Jan 24, 20XX

They ignored me again today.

It's been three months since we had became a team and passed sensei's bell test. We trained and did missions, yet every time I was either ignored or left behind to catch up. Naruto and Sasuke always argued with each other and considered themselves rivals, so they would fight together during training. They never started a spar with me and my sensei would just make small humming sounds to my questions like he was listening, but never bothered to answer a single one of them. After a while I just stopped trying to get his help altogether.

At first, Naruto would at least say hi to me and talk about some random things, but Sasuke eventually put a stop to that by talking down to him all the time or just by calling him a 'dobe'. He always seems to glare at me and I don't know why...

Sure I was his fangirl back at the academy, but I didn't act any different than the other fangirls he has. Yet... he never glares at them with so much hate like he does to me. After the bell test when we became a genin team, I decided to stop being his fangirl and start training more so that I could help out my teammates when needed.

It just isolated me in the end though...

I'm at my wits end here and there is no one to turn to. My parents are constantly gone on to trade their wares and buy goods from other countries, so I can't talk to them. I was never close to Iruka-sensei and my only friend, Ino, is not on friendly terms with me since I revealed my crush on Sasuke which has gone away since then.

What should I do Journal? I need help...

Sakura sighed as she finished writing in her journal and leaned back against the tree she was resting on. She watched as the boys on her team sparred with each other while their sensei, Kakashi, just read his stupid book, but she could see his eyes dart over to the boys every now and then. Making sure they didn't hurt themselves, but never once glanced her way to see if she was even still there.

Why should I still be here? It's not like staying here is going to help me become stronger.

Getting up, she took one last look back at her so called team and walked towards the Hokage tower. She was tired of no one helping her when she needed it and knew something had to be done before her career as a kunoichi ended with her death at not being prepared.

And the only way to do that is to get signed onto a different team all together.

Determination flashed through her veins as she walked into the tower and asked to speak with the Hokage about something important. His secretary sent a message and she was lucky enough that he had no business at the moment, so she was let into the office.

"What can I do for you, young genin?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked, the smoke from his pipe bellowing out through the open window. "As far as I know, Team 7 should be training right about now."

Sakura didn't even have to think about how he knew that when her team had the Uchiha's head second son and the boy the Hokage considered another grandchild in it.

"Hokage-sama, I am here to request a transfer from Team 7." Surprised entered the old man's eyes as he registered what she had just said. After a brief pause, he asked why. "I am constantly neglected by not only my teammates, but my sensei as well. During D-rank missions I am ignored and while training, left out. I have tried multiple times to get Kakashi Hatake's help to see what I need in order to become stronger and each time he just makes nonsensical noises and keeps watching the boys train instead. I am left on my own and fear that even with I can do on my own, I will eventually die while on a mission with them."

Silence entered the room as her words seemed to echo all around. Hiruzen couldn't believe what he was hearing. He knew Kakashi wasn't the best of teachers for genin to have, but with how much he preached about teamwork to everyone, he didn't think he would neglect one of his own genin to this point.

"I'm sorry, but without proof of this favoritism, I cannot do anything to help you." Sakura pulled out her journal and handed it over to the man.

"Will this be proof enough? I had decided to keep a journal when I graduated so that I could write down all the awesome stuff I would be taught as a genin under my sensei... in the end it became a place to write down all the things that didn't happen since then."

Taking the book from her, he cracked the cover and began to read the pages. His eyes widened a bit as he read on through the three month's worth of pages. It didn't take long for him to realize that he did indeed need to either take her off their team or have a talk with Kakashi about ignoring one of his students. Genin teams were given a sensei to make sure they were taught all they needed to know to not get themselves killed off in their line of work.

"I will see what I can do, for now just pretend like this never happened and try to learn what you can on your own." Sakura's face fell at those words, and she left the office after getting her book back from the Hokage. She had had some hope that he would help her after reading about it in her journal, but it seems like Nobody here in Konoha was going to help her out.

Of course, I'm not a clan kid so I don't matter to anyone. Not even to mom and dad. Her parents never wanted children but got married anyways when her mom found out she was pregnant. They barely tolerated her when they were home and stayed out doing business most of the time. In fact, I think they might have approved my application to be a ninja so I might die in the line of duty. Then they wouldn't be on the hook for child neglect.

Drowning in her depressing thoughts, she didn't even notice the person standing in the street looking at fruits for sell until she bumped into them. Quickly apologizing, Sakura looked up to see Sasuke's mother, Mikoto Uchiha smiling down at her.

