Disclaimers:

I do not, unfortunately, own Naruto or any of its characters. This is just me having some fun in quarantine. (Yep, ya girl's still quarantining - is that even a word?)

English is not my first language so, if possible, overlook eventual mistakes, please.

REVIEWS GIVE ME LIFE! PLEASE LEAVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS ABOUT MY STORY, but remember to be polite, thank you very much. :)

Some characters may feel a little OOC and it may be because I've changed some parts of their life story or because I'm having trouble grasping a good way to write them. Whatever the reason, bear it with me, if you like the story! I'm trying my very best.

In case there are any triggers, I'll place a warning in the beginning of its chapter. Please pay attention to it.

A/N: Hello! This is just something that's been really bugging me to be written, so I decided to give it a go!

Prologue - Collateral Damage

"Oh Gods, of course. It makes sense." She thought out loud.

"What are you talking about, Sakura-chan?" Naruto sounded anxious. He knows. He's never this quiet when someone's talking about something he didn't understand.

But everyone was looking at her, so she decided to answer.

"Is this for real?" She motioned at her teammates. When they looked somewhat confused she added "Team seven. It was never really meant to be a team, was it?" she noticed some faces paling "We were picked as babysitters for the jinchuuriki."

Their faces were trained on the same poker face, but the looks exchanged rapidly between the Hokage and Kakashi told her there was more to it and that she was never supposed to know what it was. She got a dreadful feeling that she definitely wouldn't like to know whatever 'it' was.

The silence prolonged and was broken by her own gasp when realisation hit her.

"Hold on..." She was gazing at the Hokage with an incredulous smile, she didn't know how to feel.

"Sakura-chan-" Kakashi started, but she cutted him without looking away from the Hokage.

"The nine-tails can be controlled by a sharingan. That's why Kakashi was chosen as our sensei." the Hokage frowned, but just nodded. "But he wouldn't be always there, so you needed Sasuke as a backup. After all, he's the only other sharingan available and even though he hadn't awakened it at that point, as a Shinobi, it was bound to happen eventually. It was a good plan, considering Kakashi could keep an eye at the jinchuuriki and train the sharingan at the same time."

She frowned and stopped when it came to her turn. Why was I picked? I can't control the nine-tails… And even though Naruto seems fond of me, I can't stop him from being reckless. I also can't protect him, it's usually the other way around, given that they haven't bothered to actually spend time teaching me, so I don't have any speciality…

Why me, then? I have nothing unique to offer like a kekkei genkai or badass secret clan jutsus like the other Kunoichi and- oh.

She could see in the Hokage's face when he knew she had figured it out, for he had blushed deeply and looked away.

"And I was just a filler, wasn't I?" her voice was surprisingly steady, but it sounded dead. Even to her own ears, she sounded hollow, like everything good inside of her had just vanished.

"Sakura-chan-" she didn't stop when Naruto spoke and just talked over him.

"Because a team needs three. And the villagers were already prejudiced against the jinchuuriki, so, given that the team would inevitably need to have the likes of an always-reading-porn Hatake, the no-feelings-allowed Uchiha and the loudest-shinobi-to-ever-have-lived Uzumaki, you needed someone likable to sway people's opinions on Naruto, right?" at this point she wasn't even looking at them, she was absolutely sure about every word she was saying, so she just kept her momentum, not even hearing them interrupting her.

She was mainly speaking to herself by now.

"And by choosing me you wouldn't have to put other Kunoichi, or clan heiresses, with rare abilities such as the byakugan or Ino's mind possession within the Kyuubi's range. Should anything happen, the only casualty would be me, a nobody that didn't even know enough to stay out of the way and on top of that was set on making Sasuke like her! I'd be just collateral damage." a humourless laugh falling from lips. "That explains why everytime Naruto had a problem with the nine-tails, Kakashi's first reaction was to make sure Sasuke was out of the way. Even though I was the one who didn't know better." she frowned, looking at nowhere in particular, lost in her own thoughts and memories.

