[Disclaimer: This story uses dialogue and events from the original Naruto manga and anime series. It is a retelling of sorts from the perspective of Sakura Haruno with changes to events and additional scenes. All rights to the creators of Naruto etc.]

The Turning Point

Sakura had never thought of herself as anything but a true ninja and as she stood in front of her mirror putting the the finishing touches to her hair, it was obvious nothing could be farther from the truth. Interestingly enough today was her first day as a fully-fledged Genin however her objectives weren't as ambitious as one would assume.

Sasuke Uchiha was the objective.

Sakura knew it would be a challenge and she had many rivals to compete with, but she was a believer in happy endings. In her own mind there was no contest between herself and the other girls (which was almost every girl in the academy) because her intentions were pure. Sakura did make it through the academy partly due to her impressive chakra control and ability to retain information. But when it came to jutsu and combat she had barely been able to keep up.

Instead of extra training to enhance her physical abilities, Sakura preferred to take care of her long cherry pink hair because it was rumored that Sasuke liked girls with long hair. It was almost stupid to think she'd do anything to her personality and appearance just so a boy she'd never said a word to would respond to her continuing efforts to win his affection. Sakura quickly banished that thought and with a final wink and some urging from her mother she left the house.

"See you later" A voice called out from one of the houses along the main road.

Sakura looked up to see her number one rival Ino Yamanka glaring at her. Sakura gritted her teeth Ino had always been the stronger out of the two of them during their childhood, but Sakura was determined not to live in Ino's shadow anymore.

"Good morning Sakura" Ino said with blatant smugness in her voice.

"Good morning Ino" Sakura replied in the same tone.

Sakura continued on her way walking straight past Ino who fell into step with her.

"So they actually let you graduate, what a surprise!" Ino said trying her best to rile Sakura up.

But Sakura tried to take the high road and knew Sasuke would prefer a more mature girl who didn't get caught up in petty arguments.

"Those classes are ancient history, we're both ninja now and we're both equal. I won't lose to you anymore" Sakura vowed and began to increase her speed which Ino matched easily.

The pink haired teen tried to get ahead once more but Ino caught up to her, Sakura tried again and walked faster but Ino was right next to her equally as determined.

"Screw this!" Inner Sakura yelled and Sakura started running with Ino right by her side going just as fast. The two girls took off at remarkable speed and left a cloud of dust in their wake.

A stampede of wild horses couldn't match the noise Sakura and Ino were making as they thundered down the academy hall way. Sakura felt Ino shoving into her shoulder and she shoved back just as hard. The class room door was in their sights and both girls crashed though, it pushing and shoving each other.

"I'm first!" They both yelled with their arms stretched out to prevent the other from going any further, then bending slightly and panting heavily.

"I win again Sakura!" Ino exclaimed whist glaring at the pink haired girl.

"Give it up! I had to look back to see you my toe was at least a tenth of an inch ahead!" Sakura replied before standing up and surveying the room.

Sakura was looking for one particular person when she saw Naruto his face a dark red and wearing a ninja headband.

How the hell did he become a ninja? she thought and continued to look at Naruto before recognizing the familiar black spiky hairstyle next to him.

"Sasuke! I have to get a seat next to him before Ino and the other girls try to!" Sakura began to run towards Sasuke and stopped in front of his desk.

"Hi Sakura! What's up?" Naruto called out with his hand in the air waving at her. He was in her seat next to Sasuke!

"Move it!" Sakura yelled and gave Naruto and almighty shove causing him to fall to the ground.

"Uh good morning Sasuke" Sakura felt the blood rush to her cheeks as Sasuke glanced up from the desk and looked at her.

Reading Sasuke was hard he never showed any emotion and kept to himself, his too cool attitude was one of the things Sakura loved most about him.

"Mind if I sit next to you?" Sakura asked looking at Sasuke expectantly.

"Back off Forehead! I'm sitting next to Sasuke" Ino said angrily. Sakura glared at her rival who was pulling on her arm.

"I was here first" Sakura growled at Ino and tried to shake her arm loose.

"I walked into the classroom before you did, everybody saw it!" Ino argued back. Sakura almost let out a hiss.

Ino just wouldn't give up and all the while the empty seat next to Sasuke was free for anyone to take.

"Dream on" Sakura said getting frustrated.

