feelings were. She knew it would take much longer than this to do it, especially whenever she saw him looking at her. Instantly, her eyes would meet his, and she could swear she could see some kind of hidden emotion in those beautiful obsidian orbs.

But she could never pinpoint what it was. And she learned to let it go and not question it. Maybe it was just a Sasuke thing. Besides, if she even tried to say something about it, she was afraid his devoted female followers would try and attack her. They had grown in number since he had come back, and there had been times when she had to save him from the mobbing stampede that just screamed his name.

She began to laugh evilly at the thought. It was a humorous moment even if such dire situations for the Uchiha when it happened.

'Now who's the weak one, Sasuke? That's what I thought!'

Inner Sakura always had a field day whenever it happened. It was if Sasuke was being proved infallible. He wasn't as great as he believed he was.

A light yawn passed by her lips as she passed by the kitchen where her parents were seated. But quickly, she stopped and went back in, seeing a bowl of rice waiting for her. She decided it would be wise to eat before she left anywhere. However, her parents were just finishing, and they each kissed her on the head before bidding her good bye to do some errands.

She began to eat as though she hadn't in days, and while she did that, her thoughts wandered again. Why couldn't anyone give her the respect she deserved? It wasn't fair at all!

She was a strong kunoichi. She was sure she had proved it countless times. But nooooo, they didn't seem to notice that. They only noticed when she either messed up or made an ass of herself. She felt that wasn't really fair, and that just made her angrier.

'One of these days, they'll realize how great I am…'

'Stupid bastards think they're so great… Sexist pigs…'

'I am going to prove them all wrong today, but I swear if they do anything-'

'Off with their heads! Off with their heads! Damn them, off with their bloody hea-'

Snap!

Blinking lightly, she glanced at her hand, which was currently holding a pair of broken chopsticks. In her angry thoughts, she must've have gone a bit extreme. And it especially didn't help that she had such inhuman strength on her side.

Her internal banter/rant with Inner Sakura quickly ended on that note.

Letting out a little laugh of nervousness at what she had done, she set them down and quickly headed to the door, deciding breakfast was over. In moments, she had slipped on her shoes and was out the door, heading for training.

She was no longer clad in the same dress that she had worn five years ago, and had evolved to something more practical with her tank top and shorts. And she was glad to have chosen such a comfortable outfit as well. It was a cool, breezy day, and with what she was currently wearing, it felt good to have the wind press against her bare skin as it rushed past.

Sakura closed her eyes for a moment as she moved forward, tilting her head back and up to soak in the sun overhead. It was a nice, serene moment, one that she enjoyed more than anything.

Too bad someone had to go and ruin it.

"Sakura-chaaaaaaaaan!"

She instantly opened her eyes and whipped around, her head falling back down to see the blur of orange rush right towards her. A yelp escaped her but before she could even move, she felt a familiar pressure on her upper arm as she was grabbed and dragged towards the bridge where they all met.

Sakura tried to smack him upside the head, while also trying to get back on her feet but it was no use. Naruto was just too strong for her at this point. "Naruto, you let me go this instant, I can walk on my oooooown!" she shouted, but her words fell on deaf ears.

He just gave her that coy fox grin and ran even faster, not even aware that her feet were dragging against the dirt instead of running with it. This had become someone of a routine each morning, and normally, she was always on the watch for him, but it seemed this morning she hadn't been paying as much attention.

By the time they made it, Sakura's hair was standing every which way, her clothes were completely covered in dirt, and she stood there in complete shock and awe at the situation. What a way to turn up for practice.

Sasuke was already there, and he gave a quick glance towards them before letting out a 'Hn'.

Well, scratch that word of the list of vocab for the day. Let's see if he'll be able to use the rest of his dictionary in practice.

Sakura giggled to herself at the thought, and noticed as both males glanced at her in confusion. She waved it off immediately, not wanting them to pry her for why she had been laughing so much.

