The sun inched over the treetops on a still morning in the Land of Waves. Slowly, it crept through the panel-less window onto the futon of a young girl. Pink hair spread haphazardly about the cover, which rose and fell gently. Softly, the girl's face tilted sleepily towards the sun until her eyes twitched beneath its gaze.
Several minutes later, Sakura Haruno drearily eased the door shut from the room she shared with Tsunami-san, who would not be up quite yet. As she walked in the rough-hewn wooden kitchen she caught sight of her two teammates. Naruto, as expected, could not last the wait and was snoring on the table, a trickle of drool edging out of his mouth. Sasuke, as always, looked none the worse for wear in the early hours, but after a second, careful look she saw how his eyelids dipped ever so slightly more than usual. Clearly he was not so above sleeping in as he appeared, but his pride would never let him show it.
Sakura giggled at the thought, also causing Naruto to snort and raise his head.
"Guh mornin' Sakura-chan..." Sakura ignored him as she saw Sasuke direct his gaze to her. She immediately cleared her throat of her morning phlegm.
"Good morning Sasuke-kun… Naruto." Sasuke just nodded in acknowledgment, too tired to even give a 'hn'. Naruto slowly unstuck himself from the table and walked over to a cabinet where a stock of wrapped rice balls had been prepared ahead of time while they were training. He grabbed a bundle and passed them out to his teammates. Sasuke took his without a glance and Sakura accepted hers quietly then joined the boys at the table. They ate in silence save for the birds noisily chirping outside. Sasuke finished his first and leaned back, stretching like a cat.
Eventually several minutes had passed. Naruto, who'd begun nodding off again, shook his head roughly and stood up.
"This sucks! Where is Kakashi-sensei? I gotta get back to training! I don't have time to save him from some black cat that crossed his path." Sakura, who'd normally berate his outburst, looked down at her hands, unwilling to voice her agreement. Sasuke stood up as well, but for a different reason.
"Now Naruto, one day when you come across a black cat on your way to your inauguration as Hokage and you trip and fall and land in the hospital and they pick Sasuke to be Hokage because you never showed… I'd hate to say I told you so," Kakashi said happily from behind Naruto, who jumped and fumbled for his kunai pouch at the first word. His instincts might have been impressive had he not cut his thumb and dropped the kunai to the floor, cursing. Sasuke rolled his eyes, while Sakura handed Naruto his fallen kunai but only after lightly rapping his knuckles with it in admonishment first.
Soon they'd returned to the forest clearing where yesterday's training to protect Tazuna-san had begun. Sakura knew Naruto and even Sasuke still had plenty of work to do climbing trees. However, there was still a lot of time before Kakashi-sensei would be able to fight again, and Sakura had already reached the top of the tree at the end of the previous day. Sakura wondered what training she would be doing now. Honestly coming out so far ahead of not only Naruto but also Sasuke in something had made her want to simply set out to town with Tazuna-san instead of more training.
Finally, Kakashi cleared his throat. "Today we're going to briefly switch tracks."
Naruto hollered in excitement, drowsiness forgotten. Sasuke stood at attention. Sakura watched Kakashi with wide-eyed interest.
"As you know, ninjutsu is one of the three fundamental aspects of the Shinobi Way. As you may or may not know, it is perhaps the most diverse of the three branches." Kakashi carefully set aside his crutches and leaned against a tree. "Every ninja finds their own specialty of jutsu, and every team of ninja develops their own function using their jutsu. Right now, the jutsu we require is solely combat-based." Kakashi observed Naruto twisting his pinkie in his ear, bemused. Well, he knew a way to get his attention. "Sakura," he turned, startling her somewhat. Naruto quickly removed his finger in deference. "What can you tell me about Elemental Jutsu?"
"A-ah, well…" she drew herself up, "in addition to specific Ninja Arts, ninjutsu can be used with an elemental affinity. There are five affinities, and each is strong against one type and weak against another. Different people are good with different affinities, and the Five Great Nations are all named after the types of elemental jutsu their ninja are most likely to use," she dutifully recited. Kakashi nodded.
"Good, now, one among you is already capable of elemental jutsu… Sasuke." Sasuke grunted. "How many Fire Style jutsu can you do?"
"Three," he muttered, "but one of them still… gives me some trouble."
"Interesting. Why can you use fire jutsu?" Sasuke fidgeted a bit.
