KAKASHI'S POV

I knew.

I knew fully well, I would mess up.

I didn't think it would be this bad.

My fists clenched painfully at my sides, my nails broke through the skin on my palms. Blood dripped slowly down my clenched fingers and splashed on the ground where I stood in front of the Memorial Stone. The physical pain didn't even register, honestly I couldn't bring myself to care.

This was all my fault. No one but me is to be blamed for this. My past was messed up, but that wasn't an excuse. I left for a mission only to return to find two of my students gone. I should have moved on, I should have been a better teacher, a better mentor. If I'd tried a bit more, none of this would have happened. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. Those brats may have been naive, foolish and reckless, but they were my brats, and I cared deeply for them. But it was too late now, too late to do anything but stand here in the afternoon sun with bleeding hands and a bleeding heart.

Heh, I'm truly the definition of a disaster.

Gods, why did Lord Third made me a Jonin-Sensei in the first place given my history?

Sasuke. The last of the Uchiha clan. Driven by a desire to become stronger in order to kill his brother and avenge his family and clan, he had left the village of his own free will, and joined one of the Sannin, the snake bastard who's planning on taking over his body.

Naruto. The vessel of the nine tails, the son of my late Sensei, Minato. He was given a great opportunity to be trained by the Toad Sannin, the very same man who nurtured Minato to greatness. The man who was Naruto's godfather.

And Sakura.

The last of my students.

Born from a civilian family. The only kunoichi graduating with the highest grades in class. Her cheerful attitude to make your day and a quick temper to scare you away. Her chakra control is beyond prefect. And yet, she was always being forgotten, always being left behind. Even...by me. How could I have forgotten Sakura?So much potential and I put it to waste. Some teacher I am. The last time I heard from her, she was attending classes for medical ninjutsu. Her chakra control is prefect for genjutsu but being a medical ninja actually suits her. In the end, it's Sakura's choice to decide what type of ninja she wants to be.

I've failed the three of them. They must have realized that. I've never been good with words, and even worse with people. It shouldn't have come as such a surprise that I could drive them away. Frankly, it was a surprise it didn't happen sooner.

The sharp burning in my chest increased and I squeezed my eyes tightly closed, willing the world outside to just disappear. Maybe...maybe it was better this way. They're better off without me there to screw things up. I was never meant to be a teacher. Too volatile, too jaded, too bloody, too broken to be anything other than a weapon.

"It's better this way" I repeated over and over again, a silent mantra, each reiteration a fresh gouge through my chest. "I'll go back to solo missions. No team, no collateral damage. It's better this way"

SAKURA'S POV

I threw kunai after kunai at the target, sadness and anger making my sloppy, as evidenced by the fact that, for the tenth time in less than two minutes, I hit the post behind where I was aiming. Sasuke-Kun was gone, left the village, making a deal with the devil that was Orochimaru and learning all a Sannin had to teach him. Naruto was gone as well, left only a few days ago, also with a Sannin of his own on a training trip. I haven't seen Kakashi-Sensei for a while, probably busy with other things. Yet here I was, stuck with D-Rank missions all on my lonesome.

I hated herself, in a tired and resigned sort of way. It was my own fault. I was being all carefree and thinking about how to get Sasuke-Kun to notice me while my teammates were working hard to achieve their dreams. I'd learned so much about them in the last year we've been together since they graduated from the academy.

Sasuke's determination to grow and his tragic childhood, Naruto's reputation within the village, the scorn he so undeservedly received, and his ceaseless happiness and eagerness to protect. Even Kakashi-sensei always kept himself slightly distant and aloof, surely from all the loss he'd experienced in his long career as a ninja. All three but me were giving out their best. Makes sense why Kakashi-Sensei didn't train me much.

So I had a grand plan. I had planned to meet Lady Tsunade, our new Hokage and the legendary medic Sannin for apprenticeship. It's why I started attending medical ninjutsu classes. I figured that if Naruto and Sasuke-Kun both got to be taught by a Sannin, then I would too in order to keep up with them! I went to the Hokage tower and reached her office when I overhead a conversation between her and two elderly people, demanding why Naruto had left the village. I was shocked of their conversation and backed away from the door and turned to go, tears streaming down my cheeks. Naruto had the nine tails sealed inside him. It makes sense why the village hates him, why my parents were wary of him.

At that moment, I had a revelation. Sasuke was being trained by Orochimaru because he's an Uchiha and he had planned to take over his body. Naruto was being trained by Jiraiya because he's the nine tails vessel. He's also in danger of being captured by the Akatsuki. So, he needs the training. I realize that I, a lowly genin of no special clan or talent wouldn't be up to the female Sannin's standards. Even if I become her apprentice, I wouldn't be allowed into the field for missions, not even D-Ranks, until I was up to par.

I'd promised to be better, be stronger, to not let herself watch my teammates backs while they passed me by any longer. I would rebuild myself better, up to my fullest potential.Instead, I stayed just like my old self. I'd tried, on a few occasions, to better myself. I'd put work into developing new techniques and trying to rely on my strengths as a ninja. But even with all my work, I still fell behind my teammates. I still fell behind everyone else.

