Chapter Text
Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.
Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.
Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.
Worse than trash.
Trash. Trash. Trash.
Kakashi-sensei’s mantra repeated like an air-raid siren through Sakura’s skull as she left Naruto’s hospital room. The hospital room he was stuck in, covered head to toe in bandages because of her. Because she was weak, because she couldn't stop Sasuke-kun from leaving, because she was dead weight, a burden.
She had let Naruto run after Sasuke-kun, because she was too scared to go herself, the sting of his rejection fresh. She let her teammate go off on his own against Orochimaru’s shinobi. Shinobi who had taken down jounin with ease. She really was trash. Worse than trash. The thought made her lips curl into a very un-ladylike snarl, as a wave of rage and self-loathing came over her.
‘Well? What are you going to do about it?’
Sakura stopped short as she was exiting the hospital, the sight of Inner in her mind, standing with her arms crossed, defiance burning through her chalkboard silhouette as she raised an eyebrow in question.
‘Didn’t you say we were going to stop being dead weight? Didn’t you promise Naruto?’
Inner was right. Sakura couldn't just sit here wallowing in self-hatred. What's done, was done. She had to become stronger, better. She had to no longer be a scared little girl on a team of giants. She could be a monster too, she would be.
‘What do you propose we do then?’ she asked, and she saw Inner smile like a shark in her mind's eye.
'Sasuke’s gone off to Orochimaru, Naruto has Jiraiya, who's to say we don't get our very own Sannin?’
And just like that, Sakura’s own shark-like smile crawled upon her face as she set off from the hospital, the Hokage tower in the distance.
Sakura smoothed out her red qipao top, anxiously wringing her hands together to avoid the urge to pull at her hair. After she had made an appointment with the secretary to see Tsunade-sama she had run back to her apartment to change, knowing that if her mother was still alive she’d have organised an entire ensemble complete with perfume and the perfect lip shade.
Hell, Hahaue probably would have written her an entire speech to present.
Most of her clothes had gone with the house, when it had been decimated in Orochimaru and the Sands attack, her only clothes that were even salvageable were the ones carefully sealed and protected in her go bag she kept at the bottom of her bed for surprise missions.
Which meant no fancy dresses or kimonos to greet the literal supreme leader of her village with.
She could go find Ino, the girl definitely wouldn’t turn her away for something like this, she’d probably be over the moon but, some part of Sakura knew she had to do this on her own. If she couldn’t get through a simple request for an apprenticeship, then she really was a worse ninja than she thought.
Because that's all this was, she was just asking for an apprenticeship, that's all. Simple. She just needed to ask one of the most legendary shinobi in the elemental nations who now wore the Hokage hat to train her.
Easy!
Sakura shoved her hands into her hair and pulled. She was so screwed, what was she thinking? She wasn’t Naruto, she couldn't just waltz in and talk her way into this! She wasn’t Kakashi-sensei or Sasuke-kun where her talent or potential could speak for itself. She was a below average genin from a civilian background, what chance, what right did she have to demand Senju Tsunade to teach her?
'It’s not just about us, Outer, remember who we’re doing this for.'
Her team. She may not be like them but she could be. Wasn’t Naruto a dead last loser for the entirety of the academy years? Now he was on the same level as Sasuke-kun! Because he hadn’t given up. Because giving up wasn’t something the dumbass blonde even knew how to do.
‘Imagine telling us from 6 months ago we’d be inspired by Naruto of all people.’ Sakura thought in begrudging wonder.
'Please, we’ve always admired him for his ability to speak his mind. Even if it was extremely annoying.'
Sakura took a deep breath, removing her hands from her hair to smooth it back into place. This was her first mission to become a worthy comrade, to be someone her precious people, as Naruto would put it, could rely on. She would give it her all, even if she had to let Inner take the reins to see it through.
With a nod to herself, Sakura walked out of her apartment, knees positively trembling in what she was stubbornly insisting was excitement and not fear so big it felt like it would swallow her whole. She had an appointment to get to, and while she may have disappointed her mother with her career choice, she’d never be as disrespectful to Haruno Mebuki’s memory as to be anything less than 10 minutes early!
“What the hell do you want, brat, I have a village in the shitter I have to attend to.”
Sakura blinked, caught off guard by the woman's demeanor.
