A short chapter. Next one needs to be long.

I'm kind of getting annoyed with my characterization of Kurenai. I don't know, she just stands around and nods her head a lot. I hope i can spice her up a bit soon.

I made Jin Haruno kind of a cross between the Nutty Professor an Mr. Weasly from Harry Potter. The technology in Naruto is sort of this funny thing that pops up every now and again. When i first got into Naruto, my first impression of the thing was . . .

"Oh! Its Harry Potter for Ninjas!"

I mean Sakura practically screams Hermoine to me sometimes . . .

At any rate, I decided to try and give my take on how technology is integrated into the world of Naruto by having Jin complain about it.

The Valley of the End at last . . . and yeah her anchor is Sakura petals . . . what else?

"One to rule nations, One to serve them. Both to protect them.

Where flame stands off against earth and water

Brothers to the end."

-Inscription on a tourist viewing Platform Plaque, Valley of the end

From the Training Journal of Haruno Sakura, 13 April 112th Year of the Leaf

I've been reviewing my progress at holding an anchor for genjustu over the last two weeks, and every journal entry tells nearly the same story. My meditation steadily became more focused as I experimented with different locations, both indoors and outdoors. I meditated at home, on top of the Hokage mansion, on top of Mt. Konoha overlooking the village, on top of the hospital, at training ground three, and even that bench near the village gates. They were all places with memories, connections to my past, and yet somehow I felt them lacking. I don't think the past is a place one can exist for long, no matter how safe it feels.

My trials with Kurenai-sensei at the Nara Dojo have only proven more difficult. Even though I can hold my anchor now for nearly three and a half minutes, I feel like I am constantly on the run. I dread being locked in a mental battle with her. She doesn't always come at me with physical pain either. Twice I have been transported to places in my past. I can handle a false Sasuke in mortal danger, but reliving the night he left, forcing me to go through that again, I had to turn away. I didn't care about the stupid leaf anymore.

The second time was today, and it was particularly brutal. I was returned to the first time I saw the horrible power that lay within Naruto. The bubbling beastly black form of a Naruto with four tails battled Ochimaru with terrifying power. The battle reshaped the landscape itself. It as real as it had been almost two years ago. I knew better than to run toward him in a four tailed state this time, especially sense I was trying to keep my concentration on my anchor. But this time Naruto came after me. His demon form struck at me faster than I could move. Yamato and Kabuto were no where to be found. I was suddenly on my own, just me against the Kyuubi. No amount of crying or begging was going to affect Naruto in that state. It was in that moment of feeling helplessness, that I lost my anchor once again. It was like something out of a nightmare. All the while, I was vaguely aware that Kurenai's trees were always present, as they were the only thing that did not feel quite right about the landscape of the memory.

"Good!" Kurenai-sensei said as we returned to the reality of the quite and calm little dojo. "You are starting to recognize my own anchor within the reality I build for you. Three minutes and forty two seconds that time. A new record."

"Sensei," I said darkly as I wiped fresh tears from my eyes. "Stay out of my memories from now on, please."

Kurenai shrugged. "I'm not doing anything except using what you give me Sakura."

"I don't understand." I told her.

"Believe it or not, Sakura, I've been going easy on you. All I have been doing is stimulating emotions of regret, remorse, or fear. The memories drawn forth as a result are yours. Once you do that, they become mine to control. Think back to your meditation sessions. Have you been dismissing your emotions in order to center yourself, or flowing with them?"

It was a simple question, but one that was difficult to answer. I wondered what she meant by flowing with my emotions. When I did not answer for several moments, Kurenai-sensei continued after a heavy sigh and a shake of her head.

"I take it you either don't know or aren't sure. Let me tell you I can tell that you've been repressing them, shoving them out of the way in your search for peace and focus. Sound like anyone you know?"

My thoughts immediately jumped to my other teammate, Sai, who had been trained since he was very small to repress and eliminate his emotions. Kurenai saw that I had realized who she was referring to.

"You should know," my teacher explained, "that members of Root are particularly susceptible to genjustu, thought they would never admit it to themselves. A truly balanced mind harmonizes with the heart, it does not dismiss it."

"And, I'm not balanced?" I asked. I knew there were things bothering me, but not to the extent that I could not reach a balance within myself. I began to wonder if I had been doing things all wrong this whole time.

"You have a lot of fear remorse stimulating the chakra in certain areas of the brain, Sakura. I can see it as bright as a beacon when I connect with your mind. You want to control that flow by allowing your emotions to come to the surface at a controlled rate. That means you have to be aware of and accept all of them. The more uniform and balanced the chakra flow through your brain, the less I will be able to exploit it, and the stronger your anchor will become."

I thought of Ino and the conversation we had two weeks ago.

"Be aware of and accept my emotions." I thought out loud. "By talking about them?"

