A bird circled the sky searching for something dead to eat. Civilians milled about the park, children bounced along here and there. The sky was so blue, such a deep shade of blue anyone couldn't imagine it being grey. The sun was a bright yellow blob in the sky, shining down sun rays worthy of a tanning to those pale faced from the winter. Everything was so peaceful in the city, no one payed any attention to the lone pink haired girl sitting under a oak tree.
Her eyes were rimmed with red, others would guess from allergies. Sakura was just so tired of sitting in her room crying for a boy who didn't give a damn about her, she decided to venture outside and see what all the hub-bub was about. She hugged her knees to her chest and glared at that stupid bird, and she even glared at the sun, but not for long because the light was so bright it made her eyes hurt.
She played her hand in the dirt, tracing patterns before erasing them until her hands were encrusted with dirt. She ran her dirtied fingers through her hair, she should have washed it yesterday. Her skin was pale and clammy as if she was recovering from being sick, and her dress was dirty, stained with sweat from yesterday's Tsunade training session. She wiggled her toes, the green nail polish there was chipped, as was the nail polish on her fingers. She looked up and rest her chin on her knees, glaring at any one who dared to smile and laugh by her. After scaring off most of the toddlers and genin skipping class from the academy, she got up, making her way back home, sick of the fresh air.
She should have made a dash over the rooftops, people would look at her with curled noses as she passed. Sakura kept her eyes down, she hated that she looked an absolute mess, she hated crying all the time, she hated being weak. She hated him. She inhaled and exhaled, her breath wavering from a possible sob.
"Sakura!" She heard Ino call from behind her. The pinkette ignored her friend, stealing away in the crowd before the blonde could catch up to her.
No stars, no light.
Full Dark.
When Sakura entered her home, her mother and father had already departed for work. A package was placed on the kitchen counter with her name written on it in neat liberal penmanship.
'Mom.' Sakura sighed. Whenever she had showed signs of depression in the past, especially as a bullied child, her mother had thought gifts and presents would make her daughter feel better. The young Haruno faintly remembered their parents had gotten into a brief fight over it, her father wanted Sakura to become tough and whether the abuse from kids, after all she was going to be a ninja. Sakura opened the box, and pulled out a black shirt and matching pants and shoes.
'New training close, so you wont ruin any of your dresses!' Her mother had written on a card. Sakura smiled at the token just a bit, no doubt she'd need the close after her first day with Tsunade. She took a shower, washing out all the dirt and grime in her hair, which was getting longer by the way, and changed into a clean dress, setting her new training close aside for later. She pulled her hair back into a small nub of a pony tail, removing the tarnished nail polish on her hands and cutting the nails.
Sakura looked up into the mirror, last nights lack of sleep already brought on bags under her eyes, she chuckled as she pictured her mothers reaction to them, no doubt linking them to lack of finding a husband when older. Now that she was somewhat presentable, Sakura didn't want to stay inside, but she sure as hell did not want to go outside. Deciding on a brief walk, she set out, walking the familiar streets of Konoha.
Looping around the Hokage tower to go home, she passed a Hunter nin on her walk. She glanced up, this one was not sporting the kimono she often saw them wear, but the Anbu uniform. He was humming to himself, his feet barely touching the ground. He smiled at Sakura as she passed, and she stopped dead in her tracks. Slowly the gears were whirling in her head. Yesterday, she had been content with just becoming a medic blessed with super strength, so she could aid Naruto in his promise to bring back Sasuke. But maybe, just maybe.
'Hunter-nin?' A raspy voice whispered in her head, Dark-Sakura purred at the thought.
'It'd be a long shot, I'd have to train day in and day out, and not just under Tsunade-sama.' Sakura said.
She took off in a rush, a red blur back home, as if any one saw her they'd discover her fledgling plan and kill her on the spot for such a thought. She crawled through her window, rushing under her covers, breathing heavily and curling up in a ball. A smile slowly crept across her pace, and Dark-Sakura glinted through her green eyes.
"I care not tho' it cherish, with a thought I did then cherish." Sakura whispered to herself, titling her head from side to side. Her hair was past her shoulders now, and she was trimming the split ends. Six months had passed since her revelation, and the pinkette was disappointed to say she had done nothing to set her plan into action. Her training was coming along better, her muscles faintly toned. She took to wearing her training uniform more and more as casual wear as well, buying more sets when needing to change into something clean.
