Disclaimer for entire story: I do not own Naruto, but the new plot is my own.

New Strength

kkstev

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

Her feet felt as though they had gained a hundred pounds each as she made her way back toward her room at the very end of the night. Before she made it up the stairs, she heard a faint whimpering coming from behind her. Sakura stopped, with a faint smile appearing on her face.

Gently, she whispered, "It's alright kanojo, it's all over. Come with me to sleep now."

Carefully looking around, worried for more distress within the house, a black dog with tan spots above its eyes and halfway up each of its legs emerged from the shadows of the living room. His head was large and the rest of his body muscular, but his current stance was purely submissive. His shaggy fur was partially flattened in places, making it clear he had been hiding for some time. To see her dog – strong, proud, and protective – look so beaten, nearly broke Sakura's heart. She knew he would protect her with his own life, but she also knew that he couldn't when the fights were within the family. He never knew what it was he should be doing when everyone was yelling or fighting. She sighed, waiting for him to make his way to her.

"Good boy, Hito." He looked up at her with deep brown eyes that seemed to check her own green ones to see if she was okay. But she couldn't even meet his intelligent eyes for long. So they both made their way up the stairs and into Sakura's room, as she whispered more comforting words for the both of them. Soon Sakura found herself sitting on her floor, once again, this time leaning against her bed as Hito came to lay curled beside her with a grunt. Petting him softly as she just took in the quiet of the night, Sakura sat, focusing on his soft breathing rather than everything else bearing down on her life.

Though now would seem to be the most appropriate time for reflection, she could not bring herself to do much more than attempt to clear her mind.

Before long, Sakura fell asleep right there on the floor, her head ending up resting on the side of her best friend.

~-o-~

Ren was staring at his hands, fingers interlaced and resting on his workbench – where his only daughter was gasping for breath only an hour before. "Kuso," he growled to himself, lifting his hands up and rubbing at his eyes. He stood, careful to set his fresh empties with the rest, being sure not to actually look at the size of the growing pile.

As steadily as he could, he made his way up the stairs toward his room, his hands trailing along the walls as he walked.

~-o-~

Ayaka was putting the leftovers of the cake away. She finished, and moved on to begin a last cleanup of the kitchen for the night. She never made any sounds more than a few clinking of dishes or the crinkle of the garbage bag as she added to it.

All the while silent tears made their way down her face, blurring her vision but never slowing her in her work.

~-o-~

Shii turned over in his bed, sighing peacefully in his sleep.

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

"We're going to need help."

The sun was just peeking up over the horizon, reaching out slowly to touch and light up everything within Fire Country. The spectacle was something worth watching from the impressive height of Hokage Tower, and the woman who stood by the enormous windows at the top of the tower was not going to miss it. So she continued speaking slowly with her hands linked loosely behind her, her back facing the shinobi in her office.

To the people waiting behind her, her shadowy silhouette peering out over the village set an ominous and charged atmosphere in the office. Which of course did not go completely without note by the woman, either.

"The current situation is too tense for comfort. We know that Sound is going to push toward a full-scale war." True to their training, neither man made a move nor sound. Tsunade took a deep breath, closing her eyes to the view that contributed to the naming of her country. She turned around quickly, whipping her long blonde pigtails around her head. She narrowed her eyes at the report sitting on her desk, before grabbing it and handing it to the Nara in front of her.

He scanned it quickly, sighed loudly, muttering, "Troublesome," under his breath as he held the report out to his right. It was taken from his hands and read over for a third time.

"They won't stop until the Snake finally succeeds in snagging an Uchiha. They are waiting for us to let down our guard from the attack and attempted kidnapping four years ago."

At her words, she heard the report crinkle slightly with the tensing of its current owner. He stared at it blankly for a moment longer before setting it back on the desk.

