Born to die
~Chapter 3~
"Gone with the old and on with the new"
"A warrior must take care that his spirit is never broken." ~?
Disclaimer: I (sadly) never have and never will own Naruto so stop asking me okay! Sheesh!
Author Notes: Well, another day another chapter- sort of. So I've resolved to make shorter chapters now so I'm not drowning you poor (non-commenting! ) readers in detail. So hopefully you like this and please for the sake of my sanity comment! I've had almost 200 page views and no one single solitary person bothered to comment. I've spent a lot of time on this so ya, anyway I hope you like where this story is going.
Look for author notes at bottom too.
Something was wrong, horribly wrong. I had been waiting at Ichiraku's for a half an hour, that's right I had been waiting for my normal Friday meeting with Naruto for 30 minutes, and it was to get ramen!
Since when was that boy ever late for ramen, or something he might call a "date"? Hell, normally he was an hour early, happily bouncing on his seat waving out and calling "Sakura-Chan!" when I arrived! I called it a catching up session seeing as how I am barely a part of team seven and yet it's only been a year since we were made in the first place. How things change.
"Grrr, Naruto! Where are you?" I whispered under my breath, spinning around in one of the barstools at Ichiraku's, a bad sinking feeling present in my stomach and I knew it wasn't ramen deprivation that was Naruto's crap.
Silently I closed my eyes and envisioned the crazy blond, feeling for his chakra. "What." I gasped upon discovering my friend's chakra, poorly masked and accompanied by the rest of my teams (surprise surprise) "Naruto's never tried to mask his chakra before! And what is he doing with Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei?"
I quickly began to grow worried so I paid for my ramen and then threw the hood of my white cloak on, and then I brought my fingers up to my mouth and whistled. Moments later my nin-horse was standing impatiently in front of me, obviously aware of the situation.
"Pony boy, follow Naruto's chakra. I have a feeling that there is something weird going on." He glanced back at me with a silent yes before taking off into the night, following Naruto's chakra trail expertly.
We were almost as good if not as good as Akamaru and Kiba at tracking and Akamaru was a dog for Kami's sake! No matter, I was proud of it nonetheless, but if only Kakashi-Sensei was as proud as I was off it.
I sat in deep thought as we noiselessly rode to team 7's normal bridge, and I made sure to completely seal our chakra so that even Kakashi wouldn't sense it. Quietly I watched the silhouetted forms of my boys talk to each other.
"Naruto you know it's for her own good." Kakashi said, I could make out the stern look in his one eye as he talked.
"But, wont it be harder without a third teammate?" Naruto asked, and I could've sworn he was trying to turn the argument in my favor.
Kakashi-Sensei shook his head, "Naruto, you know that she is vulnerable and requires a high amount of protection." He said. I bristled up, to hell with that! I could protect myself and the team better than Kakashi-sensei could ever hope to!
Sasuke jumped off the railing, "Ya Dobe, we'll be able to go so much further without her. She is just holding us back." I involuntarily hissed at these words, and immediately knew whom they were meant for.
Naruto hung his head, "I know, it's just I feel bad for Sakura-Chan, it's not her fault she's a little weaker than the rest of us. We never even tried to help her." I felt my heart clench, and then grow hard, covering itself in a protective layer of ice.
"Dobe she never even showed up for training half the time." Sasuke scoffed.
I glared daggers at him, "No, you never showed up for training half the time! I ended up training with Guy, or Kurenai, or Asuma when you bailed on me!" I hissed mentally.
Kemuri glanced sorrowfully down at me, nibbling gently on my hooded head, "C'mon kid, I think we've seen enough." He said gently, turning to leave but I didn't budge.
Naruto sighed and shook his head before asking in an angry tone, "So what do we do then? Huh?" my lip trembled slightly at this, I never thought Naruto would leave me behind.
"So, it's decided. We are to expel Sakura from team 7 for her own good." Kakashi said.
My heart stopped beating for a moment and my eyes widened in the sadness that was quickly gripping my body.
"For our own good dobe, we'll finally be able to get stronger without distractions or someone holding us back now." Sasuke said, no hesitation present in his voice.
I glanced to Naruto, begging silently he wouldn't agree. "Ya, for –for our own good." He whispered, hanging his head with shame.
That was the final straw, I whipped around and stomped through the brush and quickly mounted Kemuri. He sensed my anger and jumped into a full-blown gallop. "Pony boy, Training grounds! NOW!" I growled, rage and sadness battling within me as he practically flew to the grounds.
