Sakura had always thought that she was prepared enough to start her life as a ninja. After all she knew all she needed to know to theoretically be the perfect ninja. They had called her a paper ninja and she had been proud to actually be acknowledged for somethings. But that feeling hadn't lasted long, as she slowly started to understand that being a paper ninja wasn't exactly that much of a success.

In fact, she quickly had to acknowledge that it wouldn't take long before she was completely put aside by the people that were supposed to be her teammate. Not that she was putting the fault on them. It's true, at the start of team 7, the only think of importance to her was that she had beat Ino and had been put in the same team as Sasuke. But as time passed, she had been confronted to the harsh reality.

She was weak and that fact was creating a gap between herself and the rest of the team. A gap she had no idea how to surpass or close. Initially, she had shrugged it off since she didn't think she cared that much about it. Her sole purpose for being a ninja in the first place had been to stay with Ino at first and then to stay close to Sasuke. Or at least, that's what she thought the reason was.

But as time with her team passed, she had been forced to acknowledge the fact that maybe, those weren't the only reason she had choose to pursuit a ninja career. Maybe, just maybe, being bullied for a good part of her childhood had started a fire in her. And maybe, she had been wrong about Inner reason to exist in her head. She had always thought it was an externalisation of her emotion for Sasuke because she couldn't show her real emotion in front of him. But perhaps, Inner was actually a stronger version of herself just waiting to come out and show everyone she wasn't useless. Perhaps Inner was the person she would have been had she not been bullied or had Ino never saved her from those same bullies.

But now, after months of thinking and imagining what it could have been, she had finally decided to take action. It wasn't only one think that had lead her to that decision. More like a construction based on a lot of different event that had left her thinking and overthinking all she had lived thus far.

The first piece to that puzzle had actually been given by Sasuke. She could still remember, the day they had been assigned into team. She had said something really hurtful in front of him about Naruto and the fact he had no parents to keep him in place. Sasuke had looked at her with such hatred in his eyes that she had immediately shut up even slightly quivering in fear. He had told her that she knew nothing and that she should just shut up.

After he was gone, she had been left alone with her own thought and she remembered telling herself that she had been stupid and that she didn't even wanted to say something so hurtful about Naruto. She had been left with a bad sensation in her heart having totally forgot why she had even thought about those things in the first place. But somehow, after sometime, that sensation had totally disappeared like it had never existed and she had been back to her usual self. Not that she had noted it anyway.

The next time a similar sensation had come out was the next day after their poor attempt at taking the bell from Kakashi sensei. When the alarm had finally settled signalling the end of the test and thus their failure, she had felt a felling of disappointment in herself wash over her thought it had disappeared as fast as the last one only leaving behind some kind of numbness.

Following that day, it had happened again and again and again. And as much as it was very hard to discern because of the numbness she felt right after every time it happened, Sakura was slowly starting to catch on it. There was something wrong with her and she didn't know how to express it so she pushed it away not even bothering to ask Kakashi sensei help. After all, during the past months he had done nothing to help her come out of her state of uselessness. No training, no pushing for her to do better. And the only time he had complimented her for her chakra control it had been to taunt the boy so they would train more.

She wasn't angry with him, after all she could understand why he would concentrate more on the two student that showed some actual potential. But she didn't know how much more she could keep that feeling of understanding from transforming into one of frustration at being so blatantly ignored.

All of that had lead her were she was today, standing in between the sound shinobi trio and her two incapacitated teammate. She had been beaten to a pulp trying to protect her teammate but failing once again. Even Lee, who had admirably come to her rescue, had ended up being overwhelmed by the number of opponent.

And now here she was, crumbled on the floor with the sound girl hand tightly wrapped around her hair and one of her teammate going straight to were she had hide Sasuke and Naruto. She didn't knew what to do anymore, they were way stronger than her and even if she could have maybe been able to trick one of them, she had no chance against the three of them. She looked over to were her teammate were passed out and kept crying while begging them in her head to forgive her for not being able to protect them even thought they had always put their life on the line to protect her.

For a moment she had felt a surge of determination pass through her, telling herself that she at least had to try but like every time her emotion became too strong, it had quickly disappeared replaced by that familiar feeling of numbness. She didn't knew why it happened, why every time she was ready to risk it something stopped her but she clearly didn't like it. She wanted to try, she wanted to put effort into protecting her teammate. She cared for them, a lot, and she hated the fact that those feeling didn't seems to be enough for her to take action.

'Why? Why is it so hard for me to feel the need to try and risk my life? Why can't I be like them for once and not think about the consequence? Why?'