Then, another big revelation dawned on her and she found, with a gasp and a sick stomach, the Hokage's eyes.

"Uchiha. Of course." was all she said and there was no need to search for tells about what the man was thinking. He had shame written all over his face. What escaped Sakura, though, was how it was unlikely that he had been the one to come up with the idea, even if he was the one who executed it.

Her teammates were talking (well, Naruto was. Sasuke was just making noncommittal sounds), but she didn't hear them. She was entranced by her realisations.

"Keep the filler weak and unknowing and if I was to die. No, when I was to die, not only no great loss would come to Konoha, but there was also a slight possibility it would awaken the next stage of Sasuke's sharingan!" She knew all eyes were on her, but she was too struck by her own line of thought to notice.

She didn't even know how she figured out the last part, it just fell out of her lips while she was speaking. Still, as soon as she said it, she knew it was true.

"Oh Gods. Is that the reason I couldn't know? Because you knew that if I didn't know better, I'd try to connect with them and if it came down to it, I would gladly sacrifice myself to protect your precious weapons, thus making them stronger somehow?" she was raging now. How could the Hokage do such a thing to one of his own?

Apparently they were, finally, too ashamed (or bored, in Sasuke's case) to say anything so she kept her monologue, because it was the only thing she could do to prevent herself from jumping to the Hokage's throat.

"Is that why you never really tried to teach me as you did with them?" She turned to Kakashi, a serious mask in her face and her voice low, but somehow still steady. "Is that why you always looked at me with resentment? That I, of all people, was needed for you to get a boost in your powers?" She had turned to Sasuke before her sensei could answer and before the latter had the chance, she was turning to Naruto "And is that why you're always obnoxiously loud? To divert my attention?" Naruto was speechless, but the deep red creeping in his cheeks gave it away.

"You were really just using me?" she was looking at her teammates expecting to find something in their eyes to save her from this awful scenario.

She found boredom in Sasuke's eyes, as usual. In Naruto's… there were too many emotions to pin down just one. He opened his mouth to speak, but she bit him to it.

"Would you even mourn me when I was sacrificed?" at that, she found nothing in their eyes, they had hardened, giving nothing away. Why isn't there something in their eyes? Anything!

"After all this time and all I did for you two and you never cared enough to-" she stopped herself, shaking her head. There was no point in her questioning.

They were empty. Naruto looked hella guilty, but she could spot nothing more. And Sasuke.. she couldn't even tell, he had hid behind his mask of boredom and she didn't want to search for his tells.

Her heart was hammering on her chest and, so far, she was winning against the tears, but it was like a hole was forming within her.

Sakura could tell that someone was saying something, though she paid it no attention whatsoever. She didn't register anything but the burning feeling of betrayal. It stung on her chest like a poisoned kunai would, or so her unconscious mind thought.

She felt like a puppet being handled without her knowledge or consent.

Sakura was no fool, she knew shinobi were like pawns, she'd always known. But at least they were respected enough as people to be granted the option to decline missions if they didn't believe they'd be able to succeed in what was needed of them.

Or at the very least they'd be informed when there was no other option to keep the village safe. But that was not the case here. Of course she'd never agree to this arrangement if she had been consulted beforehand, but to be denied even that… She felt like a pig being fattened to be slaughtered at the right time. The feeling of betrayal was burning her heart, erasing everything else in it's way until it was all there was left.

If that was how things were dealt behind the curtains in the village, then Konoha had failed her. Not only the Hokage, because she knew decisions this big involved a whole council and they had decided the best option was that one.

What other atrocities have they allowed and ordered in 'Konoha's best interest'? She shivered thinking about that, everything she believed in was crumbling to her feet and what was left behind was not something she wanted to be part of.

She noticed she had lost herself in thoughts and that four pairs of eyes were locked onto her, watching her every reaction.

Sakura refused to let them see her lose it. She took a deep breath and turned once again to face the Hokage.

