A Sakuras Perspective

Chapter Three: Graduation Exam and a Massacre

It's been a few months since my mom passed, Naruto and Ino don't bother to even talk to me. It didn't matter how much it hurt me though, I knew I couldn't bring myself to go against them. 

Iruka-sensei had noticed I'd been advancing through my classes at a quick rate and suggested to graduate early. I was a bit hesitant at first but I agreed, I wanted to put the higher clans to shame for mistreating civilians for awhile now. "You ready Sakura?" I nodded towards the chunin who stood before me with a stop watch in hand, right now I was taking the written exam part. "Alright, Ready? Aaaand..begin!!" I grabbed my pencil and began reading through the questions. The test wasn't hard, my eyes started feeling heavy out of sleepiness though. "Done." I spoke out in a calm tone wanting to sound mature. 

"8 minutes, wow, good job Sakura!" 

I smiled and felt a bit proud of myself. "Cmon we gotta go get you ready for the taijutsu part of the exam," The older kid said holding out her hand for me to take. We went outside on the field to do some stretches and then another ninja in a chunin vest came in. "I'm gonna fight a chunin?" I asked confused, this was supposed to rank me to genin, at least i thought. "Yeah, I was confused too but the Hokage recommended we rank you to chunin at the rate you're going at, who knows maybe we'll go on missions together!" I smiled at the idea and proceeded to step up to the dark haired boy who stood there. 

I noticed the Uchiha symbol that was displayed at the back of his shirt and started regretting what I had gotten into. "Okay guys, no ninjutsu is allowed." That was the only rule we were told and the spar began. (Guys idk how to write fight scenes!!! HELP ☠️) In the end I won and held him in a arm lock with a kunai to his throat. "Okay, okay! You win now let me go you lower life!" I pressed the blade against his neck deeper, only enough to scare him. "Cmon Sakura! Ninjutsu is next," I heard the girl call out already far ahead of me. "Coming!" I yelled back and sprinted to catch up. "So, I was given this list of ninjutsus you should at least be able to do...they're really easy though so let's ditch the list!" I giggled a bit as she burned the paper with a small flame and proceeded to throw the ashes towards the river. 

"You know your chakra natures?" She asked and I responded with a light nod. I watched her think for a second before asking me what mine had been, "Just water," She nodded and began thinking again. "Can you form a wave?" I made a few simple hand signs and formed a large wave to which she smiled and chuckled. "Is that one good?" I asked hoping she'd say it was, "Its better than good!" I felt content with myself from the complement and we proceeded to try different water ninjutsus throughout the test. "Okay, last ones," She stayed quiet, I could tell she was trying to build suspense. "Can you..." "Can I what?" I asked almost exploding with energy, "Can..you..make..." She grabbed onto me and began tickling me and I started laughing, "Stop! We have to finish the exam remember!" I said, or I 'tried' to say through a laugh here and there. 

"Alright, alright, can you make shadow clones?" I nodded and formed two other versions of myself. "Good, how about a trillion little Sakuras'?" I giggled at the question, "I can't do that silly!" She smiled, "How about transformations?" With a simple hand sign I was able to transform into a replica of her. "Good choice, I'm really liking the face," I laughed and transformed back to  my self, "You're so weird!!" "Can you...play a violin?" "That has nothing to do with the exam!" I couldn't help prevent myself from giggling towards her antics, "Maybe, but can you?" I nodded, "I see." I saw as her face became serious and the energy drop. 

"What's wrong?" She didn't respond and raised a brow at me instead. 

"Sakura," I looked at her confused and a bit worried she doesn't want to talk to me anymore. "You're such a nerd!!" She started laughing but I felt relief wash over me. "At least i'm smart!" "You're such a dork!" She brought a finger up to my face and booped my nose, "Hey! I'm not a little kid!" I saw her grin slowly form into a soft smile, "No I guess you aren't. You're gonna be an amazing ninja. Don't let anyone bring you down." I felt my body move on it's own, I hugged her tightly, maybe those were the words I needed to here right now. "Thank you,"

3 months later* I'd been going on missions for awhile now. The pay has been helping me support me and my dad financially since he stopped working after my mom died. I remembered how she didn't want me to become a ninja but now that's all I could do to keep me and dad living with a comfortable life style. "Mama would be upset." I quietly said to no one but myself. Eventually My house came Into view and I went inside to find my dad passed out on the table. "Papa you should go lay on the couch," I shook him lightly but he wouldn't respond. I proceeded to shake him, this time more aggressively, still no response. "Papa cmon, wake up," I looked around a bit before I spotted a bottle of pills empty on the kitchen counter. 