"That is a good method," Kurenai-sensei confirmed. "It helps with awareness. But harmony must come from within."

My frustration began to boil over. "Why am I just being told all this now!"

"There's a difference between being told something and understanding. If I had told you this right from the beginning, you would not have understood."

"So I need to meditate with my greatest fears in mind?"

"And your greatest joy. Think of a place and time where you can do both."

Realization began to dawn on me. "This has to do with light and dark chakra, doesn't it."

Kurenai nodded approvingly. "One step at a time, Sakura."

I went home feeling very fatigued as usual, but this time I had a new purpose in mind. After I get some rest I will being requesting a leave of absence from Tsunade-sama. I can only think of one place where both my greatest fear and my greatest joy last collided. I need to see that place for myself, I'm sure of it. I just need to make a few preparations. I'm not looking forward to all of them.

From the Personal Diary of Haruno Sakura 14 April 112th Year of the Leaf

My father is always tinkering with something. He runs Konoha's largest construction company, and he could sit back and let others do all the work if he wanted. Still he prefers to work with his hands. He says it makes work more meaningful to him. He is not satisfied just fixing things either, he always is trying to build something new and useful; something nobody has ever seen before. My mother tolerates this obsession as an unavoidable hobby, but to my father its serious business. Its serious business to us too on those occasions when he almost blows up the house or electrocutes himself.

I find him in his workshop, trying to get his latest invention to work. Its usually a smart idea to stay out of the workshop when he is in there unless you are wearing a helmet and eye protection, but I needed to catch him at a moment when he would be alone and I didn't have the time to properly suit up

The workshop was really nothing more than an extension my father had built onto the house, and I found him busy with a welding torch and a thick metal plate covering his face. He was working on welding together what looked like two halves of a crude looking little metal man.

I waited behind him until the torch was simply hissing quietly, and then said, "Hi, daddy."

My father turned and lifted up his face plate, revealing a dirty and grime covered mug. He smiled and his white teeth gleamed in contrast.

"Sakura!" he said cheerfully. "What a nice surprise! Oooh, I bet you came to see it, didn't you? Ah . . . I told your mother it wasn't quite ready yet. But look! You're just in time for a test run."

I knew my father was excited because it was the most I had heard him say in quite a while. I couldn't see the face of the little metal man, but it had a drum shaped torso and lampshade shaped head. It had arms that looked like they were extendable or flexible vacuum cleaner attachments and treads in place of legs or feet. It was the most ridiculous thing I had ever seen. I decided to humor my father.

"What . . . What is it?"

"This," my father said turning the little man toward me. "Is my greatest invention!"

I sighed in my own mind. It was always his greatest invention, until it ended up reducing the workshop to splinters or shutting down three blocks of power in Konoha. This invention had camera lenses for eyes and a trapezoidal speaker for a mouth.

"I call him, Shigoto-boto! The household work robot!"

"Ro . . .bot?" I repeated. "What's a robot?"

"Bah! You're just like your mom, Sakura." my dad said. "Living under a rock.. Just because you live in a hidden village doesn't mean you need to keep yourself hidden from the conveniences of the modern world. Robotics is the most advanced technological field in the world, and I've created a masterpiece. Watch!"

My father flipped a switch somewhere on the back of the thing. It whirred and beeped, its little lampshade head rotating back and forth as it took in its surroundings.

"Boto. Sort. Laundry."

Dad's workshop also housed the laundry room. This was sometimes an annoyance for my mother. The little man made a small beep and rolled over to a basket of dirty laundry. It began to sort the items by color, using clamp like hands at the end of its arms.

"You're mother will love that," my father beamed. "He'll do all sorts of things."

I had to admit I was curious about the thing. I had almost even forgotten why I had come here in the first place. Almost.

"How does it work?" I asked. "Is it similar to a puppet jutsu, but automatic?"

My father made an exasperated noise.

"You see, this is what I'm talking about. We have television, camera's, short range and long range radio, and computers right here in the hidden village itself. Ninja didn't invent these things. We also have the latest in medical equipment, and tons of electric power, but we act like the world runs on chakra. We could benefit from technology more, you know. Like why do we still send birds for messages when outside our happy little hidden ninja homes I can go pick up something called a telephone and talk to someone in the Earth country!"

"We trust the ancient ways to keep our messages secure, I suppose." I said.

I didn't know why I was allowing myself to be drawn into this argument. My father has always been interested in the way the people we served went about their business. More so than most Ninja. I was out of my league. I decided to try and change the subject.

Here goes, I thought.

"And Dad, I actually came here because . . ."

"Oh no! Shigoto-boto stop! Boto. Stop!"

