Very sorry about the late update, would you believe that this chapter was just sitting on my computer for like 3 months? I am very bad at updating.

Thanks to Jake, Max, and Nick. No thanks to Max. Max is my new reader for the fanfic and offers 0 to it and hopefully he'll read it.

Warnings: Vague hints of parental abuse and emotional abuse.

This chapter is all about Sakura because she needs a chapter as well. Well, more than 1.

The Konoha Library was a marvel of all public libraries; it was free, it had a ninja section, and it was always stocked up with the latest books. Unfortunately the 'newest' books only ever seemed to be porn, socio-political books of other countries, or satires and while it was free to borrow books if you were a single day late, like Sakura found out, then they charge you your entire pay and then some.

That day wasn't very good for Sakura.

The actual ninja section was only available to chūnin or higher. Which Sakura was not. Not for the lack of trying but she wasn't great at all the physical stuff like taijutsu and anyone can learn things from books.

But the library was still a marvel to be inside. It was very clean and looked nice and neat with various different spaces for people to read in. Sakura liked the library. She really did. It was a wealth of information that you could just absorb and none of the books would ever judge you. Also you can judge authors without them knowing like this one author, Jiraiya, his work was all really derivative and unoriginal. He also placed a lot of emphasis on the females in the books, especially large breasted ones. Breasts that large are just so unnatural and possibly not add so much emphasis on women in his socio-political books.

Overall books were great and so was the library.

It was also kind of boring to be inside after the first three hours. It didn't matter if you liked the library or not, it still got boring after a while. With a low groan, that her mother would be ashamed to hear from Sakura, she stretched until she could hear her back crack and pop.

Frankly Sakura didn't know what self study really meant, sure she had her chakra training but she could only do so much of it within a day and she didn't know what else to do.

Back in the academy self study meant two things; one: Naruto had gotten into trouble again so it was time to stare wishfully at Sasuke, or two: they had assigned book homework that Sakura wanted to get out of the way so she could do other things with her time after school like learn a new recipe from her mother.

In exactly no way did this apply to her current predicament, well apart from the Naruto had gotten in trouble again part. Sakura felt like that was going to be a constant for Naruto, no matter what. Actually Sakura couldn't believe that Naruto had a criminal past, no wait, she could. She could believe that Naruto had a criminal past but she didn't want to. Naruto was a goofball who did stupid pranks that Sakura sometimes thought were funny, not a person who was a criminal.

And sometimes he was a good guy...

Sighing Sakura started to put the books and scrolls that she had collected away. She didn't want to think that her teammate was a criminal or that Sasuke had punched him so hard he went flying into a tree or that Naruto was a criminal. It was all insanity.

It was all insanity and she was the only one that apparently thought that it was insane.

So what did that say about her that she still liked to be around them?

Insanity.

Looking over the title The Gritty Man and his Sand by Arisu Kobayashi -like who even calls their child Arisu using the kanji for ant and opening doors?- or even Sweet from Rain by Tsumuri Kata, Sakura thought that maybe she was insane as well for even choosing those titles in the first place but Sakura had always had a fondness for socio-political dramas and books.

Sweet from Rain was especially interesting with the way it told of Hanzō the Salamander's rise to power and his continued rise in power. Sakura just made sure to skip over the raunchy parts but other than that it was great! It also made her slightly scared of him, to imagine a guy like him around the Third Hokage's age and still so powerful that Rain Country could still be gathering power!

Unfortunately none of those socio-political books would help her training, it's not like she's going to see Suna or Ame people any time soon so it probably wasn't worth reading about Hanzō the Salamander or Reto the greedy. Still interesting but not useful.

And wasn't that the story of her life?

Sakura wished that she could read the books in the ninja section to gain more knowledge on what she was supposed to do but the ninja on duty looked kind of intimidating and really muscular so it really was for the best that she didn't head that way.

She didn't really have a plan for the rest of the day. Her mother was busy with her circle of friends catching up on the latest gossip and she was supposed to be training so there was no luck there. She didn't want her mother to think that it was alright to take Sakura out of training whenever to help her but would it be so terrible to catch her mother for lunch?

Oh but she might run into Mrs Nakama. She really didn't want to, the woman was weird, as weird as the Aburame boy in her academy class only without the bugs, glasses or coat. So nothing at all like the Aburame boy but Mrs Nakama still gave off that weird feeling. So it was a no to getting her mother to have lunch with her. She missed having lunch with her mother during her younger years in the academy when parents could take their children home for lunch. It was a really fun time.