"Actually I got here before either of you" Sakura turned to see one of the girls from the academy approaching her.

"So did I, I'm sitting next to Sasuke" Some other girl echoed

Sakura sighed; now she'd drawn out all of Sasuke's admirers.

"No I am" Another girl spoke up.

Sakura looked at Sasuke who appeared very annoyed with his eyes closed and chin resting on his hands, thanks to Ino-Pig and these selfish girls she'd never get a chance to spend time with Sasuke.

Suddenly the room fell silent and the pink haired ninja stood in shock watching as Naruto squatted on the desk in front of Sasuke, inches away from his face glaring at him. Anger flared within Sakura, Naruto didn't deserve to be within two meters of Sasuke. He could never compete with him!

"Naruto! Hey stop glaring at Sasuke!" Sakura yelled out, eyes blazing.

Naruto continued to stare at Sasuke and Sakura could tell Naruto was making him angry. She and the other girls rallied behind Sasuke and encouraged him to beat Naruto up, although they were all vying for Sasuke's attention there was no way they were going to let someone like Naruto that close to him.

"Sorry did I bump you?"

The unthinkable happened; Sakura saw it as if it were in slow motion. Somebody from the desk in front hit Naruto causing him to bump into Sasuke, resulting in them kissing.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Sakura let out a huge shriek.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Inner Sakura yelled preparing to give someone a major beatdown. Immediately both boys jumped apart, clutching at their throats as if they were choking.

"I'll get you Naruto" Sasuke vowed.

Sakura had regained her senses and was furious; she was going to beat the living hell out of Naruto. At that exact moment Naruto turned around to find all of Sasuke's fan girls ready to kill him.

"Naruto, you are so dead" Sakura stated.

"Hey whoa it was an accident" Naruto pleaded but Sakura wasn't having any of it. A deadly look came over her face as she cracked her knuckles.

"You're finished"

"As of today you are ninjas, together you face difficult trials and hardships. But that's nothing, what comes next will be far more difficult. Now you are only Genin, first level ninjas, all the Genin will be grouped into three man squads. Each squad will be led by a Jounin, an elite ninja" Iruka addressed the class.

Sakura was still very much angry with Naruto for stealing HER first kiss with Sasuke, but he had sustained some pretty spectacular bruising and she was pleased. She wasn't really paying much attention to Iruka's lecture however her mind whirled into action when she heard the words 'three man squads'.

"Well someone's gotta be in Sasuke's group, I wonder who" Ino asked Sakura from the desk behind.

"I don't know" Sakura replied, she was beyond annoyed with Ino. It was because of her that all of those other girls demanded to sit next to Sasuke, why even indirectly it was Ino's fault that Sasuke's first kiss was with Naruto.

"Cha! I'm going to be with Sasuke so stay away from him you hag!" Inner Sakura yelled, fire blazing around her.

Sakura hated the idea of another girl getting to be on the same squad as Sasuke. Sakura didn't really care who the third person was in her team, just as long as it wasn't a potential rival for Sasuke or that idiot Naruto.

"We want each squad to have a balance of strength and abilities so that's how we set them up. I will now announce the squads" Sakura listened carefully to Iruka as he called out the teams, eventually there were only a few students that still hadn't been assigned squads. Sakura was thankful that neither she nor Sasuke had been put on a squad… although neither had Ino.

"Squad 7: Naruto Uzumaki"

Sakura looked to her left and watched as Naruto began grinning like a maniac. Sakura prayed her name wouldn't be called next.

"Sakura Haruno"

Naruto stood up and cheered, Sakura banged her large forehead on the desk and it was all over. Ino was going to be on Sasuke's squad, her dream of becoming Mrs Sakura Uchiha was as good as over. She was stuck on a team with Naruto and life just wasn't worth living. She waited to hear the last person who would be joining her in hell.

"And finally, Sasuke Uchiha"

"YES!" Sakura yelled loudly and stood up whilst Naruto rested his head on the desk in defeat.

Sasuke sat unmoving through the entire announcement Sakura noticed, somehow she got the feeling he wasn't too pleased about three man squads but she didn't care! She was on a team with Sasuke the most attractive and talented boy in the whole academy, he was all hers!

Iruka continued to read out the squad listings as Sakura turned to Ino and flashed the peace sign arrogantly.

