Sakura watched Naruto as he snarled and growled like an animal. He didn't like what he saw…
Apparently, Haku was the person in civilian clothes, the "pretty girl" that he had met when napping in the woods. Sasuke was taken down by Haku not too long before, and Kakashi had jumped into battle with Zabuza. Sakura watched all of this, the desperation to bring these events to a close with Kakashi, and Naruto, trying to make sense of what he's seeing, what he's feeling, and more importantly, he struggled to see Haku, to understand Haku…
Nonetheless, Sakura stood grounded in front of Tazuna. She thought back and forth between the two fights. She's already worn out, her chakra being much lower than before… She used so much of it, and her body ached, her legs shaking -but not in fear, this time, but due to exhaustion. She was ready to end this, to sit, and take a break. She needed it. She deserved it… right? She worked just as hard as her teammates this time, she protected Tazuna, she helped Sasuke, she fended off Haku -she did good. She acted like… She was a true kunoichi now. But…
Tazuna was still at risk, and Sasuke was… gone. Sakura peaked up at Tazuna over her shoulders, and saw the look of uncertainty in his eyes. She began to weigh her priorities…
Tazuna mattered most. He mattered the absolute most in this moment. But everything happened so quick.
Kakashi had used a jutsu of his own, Chidori, but instead of hitting Zabuza, he hit Haku…
Haku… was a villain -so, so he deserved it! But, at the same time, based on Naruto's reactions to Haku… Did he really?
Still, the moment she was able to, Sakura couldn't help but ask Naruto, "Is Sasuke okay? Where is he?" But once she saw the condition he was in up close, Sakura horribly regretted it. Sitting at Sasuke's side, Sakura stared. Her mind was blank, her emotions were bleak, and suddenly, everything seemed like it was colored grey. Her heart felt a little more heavy, a bit more present than usual, beating against her chest from the inside. Even though she couldn't tell if she was feeling something, or if her feelings stopped working or what, her body twitched, again and again, quivering. Her nose felt a little more loose, and she kept sniffing. Raindrops fell onto Sasuke's body, again and again. Ah, but then again, they were tears; Sakura cried. She cried, but she laughed.
"You know, Mr. Tazuna… I want to be honest with you right now, really honest. I hope you don't take this the wrong way…" Sakura said, continuing to look down upon Sasuke. Tazuna then replied, "Go on ahead, child. Nothing could mean more, right now: I know you need it…" And so, Sakura went on to confess.
"I was bright."
"I'm really, really smart. Every test was aced. Every trivia question, was trivial to me. I didn't need to try and succeed in school. It was simple. It was easy. That said, I want to tell you something: it's an interesting trivia fact that I learned a long, long while ago from now. There are over a hundred Shinobi Principles, and I know all of them. I loved being tested on it. It made me special. It made me different than everyone else, because no one else could do what I could. No one else had a sense of memory like I did, and could memorize things the way I could. You know, there's this one specific rule that all of us academy students had to be tested on, and it was heavily emphasized. It's the twenty-fifth principle, and goes as stated: a Shinobi shall never emote in the field, no matter the situation at hand, for feelings reveal weakness, and flaws in the mind, inevitably unfit for a mission." Sakura's words grew more and more high-pitched, her voice turning into whines, and her tone being choppy, hindered by her crying. No matter if she blinked repeatedly, or closed her eyes, tears just never stopped. The tears just never stopped.
"I won't lie about it to you, Mr. Tazuna. I have feelings for Sasuke. I have so many feelings for Sasuke. He's not a nice guy. From what I remember about him before the academy, he never really was. Still, I fell for him…" Sakura looked up at Tazuna. Her face was wrinkled, snot coming from her nose as she cried. Her face was a little flushed, and she hiccuped. "You must think I'm so, so, so stupid, right? To have feelings for a guy like Sasuke, and expect him to have feelings for someone like me, right?" Tazuna didn't answer Sakura. But he didn't have to…
Not too long after, though, Gato and all his men appeared. All in a flash, Zabuza ran at the men, kunai knife in his mouth, slashing through all of them until he got to the one he wanted all along: Gato. But, eventually, Zabuza met his inevitable end, falling down to the ground with a loud thud. It was sad, some way…
But things became a little brighter when Sasuke woke up.
Sakura shot up, staring at Sasuke in surprise. "What?! Sasuke, you're alive!"