She liked having long hair, but she couldn't afford having it for long, especially in the field. If a hair was out of place and she paused to fix it, an enemy could strike at that moment and kill her. She pulled it back into a pony tail, using her head band to tie her bangs back.
"Hello, Billboard Brow." Sakura mocked herself, imitating Ino perfectly. Her forehead glistened and she frowned, glaring at the imperfection.
'Next time she calls you that, just head butt her with your forehead.' Dark-Sakura said, her voice like a piece of glass, smooth and clear, but sharp at the edges. Sakura closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. When she opened them, she was once again standing in the scorched field of dead flowers, and pitch black sky.
"Alright, who are you?" Sakura asked her reflection.
"Little ol' me? I'm you. I came to be after the death of Inner-Sakura. That annoying little brat died after your near death experience from Gaara." Dark-Sakura said, tilting her head from side to side like Sakura had done before in the mirror. "I've always been here, just emotions and deep down feelings every human has. But there is something about you, Sakura-chan. That I formed, from something broken inside." The real Sakura thought over what her reflection had said, she remembered vividly, adrenaline pumping through her system causing her to blindly jump in front of Sasuke, thinking foolishly she could impede the red haired monster. Sakura clutched at her chest, remembering the pain from being squished to near death as well.
"You tried to take me over." Sakura managed to speak up.
"No. Silly, Sakura-chan, you're letting me. Slowly but surely, the outside shall reflect the inside." Dark-Sakura swept her hands downward and out toward the real one.
"I want to make him pay," Both Sakura's spoke up this time, "I want to grind him to dust, annihilate him off the face of the planet."
When she opened her eyes to look back at herself in the mirror, she was all alone, left to talk to the voices in her head.
Sakura Haruno had become a good little medic in the span of a year and a half, she even got to go on a few missions to test out her new found abilities. Dark-Sakura was always there, suppressed by Sakura's own sense of right and wrong, but she was always ready to take over, to pounce and sap the life out of it's host.
"Tsunade-sama, when do you think I'll be Jonin level?" Sakura asked her sensei one day after a long shift at the hospital.
"At your current rate, I'd say...about three more years at the least." Tsunade nodded after contemplating. Sakura almost fell out of her seat and gripped her pencil so hard it snapped into dust. She didn't expect to become a Kage level nin over night, but she expected something. It seemed as if her training had improved her greatly at first, but now progress had slowed to a crawl. What had she done for a year and a half? "Cheer up, Naruto will be home soon." Tsunade said, taking a swig from a brandy bottle.
She had to form a plan of action, and fast. Her goal to shorten those three years to just a year and a half at the most.
'It's impossible, with out me, of course.' Dark-Sakura spoke up. Would she do it? Sell her soul, to herself, in order to attain the power she needed, the rank she sought after, to bring down Sasuke? She tugged at the end of her pony tail, now down to her waist. Always the well organized person, she set out to form a schedule. First, she had to draw up a list of areas that needed improvement. Taijutsu wasn't an alarming necessity, but monstrous strength wasn't what one would call 'stealthy'. With a pang, she added Genjutsu, her weakest area. 'So, basically, learn everything?' Dark-Sakura cackled at the page spanning list that had formed after a few hours contemplation.
'I can do it.' She snapped.
'No, you can't.' Dark-Sakura winked, laughing once more.
"Is everything okay, Sakura?" Shizune asked, noticing Sakura was staring at the list with large saucer shaped eyes and her mouth a small thin line.
"Erm, yes." Sakura cleared her throat, hiding the list in her bag to look over at home.
Later, she was sitting in her room listening to the tick tock of her clock on the wall. Sakura's eyes stared at a mounted set of swords on her wall used primarily for decoration. They could be used as weapons, but they had been in her family for so long, whose last generation of ninja's had been at least a hundred years ago, they sat unused. The blade's were probably dull, but that was nothing a good swords smith couldn't fix.
'Yes, they'll be perfect for drawing blood. Every warrior needs a signature weapon.' Dark-Sakura nodded with approval. Sakura got up and gently took one down, the sheath decorated with red flowers, the Haruno clan symbol adorned it here and there. She gripped the handle and carefully pulled out the weapon, the blade was pure white as if carved from alabaster and she ran her hand across the blade, dull, it didn't even manage to form a welt. Sakura counted her personal savings, she didn't know how much money she'd need, but she had allot. Her main problem would be finding a teacher on such sort notice.