Ino growled and clenched her fists. "How did you get in his group?"

"Ka-ching! True love conquers all" Inner Sakura said victoriously.

Sakura smirked as Iruka announced that Ino would be with the lazy kid Shikamaru and the fat boy Choji who'd probably eat his own head if it were humanly possible. This was just adding to Sakura's elation not only was she on a team with Sasuke but Ino-pig was suffering; it was pure bliss.

"Those are all the squads" Iruka said as he finished reading the list. Sakura couldn't stop smiling and was eager to get started so she could spend as much time with Sasuke as possible.

"Iruka-sensei, why does a great ninja like me have to be in the same group with a slug like Sasuke?" Naruto demanded.

Of course she had almost forgotten Naruto was on her team. Sakura's eyes flashed as she glared at Naruto, he steals her first kiss with Sasuke then he has the audacity to call him a slug! Sakura readied herself to give Naruto another beat down when Iruka-sensei spoke.

"Sasuke had the best scores of all the graduating students. Naruto you had the worst scores, to create a balanced group we put the best student with the worst student" Iruka sighed.

Sakura smirked, Naruto deserved to be put in his place by Iruka. Imagine him thinking he was better than Sasuke! Personally Sakura felt Naruto should be honoured to be on Sasuke's team; after all he was the top student.

"Just make sure you don't get in my way, loser" Sasuke said which made Naruto even more obnoxious and loud.

"Hey what did you say?" Naruto asked angrily. Sakura was starting to get pissed off.

"Hard of hearing?" Sasuke asked which made the whole class laugh.

"Knock it off Naruto, sit down!" Sakura lectured, he was embarrassing herself and Sasuke with his stupid comments.

Iruka-sensei cleared his throat and continued on; "After lunch you'll meet your new Jounin teachers until then class dismissed"

"Sasuke where are you?" Sakura called out.

Why did he go running off so fast? Since we're in the same group and all I thought we could have lunch together and get to know each other Sakura thought.

This was not the way she wanted things to go. How was she supposed to spend time with Sasuke if he was nowhere to be found?

"Hey Sakura! Since we're in the same group I was thinking we could have lunch together and get to know each other" A voice called out from behind her.

Sakura growled, it was that huge headache Naruto again!

She didn't want to have lunch with him; she wanted to have lunch with Sasuke! He was just a necessity to make up the three person squad; as far as Sakura was concerned she and Sasuke could have managed just fine together.

"Why would I eat lunch with you? How could that thought even cross your mind?" Sakura asked annoyed, here she was talking to this idiot when the precious time she could be spending eating lunch with Sasuke was ticking away.

"But we're in the same group so you know I just thought…" Naruto trailed off, a little nervously.

"Naruto, you're annoying!" Sakura spat viciously before turning around and continuing down the path calling out Sasuke's name.

A while later Sakura found herself eating lunch alone, she closed her bento box and sighed.

Well it's not like there's a big rush or anything. I'll be in the same group as Sasuke for a long time. But still… Sakura sighed again and rested her chin on her hands.

Suddenly Sakura looked up to see Sasuke leaning against a tree directly opposite from her. Her mood shot up instantly and she could feel herself blushing.

Sasuke, he's looking right at me. That look in his eyes, Sakura thought imagining herself and Sasuke together. She snapped out of her fantasy and closed her eyes in defeat.

"Grow up Sakura. That's just a fairy tale and fairy tales don't come true" Muttering to herself, the pink haired teen looked at the ground.

"Sakura your forehead is so wide and charming" Sakura looked up to see Sasuke standing in front of her. "It makes me feel like kissing it" Sasuke said smiling at her.

Sakura was shell shocked; all she could do was stare at her long time crush, her face flushed. "Cha! She scores. This fairy tale is for real!" Inner Sakura said having a party inside her head.

"Just kidding, that's the kind of dumb thing that Naruto would say" Sasuke said.

"Ergh" Sakura huffed out; Naruto was at the root of all her problems today.

"I want to ask you something" Sasuke said taking a seat a few meters away from her on the bench.

Sakura was shocked, this was such a sudden turn of events from the boy who never paid her any attention and showed no emotion. She was immediately suspicious but kept her comments to herself.

"Naruto, what do you think of him?"