Instead, the two of them just shrugged and turned back to what they were doing. Sadly, they didn't have much to do while waiting for their sensei, and so, they just stood there in silence. It was already a half hour later than when they were supposed to be meeting, and of course, their sensei was not there yet.

But no sooner had the thought crossed their minds, a cloud of smoke appeared before dissipating into Kakashi.

The elder shinobi looked at each of them, his one visible eye crinkling into a smile as he nodded to each one in turn. "Sorry about that. See, I was on my way to training and this little old lady was having troubl-"

"Liar!"

He blinked before grinning sheepishly under his mask to see both Sakura and Naruto right in front of him, gazing at him with utmost suspicion yet a hint of humor as well. They had grown so used to it that it no longer phased them. Hell, it'd surprise them more if he showed up on time for once.

"Sooooo, for today, I was thinking that we have a little bit of sparring going on," he stated, watching as they each nodded eagerly, but he noticed the extra look of determination in Sakura's eyes.

This would be an interesting day.

And so, as sensei, he would be the one to make it even more interesting.

"I think today that I'll spar with Naruto, while Sakura and Sasuke spar together, for a bit of change. Agreed?" he asked, thinking that no one would really argue. But he was wrong.

Naruto was excited that he would get to fight Kakashi, and Sakura was delighted that she was being given a chance to prove herself. However, wise guy Uchiha just had to make his statement.

Before he could even open his mouth, Sakura was watching him, and she could see the twisting features on his face that indicated he was about to speak.

'Don't say it, please don't say it…'

'You say one goddamn thing and I'll break your neck, chicken hair.'

'Just let it go, just let us fight, no complications!'

'Seriously, I'll do it, your neck is as good as snapped like my chopsticks this morning.'

'Come on, pleeeeeeease…'

'Heh, I'm calling you Chopstick from now on.'

"I have to spar Sakura? I might as well go home, this will be useless," he said in a monotonous tone. Both Naruto and Kakashi sighed, but quickly stopped when they had glanced over at Sakura who was remaining quite calm at this point. But they should have known it would be over soon.

Because that's when the poor girl snapped.

In an instant, she had grabbed Sasuke by the collar and was pinning him to one of the trees by the bridge. Jaws dropped, eyes widened, and both her sensei and Naruto stared as they saw this. It had happened so fast, they had nearly missed it.

She felt Sasuke's glare on her but before he could say a word, she tightened her hold. She didn't know where this sudden anger had come from, but right now, she wanted nothing more to do than shove his face into the dirt. It was such a good thought to her right now, she was tempted to try it out. However, she forced herself to rid that thought, and keep the situation at hand clearly imprinted in her mind.

"Listen up!" she snarled, and she knew that Inner Sakura was helping her a bit with this one. "I am not as weak as you think I am! You need to stop treating me like I am! I am your teammate and I'm as strong as either one of you! Why is it so hard for you to realize that?" she asked, her eyes gleaming with question and anger. Sasuke glared at her hatefully, and she could catch a flicker of arrogance in his eyes. He opened his mouth to answer.

And it was his next statement that had forced her to drop him.

"You're just a girl."

He was already fallen unceremoniously on the ground as she took a few steps back and turned away, glancing at Kakashi for permission. All he gave her was a slight nod before she started heading back to the village. But before she left completely, she said one more thing in parting.

"When you can acknowledge me as something else than 'just a girl', you come find me."

And with that, she was already gone, heading down the street with a somewhat defeated look to her.

Naruto was instantly at Sasuke's side, glaring at him with a look of pure disbelief. "Now why in the hell did you have to say that?" he asked, shaking his head at the idiocy of his friend.

Sasuke shrugged, standing up and brushing himself off. "That's what she gets. She should know by now that she'll never be my equal. She's just annoying," he stated, although it was a bit obvious that he was somewhat unsure of what he had said himself. He glanced back in the direction that Sakura ran, staring at it even after she had already disappeared in the crowd.

