Sakura hummed to herself as she walked through the fruit market. She picked up a grapefruit and rolled it against her palm, ensuring it was firm but ripe at the same time. Satisfied with her choice, she plopped it into a bag and twisted the end into a knot, then tossed the bag into her cart. She continued the process on each piece of fruit she chose until the front of her cart was full. Once finished with her choices, she moved to the front counter to make her purchases. However, Sakura was not here because she was in need of groceries for her home. She was here for a totally unrelated reason. This place was just a distraction from something that had been bothering her all day. It had been a long day at the hospital. Her mind was focused on the one particular event that was the source of her worry.

*Flashback*

Sakura walked into exam room 3. The chart outside contained information regarding the patient's ailment; a possible break in the left forearm, in the distal Ulna. It was a small break, requiring nothing more than a cast and time to heal. Her patient was a 6 year old little boy with brown hair and big brown eyes. His cheeks were stained with tears from his obvious discomfort. Sakura looked to her file for his name. Thomas.

"Hello Thomas, my name is Dr. Haruno, but you can call me Sakura if you like."

She gave the boy a big smile that sent the corners of her mouth almost all the way to her emerald green eyes. The boy only nodded in reply.

The boy's mother stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

"My son was climbing a tree with some of the other neighborhood boys. It seems they were rough-housing IN the tree and Tommy fell out. I am almost certain his arm is broken. Sakura nodded.

"I am going to do a few movement checks and then I will take an x-ray of his arm. He will likely have to wear a cast, but if there is a break, it's probably not bad enough to need being reset."

The mother visibly relaxed at the information. The mother then walked toward the door out of the room.

"I need to use your restroom. Is it ok to leave him here while I go? It will be quick I promise."

Sakura nodded to the boy's mother.

"Sure that's fine. We will be right here when you get back."

With that, the mother left and Sakura turned her attention to her patient. She took the boy's arm into her hands.

"Ok now I just need you to try and do a few things for me and then we can make your arm all better." She smiled at the boy to put him at ease.

"First I need you to try and turn your arm from side to side."

The boy went to move his arm, but immediately cradled it with his other arm and shook his head.

"It's ok Thomas; I know it's not very comfortable." She smiled reassuringly at the young boy. "Ok one more thing and we will be finished with the stuff that hurts, ok?"

The boy nodded.

"Ok, very slowly I want you to wave your hand up and down like you are waving goodbye. Be sure to only move at your wrist."

The boy did as was instructed and immediately winced in pain. His eyes started to tear up and little sniffles could be heard.

Sakura felt bad for him. She had broken her arm more than once being clumsy as a child, so she could empathize with the boy in front of her. She took his arm in her hand and wished she could make his arm better and take his pain away.

"It will be ok; I'll make your arm all better." She cooed to the youngster.

Almost immediately, her hands became very warm… unusually warm to be more specific. It was then that Sakura felt something, what, she didn't know, but it was as if something or someone was telling her not to let go. Her hands began to give off a warm green glow. Inside her mind's eye she could almost see the bone in the boy's arm knitting together at an impossible rate. Her eyes went wide and met the equally wide eyes of Thomas. After a few minutes, the glow died down and disappeared completely. Sakura was dumbfounded at what she had just witnessed. Where there was once a heavy bruise on the boy's arm where the break would have been, was now almost an indiscernible light bruise on his forearm. Sakura released the boy's arm and he pulled it back reflexively. He turned his arm back and forth. Then he looked up at Sakura and gave her the biggest toothy grin he could muster.

"It doesn't hurt anymore! You really did make it all better!"

Sakura, still at a loss for words, looked at the boy with a blank stare. Her eyes went back to the small bruise on his arm.

'Did I really just do that?' she thought.

Sakura's mind raced. What did this mean? What was going on with her? She looked back at Thomas. As real as the occurrence was to her, she just couldn't believe it.

"Let's go to x-ray and take a picture of your arm. I need to see something."

*End Flashback*

The events of the day had been on her mind since her shift ended at the hospital. What was happening to her?

She collected her bagged purchases and walked out of the market. As she made her way home, Sakura started to feel uneasy. She would feel like this from time to time as a result of 'the night.' This time, however, she felt more uneasy than was usual. She turned and glanced behind her to see only one person walking behind her. She continued toward her apartment, but with a little more vigor in her step. After a few blocks she began to feel uneasy again. This time she was afraid to look behind her, but she turned and glanced behind once again to see the same person following behind her. Looking closer she noticed that the man was not looking anywhere but directly at her. He noticed that she noticed him and he quickened his pace. Sakura panicked and broke into a dead run. The man began to run after her.