Maybe she could have lunch with Sasuke...

It wasn't that weird that another teammate would invite their own teammate for lunch, Naruto did it all the time, and she did hear rumours that Sasuke was on the Hyūga heir's team for this week. The Hyūga heir was a weird girl but not Mrs Nakama weird, she was painfully shy and would stutter all the time. If she was skinnier and more confident then Sakura would have some real competition for Sasuke's love from her. She also pretended that she didn't have a crush on Sasuke as well by pretending that she had a crush on Naruto but what girl in their class doesn't have a crush on Sasuke?

With her mind made up Sakura went to the nearest convenience store, she could try and make lunch for Sasuke at home and then bring it to him but it was almost lunch time and she didn't want to get there late. What if the Hyūga heir made her move then?

Collecting as much onigiri in as many possible flavours as possible, she hesitated between an anpan or a yakisoba bun as she tried to recall if she could ever remember Sasuke eating either of those. Her mind came in a full blank. She could only remember seeing him eat salads, rice and the occasional pork dish that interchanges with chicken dishes.

That information doesn't help her at all!

She grabbed the anpan since she think she remembered seeing Mrs Nakama's child, Noa, giving Sasuke a yakisoba bun on love day - who gives a yakisoba on love day anyway? Wasn't it traditional to give them chocolate on that day? - and ran to the counter where she spent the last part of her money from the Wave Mission. It was stupid to even think about that mission any more. So she was definitely going to put it out of her mind.

While walking briskly - definitely not running, ladies didn't run - with her plastic bag flying behind her she mentally calculated to where she thought Sasuke might be and making sure that if she was wrong she'll have enough time to search the other area that she thought they might be. She didn't have enough time. She might need to walk even faster to get to that area within acceptable parameters. Her father liked to use that phrase a lot; within acceptable parameters, especially when trying to make a deal with someone.

Maybe she could also find Naruto and they could all have lunch together and they could talk about what they were doing and god, how pathetic was she that it has been like two days already and she was desperate to see her teammates? Sasuke more than Naruto but she wouldn't mind seeing Naruto since it's been two days.

Has she always been this clingy?

Shaking her head, she mentally calculated the optimal route to get to where she thought Sasuke might be and if she found Naruto, wherever he might be, all the better.

The thought that Sasuke might be on a mission popped up -

BOOMPH

- but she'll burn that bridge when she gets there.

But also ouch.

Sakura had ran walked briskly into someone and hit the ground. It felt like she had been hit by a cart, she was pretty sure her arse wasn't meant to feel that way either.

"I'm so sorry! Please forgive me! I didn't mean to run into you! To apologise I'll do one hundred laps around Konoha!" said an overly cheerful voice.

"Lee, you don't need to apologise to her. If she can't see your clothing then she must either be blind or daydreaming," the amount of condescending you could find in that voice could bury Konoha, it was smug and stupid and grated on Sakura's nerves.

Shuffling around on the ground to check that she could still feel everything she stared at the... person(?) that she ran into. It was exactly like the type of situation her mother warned her about, a strange male - what are those eyebrows? Shouted something within her - who she ran into without thinking and now she was stuck by social obligation to apologise to him.

Once she got her bearings around her she slowly got up and dusted herself off, "No, I was thinking and didn't realise my surroundings-"

"Well that much is obvious with the way you ran into Lee," Sakura stared at the other male, she wanted to glare but he - she knew she was staring but he - he was so handsome! His pupil- less eyes were a little creepy but he was really handsome like he was cut from the same cloth as Sasuke! His skin was unblemished and his eyes were sharp with his lips leaning towards one side as if ready to smirk at his competition.

It was a shame about his personality but he was so handsome, not as handsome as Sasuke, her heart wasn't fickle enough to change the object of her affections but... actually she might know who this person was.

"Wait! I know you, you were in the year above me... Hyūga Neji-senpai wasn't it?" Hyūga made a huff of noise before turning his full attention to his companion. Just the two of them side by side was a massive difference, a boy in skin tight - oh god it was skin tight, why? OH by the gods why? - and terrible eyebrows with a handsome boy with pupil- less eyes. It only managed to highlight the comparison.

"As expected of my rival! Even the young delicate blossoms of Konoha know who you are! I am Konoha's beautiful wild green beast, Lee Rock! May I know the name of the beautiful flower I see before me?" It was like someone got a weirder version of Naruto and kept it on loud constantly. Was that bandages wrapped around his hands? On both of them?

