Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

" I'm Haruno Sakura. What I like- I mean who I like is", she took a look at Sasuke and blushed before breathing in deeply," And my hobby is, I mean... My future dream is-"

Actually. What was her dream? Why did she want to become a shinobi? Wasn't it originally to help people in danger, to protect her loved ones? Had she turned so soft that she was going to ruin her ninja career for a boy? A very pretty one admittedly… but god she seemed unprofessional. How embarrassing, and that in front of her new Sensei!

Sakura took a deep breath, trying to calm down:” My dream is to protect the people I care about! And I dislike ignorance and people that take advantage of others!”

She could’ve sworn her sensei looked slightly surprised at her change of attitude. She could only hope she had managed to at least somewhat salvage her first impression.

“ That’s so cool, Sakura-chan!”, a loud voice sounded next to her ear and the aforementioned girl’s right eye twitched slightly.

“ Maa, let’s all settle down again”, her sensei smiled -Was it a smile? She could only see his left eye after all- and then continued,” Your turn, broody.”

“ My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things and I don’t particularly like anything”, Sasuke began, and Sakura felt incredulous at that. He didn’t like anything? She knew her crush was kind of closed off and broody, but he had to like something, right?

Sasuke seemingly not noticing the change in mood, or simply not caring went on:” What I have is not a dream, because I’m going to make it a reality. I’m going to restore my clan and destroy a certain someone.

‘Damn, edgy’, a voice in her head said and Sakura felt mortified. ‘He’s not edgy, he’s mysterious’, she thought back fervently. ‘What happened to focusing on our career’, the dry response came. ‘I can still admire from afar!’, Sakura grumbled internally. This time no answer came.

Kakashi Sensei meanwhile, sweatdropped at the Last Uchiha’s introduction. “ I see, you are all a very… interesting bunch.”

Chapter Text

Apparently, Sakura was wrong in the assumption that their Sensei wasn’t too thrilled by having to teach them, he seemed to downright despise it. And Sakura got it, she really did. Kids weren’t her forte either, but why in Hashirama’s name would you choose a job that involves teaching if you can’t handle kids?

After they’d finished their introductions the day before, Kakashi Sensei seemed to be taking some sort of sadistic pleasure in explaining to them that the graduation test they took merely had the purpose of deciding who had the potential to become a Genin; the real test that was going to determine if they were to get that title still was to come. She could hardly believe it, some may not believe it but she did study very hard for the graduation test, despite mainly focusing on Sasuke during the lessons and even her free time. Actually, when had she started doing that? She used to be the most attentive student in the class.

But going back to her sensei, the man then suggested that they forgo breakfast, lest they throw up. In hindsight, she should’ve known that he intended to trick them. She was well aware of what the lack of vitamins and protein did to your body. She shuddered as she recalled the time Amari talked her into fasting, and she overdid it a little. From that point on she made sure to always eat enough.

Regardless, the rosette felt a mixture of fury and disappointment in both her sensei up to this point and herself. Of course, it was partly her own fault that she’d performed so horribly at the bell test. For example, she of all people should’ve known what a genjutsu felt like and trained her body into a better condition. But it’s not like she had anybody to fall back onto, to teach her and guide her like Clan members. Neither of her parents had any experience in fighting whatsoever.

Not to mention that most of her peers were not only clan members but heirs whose education was deemed more important by the academy teachers. Matter of fact, Sakura was the only civilian-born who graduated this year, and it was making her blood boil. How were non-clan members even supposed to rise in the ranks when nobody was even acknowledging them?

It was by pure luck that Sakura even passed Kakashi Sensei’s test since she did nothing but burst into tears at the sight of Sasuke’s beaten and blooded body, and couldn’t even manage to dispel the genjutsu after figuring out it was one. She wasn’t the one to find out the true purpose of the bell test either. Kakashi Sensei had made it so obvious that it was teamwork by pitting them against each other.