"So, basically what you're saying is that you want me to become Tsunade-sama's apprentice because you need the two sharingans working for as long as the jinchuuriki lives or you learn a different way to keep the Kyuubi in control, or maybe until you manage to get your hands on more little sharingans-to-be." she said, failing at keeping the sneer back.

"Uh! Better get to work already, ne, Uchiha? The faster you and whomever start popping little sharingans, the better for the village, right?" she smiled and asked in an oh-so-sweet tone, not even bothering to be polite anymore. She had turned to eye Sasuke and even though his mask never faltered, she spotted him faintly blushing.

"Oy, Sakura-chan, how can you call us that? You-" she ignored Naruto.

"No, Sakura-chan. I'm giving you the great opportunity to train under one of the legendary Sannin. An opportunity that would also benefit your team, yes. Naruto-san and Sasuke-san are both great assets to the village and the training to control the nine-tails will be dangerous. We'll need a medic to monitor their health and save their lives as needed." as soon as he said it, Sakura smirked at him. There it was. The confirmation of her words.

"Save them until I need to die for the mangekyou, right?" He blushed and grimaced, but said nothing so she decided to take a step further and asked with the sweetest smile she managed "Or maybe, if I'm your best option to keep Konoha's greatest assets alive, that role will eventually fall into Kakashi's lap? I mean, somebody just gotta go for the mangekyou's sake, am I right?" She finished with a giggle and as fake as it sounded, it felt good to make them feel this uncomfortable.

"You might not like all this, Sakura-chan. But I am still your Hokage and you will treat me with the respect that title deserves."

"By all means, Hokage-sama. My apologies to have been such a disrespectful little puppet." she all but spat. She knew she should get a hold on her temper or she'd regret it, but for the life of her she couldn't care right now.

The old man was getting red with anger, but held his own temper. I must be by far the best choice he has or he wouldn't be letting me get away with this. Huh. Interesting.

She didn't want to be their puppet anymore, but being Tsunade's apprentice was indeed the only good opportunity Konoha had ever given her. It was her chance to get stronger and to leave the village behind, even if for just a while. So she decided to finish this whole shit show before she lost the opportunity.

"Does Tsunade-sama know about all this? Is that why I have such a great opportunity?" she couldn't help the coldness in her voice.

"No. She really sees this potential in you and asked me to talk with you because she was needed out of the village. She said that when you accepted, you should find her there." He said motioning slightly to a scroll on the corner of his desk, close to her.

For the third time since entering the Hokage's office, she looked at Kakashi. He looked… normal. Like all this was just yesterday's business.

That flared her anger once more and she couldn't (neither did she wanted to) hold back her temper any longer. Fuck the consequences.

"Hn. So even though I have always portrayed chakra control even greater than most chunin and jounin ever since I was a freaking genin, you chose to neglect me. And now that I'm useful, required even, you decide I might be worth your attention?" she lifted an eyebrow, but managed to control her voice and she sounded nothing but curious. "Oh my, Sarutobi-sama. I'm flattered." she took a step forward and bowed, fetching the scroll on her way to stand back up. "Guess I'll become a med-nin, huh?" was all she said, already leaving the room without waiting to be dismissed. Once out she heard Naruto calling her name, but raced out before he could catch her.

#

Sakura didn't bother stopping at her house. That would be the first place they'd go to search for her, or maybe just Naruto. She knew, deep down, that the blond was as much of a puppet in all this as she was. But nothing could excuse him from what was done (and planned to be done) with her.

She made her way over to Ino's place, she'd always kept a few of her things there ever since her parents had died.

And she knew that, upon explaining everything to the blond, she'd equip her with everything she needed and Sakura'd be able to vanish before her teammates could find her.

Not that she expected them to actually search for her.

Everyone knew Ino was a total gossip, but what barely nobody knew was that she was the fiercest of friends and could keep a secret like no one else. Ever since the chunin exams, she had been scouted to train under Ibiki, to eventually become part of the interrogation squad.

