…I think I love you people. I honestly do, especially my regulars (AmeKisame, Junsui Kegasu, and MeeLee) and my others (CuriousDreamWeaver, RobinAmon, ANIMEANGEL77, and mia). You people are really the only thing that gives me the will to keep writing, and I'm just glad you enjoy it enough to support me, too! DOMOU ARIGATOU GOZAIMASU! ( Thank you so very, VERY much!)

By the by, I wanted to give all you lovely people out there a heads up: expect me to only update on weekends! I am a very fluent procrastinator as it is, and it would be a miracle if I ever get a chapter up on any day of Mon-Fri. So, sorry if keep you waiting too long!

And now, you are permitted to delve into Sakura's past, wherein she is about 10 years of age. I bid you have a pleasant journey and an enjoyable experience.

Disclaimer (Which I have done twice now, thank you very much…): Me don't own. Me only write. No sue?

……

The children of Konoha Ninja Academy rushed out of the school's open doors the second the teachers had dismissed them. It was a giant wave of small forms darting every which way, desperately trying to put as much distance between themselves and their everyday torture. With kinetic energy output rivaling that of an ANBU in battle, the children of Konoha ran home for the day.

As usual though, a small flock had stayed behind on the lawn of the old building. And, in the same sense of repetitiveness, they were the same bunch of kids that stayed everyday, rain or shine. In the middle of the all-girl mass was a raven-haired wonder, Uchiha Sasuke, who wished every one of his fans would drop dead on the spot.

"SASUKE-KUUUN!"

"No, Sasuke-kun! Look at me!"

"I LOVE YOU, SASUKE-KUN!"

Now, this last comment came from a very bright-eyed, pink haired girl by the name of Haruno Sakura. She had been very shy at first about her crush on the Uchiha, but now, she was just as good competition as the rest of her loser classmates. In fact, she knew one day she would be the one to hold Sasuke's heart. Her Inner Self told her so.

Sasuke looked around with obvious disgust, glaring at every girl circled around him. None of them seemed to notice though, so he gave up the attempt to scare them away and simply pushed his way through the ring. Then, in the split second he was free of the mass, he took off running, leaving his fan club to pout at their loss. The girls dispersed, each returning home, leaving Sakura to brood by herself.

Sakura looked around with forlornly with her large emerald eyes, wondering if anyone was still in the vicinity. "Sasuke-kun never seems to pay attention to me…I wonder what would make him want to be with me?"

The young girl trudged around to the back of the academy, retrieving her equipment bag where she had dropped it. The said item had been deposited as soon as the kunoichi in training had spotted her dark haired crush. Sakura looked at her bag in distaste as if the cloth item had been the one to hold her up in her advancement on Sasuke. Why did her run form her?

Sakura sighed, picking up her supplies, about to leave to general premises of the academy, when a thought came to her mind. Of course! Maybe Sasuke would like her more if she trained and got super strong. She eyed the leftover kunai that had been used in practice that day.

"Brilliant! We're so clever, Sasuke-kun is sure to notice us! And, when we can beat up all those other girls, we'll be unopposed!" Sakura's inner self crooned, delighted with her own superior reasoning. Even Sakura herself giggled at the prospect, getting more enthusiastic about the training idea.

"Yosh! Lets go catch Sasuke-kun's heart!" The girl dropped her bag once again, ran over to the target arrangements, picked up a fistful of the throwing knives, and chucked them at the targets set up. She glanced up to see the results only to be sorely disappointed. Out of the ten kunai thrown, only three had actually hit the target, and they were on the outer rim of the board. She huffed in frustration.

"ARGH! It's clear why Sasuke looks down on us now!" ranted her inner mind. "We can't even hit a target right! What, do you not even have aim?"

"Shut up…" Sakura's face drew into a dead glowering pout, put off by the fact that even her own mind had insulted her. "I just need more training." Even then though, Sakura knew she would have to spend weeks on that. This was going to be impossible!

Sakura and her Inner Self gave out on giant yell of frustration, and forcefully threw the remaining kunai off to the side.

"OI! Watch what you're doing!" Sakura jumped in surprise at the voice right next to her; precisely in the direction she had thrown the weapons. She turned with dead horror to face the damage she had inflicted.

There, only a couple yards or so away, was her teacher, arms filled with boxes of scrolls, two of the stray knives caught between his teeth, and the rest of them imbedded into the files he carried. Thank goodness he was a Chuunin, and had used the papers as a kind of shield. Still, the fact she had indirectly attacked her sensei…Sakura visibly paled.

