The Adversity Of Spring

Prolouge:

"Grandmother! Your kimono is so beauliful, you match the flowers!" Sakura, hardly six years old, grinned innocently, wearing her own red and white Festival kimono. The old woman holding her hand, smiled with bright,shineing brown eyes down at her granddaughter. The two generations walked down the soft dirt path in the cherry tree field, the blossoms dancing across the blue sky like snow in spring. Just down the road, one could hear the joy of the Cherry Blossom Festival in which all of Konoha attended to celebrate the coming of spring and the end of the harsh winter months.

"I hope that one day I can have a kimono just like it!" The young girl said fancifully. "And I'll wear it every year during the Cherry Blossom Festival!"

Her Grandmother nodded, "When you're older Sakura you may have this one. But you must make me a promise."

"HAI! I promise! I promise!"

"So readily?" laughed her grandmother.

"HAI!"

"Sakura, you can only wear this Kimono when you go to the Festival with those closest to your heart."

"Those closest to my heart . . . ?" Sakura asked, not fully comprehending.

"This Kimono was given to me by your Grandfather, who had also been my partner when I was still a Ninja. I only wore it to the Cherry Blossom Festival when I go with those I love dearly, for Kimonos hold within them the feelings of the person who wears it. This Kimono holds all my happy memories with my team, my sensei and all my other dear friends and you, Sakura. One day, those feelings will pass to you, and only then will I give you this Kimono. And when you wear it, you'll endowe your positive feelings of love and make this old kimono shine like the blossoms to which you are named after. " The old woman crouched to her knees, coming to look at her young granddaughter in the eyes. "Can you keep this promise to me, my little blossom?"

"Yup! I promise!" Sakura cried, hugging her grandmother around the neck. "Grandma, will those I love like the Kimono too?"

"Never as much as they'll love you."

Chapter I: Speaking to the Dead

Kakashi meditated silently, concentrating on his breathing, yet fully aware of the world around him. His full attention was on the achievment of inner peace today and hopefully he wouldn't be disturbed by his beloved, albeit tiring, pupils. He had a feeling today would be peaceful in every sense of the world. Poor Kakashi, he was very wrong. It was about at the point that his breathing had reached the sallowness of sleep, that Iruka made his presence known to the superior ninja by walking up the hill, whistleing and looking around for the instructor and his pupils on this day. When he noticed the comatose state of his friend, he laughed. Kakashi made the most humorous and stern face when he was meditating - he looked more like a gray-haired monkey rather than a devoted ninja.

"Sooooo..." Iruka began, plopping himself next the meditating Jounin and laying down to look at the bright, blue sky. "Where are the kids?"

"..." Exhale.

"Off training, or in Naruto's case at the Ramen stand! Haha." Iruka said, feeling kind of awkward, talking to himself more or less. "How are they coming along?"

"..." Inhale.

"Good! I knew it. They're really great students - most of the time. You know, I think Naruto would be so much farther along if he'd actually paid attention when he was at the Ninja academy, but I will certainly admit he caught up very well. Very well... indeed." His eyes shifted to look at the Jounin, who hadn't moved.

"..." Exhale.

"Anyways! When you're done, let's go find them. I think they might like to go get some food or somethin. It is a sunday after all, most Ninja's rest today." The Chounin was beginning to wonder whether or not Kakashi was even awake! "Yup, resting does the body good."

"Kind of like milk?"

"Ah! You spoke!" Iruka cried.

"I was finishing up." Kakashi said, relaxing and pulled on his vest."I sent them into the woods to train. They needed it, the more discipline, the better. They've, and I mean mostly Sakura, has been slacking."

"Sakura!" Iruka raised an eyebrow. "You're kidding me right?"

"I wish I were, but no she's been slacking; missing training sessions; technique and survival lessons. I'm not entirely sure what's wrong, but I think it has something to do with her home life." Kakashi said. "But that's just a hunch."

"So you sent her off with Sasuke and Naruto?" Iruka looked at the Jounin skeptically. "Those two will fight until the other's dead from exhaustion, and not until. You of all people should know that! "

"Actually, I gave them both instructions to attack her and only her."

"EH!"