'You're scared, that's why. You're fear make you feel the need to not feel hard emotion that could lead to you acting reckless.'

'What? What do you mean by that Inner? What have you done?'

'Through the year, you learned that not feeling was easier. When those kids used to bully you, you wished to escape so much that, for lack of being able to escape physically, you found a way to escape them mentally. That's how I was born and that's also the reason you can't feel feeling that could lead you into dangerous situation. Like any feeling that could make your adrenaline rise. I am merely there to numb those feeling to make sure you don't die.'

'But…But this is not…This is not sane…It's even more dangerous to not be able to fight. Why did you never told me this?'

' You never asked and up until now there had always been someone to protect us. So there was no need for feeling like determination or hard work. So you've been kept away from those feeling as much as possible. Now, thought, you need them. If you don't use them we'll die.'

'What…What can I do?'

'You have to let go of your fear. Right now, that unconscious feeling of your fear of death is preventing you from feeling anything else but numbness. You need to relax and let me take over.

'Wait…What do you mean by letting you take over?'

'As far as I know, even if we are the same person, you are the one whose holding onto your fear to die. You're still not ready to completely let go of it which means that even if you did decide to take action, that would just result in the same numbness you usually feel. Thought, that's not the only things that's keeping you from letting go. There is some kind of strange seal on the part of your brain where memories are stocked. And this feeling of fear is coming mostly from there. If you let me take over, I can try to force the seal open.'

'A seal? Wait, if I am the fear… What…are you?'

'You must know that every next level in your life need an ameliorate level of one self. Right now, your starting the process of passing from one level to another. I am merely the representation of a different you. An ameliorated one that will no longer fear death.'

'…If I let you take over, will I disappear?'

'You are me and I am you. Even if I do take over, you'll always be a part of this body the only difference is that I will be the outer part while you'll be the inner part. It's what it should have been from the start? You'll be the inner part of us. You'll be back to a nagging feeling in the back of your head. But you'll still be present to remind yourself that you are in no mean immortal and that death is still something you need to be aware of even thought it doesn't have to scare you anymore. Everything will go back to how it should have been.'

'…I've never been Outer, haven't I?'

'…'

' Very well, then. For the sake of my teammate I will go back to were I come from. It's time to come back to life…Sakura'

Letting go of all her fear was the strangest feeling she had ever felt. It was the same think as when one let go of the reins on their consciousness and slowly sink into darkness. she felt a part of her slowly disappearing and being replaced by another, way stronger than the precedent. And then, suddenly, it all made sense. The reason why her feeling always ended up becoming numb and the reason why she was so scared.

Flash of her childhood passed right behind hers eye one after the other. she felt a strong urge of feeling flow into her and every bit of feeling for the past years finally got ride of that numbness. Now, she could easily place all the different emotion on her memories. Her sadness at being bullied, her determination at becoming a ninja to prove them she was someone, her need to become stronger and protect what was important to her. All those emotion flooded into her overwhelming all her sense. And for a moment, she wasn't in that forest anymore. She was in total darkness and before her stood a black and white version of herself. She looked at her right in the eyes and smiled tacking her hand in hers.

'Now, it's time to come back and fight, Sakura. Remember those feelings and use their strength to go beyond. You are stronger than what you think, you only needed the right motivation. And now you have it. I'll try to take of the seal on your brain so just concentrate on saving your friends.'

Before her passed a bunch of memories of team 7, Ino, her family and all the other people she cared about. But somehow, there was a sort of block in her mind. Something was keeping a part of her memories from coming out.

'Always remember Sakura, those are the roots of your strength. You have to protect them, this is your ninja way!'

Slowly opening her eyes, she looked at the situation around her and decide to stop thinking about her blocked memories and concentrate on the present. She took a kunai in her hand and turning slightly to the girl holding her hair, she smiled and put her kunai behind her head.

'Now is the time to come back, Sakura. This time, we will not escape again because death doesn't scare us anymore. We will protect them!'

With that thought in mind, she cut her hair, successfully getting free from the girl iron grip and quickly moving at a safe distance away from her. Smiling a bit, she made some hand sign and the girl eyes went glassy before she fell to her knees screaming. One down, two to go.

Casting a genjutsu had never been so easy, she knew that she had been labelled as a genjutsu type but she had never really took it into consideration. The only time she had been show a genjutsu had been during the bell test when Kakashi sensei had put her into the Hell viewing genjutsu.

