Author's Note Sakura deserves, like the rest of her team, to be unzipped, dissected, and observed so that she might get more respect. I'm just showing an angsty, deeper side that may be sitting right underneath the thin layer of skin. Thanks for the support. Review answers are located at the bottom of the chapter.

Disclaimer Naruto---not mine.

Chapter Two: Girly and Ordinary

Second Mind(s): Sakura

There's a difference between someone's appearance when they're scruffy and when they look neat. I had always evaluated how much time it seemed to take a person to get ready, and appraised them by how much they cared for themselves.

But I can't do that anymore.

Everyone values power. If you aren't blessed enough to have it, then you are not good enough to be registered on their lists of people to acknowledge. I used to wonder why.

I realized that I was the underdog in those who truly mattered. Sasuke didn't give my hair a second glance or notice the copious amounts of time I'd wasted brushing my locks until they were as lustrous as the stars. I had slashed off the majority of my hair so that I could prove to him and everyone else that I didn't care about it anymore. And I did stop caring.

However, they continued to jab at me, saying I had no talent at all and that I was just an ordinary ninja.

There are those who have enormous power and those who do not.

I fall in the latter category.

So love is nothing to one who desires only monstrous strength and chakra. Love is untainted affection that rises deep from within. I'd give anything…anything…to have him back with me. But love isn't strong enough, is it?

I had always quelled my inner thoughts with heavy reminders that my reputation would be ruined.

But what does it matter when no one cares of recognizes you as good enough?

It doesn't.

Inside, I feel agony. Raw agony. They say I have the perfect life and that I should be happy. But everyone has their splinters. The flesh of my life has been pierced with hundreds of splinters, not all from my experiences, but from what I have seen with these two eyes and heard with these two ears.

Such a good actress deserves plaudits for her outstanding job at convincing all others that she is content. I long to tear off my Outer Sakura and let everyone gape at what is inside. Turmoil and grim defeat. There is no hope for those of us who have suffered and never gotten any pity. But attention and pity is what we all desire, is it not?

Necklaces of horror at the past and bracelets of fear adorn my neck and wrists. Pieces of my heart have been torn out and nothing has come to sew the remainder back together. What is the use of having a heart if no one cares to feast their eyes on it?

They say that my circumstances and my feelings are common; that I shouldn't feel so special for having them. But what they say doesn't change those feelings.

I am the one that represents the lost soul that has sunken into the depressing mud of everyday life. No tragedies, but no revolutions that left me as high as my spirits could take me.

To be a regular person…isn't that also difficult? They assume that, because I haven't had a demon sealed in me or had my parents slaughtered, I am not worthy to be part of their self-compassion.

What if the one you loved had never been yours to have and had scorned you?

What if he went away of his on accord?

What if he wanted only to kill, and you couldn't change him? You'd be completely helpless and be scrambling at every chance you got to help him, wishing that you could do something.

But you couldn't. It wouldn't be a very pleasant feeling, would it?

I'm the altar on which people throw their grievances, saying that they have more to worry about than me. But I simply smile and nod, absorbing what should make me more grateful for my life but only makes me desperate for the hatred that they all seem to have in abundance. I would want to be like them, having "reasons" to hate others. For they continue to call me those names that describe everything that seems to be associated with me.

I'm everything that is neglected by others, what seems to be commonplace, but truly gives as much agony as what they've been through...because others say it doesn't hurt. I am the things that everyone says isn't "bad."

But they call me girly and ordinary.

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The best time to write is right after someone has encouraged you.

(Coming soon) Chapter Three: Stupid and Naïve (Mind Three: Naruto)

Review Answers

AnimeFreakPerson: I got the inspiration for it a long time ago, when I was studying (ahem, actually daydreaming). Thank you for your kind words. ; wiggles frantically to show…happiness

MaroonSorrow: Wow. I'm glad my fic (before) affected someone so…er, impossibly. It's an awesome feeling. nods I really, really, really appreciate your review and I've updated quickly, revising the Sakura chapter a bit. I haven't written the Naruto chapter yet, since I deleted this story before I got to him, but I'll get there. Thank you AGAIN!

Angel of Ice: Thank you. Your words made me feel accomplished—amazing, what a little click and a few kind things can do.

Jewel Song: 'Beautiful' made my muses tingle in joy…and me shiver. Because now someone really wants them to continue kicking me until I update. Which I did. :3