Sakura looked at the ground for a few minutes before answering Sasuke.

"He knows about my feelings and he purposely tries to get in the way. He enjoys interfering and making me feel bad. Naruto; he doesn't understand one single thing about me. He's just annoying. A-all I really want is for you to accept me Sasuke, that's all" She stated nervously.

"Y-you just want me to accept you?"

Sakura looked up; she'd never heard Sasuke stutter before. Perhaps he was just nervous.

"Yes that's how I feel" she replied blushing. "I-I'd do anything for that"

Sakura pursed her lips and lent towards Sasuke. She could feel her heart thumping in her chest.

It's true I'm desperate" Sakura said inching her face closer to Sasuke who began to lean in as well.

It was then that Sakura opened her eyes and saw it. A flash of blue in Sasuke's normally dark onyx eyes and it was then that she knew.

This was not Sasuke.

Sakura might have been infatuated to the point of obsession but she wasn't stupid.

She didn't come top of her class in chakra identification and control for nothing. After years of follow Sasuke home at a safe distance in the academy Sakura had recognised his chakra signal. It was normally subdued mixed with a dark aura around it; this chakra however was light and carefree. Almost airy. Like a certain airhead blonde ninja.

"NARUTO!" Sakura screamed and threw an impressive punch to the face sending him back a few meters

"GAHHHH!" Naruto-as-Sasuke screamed and landed face down in the concrete, Sakura growled and stalked towards him. Inner Sakura was screaming obscenities and threatening bloodshed. There was a poof and white smoke before Sasuke was gone and replaced with a very beaten up Naruto.

"Uh um Sakura-chan. I can explain see uh I"

Sakura grabbed Naruto by his collar and hoisted him up so he was face to face with her.

"First you steal my first kiss with Sasuke, then I get stuck with you on my squad and now you impersonated Sasuke and tried to kiss me! I'M. GOING. TO. KILL. YOU." She screamed and raised her fist to punch him when there was a gurgling sound.

"THE EXPIRED MILK. IT'S GONNA BLOW!" Naruto yelled and Sakura dropped him on the ground before he ran off in the direction of the toilets.

Sakura sighed and clenched her fists as she sat back down on the bench. This was the worst day ever no thanks to Naruto. Sakura couldn't help but wonder where the real Sasuke was.

Suddenly she saw Sasuke walking towards her; she knew it couldn't be Naruto because his chakra contained that slightly scary but familiar dark aura. Plus Naruto was probably still giving the toilets a work out.

"Uh um hi Sasuke" Sakura said blushing. Sasuke didn't even spare her a glance and kept on walking past her.

"Hey wait a minute!" Sakura called out.

"Where's Naruto?" Sasuke asked, looking at her slightly.

"Naruto just picks fights with you. You know why he's so annoying? Because he wasn't raised right. He doesn't have a mother or father, no one to teach him right from wrong. Think about it! He just does whatever comes into his head; if I did things like Naruto forget it! I mean my parents would get mad and I'd get in trouble so of course I don't do it. But if you don't have parents to tell you how will you know. He's selfish and bratty, all alone." Sakura ranted, satisfied with her response,, believing that Sasuke would agree with her.

"Alone. Isolated. It's not about your parents scolding you. You have no idea what it means to be alone" Sasuke said coldly.

"W-why are you saying that?" Sakura asked, her voice bordering on hysterical.

"Because you're annoying" Sasuke said glaring at her before walking away.

Sakura stood rooted to the spot playing his voice over and over inside her head. She sat down in an attempt to think things through. I'm annoying. That's what he said Sakura thought Now I get it, this is how Naruto must feel

Sakura stood up. "I shouldn't treat him like that even though he did impersonate Sasuke and try to kiss me. Next time I see him I'm going to be nice" she declared aloud.

Sakura looked up to see Naruto moaning and clutching his stomach. "Naruto" Sakura sighed and her face automatically formed a frown.

"Smile, smile" she told herself through gritted teeth while her eye twitched uncontrollably. She waved at the blonde boy, plastered on her best fake smile and called out.

"Hey Naruto let's walk back to class together!"

Sakura watched as Naruto had some sort of internal conflict and his hands went to create a jutsu before his stomach made another gurgling noise and Naruto took off for the toilets again. Sakura growled but tried to keep her cool remembering what Sasuke had said.