Although, even this moment was short-lived, for all of the ex-men of Gato came running at them. But then, so did the villagers! Naruto grinned, and held up his hands to make a sign. "Guess I should help them! Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Kakashi followed in their example, copying the same jutsu. "Kakashi Style!" Sakura stared, and mindlessly held up her hands to do the same. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
All the clones and villagers ran at the enemies, effectively scaring them away. Finally, Team 7's mission was coming to a close. But before they could turn to leave…
"...Just… one final request, Kakashi…" Kakashi looked down at Zabuza, and yet still, he pulled him up into his grasp, and carried him to the corpse that he wanted. Laying Zabuza down, the defeated demon turned to look at the pale, still face. Suddenly, snow started to fall…
"Haku… even though I know it's impossible for me, I hope that some way, somehow, I can get to you, and… reach you where you are. Please, forgive me for what I've done, Haku."
And so, with that ending their long, stressful battle, Team 7 finally began to depart from the Land of Waves.
At some point, though, Tazuna and Kakashi spoke with each other. "I've decided," Tazuna said. "On what to name the bridge, I mean."
"What?" Kakashi asked. Tazuna smiled a little. "It's gonna be the Great Naruto Bridge." Kakashi couldn't help but chuckle. "Really? Are you sure that that's the name you want to go with? Don't you want to try something a bit more…" Kakashi tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I suppose I'd say… catchy?" Tazuna laughed, brushing it off. "Oh, it's catchy, all right. Besides, that name, Naruto, brought us luck in taking back our village. So, surely, it'll continue to bring luck to this village and it's people from here on out."
….….
It was time for another mission. And just as always, Kakashi came back extremely late. But in the end, the mission was just a whole lot of community service. A lot of it.
Finally, by the end of the series of "missions," Sakura and Sasuke were dragging Naruto's exhausted body back from their training. Unsurprisingly, another argument broke out between Sasuke and Naruto. Sakura sighed, helplessly looking back and forth between the two. Crossing her arms, she couldn't help but find herself a little irritated. Those two have always been like fire and water, smoke and wind. They always butted heads with each other. They have two different every things: different motives, jutsus, clans, looks, attitudes, personalities -You know it! They hardly agree on anything…
"Whatever, I'm leaving…" Sasuke dismissively threw a hand over his shoulder, turning to leave. Sakura suddenly forgot all about what was upsetting her, and immediately chased after him, rushing to keep up with his hasty pace. "Hey, hey, do you want to maybe do something later?" The words barely left her mouth before Sasuke snapped at her. Abruptly turning around, he then spat, "Why don't you go do something useful, like train? You're not even an asset to the team! It might as well just be me and Naruto. All you are is dead weight, so stop holding me down!" Sakura stopped, standing in place as Sasuke left her there, completely dumbfounded. She slowly began to frown, and as her face began to burn out of embarrassment, she swiftly spun on her heels and stomped off.
Fine! Fine!
She needed to train, anyway -No, no, she wanted to train! For once, she's actually going to go and train on her own! Yeah! She'll show him -she'll show everyone what she could do!
She's Sakura Haruno, Girl Ninja of the Hidden Leaf!
Can't anybody say that there is nothing that she can do!
….….
Sakura sliced at a tree near her house. Lazily, she swung the kunai knife left, then right, then left, then right again…
"Ugh, training is soooo boring…!" She whined.
Sakura had been scaring up this tree for about an hour now. She absolutely hated the fact that Sasuke had the nerve to say something so harsh to her, she really, really did. But then again, he said harsh things to just about everyone. To their teacher, to Naruto, to their peers, to her. Sakura wondered if there was anyone at all that Sasuke didn't disrespect. "I wonder…" Sakura mumbled. "How'd he even get that way?" Maybe Sasuke grew up in the local foster home near the edge of the village. The place is absolutely poor, and hardly suitable for children, and yet kids who have no parents or loses them to battle often get sent there the moment they get caught. Or, maybe, Sasuke lives around neighbors who are mean to him, and outcast him for being a part of the Uchiha Clan. Or…
Is that really an excuse, though?
