Disclaimer: I unfortunately don't own Naruto
Author's quick note: I've added some stuff to the past chapters, thanks to the reviews and conversations via PM I've realized there's a lot missing. Please read them because there is huge development on Hikari story, and also on Sakura's fight with sound nin. I'll keep with the huge summary type chapters in this one too. Soon they'll be in the past. That's where everything really starts.
Lady Tsunade was a pain in the back. Sakura had to beg to her to be taken as her apprentice. The Slug Sannin was a very lazy person when it came to responsibilities. Sakura offered to help her and Shizune, who was a very nice person, with those chores. The thought of more help, and also that Sakura could be very annoying when she really wanted something made her accept her.
"You have to read all these books during this week, and then you have to bring back to life a fish. If you'll manage that, you'll be my apprentice" The Hokage said.
Sakura was a bookworm so that was the easy part, she had everything read in three days. The thing was to revive the fish. By reading she learnt that that wasn't a thing you could do in a week, it took months. So she faced Tsunade Sama.
"I've managed to get the basics of Medical ninjutsu by reading, and I believe I will know how to mold my chakra and control it, but I have to practice, and first I need to see you doing it" Sakura said seriously to her Shishou to be.
Tsunade smirked. "Kid you have some balls, haven't you?, bring me one of those scrolls over there".
Sakura brought one and when they opened it, it had a seal that once activated it revealed a dead fish. Below the fish there was another seal she recognized from the medical books Tsunade gave her.
The Sannin put her hands over the fish and Chakra started to glow green. In a minute the fish was alive. Sakura watched in awe. "Why do you want to be a medic Nin so badly?"
'I feel useless' was her first thought, but she knew that wasn't entirely true. She wanted to be useful, to help the people she loved and fought for her, and she wasn't fond of being treated like a porcelain doll. "Naruto promised to me that he would bring Sasuke-kun back and got badly hurt while trying. He was injured because of me, and I couldn't do anything. When we were ambushed by Orochimaru at the forest and he and Sasuke-kun were hurt, all I could do was to watch over them. I'm always watching him from behind, I want to walk with them shoulder to shoulder." She stated.
Tsunade looked at her, her brows up showing a bit of amusement. "Ok kid, give me your hand" Sakura did it and Tsunade held it with her palm open facing the ceiling. "Close your eyes and focus. Feel your Chakra through your body; be conscious of it flowing in you. Feel it." Sakura had her brows furrowed and was concentrating hard. "Now think of your chakra moving to this hand, going fluidly to your fingers. Then you have to visualize a change of it, it's not a chakra to fight or destroy, it's a chakra to mend, rebuild, it brings life. You got it?" Sakura Nodded slightly, she was doing a great effort. "Now relax and release it in your hand."
Sakura felt an odd shift on her body and then chakra coming out of her hand.
"Open your eyes" The Sanin said.
The pink haired kunoichi did as said and watched in awe the green glowing chakra molded in her hand. She smiled, and felt hot tears of joy falling down her cheeks. She looked up to the woman in front of her who was grinning with some pride.
"Tomorrow, 6 am sharp, training ground 3. Hope you're not like your irresponsible sensei" Tsunade said.
"Th-Thank you" the girl said and couldn't hide her joy.
"Wait until tomorrow, then you'll see if you're thankful or not" answered the Hokage mischievously. Sakura gulped hard.
Next day Sakura was 5:45 at training ground 3. She was so thrilled! Then Tsunade showed up and told her that today they'll spar so she can watch her moves and techniques. Sakura was really poor in taijutsu and didn't know any real jutsu per sé. Her new sensei made a mental note to kill Kakashi later, what a lame misogynist sensei he was!
The Slug Sannin beat the hell out of Sakura. She ended all bruised and full of dirt, but the silly girl was smiling so hard that it looked like she had lost it. Then again, the thought of being worthy of training made Sakura endure whatever the monstrous Hokage wanted to do.
And so it went, the young Kunoichi trained four days a week sparring with her Shishou early in the morning till noon; on the afternoons she went every day to the Hokage's tower to practice with the fish scroll, and at night she read thick books of anatomy, chakra paths, and medic ninjutsu.
Three months later she did it, she brought the fish back to life. Her face was the one a child has in Christmas.
"Don't get confident with one or two successes, you had to keep trying hard." Tsunade said, though she was smiling to her, eyes full of pride.
Sometime Ino showed up and wanted to train. She could learn the basics, but realized that her place was in team Ino-Shika-Chou, thanks to Sakura. For months Sakura had to read all the medic books in the Hokage tower. Her spars with her Shishou were like facing a demon. One day the woman actually threw at her baseballs with a bat, and volley balls, and basketballs.