"Every Uchiha can do them. It's a rite of passage."
"Yes, of course, perhaps I should have asked it differently..." Kakashi thumbed his masked chin, "why is it fire justu that the Uchiha became known for?" Sasuke said nothing. Sakura tried to think, but Kakashi continued anyway. "I'll tell you, because their chakra has fire affinity, and this affinity tends to run in families. So, Sasuke, when could you first use fire-type chakra?"
"...I was eight," he answered slowly.
"Impressive," Sasuke grimaced slightly, "one last thing: what do you have to do with your chakra in a fire jutsu that's different from normal justu?"
"Breathe. Using fire jutsu is about collecting chakra in your upper body and unleashing it with proper breath control… but no one ever told me that," he added.
"Indeed. You see kids, every person's chakra leans toward an element. For Sasuke here, it's obviously fire-type. But there are five affinities, and ninja are capable of learning more than one affinity. Your chakra nature is really more of a spectrum of how strong each of your affinities are, and as you learn to use your chakra you'll automatically gear towards the strongest one, but training can allow you to change your chakra nature to perform different techniques. Most jounin—such as myself—are able to use two types of elemental ninjutsu. You, Sasuke, can naturally use fire-type chakra, but you can learn to use more."
"So hey, Kakashi-sensei, what's your elemental-thingie?" Naruto all but shouted in excitement.
"Me? Why I can copy any type of jutsu thanks to my Sharingan," he said humbly, "...but you might say I'm best at the Lightning Style."
"I wanna learn 'em all!" Naruto declared. Sasuke snorted.
"Naruto!" Sakura barked, "don't get so cocky! In Konohagakure only Sandaime-sama is able to use all five types of jutsu! At least, that's what I read..." she said, unsure.
"Well you're not wrong Sakura. I don't really count since my Sharingan allows my body to memorize the change in chakra nature that my opponents do. For most ninja, it's not practical to focus on so much variety. You'll most likely wind up with a bunch of weak jutsu that you can't even use correctly," Kakashi responded. "Sandaime-sama has been a shinobi for a very long time. He's even called 'the Professor' for his prodigious mastery of different jutsu. Now..." Kakashi reached into his vest where several pieces of paper emerged. "This is a type of litmus paper made from trees grown with chakra. It was rather good I thought to bring them just in case hm?" he crinkled his single eye. "This paper is highly sensitive to chakra, and it will react in accordance with your chakra's strongest nature. Like this." He held the slip between his fingers where it crinkled together. "As lightning chakra is easiest for me to use, the paper will shrivel when I run my chakra through it. Therefore, the first thing we need to do is use this to test your chakra nature." He handed a piece of the paper to Naruto and Sakura, then stopped by Sasuke. "Now for you… you already knowing fire chakra makes this more difficult. If you focus your chakra on the paper normally, it will catch fire. In order to find a new nature you will need to control your chakra without tapping any fire nature at all. Think about your fire type jutsu, and focus on keeping all that fire affinity out of it." Sasuke nodded and took the paper.
Sakura quickly went through the steps to focus her chakra. She formed a seal with the paper between her fingers and closed her eyes. Naruto glanced back and forth between her and his paper rapidly. Sakura felt the stirrings of chakra come from her center, and directed it towards the paper.
"Woah!" she heard from her left. Sakura opened her eyes and saw that the paper had turned into a soggy mess in her hands. "Sakura-chan got it to work already… you're so awesome!" she stared at her hands in wonder, ignoring Naruto's exclamation.
"Water style huh? That's pretty common," Kakashi nodded, and then looked at Naruto.
"Alright! Now it's my turn…!" Naruto held out his hand with the paper in it and shut his eyes. He hummed softly to himself as if he were attempting to enter some kind of zen-like state, but his face started to turn red in strain.
"Naruto, remember what I told you yesterday?" Sakura rolled her eyes. "Your chakra won't work when you're all pent up like that! Loosen your body and try to feel out your chakra naturally."
"Oh yeah! You're right Sakura-chan~" She sighed while Sasuke watched him quietly. They waited several seconds. Naruto didn't move an inch. A small breeze ruffled Sakura's hair just as a whistle rang out.
"I think I got it!" Naruto shouted as two pieces of paper fluttered out of his hand, split in two. Sasuke narrowed his eyes while Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
"Ho, wind style is pretty rare," he said.