I felt my heart panic, I didn't want to lose both of my parents. Quickly I got him to the hospital, don't ask how. Turns out he had overdosed and would've been dead if I hadn't found him when I did. I felt a bit better knowing he'd be okay but that quickly went away when I realized I had a two day mission tomorrow. I got up from the guest chair in my dads room and left to go clear my head. I walked around for a bit but I heard soft cries of a familiar voice. I looked through the peek of the almost closed door and found Sasuke sitting on a hospital bed with tears staining his face and shirt. I gave a light knock before opening the door. I saw as he tried to wipe of the tears but it was too noticeable. 

"What do you want!" He practically screamed at me. "Nothing, just wanted someone cool to talk to," I saw a light blush appear on his cheeks and I gave him a soft smile. "So what's up?" He glared at me instead, "Sorry." I didn't know why I apologized, it just felt like the best thing to do. "I don't need your pity!" "Pity? Nope you got that wrong, that was me being nice to the top student," He looked over to me confused, "Why are you being nice to me." I didn't say anything for awhile, we sat there in silence. "I don't have a reason to be, I just wanna help, unless that counts as a reason?" He didn't say anything, he didn't bother sparing me a glance. 

"I'll get going now," No response. 

I left the room and headed back towards my dads room to find him still asleep. I didn't understand he took so many pills, why would someone want to purposely kill themselves? Life is something precious and you should cherish every moment of it, that's what my mom used to tell me. "I'll be off on a mission tomorrow okay?" I stood there for a second waiting for a response even though I knew it wouldn't come." 

I learned the Uchiha clan had been massacred the next day. The news was surprising. "Who do you think did it?" I looked over to one of my teammates who's name I already forgot and was too scared to ask for again. "I bet it was the Hokage himself, who else would be able to pull something off like that!" I nodded towards both of their statements and proceeded walking down the dirt path. "Sensei what are we doing anyway?" I looked over to the only boy in the group, I think his name was Shizuru. "We're delivering this scroll to the Kazekage." "Shouldn't this be a jounin mission then?" 

The older man shrugged, "There's a shortage of ninja at the moment." We nodded and a comfortable silence settled in. The mission went quick, we fought through a couple rouge ninja and bandits but that was it. We got home exactly in two days and gave our reports. 

"Hey Sakura! Been awhile!" I looked over a saw Naruto and Ino waving towards me, I felt a bit happy seeing them so I ran towards them with a slight smile. "Hi guys!" "We were hoping you wanted to go shopping?" I looked at them a bit confused, "Why would I want to go shopping?" I saw Ino's expression change a but to a more annoyed one. "We wanna go to the toy star." Now I was annoyed, they just wanted me for money. "I don't have the money for that," I said turning away from them but Naruto grabbed my wrist. "Cmon Sakura please! Ino's parents said no! Plus you're the only other person I know who has money and a job!" 

"How'd you even get a job anyway? You don't have a clan." 

I couldn't believe these were my best friends not even five months ago. "I worked hard for my position Ino now leave me alone!" I shoved Naruto off of me and he fell onto the ground. "You jerk! Weren't you the one who saved him from bullies and now you're becoming one!" I started at Naruto a bit shocked, Why did I do that? "I didn't mean to." I had a few voice cracks but I managed to blurt out the sentence. Naruto's  eyes watered and I instantly reacted as if we were friends again, "I'm sorry it was an accident! Where does it hurt?" I inspected him but he shoved me off, "You're so mean Sakura! You think you're better than us now cuz you're a ninja now but you're nothing y'know that!" 

I stayed quiet. We weren't the same people anymore, the crazy part was this all happened not even in a year. I got up and patted the dirt off of me. I walked away without saying another word, I couldn't bring myself too.