"It's okay, dear, no need to worry. I get lost in my thoughts sometimes too." Sakura smiled slightly back and made to excuse herself when Mikoto started to talk again. "You're Sakura, right? My Sasuke's teammate?"

"Yes Ma'am. Thank you for remembering me."

"You're quite welcome, dear. I was just wondering how your mother is?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Your mother. Sasuke said you always declined my invitations for team dinners at our house to take care of your ailing mother. I hope she's doing better now." Sakura's froze. This whole time Sasuke's mother was inviting them over to team dinners and never once did Sasuke mention it to her. He made up some excuse so that he wouldn't even have to talk to her about it. Tears started to drop out of her emerald eyes as her heart spiked in pain. She couldn't stop crying so Mikoto, the wonderful Sakura learned that she was, walked with her to a nearby place with no people so they could sit down and talk, and talk they did.

Sakura couldn't help herself as she poured out everything that had been happening to her since getting on Team 7 and Mikoto stayed silent about it the whole time. She listened to the poor girl cry her heart out and once Sakura couldn't talk anymore, she gave her a hug. Silent tears still poured down Sakura's cheeks as she buried her face into Mikoto's shoulder. They just hugged each other until the tears stopped and Mikoto took Sakura's hand into her own.

"I am so sorry about what has been happening to you, Sakura. My stupid son should have never treated you this way. I have no idea what has gotten into him lately and I will not stand for it."

"Please, don't do anything. I asked Hokage-sama for a team transfer, and I don't want any trouble from him before that can happen."

"But what if he doesn't give you that transfer? You would be stuck on a team that doesn't support you. I cannot overlook this treatment!"

"...I already have a plan it Hokage-sama doesn't transfer me anytime soon. So, if anything, please wait until then." Mikoto looked at her miserable expression and asked what she meant by that. "I'm giving it a week and if nothing is done, and I'm still treated the same, then I'm going to turn in my headband and travel to live with some family in another country. Mom and dad won't care and would glad to get rid of such a burden to them. Maybe I can finally be happy then...anyways, thank you for listening to me when I'm such a bother. Thank you, Mikoto-sama and please don't mention anything until I'm gone in a week's time." Sakura stood up and left as fast as she could, leaving Mikoto on the bench with a sad expression.

"You heard all of that, right Ita-kun?" Mikoto said eventually. She knew her eldest was there the whole time and didn't reprime him for ease dropping on the conversation. "Did you know this was going on?"

Itachi materialized besides his mother and shook his head. "I knew Sasuke didn't like her for some reason, but I never knew it was this bad."

"The poor girl. Her teammates ignore her, Sensei neglects her, and worse of all, her parents sound like they don't even want her!... Could you do me a favor? Keep an eye on her for a few days and report back to me on everything you learn. I want to help Sakura and see her smile happily at life."

Nodding his head, he took his mother's grocery basket and helped her bring it back to their house in the Uchiha district.

Over the next three days, Itachi kept watch over the young Haruno like he was asked and couldn't believe how his little brother acted towards her. From what he could see she did nothing wrong to anybody and yet he would always glare hate-filled daggers at the girl. If the Uzumaki kid tried to even start a conversation with her, Sasuke would quickly rile the boy up and start a fight, leaving Kakashi to break them up.

Speaking of the Hatake, he barely acknowledged her presence while the team was together. He watched as she hesitantly went up to her sensei to ask something but was ignored with a small noise as he kept his eye on the trashy book he was reading. He had heard the whole conversation the girl, Sakura, had with his mother and didn't believe much of it until now.

It was a common tactic to gain sympathy from his mother to get closer to either him or Sasuke by telling her a sob story, not that she fell for any of them. His mother was sharper than the gentle persona she put on. He had thought his brother's teammate was trying to use that to more information on her crush, but he was wrong in the end.

Shaking his head, he headed home and informed his mother about everything he had gathered. He even witnessed her parents coming home for a single day, ignoring or insulting her the whole time before gathering up some supplies and throwing some money at their daughter, before heading back out the door. Mikoto looked furious at the treatment given to such a sad, lonely girl.

"Itachi, I need you to see if Hokage-sama is planning anything for Sakura. If not, then I will go up there personally and see what I can do to help the poor dear!" It didn't take long for him to go there and come back with the answer that, no, the Hokage hasn't even started on helping her transfer teams or get anything done with Team 7's attitude towards one of their own. "I see... Time for Hokage-sama to remember why people don't cross me anymore. Let's go, Ita-kun, this will involve you as well."

Surprised, he followed behind his mother as she made her way to the tower and into the Hokage's office without so much as a how-do-you-do to anyone in their way. The Hokage looked up as his doors opened and felt himself pale at the sight of Mikoto's expression.