"You've improve your moves" Tsunade said to her, stopping her fist. It had been a year of training now. Sakura was 14 now, turning to 15 in some months. "You're still skinny though, you need to develop some muscle. Don't worry, it's not that much, you only have to gain muscle mass to handle the chakra enhanced strength"
"You'll teach me that too?" the Kunoichi asked marveled.
"Of course! it's similar to the first time you manipulated healing chakra. But you need muscle so you don't hurt yourself while attacking. Do 30 series of abs, arm and legs training every day for the next month. And you have to do one leap through the border of the village every day in between". The teen almost cried.
Sakura trained hard the following month and her body had adapted fine, she had a slender figure now, not very curvy –sadly for her, still flat chested- but athletic. She started to learn about poisons and antidotes with Shizune since she had already read Tsunade's entire library. She was looking forward to start her Hospital training once she turned 15.
Chakra enhanced strength was actually easy for her. She felt more fluid and graceful because of all of that hard physic training she did the month before and since she had almost perfect chakra control she could mold it very fine. She had to continue to work on her taijutsu though.
When she turned 15 she started to work at the Hospital. Her parents were so proud of her. She had become a beautiful young woman, was revered as the Fifth Hokage's apprentice, and did not cry for her 'Sasuke-Kun' anymore. She had started to work alone, supervised by Shizune. She had saved life and sometimes she had lost them. It was frustrating, it made her feel useless again until Tsunade beat the hell out of her one time to bring her out of her moody self. The loss was a curse to the medic, but she had to be calm that she did everything that could be done.
"You've graduated as a medic Sakura" one day Tsunade said to her at the training ground. "You know almost everything I know now, you only lack of experience. The next step is to train you as a field medic. You must know the rules for the Medic Nin right?"
Sakura repeated like a Primary Child: "Daiikkō: No medic ninja shall ever stop medical treatment until the lives of their party members have come to an end. Dainikō: No medic ninja shall ever stand on the front lines. And Daisankō: No medic ninja shall ever die until they are the last of their platoon."
"Very good as always, but there is a fourth rule." Sakura looked at her with curiosity. "Daiyonkō: Only those medic ninja who have mastered the Strength of a Hundred Technique of the ninja art Creation Rebirth are permitted to discard the above-mentioned laws." The Hokage stated and the shouted "Ninpō Sōzō Saisei no Byakugō no Jutsu".
The rhombus on the Slug Sannin's Forehead turned darker and transformed itself to lines that covered all of Tsunade's body.
"Now, stab me with your kunai" she ordered.
"WHAT!?" Sakura shouted terrified
"Do as I told you, don't you trust your Teacher?" Tsunade talked back.
Sakura charged kunai in hand, to her Shishou stabbing her in the stomach. Then the wound started to produce some smoke, and Tsunade withdrew the kunai so it could mend alone. The pink haired kunoichi couldn't believe her eyes.
"This is the only way a medic can be at the front lines, it makes you almost immortal." The Hokage taught her student.
"How does it work?" Sakura enquired.
"The process accelerates the cell division, so it kind of quickens the healing. But you have to know that this is known as a Kinjutsu, because it takes toll on the user's life" Tsunade explained.
"Why's that?" Sakura was full of questions today.
"The cells in your body can only divide a limited amount of times during your life, so it happens to shorten your life span" Sakura looked worried "Hey change that face Kid, it's not so harmful if you use it wisely. Are you interested in learning this? You'll be the first one to use my technique if you succeed." Tsunade tempted her
Sakura thought of Naruto and Sasuke and imagined herself fighting side by side with them without the worries of being a nuisance. "YES, I will learn this technique" she claimed seriously.
Pleased, the Slug Sanin continued "First you need to accumulate chakra on another part of your body, but separated to your chakra path. It's like you have a small box in it, where you storage chakra for other purposes. You have to place the seal in your mind and gather it all while still training. The first days it will drain you. I'll show you how to do it"
Months went by, and Sakura was storing chakra on her forehead, training taijutsu with her Shishou, treating patients in the clinic and mastering in poisons detection/extraction and realizing antidotes. She had done the Chuunin exam on Suna months ago and had in papers surpassed her ex-teammates.
Naruto finally came back to Konoha, all grown up physically but not in mind. She went to greet him happily, he opened his loud mouth and she had to hit him for being stupid. "Owwww you've become terribly strong Sak'ra Chan Dattebayo! I've missed you"
"Missed you too Naruto!" she giggled. Oh how she had missed him. He was taller than her now, outfit changed black pants and a black and orange jacket. His hitai ate had changed too. He was a 15 years old shiny idiot and pure hearted boy. Her idiot brother.