"You understand my worry then? You two are my best. We need to figure out how to deal with Orochimaru's advances with our limited forces. Many were lost the first time, I don't need to explain that to you. Now, we have had less and less graduating from the Academy over the past few years, most likely because of their parent's fear. But still, there are even less bothering to push themselves to reach even Jounin level, never mind ANBU. Either that, or they're just not good enough." She let out an exasperated huff, wrinkling her nose for a moment in the process.

"We are too dependent on our allies – Suna cannot be asked to make up for our shortcomings. Simply assuming we have the strength to tear down the snake bastard when he finally decides to make another move won't stop my people from being slaughtered." The end of her sentence was progressively raising in volume. She paused, regaining her calm, sure to look both in the eyes before adding, "Nor will it stop him from fully taking the village."

"Hokage-sama, we understand. We will work to rectify the situation immediately."

"Yes, well, that would be best, wouldn't it? Do what you can in the village, but I also have my own idea I will need you two to consider in your plans." Tsunade sat down in her chair, leaning back and crossing her arms. The men waited patiently. "Extend your search outside the village as well."

"But, Hokage-sama, we can't –"

"Nara, stop, I don't want to hear it. Think about it, work out a strategy, and bring it back to me by the end of next week. This assignment takes priority over all other activities, so you both will be off the mission roster until the plan is created and implementation is discussed. The current discussion will be of highest confidentiality. Any questions?"

Shikamaru straightened his spine at her authoritative tone, resuming the ready position he had lost at some point during her speech. The man beside him still had his feet shoulder width apart, back straight, his hands securely locked behind his back. Once they mirrored each other, they nodded sharply and replied in unison, "Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Well get to it!" Tsunade abruptly stood again, slapping her hands flat on her desk, "We need shinobi!"

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

Sakura woke up and stretched, wincing slightly at the crick in her neck. She seemed slightly startled to be looking up at her bed, rather than down from it, but then she noticed her snoring pillow and giggled a little bit. Disturbed, Hito curled his head around to look at her sleepily, then stretched all four of his legs straight out, grumbling from deep in his chest in the process. Sakura giggled again and scratched his stomach.

"Ohayou gozaimasu, Hito!" He put his head back down on the floor and yawned. "Well I am so sorry to have disturbed your sleep, tansei!" She patted his head and kissed his folded ear, the only part of his head she could reach. He let out a soft snort as Sakura stood up and stretched herself, still with a smile on her face.

She slipped out to the bathroom to wash up and brush her teeth, then made her way back to her room. Looking through a few drawers, she pulled out some peroxide and fresh bandages, cleaning and wrapping her left arm as best as she could one-handed, carefully covering from hand to elbow. She dressed as quickly as she could with the hindrance, grabbed her bag, then moved to leave, before she heard Hito stir and get up to follow. She planned on setting out and getting food somewhere else, but her mother was in the kitchen already, as were her father and brother.

Resigned to being forced to face her family again so soon, she greeted them with a small smile and nod, sitting at the empty place at the table. Hito settled himself behind her. The unspoken rule: nothing ever happened once the sun rises for a new day. 'Screwed up if you ask me.'

Her father didn't even lift his eyes past his plate, while her mother brought some toast and juice, setting it down in front of her. Sakura looked dryly at the crunchy piece of bread, then turned to her sides. She watched as her brother stacked his eggs and bacon between his toast, creating a heaping sandwich, while her father just dug into his as it was. She looked up to her mother again, who was eating nothing but toast either, leaning against the counter rather than sitting at the last empty place.

'I guess I'm the only one who finds this whole scene to be completely messed up.' Not being able to change anything, she ate her lacking meal in silence.

Shii eventually stood without a word and made his way back to his room to get dressed. Ayaka set down her unfinished food and went to his vacant spot to clean up the dishes left behind, immediately retuning to wash them. Ren finally looked to Sakura. She felt his attention on her, but did not make any move to address it.

"Ohayou gozaimasu, Sakura-chan. You're up later than usual. Did you have any trouble sleeping?"