She bundled up the swords, three in total, and left, jumping out of her window to make her way to the market. The Weapons shop was nestled between a bar-bee-q and a souvenir shop. She entered the small reception area, to the left hand side was another room were the wears were being sold. The pinkette tapped sharply on the bell once and a large man covered in soot appeared from the back room.
"May I help you?" He asked.
"Can you restore these?" Sakura asked, placing the weapons on the counter carefully. The man whistled as he picked them up, unsheathing them expertelly and admiring the craftsman ship.
"Wow, these are ancient," He said, gingerly putting the blade back into it's sheath as he observed each one, "Yes I can, but it'll cost five hundred coins." He said and Sakura breathed a sigh of relief. "A piece." He added and she almost fell down.
"I only have enough for one." Sakura frowned, she could save up enough for the other two eventually.
"I'd recommend this one, good for beginners, light and flexible but will pack a punch in the right hands." He held up the medium sized one.
"Alright. Do you know any good teachers?" Sakura asked.
"I can refer you to a few." He said, handing her several business cards she tucked unto her pocket. Departing with one of the swords and half of her money, Sakura made her way back home, shuffling through the business cards as she did, frowning at some of the names. They were all civilians, teaching sword fighting to bored upper class rich kids as a hobby. Not that she wanted to be a samurai, but she wanted to learn from a legend.
"Mom, do you know any good sword fighters?" She asked later at night. It was a rare appearance for her at the dinner table. Her mother was a social butterfly, so Sakura figured she must know about everyone in the village.
"Sword fighters? No honey, now I won't have such talk while eating dinner. I was at the market the other day and one of my girl friend's son's is single! I think you'd like him, very nice boy." Her mother fluttered about. This was one reason why Sakura tried to avoid dinner, her mother was on a mission for Sakura to get a boyfriend. Her father frowned from his seat but remained silent.
"Mom, I'm only fourteen." Sakura grumbled.
"But you are so mature for your age!" Her mother insisted. An hour later, Sakura managed to pry herself from her parents, her mother seeing it as a rare opportunity to have their daughter free, and wanted to go see a movie and meet up with her friend (the one with the son). She made up an excuse that she had to practice her medical jutsu's, something her father took seriously, and she was able to retreat into her room.
She sat staring at her list, wishing she could go to Tsunade about her wishes but was worried she'd offend the hazel eyed woman. 'Yeah, thanks for teaching me a bunch of useful information, buuut, I kinda wanted to learn something else.' She ran through her head. That'd go over well.
The next day, Sakura made a trip to the library. Being promoted to chuunin she had access to much wider variation of texts. She ran her hand along the thick volumes, not knowing where to start. Her head swam as she looked up the towering book cases. So much to learn, so little time.
"May I help you?" A bright voice asked. A librarian had appeared carrying a few books and noticed the lost look on Sakura's face.
"Oh, yes, erm." Sakura didn't know what to say so she just handed the woman her list. The librarian scanned the list, forming possible book lists for the girl to read, nodding here and there.
"Very ambitious list you have here. I believe we should start at the basics. But, seeing as how you're a chunnin and the Hokage's apprentice, you shouldn't have a problem starting in the intermediate levels." The woman said briskly, handing the list back. Sakura followed the woman around the library, having no idea how she knew were all the books were. She chatted happily as she crawled up the ladders and back down, pausing her and there to pull out a few books. When their scavenger hunt was over, Sakura had a few small towers of books to read occupying two desks. "It's always nice to see the youngsters interested in reading." The librarian clasped her hands and her eyes twinkled at the collection of books.
"I can't check these all out at once though." Sakura frowned.
"I'll let you check out a few at a time to take home, and keep the ones you can't take home pulled at the desk, how about that?" The woman asked and Sakura quickly agreed. The first set of books she started to read were on various types of taijutsu. She tried to be apologetic to the library hands that came over to take some of the books back to the main desk, but she had seen the Librarian do it by herself and kept her head bowed in reading. A few of the forms intrigued her, and she'd defiantly practice them. One was known as Bak Si Lum, which would be easy to learn with Tsunade's already set in her mind. One that intrigued her as well was known as Tai Chi Chuan, it looked difficult to learn but she liked the illustrations of people performing it.