"She's always so annoying."

Next word scratched off the vocab list. He's got three more left, if you're counting.

"Did you really have to say it though?"

"Yeah."

Two more.

"Do you care if her feelings are hurt?"

"No."

One more. See a pattern?

"You are such a bastard!"

"And you're a dobe."

And Sasuke's vocabulary has been used up for the day. There is an eighty percent chance that this may be all he says today.

Without another moment to spare, Kakashi coughed and got both of their attention in an instant. "I'm thinking that we'll just have practice is a few days. Until then, I think she needs some time to cool down, and you, Sasuke, need some time to think about how valuable Sakura really is," he said as if he were scolding a child.

He was gone in a matter of seconds, leaving both Naruto and Sasuke left to think.

Pause, rewind, and play. About a second afterwards, Naruto had bolted from the area back into town, most likely in search of Sakura to console her after what Sasuke had said.

And Sasuke was left to stand there, wondering why on earth everyone was against him today.

Sakura was currently at the Ichiraku, of all places, and was currently eating her heart out because currently, her heart was a bit hurt. It seemed that whenever she was depressed, food was her main outlet.

And boy, was she depressed.

After her third bowl, however, she realized depression doesn't stretch out your stomach that much, and paid for her meals before leaving. At least her appetite was satiated for the day.

As she left the ramen stand, she hadn't gotten two steps out before she was nearly plowed over by an impenetrable force.

"Sakura-chan, are you ok? Forget what that teme said!"

She couldn't help but laugh slightly at the boisterous male in front of her. He had a way of making her feel better when she tried hard not to. Sometimes she hated it, but right now, perhaps a little joy would do her some good.

She leaned forward and ruffled his hair, grinning at him sheepishly. "Yeah, I'm alright now. I just needed a bit to calm down," she said, watching as he smiled widely in response.

"Well, that's good to hear! I don't want you getting sad over what that idiot has to say! I know that you're strong!" he said with a grin, not realizing how much he had just shown his hypocritical side. But Sakura picked up on it, and things went from happy to hazardous in moments.

Her smile quickly evaporated, and was turned into a look of confusion. Naruto noticed this immediately, and he frowned, tipping his head to the side to gaze at her. "Sakura-chan?" he asked.

"You make no sense Naruto. You say that you know I'm strong, but you've never acknowledged it," she said, her eyes slanting dangerously as she took a step forward.

He began to sweat, knowing that this wouldn't turn out well. He took a step back, but she followed him. Every time he took a step, she would too, and there really wasn't much point to his movement.

"You never once believed that I was strong as you two!"

"R-really, I didn't say that-"

"You never once believed that I could handle a mission on my own!"

"Now Sakura-chan, you kno-"

"You never once believed that I had the ability to fight for myself!"

"I don't know what you're at-"

"You never once let me fight on my own! You both felt obligated to rescue me!"

"…."

At this, Naruto was speechless. He couldn't argue with her, because he knew she was right. He hadn't ever really acknowledged her as being that strong and capable. He had always been against the idea of her taking on a mission alone. He was spastic whenever she was in battle, and normally would always intrude in to fight for her.

He dropped his head in shame, and she instantly felt some guilt and shame for what she had said. However, she didn't let that show. This was something she needed to say. And damn it to hell if she was going to back down now.

"Naruto, why couldn't you guys once, just once, stop thinking of me as a girl but as a fellow shinobi?"

He didn't answer her and was silent for a few moments, pondering on what he could say. However, when he found the right words and went to look at her-

She was gone.

Morning had risen the following day, and Team Seven had been given the day off from practice, as well as the next. This was mostly because Kakashi felt that Sakura needed some alone time, Naruto needed some thinking time, and Sasuke needed some ego-checking time.