Sakura ducked another one of Sasukes fatal kicks, feeling the after-wind blow her hair. Why were they both going up against her! She hardly had time to jump away as one of Naruto's doppleganger copies let out his foot to trip her, and she grasped a tree limb swinging herself up and over it, land safetly to the ground. But once again, with lightening fast speed, Sasuke was on her tail, throwing punches at her like a demon from hell. She felt she was lucky that he hadn't used his Sharingan on her yet - not that she'd had time to use many techniques, she was far too busy defending herself! She blocked one of his punches with her hand, twisted and kicked him away as hard as she could with her left foot, sending her partner flying into the bushes. Just the four more doppleganger copies jumped from the trees, two disappearing under the ground while the other two distracted her. She knew this technique! If she didn't move quickly enough, she'd be pulled underground by the copies - the two above ground were attacking too quickly. When had she gotten so slow?

Then it happened, a hand grasped her foot and she was pulled under ground up to her head. All the copies disappeared in a puff of smoke and Naruto was left standing there looking rather smug about his victory. Sasuke had finally pulled himself out of a prickleberry bush, scratches all over his arms and face.

Glaring up at them she demanded, "Why were you both attacking me!" And not each other. . .

"Well,cause you're gettin' slow Sakura-chan." Naruto said, as bluntly as he'd always been.

"And Kakashi told us too." Sasuke said, not even wincing as he pulled out thorns. "You've been skipping training sessions."

"I have not!" She knew that was a lie. She knew she hadn't been as present as she should have been adn she hadn't practiced as much as she should have. But how could she practice? With all the things going on, and all the yelling and fighting and bickering - how could she concentrate on anything else? To her, everything seemed to be falling to pieces in a matter of weeks. The reason - she couldnt' even think about it without crying - and she could not let Naruto or Sasuke know about it. She just felt that, compared with them, her problems were not important. She didn't want them to worry unnecessarily about her either, it would be a wasted effort for both of them when they had their own dreams to work towards.

"Hey! Look!" Naruto called, "It's Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei! Whooohoo! Is it lunchtime?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You should pull yourself out of there." He looked down at Sakura and then greeted his teachers with a simple nod.

"Sasuke," Iruka greeted, "Looks like Sakura got you good. Smack into the busehs."

"It was a lucky hit." Sasuke defended himself. "I miscalculated."

"I pulled her underground! Haha!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly, not really knowing his affect on his female partner. "You were right Kakashi-sensei... she was getting slow."

"When am I wrong?" Kakashi thought and then said, "Hai. Hai."

"Why did you tell them to only attack me!" Sakura demanded, not in the least happy as she managed to pull one of her arms free from the soil. Half of her mind was on the fact that varied, assorted and creepy bugs could be crawling on her at any moment. A shiver ran down her spine just thinking of that notion, giving her more incentive to free herself from the solid earth. And another arm came.

"You haven't trained as hard as you should have," Kakashi began.

"I know that." She said. "But I've-"

He interrupted her and said sternly, ignoring her input,"And your techniques are getting soft. Especially your taijutsu, I've told you many a time to practice, but you didn't listen to me."

"Well, things have been -" She was nearly out of the Naruto-dug hole. This was harder to do than she'd anticipated.

"You should be concentrating on becoming a superior and valuable ninja for Konoha. It should be your main objective, no matter what is going on in your life or otherwise. Being a Ninja is what you should strive to be, and that takes work and concentration and dedication." So Kakashi continued to lecture her.

She was out of the hole and fuming, "SHUT UP! MAYBE I DON'T WANT TO BE A NINJA ANYMORE!" She couldn't continue as she choked on her last words, shocking everyone and regretting everything realizing that from this point, there was no turning back. Naruto stiffened and gapped with his mouth open, Iruka looked like a deer in headlights, Kakashi's expression hadn't changed and Sasuke . . . Sasuke. . . was looking at her in way she couldn't identify. It was unnerving and reminded of the time she'd put down Naruto for not having a family, but there was certainly something 'off' about his eyes. They were not nearly as cold as they were that time. She couldn't take this, she couldn't bear his eyes boring into her as if he could see everything she thought, felt and knew.

Then, she began to cry.

Then, she ran.

As fast as her legs could carry her.

Far, far away from those dark, mysterious eyes.