Which, for Sakura, was the perfect role for the Yamanaka heiress. She could be ruthless when needed and she was the best to get any information you wanted. Very few could hide things from Ino if she really wanted to know. Sakura learnt that the worst way possible.

She reached Ino's house and heard laughter. It was girl's night. She had forgotten.

Well, she trusted her friends with her life. If they couldn't be trusted, no one else could.

With that in mind, she jumped to her best friend's bedroom window and opened it, she didn't want anyone else seeing her on the front door.

"Tadaima, girls." She said in a tired voice and was soon surrounded by her friends and pushed into many embraces.

"You look very tired, Sakura-chan. Is something the matter?" Tenten gently asked while grabbing her hand and leading her to sit on the bed.

Sakura all but slumped and sank down with a huff.

"Yeah" she said with a choked whisper, tears finally falling.

"What the hell happened, Forehead?" Ino sounded annoyed but worried. It was a funny combo, Ino always tried to disguise her worries with anger and always failed miserably at it.

"H-here, Sakura-chan." Hinata said in a small and not so shy voice, handing her a cup of tea.

"Thanks, Hina-chan" she smiled at the girl and took a sip. It was mint tea, her favourite.

"So? Are you gonna spill what the problem is or are you gonna make us wait some more?" Into puffed, placing a hand on her hip and tilting to the side. It was hers 'don't push me' pose.

Sakura chuckled. Only the blond could make her laugh while she cried.

"I'll tell you, but I need you to promise me not to say anything about it to anyone. I trust you all, but this... I need that promise. Especially you, Pig. I don't need anyone getting wind of this."

The blond rolled her eyes and nodded along with the other two girls.

"We promise." they all said.

"Okay." She took another sip of her tea, thinking about how to start.

She tried speaking many times, but she would either cry harder or get so angry she couldn't spill out any coherent sentence.

Soon enough, Sakura decided it would be best if she showed them because then she wouldn't miss anything, nor would it be possible for someone to eavesdrop on them. So she casted a genjutsu on them, playing the entire talk at the Hokage's office.

As soon as the genjutsu faded, three pairs of strong arms were holding her in an awkward but comforting embrace.

"I'm gonna kill them." Ino's muffled voice came from her left.

She pushed away and turned to face the blond.

"No, Ino. You can't say anything. I won't lose my chance with Tsunade-sama. Not over them." she spat the last word. Her heart felt heavy with the crushing feeling of betrayal.

"But Forehead!" the girl whined.

"No buts, Pig. This is probably the only chance I'll ever get." her tone was final and the blond only nodded, though she didn't look happy about it.

A pregnant silence stretched.

"I can't believe they actually…" she trailed off. She had been running on anger and only now was actually processing everything. "I thought we were friends, you know?" the girls nodded "But they were actually only protecting me so I'd die at a more convenient time!"

"S-Sakura-chan, are you s-sure about all this? I mean, aren't the teams supposed to w-work together a-and protect each other?" It was the longest she had ever heard Hinata speaking at once.

It had been about six months since the chunin exams and the Hyuuga girl was flourishing under their wings, getting more confident at herself and, consequently, also getting more confident at the Hyuuga's gentle fist (or so she told them).

"Hina-chan, you saw it! Even the Hokage himself was looking guilty!" Ino said before she could.

"Yeah, nobody there was actually giving a fuck about it. Well, Naruto seemed bothered, but that doesn't excuse him from playing along." Tenten said with a frown.

"Ino, did you see Sasuke's face?" Sakura asked in a small voice and the other nodded.

"He never once looked like he cared. I bet he's getting something out of this. I- I didn't think he could be so… so…" she couldn't finish.

"Me neither…"

"What about Kakashi? Wasn't he supposed to protect his pupil? Gai-sensei would be so disappointed to hear that his so-called rival doesn't give a shit if his student dies or not."

