Answers to my Reviewers:

Buterflypuss: Thanks.

Bribright91: Thanks, that was what I was aiming for.

Noxy the Proxy: Huh, how weird. Well, I haven't read anything like that about Sakura...although I don't really read Sakura fanfics, I actually lean more towards reading either Naru/Hina or Kashi/Iru fictions or Time travel stories. I digress, thank you very much Sage-san.

psych0 f0x: Yeah...Team 7 will definitely be the death of me and as for the scarring well...they've done that already.

Reign Of Sorrow: Oh I know right? But I know what happens since I'm the who writes it. *author cackles*

Rosebunse: *author pouts* Oh I see...but it was a needed chapter since Sakura needed to grow as a character.

AnimeLuver778: Thank-you for understanding but don't worry things do get better. And about Jaakuna's punishment *author laughs madly in glee* He will get what he deserves.

XemnasO01X: Wow, I am just so stunned and touched at your honesty, and I would just like to say thank you. I really like the readers that are honest with me, but I sincerely appreciate your words, truly. I also give your someone (maybe a friend, family member or co-worker?) my full support and my hope that he/she has recovered from his/her experience. But moving on, it was as you said - not all stories are happy ones but then there wouldn't be any good stories to read without some darkness to air into the light. In conclusion though I enjoyed reading your review and I hope, Milord Xemnas, that you continue reviewing my story.

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO! If I did…*the author sighs dramatically* let's just say, it would be VERY different…Enjoy

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." - Albert Einstein

Last Time on Scarred

The thought got her to start crying again, but she was eternally grateful that she had been put on a team that cared for her like she was family. Sakura threw herself at her team-mates, clutching at the both of them as she cried in happiness. After several minutes of awkward comfort from Naruto and Sasuke, Sakura spilled out her abuse at home and like Kakashi-sensei had promised, once she told them everything they told her that they weren't going anywhere and that they'll be sticking by her no matter what...then they went back to discussing revenge. Sakura's smile was blinding as she held her team-mates just that little bit tighter.

Kakashi sat back as his team connected, watching over them for the rest of the day as the bonds of Team 7 grew that much stronger.

It was a few days later that Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke managed to convince Sakura and her mother that it was time that they contacted someone about the abuse in order to get professional help but the only way they managed to convince the two women was to promise that their circumstances were to be kept low-profile and confidential.

They agreed.

Even though that the entire situation had left the boys of Team 7 seething. Since Naruto had been alone almost from birth (with the exception of his ANBU) he had never experienced the warmth of a family, so he had started to see the team as being that absentee family and as a result he had gotten protective of his team, especially of Sakura who he was seeing more and more as a sister as the days passed...even if she went off at the slightest thing. Sasuke felt the same way - his team had become so important to him in such a short period of time that he couldn't see himself without them. Then there was the fact that he also couldn't stand the thought of any family not loving each other after his own had been so brutally killed. Both Naruto and Sasuke had barely suppressed their rage and desire for revenge on Jaakuna, the only thing that had stopped them was that Sakura needed them, not their justified anger. Although the man would get what was coming to him, Naruto and Sasuke promised themselves that.

So, after re-locating Sakura's mother Mebuki to a secure housing complex for battered women for her own safety, both women were then placed in Konoha Hospital in order to repair the damage Jaakuna had inflicted onto the both of them. Sakura only had to stay in the hospital for about a week or two in order to heal the worst of her injuries. Her mother Mebuki however had to stay for at least 6 month and not only for her physical wounds but for the mental ones as well. Both women were encouraged during the healing process to talk about their abuse to someone they trust and after a few rocky starts both Sakura and her mother were on the road to healing from what happened to them.

And during all of this, the Hokage was informed about what happened and after expressing his distaste and outrage about the entirety of the situation he sent out a hand-picked tokubetsu jōnin, to retrieve the man.

Jaakuna Shinku (after being treated for several different snake poisons, severe blood loss and multiple stabbing and slashing wounds) was then examined by Inoichi Yamanaka who found what the disgusting man had actually done to Mebuki Haruno - he abused her verbally, physically, emotionally and sexually. Sakura was lucky enough that she had avoided the sexual aspect of the abuse but Inoichi found out that if Kakashi hadn't intervened when he did, Sakura would have very soon been forced into Jaakuna's bed. When this titbit of information was revealed all of those involved both heaved a big sigh of relief that such a incident was avoided but it added even more fury to the already blazing fires inside them (read: Team 7).

Jaakuna was then jailed and the man was now awaiting his execution. Both Mebuki and Sakura were able to heal just that little bit more and (as agreed) the total incident was kept quiet.