She didn't know how long she'd been running, but she did know that her lungs felt filled with sulfer and her legs burned like hell on a bad day. Yet, the young shinobi kept moving. She'd run through the woods, into town, out of the town gates and was running along a path that led to who-knows-where, as long as she could be alone she would travel any distance at this point. When she finally did stop, it was nearly sundown and she was covered in grim and sweat, her hair was matted and stuck to her neck and forehead, her legs cramped and spasmed under her as she fell to the ground and her lungs kept heaving in oxygen painfully. It wasn't until this point in the day that she realized how immature and rash she'd reacted, earlier she had made a vow not to let her comrades and teacher know that she was troubled - she'd failed miserably. And Kakashi-sensei was probably arleady explaining to them that . . . tears welled in her eyes as she thought of it.

Her grandmother had passed away, just a week ago.

She'd always been close to her grandmother, often going shopping with her, learning how to sew and mend clothes, how to cook delicious, secret recipies and it was always her grandmother who had taken her to the Cherry blossom festval. But her gentle, kind grandmother was gone, and the festival was only a week away. Who was she to go with now? Her mother was still in mourning and refused to go until she felt ready to stop wearing black kimonos, her father was always busy with the store and she was left to go all by herself - which completely defeated the point of the festival. Sakura missed her so much, never having experianced the death of someone so close to her, this was one of the most difficult things she'd ever felt. When she thought of her grandmother, she remembered Sasuke who had lost his entire family to his own brother and Naruto who never knew what it was like to have a family at all, and she thought, "How can I face them?" "I was so insensitive." "Sasuke was right, I'm disgusting." Those thoughts tormented her, and she ever slept anymore - prefering to sit in her grandmothers room and read old books that she'd read Sakura when she was but a little girl. She hardly ate, letting her body eating away at itself. She hardly saw Naruto or Sasuke, not being able to look them in the eyes. She was so ashamed of herself.

She didn't sit for long. Crying, she walked about a mile back to the very outskirts of town and into the Cherry Tree Orchards, the pink petals shining orange and yellow in the sunset light, giving her a feeling of being in a world not her own. The trees swayed in the gentle breeze languidly, waving at her in greeting and the petals brushing against her skin in caresses. Spring was still new, and the wind still carried with it the chill of winter, causing goosebumps to sprout on her skin as she crossed her arms to warm herself. But her moment of tranquility was disrupted by a weird groan. She thought, at first, that it was an old tree being pushed by the wind, but then it was obvious that it was human as she drew closer to the source.

She cried out when she saw the human body. It was obviously female by the shapely legs, slender arms and the dark, matted, purpleblack hair that covered her face and spread out in long waves. Her ninja clothes were torn, a more feminine version of the men's green vests of Konoha was dirty, ripped and bloodied. Sakura, being in many battles herself, knew the smell of blood instantly - and this woman ranked of it. The ironic part being, she was covered in the delicate petals of spring, like nature had placed its own protective blanket upon her to shield her till help (a.k.a. Sakura) arrived. The young girl bent over the womans body and turned her over - she was definitly a high-ranking ninja from Konoha. First, Sakura laid her head on the womans breast and heard, very faintly, a heartbeat. She acted, as honed instincts had told her too. Ripping her skirt with a kuni and tieing it around the bloodiest of wounds, Sakura worked quickly, using her own Chakura to feed energy into the dieing body.

"Please stay with me! Please!" Sakura whispered. How was she going to get help? If she left... the woman could die! If Sakura didn't, then she definitly WOULD and that unacceptable! Sakura had allowed her grandmother to waste away, she would not let this woman die! She would not! She refused to every god known to mankind - this woman would live dammnit. Then, as if ordained, she got an idea. Leaving the womans body temporarliy, Sakura quickly formed teh hand-motions and cried out, "Kage bunshin no jutsu", and one perfect copy of Sakura was smiling at her.

"Run to the village and get healers and transportation! HURRY!" Sakura cried, returning to feeding her chakura into the womans life-force. It was a very draining technique she'd learned in her Healer's class, taught by the one and only Tsunade no Hokage. Sakura knew that her expended and split chakura would not last long, but she hoped that her copy would make it to the village and get help.