Just moments later we were at the training grounds I had claimed, well Neji and I specifically. We trained together every day at 8:00 p.m. after his team was done, but almost four days out of the week I found myself with them since my team was training without me.
I roared in frustration as Kemuri slid to a stop, and pushed myself off of his back. I jumped high into the air before turning around, corkscrewing toward the ground with incredible speed. I stretched out my fist, fingers clenched tightly with anger and I scrunched my face in fury.
"GAAAAAHAHHAHHHHHHH!" I yelled in anger, punching my fist into the earth with the expectancy of a little bit of destruction. No, apparently I was quite powerful when provoked. For a moment nothing happened, then all of the sudden the ground started exploding beneath my feet, like a massive volcano erupting. I quickly jumped to get out of the way, landing near Kemuri in the center of the clearing.
I hunched my back over, not willing to let my summon see me cry. "I C-Cant believe T-their doing this t-to me!" I chocked out, desperately trying to conceal a sob. "Their leaving me, my own family is leaving me alone! Dis-owning me, abandoning me!" my sobs began to break through their carefully placed wall, spilling over from my eyes and down my cheeks.
My body began to tremble with my own sadness, "Why? I've already lost my family before, why does it have to happen again?" The tears began to flow freely; I had stopped resisting them and given into their burning wetness.
"Naruto-kun, Kakashi, -Sensei Sasuke-san, I trusted all of them. They were my family Kemuri, the only ones I had left other than you and Anko. What did I do wrong? Am I really that weak?" I asked, my whole body felt like I had just run a hundred laps around Konoha. I slowly waked up to the edge of the cliff, and gazed at the moon.
"Am I supposed to be miserable my whole life?" I questioned, my voice growing more and more shaky by the seconds as my fists clenched hard enough to draw blood. "Or am I just destined to hurt people I love, to fail to protect them…" I whispered.
Slowly I felt wet drops landing on me, rain. It always seemed to rain when I cried, when I sobbed it poured. "What am I supposed to do? I lost the most important thing to me, my loved ones. I just don't want to do anything anymore; I don't want to go on anymore. I just want the pain to stop."
"Sakura?" I whirled around expecting to see Kemuri there but instead I saw Neji, his face contorted slightly with worry as his pearly eyes settled on my own downcast ones.
I sniffed and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, "Sorry Neji, I forgot about training today." I whispered, putting on the best smile I could manage but his mouth only frowned deeper, he saw right through me.
"Sakura…" he said, his voice held the faintest hint of concern. I finally looked up and met his eyes, they were narrowed in thought and the creased lines around them gave away the Byakugan. I sighed, knowing I wouldn't be able to trick him since he had his Byakugan he would be able to see my emotions no matter how good the façade was.
"MY YOUTHFUL BLOSSOM! WE HAVE COME TO PARTAKE WITH YOU IN YOUR YOUTHFUL TRAINING ON THIS YOUTHFUL NIGHT!" of course only one person would be screaming that in the middle of a biting storm. Bushy brow Jr. who would undoubtedly be followed by Bushy Brow Sr.
I closed my eyes tightly and looked away, only to feel a hand on my shoulder. "Sakura, what's wrong huh? You can tell me?" Tenten asked, looking at me sadly as she rested her hand gently on my shoulder.
I really wanted to tell them, truly. But I couldn't burden them with my troubles, no this was my own problem to face, and I had to deal with it alone. "N-Nothing Tenten. I just-I just…" My lip began to tremble violently as I felt my problems pushing at my lips, begging for release.
I sucked in a big breath of air and quickly said "I just need to be alone for a while" and then burst into crystalline dust, teleporting away like a coward.
"What happened to Sakura?" Tenten asked worriedly, glancing around at the rest of team guy who seemed as uneasy as she was. Sakura was her best friend, and was very close to the rest of team guy as well.
Neji had his eyes trained forward, looking down over Konoha's nightlife. "Hn." He muttered earning a hard glare from Tenten.
Lee looked like he was about to lose it, "What happened to my youthful blossom? Whoever did this to her is very un-youthful and when I find out who did this to her I will make sure they pay for their un-youthfulness!" Lee yelled, waving his fist in the air with anger.
Guy-Sensei just shook his head slowly, "Indeed, this is very un-youthful. Sakura is always a youthful blossom and never sad, what could've mad her this upset?" Guy-Sensei wondered, glancing around at his team to notice that they were just as upset as he was. The person that was the angriest was none other than Neji Hyuuga.