She was too soft, Sakura decided after remembering all the condescending looks she got from shinobi just for even daring to try to become one of them.

But what could she do? It wasn’t like she had anybody to help her on her mission to get stronger. Although, now that she was technically an adult by the emancipation law, she was permitted to enter almost all sections of the library, wasn’t she?

—

“ Excuse me?”, Sakura spoke to the elderly woman sitting at the counter while flashing her Ninja identification card,” Could you be able to tell me where the scrolls on Chakra control and Taijutsu styles are?

“ Ah Sakura-kun, finally made Genin, didn’t you?”, the woman chuckled warmly, her sharp brown eyes skeptically looking over the rosette’s identification card. She’s known Sakura since the girl came in for the first time at five years of age and knew her to be trustful, but protocol was protocol.

“ Mhm”, the girl hummed softly as she followed the woman into the cordoned-off part of the library,” Is it quite busy these days, Namiashi-san?”

“ I told you it’s Kohana to you, Sakura-kun”, the woman seemed exasperated.” And yes it it quite busy but we can handle it. Besides, nobody comes into the library quite as often as you do anyway”, her lips quirked up into a teasing smile.

Sakura sighed, internally rolling her eyes at the woman’s teasing. ” Thank you for showing me the scrolls I needed”, she smiled, changing the topic.

“ You’re always so stiff and overly polite, Sakura-kun, lighten up a little. It’s almost like you’re not happy to see little old me”, the woman smiled.

“ No, No”, Sakura rushed to reassure Namiashi, fearing to have offended the old librarian,” It’s always a pleasure to converse with you.”

The old woman’s lip quirked up. “ Of course it is, but I guess I’ll leave you to your reading. It seems I have someone to attend to right now anyway. See you in a few hours, if you manage to get out of your mind by that time”, she gave her farewell as the bell at the library’s entrance rang and a loud ‘Hello?’ sounded.

“ Have a good rest of your day”, Sakura responded absentmindedly, already immersed in the scrolls, and Namiashi just fondly shook her head before leaving: if only some people had as much love for knowledge and ambition as her.

Eventually, she had a few chakra exercises jotted down in her pink notebook that might be useful. It seemed there were harder versions of the leaf exercise like tree and water and water walking. Both of them involved channeling chakra into the soles of your foot and sticking to whatever surface you were working with. It had to be pretty useful in combat, Sakura mused, underlining the words two times.

The next thing she did was browse through a bunch of old bingo books to determine what area she wanted to specialize in. The answer came to her when her eyes landed on a page with a young blond man. “ The yellow flash, Minato Namikaze”, she read out loud. Wasn’t he also the fourth Hokage? It was definitely something worth looking into. Interestingly enough the man bore a strong resemblance to Naruto. Maybe they were distant relatives or something, but she put that thought aside for later to think about.

What appealed to her about Namikaze the most was the lack of affiliation with any clans just like her and the incredible speed he was famous for. ‘Flying Thundergod technique, huh?’, she thought, resolving to get a few books about seals later. If she had to master Fuinjutsu in order to get on the fourth Hokage’s level, so be it. She was determined enough to get it down as soon as possible even if she’d probably be never strong as the Hidden Leaf’s hero. If spending her whole life training was what she had to do then she would do so. The good thing about it was that Sakura didn’t particularly need to concentrate on getting physically stronger since if she mastered the speed it would more than make up for the lack of muscles.

Nevertheless, it was probably best to build up her muscles as well. They just wouldn’t be her main focus. That was Sasuke-kun’s and even Naruto’s specialty as she begrudgingly admitted. Kami, what she wouldn’t do for a Y chromosome. Wait did that mean she was jealous of Sasuke-kun? That certainly was a weird feeling.

Sakura then put back her notebook into her pocket, not having to borrow the scrolls as she had already finished memorizing them a few minutes ago. The rosette then grimaced when she looked down at her body. Those clothes Sure as hell weren’t fitted for Ninja practice. Besides, Sasuke wouldn’t care if she didn’t wear a dress anyway, would he? After all, he never paid attention to the way she dressed before.