Sakura was frantic. She was running into people on the sidewalk, running into newspaper add boxes. It seemed the closer the man got to her, the more obstacles she ran into. Finally her apartment was within eyesight. There were only a few more blocks to go. Just as she thought she was home free, a group of people poured out of a local coffee shop like a thickly massed herd of cattle. With traffic in the street and the group of people too clustered to get through, she darted down an alleyway. This of course, she realized too late, was a big mistake. There was a large pile of debris and a privacy fence cutting of passage through the alleyway. It looked like some repairs were being made to the building sharing this alleyway. Local construction was going to be her ultimate destruction.

Sakura turned to run back out of the alleyway only to be met by her attacker. The man was easily three times her size. The man flashed a grin and reached into his pocket, pulling out a knife. Flashback images of her night in the parking garage came back full force and she completely lost all of her willpower. She collapsed on her knees in a heap and began to sob.

"Yes, I hear that prey instinctively know when to give up, sensing that a situation is hopeless." The man licked his lips and leaped the last few steps, pressing his knife to Sakura's throat. If Sakura felt the knife press against her flesh, she gave no indication of it. She had already given up the moment she realized she was trapped. She was vaguely aware of the man yanking her purse from her. She was only slightly aware that he was no longer interested in her purse and that he was now pulling at her clothes. Then, when she thought that everything was over for her, she heard a voice.

'Sakura…'

'Sakura!'

The voice grew louder.

'Sakura damnit, if you don't listen to me right now I am going to KICK YOUR ASS!'

Now that got Sakura's attention.

Everything vanished before her eyes and she found herself standing in a pitch black room. The blackness of the room startled her. She could discern no concept of a floor, ceiling, or walls. Only black space, yet she seemed to be 'standing' on some kind of 'floor.' However, as strange as all this was, nothing was more strange to her than to be standing face-to-face, with… herself.

"Who are you? You look just like me."

'I am you stupid. That's why I look like you. For someone with such a large forehead, you sure seem to have a lack of brain behind it.'

"What the hell? My forehead isn't that big! You look like me, but you don't talk like me." Sakura gestured all around her. "What exactly is all of this?"

'We are inside your mind to answer your second question.' The Sakura clone grinned. 'And to answer your first question, I am you… but more importantly, I am not just you. I am all of the feelings you keep to yourself, I am all of the things you want to say, but don't. In short, I am the more aggressive side of your personality. I am the take-charge-kick-ass-and-take-names side of you that you don't have to courage to be normally.'

Sakura gave her a dumb look.

The Sakura copy sighed in frustration.

'Look, I am your inner-self, but right now, that is not what's important. Right now, you are about to be raped again and probably killed, only this time your knight-in-shining-armor isn't here to rescue you. It looks like I am going to have to show you what to do.'

With that, Inner Sakura reared back and punched Sakura right in the face. Sakura jolted awake and violently tumbled back into reality. The man was fidgeting with the buckle on his pants, trying to get them undone. This time however, Sakura no longer felt afraid or weak. She felt something surge through her, and then a whisper in the back of her mind.

'Hit him Sakura. Make him regret ever laying a hand on you.'

Sakura nodded and a fire burned in her eyes. Faster than lightning could ever hope to strike, Sakura brought her hand up and gripped her attackers hand in a painfully tight grip. She then pushed his hand and weapon away from her throat, almost effortlessly. The man's eyes bugged out of his face.

"What the fuck is going-"was all he could say before Sakura's right hook smashed into his head. The impact sounded like a gunshot and the man 'sailed' literally, through the air into the side of a dumpster on the other side of the alleyway. Sakura gaped and looked at her hand. The doctor in her knew that her hand would HAVE to be broken after an impact like that. She looked at her hand, quickly opening and closing it. It wasn't even the slightest bit sore or hurt. She walked over to her assailant. He was slumped against the dumpster, unconscious. To a by-passer he would have looked like a drunken bum sleeping it off, but to someone with Sakura's medical know-how, the man had a fractured jaw, and the odd angle that his shoulders slumped suggested that one or both of his shoulders were dislocated. Quickly surveying her conquest, the high of the empowerment wore off and she realized for the first time, just what happened. She quickly turned and ran out of the alleyway, not bothering to look back. She ran full sprint all the way back to her apartment. Once inside she locked the door. She turned, and slumped to the floor, her back sliding against the door as she descended. Once there, she cupped her face in her hands and wept.