"Iruka-sensei! I'm so sorry!" The girl rushed over to her teacher, tears appearing in her eyes. "I didn't mean to-oh my god, I-I was just practicing and-and I- oh, god!" Sakura was already dancing in place, trying to rid her of the awful sensations of shock and horror at nearly taking off her teacher's head. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

Iruka glowered ruthlessly at the punctured papers he now carried, and turning his attention to the distressed girl, spat out the kunai he had caught. Even though Sakura, being the lowest level of shinobi, couldn't sense chakra easily, she was suddenly overwhelmed by the pure ferocity radiating from her sensei.

"That's…quite all right, Sakura-chan. I'm sure it-was only…an accident…" Iruka's words came out in an overly forced manor. It was terrifying how calm he attempted to make his speech, even though his shaking form and narrowed eyes told the exact opposite. Sakura only began to cry harder.

"I'm s-so SORRY!" Sakura dropped to her knees, leeching on to one of Iruka's legs in the process, rubbing her face and sobbing into the dark material.

"Oi! Sakura-chan! You're going to make me-" the motion of trying to keep his balance and continue to carry the box caused Iruka' s foot to clip out from under him. He landed next to Sakura with an oddly satisfying 'thunk.' "-fall."

In the midst of her sobbing, Sakura gave a slight giggle at the indignant look on her teacher's face. The lingering dust clouds and lopsided headband, knocked loose in the fall, didn't help either. Plus, there was a slight flustered blush coming to his cheeks. Priceless.

Iruka sighed, all frustration apparently gone, and looked over at the laughing girl, seemingly unamused. "Pray tell, what do you find so funny?"

Sakura ducked her head down, now feeling embarrassed. "Excuse me, Iruka-sensei. I didn't mean to laugh at your misfortune."

Iruka stood up and actually smiled at this comment, emitting a warmer chakra feeling rather than a murderous one. "Well, at least my 'misfortune' cheered you up." He bent down, picking up the mostly intact box. "Well, I best clean up the training grounds. I'll see you tomorrow, Sakura-chan." Iruka began to walk away when Sakura called out.

"Iruka-sensei! I'll help you. I was the last one to use them anyway, and…I need to apologize for almost…killing you…"

Iruka chuckled at this, his smile growing. "Sakura-chan, I don't think you could kill me even if you wanted to. But, the help would be appreciated, so thank you very much." He helped Sakura off the ground and the two of them started the search for the kunai.

……

"Iruka-sensei?" Sakura looked up at her teacher, still carrying the box from earlier, but filled with quite a few more papers and some random training items. He courteously offered to walk her home, at it was later then either of them had hoped to leave the academy.

"Hm?" Iruka looked at his student, pink hair seeming vivid red in the twilight sun.

"Why am I not as good as the other kids with things like kunai throwing and shuriken? I don't think I have any talents at all." Her head hung slightly, giving off a feeling of deep hurt.

Iruka turned around to look at her. "What makes you say that? And more importantly, why are you letting this bug you?"

"Well, you see, I-I really like Sasuke-kun, and…well, I'm really worried that he'll never notice me because of all the other girls that like him. I think that if I had really good shinobi skills, or special jutsus, maybe he would pay attention to me." Sakura looked up at her teacher, half expecting for him to bestow upon her the knowledge of the universe's best arts. All he really gave her was a deep sigh.

"You know, Sakura-chan? I don't think I'll ever understand women. Never. And, I don't think I'm really the best person you should talk to in the ways guys will notice girls, but I think I might be able to help you out with the training problem." With this assurance, Iruka stopped walking, set down the box, and picked up one of his grade books from inside. He flipped through a couple of pages until he found what he was looking for. He bent down to Sakura's eye level. "So, you don't think you have any talents, eh? Well, we'll just have to see about that."

Iruka placed the open book into Sakura's outstretched hands, allowing her to look over it for a minute.

"This…this can't be right, sensei!"

Right there, at the top of the highest scores, beneath Sasuke's name: Haruno Sakura. She flipped through the pages, all chronicling the test grades ever given or received. Every time, her name was right under Sasuke's. Haruno Sakura… most of the time, she had even tied with him, staying at the very top of her classes.

Finally, she flipped to her own status page. There, a picture of her was shown; she had Ino's ribbon in her hair and was smiling broadly. Underneath her picture were all the comments her teachers ever had about her, the most recent being the most familiar. She looked to the very bottom of the list, Iruka's neat handwriting being the most obvious. She read her status:

"Haruno Sakura is very intellectually inclined, and has good memorization skills (see hand seal training). She seems to have memorized all the text she is given, and is extremely focused on her work. Out of all the students, Sakura seems to be the best suited in the areas of Chakra training and jutsus. Might be a tad obsessive about certain classmates, though…"

-Umino Iruka

Sakura looked back up at Iruka, questioningly. "What do you mean, 'the best of the class in chakra control'? How can that be possible?" Her eyes grew wide. "Am I-am I even better than Sasuke-kun?"

