Umm hi, it's me again! Still alive, yes. Haha. Sorry for the long wait, the past few months have been a difficult time for me. But I have hope for 2019! If all goes well I'll be back in...less than half a year this time! Not to worry :D

Thank you so much to everyone who favorited/followed/reviewed/read this story-you guys really brightened up my life these past months. I am not kidding when I say that every new comment or notification I got literally made my day!

Speaking of which, also feel free to PM me whenever. I will try my best to respond, and that way you hopefully won't have to wait until my next update for a reply. And I love company: writing can be a lonely business at times! (If you happen to be knowledgeable on Naruto characters and canon plot line, though, be forewarned that I might turn into an information leech-I confess, I never finished the original manga! Whoops.)

Chapter 8 summary: Sakura learns a thing or two about genjutsu from Itachi-senpai.

Chapter 9

The stone is cold and smooth beneath her fingers, perfectly polished and gleaming in the early morning light. Sakura kneels atop the carefully dusted platform and softly traces her way down the list of names.

Haruno Mebuki.

She mouths the name, memorizes the feeling of those characters carved in stone.

'Kaa-san. I'm sorry for not visiting sooner.' Her lower lip trembles, and she firmly wills herself not to cry. Not anymore.

Even knowing the facts, it had been hard to come here, to face the truth long etched upon the Memorial Stone. But now, months later, Sakura has also realized that there really is no running away, not even in her mind. Some wounds cannot heal on their own beneath a hasty covering of bandages and dirty wrappings. They need to be faced. She still hasn't been able to muster up the strength to visit her father, but maybe someday. One step at a time.

"Kaa-san," she whispers, this time aloud, and levels a bright, watery smile at the memorial. "I hope wherever you are, it is warm and sunny, Kaa-san. I hope it is always spring." Her mother had always disliked winters, even though winter in Konoha rarely meant more than chilling rain, a few flakes here and there. Kaa-san probably would have hated Snow Country.

Setting a carefully arranged bouquet of white lilies beneath her mother's name, she gently caresses a petal. It shivers beneath her fingertips, frail and sad. Mai-san had even wrapped a green ribbon around the posy.

"I brought you lilies, Kaa-san," Sakura begins again, voice low and soft. "I would have gotten other flowers too, but-" Sakura lets out a wobbly laugh, "my funds are slightly low at the moment. I hope you like these anyway. And I hope you're finally growing that garden you always said you wanted." One tear runs down her cheek, and she carefully brushes it away. It is getting harder to breathe. She presses her fingers more firmly against the polished memorial, starts to talk faster in an effort to get everything out, expel it all before it is too late. "I'm doing fine. It was a bit difficult at first, but things have mostly settled down now. I keep the house exactly the way-the way you like it, I-" Sakura takes a long, trembling gulp of air, "I train hard, every day, and study. I've...even made some friends. So don't worry about me, Kaa-san. I can take care of myself. I'll be okay. I-" She chokes back a small sniffle, and slowly lowers her forehead to touch cold stone.

"I miss you."

Ever since her dinner at the Nara's-she hasn't been able to stop thinking. And then Itachi…

She is lonely.

"I miss you, Kaa-san." Her voice cracks at the end of that whispered statement and tears slowly begin to slide down her face, thick, heavy beads that steadily roll over her her soft cheeks and linger beneath her chin before finally dripping, plop, down to the ground below. Sakura dips her head slightly and allows her hair to slide forward, over her shoulders, curtaining her face from the world, and finally feels the pressure in her chest begin to ease.

She doesn't know know long she stays there, knees digging into the platform, forehead to the stone. The early-autumn sun warms her back, while a cool breeze tickles her grown-out bangs. Salt tracks begin to dry beneath her puffy eyes, her breath slowly evens out. At some point, she falls asleep.

"Yo. Aren't kids like you supposed to be in school around now?"

Sakura's eyes snap open with a start and her shoulders jerk in surprise, accidentally causing her forehead to bang painfully against the inscribed stone wall as her body tries to rise from the ground too quickly. Letting out a gasp of pain, she quickly brings her palms up to rub away the soreness, taking the opportunity to also wipe away any vestiges of salt still on her cheeks before finally looking up.

