Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any of its characters. I am not profiting off of this fanfiction.

A/N: Hey, I'm Rox, or Hecate's Slumber. This is my first fanfiction. I wanted to reimagine this series, especially Sakura. For me, Sakura's character seems flat, and she never actually does seem to truly catch up to the boys. I also want to change the ninja world a little and focus on how traumatizing the life of a ninja would actually be. However, I still want to keep friendships strong in this piece. I want Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke's friendship to be real and to be strong. Be harsh in your criticisms please! Also, I don't have a beta, and I'm not really sure how they function but if you want to beta, let me know? Otherwise, I'm fine editing this on my own.

Hope you enjoy it! Please let me know if you would like to see more!

Prologue

You. Your hands will be bloodied. Smell the putrefaction. This is the scent of your glory. You are a shadow. Faceless. Expendable. You will die. Even legends fall.

Midnight clung to the nearly abandoned academy. Paper seals lit a single room not quite vacant room in a dull yellow. Three figures. The blond boy glared at the doorway. Cerulean blue eyes remained harsh. Inside, however, he was dejected. All of his classmates' senseis had already arrived, except for his team's. This was another one of the village's cruel schemes against him, he mused. Why did they hate him so much? He sighed and collapsed his head into his orange clad arms. Lowest scores. Loser. Bottom of the ladder. Dead on the ninja food chain. The taunts of his classmates tunneled through his exhausted brain. If he could not be a ninja, how could he ever prove anyone wrong? Hell, how did he even plan to pay next month's rent?

Black eyes stared out the window towards Konoha. Hours. Hours trapped in a room with the stupid blond boy and the fangirl. It was enough to send him spiraling to the brink of madness. Reprimanding the girl got her to shut up. As for the dobe, he eventually fell into a silence. Sasuke had not even known silence was possible for the blond. Yet, Sasuke noticed that the other boy, like himself, looked pissed off. External anger masked his internal anxieties. Did his sensei already rule them out? Was he too weak to even be a genin? No. He was the head of the class. Best at everything. He pursed his lips. Why did his sensei not show up? He eyed his teammates: the idiot Uzumaki and the clingy, pink-haired brat. Neither of them were worthy to call themselves ninja. Weak. Worthless. But surely he, the prodigy, the last loyal Uchiha, deserved that title? He glared angrily from Naruto to Sakura. These idiots had already compromised his training. They were already preventing him from reaching his goal. Sasuke grit his teeth.

The girl in the room had pretended to fall asleep. She did not want to return home and be the uncommitted teammate. They already thought she was a mockery of a ninja anyway…or at least Sasuke did. When he spoke to her earlier, he had made that clear. Long pink hair draped over her thin arms. Images of dancing through brightly colored fields in the arms of a strong, loving man flitted behind her eyelids. He was quiet. He understood her without having to speak an endless stream of empty promises and words with broken meanings. A tiny smile tugged on her lips. Her life previous to this point had been relatively simple. She was still shier than her best friend and rival, Ino. Yet, her parents loved her, and people in general tolerated her. She was the smartest, book-wise, in her class. According to herself, she had the best chance to become the best kunoichi in her class due to her intelligence. Quiet. She craved it. She craved to shut up all the artificial voices screaming in her head and pointing at her madly uttering clichés and generalization. Nobody really knew her for her; Sakura epitomized a fangirl to most. Outside of the label, she did not know if she knew herself. Outside of a goal for Sasuke's heart, outside of her rivalry with Ino, who was Haruno Sakura? Maybe she was just a generalization made lucid.

Wind. Massive torrents of wind flew in through the suddenly open windows. The room started to quake. The lights went out. Sakura jolted out of her "sleep", screamed and clutched her head in her hands. Around her, all she could hear were the wind chimes outside clanging against each other in a disharmonic chaos.

Sasuke lifted a kunai from his thigh holster. His eyes glanced the dark room. When and how did the windows open?

Naruto's eyes wildly scanned the room. "Sakura-chan! Are you okay?" His loud voice barely pierced the wind chimes.