Having made up her mind, Sakura decided that it was time for a quick shopping trip. She should also probably refrain from wearing too much red as it wasn’t very stealthy.

In the end, Sakura chose to buy a mesh shirt, a deep purple crop top that complimented her eyes -she simply couldn’t stop herself- as well as a dark crimson haori, keeping her black leggings and ninja sandals as they were. Let people underestimate her for wearing girly colours, it was probably better that way anyway.

The topic of her hair made Sakura conflicted. One on hand its length was very impractical, but on the other Sasuke supposedly liked it that way. Her hand shook in indecision as she harshly gripped the kunai on her belt. Then, before she could regret what she was doing she cut off half of her hair cleanly. She watched closely as the soft pink strands slipped through her fingers and fell to the floor, remaining in that position for a few more seconds before snapping out of it.

She then took a quick look at the sky, determining that it was somewhere between four and five according to the sun’s position. Sakura took a deep breath, there was no going back now, she had made her decision and her pride wouldn't allow her to divert from her path in the future.

Onto training.

Chapter Text

As Sakura observed the brawl of a few civilian children, she realized she lay wrong in the assumption that her body was in a bad condition; it was in an absolutely horrendous one. Not to mention that she definitely couldn't have walked off the punch a little guy just threw right at the face of one of his friends. Seems like the training she’d already planned out wasn’t going to make the cut. Especially if her gut feeling proved to be right and Kakashi Sensei was going to volunteer them for the next Chunin exams that were to take place in a few months because there was no way the higher-ups wouldn’t give Sasuke as the last remaining Uchiha a chance at an early promotion, seeing as the village was very eager to prove their strength after the fairly recent scandal with the Hyuuga heiress in which she was almost kidnapped. Sakura was just glad Hinata was okay.

Anyways, she was getting off-topic again, rambling, as her mother always scolded her for doing. And despite having come to the horrible realization that she wasn’t going to be any help in a real battle, luckily, there were three things she’d been able to count on her whole life long; her brain, her social skills, and her ability to run very fast for an extended amount of time. The reason for her proficiency in the last one was accompanied by a very long story, but the gist of it was that Sakura found herself in the situation of being chased by a large black bear. Never before in her life had she experienced such terror and fear for her life. She never missed a day of going on long runs around Konoha after that.

It was also the first time Sakura considered dropping out of the shinobi academy, because, surely, if a bear was able to instill so much fright in her, her heart wouldn’t survive it if she joined a real battle where it was a matter of life and death, would it? And as much as she’d come to realize Sasuke wasn’t what she thought he’d be, she profusely thanked the boy’s existence now, because if it weren’t for him she definitely would’ve dropped out. It was because of him that she was a shinobi right now.

Sakura finally snapped out of her thoughts as she arrived on training ground 9. She’d chosen to come here as she enjoyed the serene atmosphere it exuded as it was very secluded, far away from all the clan estates and civilian settlements, and had many obstacles that challenged her coordination and reaction time when she practiced her running. There also were some targets stationed, intended for practicing with throwing weapons like kunai, shuriken, senbon etc.. Speaking of senbon maybe she incorporate them into her fighting style…

Throwing practice, however, was not what she was going to use the targets for, because for all that speed was a huge advantage in fights , it was only going to tire your body out eventually if you couldn’t land a hit. Thus Sakura was going to make her knuckles bleed a bit. People had always told her that she hit very hard ‘for a girl’ after all. She figured it lessened the blow to the male ego for admitting a girl was stronger than them if they added that.

Sakura took a deep breath as she played through the katas she had memorized hours prior in her mind, searching for one that would allow her to pack a mean punch.

Having found one, she took it upon herself to channel all the strength her body could offer, ignoring the tingle that rushed through her now closed hand, only to stare in astonishment at what had occurred, at what she had done. Her fist had punched a clean hole right through the middle of the hardwood target, and the girl would’ve assumed it to be a defect one if it weren’t for the stinging pain travelling through and up her arm. She definitely broke something, and that didn’t only apply to the target.