The man is odd. Very odd and very striking. For a moment, Sakura just stares at him in bewilderment and slight awe, his question draining out of her mind. From the spiky, silvery hair, to the forehead protector pulled low over one eye, to the dark gray mask that covers the rest of his face-the man can only be described as 'strange.' But the intensity in his coal-black eyes which completely contrasts from the laid-back tenor of his voice and the casual set of his shoulders, the warm coolness of his gaze that she finds she cannot even begin to read….

"Hi." Sakura smiles slightly, uncertainty bleeding into her expression as she recalls that the man had asked her a question-but for the life of her, she can't remember what it is. She hopes her puffy eyes are not too obvious. "Um, I'm sorry, how can I help you again?" He doesn't seem that old actually, now that she looks a second time. Older than Itachi, but definitely still in his teens. Probably around Shisui's age. His hair and vest make him seem taller, and his shoulders wider, than they really are upon closer inspection.

What little Sakura can see of the shinobi's expression from her position on the ground remains completely neutral, but she gets the distinct impression that he's becoming impatient. "Shouldn't you be in class?" he asks again. His voice is low and smooth, wrapped in a calculated indifference.

"Oh!" Sakura blushes and fiddles with the frayed ends of her long-sleeved kimono shirt. The position of the sun has already shifted to early afternoon: she's been here for hours. "I don't have class today."

She keeps her eyes fixed on her hands, not daring to look up just yet. Guilt begins to creep up her neck, even though it really has no reason to. And curiosity. She has never met a shinobi like this boy before, so emotionless and yet….

"So you're going to waste your entire day here, then?"

….and yet….

"It's not a waste!" She blurts out in shock and indignation before her mind catches up to her mouth and shuts it hastily. An unnameable flicker of something flashes through his eyes, and suddenly Sakura feels sad: cuttingly, achingly, sad.

"Yes," she mumbles, gaze falling back onto the memorial. "I will probably stay here for a bit."

The shinobi says nothing, just shifts slightly and blinks. And Sakura is struck with a horrible thought. What if he had been waiting for her to leave? Has she missed some unspoken rule, that only one person can visit at a time? Are there multitudes of shinobi waiting, silent, in the trees, for their turn to mourn? While she lay against the stone and took a nap? Sakura scrambles to her feet, eyes wide.

"I can go if you want!" The top of her head only reaches the middle of his chest, and she stares, guilty, at the gray-green of his flak jacket. "I've been here for a long time already, I didn't know. I'm sorry-"

"No worries."

-And yet.

The boy's eye suddenly crinkles into a smile, leaving Sakura baffled. "I was just checking," he continues, as he straightens briefly from his previously slouched position. "Not too many people visit this place. Unless there's been a new addition." His eye opens again and lingers quietly over the names etched into the cold stone behind her. The air seems to still in the wake of his words, and for moment Sakura has to hold her breath against the weary heaviness that begins to slide silently into the clearing.

"Maa," the shinobi continues abruptly, cheery voice cutting through the thickening atmosphere. He breaks into another closed-eyed smile. "It's not as if any of them keep coming for long."

Somehow, the way he says it gives Sakura the distinct impression that she is being marked as one of 'them,' one of those people who will stop visiting in a few weeks, who will move on. The thought makes her irrationally angry.

"I won't!" she says, a bit too loudly. The older boy turns his gaze back to her. "I'm going to come every week. I won't stop." Her nails bite into her palms. "I won't forget."

Gray stares impassively back into green as he simply considers her, wordlessly, for one long moment. Then, he smiles. Not his closed-eyed smile-no, his expression doesn't change-but Sakura feels it, is so sure, that slightest shift in the air, that minuscule lightening of his irises, that near-imperceptible twitch of his lips behind concealing fabric.

Maybe she imagines it.

But the vision is still miraculous enough to suck all the air from her lungs.

"Well, that's nice to hear. Perhaps I'll be seeing more of you, then." He crinkles his eye at her again, and steps up beside her in a well-practiced motion, as if it is an action he's done a million times before. "Would you mind if I joined you for a bit?"

He looks down at her, a casual figure against the backdrop of trees and grass, a familiar guardian before this stone of memories.

"No," she says. "Of course not."

And so they stand.

It isn't until later that Sakura realizes she never asked for his name. The strange shinobi had left abruptly around sunset with little more than another eye-smile and a comment about having to get back to work.

'You should go home too,' he had said. 'Kids like you shouldn't be out tonight.'

And then he had vanished into thin air, leaving Sakura bewildered and slightly worried.