Naruto and Sasuke sat together at the Ichiraku noodle stand, slurping their food silently both off in their own worlds. The two had taken to eating dinner together when they could manage it, neither having anyone to eat with most of the time. Naruto was contemplating Sakura and her attitude that day, he had seen her emtional, but never like that. It had certainly shocked him, but for some reason, he felt that Sasuke was little more shaken than he. Maybe it was because of the way he ate his noodles, more slowly and more delibrately than usual, instead of his nonchalant way of eating like it was a waste of his precious time.

"So..." Naruto began. "Are you worried?"

"Don't ask dumb questions."

Naruto sighed, "I am. I mean, I don't know what it's like to lose family," He laughed sardonically, "I haven't had anyone to lose, 'cept you guys."

Sasuke threw a sideways glance at his friend and rival. Never had Naruto actually opened up to him in such a manner, they'd joked before, they'd spoken to each other, but never about anything personal - it was a common, unspoken pact not too.

"She'll work through it." Sasuke said confidently.

"Are you sure?" Naruto bit his bottom lip in frustration. "I want to help dammnit! It's not fair! It's just not."

"No, but death never is." agreed the boy stoically. "But Sakura's a strong person."

Before Naruto could answer, he was hit in the head so hard he went face first into the noodles with a very loud yelp and then bubbley girgle. Fuming, he pulled his head out and glared at . .. SAKURA! What was she doing? Had she lost her mind! "SAKURA-CHAN! Why'd you do that?"

"That's not Sakura," Sasuke observed. "It's a shadow copy. "

"Nani?"

"Hurry! Get help and go to the cherry blossom field!" Copy Sakura's voice was cracking and her body began to fade as she struggled to maintin her existance. As a final plea, she cried out," Medics and transportation! Hurry!" And with a puff of pinkish smoke, the copy disappeared without a trace. Without finishing their supper or even looking at one another, the two boys jumped into action and made a straightline for the hospital, jumping buildings and and all.

Shizune stepped into Tsunade's private office, "Tsunade-sama, we've had reports of Akatsuki members being spotted on our borders. Ma'm, who would like me to send to investigate this?"

Tsunade looked up, placing a pen to her mouth, feeling anxious at hearing the Akatsuki being mentioned. They never brougth anything but trouble, and it was usually really bad when you actually heard reports of their activities. They were a covert group at this point, working solely to quietly build up their strength and gather information, to what end, the Fifth Hokage could not say.

She thought for a moment, "Send Kakashi, and tell him to do this secretly. I do not want to cause any sort of upheaval within the village until we know exactly what is going on. But put the highest ranking Jounin's on full alert - secretly. We must keep this quiet."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama." Shizune bowed. "You don't think he's behind this . . . maybe?"

Tsunade frowned, "Maybe. While I won't assume, I won't make the mistake of ruling Orochimaru out either. Though, I think he'd use their recent public activities to lure us into a trap of sorts, that's more his style. But like I said, keep this covert and under-wraps, it's for the best at this point. "

"Hai. I'll go and send Kakashi his orders immediately."

"Go yourself, and don't be seen."

"HAI!" Shizune was gone before the last syllable was uttered, and it was merely an echo within Tsunade's ears.

"Please do not let this be Orochimaru. . . please." She prayed silently to herself.

Sakura let out a sigh of relief when dark green eyes opened up to look at her, slowly and one could only open halfway from the swelling bruise. The woman was steadily breathing now and despite her mangled body and cut up face, Sakura easily assume that she was beautiful. "My name is Haruno Sakura." She announced in a calm voice. "You're going to be alright! I promise. My friends should be here any moment with help and healers to take care of you. Can you speak?"

Her lips moved in a struggle to make sound, but she eventually managed to say her name, "Toshiya Shurei."

"Oh! Please don't fall asleep again!" Sakura cried when the woman's eyes began to droop and flutter uncontrollably. "Wake up! I'm begging you!" She nearly screaming when seh heard the roar of an engine and feet hitting the ground. Looking behind her she saw Sasuke and then Naruto dropping beside him and quickly turned her eyes to the woman whose head rested in her lap.

"What happened?" Naruto exlaimed. "Did you two get in a fight with someone! Tell us!"

Sakura bit her lip, feeling blood drip into her mouth, for she could not answer her partners.

