A/N： Uploaded the wrong file apparently

Under the muggy afternoon heat, she strolled through the buzzing streets of Konohagakure, a stick of half-eaten dango in her hand. Surprisingly, the sugary dumpling didn't taste like anything. In fact, nothing tasted like anything. It was incredibly bland, as if she was merely eating air.

Perhaps I'm just stressed out… She told herself as she took another half-hearted bite. The nature of her mission wasn't exactly "nice".

It felt weird for her to eat the specialties of the village that would soon cease to exist. But she knew deep inside that they deserved everything that would come upon them. After all, Lord Orochimaru told her that they were all bigoted people with little tolerance for ambition. And Lord Orochimaru wouldn't lie to her, ever.

Maybe that was why nothing they made tasted like anything. Their hearts just weren't in it. If they had a heart at all.

In some sense, it kind of pissed her off watching everyone go about their business unimpeded. Like they had never sinned in the past. Villagers like these should live their days with their head lowered and knees on the ground, constantly groveling and begging for forgiveness. Not smiling at each other, telling jokes and acting like they deserved even the most basic of luxuries.

The village during this time of the year was crowded with people from other lands. Most of them adolescent, around her age, but every one of them hyped up about one stupid thing or another.

The "Chunin Exams" as others had been mentioning, seemed to be the center of the excitement. In spite of her negative opinions on the event, even she couldn't dismiss it as useless entirely. As it was this "chunin exam" that allowed people like her to enter the village so freely.

When her legs tired, she found a bench in the shade to sit down, all the while her mind flashed back to the conversation that she and Lord Orochimaru had during the night of her birthday.

In the darkness of the room, his golden eyes shone like a pair of ominous beacons. Her light green ones wavered like leaf-perched dew drops caught in turbulent wind.

Sakura swallowed down a lump in her throat. "The village that abandoned me?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Orochimaru shrugged from his desk. "I heard in poorer villages, girls were drowned to put less of a burden on the family. Since the girls were considered too weak to work on the farm, they were regarded as useless."

"It is just how the world works. The weak gets thrown out while the strong strives."

Sakura lowered her head.

Useless…

That was one word that she didn't like hearing. Not when one of Orochimaru's followers whispered it in her ears out of jealousy. Not even when the man she revered the most used it in a sentence.

"How do you feel about it? Being discarded before you could prove your worth?"

She felt her hands gripping onto something.

"Angry, right?"

She looked up, eyes wide in surprise. "W-what no...I'm…"

Orochimaru smiled and pointed a finger towards her. "Your right hand is giving you away."

She looked down and saw that her hand had balled into a fist, the corners of her white T-shirt crushed inside her iron grip.

He reassured her before shame could settle in. "You should feel angry."

"In fact..." The man walked over and placed a chilly hand on her shoulders. "Convert the anger to hatred and destroy to your heart's desire."

Sakura started moving again not long after that, as if motivated by the recalling of her master's words. For now, she was told to "stay put until told otherwise", so she would just burn off the newfound energy by taking a couple of strolls around the village.

That was the plan until an idiot bumped into her and knocked her onto her butt.

"Ouch...watch where you're going!"

The idiot's voice sounded stupid as well. The words he said to her were the exact words that she wanted to say to him.

Sakura was just about to give the dumbass a piece of her mind when she saw an open hand extended towards her. Sakura looked up, seeing a young boy dressed in an orange jumpsuit and a face that reminded her of a fox.

"Anyways, hurry and get up. The ground is dirty."

No shit. Regardless of her low opinion on the boy, Sakura took his hand and allowed him to help her up. At least he has some gentleman-like qualities...

"Your hand…feels weird."

...or not. Sakura's lips twisted into a pout as she forcefully jerked her hand away.

"My name is Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto."

She could tell by the boy's smiling face that he expected her to do the same and introduce herself. So far, the boy came off as quite presumptuous. First he presumed that she wanted to hear his stupid name in the first place, then he presumed that she would bother to tell him her's.

"Sakura."

"No last name?"

"...No…"

"What a strange lady."

She hated him already.