'Kids like me?' she wonders as she heads towards the marketplace, stomach grumbling angrily. She'd forgotten to eat lunch. Recalling her near-empty food stock, Sakura picks up her pace in order to get there before the last stalls close. Kids like you shouldn't be out tonight. She'll do her shopping as quickly as possible, she decides, and then go straight home.

Dusk has truly fallen by the time Sakura's sandals finally skid into view of the marketplace. Buying lilies has taken up a significant portion of her budget, she realizes as she glances around at the handful of stalls that have yet to close. She has funds set aside for food, but that bag of money is currently sitting in her kitchen cabinet. Letting out a resigned chuckle, Sakura quickly buys a couple of tomatoes and potatoes and other greens, some rice and noodles for the next few days, a modest bundle of scallions, a small box of eggs. Enough for some ramen, at least. She'll have to forgo the meat.

Pocketing her last few coins of change with a rueful shrug, Sakura hugs the heavy bag of produce against her chest as she slowly begins to make her way home through the shadowy streets meandering through the west side of the village. She walks as quietly as possible on the center of the path, eyes peeled for any sign of movement. Raucous laughter spills into the air as the night deepens, the distant clinking of porcelain growing louder as roadside pubs begin to smolder with smoky light. Sakura tightens her arms around her purchases. The fastest route home cuts through the slums of Konoha: not too safe, but mostly civilian. She is reasonably certain that she can outrun a few drunk men if anything happens.

"Found you, ya lil' shit!"

Sakura whips around, hair flaring out around her as the sound of shattering glass reaches her ears. A middle-aged man looms ominously in an alleyway off to her right, tall and hunched over, a broken bottle in hand. His back to her.

"Di'you real think you cou' hide fromme?" he slurs with a nasty cackle into the chilly air.

He isn't talking to her, Sakura realizes, but a small huddled figure hidden from view by the man's broad shoulders. With a crash, seven or so other civilians stumble out of a nearby bar, some still holding drinks, and join the male who just spoke.

"Oh, it's the demon spawn," mutters one of the new additions.

"Fuckin' filthy rat," spits out another.

A young voice cuts through the haze of insults. "Shut up, you stinkin' old bum! I'm NOT a rat!" The resounding smack that follows the statement makes Sakura gasp, craning her head in an attempt to see past the group of adults obscuring her view as the sounds of a scuffle commence.

Moments later, someone gives a yelp of pain and then a small flash of yellow breaks through the crowd, arms flailing as the boy pushes his way through the sea of legs.

"You fuckin' bastard!" one of the men roars behind him, stumbling out of the alleyway after the boy. He takes one wide, wobbly step forward, two, three, raises his beer bottle up, its jagged edges gleaming faintly in the black gloom-

"NO!" Sakura shouts. The bag of produce tumbles from her arms but she doesn't notice, doesn't care, bright blue eyes lock with hers, wide, warm chakra and sunny skies-

And then she is there. Arms thrown out, boy safely behind her, beer bottle frozen inches above her head.

"An' who th' fucker you?" the man sneers, breath reeking of alcohol. He squints blearily down at her, face heavily lined with age and grief and hate. Behind him, the other men begin to close in, their shadowy silhouettes looming menacingly in the darkness.

Sakura swallows and backpedals a few steps away from the beer bottle, making sure to keep the boy behind her. Not knowing how to answer, she ducks her head slightly and says instead, "Please stop."

"So the lil' bastard's gotta friend, eh?" laughs a squat man with a badly receding hairline. Taking a swig of his drink, he wipes his mouth on the sleeve of his jacket and hiccups. "We gon' teach you a lesson too!" He thrusts his arm towards Sakura threateningly, making the clear liquid inside his bottle slosh around in frantic waves. "Don'tchu know better than t' mix wi' demon scum like tha'? Don'tchu parents teach ya anythin' worthwhile?" He takes another long draught of alcohol.

An urgent hand begins to tug at the back of Sakura's shirt, and she gratefully lets it guide her backward a few more steps. The street is deserted-no help, but no more enemies either. Perhaps that is a good thing. Sakura mentally debates the best time to make a run for it, and presses closer to the boy behind her.

"'Ey wait a mo'!" The group's leader suddenly leans down and glares at her with beady, bloodshot eyes. "I know you! Your tha' bastard's kid! The traitor's brat!"