Maybe it was better to stick to the chakra control exercises she found earlier for now, since there wasn’t much she could hope to achieve with a broken hand in physical aspects, and she’d bet all the money she’d saved up over the years that the monstrous strength she’d suddenly gained had something to do with her chakra.

She should probably attempt to climb trees without using her hands first, seeing as she’d been the best at the leaf exercise in her academy class, having gotten the leaf to stick to her forehead whole minutes before Hinata did, the Hyuuga heiress having much more experience with chakra than anyone else did since she could literally see it. Sakura could also remember Sasuke being very salty at being one of the last people to get it, because she’d used the rest of the lesson to stare dreamily at the guy, which, in hindsight, had been kind of creepy of her. Maybe she should apologize.

But, back to the topic on hand, maybe your chakra control depended on how much of it you possessed, making it easier to channel if you had a smaller amount, which would be very depressing in Sakura’scase, but she’d always known that her reserves were significantly smaller than those of her peers due to their and her differing heritages. Nevertheless, she wasn’t going to let that stop her from at least becoming a Tokubetsu Jonin.

Thinking back to the feeling that reverbated through her hand before she hit the target, she tried to do the same thing but guide it down to the soles of her feet instead, and slowly but surely she felt the same energy as before trickle down to the soles of her feet. Sakura then carefully set foot on the tree in front of her and internally cheered in success as she felt her feet stick to the rough surface. As she walked up a bit further she noticed that gravity was quite the enemy in this each time she took a step. Not to mention the energy it took for her to remain ‘upright’. She’d ponder wheter the term could even be applied in this situation, but she had more pressing things to concentrate as she slowly walked up the tree like keeping the flow of her chakra steady.

Deep in her thoughts, she didn’t notice the dull sound of footsteps getting closer until a monotone voice sounded:” You should just give up, you know?”

Sakura had to let herself slide onto a branch to refrain from falling as her concentration broke before she looked down at the boy -if it even was one, he was very adrogynous- standing beneath her, a Konoha headband wrapped around his forehead and long brown hair flowing down his back. “ Excuse you?”

“ It’s obvious that you aren’t cut out for shinobi life, so you should just give up”, the boy continued as if she hadn’t said anything.

It took Sakura about two seconds to decide that she wasn’t going to take this guy’s shit and one more for her to respond:” Well, Ma’am-”

The guy cut her off, his left eye slightly twitching:” I’m a boy.”

“ My bad”, Sakura drawled,” Well, Sir, it is obvious that your people skills are quite undeveloped, so maybe you should just shut up and let people live their lives.”

She and the guy just stared at each other blankly after that. “ You should try to shift your momentum to your feet by using your chakra”, the guy she now recognized as a Hyuuga by his eyes said, before turning around and going away, leaving Sakura to comprehend what just happened. What a weird encounter, but she supposed she should thank the guy the next time she saw him, if he wasn’t being an asshole again, that was.

Now onto figuring out how the fuck she was supposed to shift her momentum -did she look like a damn omniscient wizard or what-?

After about fifty attempts that were mostly trial and error, she finally got it figured out, although her chakra was almost depleted by now.

Then, as she looked at the now night sky with growing horror she realized she’d have to be up at 5 in the morning, although wasn’t Kakashi Sensei going to be 3 hours late anyway? And she was pretty sure that was the minimum. Maybe she should just go there at 8, not like it hurt anybody. All she knew was that she was definitely going to eat breakfast this time. Fuck her Sensei’s sadistic games, that man was not made for being a teacher. if she’d had to guess the Hokage just pulled one of his top Jonin’s that made trouble on missions of the shelf and threw him a team with the last Uchiha, a chakra monster and canon fodder, which also meant that he wasn’t going to give a shit about their education at all. Lovely.