Neji and Sakura had become considerably close friends, not in the same way as she and Tenten had but all the same connection. She had seen Neji almost every single day for a little over a year for their daily training session if she wasn't already with team guy.
It seemed as though her team only trained with her half the time at best, but that didn't mean that sakura just wasted the time. Whenever her own team failed to train with her she sought out Asuma's team (mostly only training with Shikamaru and Asuma on Shogi days.) or Kurenai's team (Kurenai had come to cherish sakura almost as much as Hinata.) and most often Guy's team.
Neji had seen it firsthand, he knew how Kakashi never paid her a bit of mind and was only interested in the Uchiha and Uzamaki. It made his blood boil, that was not how teams were supposed to treat one another.
Sakura was more apart of the entire Konoha 12 now than team Kakashi, she fit well with the all of the other genin in her generation and even Ino had finally come to understand that she definitely did not harbor a crush for her Sasuke-kun and accepted the friendship again.
But team guy had actually come to look forward to the days when she would come train with them. Heck she even gave lee and Guy a nickname and dubbed them "bushy-brow Sr. and Jr." Amazingly, guy and lee loved the nicknames and wouldn't be called anything else except for lee whom would occasionally request it and get a thump on the head.
"I think I can be of some help." The whole team turned around to see Kemuri standing in front of them; his eyes were glazed over with many emotions. Sadness, worry, and hatred flashed through them.
"What do you mean youthful Summon?" Guy-Sensei asked, straightening up a tad at the prospect of help.
Lee jumped in eagerly, "Yes! Do you know why our Youthful blossom has wilted?"
Tenten sighed and thumped Lee on the head lightly, "Shut up Lee, and let Kemuri talk." She looked back to Kemuri who nodded a silent thanks and then sighed looking up at the stars. Neji noticed how concerned he was, and that there were traces of fear in his chakra.
"Naruto hadn't shown up for his weekly ramen meeting with sakura today, and so naturally we went looking for him." He started, his voice strangely mute of emotion though the nin-horses eyes told a different story.
"But his chakra was masked, poorly. But of course that is Naruto. We followed it to the bridge team seven normally meets on and discovered that the Uchiha brat and Naruto were already there along with Hatake." Neji's face contorted into an angry frown and Tenten gasped slightly.
"But, they called a team meeting without her?" She asked worriedly, watching as Kemuri nodded slowly in answer.
"I cannot believe my rival would do something as un-youthful as this." Guy said, a big, fake anime tear dropping from his eyes.
"Yes, but that's not what got her upset. It's what she heard that's causing her to act like this." Neji's headshot up, his face twisted with enough emotion to be somewhat close to normal humans by now.
"What did they say about her?" he growled lowly as Kemuri studied him with his own observant eyes before his face changed into anger as well.
"They said that she was to much of a burden for them to keep, that she was only dragging them down and hurting them. They said that they would be better off without her and then…" Kemuri paused to take a breath, but Tenten and Neji were desperate and wanted to know what the baka's had told their friend.
"WHAT?" They asked in unison.
Kemuri took another deep breath before turning and meeting their angry eyes with his own, "Then they disowned her. They agreed to kick her off the team, and didn't even seem to pay a second thought to it." Kemuri's mane had flickered into action by now; unconsciously burning as his own temper steadily rose.
Neji growled lowly while Guy yelled out "WHAT? But that is so un-youthful! Surely my rival hasn't done that?"
Lee's unbelievably bushy eyebrows were narrowed in rage, and he began to chant something along the lines of 'I will punish blah blah blah..'
Tenten couldn't believe her ears, she knew very well that Kakashi couldn't help but become obsessed with Naruto and Sasuke's training, but would he really go as far as to kick her off in order to ensure their success? "Did Naruto agree?" she asked suddenly.
Kemuri nodded, "Sadly, yes. But it looked to me like he at least tried to argue it and the final decision-he didn't like it."
Tenten felt sorry for sakura, her team had left her behind and Naruto who had promised his friendship to her had abandoned her as well. "So, that's it huh? What do we do?" She asked somewhat hesitantly, expecting a snappy reply from Neji.
" Simple, she joins our team now."
(With Sarutobi)
Sarutobi sat staring at his desk, or what wasn't covered by mounds of paperwork. He groaned, "Ugh, when the elders told me there was going to be a lot of paperwork I understood, but seriously! This is ridiculous!" his eyes drifted over to the next piece of paper in the pile- page 1,239.