"Holy fuck yer right!" A thin, reedy man elbows his way to the front of the group. "My cousin went onna mission wi' the sonuvabitch once an' she's got the same ugly-ass hair!" He chortles darkly. "Two peas inna pod, eh? Well, today's yer lucky day, bitch! We gon' take care o' the both of ya together!"

Sakura leaps back as the man makes a grab for her shirt, crashing hard into the blond-haired boy. A small hand grabs her wrist.

"C'mon, Sakura-chan! This way!" And then they are off, the sound of shattering glass echoing in their wake as they duck and dodge past the crowd, heavy footsteps hot on their heels. Sakura runs and has no idea where they are going or how close their assailants are, has no time to wonder how the boy knows her name, sees only the dirty white of the boy's T-shirt, the warm feeling of his hand in hers.

"Quick, Sakura-chan, in here!" he whispers, pulling her down a side alley. The rush through the darkness as the sounds of yelling grow louder behind them, trying to stay as quiet as possible. Sakura futilely scans the passageway as they run, looking for a place to hide. The men are drunk but fueled by anger, whereas the boy is quickly tiring, she can tell. Their only hope is to either outmaneuver their attackers or to conceal themselves.

Dead end.

"Shoot!" The boy whips around frantically, eyes sweeping left and right. The alley is empty save for a couple of empty barrels, an abandoned trash can, a dirty tarp.

No place to hide.

"Crap, crap, crap-" Digging his fingers into the crevices between the bricks, he tries to climb the fifteen-foot wall to no avail. His eyes begin to fill with tears. "I'm sorry, Sakura-chan."

The voices are getting closer. Too late to run. Sakura considers the smooth gray of the wall carefully, mind whirring through plans and possibilities.

She cannot carry him.

'Go!' A voice screams into her mind. 'Leave him!'

"Listen," she whispers urgently to the boy, grabbing his hands as she guides him to the cluster of barrels. "Just stay here, okay?" She pushes him down to crouch behind the makeshift hideaway. "Be quiet and don't move, not until I get back, alright?"

Confused shouting begins to echo down the alleyway. "'Eyyy I'm pretty sure I saw 'em come 'round 'ere!"

Muffled footsteps.

The boy clenches his fists.

"Hey." Sakura crouches down next to him, ignoring the paralysis creeping into her own gut. "Do you trust me?"

He trembles slightly, and nods.

'Get out of here!' the voice in her mind shrieks.

Sakura gives his shoulder a quick squeeze. "Wait for me."

And then she takes a running leap and sprints up, up, up-and vaults over the wall, chakra surging through her legs to cushion her landing. No different from climbing a tree.

Exhilaration sweeps through her as she rushes out the other end of the alley and doubles around the block, adrenaline washing away her prior fear. The group of men are huddled at the entrance of the alleyway, huffing and puffing, sweat running down their necks and maniacal scowls etched upon their faces. Sakura scrutinizes them from behind an adjacent corner, making sure to keep her hair out of sight. She counts five men-a few must have dropped out during the chase.

"I swear I saw 'em go in 'ere!" slurs a heavily bearded man with a pea-sized wart on his chin. The hairs on the growth shiver violently as he suddenly doubles over and vomits all over his own shoes.

"Watch it," says the man next to him.

Sakura quickly glances down the street behind her. It is empty. Good. No one is a friend here. It seems as if everyone is in a bar tonight-the streetside pubs are now alight with screaming and conversation, all filled to capacity. For a moment, Sakura wonders if today is some sort of event; this volume of drinkers can't be normal.

Kids like you shouldn't be out tonight.

She shakes the thought away. As long as this strange night of revelry keeps drunkards from joining her attackers on the streets, well, then it's no business of hers. She has a boy to save.

"I think they're tryna hide," the group leader is saying. His collar is askew from the chase and he no longer has a broken bottle in hand-he must have dropped it. "Let's go check it out."

Sakura takes that as her cue. As the first men begin filing into the alleyway, she steps out from behind the street corner and deliberately kicks a stray rock across the street.

All eyes turn to her-but she doesn't stick around to witness their reactions. Running back around the corner, she rushes down the street while calling out in a frantic voice, "Hey, slow down, wait for me!"

"There they are!" she hears them shouting after her. "FOLLOW THEM!"

Pushing more chakra down to legs, she times her arrival at the next street corner right as the first of the men reach the last turn, angling her head to let her hair catch the light from a flickering street lamp nearby.

"THEY TURNED LEFT!"