"Don't bother with this Baka" a female voice said. Hikari-chan was standing next to them smiling brightly. She had grown up too. She still was the same height but her body was more woman like. She was 19 now, her black hair was longer, and was using a kind of kimono-ninja suit like Tsunade-Sama but without showing her breast. Sakura had changed her clothing too, she now wore a sleeveless shirt with a zipper to the side, black shorts, an "over-shorts" light skirt with openings to the sides, and large ninja boots.
"Hikari Chan!" Sakura shouted while running to hug her friend.
"You've grown up a lot kid!" Hikari laughed watching Sakura pout because of the moniker. "You seem a lot stronger. You've blossomed Sakura Chan! Cant' wait to spar with you to see your achievements!"
"Me too, I can feel you both got incredibly strong. We'll spar soon, nee?" She asked "And Naruto I have something to tell you" she got serious.
"What is it? Are you going to hit me again?" the blonde asked with a bit of dread.
"I want to free you from your promise" The kunoichi stated seriously
"Wh-what promise?" the blonde didn't understand what she was talking about.
"I don't want you to go after Sasuke-kun anymore. It's obvious that he doesn't want to be with us. Please Naruto, I want you to be safe. You're one of my most precious people, you're my brother." She ended the phrase with tears in her eyes.
"Sakura-chan" he blushed, it didn't matter he had just been 'friendzoned', she told him she loved him as a brother, as family. That felt incredible right. "Thank you for your words, you know I love you too, I'll always protect you… even though you don't need it " he added looking at her pouting "But although you freed me from that promise, I'll still go after the Teme because he's my friend too and he's lonely. I believe that everybody that has lost their path can be redeemed. They only need someone to believe in them, to talk to them. It is a hard path to peace, but that's my Nindo." He smiled brightly.
'Nindo' Sakura thought. She had been struggling to find it years after her talk with Hikari. She thought she had found it when she started her medical training but something was missing. She wanted to help others, like Naruto said, but through her medic jutsu. To save lives, to end suffering. And she had also mastered the chakra enhanced strength because she wanted to walk side by side with her team. Hearing Naruto and looking at him suddenly make it clear like water, peace was her Nindo too. The truth was that she wanted to protect Naruto and his dream of peace. He'll be Hokage and he'll need backup to do that.
Naruto turned bright red when he felt Sakura hugging him. "Then I'll be there to be your backup. You're not alone brother." She said as she clinged to him tightly.
"Sakura-chan…" he said and then whispered "Thank you". 'Thank you' again those words. But these were different. Naruto was accepting her as an equal, and as family.
Hikari had watched everything with a smile on her face. She had moved a little to give them space and suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. It was about time that he showed up, she had felt him in the trees.
"Yo!" Kakashi said to them grinning behind his mask. "How are my favorite students doing?" he asked as asking about the weather.
"SASUKE/SASUKE-KUN IS NOT HERE!" both Naruto and Sakura shouted in unison.
"Oh my, is good to see your lungs work properly" the white haired said while shaking his pinkie in his ear.
"Kakashi, none of us is your favorite student and you know it. You're such a lame sensei" Hikari said to him with a plain face that made Kakashi sweat drop.
"Well, it's true I wanted to help Sasuke, but I still loved you" Kakashi said melodramatically raising a hand to his forehead while still clinging Icha-Icha paradise on his other hand. "I want to test how much you've improve. Let's do the bell challenge again!" he cheerfully said to the remain team 7 members.
"Whatever!" Naruto and Sakura said in unison again. Boy, they were tuned!
"I shall pass on this, I'm going to meet with Tsunade-sama. See ya!" Hikari flickered.
Kakashi did his best, and did not underestimate his former students. They were incredibly strong and had grown up like shinobi a lot. Dread came to his face when he saw Sakura punching a huge crater in the floor. He later gave her a moniker "The mother nature force blossom fist", but it was too long and Sakura laughed at it. The fight was tied, and then they had this great idea of shouting him spoilers of Jiraiya book, the one he had not finished yet. That took him off-guard and they beat him together. He was so proud, that he had invited to eat ramen and actually paid.