"Kami save me." He huffed, and as if she heard his cries four chakra signatures could be felt just outside his door. He smiled, more than happy about the distraction.
He motioned for the Anbu guarding his door to open it, "Ah, Team Guy what brings you to my office tonight?" He asked merrily glancing around at the faces of one of the most successful youth Konoha squads.
Guy stepped up, bowing lowly to the Hokage before staring him dead in the eyes. "Hokage-Sama, we have a request." He stated.
Sarutobi was shocked, he had never once heard guy speak a single sentence without mentioning 'youthfulness' somewhere in it. Whatever this was must be important and he had an idea that it might be about the same thing that the mountain of paperwork was about. "Alright Guy, what do you want?"
"Are you aware that Kakashi is trying to defect his student Sakura-san from his squad?" Guy questioned in a serious tone that was alien to the bushy browed sensei.
Sarutobi sighed, so it was about the same thing. "Ah, Hai. It is truly disappointing that Hatake has decided on this. I thought that assigning Sakura would help the group, she is after all not that different from them." He said, a weary and sad frown plastered on his face.
Team Guy nodded in understanding, "Sarutobi-Sama, we would like to request that Sakura-san be transferred to our squad." Guy said quickly.
The Hokage lifted his head up, his eyes now warm but questioning. "Guy-san, you do realize you already have a full squad right?"
Guy nodded, he had thought about this but despite his youthfulness hadn't really come up with why they should be allowed a fifth member to the team.
"Hokage-Sama, if I may I believe Sakura-san would be a good addition to the team. We may already have the standard 4 members but there have been instances in the past where teams had five or even six members. Sakura-San works well with Team guy's existing members and is not a handicap to us."
All heads slowly turned to face the speaker, and met the pearly white eyes of Neji Hyuuga. Sarutobi was shocked, Guy and Lee had fainted and Tenten was completely flabbergasted. Neji was not on to stand up for other people regardless, even ones on the team because of his whole " I am a caged bird of destiny" thing. The fact that he had spoken up and defended her case only showed how much she had changed the group who was previously thought to be perfect.
Tenten quickly shook out of her temporarily shock and stepped up with Neji, "Hai! Hokage-Sama, Sakura-Chan is a good friend of mine and an excellent Kunoichi! Her skills are unique to our group and only help us more to be a better team!" She added, her face set with determination. The Hokage's eyes widened slightly and then his lips turned upwards a bit.
Suddenly there was a green flash and Lee was lined up with them. "Hai! The youthful blossom is a very skilled opponent! We all think her youthful-ness is inspiring and it pushes us harder!"
Sarutobi broke out into a full-blown grin, this was not something you had seen everyday. The most successful genin group of its generation was vouching to gain extra weight in the form of a rejected student, and by the looks on their faces - like hell were they leaving without their team papers saying "sakura" on it.
Guy had recovered and was standing next to lee by now, the embarrassment he felt was completely replaced by pride, "We request that Sakura-san be transferred to our group Hokage-sama." He stated.
"Hai, request accepted." Tenten, Lee's, and Guy's faces lit up with happiness and Neji gave his own tiny smirk (that's huge!). The Hokage had accepted no questions asked and they couldn't have wanted any more.
"I will inform her in the morning of this transition, you are all dismissed." The Hokage said, just a bit of happiness detectable in his voice.
Team guy nodded and then chanted out "Hai!" before turning and leaving the room.
Sarutobi chuckled, "Ah, kids." Suddenly another huge stack of paperwork was plopped down on his desk and he gasped.
"The paperwork for a genin-addition to squad Hokage." The Anbu said with a snicker as he groaned and then let his head fall down, the impact cushioned by the massive stack of papers that covered his desk.
Sakura stood at the top of the Hokage mountains, gazing out over the Konoha nightlife as the rain poured down. The air was cold and unforgiving, the rain was biting and burning her skin it was coming down so hard, but she didn't care.
She thought about what her team- no ex-teamembers had said.
"We'll be able to go so much further without her. She is just holding us back."
"She's a little weaker than the rest of us"
"We are to expel Sakura from team 7 for her own good"
Her fists unconsciously clenched and unclenched with her emotions, blood already crusted over as new droplets trickled down her palms. She had every right in the world to be angry with them, no furious! Yet, she found herself feeling sorry to them at the same time.
Sakura gazed up at the falling rain, "I'm sorry. Kakashi-san, Sasuke-san, Naruto-kun. I'm sorry I held you back because of my weakness, I'm sorry I was a burden to team seven and your dead weight." She said, no emotion detectable in her voice even though her words came from the heart. Angry couldn't describe how she felt, no more like pissed off but still she forgave them for the most part.