"Not bad, Naruto!" Sakura grinned. Sasuke turned to his paper, held in one hand. In less than a second, he set it aflame.
"Show-off," Naruto muttered. Kakashi immediately handed him another paper.
"Dummy, he probably only did that so he knew what it felt like," Sakura hissed softly while Sasuke concentrated on his new paper.
Naruto rocked on his heels as Sasuke concentrated for an entire minute. Sakura watched anxiously until finally, Sasuke opened his eyes to a wrinkled paper.
"Well then… lightning…" Kakashi said quietly. "That will come in handy later," Kakashi thought to himself.
"Sasuke-kun's so cool!" Sakura thought gleefully. An idea occurred to her. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei, may I have another paper? I think I could change my chakra..."
"Hm… if you can, it would definitely be something," Kakashi replied, handing her another piece.
She took the paper and focused again. This time she felt her chakra come easily, but held it down to try and keep out the water chakra. The tendrils of chakra came without effort, but keeping it contained was hard. She was reminded of whack-a-mole at the summer festival. She could bring out some chakra so easily, but reigning it in was a lot harder, like keeping a tension in her body but not letting it free, yet she was not actively straining her muscles like Naruto had. It was an odd sensation. Eventually, she felt something different, and pushed it forward.
"Well! That is something," Kakashi said happily as a handful of dust fell from Sakura's fingers. "For you to successfully alter your chakra nature after so little time… well, the chakra control you demonstrated yesterday certainly helps with that." Kakashi held his chin. "It's more than that though. Most likely her chakra alignment spectrum has water and earth very close to the other in strength. Looks like water nature is the slightly stronger of the two. This also means that between the three of them they possess all five nature transformations." He eyed Sakura who wobbled a little on her feet.
"Are you okay, Sakura-chan?" Naruto motioned as if to steady her, but held back in fear of repercussion.
"Y-yeah, just felt a bit dizzy," she replied. Sasuke sighed as he watched them, knowing what had happened.
"Well, her talent for chakra control might also be a result of her low stamina. The more chakra you have, the harder it is to control, after all," Kakashi observed. After Sakura steadied herself Kakashi gingerly stepped off of his tree and clapped his hands. "Alright kids, here's the deal. The reason I did this is because the fact of the matter is we're in a very dangerous situation. In order to have the best chance of success, everyone here needs to do whatever they can to increase their strength. I hadn't expected to go beyond tree-climbing, but yesterday proved that Sakura needs something else to keep her occupied until the next confrontation with Zabuza."
"Well… shouldn't we protect Tazuna-san until then?" Sakura raised her hand.
"Well, the short answer is that Zabuza is likely the strongest ninja the enemy has at their disposal, and he failed once already. After that, it's unlikely they would attack with anyone else; doing so would only mean a greater defeat. However, Zabuza will be out of commission for at least as long as me."
"In other words, guarding Tazuna would serve no point until Zabuza recovers," Sasuke said slowly, "instead we should raise our battle strength while we can."
"Very good, Sasuke," Kakashi raised a finger, "however, a ninja must consider many possibilities if they are to succeed. Tazuna not being attacked by any of Gato's other men is merely unlikely. Furthermore, it's also possible that Zabuza has a medical ninja at his side, which would dramatically speed up his recovery. As he is a rogue ninja and medical ninja are in short supply, this is also unlikely… but not impossible, understand?"
"Hmm..." Naruto furrowed his brow, "I don't get it Kakashi-sensei, are we gonna be guarding Tazuna-ojichan or not?"
"We'll have to compromise," he replied.
"You mean we need to do both?" Sakura asked.
"Yes, and there is one technique that will help us do just that: Kage Bunshin no Jutstu. Naruto?" The blonde grinned.
"I see Kakashi-sensei, you need my awesome jutsu to complete this mission, right?" he crossed his fingers and a dozen Narutos appeared with a poof.
"Settle down, Naruto, one clone is good enough. You need to keep that chakra for your training," Kakashi held out a hand. "This will only be for the next few days until I'm well enough to do the same thing."
"Eh~ Kakashi-sensei can do Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?" Naruto bemoaned.
"Of course, loser, it's practically one of Konoha's signature jutsu," Sasuke muttered.
"That's right, Naruto, me knowing it should hardly be surprising," Kakashi bowed while Sakura suppressed a snort, "it is common among jounin and stronger chunin in Konoha. The technique's unique aspects mean it can be quite dangerous when not used properly, so it is restricted until then."