Iruka nodded, pleased to see Sakura's reaction turn from shock to absolute joy. "That's exactly what I meant. You see, Sasuke may be pretty advanced for his age and some of the other students have already gained excellent physical abilities, but you have developed one of the most important assets a shinobi needs. You are already one your way to some of the best chakra control I've ever seen." Iruka reached up, allowing his hand to gently rest atop her pink hair. Then giving it a loving ruffle, continued. "It's amazing just to see how advanced each of you has become. I'm especially looking forward to see how you develop."

Sakura slowly closed the scorebook and handed it back to her teacher, and for the second time that day, was on the brink of crying. "I…don't know what to say, sensei."

Iruka just gave her a small smile and stood up. "You don't have to say anything. You earned it all yourself." He placed the book back into the box, picked it up, and began to walk again. "So, how about we get you home? Your mother's probably ripping out all her hair by now."

"Yes, she probably is, sensei."

……

The next day, Sakura stayed behind at the academy. However, it was different that the other days. This time, instead of running out of her room to chase Sasuke, she stayed there with Iruka, looking over the papers of her peers. She had told Iruka that she was curious about her last test score, but in truth, she had just wanted to see the data book again. So, as Iruka graded papers, Sakura looked at all the comments of her peers. Her gazed through each of their skills, seeing how each was special. Eventually, she heard dead silence coming from her teacher. She stopped reading and gazed over at him, locking eyes with his.

"I've been watching you for a while now, enough to see you weren't looking at your scores," Iruka remarked. He smirked knowingly at Sakura's embarrassed flush.

"I-I wanted to see what everyone else could do, like Ino-chan," Sakura squirmed under her sensei's gaze. "I wanted to see how everyone was special."

Iruka looked away from her, face calming. "Well, I found another special trait you have, Sakura-chan."

"Really?" She pressed in closer. "What?"

Iruka turned back to her, wearing an idiotic grin. "You're nosy!" Sakura's eyes grew wide with tears again- "-I kid, I kid! What I really just noticed about you is your ability to see things and people for what they really are. You're amazing with detection of jutsus and chakra control, and that seems to have carried over as a talent you might be able to develop towards people: like your affections for Ino-chan and your wish to support her. You are able to recognize the abilities of those around you."

Sakura thought hard about what Iruka said; was she really that amazing? She turned back to him. "You know what, sensei? I think you're right. I want to see how everyone else is special and help them develop that. Like, you," she leaned close to him, "I can tell you're going to be a really great father someday!"

Iruka scratched his head. "Well, I don't know about that," he looked away, blushing at his own ponderings. "I guess we'll just have to see, someday."

Sakura grinned, picked up her bag and headed for the door. "It's getting late; I'm going home now, sensei!" Heartily, she waved good-bye and dashed out of the academy, catching up with some of her friends. Iruka watched quietly as the girls ran off, seeking some unknown venture.

"Good luck, Sakura-chan."

……

Haruno Sakura bowed deeply to the gathered Jounin, one of them being her current teacher, Hatake Kakashi. He seemed to be distracted by some kind of note he had tucked into his obscene book…it figured. Around her, she could see other familiar faces peppered into the crowd; some of her other friends had come to listen to her lecture with Tsunade-sama.

Sakura took a deep breath, and then spoke in her loudest and clearest voice, addressing her audience. She was able to randomly select people through the lecture, analyze their abilities, and tell them each the most proper form of medical assistance they should ever request when injured.

Many people congratulated her afterwards. Her former teammate, Uzumaki Naruto, even gave her a bone-crushing hug, insisting that they go out to Ramen as a treat. As she walked away, her hyperactive friend in tow, she gave a lingering glance towards the academy, hoping to catch a glance of the man who had first inspired her.

: Haruno Sakura received the Gift of Recognition from Umino Iruka:

……

Woo! I've got THREE chappies now! Hazzah! Well, as usual, I've got stuff to explain…

1. Yosh- Basically a term that can mean 'Yes!' or 'Alright!' in the sense of a happy, go-gettum' attitude.

2. This is during a time when Sakura was not rivals with Ino, hence she is excited to encourage her friend's talents. Also, she is very enthusiastic to wear the bow given to her by Ino at a young age.

3. Now, if you look at some of the things Iruka tells to Sakura, not only while walking her home, but when they come up on the subject of children, you might either see a guy who just happens to be very unlucky with women, or possibly a gay man. I'm not encouraging you towards either of the opinions, but once again, I just ask that I do not get flamed by Homophobes, just because they think they see something others don't. Who knows? Maybe he will turn out to be gay in this story, maybe not. I shall see.

Thanks again, and may you all have a happy, happy week! Next Chapter: Inuzuka Kiba.