I felt so...useless.

"Maa...Not bad, though you need to raise your arm a little higher" my thoughts were interrupted by a voice behind me. With a kunai held high in my hand, I quickly spun around to fight only to see it was Kakashi-Sensei. I didn't even felt him arrive, the air barely moving with his appearance!

"Kakashi-Sensei!" I flustered in embarrassment and lowered the kunai. I straighten slowly, looking up at him. "W-What...what brings you here? I mean, not that I'm complaining though. Do you have a mission for us, or did you just want to do some team training?"

"Oh...um..." Kakashi-Sensei turned his gaze out to the training grounds, staring at nothing with a vacant eye.

Feeling confused and worried for Kakashi-Sensei, I take a tentative step forward. "Sensei, are you alright?" I asked. Kakashi-Sensei snapped out of his thoughts and turned back to me. I took a step back in slight fear. The expression on his face, I've seen it before and knew what it meant. Kakashi-Sensei was deadly serious.

"Sakura, we have to talk" I swallowed thickly and wiped my suddenly sweaty hands against my shorts. Kakashi-Sensei leaned back, some of that sharp, serious regard fading slightly. "Don't look so worried, you're not in trouble. But we do have something very important to discuss"

I took a deep breath. "Okay, Sensei. What do we need to talk about?"

"The village is in a very bad place right now, Sakura. The invasion has weakened us more than you realize. I'm sure you've noticed that most of the repairs from the invasion have been completed, which means now the Hokage wants to put as many Jounin and Chunin as she can on high profit missions" Kakashi-Sensei paused, clearly looking like he wanted me to say something before he continued. "I'm going to be running a lot of missions. Back to back, non stop, and I'll be out of the village often. For most of the new Genin teams with Jonin-Sensei, this isn't an issue. They're still in three man squads, and the value of having a Jonin come back to the village slightly more often for training trips is worth the loss of income from those few extra missions they run"

I froze, my throat running dry. "Oh?" was all I managed to say.I just averted my eyes from him and clenched my fingers hard so I don't accidentally scream bloody murder at Kakashi-Sensei who was abandoning me. Just like Sasuke-Kun. Like Naruto.

"But Team Seven is just you and me right now. The Hokage can't justify the loss of income from my missed missions if I came back to teach regularly. The missions I'll be running will be some of the hardest we have to offer and require some skills I have that other Jonin don't" Kakashi-Sensei explained. "Sakura, as my last remaining student, you would have to be shuffled to a new team under someone else's tutelage"

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "I-I see"

Kakashi-Sensei's expression to soften again before reaching out to pat my shoulder. "I know this is hard, b-but...everything will be fine. It's for the best. You'll do great, you always have" he turned around. "Take care of yourself, Sakura" And with a final shoulder squeeze, Kakashi-Sensei disappeared in the wind.

I dropped to my knees. I wanted cry, to scream out in the training grounds, but I couldn't. I was just there with a blank expression. He has abandoned me, like the rest of the team. I was all alone. And the worst part was that Kakashi-Sensei was right. I knew that the only thing he spoke was the hard, cold, logical truth. Kakashi-Sensei would be busy and I wasn't worth his time. He was worth more to the village out in the field working than he was teaching a useless kunoichi like me.

The sadness in my heart shifts into anger as it swelled with my chakra. I grit my teeth while gripping my fingers on the grass. I tried to suppressed that anger, but was having a hard time doing so. "Have you forgotten what you told us after the bell test, huh Sensei? Those who break the rules are trash but those who abandoned their comrades are worse than trash! Are you going to abandon me just like that?! Cha!" My inner sneered.

I'd been trying to be truer to myself, to suppress my emotions less and embrace myself as a shinobi, but I'm tired of hiding my anger everytime Kakashi-Sensei focuses his attention to Naruto and Sasuke than me! I have every damn right to be angry at him for abandoning me again. I refuse to let myself break down. Refuse to let myself weak anymore. A vicious, beastly feeling arose in me then, so strong that it terrified me for a moment, made me falter even as I realize what the emotion was.

Desperation.

Sure Kakashi-Sensei wasn't the best teacher but neither was she the best student. He was still my Sensei, either that or keep practicing on my own, knowing it wouldn't help me get better or join a new Genin team I might not like, and I prefer the latter.

I stood up and glanced at the post I've been pitting myself against earlier before looking up at the sky, slowing fading into pinks and oranges above the trees. I head home, a determined smile tugging at my lips. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to meet Kakashi-sensei. I'm going to follow him on his missions, on his journeys. Kakashi-Sensei didn't take me seriously because I didn't take my ninja career seriously. So I'm going to prove to him that I'm his student, that I'm worth teaching, that I can be taken seriously.

Me and Kakashi-Sensei are the only remaining members of Team Seven and I'd be damned if I lose him too.