Sakura darts away down the passage, repeating the same trick at the next corner, and the next, always making sure to turn as soon as she is spotted to ensure that the men won't see she is alone, praying that they are all too drunk to realize they are on a wild goose chase. Keeping her eyes peeled for side streets and roadmarks, Sakura runs until her mental map of the path she took tells her that they are now far away from the dead-end alleyway, then channels even more chakra to her legs and makes several quick turns to lose her assailants, doubling back around through a side passage she noticed earlier. Distantly, she hears shouts of "Where'd they go?!" and "Fuckin' shits!"-but they quickly fade away as she speeds back the way she came, faster and faster until the buildings are mere blurs zipping by on either side, thanking her extra training and hoping against hope that the boy is still there, that all of the men had followed her, that no one had entered that alley.

"Hey?" she calls tentatively when she finally arrives. It still and dark, seemingly abandoned, untouched. Sakura carefully makes her way back in. "Hey, are you still here?"

And then she is tackled.

"Sakura-chan, you're okay!" the boy cries into her hair. "You were gone for so long and I almost thought they got you and I really really wanted to come help but you told me to stay here and-"

"Hey. Hey, it's alright." Sakura awkwardly pats his back and steps away slightly, not used to the overt affection and not really sure how to respond to it. "I got back fine and I think they'll be gone for a while."

Now that the haze of fear has left her and she looks at the boy more closely, she realizes that she's definitely seen him before. A vague recollection of a rowdy troublemaker floats to the front of her mind.

"You're...from the Academy."

"Yeah! We're in the same class Sakura-chan! You sit in the back, right?"

Sakura fiddles with her fingers in embarrassment. "Yes, I do. I'm sorry, but I don't know that many people in class...ah..."

"Uzumaki Naruto!" The boy supplies enthusiastically, eyes glowing with excitement. "And one day I'm gonna be Hokage, dattebayo!"

Sakura blinks. "Er, okay."

Now he's the one who looks taken aback. "You're not gonna laugh?"

She doesn't really know what to think, to be honest. "Um, no?" she responds unsurely. When he beams at her and begins to open his mouth again, she quickly changes the topic. They have much more pressing matters to deal with at the moment. "Well, Naruto-san, do you live somewhere around here? We should probably get home before anything else happens. This place is not too safe."

"Oh, yeah, I do! Right by the place where you found me, actually!"

"There are houses there?" Sakura asks, feeling stupid. She lowers her volume to a whisper as they leave the alley and begin to head down the street, eyes and ears open for any sign of danger.

"The apartments near the Hokage Tower." He suddenly sounds subdued, and Sakura's eyes widen when she realizes why.

"You mean…"

"The ones for orphans, yeah," he says, not looking at her.

Impulsively, she reaches out and gently grazes his arm. "Me too," she admits, aloud for the first time.

He stares at her in shock, then suddenly wraps her in a tight hug.

"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan."

"It's fine. Thank you." Sakura blinks back the sudden hotness behind her eyelids and glances around at their surroundings in an attempt to distract herself. "Are we almost there?"

"Yup!" Seeming to get the hint, Naruto grabs her hand and drags her down the street. "It's right around the block!" He levels a cheery smile at her. "See? That's the alley were you found me! And that's the bar those jerks were drinking in!"

"Wait. Wait!" Sakura calls as Naruto attempts to pull her around another corner.

"What's wrong?"

"My groceries!" Somehow, bag is still there, lying right where it fell earlier. She rifles through it, almost unable to believe her eyes when she finds everything she bought at the marketplace untouched-even the eggs are intact, miraculously cushioned by her other purchases. The silver lining to a stressful day.

"You can cook?" Naruto asks curiously, peeking into her bag.

"My mother taught me a bit," Sakura says softly as they round the corner and approach a tall, dilapidated apartment complex. "You don't?"

He scratches the back of head and shrugs, ducking his head. "Just some instant stuff, mostly. And snacks."

"Oh." Not knowing what to say yet again, Sakura settles for hefting her bag up higher against her chest as she quietly follows him up the rusted metal staircase to the third floor, then down an outdoor hallway until they reached a battered wooden door, old and weathered from the wind.

'I could have lived here,' is all Sakura can think as he unlocks the door and leads her inside. 'This could be me.'

The room is tiny and cramped, a rickety-looking bed shoved into one corner and a kitchenette in another. The walls are gray and peeling, the ceiling a map of cracked plaster. Trash litters the floor: plastic bags, empty soda cans, old clothes.