She wished she was surprised with the civil conversation, she really did. 'It's never going to change. You stood up to him, sure, but he was trashed. Why would he remember insults better than anything else you've ever tried once morning comes?'

Sakura took the chance to observe her father for a moment while she droned out the programmed and proper response. Already dressed in his uniform for work, the only component missing was the belt holding all of the gear he carried. He was squinting slightly, turned away as much as possible from the light streaming in from the windows. 'Classic.' The part she couldn't understand though were his searching eyes and tense hands gripping his utensils.

'It is definitely not possible, is it?'

Whatever she said must have been sufficient, as he turned back to his meal. Sakura couldn't help noticing he paused for quite a few moments, just staring at his plate, before resuming eating. Her eyes wandered eventually to the dull golden badge sitting on his chest.

"Alright, well, otou-san, okaa-san, I am going to head to school now. Arigatou for breakfast."

As she walked toward the sink with her used dishes, her father stopped her. He reached into his pocket and removed a few bills before handing it to her, mumbling something about lunch later. Sakura accepted it with a small bow, covering her surprised face, before hurrying out the door.

'Wow, maybe it is possible. He might've remembered, at least some, of his drunken fight from last night and he's sober now. Plus, I'm not dead. Cool, good day!'

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

Sakura arrived in the school building early, making her way through the empty halls towards the offices. She stepped into the dark principal's secretary's office, leaving her work sitting on top of the desk in plain sight. She nodded her head to herself, satisfied with the work she had done.

Not really sure what to do until classes actually begun, Sakura decided to see if the school's library was open yet. She had heard the elderly librarian there took much pride in the collection, and so she had a tendency to open before regular working hours.

With crossed fingers, Sakura peeked into the windows on the doors. The place was dim, but she could make out a petite figure at the reference desk.

Thanking her luck, she quietly entered. When passing by the librarian, the two exchanged small smiles and nods, each respecting the others' choice of location. Walking down a random aisle in the fiction section, Sakura plopped herself down right there on the floor, and began browsing.

By the time she had to leave for class, she had found what she thought were three new promising stories. Retracing her steps back to the entrance, Sakura found herself in front of the circulation desk, searching her bag for her card. The sweet librarian was there, reaching for the books and checking them out.

In victory, Sakura's hand clutching her card finally emerged from the bag in a whir. She handed it over, once again greeted by the sight of the wrinkled smile of the woman before her.

Unable to keep from reciprocating, Sakura proceeded to bow her head slightly to her elder. "Arigatou, mizu."

"Not a problem, young lady. It makes me happy a youth such as yourself is able to appreciate all that my books here have to offer."

Her voice was so breathy and her words so lightly spoken that it was somewhat difficult for Sakura to be sure she interpreted her correctly. "I enjoy reading, and I was unaware that this library was quite so well-stocked. I must say it was a pleasant surprise."

"Arigatou, koishii, you are going to make me blush." She stopped and seemed to study Sakura's face for a moment, "Though if that is the case, why is it you are unfamiliar to me?"

Her brow furrowed as she watched the young woman's face gain a light dust of color, "I am not around often, and when I am, I just don't have the time, obaa-san. But I assure you, some of that may soon change."

Not quite sure what to make of the answer, the librarian decided to try to figure it out later. For now, she simply stopped to smile, "Please, koishii, Shinki."

"Then, Shinki-shisho, so you know, my name is Sakura."

"Sakura-chan, hm?" Shiniki took a moment to see how the name felt on her tongue, "It is a beautiful name, of course, that so obviously suits you well," she finished the sentence eying Sakura's hair.

"Thank you, Shinki-shisho, and I must say your name suits you perfectly as well."

The elderly woman suddenly burst out in laughter, beginning to make a shooing motion with her hand, "Why thank you, koishii. Enough flattering an old lady now! You're already beginning to spoil me! Head on out to class now, and I hope to see you soon."