"Mikoto, what can I do for you this evening?" Hiruzen tried to play it cool, knowing that showing any weakness to this woman would cause him to lose sleep from the headaches this is going to cause.

"I want you to take Sakura Haruno off of Team 7 and help the girl immediately!" Out of all the things he thought he would hear out her mouth, this was not one of them. He didn't even know she knew about the Haruno girl's situation.

"I'm sorry, but these things take time to process, and a simple team disruption is not that high of a priority."

"You and I both know this is more than a 'simple disruption', Sarutobi. She is being neglected from team, sensei, and parents. This will cause her to die sooner rather than later or quit being a ninja all together. I'm even worried that she might kill herself with all the negativity she's feeling! You wouldn't want that on your mind just because you didn't get to the paperwork fast enough, now would you?" She ended the question a smile that sent shivers down his back.

"I can't just play favorites, I am the Hokage of-"

"Bullshit."

Both Itachi and Hiruzen froze. You would truly have to piss of Mikoto Uchiha to hear her curse and by then it was too late to back away.

"I am telling you this, Sarutobi, that I am using my boon you have given me to get this done and you will do it. Take Sakura Haruno off of Team 7 and put my son, Itachi, as her new sensei. Also, when that happens, keep Team 7 strictly on D-ranks and they are not to enter this years or next year's Chunin Exams."

"...Mikoto, are you sure about this? Once this boon is used, that's it."

"I know that. Now please make sure everything is done by tonight. I don't want her on that team any longer than necessary. Come, Itachi, we need to look for a place Sakura can stay at. I would have her stay with us, but I don't want Sasuke anywhere near her."

They walked out of the room, leaving Hiruzen deep in thought. He had planned on moving the girl to another team temporarily until he could work out why the boys on Team 7 was treating her this way, but perhaps this was for the better. He could kill two birds with one stone by moving Sakura off of the team and fazing Itachi out of ANBU at the same time.

Out on the streets, Mikoto and Itachi browsed the housing market near the training grounds so that Sakura wouldn't have to walk far to train when she wanted to. An apartment would have worked, but Mikoto never like how cramped those places were and opted to just buy a house big enough for two to three people to live in.

"Mother, why would she need a place this big?"

"Why? Because she's not going to live alone that's why." Tilting his head in question, she went on to explain her plan. "I want you, her new sensei, to live with her as well. I need to know she's doing well on her own, and I don't think she's been eating all that much from what I could tell. How much money did her parents leave her?"

"About a ten thousand yen." Mikoto frown at that.

"That's clearly not enough money to eat on until the next time they randomly decide to pop in! She was probably counting on her mission pay to help buy the things she needed. If you live in the same house this will reassure me that she's eating well at least. Plus, if there's three bedrooms, then I can come and stay whenever your father and Sasuke start to get on my nerves."

"Father's not going to like this too much. Once he hears that I'm no longer going to be in ANBU and fazed into instructing a civilian girl..."

"Don't worry about your father, Ita-kun. Just leave him to me. Now, your brother on the other hand... If he does anything to Sakura, anything at all, I want you to drag him to our private training grounds and 'train' with him. Am I understood?" Itachi blinked before nodding his head. "Good boy! Now let's look at that house over there!"

He was a mama's boy through-in-through, and no matter how much he loved his little brother, he would do as his mother asked even if it did not end well for Sasuke.

"Sakura Haruno, you are to report to the Hokage right away." Sakura blinked her bleary eyes and nodded her head in acceptance. The sun was just rising in the distance when this ANBU operative made their presence known and gave her the order. They disappeared in a cloud of smoke as she stumbled out of her bed and into the bathroom to change her clothes and splash herself awake with icy water. It didn't take her long to get ready and soon she was in front of the Hokage once again, this time he was just staring at her. She was starting to fidget when he finally decided to speak.

"Sakura Haruno, your request for a team transfer has been approved and will no longer be on the genin team cell 7 from this day forward." Her eyes widened as she bowed and repeated her words of thanks over and over again to the leader of her village. "Starting today, you shall be on a two-man team with just you and your new sensei, seeing as how there are no more genin to place you with."

"...May I know who my new sensei is, Hokage-sama?"

"You may, as a matter of fact, here he comes now." The doors behind her opened quietly and she could hear the person walk towards her and stop. Sakura quickly turned around to bow and give her greetings to her teacher, excited to finally have a chance learn and grow.

"Thank you so much for being my teacher!" She heard a quiet chuckle while she bowed with her eyes tightly closed. Gathering her courage, she glanced up and let out a surprised gasp. "Itachi Uchiha-san?"

