Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto verse, I just like messing with it... a lot.

Chapter 1

Wind blows

they scatter and it dies

fallen petals

On the days after Sasuke left the village Sakura was lost. She didn't know what to do because as far as she was concerned there was no Haruno Sakura without an Uchiha Sasuke. He defined her and without him around to dictate her actions she felt so very lost. Lost.

She stared blankly out of her window. Everything looked the same. The village of Konoha was up and about. The sun still rose in the east. The autumn leaves were just turning red and somewhere in the distance she heard a child laughing. And she wondered in a detached sort of way how utterly normal everything looked. How mundane. She felt like her life had shattered into a million pieces and yet the world moved on and no one noticed how desolate Sakura felt.

It was almost as if the world was mocking her… mocking her Uselessness? Useless! She felt a flash of anger. Isn't that what he called her? Well…. She slumped in defeat. She really couldn't deny it. After all her Sasuke-kun is always right. She snorted derisively.

'Useless' she repeated that word slowly in her head trying to figure out its different connotations. After all that's what she was. That's all she was. Nothing but a second-rate. Honestly these days she wondered if maybe even Naruto the deadlast was better than her.

The one thing she dedicated her life to… and look at how that turned out.

Haruno Sakura had many late night fantasies of what would happen when she finally professed her love to Uchiha Sasuke. He would then get down on bended knee and tell her how much he truly loved her and how he had secretly admired her from afar and that he was just really shy to tell her and would she do him the immense honor of marrying him? And then there will be a fairytale wedding in which Ino will be her bridesmaid and brimming with jealousy. And everyone would tell her what a perfect couple they made.

Hah! She must have been delusional. For, when she looked him in the eye and told him that he was all that mattered to her in the world (and in her mind-eye this was a defining moment of her life) he blinked at her. And those obsidian eyes reflected nothing but a thin layer of irritation, the way you would look at a fly buzzing near your head. Trivial. And then he opened his mouth and out of it came not a profession of love or even friendship – "tch- annoying". She was unimportant.

And then when she realized that she really couldn't stop him from leaving the village the pink haired kunoichi began to grasp for straws. She had pleaded with him. Begged! To go with him. To keep him company so that he won't ever have to be alone and that she'll share his burdens. She tried to reason with the stoic Uchiha that she would be of help to him, that he will have a better chance of defeating his brother if both of them fought Itachi Uchiha.

She must have had some misplaced notions that it was like the Chunin Exams where Sasuke was unconscious and required protection. But the fact remained that all she had was an overlarge forehead and a know-it-all attitude. She wasn't pretty like Ino and her Taijutsu and chakra levels were below average.

Now, when the pinkette looked back, she realized that he wouldn't have taken her along anyway. Even if she was a prodigy at Taijutsu, to Sasuke she was just a fangirl. An annoying fangirl. In the last Uchiha's eyes she was a useless weakling in need of constant protection, deadweight preventing him from scaling heights….. and she had done nothing to prove him wrong. In fact she sometimes went out of her way to act like a delicate damsel just so Sasuke would notice her. She was never his equal. She had never gained his respect. The pink-haired kunoichi wondered what would have happened if it had been Naruto that night who had asked Sasuke to stay. Maybe he just might have listened. Because much to her astonishment the Uchiha, however grudgingly gave Naruto, some respect. In their twisted rivalry they had somehow developed a bond much closer than what either of them had with Sakura. And strived to one-up the other and somehow….. somehow, Sakura got left behind. Again.

In the end, when she realized that they were not going to be together, in a fit of childish temper she threatened to scream. In a flash he was behind her. She turned around and what she saw in his eyes made her stop and stare in shock. It was not irritation that shined out of those dark depths. It was not love and hope or even a tiny bit of affection. All she saw there was a thin layer of gratefulness (why was he grateful? Did he not think himself worthy of her love?) covering a soul-scorching amount of desolateness and hate. She shivered instinctually and took a step back. But before she could open her mouth he whispered words almost lost in the wind "Thank you….."

And all went dark.

The next morning when the news got out and the retrieval team was about to set out, Sakura tried to stay away but she couldn't. She called out to Naruto. He scanned her face worriedly and asked her if she was alright. But all she could do was stare dumbfounded because what she saw on his face broke something deep inside her. Radiating from those cerulean depths was pity. He pitied her!

Since when had she, Haruno Sakura a proud kunoichi of the village hidden in the leaves, sunk so low as to be pitied by Uzumaki Naruto, the village outcaste and deadlast? Hadn't she promised herself during the chunin exams that she won't be pitied by anyone ever again?

She stared dumbly as Naruto vows that he'll bring Sasuke back for her. She is unable to tell him anything of how she felt. How did she feel?

And for once the bookworm was stumped as she watched her fellow genin chase after Sasuke as she stands watching their backs... left behind. Like always.

In the Forest Of Death, when she fought the sound nin, that was the first time she felt powerful and even though she was in filthy and torn clothes, covered in blood and bruises and hadn't eaten properly in the past few days she had felt like she could take on the world alone through the sheer force of her will. She had no one to protect her and at that moment she was the protector. Sakura wasn't under anyone's shadow. She chuckled bitterly at that thought. In the end, it always came down to that. At the ninja academy it was Ino who protected her from the bullies and who she looked up to. When she left the academy she thought that finally she was out of Ino's shadow! She was a part of a genin team! Sakura could finally prove her worth as a kunoichi. Instead all she did was step into an even darker shadow one she can never hope to be free off. The insane powerhouses that were the boys on her team.

After becoming Genin, Sasuke and even Naruto had improved drastically. What had changed about her after the academy (other than the hairstyle of course.)? Ino had learnt a new clan technique- her mind transfer jutsu. Sasuke had awakened his Sharingan and wielded the Chidori. Naruto had a Toad Summon and had achieved the Rasengan. But Sakura? She was still the bookworm paper ninja she had been at the academy. What did she have to show she's improved since becoming a genin?

Maybe she should give up being a kunoichi, join the civilian trade school and take up a job. She wasn't cut out to be Ninja. She was average in everything except forehead size.

With her mind made up the pink haired kunoichi set about getting ready for her day. And as she was about to grab her kunai pouch she knocked over the picture of their team. She remembered the day it was taken.

It was a bright summer morning in Konoha.

A/N: Hey, guys! This is my first fanfic. I just had a couple of ideas running through my head when I started watching Naruto and I just wanted to make Sakura more independent, powerful and give her a bit more character. I mean seriously I hate the way she's been portrayed in Naruto. Though she did get a bit better in Shippuden but still... Anyways, that was a long rant.

Read and review guys!