At first, she didn't have trouble getting a grip about what exactly Haki was, despite the shitty explanation that Garp gave to her a few days ago in their 'special training'. The pinkette could at least thank it to her own knowledge with chakra and how close to the concept both energies seemed between each other that it made it a bit easy for her to get the basic technicalities.
But putting it into practice was an entirely different thing.
Sakura had always been confident in her capacity to control chakra almost in an unnatural capacity, but haki (while slightly close to the spiritual form of chakra) still diverted from what she was used to and therefore became her one and only struggle during training.
'Ambition.' 'Willpower.' Haki was basically all that but taking form and substance to give a boost in battle.
It took her days to realize that the very "plug" that had prevented her to reach her chakra when she had been six years old was the very haki that she couldn't pull even if her life depended on it. She hadn't known brutality until Garp took seriously her determination to get stronger that first day he explained what it would entail for such a goal to be achieved.
"Come on, come on!" she urged with frustration at the lack of results in making her haki move the way she wished. The girl could sense it right at the core of her body, but commanding it to take shape was like trying to walk over a very thick swamp.
Eventually she had to take a break since the green-eyed girl could swear that she had been close to bursting some blood vessels at the strain.
"You're taking this with the wrong approach, brat" chided the old man, arms crossed while trying to see where he could assist his granddaughter with this problem.
"It's not like you are being of so much help, crazy old man!"
Okay, so the fist that landed on her face was genuinely her fault for that little outburst, but she was just so used to her flawless control over her power that still being stuck on the same limitation was beyond frustrating.
"Ha! I think I know what we need here!"
The wicked edge that the ever present smile of Garp gained sent a shiver over Sakura's body.
This couldn't be anything good.
When mourning, there's never a real 'move on' in the process.
It actually just transforms into a deep itching scar that stays with you for as long as you allow it, but Sakura had learned too from early age that it was a personal decision to let it in the open to consume your life eventually or to simply accept that it will forever stay there as the reminder of the person that said scar represented.
She was happy to see that her brothers managed to go back to their goofy and determined selves when time passed over their heads, letting the memory of their missing brother as a new motivator for their dreams and growth.
The pride she felt for them alongside the tenderness both boys managed to worm over her chest was a dangerous thing that only made her cherish this moments of their training, something the two preteens had insisted because, at the end of the day, Sakura-nee was still the strongest between the three of them.
It was in the quiet nights after a feast of cooked meat and vegetables, where Sakura would let that wall of strong conviction fall for brief seconds while she tucked her boys in their futons.
Her seventeenth birthday was away from a few months, but she already had everything ready; the small fishing boat one of the nice people at Foosha Village had decided to gift her after she gave them the needed medicine for their ill child, along some money that she had saved from small, simple jobs around the lower district of Goa Kingdom (she would never tell to her brothers that she had gone and stole some more stuff from the nobles, out of stupid petty anger towards the damn aristocrats).
Everything was settled and ready for her smooth sailing and yet she never expected how hard that would be for her once the final 'goodbye' was said.
"I knew you still would be here, kid"
Dadan had softened even more over time, still pretending to not care about the boys but she had never seemed to mind showing that same softness towards her in the open.
"Hi, Dadan-san" she muttered with a small smile, getting up only to sit outside the tree house to watch the vastness of the jungle under the night sky.
"These days they've been annoying us all about doing a 'farewell party' for you. The gall of those damn brats." The pinkette pretended that she didn't know that Dadan and the rest of the bandits had been pouring for days too about getting her a new medical study book for her birthday. It was actually so incredibly sweet how freaked out Dogra had looked when he explained in a hushed tone that it was the last tome he had seen at the library.
"I wouldn't mind it that much" she let her arms go at her sides to recline her back a little. "If anything, I'll feel offended if none of you at least sing 'happy birthday' to me that day"
Her airy giggle was followed by a loud "blergh!" from the ginger woman, who stuck her tongue out in distaste at the idea of singing that annoying tune.
The things the older woman has to put up for her brats.