Looking at the time, Sakura's eyes widened slightly as she hurried toward the exit. She was sure to call over her shoulder, "Arigatou, again! It was so nice finally meeting you!"

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

Tsunade plopped back down in her seat as the members of yet another meeting finally exited her office. This idea of hers was causing a lot more trouble than she had thought. Wouldn't everyone be happy she was doing something so drastic and innovative for her village? No, of course not, as that would make her life easier.

She snorted to herself and it echoed in the empty office.

"Well now, that's just not lady-like," a male voice stated flatly, before adding, "I like it! Not afraid to get down and dirty, if ya know what I mean!" He winked, his booming laughter immediately following.

Well, she had thought the office was empty.

Narrowing her eyes, she decided to cut him off by hurling a paperweight at his head. "You are supposed to be damn well respectable in this village, you old, perverted baka!"

He straightened himself, as he had ducked to avoid getting his head knocked off. He gave her a broad smile as he scratched the back of his head and giggled – actually giggled, the perverted bastard.

"Kami-sama, did you learn that from the gaki, or did he learn it from you?"

Jiraiya stopped moving his arm, and looked genuinely confused. Tsunade sighed heavily, massaging the bridge of her nose, "Never mind. What did you want anyway?"

"Come on, 'Nade-chan, you know why I'm here."

She looked up, and raised an eyebrow, "And since when exactly have you been interested in village politics?"

"Well," he rubbed his chin, and looked toward the ceiling, "since abouuuut today."

"And why, exactly?" Tsunade ground her teeth together so hard she could barely speak. She had enough on her plate already, she didn't need idiots around making things more difficult.

"Yo."

The wood of the desk started to crack slightly, as did the tile under Tsunade's feet. Jiraiya recognized the warning signs, and decided to proceed professionally to escape with all of his bones intact.

"Now you too. What the hell do you want?" She turned to Kakashi, "And I assume you had absolutely no other choice than to enter through the window when I have a flawlessly functioning door?"

"Well, you see Hokage-sama, I was on my way here, when suddenly I saw – " Kakashi stopped abruptly at seeing the frantic crisscrossing of Jiraiya's arms, trying to tell him to stop, and he immediately understood. Kakashi eyed Tsunade warily, noticing the cracking appearing all around her.

He went for his golden move – big smile under the mask, close his visible eye, tilt his head slightly to the side, and hand to the back of his hair. It never failed to get him out of trouble before.

The Hokage's voice was desperate, "Kami-sama take pity on me, I'm surrounded by a long, long line of baka teaching damn baka!"

Kakashi had no idea what she meant, so he slowly returned to his normal relaxed position. Jiraiya was trying valiantly to keep from laughing audibly - he finally understood what she meant.

"Ahh, so why I'm here…"

"Yes, yes, I know why both of you are here. As much as it literally physically pains me to admit this, I am glad you two came. I would like your opinions on the matter."

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

About half-way though her day, Sakura decided that instead of torturing herself in the lunchroom, she would go back to the library. She could read, get her work done, whatever she felt like at the moment.

She kept her eyes lowered, and tried to make herself as small as possible to make her way through the crowd. She sidestepped large groups of friends crowding in places, and found herself on the oncoming side of the hall. Another body came into contact with hers, knocking Sakura off balance.

She looked up to see bleach blonde, and Kouhi looked down at her. She almost snareled, spitting out, "Watch where you're going, kid!" before she stalked off.

Sakura scrambled to her feet and rushed into the library doors. She was grateful to see that nearly the entire place was empty. Really, what type of teenager chose to be in a library?

She took a deep breath with closed eyes, then spotted an ideal table off in a corner near both the window and the stacks. She dumped all of her stuff and fell into a chair. It had been quite a while since she actually saw or spoke to Kouhi. The avoidance tactic had worked wonders.

But it was like the girl didn't even recognize Sakura.

Sure, the school was large, but exactly how many had natural pink hair?

