Sasuke's face stared back at her from behind the glass of the picture frame, his expression fixed in a scowl.

It had been two weeks since Sasuke's death. The remainder of Team Seven had returned to Konoha with the body after dealing with the remainder of Gato's men. Sakura had travelled in a trance, only speaking when necessary, barely eating unless ordered to, staring into the distance as they ran, not noticing the worried glances her team sent her. When they returned, they had been given one week leave to come to terms with their teammate's death. Sakura had attended the funeral along with the rest of Team Seven and the Konoha Nine now turned Konoha Eight, and sat with glazed over eyes, not really listening as the Hokage spoke about how great and promising a boy Sasuke had been. She hadn't been able to stay as they carved his name into the memorial stone, she couldn't bare to watch as the rock was slowly chipped away into the form of his name. It would have been like she was letting him go, coming to terms with the fact that Sasuke was no longer with them, and she couldn't do that, not yet. His memory was still too fresh in her mind. And so she had slipped out of the clearing, away from the memorial stone. She had weaved through the crowd that had come to mourn his death and returned home. No one had tried to stop her, only gave her pitying looks.

And so, there she was lying on her bed and staring at the framed photo of Team Seven in her hands. It had been taken around a month ago, a couple of days before they left on the mission to the Land of Waves. Sasuke and Naruto had just had another one of their squabbles over who was better at this and that. They both had their prides sorely bruised when Kakashi had come along and beaten them soundly in order to shut them up, hence their scowling in the photo. Sakura dearly wished that she could go back to that time. If she had known what was to come she would have never allowed them to go on that mission. She didn't care how she did it, she would have found a way to stop them. Or she could have gotten stronger, trained so that she could have helped, and stopped being a burden to Sasuke.

But it was no use anymore. He was dead. Sakura hugged the photo against her chest as the waterworks began again. It was over. She couldn't save him now. She couldn't do anything, no matter what she did, nothing would make a difference.

Faces flashed across her thoughts. Ino, Naruto, Kakashi, her parents, and more. All those who had someplace in her heart darted across her mind. There were those who were still living, those that she cared for, those that could die just as easily as Sasuke had. No, she was wrong. There was something she could do. She may not have been able to save Sasuke, but she could still save her other precious people. She could still get stronger, she could still train and make a difference.

Sitting up on her bed, Sakura placed the photograph on the bedside table. She glanced at it one last time, eyes burning with determination, before she stood and began pacing her bedroom, deep in thought.

Where should she start in her quest to grow stronger? After a moment's contemplation she decided to pinpoint her weaknesses and go from there. Soon after, she came to the rather embarrassing realisation that other than book smarts and chakra control, she had nothing but weaknesses. She had an efficiency for genjutsu, but she had never tried to realise that potential, she could use a few accademy level ninjutsu, but that was nothing too flashy, her taijutsu and strength were pretty much non-existent, and her speed and chakra reserves sucked. Well, she had a lot to work on.