Sakura sat alongside her two ninja comrades, quietly listening to Kakashi spill his revelations to them. He was suspicious of the mysterious ninja it seemed. Although, the more Kakashi talked, the more ridiculous the following conclusion was.

"... Zabuza… was not killed!"

Kakashi then carefully went on to describe the way Zabuza was somehow struck dead, and yet still living. It was… creepy. But Sakura wasn't settled. She noticed something else that Kakashi said. "Sensei… you said to prepare promptly, and yet, you can't move at all. How are you possibly going to train us like this?" Kakashi grinned. "Oh, I can surely train you all still!" Sakura's eyebrow twitched. "Ok, no, a little ten minute training session is NOT gonna cut it! Be real, are you…?!" Are you trying to kill us all?! Sakura thought to herself bitterly. "All of you have improved," Kakashi said. "Especially Naruto." Naruto grinned happily, and while a part of Sakura wanted to call him out, he definitely did improve, that was just a fact. "Good things are gonna happen, believe it! That punk Gato, or, Zlatko ain't nothing for a hero like me!"

"As if! You're just a dumb guy full of dumb ideas!" The attention was focused on a little plain looking boy. "What?!" Naruto jumped up, going to try and scare the boy, but Sakura grabbed his collar immediately. "Calm down, he's just a kid."Naruto continued seething, until the boy left the room, and Naruto followed, having yanked himself out of Sakura's grasp. As he left the room, mindlessly, Sakura said, "You know, that kid's just like you, Sasuke." Sakura squeaked as she suddenly realized what she said, and Sasuke looked at her in surprise. But then, he gave a her a harsh glare, and she flinched a little at how extreme it was. "What? You should watch your mouth." Sakura frowned, and turned away, rolling her eyes as she did so, turing a little pink in embarrassment. Damn, he didn't need to react like that!

….

Finally, training had begun. Sakura and Kakashi had just finished explaining what exactly chakra was . Kakashi was urging them to learn how to control their chakra so well, that it becomes second nature. "To do so… You must be ready to die!" Sakura gulped. "How… do you mean?" Kakashi nodded. "You see, you three must…"

"...Climb a tree!"

Kakashi turned and began to walk up a tree. Not crawl, not even necessarily climb -but walk up a tree. The three students watched in amazement. "You get the picture." Kakashi said. "This is all there is to it: precisely apply chakra to the soles of your feet and keep it there, so that you can walk up a tree. They say, if you can master this, you can master any jutsu at all. Theoretically, that is. It gets even harder in battle, which can turn fatal if it causes you to shift your attention away from it. The easiest way to avoid this is through training."

The goal was simple: mark the tree as you climb without your feet. Standing in line with the rest of her teammates, Sakura lifted her head a bit, and began to focus her chakra. Naruto and Sasuke rushed up the tree, quickly messing themselves up. Sakura wasn't looking for that, though. Those two were worried about who would get to the top the first and the fastest, but Sakura wasn't worried about that. She was worried about precision. She wanted to get it right, even if it took a while. Slowly, Sakura began to trek up the stalk of the tree. She took her time keeping a steady pace and even chakra levels. Surprisingly, her easy pace and strong control had her walking up the tree much quicker than she anticipated. She looked around, grinning widely as her hair fell beneath her. It was like… flying, but not really: it was… kind of fun! Giggling, she then mocked her teammates, saying, "You know, this is kind of fun!" Sakura perched herself up on the branch of the tree, and all the guys looked up at her in shock. "What's this? It seems like the only one who could perfect this was the girl of the squad!"

This continued on for a while now, until Sakura found herself struggling to go on. Leaning against the tree she was climbing, she closed her eyes, breathing heavily.

"Psst, Sakura… Sakura…!"

Sakura peeked through an eyelid, only to see Naruto. Opening her other eye, she blinked at him curiously. "Um… what is it?" She asked. She was genuinely curious this time. "Hey, you're really good at this… could you maybe give me some pointers? Please?" Sakura stared blankly. But then, a sensation washed over her, making her face stretch into a smile. How… flattering. She gurgled lightly. "Yeah, sure, here are my tips…"

….

"This bridge won't be any hope for any one if we're all dead."

