"You want me to go on a mission with ANBU?" Sakura asked incredulously. "I didn't know that my apprentice's hearing skills were poor," Tsunade deadpanned. Sakura snapped out of her moment of disbelief. "I'm sorry, I thought I must've been hallucinating, I-" "You find it hard to believe that I'm sending you on a mission with ANBU? Give me a break Sakura. You're the best medic that Konoha has seen in many years. Give yourself a little credit," the blonde spoke in a matter of fact tone. "But this isn't any ordinary mission. This is ANBU for crying out loud! I'm not even a combat medic yet, I haven't mastered the Byakugou no In," the pinkette fretted. "Which is why I'm sending you on this mission. Think of it as a test to gauge your combat skills. You'll be going there as a medic but I won't promise that you won't be attacked as this is a mission which needs the best medic we have. They might not all make it out alive which is why I'm sending you," Tsunade explained though it did nothing to assure her.
"I know it's risky sending you on a mission but this is the best that I could do. The Council has been pressuring me to make you join ANBU as a combat medic, of which you're still green," she spoke. "Why would they want me to join ANBU?" Sakura asked, confused. Tsunade looked at her incredulously. "Sakura, have you seen your mission record? You have an impeccable mission record, all your missions have been bordering between B rank and A rank for the past eight months. Not to mention, you've been flying solo this entire time," the Hokage stated. "That's only because all my teammates are out of the village and I haven't seen Kakashi-sensei ever since Naruto left. If they were here, they'd be getting most of the action," the pinkette argued. "Are you saying that you're not strong as a shinobi then?" the Senju asked. "I'm not what you give me credit for. I'm just an ordinary fourteen year old chunin, nothing special about that," she said as she looked at the ground.
"Well then, allow me to read your mission summaries."
Several drawers were opened and a pink folder was slammed on the wooden desk. Sakura thought that it was ironic that her mission folder would be pink when its contents were dark.
"A rank mission. Duration: Five days. Mission type: Assassination. Method: Poisoning food though the target's autopsy says that it was a natural death."
"A rank mission. Duration: Three days. Mission type: Infiltration and Information gathering. Method: Modified appearance using a low level genjutsu and induced the target's brain to reveal classified information by manipulating the brain cells and nerves into believing that they were speaking with their boss. Supported by another genjutsu."
"B rank mission. Duration: Seven days. Mission type: Poison curing. Method: Found a cure within three days and had treated every affected person by the end of the week."
"A rank mission. Duration: Twelve days. Mission type: Protection. Method: Successfully accompanied a family of the civilians, who are the Daimyo's in-laws. Used water-based clones to impersonate the family then changed the family to appear as another Konoha jounin squad using a low level genjutsu and took a different route."
"A rank mission. Duration: Four days. Mission type: Assassination. Method: Forced the heart to beat four times faster the normal speed by touching the target for a moment resulting in a heart attack and instant death."
"A rank mission. Duration: Ten days. Mission type: Assassination. Method: Slit target's throat by throwing a chakra scapel."
"B rank mission. Duration: Eight days. Mission type: Assassination. Method: Ruptured the target's brain with a chakra pulse resulting in instant death."
"B rank mission. Duration: Fourteen days. Mission type: Large scale assassination. Method: Poisoned an entire family using a leaf from a plant that was created by-"
"Okay okay, I hear you. You don't have to read them out loud. I feel bad already that I had to kill so many people using my medical prowess instead of healing," Sakura grumbled as she glared at her master. "I can read your mission summaries where you were required as a medic-" "That's not the point," she said tiredly.
"What's going on with you Sakura? You're not like this. You've been down this whole year, I thought perhaps it was because you weren't going on missions so I decided to give you more and more complicated missions but it seems to be not working. What am I doing wrong?" Tsunade asked as concern laced her tone. Her usually hardened features were soft.
"I,"
Sakura found it difficult to speak. She had never opened up to anyone about what was troubling her. Not even to Ino. But she had to let it out. Logically, Lady Tsunade would be the best option considering the she was the Hokage and could decide on how to handle her shinobi career given her mental health.
