Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

The Past: Changes

Every morning, she would wake up and feel a little less empty, but a little more disconnected. She felt like there wasn't much that could move her like everything seemed to do before. She felt as if her spirit had jumped into a violent ocean, and the only way to survive was to be heaved down to the dark depths of the unknown. It was as if she were swimming down a long narrow tunnel alone, but she wouldn't stop until she reached the end. She didn't know where the motivation was born within her, but she began her mornings by jogging around the perimeter of the village—improving day by day. After, she would read. Reading was a way to escape, it had always been her refuge, but now she read for her survival. She read on anything she could get her hands on from the genin section of the shinobi library. Most books focused on politics, history, and economics. They were interesting, but most of them were biased in favor of the Leaf village, but if one looked underneath the underneath basic facts and statistics could be gathered. What she scrounged for was anything on any of the three main jutsu categories. Many of the things she found were things she had learned at the academy, but she figured she could skim through them to make sure she hadn't missed anything of use. There were a few tomes and scrolls that genin could access that were chunin level, but she decided to wait to read those until after she had gotten through the lower level stuff. After all, her chakra reserves were small and she knew that she had to build up a better foundation, or else she could damage her coils working on something above her level.

Currently, she was skimming through chakra theory, and contrary to popular belief, it was quite a page-turner. Yet, she didn't like it for the established dogmas of chakra, but rather for the theories that scholars had posed about the possibilities of chakra. Chakra could be amplified by meditating, but a scholar had recorded instances of heightened chakra levels when an individual was faced with deep emotional motivation or trauma. This posed a contradiction to shinobi doctrine as it was part of their training to resist being moved by emotions, but if they did, would they be stronger for it? She thought back to Naruto. He seemed to go against the rigid shinobi rule, as his emotions most always moved him into action. He was better for it. Then again, he also had a demon inside of him that provided him with nearly an endless supply of chakra.

Another scholar had recorded the different types of chakra that they had encountered in their travels. Priestesses' chakra intrigued her even though she knew that she would never wield it. Priestesses were trained from an earlier age than shinobi, and not anyone could be one. There were tests and rituals that followed ancient ways. But she found it intriguing that there were legends that indicated that before shinobi could wield chakra, priestesses would have a duty to protect humanity against demons and creatures. The only demons she could think of was the mythical tailed beasts, and where before they had been mythical to her, now she knew they were real. She wondered if there were more people like him? She thought back to Gara. Of course, there were. (How many nations harbored one? What else was real?)

There had been one scholar whose ideas intrigued her the most. They only went by the characters for snow—she would be sure to look for anything else Snow had written. They proposed that perhaps one could use their chakra to invade another's system, much like medical ninjutsu, but instead of healing, one could leave behind trace amounts of chakra that could become poisonous to the victim's system. In another theory, this chakra could become parasitic, and later be retained by the original user to amplify their own arsenal. It wasn't too far-fetched as she remembered Zabuza's sword healing itself from blood, but a sword was a sword and a living being was more complicated. However, at the chunin exams, Sasuke's preliminary opponent had done just that, but his method was different, probably a kekkei genkai.

Snow had also proposed that perhaps the dead could be brought back using chakra. They had listed different methods—all flawed and slightly more psychotic than the last, but it was the idea that truly fascinated her. It also made her wonder if anyone had ever tried to recreate these theories. Snow was very detailed, and she slightly feared the thought.

Chakra was one of the most important tools to a shinobi, and she didn't have much of it. Yet, what she did have was an above-average control on it. That was something she could work on, and she did. After reading, she would meditate. This would not only help her control, but it would also help expand her reserves. At first, she stayed under for three minutes, but slowly it became a dozen minutes, then fifteen, and when she reached her first half-hour, it had been the first time in a while that she had truly smiled. She had a long way to go, as many veteran shinobi could meditate for hours on end, but it was a start for her.

After meditation, she would practice her katas (academy taught, which didn't really suit her), but sometimes, she would instead practice on her weapons aim. (She had gotten lucky on the day of the invasion when she had killed an enemy-nin. Still, the neck was not the head, thus her aim needed vast improvement.)

Thus, the weeks passed like this for Haruno, Sakura. It was all very monotonous, but for that moment in her life, after being left behind by her first team, it was an ideal existence.

A month and two weeks had gone by and one day, as she read under the shade of a Hashirama tree, a messenger appeared, summoning her to the Hokage's office.

The current Hokage, Tsunade Senju, was nothing like her predecessor. The Sandaime had always had a non-threatening, calm air about him, but it was not to be mistaken for weakness for he was unwavering during his rule. The Godaime, on the other hand, had a predatory gleam to her stare. She imagined that if she were to ever encounter a tiger, the eyes of the Godaime would be staring back at her instead. At least, it was a tiger and not a snake. That thought gave her pause, and a slight chill made its way down her back at the memory of Orochimaru, who funny enough had been the Godaime's genin teammate.