"I'm sorry to you, my family that I hurt your progress and I promise you it wont happen again." She said, her mouth turning slightly upwards into a somewhat sadistic grin.
"I promise you, that it will never happen again. I will become stronger, and I'll prove that I am no longer a weak little girl. I promise that I'll be good enough to match your strength, your skills, your speed, and your smarts."
"In fact, thank you team seven. Because now I will be a fighter, I'm going to get stronger, I'm going to work harder, and I will become wiser. Thanks-" The changed Kunoichi opened her fiery emerald eyes, defying anyone and everyone to come and tell her wrong now, to come and challenge her fighting spirit to finish her new mission.
"Thanks for making me a fighter."
Anko was jumping swiftly through the trees, her mission had taken her quite a bit longer than it was supposed to and she was anxious to see how sakura had been doing.
By far this was the longest she had been away, about two months now. She hoped that her pinky had settled things with her team because when she left they weren't looking so good.
"Huh?" she whispered, purple hair flinging around as she felt a chakra spike that could only be-
"Sakura." One of the ninja on her mission cocked an eyebrow at her questioningly.
"You three go on ahead and report to the Hokage, I think my student is out after hours," she said, pointing at konoha's welcoming gates as they nodded and moved on ahead. "-Again."
Anko quickly made it to the Hokage monument to find her pink-haired Kunoichi standing out on the ledge, facing up toward the icy rain as it beat down form the heavens. Anko hid her chakra and focused on Sakura, cringing slightly when she felt the aura coming off of her.
"Damnit Hatake! What the fuck did you do to my girl?" she growled inwardly and listened to what sakura seemed to be saying.
"I'm sorry to you, my family that I hurt your progress and I promise you it wont happen again." Anko gasped quietly, what was she talking about?
"I promise you, that it will never happen again. I will become stronger, and I'll prove that I am no longer a weak little girl. I promise that I'll be good enough to match your strength, your skills, your speed, and your smarts." Anko's eyes widened a fraction, her heart beating quickly inside her chest as she stared at her student.
"They didn't-" she thought.
"In fact, thank you team seven. Because now I will be a fighter, I'm going to get stronger, I'm going to work harder, and I will become wiser. Thanks-" Her teeth clenched down as her fists tightened in fury.
"Hatake, you did." She hissed and watched as her student said one more sentence.
"Thanks for making me a fighter."
Quickly she stepped from her hiding spot, making her presence known as to not scare her pink-haired girl.
Sakura didn't flinch a bit when she felt her Anko-sensei's chakra, but instead sighed lightly and said "Anko-Sensie, are you back from your mission?"
Anko had to strain to hear the relief in her Kunoichi's voice, only further worrying her as she stepped up and put her arms around sakura who leaned slightly into her sensei's embrace. " It's okay to hate the bastards for what they did. You should know that no matter what, no team should ever abandon their companions." She whispered into sakura's hair, pulling back to gaze seriously into the eyes of her student.
Sakura smirked to herself, "Anko-Sensie, I don't hate them for what they did. It's about time I learn what being a ninja is really about don't you think?" Anko frowned at her student s words, but was at least a bit relieved when she heard that her forgiveness was true spoken.
"Although, Hatake can eat his own words though." Anko cocked an eyebrow at her student whose smirk turned evil.
"Because wasn't he the one who told us that those who abandon their teammates are worse than trash?" Anko's eyes flew wide open as she remembered one of Kakashi's morals that he lived by and was immediately disgusted with the silver-haired Jonin.
Sakura finally looked up and met the eyes of her teacher, her orbs blazing with true determination "I intend to stay out of the trash. I wont abandon them, even if they did it to me. I will fight until I am standing by their side again whether it be as teammates, or their superior."
Anko's feral grin turned into a proud, sadistic smirk as she ruffled Sakura's hair. " That's why you'll always be stronger than them Pinky, no matter what the maggots say they couldn't be strong enough to ever do that."
Sakura grinned as well, licking her upper lip "And then i'll kick their Asses for ever even thinking i would just walk away. I won't give up, i've got things to do."
Author Notes:
Well? Did ya like it?
Don't worry; sakura will make sure to be good with team seven and no she doesn't hate their guts. She actually feels bad for holding them back so she wants to get stronger and join them again- darn her forgiving nature! Anyway, please review me!