Sakura shivered. She didn't want to think about all this now. She wanted to go away as soon as possible.

"Girls, I… I'm gonna pick up my things and go. I really need to be away from all this." she said getting up "I wanna leave tonight so I can reach Tsunade-sama as soon as possible and put this behind me, somehow."

They went to fetch her things, though Sakura wasn't really paying attention to what she was doing. She was, however, putting all her focus on how she would search for Tsunade on her own.

She would have to be extra careful out there since she was going without a team.

Not that that would make a real difference.. she mused remembering about the painful revelations.

With the help of her friends, she was quickly packed and, after promising to send news about her, she was out on her way.

#

Sakura spent the following two years completely away from Konoha, training under Tsunade. She had discovered that the Hokage had asked her shishou to come back and assume the Head of the Hospital, but the woman had declined. Then he asked that, at least, she trained some med-nins to fill her place and, upon seeing the candidates, she declined again. Only after seeing Sakura's chakra control, she accepted, but then it was the old man who had declined and tried to push other shinobi, from various clans and ranks, but Tsunade said that the only one she would teach was someone she thought was capable of being better than herself and, to Sarutobi's misfortune, that one was Sakura.

It was not like the blond woman had just sat down to tell her all those things, but sake was really good to loosen her tongue, Sakura quickly learned. That was how she discovered many things. Well, that and Shizune. The brunette was really good company.

Despite being more like nomads, never staying in one place for too long (or else, people would come to try to collect the blond's debts), they had developed a routine of sorts.

First thing in the morning for Sakura was to check on their patients. Any and everywhere they went, Tsunade's name had preceded them and there were people in need of medical assistance. So there were always patients to be checked.

Then, she would study poisons with Shizune until Tsunade woke up from her slumber with a deadly hangover, which was, more often than not, around lunch time. Poisons were fascinating (after you got past the fear of working with them), there were always new things to learn and Shizune was a good teacher.

After lunch she would usually learn or practice something with her sensei and then they'd spar. At first, the sparring was more like a 'trying to survive' kind of thing and many times she'd fall unconscious because she had wronged a move and Tsunade had hit her too much or too strong.

There was no doubt in her heart that, had her shishou been anyone else, she'd be six feet under a long long time ago instead of up and running with only tiny scars left. She had been yelled at, cared for, hunted down, poisoned, cured, loved, taught, attacked, praised, patched up, and even gone through a surgery once when she was too slow to properly dodge an attack from her sensei.

Now, however, she was quick on feet and was very rarely hit. And even then, she'd at least be able to block the brunt of the attack to prevent damage and was able to keep up with Tsunade.

Granted that she still had a lot to learn to be able to stand side by side with her shishou, given that the older woman was a living legend and as powerful as any Kage. Nevertheless, Sakura proved to be a quick study and was evolving fast and steadily, surpassing Shizune's skill level in a short time, though the woman still was her superior when it came to poisons.

After the training session with the blond woman, Sakura was free to do with her time whatever she wanted. Being the nerd she had always been, Sakura spent that time mostly working on honing her other skills and developing new ones.

Tsunade being high rank in the bingo book, had granted Sakura many opportunities to test her new abilities in real combat. Unlike most of their attackers thought, Sakura had no qualms about using her medical knowledge to strike more damage on her enemies and many had fallen victim to her expertise.

After being caught in so many fights, remembering that, when her training with Tsunade was over she'd be, mostly on her own in Konoha and how Kabuto used offensive medical jutsus, Sakura understood that, in order to survive and thrive as a good shinobi, she would have to take whatever she learnt or saw people using and work to transform it into something useful to her, both as defensive and offensive techniques. And so she did.

After learning about and analysing how jinchuurikis healed much faster than normal shinobis because of the bijuu's chakra that would serve as a healing one whenever needed and that, in those situations, the advantage was that they had a whole separate chakra reserve that could heal them anytime, she began working on how to apply that knowledge to herself. With Tsunade's help, she succeeded in creating her version of it.