During my father's rant we had both paid the little robot no mind. Now it had taken it upon itself to find other things to sort. For some reason it decided it should sort some of the raw materials and tools that had went into its construction. With an extendable arm it had reached up onto the work bench and thrown greasy rags, screwdrivers, and other pieces of metal into the laundry bin. It was about to toss in the arc welder, and it was lit. We watched in slow motion as the dirty rags in the basket of clothes caught fire. I ran for a fire extinguisher. The smoke alarm went off.

When the smoke cleared and I finally had the fire out, we were left with a melted basket and charred black clothes crumbling to ash. My mother bust into the workshop with her ears covered and coughing. She took one look at the charred laundry remains and understood what had happened.

"Jin Haruno!" she yelled as my father looked for some place to hide.

I sighed. I decided right then wouldn't be the best time to talk to my father after all. I don't suppose I'll get a chance until after I get back from my leave of absence. I could postpone it a day, but the Hokage and Kurenai-sensei are already expecting me to leave in the morning. It would be bad protocol to waste their time, especially when I know how short handed we are at the moment. Three days shouldn't be too long to wait.

From the Training Journal of Haruno Sakura, 16 April 112th Year of the Leaf

It took me nearly a full day to reach this place. I stopped for six hours of sleep after traveling by treetop most of the way. Tsunade-sama and Kurunai-sensei had even asked why I wanted to come here. Perhaps they didn't need to. I was hoping to get a reading from at least one of them if they thought I might find answers here, but their expressions were so unimpressed I might as well have been out shopping for souvenirs.

The Valley of the End. What a magnificent place it is! The majesty of the falls between the statues made me feel small and insignificant. I still feel small and insignificant when I compare myself to Naruto and Sasuke. That's what this training is about; protecting them.

The two of them did battle in this place. Naruto still won't talk about it. All I know is what Kakashi-sensei told me about the sate he found Naruto in. I often wonder what I would I have done-what could I have done- had I been there. Probably nothing, but I think it may still be my greatest regret.

I'm not even sure what I'm doing here, only that it was just a feeling I had. Light and dark chakra, making genjutsu my personal art, becoming a master of my mind. It all pointed to this place somehow. It was as if the Sakura trees that lined the river on the way up the canyon to these famous falls were the ones calling me to this place, beckoning me in full bloom as the warm spring winds hit them. This place resonates with strange chakra, it swirls in eddies like the water as if some eternal battle was still being fought in this place between the two giant ninja statues. This day I would find my place among giants. I was sure of it.

I closed my eyes and breathed deep. It was time to begin. I kicked off my shoes and set

the backpack I had with me down on the riverbank. I looked around, making sure I was indeed completely alone, and shed my kimono and undergarments. I changed quickly into the hot pink bikini swimsuit I had brought with me. I have been told that one piece suits don't handle too well for this type of meditation, and that I shouldn't expect the top to stay on either.

I walked slowly out onto the calm waters of the pool beneath the falls, the backpack slung over my shoulder. A misty spray formed several rainbows in front of me as I drew closer to the roaring falls. Walking on the water I found a place where the downpour was minimal, and discovered a small dry enclave behind the falls. I set the bag down there and mentally prepared myself for training. At last I stood at the threshold of a cascading wall of water. I extended my chakra control outward, and stood under the water.

The force of the water was impressive. If I didn't keep excellent posture and chakra control I could be crushed. I knew this meditation might have some dangers, but I don't think I was truly prepared for this force of nature. My bikini top was almost immediately swiped from me, and I had to let it go, just like the troubles of my mind. I closed my eyes and concentrated.

I held my arms straight out to the sides, and traced a large circle in the ir in front of me before pressing my hands together in front of my chest as if I were praying. I concentrated on every drop of water. Time slowed. The water droplets were together as much as they were separate. I felt them on my fingertips, my shoulders, the small of my back, the tips of my breasts. The water was light and soft while at the same time they were heavy and hard. I felt hate, I felt fear. I felt resolve. I felt harmony. I felt peace. I felt regret. I felt despair. I felt . . .

I opened my eyes. It was all here. It swirled together inside me like the eddies at the bottom of the falls. The water rushed around me but the wind called to me. I called upon my leaf, my anchor. It danced for me in the currents before me, and eased the crushing pressure of the water. It vanished from site, but my focus remained. The wind rushed to me as the water flowed away from me, and then I saw them. They were carried from the orchard farther up stream.

Rose colored petals so perfect and smooth drifted lazily on the wind. They carried with them the answer that had always been there, but had somehow seemed superficial. Hope.

The Sakura petals multiplied when I asked them to, and they swirled around me in a beautiful pink cyclone. My chakra exploded outward, and I swear I felt the pounding water part and give me space. I exhaled deeply, and stepped out of the falls. I basked in the noon-day sun, letting it warm my bare skin as I smiled at the heavens. I had my anchor.

It was in this moment of clarity that I realized I was no longer alone.