"You are lucky that out of these two you are my favorite, Pinky" she pointed with her thumb at her back, the loud snoring of the boys only managing to make her point clearer.
Instead of a witty comment at the usual nickname that annoyed her, the green-eyed girl smiled fondly and looked at the sky. Soaking at the normalcy of this scene before she had to take off as promised to her little brother.
Who knows? Maybe Sabo was right and the idea of becoming a pirate in the long run wouldn't be so bad, but until then, Sakura wanted to go out there and see the wonders of this world.
"Hey Dadan-san…" the young teen called to get the full attention of the woman. "Thank you"
The silence greeted her for a few seconds until a grunt was her first response.
"What the hell are you thanking me about?"
And despite the harsh words, there was a soft smile over the orange-haired woman the whole time.
The pinkette had expected the waterworks that Luffy would let out at her departure, clinging tightly to her torso even when his words of 'catching up with her soon' and 'becoming stronger than her' said the contrary. The poor kid wanted to save face even when the crying was quite loud and messy.
God, she was going to miss this idiot.
Ace on the other hand had been the most controlled of the two; a soft smile over his lips while he crossed his arms at the spectacle that their younger brother was making. For all his tough-guy front, the girl could still see some unshed tears barely clinging at the corner of his eyes and after the freckled boy managed to pry off their brother from her, he was next in line for a well deserved hug.
The fact that Ace lacked the extra stretch on his limbs didn't deter him into giving her a crushing embrace full of affection and warmness, using her hair to hide the small drops that had escaped successfully from his eyes once the whole scene settled on his mind.
His big sister was finally sailing.
She was going away and only god knew when he would get the chance to see her again.
"You better stay safe! Do you hear me?!" The boy with the orange hat yelled in an attempt to hide the wails that wanted to be free from his throat, all in vain as he still sniffled loudly at the sudden snot on his nose. "You gotta stay safe so you can see Luffy and me become super strong and awesome pirates, okay?!"
Sakura simply smiled, all sweet and incredibly touched at her younger brother's words.
She wanted to see them one last time and take with herself the one memory that she will need every day.
"I'll miss you guys so much!"
And the waterworks started once again.
That had been the longest and hardest goodbye she had to do in her life, but this is part of what moving forward means.
And now… she only has the company of the ocean and fishes.
It was incredibly lonely and boring the next weeks of sailing on her own and while she had studied navigation to all its depths, a part of her was still a little nervous at the lack of any sightings of an island and the mild winds didn't help with the already slow speed of her small boat.
It was in those quiet days of her journey through the East Blue where the mind of the pink-haired teen wandered to dangerous places in the most idle of moments, being particularly rough when she was confronted with a mirror.
With the small body of a child, the girl found it easy to ignore any aspect that could differ from her past life since her ever-present pink hair and green eyes had still been there the very first day she woke up, but now as a seventeen years old teen… her body felt alien, odd in a way that she couldn't decide if it was good or bad.
For starters, her body had grown different from the lean and athletic shape she had back then as a shinobi, developing more curves of what the teen was used to. The green shade of her eyes was more vibrant and saturated in comparison of the aquamarine jade she had in the past, with the shape of her eyes looking a tad bit sharper thanks to the light droop they developed at the corners over the years (a big contrast to the big doe-like form she had before as a child).
Even her hair, while still pink, seemed to acquire a slight curling effect at the tips that gave it more volume. Very different from the straight type she used to have.
Looking at herself in the mirror only cemented the idea that, while still Sakura, this was a life very far from the one she had.
The first interruption of her peaceful days came in the form of a very menacing looking sea king who seemed ready to devour her pitiful fishing boat. Its looming form hovering right above in an attempt to intimidate but it had little effect on the teen as she had been used to huge creatures trying to eat her alive.
At this point, the trope had little effect.
Yet the sea creature looked indeed pretty horrifying when appreciating it closely; a really messed up mix with the nasty maw of a hagfish but the head and eyes similar to those of an eel.