She flipped the page to a new section and it read, 'A martial art style not for those who value life.'
'Oooh, do go on.' Dark-Sakura spoke up. Even the regular Sakura was intrigued.
'This form was created by the Black Monks in northern parts of the Fire Country. Known for wearing black robes and practicing ritualistic self mutilation, this religion views that humans are inherently evil. This form requires a solid and strong stance, the back must be kept firm and rigid, the legs solid and spread a few feet apart, the hands however are held loosely at one's side to be used at a moments notice for an attack. This form lacks great defense, but is excellent for close range hand to hand combat. '
That was all that was written, and Sakura flipped the page back and forth, gritting her teeth as she did so. 'Where the hell is the name?' She roared inwardly as she did so.
She left the library an hour later, weighed down with in-depth books on the two taijutsu styles she wished to learn, and one on the Black Monks, in case there was anything in it on their own brand of martial arts. She hurried to the hospital for her shift and reported to the Hokage afterward, assisting in the large pile of paperwork. Since she had become Tsunade's apprentice, she had become immersed in the village's politics, bantering back in forth with both Tsunade and Shizune. She shook her head as she made her way home, the only people she hung out with these days were her mentors and the ANBU that frequented the tower, even rubbing elbows with village elders. When she thought about it, she didn't hang out with any one her own age. With a pang, she regretted that she had grown so distant from Ino and the rest of the Konoha twelve...well, now ten with the absence of two members, but at least one would be returning soon. Hopefully they'd all understand.
'Some more than others.' Dark-Sakura rolled her eyes at Sakura's guilt over being such a bad friend to Ino, but the blonde should be worrying about her own training as well.
Sakura stopped by the weapons shop on her way home to check on her sword, and the sword-smith informed her it would be ready in the next few days. She ended up browsing through the weapons, remembering a time when Sakura had gone shopping for dresses, not knives. She liked a set of kunai's that had a sakura petal design etched into the blade and the grip was wrapped in red silk. She ended up buying them and a set of matching shuriken, placing the unopened boxes on her desk in her room. They were way to special to use in regular training.
Speaking of training, Sakura grabbed her books, slinging them over her shoulder in a bag and making her way to the training grounds. It was quiet and deserted, seeing as how everyone would be at home eating dinner with their families. She opened her first books, rifling through notes on the Bak Si Lum style, she had the theory down pat, but everyone knew that there was a large difference between theory and actual practice. She inhaled deeply and exhaled, trying to clear her mind. Slowly, she took the first stance, wishing she had someone there to tell her if it was correct or not. Glancing at the illustration in the book, she moved into the next stance, wanting to get them perfect before moving onto actually performing them.
She must have looked really stupid, standing in the middle of the field posing awkwardly. A few hours of this, she decided to act them out, finding a dummy to train against. Around midnight she wrapped her calloused knuckles in gauze before covering them with her gloves. She had made excellent progress in the Bak Si Lum fighting style, but was sure she was wrong in some of her stances.
The next day she didn't have a shift at the hospital, so she naturally rushed off to the training grounds to practice once more. After three weeks she had taken to the fighting style as well as she had to Tsunade's, wishing to find a sparing partner to test it out on an actual opponent that could fight back. It wouldn't be exactly tactful showing up on Ino's doorstep after several month's absence asking if she wanted to fight. 'I was in the neighborhood and wanted to know if I could beat the shit out of you, ya know, girl stuff.' She said in her head, frowning as she scanned over her notes on a position she knew she had trouble with. Moving in and out of them was her biggest challenge.
A month had passed and she had grown familiar with the style, not an expert, but pretty good. She decided to move onto the Tai Chi Chaun style. It required being patient with your opponent, having a strong defense and waiting for your opponent to show weakness before striking. It took a longer time for her to get the basics down, she even thought about giving up one long practice session.
One bright ray of hope was that her sword had been fixed. She exchanged her Bak Si Lum books (she practically had copied them word for word in her notebook) for a few sword fighting ones. Pausing her taijutsu training, she took to learning how to wield the sword. She didn't like the traditional Samurai style, and wasn't very fond of the Knight fighting style either. Sakura made a note to buy a Jian sword, as she liked the fighting style, maybe she'd be a good fencer? She didn't have a rapier, but the style involved being light on one's toes and graceful movements. She eventually settled on the longsword style. The right hand gripped the sword and you were supposed to hold it above your head, your elbow a perfect ninety degree angle, the left hand held out as if you were about to strike with it, the left hoot stood in front of the right. She easily learned it and even managed to incorporate some of the Bak Si Lum moves into it.