Does everybody have to feel the wrath of Sasuke Uchiha, simply because of something horrible that happened in his past? Sakura knew lots about Sasuke. Many people who were akin to a fan of his would know a bit about his past. Enough to get the gist of it, at least. He's an orphan, a stand-alone child. He has no mom, no dad, no anyone. Sakura briefly wonders if he has a guardian at all, but she lets go of this irrelevant thought. What happened to Sasuke was horrible. Something happened to the Uchiha Clan -she didn't know the details- and it resulted in Sasuke turning out the way he is now. Whatever happened to Sasuke's clan was apparently enough to make him so introverted and broody. It was sad. Sad that he turned out this way, that is.
For someone to become the type of person that Sasuke is now, what took place so many years ago couldn't have been anything but tragic. Still, the way that Sasuke treats the whole world -the way he treats her is so unfair! What in the world did Sakura do to deserve such carelessness from him? What did she ever do to make him want to ignore her, and avoid her, and block her out all the time? What did she say to make him want to berate her, talk over her, and talk at her all the time? She didn't do anything, she didn't say anything! If being nothing else other than sweet to him is enough to make her some type of burden, then Sakura knows no other way to approach him. The only person she'd say deserved harsh treatment from her was Naruto and Ino! Outside of those two, she was rather nice to everyone else!
Sakura paused, clutching the kunai loosely. Maybe… Maybe Sasuke doesn't like nice girls? Is that it? But then again, when she's been ruthless with Naruto in the past, he would butt in and scold her. So… if he didn't like her whenever she was being nice, and he doesn't like her any better whenever she's being mean, then…
Does he just not like her at all? Suddenly, Sakura heard a short chuckle, and turned her head over her shoulder to see who it was.
"Sakura…!" It was mom.
"What are you doing here?" Sakura asked hurriedly. She hid the kunai knife behind her back. She didn't tell her parents that she was going to train; instead, she told them that she was going to the library for research. She didn't think she'd see them at all…
Sakura's mom, Mebuki Haruno, simply smiled. Although, it had a strange feel to it. "Well, call it mother's intuition, if you will. I couldn't help but sense a strong spirit, and a mountain load of chakra as I was passing by. I was on my way to the store, and would've kept going, too, if it weren't for the chakra of a beautiful Deity beckoning for me to stop. So, you know why I'm here, now. Why are you here, Sakura?" Mebuki's tone was very knowing. And so, Sakura turned a little pink. She didn't want to admit it. It was going to make her feel pretty bad, since her parents were basically begging Sakura to train with them, always. So, for her to up and decide out of the blue that she wanted to train was almost like an insult. Sakura might as well have said that it wasn't just that she didn't want to train, but she especially didn't want to train with them. Stuttering, Sakura tried her best to answer her mom. "I, well, I decided to take a break on the way to the library, so… I'm here, now." Mebuki nodded, "Ah" -ing as though she were understanding something that she didn't before. Mebuki bent down a little, leveling herself with Sakura. She peeked around Sakura, looking to see what was being hidden from her, but Sakura retracted a little, keeping the kunai knife obscured. Mebuki raised her eyebrows at Sakura, continuing to grin. She stood, exhaling dramatically as she placed her hands on her hips. "You know, this place kind of reminds me of the training grounds that I used to go to with your grandma." Sakura blinked innocently. "Ah, Grandma Fuji?" She asked, and Mebuki nodded. "Yep, that would be the correct grandma, Sakura. All of the jutsus I've learned, simple and great, I learned from her." Sakura stared at her mom blankly. She then began to think.
People are always telling her to train, to get stronger, so that she can be useful to her team, and grow as a kunoichi. She might as well, but…
"So, mom…" Sakura looked down at her feet, shuffling shyly. "I… I want to talk to you about something…" Mebuki nodded, and sat down onto the grass. She motioned for Sakura to sit as well, and so Sakura caringly shoved the kunai knife back into her small ninja kit, and sat down before Mebuki. Her mom nodded at her again. "Go on, what is it?"
"Right, well…" Sakura began to think of where to start. "Mom… I'm doing pretty good in all the academic stuff, but…" She paused for a split second. "But, I think I might be having trouble with my abilities. I don't think I've been too useful to my squad. I mean, I tried my best the last mission, but… I don't know, I -I feel like it was only luck that saved me!" Mebuki listened very carefully to Sakura, and Sakura continued speaking.