Sakura grew stronger from her experience and with steady encouragement from her team she decided to enter the medical-nin program in Konoha Hospital and she currently loved doing every minute of it. Sakura's decision to go into Iryō Ninjutsu also caused Naruto and Sasuke to expand their skills. Kakashi called in a favour and got Sasuke a Kenjutsu teacher called Hayate Gekkō and now every two/three days the two met for lessons. Naruto on the hand went onto doing Fūinjutsu of all things and after absorbing everything Kakashi taught him like a sponge he went to pick the Professor's brain about sealing. The result of that was that Naruto ended up spending hours after training talking with his Jiji as the paperwork was done about not only seals but other various things like politics, the inner-workings of the village, jutsu theories and other similar subjects, it was also at times that Sasuke and Sakura sat in on these talks adding their own input and questions.

And so, several months passed after it was revealed that Sakura was living in an abusive home but the entire situation just made Team 7's bonds that much tighter and they grew that much closer as each gruelling day passed filled with intense training and mind-numbing D-ranked missions.

It was then on a warm, sunny day that Team 7 could be found walking back towards Hokage tower having just finished their current D-rank for the day - capturing Tora the lost pet cat. Naruto personally hated this particular mission with a passion considering that Tora seemed to be scared shitless of him and the blasted cat ran all over the place as a result (he reasoned that it could sense the Kyūbi since he wasn't well liked by most animals). His team were just lucky that he could mass produce his shadow clones in order to keep track of the bloody cat. Naruto shuddered to think how long it would take them to track down Tora otherwise since it already took them between a one hour and an hour and a half to complete the mission now.

Reaching the tower, Team 7 made their way to the Missions Room and handed over Tora to her owner, the Fire Feudal Lord's wife - Madam Shijimi. Although they kept their faces blank, Team 7 revelled in watching the large woman almost suffocate the cat that they had to track down for an hour.

Naruto did make a comment though, "Now, aren't you just choking with love at the scene right in front of us?"

Sasuke and Sakura smothered their laughter at corny joke as Madam Shijimi went to pay for the retrieval of her cat at the Missions desk.

"Now then, Kakashi's Team 7 next mission is..." Started the Third, listing off missions as he spoke, "Babysitting, grocery shopping at the neighbouring town, helping with digging up the potatoes at..."

"No, no and no Hokage-Jiji, those types of mission just isn't enough for Team 7."

"Idiot!" Iruka couldn't seem to stop himself as somewhat rose from his seat beside the elderly leader, "All three of you are novice ninja which means these types of missions are a way for you to work yourselves up in order to gain experience!"

"Naruto...do I need to explain to you what missions are? Listen, a lot of clients come to this village every day and they request things from babysitting to assassinations. These requests are written down and then divided into A, B, C, or D ranks according upon difficulty, we use a similar system when we separate our shinobi into the different ranks. Missions are then handed out by us to these ninja based on their abilities. So, because Team 7 is considered to be rookies you get assigned the D-ranks since they suit your skill level."

"Excuse me Hokage-sama but we know all of that. Still, we've come to a combined agreement that we want to do a C-ranked mission." Sakura said in a steady voice.

"All of you?" He looked pointedly at Kakashi, who nodded at his leader in response to the unasked question. Hiruzen sat back into his chair as he chewed at his unlit pipe in thought and eyed the genin in front of him, "You three are aware that C-ranks are for teams that have a little more experience? They are usually for the chunins and the older genins."

All three genin nodded, Sasuke spoke this time, "We are aware Hokage-sama but we still wish to carry out a C-rank."

There was silence in the room before Naruto finally spoke up, "Jiji, you know we've completed all of the D-ranks available, we've even re-done half of them a dozen times over. We work as a team and we've completed enough D-ranks to qualify for a C-rank one, we also just want more of a challenge."

The Third looked at each of the genin ninja in front of him as he considered all the pros and cons of allowing the higher ranked mission, but finally he voiced his decision, "Very well, I understand. If you insist, I will allow Team 7 to take on a C-ranked mission."

"But Hokage-sama..." Iruka-sensei said with concern saturating his tone, "They're just rookies and surely it's too soon for them to receive a higher levelled mission?"

Hiruzen turned to worried teacher, "I respect your concern Iruka but as they said, they need a more difficult mission. As it is, Team 7 is already completing five D-ranked missions a day and we do need to leave some missions for the rest of the other ninjas."

Wide smiles and smirks covered the genins faces as the Hokage turned to face them and continued, "You'll be escorting Tazuna the bridge builder back to his home town in the Land of Waves." Gesturing for one of his ninja to bring the man in, the client Tazuna took one look at his supposed guides and groaned.

"What? They're all just brats!" Tazuna was a grey-haired, bespectacled man with a grey beard and dark eyes. He wore a sleeveless v-neck shirt with an obi, pants and a pair of sandals and a white towel hanging from his shoulders. He also had a travel pack strapped to his back and a bottle of sake in his left hand. Their new client took a large swig of his sake before continuing to speak, "Hey is that smallest one there with the idiotic face really a ninja?"

Kakashi prepared himself to take a hold of Naruto since the boy looked like he was going to attack and maul the client, but instead the boy just growled at the client as Naruto managed to hold himself back and muttered, "It's not my fault I'm so short and besides I don't look a idiot, stupid old man doesn't know what he's talking about..."