Now that she thought about it, that didn't really matter. Everyone at this point wanted to be unique. So naturally, they all did the same thing, and many began dying their hair interesting colors as they aged.

But still.

'Ugh, I can't do this now! It doesn't matter whether this girl has a clue. I've got enough without that too. I just have now idea how exactly I can do that.'

"Koishii, what is the matter?"

Sakura jumped violently, and could taste each frantic pulse of her heart. She had not expected Shinki, or anyone else for that matter to approach her. Trying to put up an unconcerned face, she said, "Nothing really, I just got lost in thought for a moment."

"Must be some heavy thoughts."

Sakura was caught off guard for a moment, before replying, "Not really, just the normal stuff."

"You must carry much with you then, kodomo." She left quietly again after dropping her perfect observations on a still surprised Sakura.

'This is ridiculous; I must be easier to read than one of these books. It's almost pathetic at this point.'

Trying to keep her mind away from reality, Sakura decided one of the novels would be best for now.

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

At the same time, an, "It's brilliant," and an, "It's crazy," came from the men, followed by a long silence. Tsunade sighed again.

"Either of you care to elaborate?"

"Well, I think we both may be right," Kakashi stepped up. "It's crazy to go looking outside the village, but that's exactly why it's brilliant. Never since the founding of the villages did any of them stray from their own walls in this manner. It's radical, but innovative."

Tsunade smiled slightly at his choice of wording.

"Well, that's not exactly what I meant by 'crazy,' actually. I had meant just bat-shit crazy." Tsunade narrowed her eyes at her ex-teammate, who simply grinned back. "But now that you put it that way, Kakashi, I see your point. A lot of time has passed since the villages were founded, so who knows what gold we may find outside in the general population? We may even learn some things from them."

"The only catch is having to be careful as to how we approach this, and with whom. It could mean disaster in many, many ways if even the other villages find out."

"I've thought of that," Tsunade nodded solmnly, "I have the Nara and the Uchiha working on it in secrecy. Other than that, it is just the elders and council members who know. The elders are too terrified of the idea to speak about it, and the council is intelligent enough to keep quiet, especially since I informed them of the importance of doing so."

Tsunade struggled to hold back a shiver before she continued, "I don't know if I could live with myself if we inadvertently allowed a spy amongst us to teach our secrets, or gave the other villages this idea to implement. Some would go as far as forcing all the civilians in their country into training." She couldn't repress another shiver of horror. Not even a quarter would survive something like that. Innocents would die.

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

Sakura sat in her next class still in a bit of a daze. She really could not process her revelation from such a simple encounter.

Sitting quietly in the back corner, she continued to doodle in her notebook to keep preoccupied. She already understood what her teacher was speaking about, but Sakura knew she would be on the topic for quite some time. Slowly, the characteristics of a face quite similar to the hero she was just reading about came into existence. When she finished drawing what she saw in her mind's eye when she read, she rested her cheek on her hand and stared at the rough sketch. 'People like you don't exist. You're too good, too brave, too strong... It's just not fair.'

"Sakura-gakuto, will you please stop falling asleep and step up here."

Blushing, Sakura stood and stepped forward, followed by the sniggering of the class behind her. Her teacher silently gave her a stack of papers to hand out.

Sakura reached for the pile and began to make her way through the aisles. As she made her way towards the front again, a hand reached out and grabbed her left arm, and pulled the sleeve upward. She winced, but didn't pull her arm away.

The boy looked up at her in shock, "What happened?"

"Uh-uh nothing happened! My arm has, uh, j-just been a little achy lately!"

"This isn't what you'd do for some sore muscles."

"O-oh! Well I should-uh fix t-that then, huh?"

By now, the entire class, plus the teacher had their gazes fixated on her. Sakura pulled her arm away and began to rub it tentatively, feeling herself shake slightly while still laughing like an idiot. She returned the rest of the handouts back to her professor and unsteadily went back to her seat. She almost fell twice.