"Mama, I know I wasn't really serious about training and getting better and all that for a while now, but something… has changed. I've changed, I have to change. At least a little. So… so how can I do that? I want to get better, Mama, but I don't know where to start. Do you think you could tell me?" Sakura stared at her mom, hope filing through the lively colored earthy hue of her irises. Mebuki thought over her answer. "Well, Sakura, that has more to do with you, than with me." She said. "I can't really give you a solid answer, but I will tell you this: if you're truly ready for a change, then you will change. Having the thought to do something is quite different than having the means to do something. You're thinking of changing, but then again, are you really?" Sakura frowned a little. A short breeze passed, and the pink-haired kunoichi's gaze slowly fell to her lap. She thought of what else she wanted to express to her mom.
"Mama… almost everyone I associate with has some sort of special clan jutsu, but what about us?" Sakura looked up at Mebuki again. "What can we do?" Mebuki hummed. "I'm not surprised that you would ask that. I remember all the other little kids in my academy years coming to me, having learned their own clan specialties, asking me what my clan's special jutsu was. I couldn't answer them, so I went to my parents, and asked exactly what you and my old classmates did. My parents weren't so sure, either, and so, they asked your great grandma and grandpa, on my side. Even they couldn't give an answer. So, finally, your great grandparents asked our great cousin, who had traveled to many parts of the land for research before she passed. I was never told the answer, due to having to move and whatnot a few weeks after, but I do believe that your great grandparents were left with at the very least a clue." Sakura continued frowning. "Mama…" She said, "You remember when you and Papa said that I got my chakra control from you two?" Mebuki nodded, saying, "Yeah, what of it?"
"How does chakra control work?" Sakura asked. "What do you mean?" Mebuki retorted. Sakura began to think about it. "Like…" She mumbled.
"How does chakra control work? Like, how does it operate, I mean? Can you really control chakra, Mama? Or, how does chakra itself work? In school, we're taught that chakra is simply what allows us to be ninjas, and to have life. Is that all? I mean, I know what chakra is. But, what is it exactly -what would be the very culmination of chakra? If I dissected it, and stripped it to the barest of bones, what would I be left with? Mama, can you tell me that?" Mebuki stared at Sakura, seemingly puzzled, but also intrigued. "Wow, Sakura, I didn't realize you had so many questions." Mebuki laughed a little, "You might as well go ahead and ask me what the meaning of life is!" She gave a final huff of amusement, and then went on to answer Sakura as sufficiently as possible. "Sorry, sweetheart, but you've already answered your own question. Like you said, chakra is simply what allows life, and ninja life, to exist. It's what allows us to breath, and to manipulate simple things like breathing, living even, should we be able to through something like a kekkei genkai." Furrowing her brows, Mebuki spoke to Sakura in a low somber tone. "I'm sorry, babe, but I don't know if we have any special traits to our clan, other than our hair and eye colors, at least, let alone jutsus. Heck, I don't even think there's a particular technique exclusively relative to the Haruno Clan at all, to be honest. I guess we kind of lucked out in that aspect." Sakura's eyes dropped back down to the earth again, and Mebuki ran her hand over Sakura's soft hair, trying her best to comfort her precious daughter. "You know what?" Mebuki abruptly asked. Sakura glanced up at her mom. "What?" She asked. Mebuki smiled warmly, and stood from where she was sitting. She turned, looking off into the distance somewhere. "You know, some things are sadly too hard to answer, even for know-it-all parents. These are moments when you need to take things into your own hands, and your own account. After all, answers aren't given, they're found. So, maybe you should do some searching, Sakura, dear. Go, and find the answers that you're reaching for. Sadly, even as your broad-minded mother, I don't think I have the answers you want, or even need. Honestly, not having all the right answers to your child is one of the harsh realities of being a parent. I want to set you up for success, but in the end, I can only do so much, because I'm not you, I'm not Sakura Haruno." Mebuki seemed pleased with the reaction she was getting from Sakura, who looked up at her, completely focused and open. She seemed to be listening intensely. "You told your dad and I that you were going to the library, not to train. I'd scold you for lying, especially when you didn't have to, but I will make a very special exception."
"So, maybe you should go to the library after all, Sakura. Maybe you'll find all the answers you're seeking in a book. Knowledge is the key to success." Turning around, Mebuki waved to Sakura, and sauntered off.
Sakura watched her mom until she disappeared from her sight. She bit her lip a little, and looked back to the ground again. Then, she looked up at the sky, and then towards the sun. It was almost late noon. If she wanted to get a good amount of time from the library, then she'd be better off leaving now.
Sakura stood, dusting herself off, and then began to head towards the library once more.