Tazuna coughed at the muttered words, "Ahem, I'm the bridge building expert Tazuna. Once I have returned to my country, I expect all of you to protect my life with your own while I complete the bridge. We'll leave tomorrow morning."

As Tazuna turned and exited the room, Team 7 looked to the teacher with an unspoken question, "Okay, we'll meet at 7AM at the front gate, so don't be late." Ignoring Sakura's muttered 'hypocrite' he continued, "Make sure you all pack enough for about a month or two for this mission, dismissed."

Standing at the front gate with Naruto and Sasuke, Sakura waited for their teacher and client to turn up. Tapping her foot Sakura soon exclaimed, "Kakashi-sensei promised that he wouldn't be late!"

"Chill Sakura, it's still a couple minutes until 7." Naruto said but as he was speaking he noticed the two men about 10 meters in front of them, "Speak of the devil, there they are. See Sakura, Kakashi-sensei wasn't late."

"Huh." Sakura sighed as she turned to her team-mates, "Fine, I'll give him that."

Shaking his head fondly at Sakura's stubbornness, Naruto and his team-mates watched as Kakashi and Tazuna got closer to their position.

"You three are all ready to go then?" Asked Kakashi as he got close enough, clearly seeing the packs on his genin's backs.

"Hai Kakashi-sensei." Was chimed by the man's genin, all three of them were eager to get on the road.

"Right then, let's move out Team 7."

Following their teacher's instructions they got into a protective formation around the client and Team 7 started their journey.

A couple of days later Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi and Tazuna were taking a 20 minute rest stop before continuing on. The journey to the Land of Waves usually took a shinobi half a day to compete but considering that Team 7 was travelling with a civilian, they had to travel at a civilian's pace which meant a week of travel. As they were resting, Sakura finally brought up a question that had been floating around in her head for the last couple of hours.

"Hey, Tazuna-san..." Sakura turned towards the client as she spoke, "You're from the Land of Waves right?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well aren't there any ninja in that country?"

Kakashi was the one who answered, "We mustn't have covered this in our lessons. But to answer your question Sakura there aren't any ninja in Wave, unlike the several Hidden Villages throughout the Elemental Nations."

Tazuna continued when Kakashi stopped, "But we used to have the Uzushigakure Village nearby a couple decades ago."

Sakura raised an eyebrow, "The Village Hidden in the Whirlpools? What happened to it?"

Tazuna shrugged, "It was abandoned after the Uzumaki clan were wiped out during one of your wars."

"Uzumaki?!" Naruto exclaimed, the boy had turned around so fast that his team were surprised he didn't hurt himself. "The Uzumaki's had a village right near the Land of Waves?!"

"Yup, we were basically next door neighbours kid, why do you care?"

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

Tazuna chocked on the gulp of sake he had just drunken, "You're an Uzumaki?!" At Naruto's nod Tazuna continued, "Are there anymore of you?"

Naruto flinched at the question, "Besides me, we did get wiped out."

"Ah, sorry about that kid but you should know that the Uzumaki were known for their amazing seals."

"Yeah I found that out when Jiji gave me some advanced Fūinjutsu scrolls. All of them mention the Uzumaki clan at some point, they even reference a lot of my clan's seals as well." Naruto said as he shrugged off the apology and then turned to his teacher, "Ne, Kakashi-sensei could we visit Uzushigakure after we complete this mission? Please?"

"Well..." Drawled Kakashi, who didn't even get to finish his sentence before he was hit with his otōuto's debilitating puppy-dog-eyes...he caved, "Alright, will visit only after we're finished the mission Naruto."

Ignoring Naruto's loud celebrating cheers, the team continued on their way.

"By the way Sakura," Asked Kakashi, just remembering that his female student had asked a question before their conversation had gotten side-tracked, "Was there a reason you asked about other ninja?"

Sakura blinked at the question trying to remember if there was a reason she asked, "That's right, I wanted to know if we'll come across any foreign ninja on this mission."

Kakashi reached out to ruffle his student's hair as he eye-smiled and said, "Don't worry Sakura there are no ninja combats on C-ranks. The worse we'll run across will bandits and the like."

"Oh okay then, thanks Kakashi-sensei."

Neither ninja noticed Tazuna's obvious guilt-ridden grimace at the reassurance.

TO BE CONTINUED...

A/N: Chapter 5 of Scarred and the start of the Land of Waves Arc.

Oh, just to let my readers know that Sakura and Sasuke will find out about the Kyūbi at the end of the Wave Arc, which is...*author flips some pages in a notebook* around either chapter 8 or 9.

Now, I know that this particular Arc is done a lot but my take on it is different - Sakura wasn't useless for one! And two...well my readers will have to wait for the next chapter to find that out.

So all that's left for me to say is that I cherished the comments my readers gave me (and I really really did) so thank you to all my reviewers and I also hope that you'll continue to comment on my chapters. Anyway, please either review or PM me if you have any questions, concerns or if you noticed a digression in the above chapter please tell me since I'm the one who proof-reads my work so if I missed something tell me and I'll fix it.

All my love, '95 is out.