She didn't remembered seeing the hand sign he had used to cast it but somehow, they were in her head like if she had know them all her life. Not caring too much about how she knew those hand sign for now, she assessed the situation once again. Lee was still down but seemed awake and seemed to be slightly shocked at her action. The other two sound genin were in opposite directions, Zaku was not far away from her teammate while Dosu was closer to Lee.

She decided to first make sure her teammate wouldn't get hurt and turned in their direction. She saw the sound genin was about to grab Sasuke before he heard his teammate screaming and turned his head in her direction. Deciding to uses the moment of surprise to her advantage, she quickly came up with a plan . She remembered how the boy could blast some sort of air shock from his palm and decided to not attack him head-on.

Instead, it would be wiser to hide herself and go for a surprise attack while also distracting him. Deciding that it was indeed the best course of action, she quickly created a clone and both of them started running in his direction. Using her clone as a distraction and effectively hiding slightly behind it, she made yet again some hand seal that caused a simply genjutsu to get casted over herself. It wasn't anything fancy, it only made it seems like she was still running in his direction. Which she was clearly not doing anymore. The moment her genjutsu had been casted, she had started running behind him and went to hide in a tree.

Now, she knew that she wasn't fast at all, but she needed to put her plan into execution as fast as possible. Because, even if Zaku didn't seems to have discovered her trick yet, Dosu had and he was quickly making his way to his teammate to dispel the genjutsu. Her muscle, thought were nowhere strong enough to give her the speed and the strength she needed for the next part of her plan. But, she wasn't a paper ninja for nothing, she loved to read and one of the book she had come across had been quite interesting.

Basically, it explained how one can uses his chakra to enhance his muscle and thus enhance his speed or strength. And that was exactly what she needed right now. Thought she wasn't completely stupid and she knew that it was something quite hard to do but, she did have the best chakra control out of the three of them maybe even better than Kakashi sensei.

So, deciding it would be enough for now, she quickly pumped some chakra in her leg and in her arm preparing herself for the impact. She launched herself from the tree at a speed way superior than was she was used to and it made her vision a little blurry. This made her a little confused and instead of punching the sound genin in the face, she punched him on the shoulder.

She heard a sickening crack coming from both the genin shoulder and her hand and hissed in pain before landing in a crouched position on the ground. She curled her hand in her other one and gritted her teeth from the pain. But the sight of the genin in front of her flying at least five meter before stopping made her grin and forget the pain in her hand for a little bit.

She was proud, proud that even if with a little twist, her plan had actually worked. The sound genin quickly put his other and on his shoulder and started screaming from the pain. That only made her grin more. But that feeling slowly got replaced by dread when she remembered the other genin that was running in their direction.

She turned her head in his direction and saw he had stopped running and was looking at her slightly shocked. But his expression quickly turned from shocked to annoyed and then angry. He started walking in her direction again and put his hand in her direction ready to blast her with a shock wave.

Her eyes widened a little and she scolded herself in her head for forgetting about the other genin in the heat of action. Quickly she tried to get up and get away as far as possible but when her leg didn't respond to her, she finally felt the effect her little attack had on her body. Not only had she probably fractured all the bones in her hand, she had actually exhausted herself and didn't even seems to remark that her chakra reserve were dangerously low.

The fear started creeping into her again as the adrenaline went away and the pain in her hand and the rest of her body seemed to come back ten time stronger. She was doomed, she should have know that she wouldn't be able to fight off the three of them. But somehow through the fear and the pain, she couldn't seems to find it in herself to regret taking action and protecting her teammate. No, she was proud of what she had done and she would not regret it. She had protected the one important to her and that was the most important.

So she held her head high and looked the sound genin right in the eyes, if she couldn't escape death this time, at least she would look directly in it's eyes. The genin prepared himself to attack but the moment he was about to do so, Sakura saw his eyes widening with panic.

"I-I can't move…"

"Indeed, and you won't be able to for now."

She looked in the direction the second voice came from and saw Shikamaru using his Shadow technique to immobilize Dosu. Behind him stood Ino and Chouji. The moment Dosu was incapacitated by Shikamaru, Ino came running to her.

"What are you doing Forehead, get up now!"

She looked at Ino and somewhere in her heart a sting of pain stuck. She was so stupid, why did she even stopped being friend with her. She loves Sasuke, but somehow, deep down, it doesn't feel right to shatter such a good friendship over a boy. Plus, Ino is the one that saved her from her past bully. And, thought the damage was already done by then, what with her locking herself in her own mindscape for fear of suffering, she was extremely grateful to the blonde girl for making her childhood that much more bearable.

