"Begin!"

Sakura had mixed feelings about the Academy.

On one hand, being a student gave her access to way more information than she would have had otherwise. The library at the school was immense, and that wasn't even accounting for the classes and lectures themselves. She would gladly listen for hours on end, greedily soaking up as much knowledge as possible.

It didn't hurt that she excelled at their Theory lessons either.

On the other hand, there were days like today, where all of Sakura's carefully curated knowledge was as useful as wet parchment.

She grimaced in sympathy as Ami took a knee to the gut from Shino. They were the farthest thing from friends, but she knew what it was like to be on the wrong side of a fight with a clan kid.

Fridays were almost always spent outside, usually split between target practice, sparring, and outdoor survival training. It wasn't like Sakura didn't understand why they did. Obviously, they couldn't properly learn how to throw a punch or a shuriken through explanations alone, but, well, to put it bluntly, Sakura sucked.

Maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but she did lag behind and was painfully aware of it. Her class was filled with clan kids, and, as this was their final year of the Academy, she was the only civilian born left.

There had been six of them when she had first started. Two had dropped the first year, and a third had left because of family pressure. The last ones had been held back a year because they hadn't been able to keep up.

They had never really been close friends, but there had been this sense of camaraderie. Shared eye rolls when the others bragged, slipped bandages when one of them was purposefully tripped, whispered advice when one of them exceeded at the subject.

Now it was just her.

Of all the practical exercises, she was worst during the sparring matches. Throwing kunai and shuriken wasn't easy, but it was one of the few things she could practice in her own backyard, and Sakura had always been a fast learner. Her katas were always precise and clean, and while she didn't have very good stamina, she was able to keep her running time within passing range. Survival training was just a lot of common sense and memorization.

Sparring however, was something else entirely.

Sakura didn't have the advantages her fellow classmates did. She had no one at home to practice with, and the chances of a random shinobi deciding to help a mediocre civilian born Academy student were slim to none. Even the other clanless kids had shinobi parents to help them out.

She didn't have Kiba's wild ferocity, or Shino's calculated movements. She wasn't graceful like Ino, or timid yet skillful like Hinata. She didn't have Naruto's seemingly endless stamina, or Chouji's heavy punches, or even Shikamaru's lazy strategies.

Sakura had…herself. And it was becoming increasingly clear that it wasn't enough.

It would be accurate to say that Sakura lost more than she won sparring matches, in fact she lost most of her matches. She never won against the clan kids, only managing to beat those with shinobi parents. It didn't matter if it was a taijutsu only match, because they had specialised styles and hours more practice, and don't get her started if jutsu were allowed.

Sakura was always caught between anger and tears when she saw everything her classmates could do that she couldn't. It felt like playing cards with access to only half the deck.

Even when she went to the tutoring sessions the Academy offered, nothing seemed to get better. The only thing they helped with was class material, and it felt like everyone else had skills outside of what they were taught at the Academy.

It was frustrating, to say the least.

She watched as Shino and Ami finished their fight, the former winning as he put her in a ruthless pin she couldn't get out of.

"Disengage." Iruka ordered, motioning for the two to separate.

Ami scrambled back with a sneer, ignoring the Shino's offered hand. "Don't touch me, bug boy."

"You seem uncomfortable. Why? Because you do not like the insects my clan hosts in their body."

She scoffed. "Figure that out all by yourself, did you?"

Iruka bopped them both on the head. "That's enough of that. Ami, you need to work on your stamina. You still get much sloppier when you're tired. Shino, drawing a fight out may have worked this time, but in most instances it's better to finish the fight as quickly as possible so not to attract attention and prevent collateral damage."

The two accepted their criticisms, one with less grumbling than the other, and went back to where the rest of their class was sitting.

"Next, Sakura and Sasuke."

She froze.

It wasn't exactly a secret that she had a crush on Sasuke. Kami, most of the girls in their class did. Some of the boys too. He was cute, and easily the best fighter in their class. Not to mention he was the second heir of the Uchiha, one of, if not the most powerful clan in Konoha. He was also one of the few people in their class that Sakura had to work hard to outperform in Theory. If she were less of a bookworm, he'd probably have her beat.

She'd learned her lesson about asking him out-the first brutal rejection had been more than enough, thank you very much-but that didn't mean she couldn't admire from afar.

And normally, afar meant way further away than across the ring of a sparring match.

Yeah, there was no way she was winning this fight.

Still, Sakura squared her shoulders and made her way to the ring where Sasuke was already waiting. His dark eyes were fixated on her, making her heart stutter in her chest.

"No jutsu or weapons. Begin!"

Sasuke immediately darted forward, hand clenched into a fist that she was just barely able to avoid. Sakura attempted to counter with a blow to the gut, but he danced away on light feet.

Sasuke was fast, and most definitely stronger than her, which meant that going on offense would end badly. Well, more badly than this was already going to go. She had no illusions about winning this fight.