"Don't worry about it now, Naruto." Sasuke said, "The healers and ambulance are here. I'm sure she, whoever she is, will give us plenty of answers when she awakens. "

"Toshiya Shurei." Sakura said. "That's her name. She woke up but a minute ago, then . . . she passed out again! I was useless! I couldn't do anything at all!" Sakura cried out, tears welling in her eyes.

A big hand, larger than either Sasuke's or Narutos placed itself on her shoulder. "Don't worry girl, we'll take care of her from now on. The hospital healers are waiting at the hospital to heal her. Don't worry." He said again, and he and his partner lifted the injured woman onto a stretcher, strapped her downa nd carried her gently into the ambulance where they began to administer chakura from a female healer and liquid from an I.V. drip. The large man came back and told them to get into the front seat of the ambulance because the one who did this might still be around.

First Naruto entered into ambulance, hopping in excitedly as he dared to be, never having ridden in one before. Then Sasuke climbed in, but he looked back at Sakura, who hadn't moved an inch, she was simply staring at her bloodied hands.

"Go get her, we don't have time to waste." The man said, shutting the door n the drivers side. "She'll need to see a counselor when we get back."

"Hai." Sasuke said, following the order without hesitation, for he had been thinking the exact same thing. Sakura was pale, and her eyes wide as she stared at the blood that covered and surrounded her. She didnt even look at him as he approached and stopped in front of her, her vision focused on her hands.

"I - I couldnt' do anything for her Sasuke-kun." She said, trembling. "She . . . she wouldn't stop bleeding and the skin was so cold. So cold. . . . like my grandmothers had been. I- I"m so sorry!" She buried her face in her hands.

"Sakura, " He said sternly, grabbing her hands away from her face and kneeling to look her in the eye. "You did well. Let's go home."

Sakura had always been emotional. She'd always hugged Sasuke when it came to anything but her own problems, she'd always wanted him to know she was there for him and that he could depend on her no matter what. But this time, when she threw arms around his neck, it was for her own support and she prayed that he wouldn't push her away or curse her. He didn't have to do anything, just letting her stay like that for a moment would be good enough. But Sasuke surprised her with a soft hand on the back of her head, he was conceding. It was a very small gesture, and out of character for her aloof partner, so she promised to make it up to him first chance she could - both he and Naruto.

Sasuke felt . . . weird and very awkward showing any kind of affection. But what else could he do? This hadn't occured under any sort of normal circumstance and he knew how Sakura felt in every way. He empathized and realized that he wished he'd had a should to cry on when he was child, though he would never tell her or anyone for that matter, his feelings on that subject. She'd been keeping her pain and sorrow to herself, pushing him and Naruto away and keeping them at a stern distance so as not to worry them. In doing so, she'd brought herself to the brink of a nervous break-down, and this incident was the trigger. Someone had to put a halt to it, someone had to give Sakura a little strength to depend on. He was her partner and . . . her friend. He would lend that necessary strength so that she would become the girl he knew so well. He had found he missed Sakura over the past weeks that she had avoided him. Her incessant talking had become a welcome familiarity that he had taken for granted until it was no longer there. So, with those thoughts, he felt a little less awkward about letting her cry so openly. . . on his shoulder . . . in front of quite a few people . . .

She pulled away, knowing this wasn't easy for him. "Thank you, Sasuke-kun." She quickly wiped her eyes dry and gave him a forced smile.

"Let's go."

"Hai."

Author's Note: Well . . . the beginning is always rough and this was no exception. First Naruto fan-fic, and it'll be mostly about Sakura, how she deals with life and how she decides to become the strongest Ninja possible for more than just Sasuke. And I'm going to play with Kakashi quite a bit too, hahaha. Sorry, I love torturing him. And sorry people, no YAOI in this. I can't write YAOI very well. . . . it usually ends up . . . well just really crappy. Anywho, hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Wish it could have been at tad longer - but this is good. I may do a revamp later or somethin. . . Ciao.

P.S. I'm assuming Rin is dead . . . correct me if I'm wrong. And REVIEW! THANKS!

Definitions:

Healer: Docter, but I figured the term would be wrong because they don,t just use medicine and technological means to heal, they use Chakura as well.