A feeling of love, gratitude and determination to protect the girl before her invaded Sakura heart. And when those feelings stayed strong in her heart and didn't simply turn to numbness like every other time, Sakura felt so happy that she started crying.

"What!?... Why are you crying, Forehead?... Now is not the time to be a cry baby… get up…"

She laughed a little at her word and then smiled at her before trying to get up again. Unfortunately, her muscles were so sore because of the chakra she had infused in her leg to move faster that she fell back on the ground.

"Sorry, Ino pig…It seems I can't get up… hehehe… my muscle are kinda sore…"

Before the blond girl could talk, both heard a grunt coming from Shikamaru direction and they turned their head to look at him.

"Troublesome woman…move from here, I won't be able to keep him immobile for much longer…"

Ino quickly turned back to me and put my right arm on her shoulder.

"Come on Forehead, I'll help you stand."

Sakura pushed as much as she could on her legs and slowly got up with Ino help. Both girl started moving away from Dosu. Once they were by Sasuke and Naruto side, Ino let her seat down on the ground again. She then started walking to Dosu with the intention of knocking him out.

Unfortunately, by the time they both got there and Ino was nearly near Dosu, Zaku had got up from his pained state and was keeping his shoulder in his other hand. A state of rage could be seen on his face and he started running in her direction.

She heard Ino scream but she couldn't move, her legs were too strained and whatever strength she had left, she had used it to walk there with Ino help. Panic started to set in, not for herself because she had already decided to stop fearing death, but for her two comrade beside her. If Zaku wanted, he could attack the three of them with only one move and she wouldn't be able to dodge or take her comrade away from the blow.

Deciding that if she had to she would protect both of them with her own body, she dragged herself to their side and covered their body with her own as much as she could. The pain in her body caused her to start crying and she saw her tears falling on her comrade face. She closed her eyes to stop the tears but just when she was about to reopen them, she felt the world around her move and suddenly she felt herself being crushed on someone bust. A sudden hot feeling made her turn her head and she saw a fire ball jutsu being shot on Zaku. Her eyes widened and she quickly looked at the person that was crushing her in a sort of hug.

"S-Sasuke…Kun…"

His eyes darted on hers and they were blood red and full of hatred. For a moment she was taken aback by their intensity but then, when he saw her, his eyes became calmer and gentler. He looked at her for a moment during which she couldn't seems to be able to tears her eyes from his. But then, when he turned back his attention to the enemy, she finally noted the black mark spreading on his body and face and she started panicking again.

They knew nothing about the thinks Orochimaru had done to Sasuke, so she didn't know what those mark were. But somehow, in the back of her mind, she felt like they were bad, really, really bad. And she had to stop them from spreading more than they already were. Sasuke had already let go of her and was actually getting up, a strange chakra moving around him. She needed to stop him now because if he were to get far from her she wouldn't be able to stand up and go to him.

So in a desperate attempt to reach him, she forced her legs to work again for two step before starting to fall again. But before she could hit the ground, Sasuke reached for her and she was in his arm again. She quickly grabbed his arm feeling all her strength leave her. Sasuke looked at her a little worried and they both fell down to the ground.

"Sakura, what are you doing?!"

She tried talking but her throat was so sore it actually hurt her to even breath. But she needed to tell him, she needed to warn him that the chakra he was using was bad and that he had to stop. She didn't know why or from where it came but she had this strong feeling that something bad would happen if she didn't stop him.

"…B-B…a…d…don't…u…se…it…"

While talking, she put her hand on his neck where Orochimaru seal was and she squeezed a little to prove her point. Sasuke looked at her a little shocked but he didn't seem to want to acknowledge what she was saying. His eyes became colder and darker before he spoke again.

"I need it, Sakura. I don't know what it is or if it's bad, but it make me stronger."

She felt her tears come back while she moved her head from one side to the other. No, he didn't need it. He had to listen to her. She felt her heart quicken it's pace, like she was going to have a panic attack. She didn't knew why she was reacting so bad to the situation, even thought she had no idea what that seal was. But she had this feeling that told her to stop him at any cost.

"P…le..ase… S-Sasuke…"

He put her on the ground and moved her hand that was still on his neck away. Before getting up, he looked at her in the eyes.

"I'm sorry, Sakura."

And then, suddenly, a torrent of memories entered her mind. She saw the chunin exam, but the scene was so different. She saw Sasuke with the mark spreading over his body while he broke Zaku arm. And she saw herself, seated on the side, weak and desperate to stop him. She saw how that same girl got up and hugged Sasuke from behind trying to stop him. But the memories didn't stop there, no, she saw memories after memories of her entire life.

