Fic Title Meme asks (that keep turning into mini fics so they're on here now too)
Summary: Post-Fourth Shinobi War, Sakura has experience on her side, strength rivalling Tsunade's and a will stronger than half a dozen shinobi put together. She was scoffed at when Sakura voiced her goal to join the ANBU. Scoffed at.
(Sakura has never been good at laying down and letting people stomp over her dreams. She will get into the ANBU, even if it kills her.)
The ANBU Black-ops serve directly under the Hokage. They get the hardest missions. They're made of iron and blood and endurance and willpower. They're the strongest shinobi Konoha has to offer.
Post-Fourth Shinobi War, Sakura has experience on her side, strength rivalling Tsunade's and a will stronger than half a dozen shinobi put together. She was scoffed at when Sakura voiced her goal to join the ANBU. Scoffed at.
The only people who didn't look at her sideways, brows furrowed in disbelief and rejection on the tip of their tongue, ironically enough, was Captain Yamato and Sai.
Sai and Yamato have never been in the regular forces, bred for ANBU since they could walk and talking to them, Sakura feels a little out of her depth.
Sakura has always associated Shikamaru with shadows, but no one is like the shadows more than Sai.
Sai is silent. He makes no noise when he walks, his hands never shake, and his mission focus never wavers. And that's what the ANBU is, Sakura supposes.
Sakura has trained with Naruto who hasn't got a subtle bone in his body, and Sasuke, which speaks for itself. She's had to be loud to even get remembered in her overpowered team.
Sai is quiet. Sai is an assassin. Sai doesn't even blink at Sakura's admission. Instead, he tells her what she has to do, what she has to change to get there.
Sai tells her it isn't impossible. Sai tells her she is ANBU material.
Training with Sai is hard. Harder than any training she's done before. It's easy to forget that Sai has been at the level of the ANBU for years, that he is used to this training and used to the rigmarole and the brutality and the pain of it all on an entirely different level than Team 7 could imagine.
Sai trains her like she's never trained before. he refines her skills, makes her quiet, makes her invisible, makes her dangerous in a whole new way.
It's thrilling. More thrilling than it should be.
Sakura applies for the ANBU the day Sai thinks she's ready, the same day that Sai is promoted. He's one step closer to his own goal of being Commander, and Sakura has never coped well with being left behind.
The Chuunin exams are pathetic in the face of the ANBU exams. There is no time for sympathy, no time for gentle words and kind faces. It's purpose to see who's fit for the ANBU and kick whoever isn't out.
And if they graduate no recruits, well that's just the way things are.
Sakura does what she's never done before. She's quiet, she's invisible, she uses other people to help her self, she fights with everything she's got.
The ANBU commander, a woman built like she was carved out of the Hokage monument herself doesn't congratulate her. She doesn't smile, she doesn't move, but that's okay. Sakura may have gotten past the first obstacle, but she has a long way to go.
Sai takes her out for drinks that night, or that morning, after she's done patching up the minefield of cuts and bruises and aches that litter her body, and Sai can spare a moment from work to catch up.
Sai studies her face for a long moment, and Sakura can faintly see curiosity in his eyes.
"I don't know why anyone doubted you," he says.
Sakura shrugs in return. "I don't know why anyone doubted you."
(That AU where Sakura joins the ANBU with Sai at her side.)