Some days later Naruto, Hikari and Sakura had their spar. Their improvement was notorious, Sakura thought. Naruto had master the Rasengan, and could do thousands of shadow clones without sweating. Hikari's speed had increased, and with her using her sharingan it was almost impossible to hit her. She had to think a strategy, she had learnt a lot from Shikamaru while she hung out with Ino-Shika-Chou. She charged to both at her full speed, with chakra enhanced fists. When they tried to hit her she used the Substitution Jutsu and she replaced herself with a block of wood. It was a genin e-rank technique but it actually worked. Naruto and Hikari were fooled for a second and she then appeared behind them and kicked them with charka enhanced kicks. They landed a few meters far from her, and then Sakura hit the ground beneath them with a loud 'SHANNAAAAROOOO' leaving a huge crater. The cousins managed to jump before it was too late, but they were a bit sore because of the kicks.
"Whoa! You surprised me, I wasn't expecting the replacement technique and it passed through my sharingan hahaha I have to pay more attention" Hikari laughed
"You both weren't fighting with all your strength, so I gave you a lesson" Sakura stated, and then the three burst into laughter.
Some days later they were noticed that Gaara, the Kazekage and Jinchuriki of the Ichibi, was kidnapped by Akatsuki, so Kakashi, Sakura and Naruto went on a mission to retrieve him. When they arrived to Suna, Lady Chiyo was added to their team. Kankuro, Gaara's brother, was poisoned and Sakura used her expertise to extract all of it and then healed him and prepared an antidote. Chiyo was really impressed. She was an elder of the village a poison expert and also the head medic there. They found Gaara and they had to split in two teams: Naruto and Kakashi went to get Deidara, whom had left with the young Kazekage, and Chiyo stayed with Sakura to fight Sasori.
The Battle was epic. It turned out that Chiyo was Sasori's grandmother and she knew his fighting style and puppets very well. Sakura offered herself to be led by Chiyo's chakra strings as a live puppet, this way she could help her dodge better. Sakura's enhanced strength cracked Sasori's favorite puppet and armor and he had to fight on his real shape, another puppet with his real heart in a recipient in the middle of his chest. It was during this battle when Sakura learnt that he had some intel in Orochimaru's side.
The medic duo could finally defeat him, and Sakura crushed his heart to end his suffering. When they found Naruto and Kakashi, Gaara was dead. Chiyo Baa-sama used a forbidden kinjutsu and gave her life for the Kazekage's one. This left Sakura pretty shocked.
Team Seven was eventually reformed, this time with another young shinobi named Sai taking Sasuke's place. Sai was a strange guy, he didn't know about emotions, he was harsh and put monikers to people: Naruto was Dickless, Sakura was Ugly and it continued. Sakura sent him flying away with a punch every time he called her ugly. He was from Root, an Anbu division that was led by Danzo Shimura one of the elders of the Village.
The new team Seven, now lead by Yamato Taicho, had the mission to get together with Sasori source in Orochimaru's lines. The mission went worse than expected. The source was none other than Kabuto, and it turned out that Sai had another mission assigned by Root which was to kill Sasuke, so Naruto, Sakura and him tried to stop him. When Sai finally met the former team 7 member, in spite of trying to kill him, he tried to convince him to go back to Konoha for Naruto's sake. Fortunately, the trio could get to Sai and that's when the first hurtful meeting happened.
"Sakura" a deep male voice said. It was her Sasuke-kun, now a young fifteen year old teen with a very dark aura.
"Sasuke-kun" she breathed. Then Naruto appeared and Sasuke attacked him. Sai saved Naruto, but they were hurt by Sasuke's chidori explosion. Sakura found her resolve, she charged to him with her Chakra enhanced fist, but Yamato step between them and got stabbed by the Uchiha. Using his wood release he tried to trap Sasuke but he escaped. Finally Orochimaru appeared and took Sasuke away.
The pain, hurt and anguish came again and she felt useless as ever. Sasuke was gone, he was another person. What had happened to the boy she loved?
Naruto then started to train with Yamato and Kakashi, and Sakura used to do some soldier pills for him to eat. Later they both were sent with Yamato and Sai to an escort mission that of course went worse than expected. Luckily they ended working together with the Six tails Jinchuriki and save the day.
Back in Konoha, Sakura was summoned to the Hokage tower with Shizune and Hikari, who was working now as a second assistant to the Godaime. They were working on improvements for the Hospital, and the Godaime asked Hikari to go and bring some Sake from the Akimichi shop.
"You had three bottles stored here, did you drink them all?" The Takishima asked with one raised eyebrow.
"Do not question your Hokage and GO!" Tsunade dismissed her and Hikari left sweat dropping.
When Sakura, Tsunade and Shizune were alone, Sai suddenly appeared with two ancient toads. They gave them the most terrible news, Jiraiya was dead. He had left the Village a month after he arrived with his kohai to investigate a lead on the Akatsuki Leader. Sakura knew Tsunade was utterly shocked but she had put her Hokage Poker face. She immediately contacted Kakashi and told him to bring Naruto. As the latter entered the Hokage's office, he felt the mood was odd. And then the Toad said the news.