She opened her mouth to answer when a figure clad in all black appeared before her. Long black pants tucked into black boots with a black long-sleeved shirt. A black mask obscured the majority of the man's face. A lone dark eye blazed wildly in the moonlight. A leaf forehead protector alerted the three of his status as a native ninja. The wind ceased and the chimes gradually returned to their idle positions

"W-Who are you?" Sakura whispered. A few of the chimes flurried in the natural breeze.

The bottom of the mask twisted, revealing the outline of lips forming a smirk.

The man stalked to the front of the room and turned to face the three. "Hatake Kakashi. You pathetic lot may or may not become my genin, if you impress me."

"What!? We already took the graduation exam! We're already genin! You can't just take that from us after we've waited here for hours for you!" Naruto hollered. This was unfair. Naruto clenched his fists.

"Dobe is right. You got here twelve hours late." Sasuke spoke with detached agitation despite being relieved that he did in fact have a sensei, at least for the time being.

"Yeah! Twelve hours!" Naruto practically screamed. His frustration dominated his tone.

"Baka! He is our sensei! Shut up!" Sakura readied her fist.

"No fair, Sakura-chan! You didn't yell at Sasuke!"

"Because Sasuke-kun didn't scream at our new sensei!" She kept with the charade of a Sasuke fangirl because what else was Sakura supposed to do?

Kakashi analyzed the team in front of him. He had read their reports. The last Uchiha and the Kyuubi's jinchuriki. The last Uchiha's scores made him the rookie of the year. He was the strongest in his class by a wide margin, and that vengeance of his, Kakashi predicted, would propel him to train hard. As for Naruto, despite the boy's dismal scores at the academy, Kakashi knew that Minato's son had potential. As a jinchuriki, Naruto already held more power than most people could ever hope to hold in their lifetimes. Kakashi just had to teach Naruto how to harness this power. The Uchiha and the jinchuriki would make deadly weapons, Kakashi was sure.

The girl, however, was useless. Book-smart, perhaps, but weak and entirely uninteresting in potential. So she could memorize history dates. That would do her no good once her porcelain white throat bled out alone in the forest. Kakashi wondered if he could perhaps swap the pink-haired civilian girl for the Hyuuga girl or the Yamanaka girl as both held interesting clan abilities at the very least.

Kakashi sighed and turned his attention to his bickering students. "Tonight, I have a test for you three. If you pass, I will take you as my students. If you do not pass, you will be sent back to the academy." Silence. Kakashi analyzed their faces. Sasuke frowned, but his fists clenched. Naruto's eyes were wide with childish optimism. Sakura bit her lip and glanced from Sasuke to Naruto. "None of the graduates that I have tested have ever passed this test." There was a reason that Kakashi was assigned to be the sensei of Team Seven, and there was a reason why this specific team had to prove itself beyond other genin teams. Team Seven would always be given the deadliest, most politically corrupt missions of all the genin teams. The title of Team Seven belonged to legendary teams. Team Seven was historically reserved for battlefield demons such as the Sannin as well his own team, led by the Yondaime. Kakashi had to weed out the playtime, idealistic ninjas from the killers.

"What!? Why!? Why do we have to take another test! I thought we were done!" Naruto whined.

"Shut up, baka! Of course, Kakashi-sensei! Any test you give us, I am sure that Sasuke-kun and I will do well on!" She blushed, giggled, and snuck a quick glance at Sasuke that did not go unnoticed by Kakashi.

"This is a test of your abilities to survive. Tomorrow at five in the morning, you will meet me at the edge of the forest outside of the city. You will bring any weapons you see fit. Don't eat breakfast, if you don't want to puke. That is…if you even want to show up."

"Of course we'll show up! We didn't spend years at the academy for nothing! Right teme!?" Naruto screeched whilst point at Sasuke.

"Dobe." He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before turning an expressionless face to Kakashi. "We will show up."

"If Sasuke-kun says we can do it, we can definitely do it." Sakura smiled up at her sensei.

Sasuke sighed. He brought his hands up to his hair.

"So what is this test, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Classified. But I want all of you to think about this. Do you really want to take the life of a ninja? Do you really have what it take-?"

"Hell yeah! I'm going to be the next Hokage, believe it!" Naruto interrupted.