"Restricted? It seemed to me that scroll was a bigger deal than that!" Naruto said huffily.
"The version of the technique contained in that scroll is even more dangerous, Naruto," Kakashi said idly, "you're probably the only ninja in Konoha that can use it the way you do. Anyone else could die trying." Naruto opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish for a few moments. Sakura could tell Sasuke was irritated with this information, and braced herself for a loud hoot from her orange teammate. Unexpectedly, Naruto crossed his arms and looked down.
"But… why?"
"We'll talk about it later, Naruto." Kakashi ushered the clone in the direction of the town, "for now have your clone go out with Tazuna, and don't worry, if anything happens, you'll know." The clone shrugged at its dumbfounded original and leaped into the trees on all fours like some sort of animal.
Kakashi gestured to the boys."Now you two, get back to your trees. Your goal is to reach the top, however long it takes."
"Eh~? I wanna learn some cool wind jutsu, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto complained.
"Naruto!" Sakura said tersely to the blonde, who cowered. "You won't be able to do difficult jutsu until you can control your chakra better! That's why Kakashi-sensei wants you to complete the tree-climbing training first!" Sasuke shuffled his hands in his pockets and walked to his tree without a word. Naruto scrambled, aghast.
"Hey! Don't think you can get a head-start on me, Sasuke!"
"Loser," Sakura heard. She tuned out Naruto's yelps of pain as he began falling from the tree.
"Well Sakura, you're the only one who gets to start learning new jutsu today," Kakashi visibly grinned beneath his mask.
"Uh, well, I don't really know what kind of techniques I want to learn, sensei," Sakura said, red with embarrassment, looking hurriedly at Sasuke's tree to see if he'd heard.
"Don't worry about it, before that you'll need two things: mastery of water-type chakra and enough stamina to use it… so, that's how we'll start."
Sakura gulped as Kakashi rubbed his hands together.
An hour later Sakura hunched over a small puddle, panting. A mound of dirt with an indent in the side and top lay next to it. Kakashi reclined a short distance away while he thumbed through his book.
"Try to imagine the shape of the water. Using water-type chakra is about controlling change. Water is free-form and versatile. It takes the shape of its container. Try to coat it with your chakra and then manipulate it to use as that container," he called without getting up. Sakura groaned with fatigue. Her arms felt twice as heavy after trying to force her chakra into the puddle, which hadn't so much as rippled.
"I think I need to rest, sensei," she sighed.
"As you wish," he amended, "know that elemental mastery is a vast undertaking, and even getting it to the point of using a basic jutsu can take weeks. This will get easier the more you use your chakra, and will also improve its capacity… for now, at least." Sakura shivered as she considered what he meant by that. She'd been exhausted yesterday, too. She sat back and felt her stomach rumble. With as much haste as she could muster she pulled several rice balls from her pack and began indelicately chomping down on them.
It was with growing frustration that Sakura saw the shadows lengthen and the light filtering through the trees turn orange as the afternoon passed them by. The puddle lay as innocently untouched as when she began, while her entire body stung with chakra exhaustion. Calling on her remaining chakra had become painful, yet some part of her felt acutely familiar with it now. Surely, the academy's basic jutsu has never felt like this before. She ventured she could do a basic clone or substitution much faster than she used to with how easily she could focus her chakra.
Even if water style jutsu were not yet among her techniques.
"Hey… Kakashi-sensei..." Sakura moaned as she let herself fall to the ground with her limbs splayed out. "When can I stop doing this?"
"Before you're ready to learn a jutsu, you should be able to move the water from the puddle to the top of that little mound I made," Kakashi said, carefully returning his book to his pouch. "At this rate that looks to be a few more days at best."
"Has he even been keeping track of me?" Sakura's inner voice growled rebelliously. Kakashi glanced at the shadow of a tree and then made his way over to the boys, whose grunts of exertion had become listless.
"All right all right you two," Kakashi clapped his hands as Sasuke let himself fall from the tree and Naruto slipped at Kakashi's noise. "It's about time for dinner, we don't want to keep Tsunami-san waiting!"
Naruto and Sasuke walked over to where Sakura had been thinking about how comfortable the grass felt.
"Oi, oi, you look beat, Sakura-chan," Naruto chimed as he and Sasuke looked down at her.