"It's just that, for a long time, I have been obsessing over Sasuke-kun. For the past year, everything that I did was to bring him back. Yet I told Naruto that we would wait for him to come back. At first, I was confident but after reading Orochimaru's history and some of his personal notes that I found at the hospital on his medical researches, I'm losing faith every single day. I shouldn't have told Naruto to let Sasuke go to that snake. He should've brought him back. Who knows what lies he's been feeding him?" Sakura growled at the last part.
"I feel frustrated everyday. I have this pent up anger that I just can't seem to control! I don't want to explode at my friends so I've been avoiding them. Obsessing over Sasuke-kun took up a majority of my time ever since he left. And I'm angry at him for leaving. I'm angry at Naruto for letting Sasuke-kun go and leaving me too. I'm angry at Kakashi-sensei that he never taught me anything save for that single statement about camaraderie. I'm angry at myself for being weak, for being useless."
"I can't take it anymore. I should be doing something yet all I've ever done is cling onto a child's dream. I want to stop obsessing over him, I want to stop being angry but I don't know how."
She wasn't surprised to find tears rolling down her cheeks. The frustration was overwhelming her, making her angrier by the second.
"Sakura! You'll hurt yourself!"
Sakura immediately looked down at her hands, she had been unconsciously channeling chakra to her right hand which was gripping her lift wrist. She could feel the familiar ache of a dislocated wrist now that her mind was clear and she focused on healing herself.
"I knew that there was something wrong with the way you've been completing your missions. They all seemed too crude for you. You were too soft for that," Tsunade admitted tiredly. "Well, now you know that I'm not soft," Sakura snapped. Tsunade let that slide as she faced her apprentice.
"Which is why I want you to take this mission. The only way to get rid of your frustrations is to act on them. That anger, you have to take it out. You're not strong but you're smart. You fight with your brains more than with jutsu which is why I never bothered to teach you more jutsu apart from ninjutsu. Somehow, you have a way of making it out alive even though you're disadvantaged."
"Take the mission Sakura. It'll do you good," the Hokage ordered her. "Yes, Lady Tsunade," Sakura agreed.
Sakura dyed her hair a dark green color using temporary dye. She was given a white mask which had a green diamond on the forehead and two smaller ones on either sides of her cheeks. Her uniform was a bit loose since she hadn't finished her growth spurt. But it would do. She was given a katana which she could use fairly well ever since Yugao trained her for a month when she was on leave. Her team captain introduced himself as Neko. He pointed to her three teammates, Karasu, Inu and Nezu. They were the same age as Kakashi-sensei and were all male. She introduced herself as Midori. She would be providing backup as a medic. They headed out at midnight.
Their mission was simple. They had to assassinate an entire family of drug dealers who located just near the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water.
They should've told her they they would be killing children but they didn't. They should've told that they would be killing for the elderly too but they remained quiet. Initially, she was furious that Lady Tsunade hadn't considered her mental well-being as a medic if she had to butcher children.
But after awhile into the fight, she understood why Lady Tsunade and her team captain didn't find it necessary to warn her. Because they were all the same. They weren't ordinary drug dealers. They were chakra dealers. They had a kekkei genkai which could copy another person's chakra and even recreate it.
Every. Single. One. Of. Them.
Which was why they had to eliminated. She was grateful that Orochimaru didn't stumble upon them because who knew what he would do if he discovered he could recreate an Uchiha's chakra?
Sakura ducked under a jet of steaming hot water. Little droplets of the water splashed onto her skin and left red angry marks. A quick scan of her surroundings told her that her teammates weren't faring well. Which was why she had to intervene before they were all butchered.
Because the Nakamura clan could copy a person's chakra, they changed their elemental affinities every now and then and it seemed they had an unlimited supply of chakra. They were twenty in total and they had managed to kill only five of them. Who were all children barely past the age of ten.