"That's Itachi-sensei now, Genin Sakura Haruno. I hope you will work hard under my guidance as your teacher." Sakura nodded her head so fast that both Hiruzen and Itachi thought it might fly off. "Good, now follow me, I need to show you where we will be training at from now on." Sakura followed Itachi out of the room looking a little lost, but happy nonetheless. Hiruzen couldn't help but think that he did the right thing by not talking Mikoto out of using her boon yesterday, the boon he gave her when she saved the life of one of his sons years ago, the one who has sadly since passed.

"Itachi-sensei, which training grounds will we be using?" Sakura asked as they walked past multiple training grounds that had teams of genin and chunin alike sparing. He didn't say anything as he lead her farther away from all the noise those fights made. They walked a good 15 minutes until she spotted a large two-story house with its own gate surrounding the vast piece of property. She followed Itachi as he opened the gate's door and saw that there was a beautiful garden in the front of the house while what looked like training dummies poked out from behind the building.

"The training grounds are in the back, that's where we will meet everyday at sunrise. The garden in the front will be used to grow and teach you about the different herbs and their uses on missions." He motioned for her to walk inside with him and he gave a vague tour on what was where in the house. "The kitchen is right behind the living room on the left, the workout room is to the right. The basement is a shelter/research room of sorts, while there are 3 bedrooms upstairs that have their own baths."

They were in front of a staircase when Itachi stopped and looked back at Sakura. He waited until she stopped looking around at everything and had her attention once more.

"Know that if you ever have any questions you can always come to me and I will answer them to the best of my ability. Now I just have one more thing to say to you, genin Haruno...Welcome to your new home."

Sakura couldn't believe her ears and asked him to repeat what he just said one more time. Itachi's lips twitched into a small smile before repeating. "There must be some mistake! This can't be my new home, there's no way I can afford something this grand!"

"Make no mistake, this is your new home, my mother made it so."
"Mikoto-sama did? But why? I didn't do anything to deserve this! If this is because of yesterday, please tell her she doesn't have to do anything! I was just feeling over whelmed and she was the first person to show me some kindness in a while, so it just kind of spilled out. She doesn't need to worry about someone like me."

"Sakura," Itachi placed his hand on her shoulders to get her to calm down and stop talking. "This is exactly why she is worried. Nobody should be feeling this way or being treated the way you are. From what I've seen, you don't deserve that kind of treatment. Also, no matter what you say, mother will not budge on this. No one can stop her once she starts something. Not even my father."

Giggling a little at Itachi's attempt to make her feel better, she still couldn't help but feel guilty about it all. She had no right to cry on the should of someone who was practically a stranger to her and she didn't feel like she deserved a new place to call home.

"Now, the first thing you are going to do is to go back to your old place and gather your things. If we don't get this done quick enough, mother is going to scold the both of us."

Who knew the stoic Uchiha heir that made all the village girls go wild could crack little jokes like this? She had never seen this happen back in her fangirl days when she used to stalk Sasuke like the rest in his fanclub. Maybe this is something I can only see since I'm his new genin student? Shaking her head, she quickly headed back to her house and pulled out cloth bag. She didn't have much to pack, just her clothes and toiletries that could fit into the bag. Her parent never bought her anything that wasn't absolutely necessary and even then, they had barely gave her enough money to get some weapons for her ninja career.

When she made it back to the new house within the hour, Itachi looked at her with a raised eyebrow. When he asked if she had arranged for the rest of her stuff to be sent, she explained that this was all there was.

"Mother's not going to like that." He muttered with his hand on his chin before looking sharply at Sakura. "Genin Haruno."

"Yes Itachi sensei!" Sakura straightened her back when he called out her name, she flinched a bit when he came near, thinking she did something wrong.

"No matter what my mother says and does, it is futile to resist her will. Just go along with whatever she will plan when she see how little you have."

"Yes?"

"When she drags you along with her and you get tired, and you will get tired, be sure to do what I'm about to teach you, understood?"

"Y-yes sensei!" What have I gotten myself into by crying to her that day?

"Good, follow me to the backyard." Once there he got her to get into a meditative position and instructed her in how to feel for her chakra. "Your chakra should be located just below your navel. Sense it bundled there and study how to flows throughout your body. Learn how it flows, feels, the sensations it gives off is unique only to you. Everyone's chakra is different and feels different. I want you to learn to recognize your own.

