The pinkette sat quietly on the branch as she reflected her previous mission. Naruto and Sasuke had gotten injured because they were protecting her.
It's alright, it's not your fault
It is. I was too weak
Then train more. Become stronger so you can protect others.
I will
Shaking her head and jumping off the branch, she swiftly landed on her feet. The first thing she did was search for Kakashi. Just like she predicted, she found him near the bookstore.
"Kakashi-sensei!" The girl smiled brightly after bowing slightly towards her sensei. She had deep respect towards the older male and often viewed him as a father-like figure.
"Yo." Kakashi greeted boredly without looking away from his book.
"I was wondering if you could train me extra." She waited eagerly for his answer and frowned when he sighed and lowered his book.
"I need to focus on Naruto and Sasuke. Frankly, I feel that you should stay a civilian after the mission yesterday." Tears stung as it slid down her cheeks and she abruptly stomped away.
It was about ten at night, which meant that the ANBU guards would be switching positions, leaving a tiny gap where she could slip out of the village. Unbeknownst to her, a couple of ANBUs had seen her shadow as they walked through the gates. Although it was their duty to report anyone leaving, they decided that it was not important if a pinkette were to leave.
"I should practice my aiming." She gripped the shurikens tightly and chucked three of them towards the targets. A silent curse came from her when the weapons bounced from the trees. Repeatedly, she did this exercise until she managed to get thirty in a row. By now, her right hand was cramping.
"I need to be able to throw with my left hand if my right arm is incapicated." It took her almost a hundred tries before landing a bullseye. Panting hard, she wiped the beaded sweat on her forehead. Her hands grabbed a sturdy branch and she began to do pull-ups. Even though her muscles screamed at her, she continued to do one hundred pull-ups. After her pull-ups, she continued to throw her shurikens until her arms went numb.
"If I can't use my arms, I can use my legs." She muttered to herself before crouching down. Her legs sprinted around the forest thirty-six times before she collasped onto the ground. With her back onto the dirt, she stared at the bright stars. Tears threatened to spill as she attempted to collect herself.
"I'm so weak." She whispered in a broken voice, her tears dripping onto the ground. A sob ripped from her throat as she remininced her family.
Sakura was happily running to her house when a scream erupted from her house. It was a female scream, and Sakura had heard it before. She slammed the door open before screaming herself. Blood painted on the walls with a horrible stench. She recognized the three bodies stacked upon each other.
"No!" She jumped off of the ground, determination in her eyes. Despite her aching limbs, she sprinted around the forest, chucking shurikens into the center of the tree as she ran past them. The only reason why she had stopped was because she used all her weapons. Thirty hit center out of thirty five. The other five had lodged themselves next to the center. Although she wanted to continue training, her body was exhausted and buckled under her. The last thing she remembered was seeing the stars.
When she awoke, she found herself back in her apartment. Her muscles were sore from the intense training but she ignored it.
"Maybe I can get Tsunade to train me." She spoke to herself as she showered. It was decided, Sakura would go ask the Hokage for help. When she reached the office, she couldn't tell whether her body was shaking from being nervous or from her training yesterday.
"Come in." Sakura hastily opened the door and smiled awkwardly.
"I was wondering if you can train me?"
"Eh? You have Kakashi." Sakura's eyes fluttered down as her face fell.
"He wants to train Sasuke and Naruto. I'm too weak."
"Hmm." Sakura waited for the hokage's rejection. She wouldn't expect a strong sanin like Tsunade to take a weakling like her under her wings.
"Sorry." She was about to exit the office until Tsunade spoke again.
"I'll train you."
"N-nani?"
"I'll train you. Meet me here at three."
"A-arigatou."
"Do you want to be a medic?" Sakura thought about it for a moment.
If I become a medic, I'll be able to save lives
Do it
"Hai."
"Then take these cards and memorize them. When you do, I'll give you more cards."
"Hai." Tsunade placed a deck of cards in her hands and smiled. Sakura sprinted towards the training field. She began to copy her exercises from the previous day while reading the cards. Surprisingly, her weapons managed to hit dead center, even with her being distracted. She noticed two boys, Naruto and Sasuke, watched her from the bushes and disappeared behind them.
"Where did she go?" Naruto, for once, whispered to Sasuke.
"Hn."
"Stalking much?" Sakura smirked when the two boys, well mostly Naruto, screamed and jerked violently, bumping their heads together in the process.
"What the hell Sakura?!" Naruto yelled while rubbing his head.
"Hn." Sasuke glared at the pinkette, who in return shrugged her shoulders and continued her practice and memorization. He was suspicious. For one, she did not throw herself onto him desperately. Two, she did not fangirl about him. After an hour, Kakashi appeared in a puff of smoke, reading his perverted book.
"YOU'RE LATE!!" Naruto and Sasuke yelled while Sakura ignored them.
"I know, there was this old lady-"
"Liar!" Kakashi casually looked over to the pinkette who did not join their scolding.
"We'll be working on targets today." Sakura kept to herself and ignored the two idiotics who threatened each other. She smiled brightly and was about to run off when a hand grabbed her wrist.
"Where are you going?" Sasuke asked annoyed.
"Does it matter?" Sakura snapped back, freeing her wrist from his grip.
"We're training right now."
"I'm going to training somewhere else." Sakura sprinted away before he could reply. Tsunade was standing outside of her office with her arms folded.
"How are you on memorizing the cards?"
"I finished!"
"Really?" Tsunade didn't believe the girl.
"Yup! I'm ready to train!"
"I am going to quiz you on the poison while we train."