"It's a bit messy, sorry, but pretty comfy once you get used to it!" Naruto grins, and Sakura can only admire the spirit, the brilliance, of this boy who's suffering seems even worse than hers. Taking a seat on a cheap plastic chair set in front of a coffee table cluttered with papers and napkins and instant noodle cups, Sakura opens her mouth, then closes it again, a million questions flying through her mind.

'Why do they call you a 'demon spawn'?" she wants to ask, but she doesn't. After all, she would feel awful if he asked her about being a 'traitor's brat'. Ice blooms anew in her chest at the memory, and Sakura swallows a sudden lump in her throat.

Instead, she asks: "Does this happen to you a lot?"

It takes him a moment to understand. "Oh! It's….usually not that bad," he laughs, turning away and rummaging through an old wooden drawer hidden beneath the sagging blankets on his bed. "Snacks?" he offers. "I have senbei and uhhh, well, that's it."

He hands Sakura a cracker with a sheepish smile. "That's why I went out, actually! The old man said I have to stay in here tonight but I ran out of food and I figured, y'know, he probably wouldn't notice if I snuck out and nabbed something right? I mean, it's even my birthday and everything!" He beams proudly at her, eyes bright enough to light up the entire room. "I figured I'd get something nice, but then I got caught." Deflating a bit, he flashes her a guilty look. "I'm sorry to have gotten you mixed up in it, Sakura-chan. I swear I didn't-oh, are you leaving already?"

"Of course not," Sakura says, quick to reassure the lonely voice as she crosses the room in three quick strides and begins to comb through his kitchen cabinets. "I just thought I'd cook us some dinner while we talk."

"Wait, what?" Naruto scrambles to his feet as Sakura unloads the contents of her grocery bag onto the narrow counter. "No, you don't have to! That's-that's your food!"

"Don't worry, I bought enough for both of us." Finally unearthing a dusty pot from the very back of a shelf beneath the stove, Sakura dumps it in the sink and sets upon scrubbing it clean.

"B-but-"

Sakura cuts him off. "It's your birthday, Naruto-san, and you've been attacked, and chased across the village, and now you're stuck eating senbei for dinner. I cannot change the first two things, but I want to at least make sure that you get to eat a hot meal tonight, okay?"

Naruto grows very quiet.

"Okay," he finally says. "Thank you, Sakura-chan."

She can't help but give him a small smile. "Happy Birthday. I'm just sorry I can't do more. Now-" she begins to rinse out the vegetables, "you clean up the room while I do the cooking, alright?"

"But Sakura-chaaann-"

"No 'buts'!" Wiping down the counter, Sakura begins to chop up the tomatoes with a small knife she found behind the faucet. "You're not getting any dinner until all these food wrappers are gone!"

A heavy sigh sounds behind her back, and then quiet rustling as the boy begins to pick up his trash.

"Fiiiineee."

"Good."

"And also….today isn't a bad birthday at all, you know. I mean….I got to meet you!"

Sakura doesn't turn around, just fills the pot with water and sets it on the stove to boil.

"I'm glad."

He doesn't see the smile that blooms across her cheeks.

"So," she says. "How do you feel about ramen?"

Until next time, Reader-san. I hope this chapter had enough action! I was actually writing another chapter when my brain decided it wanted this to happen instead. Not sure I like it, but it is what it is, I guess! Hopefully, it was still enjoyable.

Responses to reviewer comments/questions:

The Cat's Paw: Thank you! Some readers have been very interested about the massacre, yes. It seems to be one of the bigger questions about this story so far...;P

Uchiha Misaki: Thank you for the confirmation! I am glad you liked this story so far :)

MidKnight Karina: Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the story, as well as the chakra sensing idea! :) Hopefully this chapter did not let you down, haha.

AnimeEverywhere: Awww it's great to hear that you enjoy the story and chakra theory so far (and the strawberries!). I hope this chapter didn't disappoint!

Carina Llex: Thank you for the clarification! And I am super happy that you found Sakura realistic and liked the story so much :)

jujubean22: I completely agree about Sakura's potential! It makes me so glad to hear that you found Sakura's strengths balanced and enjoyable! :)

Jazzmeene: Haha thank you! Yay for chakra theory, and double yay that you like the slowness of the buildup! I think this story is going to be very long and quite slow at the beginning, so I am glad you're okay with that!