"Yeah, well, we can't all be stamina freaks, Naruto!" A nasty voice whispered in her head. Naruto rubbed the back of his head awkwardly then slowly held out his hand.
Sakura looked at it for a moment. She lifted her arm and grasped his wrist. Naruto hefted her to her feet.
"Thanks," Sakura muttered. Naruto's face split into a dopey grin. Sakura felt far too tired to whack him for getting his head in the clouds. She sighed as they trudged back to the house."Oh well, I said I'd be nicer to him, didn't I?" She looked over to her crush as he slouched ahead of her, camouflaged with the dim light and his hands in his pockets. "Still, I wish it had been Sasuke's hand..."
"Hey, buncha ninja, looks like ya gone and killed our paycheck!" the horde of mercenary men armed with cheap weapons encroached on the group of exhausted shinobi. Naruto got into a taijutsu stance, for even he had run out of chakra. Kakashi was down on one knee, having already covered his Sharingan to avoid collapsing. Sakura watched from Sasuke's prone form, her face still sticky from tears before he'd woken up. There was no way he was able to fight either, after a brush with death.
A tension broke inside Sakura. Her teammates and her sensei had been through the fight of their lives, even this group of low-lifes with no chakra control to speak of had become a threat.
But she could fight. Everyone had come so far.
She had to try.
Sakura sprang up to where her team stood against the enemy. There was plenty of water around the bridge from the battle. She just had to focus, and remember the sequence Kakashi-sensei had taught her.
Ne! Inu! Ushi!
Suiton: Suiben no Jutsu!
At her command, A puddle formed up into a thin cord. Exerting the force of her chakra, Sakura compressed the water to the size of a whip. She couldn't manage much more than that. As she directed the whip at the group of thugs they eyed her jutsu in apprehension. She lay her jutsu horizontally and swept it across the men in a wide arc. As a unit, they stepped back, with grunts of pain.
"Urgh… c'mon guys, this little jutsu doesn't hurt much… let's keep goin'!"
"Oh no… a jutsu of this caliber will only slow them down!" Sakura thought desperately. Kakashi watched with his remaining eye narrowed.
"I'm surprised she managed that in this situation, however… that jutsu is suited for single targets, since I was prioritizing the battle against Zabuza and Haku," he stood up as he attempted to draw on his chakra. "She has no options against a group of foes, even if they're weak!" Sakura flexed her chakra, remembering weapon explanation lectures at the academy. She directed the water whip forward with as much lashing motion as she could muster, which would produce a greater impact, but could not cover the entire force.
The right side of the enemy forces cringed in acute pain. The left side halted briefly before continuing. Sakura made her chakra lash out again, but it was becoming harder each time. She hit the left side, bringing a few men to their knees in pain.
"Don't let up, men!" the apparent leader shouted, "a whip hurts but it won't kill ya that easily! Get these ninja scum and then run that town dry!"
"I can't… my chakra…!" Tears formed at Sakura's eyes anew as the group began to advance again. Naruto growled and leaped in front of her, his short stature crouched low.
Twang!
A small crossbow bolt appeared in the space between Team Seven's remaining members and the pillagers.
"Hold it right there!" Inari shouted, "You try an' take one step into our island and you'll all die here and now!" He was flanked by dozens of Wave villagers, all waving tools and other improvised weaponry.
"Way to go Inari!" Naruto yelled as Sakura fell to her knees, chakra spent. Naruto laced his fingers in a familiar sign.
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!
Only a few Naruto's popped into existence, but ever one of them got ready to charge their attackers.
"My chakra's too spent for shadow clones… but maybe normal clones will do the job." Kakashi flipped a few hand signs and the bridge was bursting with Kakashi look-alikes, though they had no shadows, mass or sound.
"Guh..."
"N-never mind!"
"I ain't dyin' today!"
The Wave villagers cheered at the mercenaries hasty retreat. Naruto and Kakashi let their clones disperse. Zabuza's form, impaled by many swords and spears, sputtered.
"Looks like that's it… Kakashi..." he groaned.
"Yeah..."
"I gotta favor to ask… can you… take me over to Haku?"
As Kakashi began pulling out the blades one by one, Zabuza looked over at Naruto and Sakura.
"You kids… you see me right now? This is what it means to be a ninja… You kill and you let your comrades die… and forget how to be human along the way… until you can manage to have a good death yourself… if you're as lucky as me." Naruto clenched his fists as he watched, leaking tears while his lip quivered. Sakura watched balefully from her knees, frozen at the gruesome sight and his words.