Sakura was currently at the flower shop at promptly nine that morning, having heard that a lot of the other teams had the day off as well. It had been awhile since she had chatted with Ino, and was there waiting expectantly for the girl to give her some time. After only fifteen minutes of waiting, she was rewarded for her patience, seeing Ino move towards her.

Now that they had the chance, they wandered off to a section of the shop to sit down where they could gossip and be themselves.

Instantly, the moment they were seated, Ino bombarded Sakura with a flurry of questions, wanting to know everything that had happened to her, would be happening, or was happening at the moment.

"So, how's your training going? Got a boyfriend yet? You really need a boyfriend, I keep telling you that, but you never listen to me! But I think you should get one-"

Sakura smiled as her friend rambled on, listening intently while also thinking in the back of her mind…

'What would I do without a fun friend like you, Ino?'

"-And I mean, you haven't even gotten to first base yet! I mean, seriously, Shikamaru and I have hit a home run sooooo many times-"

"Ino!" Sakura screeched as she quickly covered her ears, proceeding to go "La la la la la la" to drown out the perverted rantings of her friend.

Seeing that Ino was laughing instead of talking, she felt it safe to drop her hands from her ears and stop her chant, watching the look of amusement on her friend's face.

"Well, Sa-ku-ra-chan!" she enunciated, always doing this when she was trying to make a point. "I don't understand why you don't have yourself a good guy! You're not still hung up over that Sasuke, are you?" she asked suspiciously, leaning in real close until they were probably an inch away.

Blink.

Blink blink.

Blink blink blink.

"…Are you?"

"No!"

Ino quickly leaned back into her seat, her elbows on the table and her head in her hands as she saw Sakura instantly get worked. She knew that the girl had wanted to talk about something, and normally, whenever she was upset, it was because of Sasuke.

"I don't feel that way for him anymore Ino. Besides, he insulted me yesterday in a way where I'm not sure if I can forgive him."

"Oooooooo, really, what'd he do?"

And Sakura proceeded to explain the whole story to her in great detail. Ino listened carefully, taking in everything of the tale as Sakura continued to go on with it.

"And then he said, 'You're just a girl'-"

"He what!"

Crash!

Ino's chair had been knocked away as she stood up abruptly, anger evident in her eyes at this point. "He said it was because you were a girl? Oh when I get my hands around that neck of his…" she said, imitating it in the air of how she was going to break it.

Sakura chuckled lightly at the thought. "You know, I had been thinking that exact same thing when he was saying all that. That skinny little neck of his deserves to be snapped."

'Yes, like your damn chopstick. LET'S DO THIS.'

Ino roared angrily over the oppression of women, going on a quick rant about how she could make any man tremble in fear of her great feminine prowess.

This was why Sakura was such great friends with her.

The pink-haired beauty grinned sheepishly at her friend's antics, nodding in agreement as Ino picked her chair back up and seated herself once again.

"Well, I'm glad we were able to catch up after so long! You'll need to stop by again sometime!"

"I'll be sure to do it! I'll see you later, ok?"

They both stood up and gave each other a quick parting hug, before Sakura turned and left the flower shop. She gave one quick last wave back before opening the door and heading outside.

Just to run right into someone on the other side.

Before she could fall back, however, two hands reached forward and grabbed her arms, stopping her from her descent. She looked up at her savior…

To see Neji standing there with a slight smirk on his face.

She let out a nervous laugh as she stood up, allowing him to let her go before giving a quick bow of apology. Not only had she been reworked up at the thought of Sasuke, but she had literally bumped into one of the better shinobi her age, and that itself was a bit degrading and embarrassing. "Gomen, Hyuuga-san, I didn't m-"

"Neji."

"Nani?"

"Call me Neji. Do we need such formalities, Sakura-san?"

She blushed slightly, waving her hand in front of her face. "Of course, of course, you're right! Gomen, Neji-san, I didn't mean to run into you like that," she said with a nervous laugh, wondering when he had become so polite and so… Almost in a way, flirtatious. Maybe it was his hormones. After all, he was a guy, and she was a girl.