From some stroke of luck, her shifts at the hospital were becoming shorter and shorter to make way for newer medics coming in, and Tsunade's lessons were reaching their end. Sakura still found herself running into the problem that she had no training partner, mulling this over one day while reading through her notes on Tai Chi Chaun.
'What about me?' Dark-Sakura frowned.
'I can't fight myself.' Sakura answered, and Dark-Sakura giggled at this. She rolled her eyes heavily, almost ripping the page as she turned it.
'C'mon, you'll never know unless you try.' Dark-Sakura begged. Sakura closed her eyes and took a deep breath like she had done so many months before in the mirror. She wasn't surprised to open her eyes and find herself standing in the blasted field of flowers. Dark-Sakura stood across from the real one, her hands rest by her side loosely. "Now, let's start, shall we?" She said and the two Haruno's bowed. Sakura fluidly pulled into the first stance of Bak Si Lum as Dark-Sakura charged at her with her fists.
Sakura rolled, dodging as a miniature crater exploded where she once was. She struck her opponent with the first attack, chakra laced in the attack as well and Dark-Sakura was pushed back by the force of it. Sakura took advantage of her opponent stumbling on her feet, sweeping her leg under Dark-Sakura's ankles, causing the reflection to land flat on her back. Adrenaline pumping through her system, Sakura lifted her leg back up into a sweeping kick, but Dark-Sakura caught hold of it, tossing the real one head over heals. She appeared above Sakura, and pounded her back with a chakra powered fist. She tasted earth and spat it out, standing back up and healing her minor injuries, proud she could do it now without using her hands.
"How can you ever expect to defeat even Ino, if you can't beat yourself?" Dark-Sakura laughed as she watched the real Sakura stagger into the Tai Chi Chaun style. Sakura blocked her first attack, bracing herself against her own chakra powered fists and kicked, each attack caused her to dig further and further into the earth. As Dark-Sakura reeled back to punch again, Sakura attacked in a split second, her hand flat and palm pointed up, connected with Dark-Sakura's side, causing her attack to fail. Sakura utilized this and her other fist came down, and struck Dark-Sakura's large forehead. By instinct chakra had flooded into her fist, and Dark-Sakura was sent flying across the field.
"Ha, I win." Sakura said and closed her eyes to wake back up. As she was leaving the scorched field, she heard Dark-Sakura growl, 'For now.'
Sakura shoved the internal fight out of her mind as she tried moved onto ninjutsu. She thought of all the ninjutsu moves she had seen, and her thoughts lingered on Naruto's Rasengan. She didn't need something that devastating, as her super strength was devastating enough, but something that could fit into her new fighting styles would be ideal. The ninjutsu book she read from the library was basically a text book. She ventured into the scroll archive, and was disappointed to find that there wasn't much available at chunnin level.
"Tsunade-sama, erm, could you give me special clearance at the library?" Sakura asked after a training session with Tsunade.
"What for?" Tsunade asked.
"To look at higher level ninjutsu scrolls." Sakura coughed, shoving the paper in front of her sensei. Tsunade raised and eyebrow but said no more, signing off on the paper with a small smile on her lips.
"There are some really good medical scrolls there, make sure to check some out." Tsunade said.
Sakura thought she had been uncomfortable handing Tsunade the permission slip, she practically turned red handing the slip to the guards outside the jonin level scrolls. They exchanged several looks but allowed her to go in. She nearly fainted at all of the information, some of the scrolls were so old they had begun to mold, or the text was barely eligible. Her goal was to learn three complex ninjutsu. The first she picked out summoned sakura petals made out of chakra, that acted as a shield, and if commanded, would attack an opponent like a swarm of hornets. It only took her several attempts and she had it down, wondering why it was considered jonin level.