After having greeted Sakura, the Hokage had gone back to looking at her paperwork. An awkward silence filled the room, and it made her clench her hands behind her back in discomfort. She wasn't sure what she was doing here, but she would wait for the Hokage to speak. (A genin had no right questioning the Hokage.)

"Haruno, Sakura. Registration number 012601. Age twelve, almost thirteen. High written scores during the academy days. Subpar physical abilities demonstrated during the chunin exams. Most likely a paper ninja."

Sakura flinched at the Hokage's frankness.

"What is this about?"

The Hokage finally looked up at her, and for a second, she wished that she hadn't. The predatory eyes assessed her thoroughly—searching and tearing at her.

"You have a teammate who defected, and another who won't return for a while. Your team captain requested to be reinstated back into his old ranks. Team seven is no more, so where does that leave you?" (Kakashi-sensei had requested to stop being their sensei? No, just hers.)

Sakura swallowed her nerves but found that she could not answer the woman. Where did that leave her? Would she been put on another team? Would she be sent to the genin corps?

"Answer me this, truthfully. Do you want to continue being a shinobi?"

"Yes, I do." There had been no hesitation.

"Why?"

Here she did hesitate. She could name a thousand reasons, but she wouldn't mean a single one. She didn't know why she woke up every day and trained harder. She didn't know why she wanted to continue down this path which would only lead to more hardships, except that the burning in her chest wouldn't let her do anything else. What she was certain of, however, was that she had been on this path long before she had encountered Sasuke. She just had to remember why. It was a path that she chose to walk herself.

"I want to continue to be a shinobi."

The Hokage frowned, and unrelenting stared at her. She felt a wave of chakra engulf the room. A barrier seal, for privacy, she realized.

"Fine. Let's begin," said the Godaime. "I am assigning you to a unit under Morino, Ibiki. You should be familiar with him. He proctored the first stage of the chunin exams. Unit 10-40-10 will be your new station. You will report in the vicinity of T&I to Ibiki at 0500 tomorrow."

"Hokage-sama?"

"Yes, what is it?"

"I know that Anbu is the only division that keeps its inner workings private to the public and lower ranks, but all the other divisions are privy to the public eye. I've never heard of unit 10 within T&I."

"Caught that, did you?" The Hokage sighed. "Yes, you're right. This unit was formed after the first war, it was an accelerated program to pump out as many useful shinobi as to fulfill missions. On paper, it was classified as another research and archives unit, but it's more of a junk drawer. Unit 10 deals with missions that will never be made public knowledge, much like ANBU, but ANBU missions are more complex, not only because of the danger of the opponents that the agents may face, the terrain they must navigate, or the experience that is needed, but because of the politics, they must circumvent. Politics placed by daimyos, councils, treaties, the people, and clans. ANBU must be mindful of all that, and they must remain hidden—the epitome of a shadow. In times of war, every active shinobi is stretched too thin, and the younger inexperienced ones must pick up the slack. Unit 10 helped fulfilled that role, and it did so without putting the clans at risk. Clan politics affect how this village is run and how missions are carried out. Unit 10 does not accept anyone from the clans." She paused, and suddenly Sakura saw a crack in the Godaime's armor. One that suddenly reminded her of the smell of sake that faintly permeated the room.

"It was dismantled during the third war. The people that fought that war wanted to step towards a better future. Unit 10 was seen as too barbaric in their training and an operation that perpetuated the disparities between clans and the people with no clan names. It was officially terminated by the fourth Hokage. Everything that unit 10 had been involved in was kept quiet, so there wasn't much to cover up. That is why you have never seen it mentioned in textbooks or records."

Sakura nodded in understanding, even though everything the Godaime had said had left her with even more questions. Yet, the one question she wanted to be answered was, "Then, why reinstate it?"

The Godaime steepled her fingers. She noticed a slight tremor in them.

"Orochimaru made quite a mess of things here. He banded two hidden villages together, albeit not the most powerful ones, to attack us, but it left damages to many sectors. We had many casualties, both civilian and shinobi. All in all, we've taken a significant hit. The peace treaties signed from the third war are shaky, at best, and this village has many enemies from the last war that are vying for a shot to finish what Orochimaru started. It's not war, not yet, but the illusion of peace is gone."

"Why me?"

The Godaime stared into her eyes, a vicious expression set in stone.

"Reports of the attack coincided. You broke many out of the mass genjutsu. You yourself were never caught up in it. To put it bluntly, you're a nobody with some potential."

Her heart burned with rage.

"Understood. I'll report tomorrow."

"Dismissed."

She nodded and turned around, ready to escape the room and go back to the refuge of the book that she had been reading before she had been summoned. As she closed the door, she thought that she had heard a whisper that sounded so much like 'I'm sorry', but she chalked it up to her imagination and the sound of blood rushing through her ears.