On the way, she heard someone whisper, "She's not that stupid. I wonder what really happened."

Sakura almost laughed, and muttered quietly, "Not like you people would believe I got into a fight anyway."

"You got into a fight?" The girl in front of her yelled. Everyone turned to her again.

"N-no, of c-course I didn't!"

"Who was it?"

"Did you win?"

"Where did it happen?"

"So cool! Wish I was there!"

"Yeah, wish I could fight someone too!"

Sakura opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She couldn't even think. It was a complete moment of pure panic.

"Class! I expect order!" Everyone immediately went silent. "Now, do your work. Silently. Sakura-gakuto, step outside please."

Once again, she felt dread. She also felt like she was going to cry. Never before had she been the delinquent that gets removed from class for a verbal lashing.

She exited, and held her hands behind her back, eying the floor. "Sakura-gakuto, first, I would like to say that I had no choice but to single you out earlier, as other students were noticing. I also know that if I were to give you an exam on the material right now, you would most certainly pass with flying colors."

Sakura dared to look up, and saw concern on the face of her teacher.

"Now, is everything alright? Are you actually significantly injured?"

"No, kyouyu-san, I had just got a scratch and did not want to take a chance of infection."

"So there was no fighting?"

"I had made a silly and completely unnecessary comment under my breath, and everyone carried it way beyond my control."

"Alright, well that's good. Let's head back inside before more rumors start, shall we?" She smiled down at Sakura and open the door for her.

'Wow, you are getting good at the whole truth-but-not-really thing. And it is still sad each time people hear what they want to hear, and not what is really said.'

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

Sakura rushed out the doors at the end of the day, heading one town over to a small bar. She burst through the doors, and ran behind the counter, throwing her stuff down and tying on an apron.

"Sakura, that you?" She heard a voice call from the back.

"Yeah, boss, it's me!"

A man in his forties stepped from the doorway. He had dark blonde hair that was cut fairly short, giving him a neat look, and was just shy of about six feet. His light brown eyes looked her over, then her bag behind the bar, "You at school today?"

"Yes, sir. Sorry I'm a few minutes late."

"Ya know, 's really no problem. The lunch crowd is never too much for m'to handle by myself. S'only around this time I need ya as the waitress so I can work the bar."

Sakura smiled, and bowed her head slightly, "Hai."

He smiled too, before disappearing again. Sakura heard him call again, "And 'sides, not like you haven't done enough, ev'n just bringin' in customers with tha' cute little face a'urs."

Sakura blushed, and the young couple sitting at a close table chuckled at her embarrassment.

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

"Boss! I'll see you tomorrow!" Sakura called over the heads of the regular drunks. He looked to her, then held up his hand, rubbing the outside of his thumb against the tips of his other four fingers. Sakura replied with a nod and raised a thumbs-up over her head so he could see. She had picked up her half of the combined tips before she had slipped from behind the bar. He smiled and waved her out. Boss could handle the place for the rest of the night; almost no one came in for food later than this anyway.

She began walking back towards her home, subtly arranging the wad of cash into some recognizable order. She put the stack into her pocket, then looked up towards the sky, searching for the moon.

Somehow, in her distraction, she managed to walk directly into the back of someone walking in the same direction as her. Sakura began apologizing furiously, picking up the items she caused the woman to drop and brushing them off on her clothes.

She heard familiar laughter, "Still so sweet, but inattentive!"

Sakura actually looked at the woman jokingly scolding her, and her face broke out in happiness. She tackled the woman still on the ground and grabbed her in a hug, yelling excitedly, "Oba-chan!"

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

You may not know:

kanojo : sweetheart

kuso : damn it

ohayou gozaimasu : good morning

tansei : handsome

arigatou : thank you

mizu : miss

koishii : dear

shishio : librarian

baka : idiot

gaki : brat

kodomo : child

gakuto : student

kyouyu : teacher

hai : yes, okay

oba-san : aunt