"I was born to be a ninja. My life purpose is to kill a certain someone. You will not dissuade me." Sasuke spoke whilst glaring at Kakashi.

Kakashi laughed. "Very unlikely goals. To become a legend, and to kill a legend. I'd have to make legends of you both." He planned to anyways. The potential of these two, if they could pass his test, was immense. He turned his eye to the girl. "And you? What lofty goal do you have that can harden your heart to take up kunai?"

Sakura bit her lip. She thought of Sasuke. But, it seemed…such an empty goal next to the other's goals. It definitely was not a goal worth dying for. Right? She thought of Ino. Ino had to uphold her family's honor. That is why she was a ninja. Sakura, however, was civilian born. As a child, she just thought that becoming a ninja would be really cool, just like being a princess would be. On a whim, she ended up at the academy. "I…I just want to serve my village."

Kakashi said nothing.

"Great goal, Sakura-chan!" Naruto bellowed. He flashed a wide smile at her.

"Dismissed. I'll see you three in five hours."

The three hopeful genin prepared to leave.

"Girl. Stay." Kakashi watched Sakura.

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei" Sakura replied.

The boys glanced from Sakura to their teacher but both longed to get in some sleep before the test tomorrow.

"I bet I can run faster out of the academy than you can, teme"

"As if, dobe."

"Wanna bet?" Naruto glared.

"Give it your best shot, loser" Sasuke taunted.

The two ran off.

Kakashi stared down at the tiny genin girl. The academy seemed even quieter and more dismal with Naruto and Sasuke's absences. "You should not show up tomorrow." Like Rin, like Obito, those who were not strong died.

"What?" She blinked. Had her sensei just…disowned her?

"You are not suited for the life of a ninja. Maybe you could be a medic ninja working at the hospital. Your chakra control is reportedly good. I could introduce you to one of the women working there, and you could start training. It is far more suited for you. This team is meant to be on the frontlines. You will only hinder Sasuke and Naruto. I may ask for a replacement genin to take your position. This is for the best, Sakura. You have no reason to die." His mind flashed to Rin. She should have never been on the frontlines. It was not strategic to place a medic on a frontlines team. They belonged in the back. Once the battle was over, they could surface. Only Tsunade of the Sannin could fight as a medical ninja on the frontlines.

Sakura blinked again. She could feel tears prickling the corners of her viridian eyes. A couple of the tears trickled down the smooth, pale skin of her cheeks and met her artificially glossy lips. She had applied a healthy dose of lip gloss that morning in an attempt to look beautiful for Sasuke. "I…I am not good enough to be on Sasuke-kun's team?"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes at her. She was just a young girl, yet her entire existence seemed to be defined as the pursuit of a boy. "No, Sakura. You are not. You do not have the natural potential to be. But you could be a promising medic."

The tears came harder. Everything she had obsessed over for the past couple of years came crashing down upon her. Ino's voice met her ears "You're weak, Sakura. Why would Sasuke ever go for you over me? Especially with that stupid, ugly forehead of yours." "No."

"Pardon?"

Sakura clenched her fists. "No." At the moment, Sasuke was her only goal. As flimsy of a goal as that may be, she could not give it up. She could not let Ino or the girls that had teased her throughout her academy years win. She would not let people define what she could and could not do anymore. She could picture her inner self smashing down upon all of her enemies. Sakura knew that she needed a goal outside of Sasuke. For the moment, that goal became thundering everything she had into proving her sensei wrong. "I said no. I don't want to be a medic ninja. I want to fight on the frontlines with Sasuke-kun and Naruto. With my team. I'm showing up for the test tomorrow." She huffed and spun on her heel, intent on marching back to her home and her warm bed.

"Sakura, if this is about Sasuke…it's a stupid reason to die." Kakashi's voice caused her to abruptly halt.

She turned over her shoulder and observed Kakashi under a thin layer of pink hair. Green, teary eyes burned through the strands of hair. "I may like Sasuke. But in case you haven't noticed, I'm an actual person, and maybe I do things for myself and not for Sasuke sometimes." She left the academy.

Kakashi sighed at her retreating figure. One new dead kunoichi.