‘The books about her did not mention the language so foul that it’d make Hahaue cry.’ Inner commented, definitely impressed.
Sakura repressed a scoff. “Sorry, Tsunade-sama, I’ll be quick.” she said instead, waiting for the Hokage's go-ahead. When none came, Sakura's eyebrow twitched.
'Had Sandaime-sama been this rude?'
“Uhm, Hokage-sama, my name is Haruno Sakura, I’m a genin formerly on Team Seven under Hatake Kakashi.”
That got the woman's attention, her eyes flitting up to take in the girl standing in front of her. Sakura blushed at the attention, hoping she hadn’t already embarrassed herself by mentioning her disaster of a team.
“As you know, due to recent circumstances, our team will no longer be a 4 man squad. I assume, because of this, Kakashi-sensei will no longer be available to teach me.”
“You said you’d make this quick?” Tsunade intoned, her hand twitching unconsciously to her desk drawer.
‘So rude!’
‘She’s so cool.’
“Ah, yes.” Sakura folded herself into a bow. “I’d like to be taken on as your apprentice, ma’am!”
“No way in hell.”
Knowing that if she were to come out of her bow her indignant scowl would be on full display, Sakura remained bent at her sharp 90 degree angle. “Please, ma’am, all I ask is for a chance, one chance to show you I’m worth it. I promise to give it my all.”
Sakura bit her lip, what would Naruto say?
“You won’t regret it! I’ll become the best combat med-nin in Konoha if you’ll have me!”
Her parents would be rolling in their graves at her cockiness, oh Kami.
“Hmmph. The best, you say? You plan to usurp me?”
Sakura snapped upright, paling considerably. Her mouth flapped open and closed uselessly as the woman in front of her, attention now fully on the pinkette, raised an eyebrow.
‘I got this.’
With a gulp, Sakura let Inner feed her lines.
“Is that not the whole point of an apprenticeship, Tsunade-sama? To groom your apprentice to be greater than you were?” came Inner’s daring response that had the Hokage’s eyes narrowing.
‘Inner, what is wrong with you?!’
‘Trust me.’
Tsunade leaned forward, challenge dancing in every word she spoke. “It’s the hope, I suppose, though whether an apprentice would be able to overtake me in skill remains to be seen. Tell me, do you think your quivering snot nosed self is capable of that?”
“Only under your guidance.”
Sakura was imagining a thousand rusty kunai coated in lemon juice impaling Inner right now.
The blonde was silent for a moment, looking over Sakura with a calculating expression before pursing her lips and answering. “Go find my apprentice, Shizune. Tell her to get you fish and the scrolls on the mystical palm technique." Her eyes narrowed as she raised a finger almost accusingly at the girl. "If you aren’t just blowing smoke up my ass I want you back here in three days with a resuscitated fish using only the mystical palm technique.”
‘Told you to trust me.’ Inners voice sang with an air of smugness that had Sakura struggling to keep a growl trapped in her throat.
Sakura, very maturely in her opinion, ignored her Inner, and bowed deeply. “Thank you so much, Tsuande-sama! I’ll see you in three days, first thing in the morning!”
“Sure, kid, now scram.” She said dismissively, head already ducked down into her mountains of paperwork.
With that, Sakura bolted out the door, feeling like her stomach was caught in her throat.
After hunting down Shizune, Sakura had taken her goods back to her still painfully empty genin apartment before proceeding to positively devour the scrolls with an intensity and passion she hadn’t felt since before she had graduated the academy.
Her hand was beginning to cramp with the amount of paragraphs she was annotating, her highlighters nearly out of ink. Inner spent all her energy committing diagrams and hand signs to memory. With every scroll finished, her sense of “holy crap, I think I could do this” grew exponentially.
Sakura was, for the longest time, only a paper nin. Her greatest strengths were books and studying and obscure knowledge. And she had let that strength turn into her greatest weakness. Not anymore, she knew what her strength was and more importantly she knew she was a ninja.
Honour and working to become better than your strengths was for powerful people and samurais. Sakura was neither.
She needed every edge she could get if she ever hoped to fulfil her new mission, her new goal. Kakashi-sensei had years of experience over all of them, Sasuke-kun had innate skill due to a clan upbringing and Naruto had such a vast amount of chakra and constitution it was ridiculous. Sakura had her mind, and now she had her determination.
It would be enough, she would make it enough .