Sakura resisted the urge to groom her hair and preen, even though it was a weird person that had complimented her, a compliment was still appreciated all the same especially given how Sasuke didn't give her any compliments. She knew he was shy about romance, most boys were but it couldn't hurt to give her a compliment every once in a while.

"I'm Haruno Sakura, it's nice to meet you two," Sakura smiled instead of bowing, it probably wasn't the most polite thing to do but she didn't want to bow to them.

Lee shouted a noise that could only be described as "ARUH!", startling her and it didn't miss her notice that Hyūga didn't even flinch from the noise but instead tuned it out with long ease of practice, "A beautiful name for a beautiful youthful blossom of Konoha! Please! Sakura-chan do me the honour of being my girlfriend! I don't think I could find a more beautiful woman than you!"

"WhAT!" shouted Sakura, a blush heavy on her cheeks, "No! I mean, I can't! I like someone else!" WHAT KIND OF GUY ASKS A GIRL HE DOESN'T KNOW OUT? Shouldn't he know her interests? Her passions? How well she can cook? How well she can throw a kunai?

"Lee-kun! Stop that at once!" shouted a female from a shop nearby, "Can't you wait ten minutes while I check out the prices for tags here without causing a scene?"

"Ah! Tenten! Do you not see that she is the most beautiful blossom you've ever seen?" 'Tenten' looked ordinary with brown hair held in buns and unpatterned clothing leaving the forehead protector to stand out as she made her way out of the shop to where the trio were gathered in a hurry. She also didn't look impressed.

"Lee-kun, you can't just ask a girl out like that; it's not romantic, it's not nice and it's rather scary. Besides asking someone out is meant to be a private thing anyway! You don't just ask people out in the middle of a street with your teammate standing there," Tenten then turned to Hyūga like a bloodhound finding its fox, "and you! Why didn't you stop him?" Hyūga shrugged, "No! You don't get to shrug like that! I left you with Lee-kun so he wouldn't do things like this, why didn't you stop him?"

"I didn't see that it was his fate for me to stop him from being turned down by a girl," Sakura stared at the trio like a noon time drama; she couldn't look away. Was this what other people saw when her team was together?

"That isn't fate! It being fate would be him meeting this girl, not you not stopping him from making a scene and probably making this girl feel awkward, that's just you being a jerk to your teammate." when Hyūga shrugged again she ran a hand down her face, groaning and pulling her faces all the way until she perked back up again.

"I'm sorry about him, my name's Kuku Tenten, nice to meet you. I really am sorry about them,"

"Oh! No it's fine, I was just... surprised was all. My name is Haruno Sakura," Tenten looked around as if searching for something and looked quite puzzled.

"Where are your teammates? Shouldn't they also be here?" asked Kuku with Lee nodding in the background.

"My group have been split up for the week. I'm on self training," Sakura made sweeping and pointless arm gestures as if to show that it was just herself here, only her. It made her remember she was still carrying her plastic bag of possibly ruined lunch and that she was ten minutes late from her schedule now.

Bubbles of panic flittered around her stomach before she took in a breath. Gripping the bag tightly in her hand she didn't know what to do, go find Sasuke to have lunch or stay with this trio thanks to social obligations? Suppress, repress, behave, all the ways a housewife is made.

A good housewife wouldn't be impolite, they would stay here and carry out their social obligations, she can always find Sasuke later. There was always later, Sasuke was in love with her after all.

"Huh. So what have you been doing for self training?" asked Kuku, her eyes curious and Sakura really didn't want to tell her that she has been hiding in the library reading her favourite types of books and pretending that she wasn't wallowing in self-pity about her entire life but in particular about the last few days and how she has no time.

"Oh, er, I've been doing chakra exercises but I really should be going now..." she hoped by making it look like she was busier than normal that they'd leave her alone.

"What kind of chakra exercises?" there was a light from within Kuku's eyes as she stared Sakura down. It was more than a little intense and frankly scary. Kuku seemed like the most normal in her team but considering everything that didn't mean much...

"Oh, er, I've been doing tree walking and placing leaves on my forehead while walking around. Every hour or so both at the same time," It was hard to brag while not sounding like you were bragging but Sakura was a master at it. She was the best in her team to do with chakra control after all!

"Hey! I remember doing that, you must be fresh from the academy, right? The new batch would be around a few weeks out from the academy?"

It turns out there were other ways to destroy an ego like being referred to as a few weeks fresh genin instead of a couple of months fresh genin because of the way that you've been training.

"...no, I'm from the previous batch from a few months ago."