No matter, Sakura was still in all her right to defend herself from this thing and she wasn't about to hold back by any means, so she twisted her body in an attempt of readying her fist to deliver a devastating punch… until the surface of the sea once again broke with the form of an even bigger sea king. This one looked like the bastard child of a parrot and a catfish, but its size made the hagfish monster look ridiculously small in comparison.
'Great… just my luck.'
Two sea kings for the price of one.
Unlike what the pinkette was expecting from this terrible scenario, the bigger sea monster brutally pushed the smaller creature, bullying its way towards her boat with the clear intention of hoarding her as its next meal and leaving the hagfish sea king to fend off on its own (probably to starve if the poor thing's size was any indication).
So when Sakura jumped and punched the ugly thing right on its approaching maw, the hit had been accompanied by a little bit of petty anger too. Sure thing, the small sea king had planned to eat her first, but the fact that another monster had gone on its way to bully it into submission made her feel some pity for the little guy.
The beady eyes of the hagfish sea king were completely concentrated on her after the mean creature had ended up unconscious at the bottom of the sea with a single punch. If she wasn't mistaken, there was a bright shine of awe there that did seem to follow her form with such intensity, unnerving the young girl to some degree.
Against all possible logical judgment, the pinkette decided to throw some of the fishes she had catched earlier that day to the sea king. It wasn't much for a creature of its size but the happy wiggle it did when getting close told her that she had been right about the little fella not having eaten for quite some time.
Her concern only started to grow when Sakura realized that even after weeks where she had already docked in two different islands, the hagfish sea king still followed her small boat around like a lost puppy.
Oh… oh no.
Apparently she accidentally domesticated a sea monster.
She had found it a bit disturbing and annoying having a sea king trailing after her, but eventually the young girl had managed to ignore the creature for the sake of her own nerves.
Each day it was a titanic effort to fish her next meal because the presence of the hagfish monster scared all the fishes near her boat and the few she did catch were immediately devoured by her persistent companion, leaving only the bare minimum to survive for a few days.
Sakura's patience was on thin ice, ready to snap and kick away the sea king until a horrible and devastating storm trapped her small fishing boat in its clutches.
The winds pulled and pushed everywhere while the rain made it impossible to see beyond a few feet away, and the waves… oh the waves were the worst of it all. They crashed with a violence and force that plenty of times the pinkette was convinced that her boat was already sinking, being pulled down by a very furious Mother Ocean.
Never in her life had Sakura been more scared and respectful of nature's rage than in that very instant.
It was during a particular huge surge of the sea, that the green-eyed teen found herself unable to do anything at the impending sinking that her ship would suffer by the unmerciful hands of a wall of water.
The pinkette only had enough time to prepare for the hit.
Sakura was sure that she had been under the water, just for a single minute, but it had been the longest minute of her time, but then she was out of the ocean and the waters felt less violent in its force once she felt grounded in the surface.
That's when she saw the reason behind her small boat having survived the fury of nature, right under the boat specifically.
The girl could only laugh in hysteria and relief at the sight of the hagfish sea king pulling her ship using the back of its head and away from the storm. To her complete astonishment and disgust (once looking closer), it seemed that her ship was being held tightly by the monster with what appeared to be some viscous and very sticky substance that was poured out of its scales.
No matter how much the waves crashed against both the sea king and her boat, the sticky mucus didn't budge a little, protecting her from being pulled away by the water again.
"Oh you crazy little guy!" she practically screamed in both excitement and relief. She had been so close to dying, swallowed by the ocean, until her companion paid her with the same kindness the teen gave to it a few weeks back.
Once the waters calmed down, it was when Sakura knew they were out of the storm and just in time to let the pinkette see at the distance the last stop so she could finally enter the Grand Line.
Loguetown.
The girl can only imagine the kind of entrance she will make with a ship being towed by a sea king of all things at the docks.
She chuckled at the idea alone.
'God, I'll need a lot of alcohol after this.' She thought tiredly. Her body still sprawled at the gunwale where she had peaked at her little companion who still seemed hellbent to take her into land.
And for a sad moment, Sakura found herself remembering Katsuyu.
Thank you for reading!