Another one quit. And it was apparently one of Tazuna's friends, at that. How disheartening. Still, her job was to protect Tazuna for the time being. So, while he worked on the bridge with the few other workers present, Sakura began to think of what she could do. She thought of training…

Fascinating how chakra can work like that. Well, it's always been interesting to her anyhow, but she just couldn't help but think back to what it felt like to walk up a tree the same way you'd walk down the street. It was… cool. It made her wonder if maybe chakra could be used in the same way one would use it for their feet, but with another part of their body. Like… Sakura glanced down. Like… hands. She looked at her hands closely, staring at her palms, and the lines in them and their wrinkles. Slowly, as though unsure, she brought her hands together. If she was too reckless, she could end up breaking her hand, or worse. She had to be careful. She had to be thoughtful. She can't just shoot chakra through her palms and pray about it: that's foolish. So, she began to pool the chakra into her palms, taking care to not rush the process. She felt it become heavy in the veins of her wrists, and it began to pile into her palms. She felt the glands upon the insides of her hands open a little wider, and she shivered a bit at the foreign feeling. Her hands tingled, but it was so fast that it was easy to ignore. Her hands started to grow a tint to them… they glowed pink. She began to pull her hands apart, the pink glow continued to fill in the fairness of Sakura's skin around her hands until it looked a bright bubblegum pink. She paused, feeling a little nervous, but kept going anyway. It didn't hurt, so, surely it wouldn't be bad for her to keep going like this. She wanted to see where this would get her. If this was something useful that she could utilize, then…

The pinkness began to grow darker and darker, making Sakura more anxious, but then, it shot from the surface of her hands, engulfing it in light. The light completely shrouded her hands though. She lifted her hand to her face, inspecting it. The light didn't hurt; it didn't hurt her eyes, it didn't hurt her hands, none of that… it just… glowed. Curious, Sakura began to gently wave her arms around. Nothing happened, and the glow around her hands stayed put, as though they were glued in place. She brought her hands close to her face again once more. It was truly solid light. Oh, geez, but then again, how will she get these glowing orbs off? She can't wear them forever! Standing, she began to panic as she thought of what to do. She started wiggling her hands around, and the more urgency she moved with, the more the orbs began to shift around. In a final moment of fear, she wailed a little, and tossed her hands up to the sky -

And then, the orbs blasted into the air.

Sakura stopped. She looked at her hands. They were completely normal again. Wow… She… launched balls of energy! Wow. Wow. That was… spectacular.

As the day went on, despite what happened around her, Sakura continued thinking about what happened with her hands the whole time. She just discovered a new power she could use, a new technique! Goodbye, Sakura, the burden disguised as a girl, and hello, Kunoichi, the energy-wielding Ninja of the Hidden Leaf!

….

All of the other bridge builders laid on the ground, totally unconscious.

"No… who got them?" Tazuna said in disbelief. Kakashi sneered beneath his mask, and a mist began to the air. Getting into position, he said to Sasuke and Sakura, "Be ready for anything!" The two quickly fell into position. Sakura couldn't help but notice from the corner of her eyes that Sasuke was trembling a little. Was he nervous?

"It's Zabuza, isn't it, Kakashi? He's back, right?" Sakura asked. But she already knew the answer. "Yeah, guess he couldn't wait for the sequel." Just then, the man of the hour began to speak, making his appearance official. "Sorry to keep you all waiting… I see you still carry those brats at your side." He laughed a little. It was still devoid of genuine amusement, as it always had been. "That one's still shaking!" Sakura resisted the urge to glance back at Sasuke. But then, a shiver went up her spine, and her ears opened a little wider. What was he gonna say to that?

"I'm just excited." Sasuke said.

Sakura twitched a little again. She felt a cold sweat starting to hit her hard, but she managed to keep herself from trembling the way Sasuke was. Perhaps, because of the fact that Kakashi was alive and rather well, and less likely to fall for any tricks. She had faith in him. But Sasuke… did he really mean that?

Oh, but that's right. Everyone's got a dream. And while she's not so sure about what she wants with her own future, from what she remembers about their orientation, Sasuke was very sure of what he wanted from life as a ninja. Or rather, who he wanted out of life, and it seemed the only way to do so was through being a ninja. Since her memory's so well, she remembers exactly what he said. I want to kill a certain someone.

Zabuza was just for warm up…

Zabuza grinned a little behind his banded face, and gripped his sword a little bit tighter. In the blink of an eye, water clones of Zabuza centered around them. Then, just as quick, Sasuke slashed through them all. Sakura blinked. How did he know they were clones?

"Looks like you've got a bit of a rival, Haku." Zabuza said, looking towards the masked child next to him. One glance, and Sakura immediately recognized them. It was that person from before, who "helped" to defeat Zabuza. Now, there's a name that she can put to the face…

Haku.