It wasn't easy, but she had separated a small portion of her chakra and actually taught it to automatically heal her whenever she suffered any injury. The trick was to maintain that healing chakra sealed in one place. Well, not actually sealed, because that would block the 'automatic' part, but rather stationary in a strategic place (around her belly button, because then the chakra could reach any part of her body at the same time).

That, however, proved to be too high maintenance in a real fight, because she needed to either focus on maintaining the chakra fixed there or on using the rest of her chakra to defend herself and attack. After many failed different approaches, Sakura came up with a totally new and weird answer. But it worked. The idea came from her friends, though not directly. It had been through how and what they mailed each other.

Wary of her situation with the current Hokage and her own team, Sakura and her friends had taken to mail each other with a scroll that would only reveal it's content with a little chakra code. They had three different patterns that served as three different codes for different results. The first one was to show the message, the second was to show an alternative message in case of any intrusive eyes and the last one was to erase the message, even if it had never been shown.

One day Tenten sent her some kunai, because she had gone through most of hers in the last fights and those she found to buy were nowhere near as good as the ones Tenten's family made. When she saw the 'storage' seal holding the kunais, she had the idea. Working on adapting it to a living being, she eventually managed to create a seal that behaved much like a cell membrane.

It was a light coloured circle around her belly button that held her healing chakra inside, but at the same time was permeable, allowing the chakra through whenever needed, be it to heal her or to fuel the small reserve. She had also designed the seal to refuel itself automatically. That meant one less thing for her to worry about.

Her feat managed to surprise her shishou and the blond granted Sakura the honour of learning about the Byakugō no In, which Sakura promptly began to fuel as soon as she got the clear from Tsunade. She would pump some chakra into it every single day as soon as she woke up and sometimes, when she had some to spare, when she went to bed. She was quickly and steadily building her reserve.

Too soon, however, they received a scroll from the Hokage to present themselves to Konoha, for their presence was needed. That was where Sakura, Tsunade and Shizune were now heading to, much to the pinkette's doom.

As much as she missed Ino, Tenten and Hinata, she had no interest in coming back. She still felt betrayal stinging in her heart. Though she had had enough time to think about it and eventually came to terms with the whole thing.

She understood the cold reasoning behind the council and Hokage's decision, but that didn't mean she accepted it in any way shape or form.

No, no. She didn't trust Konoha's government one bit any longer (or her teammates, for that matter).

But she had come to realise that, as a medic, she had been given the opportunity to save some of the innocent civilians and her fellow shinobis who were, most likely, unaware of the leaders' rotting ways. She could help Konoha become safer, or so she thought.

A/N: That's it for the prologue! Did you like it? PLEASE TELL ME

So… It might be controversial, but I see team seven basically as jinchuuriki babysitters. I mean, think about it! The only two sharingan users (available for Konoha, obvs) were 'randomly' placed on the same team as the boy with the overgrown angry fox? (I think not) The only kekkei genkai that is known to be able to control said fox? (Yeah, wood release. I hear you, but it just restrains it, not control, as far as I'm aware).

I also get real mad about how underrated and underdeveloped (sooo many missed opportunities! Let me tell you) Sakura was.

(Just like Rin, that got written basically to get killed for the mangekyou's sake… But… Are you ready for that talk?)

Bruh! You'd think that Kishimoto'd give the girl who's on the freaking team with the protagonist a chance to evolve beyond being a pretty face that can heal, punch really hard and yell 'Sasuke-kun!' or 'Onegai, Naruto!' while she does what she's best known for: crying.

Maybe I'm being too harsh? Maybe. Can you blame me? (Don't answer that)

Sorry about that not-so-little rant, but it's out of my system now and we can focus on getting a story where (to the extent of my abilities) the girls are strong and a force to be reckoned with and not just crying fillers with boobs.

I'll see you next chapter, hopefully.

Peace! ;)