'Look at that fine man in front of you. Who cares what Chopstick said now? This guy is just too good-looking to even think about his insults! You know you wanna tap that!'

Sakura was glad no one could hear her thoughts, because she would probably never live it down.

Not realizing that she was having an embarrassing exchange with her inner self, Neji nodded and gave her a very faint smile. "It's alright. Tell me, and I do not mean to be intrusive but I heard Naruto mentioning it to my cousin. Did Uchiha say something to upset you yesterday?" he asked, his eyes boring into hers as he awaited an answer.

And for the next fifteen minutes, he got to watch and listen as the pink-haired girl in front of him began to pace and rant about that same boy he mentioned, using her hands to add to the story as she explained it in excruciating detail.

When she was finished, her face was a bit red, her hair was a bit disheveled, and she looked like she had gotten pissed off all over again.

He let out a chuckle at the sight, and just hearing him laugh made her anger deflate in moments.

"I guess I was right. But I don't understand why he would say something like that. You are a very capable kunoichi, as well as a wonderful medic. The best I've seen, I'd say."

If there was any possible way for Sakura to turn redder at this point, it happened. Now he was being nice to her? This was quite new, to say the least. Not that she was complaining, of course.

She grinned at him, laughing nervously at such a compliment coming from one of the other prodigies of the village. "Arigato, Neji-san. It means a lot to hear such praise from you."

"I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true. And that brings me to another question."

"Nani?"

"Would you like to spar with me for a bit?"

She blinked at his proposal, and before she had time, she blurted out something.

"Sure!"

Neji smiled as she accepted, holding out his arm for her to take. She smiled at the gesture, wrapping her arm with his as they began to walk down to one of the training areas. However, they were interrupted during their walk.

By none other than Chopstick himself.

Sasuke was in front of them before they could even say anything, and they both just stared at him as he stared back. His eyes dropped to where their arms were linked, before moving back up to Sakura's.

"Why are you with him?"

"He invited me to train."

"I was just going to find you for that."

"Why train with me? Last time I checked, I wouldn't be a challenge for you."

They spoke as if Neji wasn't even there, but he didn't seem to mind. In fact, he was very amused with how it was turning out in front of him. His silver eyes moved from one to the other, noticing the same look of determination and slight anger from each of them. This was very interesting for him indeed.

"I never said that."

"You might as well have. Now excuse us, we're going to train."

"You don't need to link arms before training."

"Why does it bother you?"

"I never said it did."

"Then don't ask about it. But for your information, Neji did that as a polite gesture. What a gentleman would do. Obviously, you wouldn't recognize something like this."

Sasuke growled, wondering when the hell Sakura had gotten so feisty. He had to admit, she had never really talked back to him like this before the incident yesterday, and it was something that intrigued him. However, it didn't intrigue him enough not to be pissed.

"Just because I don't act like that towards you doesn't mean I'm not a gentleman."

"Oh yeah, that's right, because you hang out with loads of other females other than me. Oh, that's right again, you don't. You keep yourself holed up either in your house or when you train."

"Sakura, you're just so annoying," he said with relish, his eyes glinting with supreme hatred as he threw the Hyuuga an extremely enraged look before glancing back at the pink haired beauty. But for some reason, he didn't get the reaction he was expecting. Instead, he got something that shocked him a bit himself.

Sakura just smirked at his comment, and while flipping her hair back over her shoulder, she guided Neji around and past Sasuke. Before she was too far away, however, she turned her head back and said one last thing.

"No, Sasuke, I'm just a girl."

Please, please, please, leave a review. I need to know if people like this story and want me to continue it, because it is a bit disheartening not to get any reviews for something I worked hard on. Acknowledge it, people.

As well, if you read my other Naruto stories, review those ones as well! I wanna know what you think.

-Miyuki