"But the chakra training techniques...oh gods I'm so sorry!"

"Whatever happened to being nice to kouhai?" drawled Hyūga, a smirk on his face. It made Sakura want to punch him in a Naruto type of way. Just a light punch to the head to teach him a lesson. Possibly with more punches following.

Whipping around Kuku hissed at Hyūga, "Would it kill you to be nice?" before turning back to Sakura. She gently placed her hand on Sakura's inner elbow, "Hey, I'm really sorry about that, it's just chakra techniques are generally the first things genin learn, and well - I'm sorry,"

"No, it's - it's fine. Really," It wasn't fine. Knowing that even if she was the best at chakra control on her team wasn't much if her team was behind on every other genin team.

"Do you... want any help with the whole -" Kuku made a circular gesture with both hands which could mean anything really, "chakra training?" Kuku was quite warm.

"Just stop already, Tenten, you're only digging yourself a deeper hole," Hyūga wasn't even looking at his team anymore. He was just looking around pretending that he didn't know anyone. Sakura wished that she didn't feel the same as that asshole.

"Neji-kun! I'm trying to be nice!"

"I agree with Tenten! It would be a wonderful idea to help the youth of Konoha bloom into beautiful flowers! It is our right, nay, our duty to help them!"

"Tenten, look what you've done," scolded Hyūga, his mocking tone ringing true.

"I know, I know, I already regret it." muttered Kuku. They were all a very intense type of team. Sakura hadn't thought of other teams much before. Her team was normal to her but this - this was different. It was all shouting and sarcasm and rudeness. It was friendliness that bordered on insulting. It was cohesiveness in the way that her team wasn't. They included everyone. She was barely good enough.

"Are you serious about helping me?" she didn't recognise her voice. She didn't recognise any of her right now. She wanted something - to be better? Their help? She didn't know...she could feel her eyes watering. A proper housewife didn't cry. Only happy emotions. Discreetly trying to hide her watering eyes she gave a large smile instead.

Maybe she could find it if she trained with these people.

"Of course, Sakura-chan! I'm a man of my word and if I can't do this to help you then I shall do fifty laps around Konoha doing back flips!"

"Please, please, Lee-kun, I beg you to stop being weird about Haruno-chan," Kuku turned back to Sakura, eyes warm and grin wide, "but yeah, I'm serious. We girls have to stick together, right? Otherwise we'll just get swept up within the system,"

"Don't expect her to learn that much in however amount of time she's on self training for nor do I expect her to retain what she knows either. It's not like her destiny will change because of this."

"Neji! Don't say such things! Everyone's destiny can be changed by hard work and training!" Lee pulled a pose that cocked his hip to the side and gave a thumbs up. It was so weird. The rest of his team looked disgusted, with Hyūga making a scoffing sound and Kuku pulling a pained face, distorting her features from normal to exaggerated. It was kind of funny like a comedy routine from TV.

And she was so weird for wanting to train with them.

"Come on, let's get you to Gai-sensei. Oh and Haruno-chan, you can call me Tenten,"

"Yeah... you can call me Sakura then,"

Don't let anything get to her. Don't ask questions. Don't answer personal questions. Give compliments. Be modest receiving compliments. Be there but be quiet. Be happy and don't show anyone anything but happiness. That was everything that she was told. How to be the perfect housewife. But nothing told her how to be the perfect kunoichi.

So maybe they could teach her.

She wanted to be more.

I don't have a fun fact or rant for this chapter. It was part of the reason why I didn't update for so long.

But now that I think about it, god I hate the Byakugan.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Jake says that it works like a scanner that can see through walls, people, and wallets that the wielder can selective choose to look at what they want to see but from what I gather from looking at it is that it just senses chakra and if something doesn't have chakra then it doesn't pick it up where the wielder also has no control over what they see but that makes no sense (because I'm assuming their money isn't made out of chakra or chakra absorbing paper/metal) when Hinata used it to look through Naruto's wallet on their date.

I hate it.

Seeing through walls because walls don't have chakra unless purposely placed I get because they sense trees since natural features like trees and water (I am assuming) have natural chakra. Before Jake told me about how Hinata did that on her date with Naruto I had always assumed that I was right but nooooooooooooo, Kishimoto and the animation studio just had to show her do that.

BUT SEEING THROUGH A WALLET TO CHECK MONEY IS BEYOND MY BELIEF UNLESS THAT MONEY HAD CHAKRA.

I don't think anyone knows just much it vexes me because it truly does.

How does the Byakugan work?

We just don't know.