Sakura Haruno was the pink haired 'cousin' of Miyako Haruno. Many of Sakura's teachers have wondered in the past how the pink-haired girl could be so weak compared to her purple-haired cousin. No one, not even Sakura herself, knew that Miyako was the last surviving member of Shinjitsu Clan.
Now that Sakura knows, she feels alone. Confused even. Left out. Her parents knew. The Hokage knew. Hell, her own sensei knew. But she didn't. so, when Sakura knocked on the door to Miyako's apartment, she wasn't sure what she was going to say. What she didn't was that the first word to come out of her pink lips after seeing Miyako was "why?"
Miyako sighed and gestured for her cousin to come into the apartment she shared with her cousin's infatuation. Sakura hesitated, but decided to go in, removing her shoes at the genkan before following Miyako to the lounge room. There, Sakura took a seat on the couch, moving a jumped with the Uchiha symbol on it to the floor. Sakura never though Sasuke would be a bit of a slob but considering that he's clothes were the only ones lying around, it appears he was.
"I'm sorry, Sakura. I wanted to tell you sooner, but your parents thought you weren't ready," Miyako explained as she walked to the kitchen and turned the kettle on, grabbing two mugs from the cupboard and placing them on the off-white coloured bench. "I thought we should've told you when you graduated. But they wanted to wait until you were a chunin."
"So, we're not cousin? So me being weak is genetic? I'll never amount to anything more than a chunin at most, just like my parents?" Sakura questioned with tears in her green eyes.
Miyako looked at the young teen in surprise, before filling the cups up with the now boiled water and grabbing a green tea bag for each cup. She placed the bags into the cups and turned to face Sakura whilst they soaked in the boiling water.
"Of course not. You being weak isn't because off genetics. It's because you don't take training seriously. There are plenty of shinobi of high ranks that come from a nameless family or low-level clan. They work hard to be strong. You too, can reach their heights if you trained hard enough," Miyako explained, turning back around and pulling the teabags out of the tea, placing them on the sink and walking over with the mugs in her hand. She handed one to Sakura.
"Thanks," Sakura said, before taking a small sip of her drink. "Training like how you had me train the week before the chunin exams? Is that the sort of training you're talking about?"
Miyako sighed, shaking her head in the negative. "No. It would need to be more intense. You need to find a fighting style that works for you. No one is meant to be an all-rounder in fighting. Everyone specialises in one way or another." Miyako paused as she took a sip from her tea. "For example, my fighting is based predominantly on Taijutsu and use of weapons, as well as my kekkei genkai. Sasuke's is predominantly ninjutsu and Taijutsu... for now. Naruto is predominantly Taijutsu combined with his shadow clones and throwing weapons. Everyone is different. Kami knows my team was."
"You had an Uchiha on your team, didn't you?"
Miyako nodded, a solemn look crossing her features as she thought about her best friend. "Uchiha Hisoka. He was my best friend. He focused on Genjutsu and Ninnjutsu above all. Takeo, my other teammate, became a medic-nin. He fights mostly using his medical knowledge and Taijutsu. My sensei, Tsuneo Higa, was a ninjutsu master. We were a well-balanced team." A small smile cross Miyako's features as she thought about her old team and took another sip of her drink.
"What about me? I'm not particularly good at anything."
"Not true. You have amazing chakra control. You could become a great medic-nin. And your intelligence is great too, you'd also become a good Genjutsu master if you trained hard enough. You have so much potential. Even if you're the only one in your team not from a clan," Miyako stated and Sakura frowned.
"Naruto's not from a clan," she stated and Miyako shook her head.
"Not true. He's from the Uzumaki Clan. They're not a proper clan anymore, their members are scatter to the four corners of the Earth. But they were once a powerful clan known for their large quantities of chakra and their sealing jutsus. They even lived in their own hidden village," Miyako explained, and Sakura stared at the girl with wide eyes.
"So, I really am the odd one out in my team. No kekkei genkai like Sasuke-kun. No secret clan jutsu or clan abilities like Naruto. I'm just normal, boring Sakura," Sakura whimpered, tears now spilling from her eyes as Miyako slammed her mug onto the counter, eyes a stony blue.