"WHAT?!" Naruto shouted, then a loud crack sounded behind them and the sweet smell of Sake filled the room. Sakura could see Hikari absolutely confused and hurt with the news, and then she disappeared. Tsunade ordered Kakashi to follow her. Naruto stayed and argued with Tsunade badly, he was extremely miserable. He left saying hurtful words to the Godaime. Sakura followed him and tried to comfort him. She beat some sense into him, telling him that Tsunade was feeling the same as him, and that Jiraiya-sama wouldn't want to see him like this. Jiraiya was a grown up man that knew the risks of his mission.
Shortly after this, Kakashi Sensei appeared with an unconscious Hikari. She was hospitalized and Sakura checked on her personally. Kakashi had to knock her out because the Takishima had awoken her Mangekyo Sharingan and unleashed some foreign chakra. Sakura had learnt that her friend had Chakra sealed in her while doing her medic checkup.
"I'm truly sorry about Master Jiraiya" Sakura said to her friend once she woke up. Hikari couldn't answer, she was depressed and looked kind of lost in thoughts. "I need to see your eyes to check on your dojutsu." She said as she moved her hands to her temples. "Please activate your sharingan" Hikari nodded absentmindly and did what she was told. The Medic could see that chakra was flowing fine. "Now please try to turn it to the Mangekyo". The elder kunoichi froze as her pupil changed form and tears started to flow from her eyes. Sakura felt bad for her friend too. Jiraiya was very loved by her two best friends, and she didn't know what to do to help them. She checked the dojutsu and was amazed by how fluently and strong the chakra flowed, that could be the huge difference that made her clan killed by the Uchiha. She had studied the Sharingan in order to help Sasuke-Kun and remembered that the users tend to go blind.
"Everything seems all right Hikari Chan. Your eyes are fine and your sealed chakra too." She saw Hikari shift at the mention of the chakra. "Do you want to talk to me about it?"
Hikari looked at her "It's better for you not to know everything yet. But I'll tell you this: I was born with a special chakra. It's kind of dangerous, and if other nations knew about it they would had tried to kidnap me when I was little. I tend to break the seal whenever I get very upset, it's like Naruto with the fox. That's why Kakashi knocked me out, I wasn't controlling myself." She finished with a huge sigh. "I can't believe Ero-Sennin couldn't make it." She started to cry again. Sakura hugged her until she calmed down.
Some days later Naruto decoded a message that Jiraiya had left him, and wanted to go and train Senjutsu to the Toad dimension. Once his cousin was better, Tsunade Sama ordered that the two of them leave the village to train. Sakura was left alone again.
One day the pink haired kunoichi was with Shikamaru trying to find out more information about Pain when they heard a loud explosion in the Village. She confronted one of Pain's Paths and then rushed to the Hospital to help the injured. The world seemed to stop when everything was destroyed by the Akatsuki's leader technique. She managed to survive but could see and feel that everything was destroyed and almost everybody was dead. 'Useless' she muted to herself, anguish consumed her and she started to cry loudly, shouting and praying for Naruto to come. Suddenly the blonde appeared in the battle field and fought Pain. Everybody could see his fight, Hinata's confession, and then they listened to his and Nagato's conversation, were the latter decide to revive everybody who was dead in Konoha.
With the battle over, Sakura ran to Naruto and hit him for being so reckless but then hugged and thanked him too. He told her that Hikari couldn't make it because she was still unstable and it would have worsened the things.
Tsunade-sama was left badly injured because of the battle and even though Sakura and Shizune healed her she was left in a coma, hence the village was momentarily leaderless. Things got worse and Danzo was appointed Hokage and put a prize in Sasuke's head. Konoha's 11 talked about Sasuke-kun's actions and she found the saddest resolve ever: the Uchiha had to die. When the group left to find Sasuke, she drugged them and left by herself to be the one that ended everything. She felt responsible, even though she didn't do anything. Maybe that was it, she DIDN'T do anything, she couldn't. And she wanted to prove herself, but once again Sasuke was stronger and almost killed her with a chidori. Naruto and Kakashi appeared to save the day, and Tobi, the masked Akatsuki, appeared and left with the Uchiha. Sasuke seemed irrational, he was a complete different person, and it looked that he was going blind. He had killed Itachi but he hadn't replaced his eyes.
She felt something break inside of her. It was her heart.
*** Author's note***
I had to cut this chapter because it was too long. Here's part one, hope you like it. I feel it's necessary to explain Sakura's develop, it didn't feel right in the anime.