And then, she saw the last one, a memory of Sasuke and Naruto both older, maybe around 17 years old, launching at one another with powerful attack. Then, the image blurred and suddenly, she was in the middle of the two with Sasuke hand in her chest and Naruto hand in her shoulder. She felt an extreme pain that made her vision go blank and when she could finally see again, she noted that time seemed to have stopped as Sasuke was still crouched beside her ready to get up.

This time, she knew. She knew why she had to stop him and she also knew how to. She didn't knew what just happened. She just saw all her life pass before her eyes but she couldn't understand any of it. For her it was like the memories of a different person. But what she knew, was that she had to change it. She would not relive the exact same think as she had in the memories.

She quickly got up on a seated position, and before Sasuke could get up entirely, she took his hand in hers. The feeling she felt in her hand was the strangest ever. It didn't hurt but it was uncomfortable. She could feel more than see the chakra surrounding Sasuke going from his body to hers and the mark on his face and arm slowly retracting.

It was working, she was absorbing his chakra. But then, as she was about to think that everything was going to be okay, she started feeling hot. The chakra she was absorbing was too much, her chakra reserve where way too little to keep all of it inside her body. She needed to do something about it or she would die.

'Use the byakugou seal!'

'What? What's that Inner?'

'I don't have time to explain it to you right now. It's something that was in the memories you just received. I was finally able to break the seal on your brain. Just do what I tell you to do. You need to make a secondary path for the execs of chakra and put it in the seal.'

'But, I don't have a seal.'

'I don't know how it's possible, but you seems to have it already, so just search for it and pour all the execs of chakra in there. Now, Outer or you'll die.'

She didn't knew what Inner was talking about but she could feel the heat of her body become worse with time. So she concentrated on the chakra that was entering her body and on her chakra core. After some seconds, she could finally find what Inner was talking about. It was a sort of enormous reserves for chakra. She immediately started putting the chakra there and slowly but surely her body temperature went back to normal.

Looking back at Sasuke, she saw that the mark had completely disappeared from his body so she let go of his hand. She felt a lot better now that her chakra reserve were full again. So she put some chakra in her muscle to ease the pain and tried to stand up again. She had to uses her arm but in the end, she got back up on her legs.

Looking around her, she saw a lot of shocked face and suddenly she understood she fucked up. How will she explain what just happened. She's supposed to be a civilian girl that decided to become a ninja not someone that can absorb chakra from other people.

She could see that Ino was beside Shikamaru and Chouji. The three of them were looking at her like they had seen a ghost. Turning her head slightly, she saw Dosu standing only a few feet from her and Sasuke. He seemed shocked too but the fear she saw on his face made her frown a little. Was he scared of her? But why? Okay, maybe absorbing other people chakra wasn't exactly a common think to do but still, she was sure she had read somewhere something about people being able to do it. So it shouldn't be too shocking.

Zaku was a few feet behind Dosu and she could see burns on his right arm. She was a little too happy at the sight and decided to instead turn her head to Sasuke. He was watching her with wide eyes and confusion on his face. But before she or he could say anything, a noise coming from Lee side made her turn her head in that direction. Hyuga Neji had just landed beside Lee and he too was looking at here with wide eyes the only difference was the Byakugan clearly activated.

"What the hell was that? How did you do it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb, you just absorbed his chakra. How did you do it?"

She didn't know what to do, after all, she herself didn't know how she did it but now that boy was asking her to explain how she did it. Sakura felt the panic rush back and she wanted to tell him that she had no idea how she did it. But before she could talk, Dosu approached her with an Earth scroll in hand.

"I don't know how you did it, but I don't want to die today. Please accept this scroll and let me and my teammate retreat."

She hesitated at first, she really wanted to take her revenge on them for hurting her and trying to hurt her friend. But she knew it would be wiser to accept the deal. Since they had lost their scroll during the battle against Orochimaru, that scroll would help them and give them a slight chance to pass this part of the exam. Deciding it was the best think to do, she took the scroll and nodded.

"Very well, you may go."

She felt Sasuke tense beside her but decided to ignore it for now. He was in no condition to take that kind of decision at the moment anyway. Dosu took the girl in his arm and started going away while Zaku followed him limping. When they finally disappeared from view, her body relaxed and she stopped putting chakra in her muscle. This caused her to lose balance as the pain in her body came back and she fell on the ground curling up in a foetal position.

She could fell Sasuke trying to talk to her and shaking her slightly but soon enough, black point started appearing in her vision and not long after she felt herself drift into a comatose state.