Out of the corner, she watched Neko create multiple earth based shadow clones which managed to take the brunt of the lightning bolt one of the Nakamura seniors had thrown at him. She saw him close the distance within the blink of an eye and slashed the man across his neck, spraying blood all over his uniform. One more down, fourteen to go.
There were currently six children, four adults and four elderly. Her teammates were fighting against the adults, with the children occasionally assisting rhem. She decided to start with the elderly before going onto the children.
She took out her katana and flashed to an old lady who looked to be well over fifty years. She was currently hiding behind a book shelf in the large dining room. She wondered why they would put a book shelf where people took their meals. Perhaps they liked to read. Or it was just for decoration. Or it was to be used as a hiding spot.
The grey haired woman snarled at her as she sent kunai at her. She was too slow to dodge and all the kunai hit bull's-eye. The woman was down before Sakura moved onto the next pair of old men who had taken to running outside. She quickly followed and used a substitution jutsu to appear in front of them. They both stumbled at her abrupt arrival. Sakura twisted her katana in her hand as she walked towards them.
"Please have mercy!" they pleaded as they tried to scamper away from her. She ignored their cries as she slashed their necks, resulting in quick deaths. She substituted back into the double story building, where she saw Karasu cut down a girl who appeared to be in her early teens. She could smell the poison from the kunai which was lodged into his shoulder and she shunshined over to him. "Take this. It'll stop the effects of the poison for two hours," she said as she pressed two pills into his hand. The blonde haired ANBU wasted no time in popping them into his mouth and she could imagine his face scrunching up in distaste. Those pills were her recently developed anti-poison special grades and they tasted horribly.
An earth spike sailed over them and the two of them immediately split up. She went to attack the man who had sent the jutsu. She dodged under a fist and retaliated with a kick to his sternum. It felt like she hit a brick wall and hurt so bad that it caused her to see white light. She clutched her broken ankle as she jumped away from him, sending healing chakra to her injury. The man smiled at her as he wiped blood off his cheek. "Not so tough, are we now?" he asked in a deep baritone voice.
She finished healing her ankle and focused a large pulse of chakra in her right fist as she charged towards him. The man remained unmoving and her fist connected with his face. It felt even worse than her broken ankle and she bit back a curse as she jumped back to nursed her wounded arm. She eyed him warily as she healed herself. His body couldn't be that tough. It was impossible. Unless he was copying someone else's technique. She racked her brain through the thousand or so elemental jutsu that Lady Tsunade had forced her to study for the past six months. None seemed to match this one.
The man closed the distance between them and punched her in the stomach. Sakura felt her eyes bulge outwards as she was sent careening backwards, crashing into the walls and out in the open. Her momentum was stopped when she slammed into a tree. She coughed violently as her lungs complained due to the lack of air. It felt way worse than Lady Tsunade's punches. She tasted blood in her mouth. It was unlike any punch she had ever received.
"Ahhh, the wonders of chakra manipulation. Quite handy, don't you think?" The man smirked as he walked over to her. She could still hear the sounds of battle going on inside, the clash of metal and elemental ninjutsu. "You know, chakra is very unique to an individual, just like DNA. Change a little something and you get something entirely new!" he exclaimed, his brown hair dancing with the slight breeze. "Imagine if you could change your chakra, what possibilities lie ahead?!" his laughter was almost maniacal and Sakura would've found it funny if it weren't for the burning sensation she was feeling where he had punched her.
She touched her mask, it was still in tact.
"I have a question, if you don't mind me asking," she called out to him as she stood up, a hand pressed to her stomach. "Seeing that today may as well be your very last day alive, I see no reason why I can't satisfy your curiosity. Ask ahead," he replied with a smirk. "Do you know a man called Orochimaru?" she asked him. The man held his chin in thought. "You mean the Snake Sannin? Ahh, yes I do. Worked with him and shared some little chakra secrets awhile ago," he stated.
Sakura nodded. "Thanks. I just needed to know so that I won't feel bad when I kill you," she told him cheerily. "Bring it on kiddo!"
This isn't Beta read!