Sakura ducked under his kick, but wasn't able to avoid the elbow to the face that followed it. Her head jerked to the side, but she managed to slip her ankle in front of his, tripping him and forcing him to back away or fall flat on his face.

They separated once more, and Sakura resisted the urge to wipe the bit of blood that had trickled from her nose.

The second time they clashed Sasuke came at her with a flurry of punches that made pain explode from her abdomen and face. He was too fast for her to block everything, so instead she resigned herself to taking the hits and-there! Sasuke had overextended himself just enough that she was able to grab his wrist.

It wasn't to flip him, but rather make his retreat more difficult as she slammed her fist into his floating ribs-once, twice-

And suddenly she was on her back struggling to breath with an uncomfortable weight on her chest.

"Disengage." Came Iruka's firm voice, and Sakura no longer felt as though she were about to be crushed.

Gingerly picking herself up, Sakura wasn't quite able to keep the grin off her face. She'd managed to hit Sasuke in a taijutsu match. Twice. That was more than over half of the class had been able to accomplish.

"Sakura, good job utilizing your knowledge on your opponent. I don't recommend using a tactic like that in the field, especially against someone more than willing to kill you, but you strategy was sound. Sasuke-" she forced herself to tamp down on her beaming. "-you underestimated Sakura and you paid for it. If she had had a knife or a jutsu in hand, she could have killed you."

Not that she would have. Sakura still felt weird hitting people with her full strength, the idea of killing someone seemed beyond her.

Sasuke's lip curled into a sneer. "She's not even close to being a threat, so why would I treat her like one?"

Sakura's smile froze in place.

"She's civilian born, the most she'll ever amount of is a paper chunnin, and that's if she even graduates. Why would I waste effort on someone like that?"

Iruka's eyes narrowed dangerously. "That is enough." He said firmly. "Ignoring that fact that assumptions like that will get you killed in the field, Sakura is your classmate and deserves your respect."

Sasuke scoffed. "Respect? Even if she makes it onto the field, she'll never be anything but canon fodder. Look at her. How will she ever be a shinobi?"

Sakura felt paralysed, shock and hurt coursing though her as the Sasuke's words registered. She'd known Sasuke hadn't been especially fond of her, he didn't pay her any attention but that was how he treated everyone. She hadn't thought that this was how he'd really thought of her.

"It's stupid to pretend otherwise."

Tears began to form in Sakura's eyes, but she refused to shed them. She wouldn't cry in front of the whole class. She wouldn't.

"Shut up, Sasuke! Don't be mean to Sakura like that!" The sudden shout startled her, causing her to turn and face the rest of their classmates.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You're even more useless than she is, Dead Last."

Naruto crossed his arms. "I'm gonna be Hokage one day, so watch it!"

As the two continued to squabble, she met the eyes of another blonde, blue eyed classmate.

Ino was as beautiful as always. There wasn't a hair out of place, despite the fact that she'd had her own sparring match against Chouji. Sakura didn't know what she was expecting when she met Ino's gaze. They had been friends once, best friends, but that had been before they'd both started liking Sasuke and been torn apart.

Even now that Sakura had given up on pursuing Sasuke, they were left in a strange limbo. Still insulting each other, still competing for top marks, but not really enemies. Not friends either.

Sakura didn't really know what they were now.

She looked surprised at what Sasuke had said. If Sakura looked hard enough, she thought she might have even seen a hint of anger. But she didn't say anything, and after a beat, Ino looked away.

"ENOUGH!"

Sakura flinched at Iruka's booming voice. "Naruto, Sasuke, after school detention."

Sasuke scowled. "For what?"

"For harassing a fellow classmate and delaying the lesson. Go back to your seats." It was not a suggestion.

Sasuke turned to look at her. Really, look at her. His eyes scanned her from head to toe, a look of disgust on his face.

"It's not like I said anything that wasn't true."

That was all Sakura could take.

She turned on her heel, fists clenched and eyes burning. "I'm going to the bathroom." She managed to choke out, not even waiting for Iruka to give her permission.

She just needed to leave.

The bathroom was mercifully empty, allowing Sakura to cry without fear of witnesses. Even after outgrowing most of her shyness thanks to her former friendship with Ino, she had been bullied for too long to completely erase her of the feeling of constant judgement.

Or maybe it wasn't just a feeling. Maybe she was being constantly judged. Sasuke sure seemed to have had more than a few things to say about her.

Canon fodder. Was that really what they thought about her? That she would be a human meat shield, destined to be thrown out to protect someone more important?

The anger was late coming, but cleansing. She furiously wiped her tears away and splashed water on her face.

Canon fodder? Paper chuunin? Sakura was going to make him and anyone else who thought that eat their words. She was going to graduate and climb the ranks to jounin and laugh at anyone who tried to stop her.

It was just a spark, weak and useless at the moment, but could one day turn into a mighty blaze.

After all, those who build themselves from nothing are often the most terrifying of all.