There were times when she'd been certain she hadn't belonged, when she'd decided the Sandaime or whatever sadistic person mapped out the division of the Academy students into four-man cells had either been completely drunk or feeling cruel when they had chosen to place her in the team with the protégé and the one often called "dead last." It was true - she had been ecstatic that day to learn she would be in the same cell as her beloved 'Sasuke-kun' and admittedly disgusted that the forever-shunned, loud, annoying prankster would be her teammate, too, but she had been blinded by a mindless crush and groundless hatred, back when her dream had been to marry Uchiha Sasuke and get rid of Uzumaki Naruto.
She had had to learn better.
Because in placing her in Team Seven, with the famous copy nin Kakashi, the youngest Uchiha genius, and the future Hokage of Konohagakure (no matter how unlikely it seemed to anyone else, she knew it would happen one day), they had condemned her to obscurity. To the painful, bitter title of "that pink-haired girl in Kakashi/Naruto/Sasuke's team." She would never - could never - be good enough to beat a bloodline limit, unlimited chakra, or even a prestigious family name. Her perfect chakra control meant nothing in comparison, paled to acceptable.
And there was no way around it.
No matter how hard she trained (and admittedly she hadn't tried too much because she had foolishly been too caught up in a hopeless crush) - even if she had given it her all, trained twenty hours a day like Sasuke, followed through with a determination like Naruto's, she could never have caught up to them. It would never be her others would congratulate for a well-accomplished mission. They were always going to be ten steps ahead, exasperatedly, pityingly, looking back over their shoulders as she stumbled and tripped along as best she could with a false smile on her face.
For a while, that had been okay.
She had not minded Sasuke or Naruto stepping in front of her when an enemy nin was running at her. In fact, she had called their names several times in fear, unprepared to face an opponent by herself, scared of the thought of dying, or even getting hurt. Because, unlike them, she had been a stranger to pain. And she'd relished it when Sasuke took his stance before her and smoothly warned her to stay back. She'd cheered when Naruto had met the kunai of a rushing enemy with his own, while hers hung limply in her hand. She had stayed on the sidelines and shown emotion and broken the Shinobi Golden Rule a million times without shame.
But as time went on and she grew ready, the protection had not wavered, and disdain had replaced pleasure.
Though she never trained as much as her teammates, there came a point when she felt sure that she could hold her own. But the thought was wasted because, thanks to her previous cowardice, the opportunities never came, and it was as if Team Seven operated with only three, and many times, even two alone when Kakashi-sensei was otherwise occupied. They had all taken it for granted that she would only stand and scream and cry, and completely ignored the possibility that training had strengthened her courage and skills, that all she needed was a chance to prove she was something to this team. Now she'd hated it every single Kami-forsaken time one of them stepped in front of her readied, steady, waiting kunai. And the smile grew falser and falser.
She had never breathed a word though, only stood back and watched as they went on to leave her behind.
She felt the rift between herself and them grow as Naruto went off with Jiraiya, as Kakashi personally took Sasuke under his wing, and she was left, cold and stranded, her training halted in sacrifice for the greater two, the only two. It had hurt, then, the feeling of neglect, and of complete and utter uselessness.
Then he'd gone, and opportunity had come to take his place.
He had rejected every single piece of her incomplete soul, every single possibility she could offer him on a silver platter. And, as usual, she had sat back and cried, waiting in a crumpled heap while Naruto had gone after her Sasuke-kun. Because no matter how determined she had been during the Chuunin exams to prove her worth, there was always something keeping her back from doing so. It had taken his betrayal and abandonment to realize it had been them. They had constantly been her saviors and her downfall. They had saved her life countless times, and made her weaker because of it.
With one gone, it was time for her to take his place as her own protector.
Because Team Seven had always been broken, once because of her weakness, now because he was gone, but with her improvement under Tsunade-shishou and his return from Orochimaru, it would finally be complete. And when that happened, Team Seven would be recognized as Kakashi/Naruto/Sasuke/Sakura's team.
She was not worthless. That, she was proving.