The second ninjutsu created a barrier over a person, and she decided it would come in handy when on missions, so she could shield herself and her patient from harm while she worked. The last and most difficult of the three to perform was supposed to cover the user from head to toe in chakra, essentially one became their chakra, and it allowed for you to move with blinding speeds and enhanced strength, any attack would pass right through you. Sakura had to break several seals on the scroll and she feared she had broken several laws as well as she did so. It was useless anyway, she hadn't managed to perform the ninjutsu at all, the closest she had gotten was turning her hands blue for five seconds before they flickered back to normal.
She also checked out a few more medical scrolls, learning only a few new abilities but she already knew most of it all.
After the span of four months, Sakura checked off only one-third of her list. She sighed deeply, even the parts she managed to check off she hadn't completely mastered. She tossed her list angrily at the wall, wishing she had been born like Naruto with the ability to master any technique given to him. Then she remembered Lee's plight, who valued determination and dedication over talent and natural ability.
Summer arrived and before the pinkette knew it, Naruto's arrival back home was upon hand. She woke up on the fateful day, she didn't feel any different than yesterday, or the countless days before that. A part of her was bitter at Naruto for up and leaving her during a vulnerable time in her life, but she knew she had holed herself away from everyone. Everyone. She groaned as she knew this would turn into one big giant reunion.
She shuffled into her bathroom and unleashed her hair from it's hold, and an untangled mess unfolded before her. Not in the mood at all to brush and straighten it, she armed herself with a pair of scissors and after a few minutes, her hair rest shortly below her ears. She used her headband to pull her bangs out of her face again, not really caring how big her forehead looked anymore. She changed into a clean black tank top with the Haruno clan symbol on it's back, wearing a short version of the chunin vest unbuttoned on top. She pulled on light black shorts and her opened toed boots as opposed to the boots she had worn for winter which had been heavy. Lastly she pulled her gloves on and snapped a medical skirt around her waist. She armed herself with her special kunai and shuriken, and strapped her sword on her back.
'Jonin, here we come.' Dark-Sakura spoke up. Her pride was still injured from the defeat, but Sakura could sense she was making a comeback.
The day was bright and obnoxious in Sakura's opinion as she made her way to the Hokage tower. She grumbled as she thought about the reunion with everyone. She had dug her own grave on that part, though. As she reached the market place she planned to start hopping on the rooftops since it was shorter.
"Sakura! I know you can hear me so don't run away!" Ino's voice called.
'Dammit. Kill her. Quickly.' Dark-Sakura cursed. Sakura slowly turned around to see Ino running toward her dragging Choji.
"Hi, Ino-pig." Sakura smiled.
"Forehead! Wow, cool sword." Ino smiled, then narrowed her eyes at Choji who was stuffing his face with a bag of chips.
"Where's Shikamaru?" Sakura asked.
"Oh, him? Off with some Sand-slut." Ino huffed, and Sakura didn't have to be a genius to guess she was talking about Temari.
"Why is Temari here?" Sakura questioned, but she was drowned out by the loudest yell she had ever heard. Everyone turned to see where the ungodly noise came from, an orange and black blur shot through the streets, and Sakura saw the white haired Sanin in the distance with binoculars. The blur haulted in front of Sakura, and she stepped back a bit, taking in the grinning image of Naruto.
"Sakura-chan!" He yelled happily.
"Wow, Naruto, you've changed." Sakura smiled, when he had left she had been taller than him, now he was at least a head taller than her.
"Thanks! I just got back, Pervy-sage was spying on women when we saw you!" He exclaimed.
"Hasn't Sakura changed?" Ino leaned in, smiling widely and Sakura wanted nothing more than to punch her face.
"Not at all!" Naruto said innocently and Sakura deflated just a bit. Ino's eyes widened and she started to laugh. Naruto looked to Choji who just shrugged at thw two girls reactions.
"Erm, any way, would you like to go say hi to Tsunade?" Sakura asked. Naruto agreed, but Ino and Choji had to go find Shikamaru and Jiraiya accompanied to two to the Hokage Tower.
TL;DR sakura learns two new fighting styles and how to fight with a sword, some metaphorical stuff about her fighting her dark side and beating her 'for now', naruto returned, blah blah blah
bak si lum is another name for the northern shaolin fighting style, im not very knowledgeable on them so i just googled martial arts x\
i could have gone on and covered kakashi's bell test and etc before they leave for suna, but i think you have read enough for one chapter.
yes, those who read how the story originally panned out youll notice a big difference, but it will eventually have her becoming a hunter nin again