"No you're not! Being a part of a clanless family give you an advantage clan kids don't have! No one expect anything from you. They don't expect you to excel in a certain area, they don't expect you to be anything more than a chunin. In other words, your enemies will see you as weak and underestimate your skills. You're a blank slate. You can be the start of your own shinobi family history," Miyako announced with a grin. "And I'm going to help you get there. For the next month, we're going to train and train and train. I'll discover your chakra nature and teach you jutsus' to match. We'll make you the best kunoichi of your generation. What do you think?"
Sakura bit her lip as she looked at her almost empty mug of tea. She knew what Miyako's training was like. She went through said training only a few short weeks ago. She knew that this time, the training will be harder, faster, and longer, and the thought of it already made her exhausted. Yes something in her, the urge to prove herself, to not fall even further behind her two male teammates urged her to train. And maybe, just maybe, her Sasuke-kun would notice the new and improved Sakura.
Sakura grinned, placing her mug on the coffee table in front of her and standing up, hand in a fist. "I'll do it!" Sakura announced proudly, and Miyako grinned.
"Great! I'll plan out a training routine tonight. Meet me at Training Ground Sixteen at six o'clock tomorrow morning. And make sure you have a good breakfast. I'm not letting you pass out on me due to lack of fuel in your system. Also, ask your mother to pack a bento for you for tomorrow. You won't be leaving the training grounds until almost six o'clock," Miyako ordered and Sakura gulped but nodded.
"I understand, Mi-chan. See you tomorrow!"
Sakura left after putting her shoes on and Miyako smiled as she went about cleaning up the mess from the drinks and Sasuke came out of his room, leaning against the wall to the kitchen, looking out the window. He watched as Sakura made her way through the streets.
"Do you think she can become strong?" Sasuke asked Miyako and Miyako looked at him with a grin.
"I think that one day, she could even surpass me."
...
At six o'clock in the morning, on the dot, Sakura arrived at Training Grounds Sixteen. There, she saw Miyako already waiting near some sparring stumps. Next to the stumps she saw a bento that she knew was Miyako's lunch and placed her lunch down on top of it before facing her cousin.
"OK, so I thought long and hard about how to go about your training. I decided that first things first we should find out your chakra nature," Miyako stated, holding up a piece of chakra paper. "I'm sure you know what this is. But just to be sure. This is chakra paper; it reacts to the nature of your chakra. It turns wet with water. Crinkles with lightning. Slashes in half with wind. Crumbles with earth and bursts into flame with fire. All you have to do is run some chakra into the paper to find out your chakra type... or types."
Sakura nodded in understanding and grabbed the piece of paper off Miyako. Sakura focused her chakra into the paper and was surprised when it soaked through and then crumbled. "Water and earth? I have two?"
"Amazing! You don't often find people with a natural ability for two chakra natures. Unfortunately, I can't help you with earth based ninjutsu. However, I can help you with water based ninjutsu. My best friend, Gina Ejiri is a water based ninjutsu expert, as well as a medic-nin. I'll ask her to join us some days for your training," Miyako explained and Sakura nodded in agreement.
"So, what now, Miyako-sensei?"
Miyako grinned at the new title. She always wanted to teach someone what she knows. "OK, so for the first hour we will be warming up with simple push-ups, sit-ups, and light jog. The second hour we'll be perfecting your throwing weapons skills. The following two hours after that we'll be focusing on Taijutsu, teaching you new skills and practicing old ones. Then we'll focus on non-throwing weapons. We will choose a weapon best suited for you, such as a katana, ninjato, and the likes for you to train with. After those three hours are up, we have an hour for lunch and a break. After lunch, we'll warm up again for an hour, then spend two hours practicing your ninjutsu skills. And the last two hours will be spent on building up your endurance, strength, and flexibility. Which remind me! I have a gift for you."
Miyako grinned as she leant down and picked up some weights from the ground. "They are one kilogram each. Each day, we'll add another kilogram. So it goes up by four each day. These will help you build up your strength and endurance and is one of the oldest training tools to date. Anyone who does Taijutsu should use these to train with. I know I do, and so does my old teammate Takeo."
"I saw Lee take his off during the chunin exams. He was so fast. Will that happen to me?" Sakura questioned as she took the weights off of Miyako and started to put them on her arms and legs.
"In time. If you stick to it. Now then, give me twenty-push ups, sit-ups, and five laps around the training field!" Miyako ordered and Sakura nodded.
"Yes, Miyako-sensei!"
Sakura shot off to do her warm-ups as Miyako leant against a stump, her gaze falling up to a tree where Sasuke rested, watching his pink-haired teammate train below him.