Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Puppet in Pink

7. Today's Copy

Found him lying dead in his corner,

...struck off his head with a single swift blow. The body

Jerked for the last time, then lay still.

All the greybeards, whispered together

And said that hope was gone...

-Beowulf

"WHAT!" Naruto squeaked. "Blindfolded! Are you crazy?" He looked like he was ready to explode. Sasuke seemed a bit shaken as well, though he said nothing.

The only person who didn't seem concerned was Sakura. On any other day, she would have joined in on Naruto's whining, or at least muttered something about how she hated these kinds of things. Today, she seemed almost...indifferent.

But today was not any other day. Remember that, children.

Ignoring Naruto's protests and Sasuke's death-glares, Kakashi plowed on, giving a short lecture on how this practice would come in handy in situations where sight was useless, such as when your opponent had blinded you, or was hiding under cover of darkness. "Keep in mind, guys, that I don't expect any of you to get a hundred percent on your first try," he reminded, as he set up several bulls-eye targets in a wide circle. "You'll be lucky if you get two or three out of the ten, especially since these targets are unevenly spaced." The silver-haired teacher proceeded to pass out thick blindfolds to his students. "And don't even think about peeking," he warned.

Sakura eyed the blindfold she was handed with expertly masked scorn. This was just too simple. When she'd practiced this activity during her so-called "month off", she had demanded much more of herself than this. As far as she could sense, Kakashi hadn't set up any traps that would go off if any of them missed a target. What was more, he'd actually allowed her and her teammates to watch him set up the targets. Was he going this easy on them all because of her; dumbing-down the lessons so she wouldn't feel left out?

Now Sakura was convulsing with laughter, though her face remained solemn and her aura hung dark. How long would it take for them to figure out that she didnt need their "kindness"? If they pitied her for being among the weak, why did they never help her to improve?

It was too late now. Sakura had gotten her strength by herself. Her talents were hers alone.

"Sasuke, how about you go first," Kakashi said. Sasuke grumbled something under his breath, but dutifully trudged out into the center of the circle of targets and fastened the blindfold over his eyes. While the recollection of the targets' locations was still fresh in his mind, he grabbed ten shuriken and threw them. Taking off the cloth that covered his eyes, the raven-haired boy was more than a little disappointed to find that only four of his weapons had hit their marks.

Kakashi seemed a bit surprised, and pleased at the same time. Naruto remarked that he could have done better any day. Then all three were silent, as if waiting for something more.

Something that would never come...

They were waiting for Sakura to beam and come running over, to squeal her trademark "Sasuke-kun!", to babble about how he was always so smart and she just knew he was a prodigy. When this didn't happen, three different emotions flickered on three different faces.

A flicker of pained understanding.

A flicker of utter relief.

A flicker of confusion, followed by one of question.

And the fourth face, half-hidden in shadow, that didn't flicker at all.

Kakashi sighed knowingly. "Naruto, you're up next," he announced, causing Naruto to start complaining once more as he grudgingly pulled on his blindfold and stomped over to the targets. Instead of concentrating on where the bulls-eyes had been, he threw a handful of shuriken randomly. It was as if he had something else on his mind, something of more concern to him than target practice...

Green eyes watched it all with amusement. It was such fun, watching them squirm like this, her pitiful, pitiful teammates, clutching at shards of stereotypes they'd known all their lives only to find that none of them had ever existed.

Better the devil you know than the one that you don't...But what if there are none that you know?

"Huh! I only hit one target!" Naruto was furious. "This is rigged! How'd Sasuke-bastard get four and I only got one!" Once again, there was a pause, as the three impatiently waited for Sakura to attack Naruto for calling her Sasuke-kun a bastard. Once again, they were awaiting words they'd never hear, and things they'd never see.

Could this get any more hilarious? Sakura wondered. The people that call me predictable are the easiest to forecast. She could tell that Kakashi was hesitant about calling her up to try her hand at the exercise. This was just too funny! Here was her teacher, sympathetic as always. He was hoping she'd at least be better than Naruto, knowing it would never happen...

There's no such thing as "never", you know. Too bad he doesn't...

"Sakura, you're last," Kakashi finally said. How true. Sakura was always last, had always been last. On missions, she was last in line, supposedly "watching their backs" though everyone knew full well that she was the one whose back needed watching. She was last to be dismissed from class, in trouble for paying more attention to Uchiha than to her lessons. The pink-haired girl became the living image of forever last, forever left behind. Forever average, forever alone.

"Forever" isn't a word either. Never and forever...antonyms, yet synonymous in their meaninglessness.

Wrapping the black cloth over her eyes, Sakura snipped the thread of sight and tore open the seams of her mind. She let the images flood in, and saw the targets clearly. This was really not training at all, just a waste of her time, a waste of everyone's fucking time—

In one lightning-quick motion, Sakura sent a kunai into the center of each target. And that was that. She'd aced the test without over-excelling. And she almost died laughing as she saw her teammates' faces through the pathetic excuse for a blindfold that hid her eyes yet let her see more.

Naruto was practically bug-eyed, rendered speechless for once in his lifetime. Even Kakashi and Sasuke looked a little...no, very...amazed. Their expressions were priceless. Maintaining her death-marred disguise, Sakura slid off the blindfold, reconnecting the delicate switches that allowed her sight's limited abilities to revive from their short sleep. No, this wasn't training at all...this was boring. She would have to compensate by doing some extra exercises later...

Ignoring the reaction of the rest of her team, the pink-haired girl returned to her place against the tree, looking for all the world like someone who had just returned from a funeral.