Ninja.
Sakura lay the second wreath upon a garish wooden cross. She wanted to reprimand Naruto further as she slapped his hand away from the food offerings, but even after two weeks Zabuza's words were still fresh in her mind.
"Kakashi-sensei… is that really what ninja are? Like Zabuza and Haku were?" she asked with resignation.
"A shinobi is a weapon," he said, rather than answer her, "they willingly sacrifice bonds as they answer their village's call to service. That much is true whether it's Konohagakure, Chi no Kirigakure, or any other village. It is not a shinobi's place to question this reasoning, or why we exist." It sounded like some recitation that he knew. Sakura knew similar ones, but had spent little time imagining what they meant.
"Screw that..." Naruto muttered. Sasuke glanced at Kakashi slowly, his neck still pained from senbon wounds.
"Is that really what you believe… sensei?"
"Well..." Kakashi looked over at Zabuza's grave, struck with his enormous sword. "That's what every shinobi knows. But in my experience, no matter how hard we try, there's no way to ultimately stop contrary thoughts and feelings from brimming beneath our minds. The longer you keep it there, the worse your life as a shinobi will end up… the way Zabuza's did."
"That settles it then," Naruto announced boldly, "I'm going to create my own Way of the Ninja! I'll decide my own destiny!"
Kakashi gave one of his eye-smiles. Sasuke attempted to suppress a smirk. A warmth went through Sakura's chest.
She wanted that too.
As Team Seven departed from the Land of Waves, Sakura eyed Naruto as he tried to hide his blubbering from Tazuna's family while crossing the completed bridge.
"What a bonehead," she thought. Naruto was back to normal before they'd even finished crossing. Naruto's voice had become a familiar sound as he began rattling off a list of things he just had to do when he got back. Unsurprisingly, ramen factored into them. Naruto's enthusiasm made her want to make new accomplishments too.
"Uh… Sasuke… when we get home would you like to… maybe… go out with me?"
"Not really, thanks."
"B-but..."
"Hey! You can go out with me!"
"No way, knock it off, Naruto!" she lunged at the orange-clad shrimp, who nimbly dodged her strikes, laughing. Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, in turn reminding Sasuke of a hen-pecked father. Sasuke was glad for Naruto's distraction, and gave the other two a wide berth.
"I don't ever want to lose these guys… my team," Sakura thought as she and Naruto continued their mock sparring until she tired out. "Ugh, I need to get stronger..."
Hello folks, welcome to my new project! I'll be writing this one inter-changeably with my Pokemon story until that one is finished. Right off the bat, I want to confirm that this will eventually lead towards NaruSaku and SasuHina. It won't really be that way for awhile, but I wanna make that clear. I never really cared for the canon pairings for a number of reasons, but we won't go into that here. Know that I think these two pairings are more interesting and the canon two boring at best. The second pairing is perhaps particularly unusual, but I think it has a lot of potential as a dynamic. You can find a blog post that outlines the dynamic very well on the internet, titled "Quiet Understanding". Kudos to them.
Anyway, I also want to explain that, yes, this will be a full series rewrite, and I fully intend to have Sakura and Hinata as the primary characters for much of it. I can't write Naruto and Sasuke off as… perhaps "less important", however. I'll need to go over to them sometimes. An ambitious a project as any, to be sure. I intended this as a "for want of a nail" style, in which one small change early on drastically affects future outcomes. And come part II, it will. Be. Drastic. I wouldn't want to read it if it were too much like the original series, but it's also important to treat canon with respect. In this case, that "nail" would be Kakashi giving Sakura something else to do besides guarding Tazuna while Naruto and Sasuke work for their victory. I considered that this means Sakura wouldn't get that interaction with the people of Wave, but I decided Naruto getting it instead via clone could be a trade-off.
Remember, writing stories is about solving a single problem, namely, 'how can I make X happen?' I started thinking about this story after what happened in "The Last", where Sakura basically told Naruto that his feelings were imaginary. Uh, what? Anyway, writing stories is also a way for the author to express their thoughts and feelings. So, here they are. I am incredibly adept at wielding and interpreting canon, so I still want this to feel like "Naruto". For that purpose characterization is incredibly important. Also, an author should never write characters as if they hate them. Respect. There are plenty of characters everywhere that people hate, but that doesn't make them bad characters.
Peace.