Now once you are used to sensing your chakra, I want you to imagine fusing it into your leg or arm muscles. What this will do is get rid of your fatigue until you release your chakra once more. This is what I can do for you today before my mother comes." Nodding her head, Sakura got down to work. She wanted to master this as fast as possible since she didn't know what Mikoto had in store for her. Sakura could only hope it wasn't anything bad.

"Hey, where's Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked once Kakashi broke up the fight between him and Sasuke. "She's usually never late."

"Who cares, Dobe. Maybe she finally decided to quit playing at being a ninja." Sasuke said as he stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"Shut up, Teme! Sakura-chan wouldn't just up and quit!"

"Says a loser like you."

"WHY YOU!"

"Mah~ Boys, there's no reason to fight... But it is strange that she's not here yet. Sakura's usually the first to arrive."

"How would you know when you're always late!" Naruto yelled. Kakashi gave him his signature one eyed smile.

"I have my ways."

"Who cares why the weakling isn't here, we could be spending this time training!" Sasuke scoffed, irritated that they were even discussing the weak link in their team. They could be doing more productive things instead of talking about the fangirl.

"Hmm, how about you two spar again, and I'll go check up on your wayward teammate." He poofed away in a cyclone of leaves and left the boys under the watchful eye of a hidden shadow clone so he would know how badly the beat each other up.

Kakashi was a bit surprised that he didn't notice the only female on his team was not at training ground 9 with them. Then again she was usually quiet and did her own thing while the boys fought each other. Making his way to her house, he let himself inside and noticed how quiet it was. He knew her parents weren't usually home but it was odd when the house looked like no one lived in it. He worked his way up to Sakura's room and peered inside, wondering if she was just sick or something.

When he found it empty and nothing but a made bed and a few scattered pens, he started to wonder where she could have gone off to. He was sure this was her house, he had came by before to scope out the genin hopefuls that would become his team if they passed his test. Her room had at least clothes and bathroom items in it at the time.

He wondered where else she could have been when an ANBU appeared and ordered him to the Hokage's office at once. Sighing, he took his time towards the tower and entered in through the window a good hour later. The Hokage sighed at his usual lateness and motioned for him to stand in front of the desk.

"Kakashi Hatake, do you know why you are here?"

"No? I was just on my way to pick up my cute wayward student the ANBU told me I was needed here."

"Oh? This wayward student wouldn't happened to be Sakura Haruno, would it?" Kakashi gave him an eye crinkle and asked how he knew.

"That is the reason why I have called you to my office. As of today, genin Sakura Haruno is no longer apart of Team 7."

"...Can I ask why you came to this decision, Hokage-sama?"

"Can you not think of why this came to be?" Hiruzen sighed as he was given no answer. "Kakashi, think about it. You have had your team for three months now, and in that time you have neglected one of your students."

"I'm not sure what you mean, Hokage-sama. My students seems to be doing just fine."

"Then it is worse than I initially thought. Your student, Sakura Haruno, came to me to request a team transfer because she was being neglected. She kept a journal on everything that happened throughout the entire three months she was under your guidance.

In the entries, not once did you offer to teach her a single thing. She wrote about how she asked you multiple questions on different subjects so that you would help get her started on the right track and in the end all you did was keep watch on the other two genin in your team and make one noise answers. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I...I thought that since she was the smart one on the team, she could figure things out on her own. Her profile stated that she was a paper ninja and could learn by reading. I kept my attention to the boys so since they learned better by doing than reading."

"You thought wrong. Not only did you fail to teach her anything or give her a nudge into the right direction, you also allowed her to be isolated by one of her own teammates."

"What do you mean?"

"Sasuke Uchiha has been noted to not only cast her glares and spiteful looks, but also keep all the attention away from her so that no one would speak to the girl. Whenever Naruto tried to talk to her about something, he would grab his attention by starting a fight. If they weren't sparring and she tried to ask you a question he would talk over her and you would only answer him or Naruto.

Have you really never noticed that no one on your team lets her talk about things? Lets her ask about thing she doesn't understand? Can you not see how you have been playing favorites with your students and left the one civilian genin out of the loop when she needed the most help out of all of them? Naruto gets help from me, some ANBU, and Iruka. Sasuke has his whole clan to teach him. Sakura? She had nobody and with her parents gone all the time, she might as well have been an orphan."

Kakashi stayed silent once the Hokage was done talking and let the thoughts swirl around in his head. Had he really been playing favorites? Did he really not teach his only female student a single thing? Not even a jutsu? He did remember when she used to ask him questions all the time, but he figured she would get it on her own in time. Nearly ten minutes has passed when he asked one question.

"Who is her new sensei?" Hiruzen took a puff from his pipe before blowing out the smoke and answering.

"Itachi Uchiha."