That must have been some really out of date milk she thought as she walked back to class alone.

"He's late" Naruto said stating the obvious as he stuck his head outside the classroom door looking up and down the hallway.

Sakura sighed; it was getting to be the most difficult task in the world to be patient with Naruto especially when Inner Sakura continued to assure her he deserved a good beating.

She, Sasuke and Naruto were the only ones left in the class. Sasuke was sitting at a desk with his fingers meshed together under his chin, elbows propped up on the table. Sakura had situated herself a few meters from him, leaning against one of the desks and she was fed up.

"Naruto just sit down!" she said in an annoyed voice. "DAMN IT! If he doesn't sit down willingly we're going to make him sit down!" Inner Sakura roared.

"I don't want to. How come our teacher's the only one that's late? I'm ready to roll, believe it! The other groups already met their new teachers and took off on some adventure or something and Iruka-sensei is gone too!" Naruto replied.

"We know okay" Sakura said closing her eyes, her patience wearing thin, after the verbal beating she'd taken from Sasuke and all the annoyance and confusion of this morning she was ready to either pass out or kill Naruto.

Sakura heard something being shifted and looked up to see Naruto standing on top of a table wedging a blackboard eraser in the doorway. Sakura sighed, if she was feeling up to it she'd normally lecture him but at this point she couldn't care. She simply watched and waited for the worst to happen.

"Our teacher's a Jounin and elite ninja. You think he'd fall for that?" Sasuke said.

Sakura spied a hand wrapped around the door and everyone in the room watched in silence as the eraser fell onto the head of Kakashi Hatake. It was a tense moment before Naruto burst out laughing and pointed at the silver haired man.

"HAHAHAHA! I got him, he totally fell for it!" Naruto yelled and laughed harder. Sakura was about to apologise but simply sighed, Naruto would get what was coming to him eventually. Sasuke looked concerned that the elite Jounin had fallen for such a basic and obvious trick.

"Hmm how can I put this? My first impression of this group, you're a bunch of idiots" The man responded in a calm voice.

Sakura twitched, she was no idiot, Naruto was the moron who did the stupid trick. She added that to the list of today's disappointments caused by Naruto in her head. Kakashi then led them out of the academy and to some stairs on top of a building that overlooked the village.

"Alright why don't you introduce yourselves? One at a time" He asked midly.

"Introduce ourselves? Well what are we supposed to say?" Sakura asked.

At least now Sasuke would be forced to share something about his life and Sakura would store it away in a file in her brain marked Sasuke Uchiha which was bursting at the seams.

"Things you like things you hate. Dreams for the future, hobbies. Things like that" Kakashi responded. Sakura nodded already knowing what she was going to say.

"Why don't you tell us stuff first I mean before we talk tell us about you so we can see how it's supposed to work" Naruto said and for once he asked something important. Sakura didn't want to answer wrong and embarrass herself in front of Sasuke again.

"Me? I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate… I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future… never really thought about it. As for my hobbies… I have lots of hobbies"

Sakura glared at her new sensei. "That was totally useless all he really told us was his name." she said to Naruto who nodded in agreement.

"Okay your turn, you won the right so you first" Kakashi said addressing the blonde ninja.

"Believe it! I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant ramen in a cup and I really like the ramen Iruka-sensei got me at the Ichiruka Noodle Shop. But I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you pour the water in the ramen cup. My hobby is eating different kinds of ramen and comparing them! My future dream is to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me like I'm somebody, somebody important" Naruto stated proudly.

Well he's grown up in a very interesting way Kakashi thought.

"Him? Hokage? In charge of a village, with living breathing people? Yeah right!" Sakura thought.

"Alright next" Kakashi called out and Sakura introduced herself.

"I'm Sakura Haruno. What I like... uh… I mean the person I like is... uh" Sakura quickly stole a glance at Sasuke before continuing. "My hobby is … uh…" Another glance at Sasuke. "My dream for the future is" A loud squeal and another look at Sasuke.

"And what do you hate?" Kakashi asked.

"Naruto!" Sakura said angrily.

Girls her age are more interested in boys than in ninja training Kakashi mused, looking at the blushing pink haired girl.

"Last one" Kakashi called out directing his attention to the young Uchiha prodigy.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan and destroy a certain someone"

Sakura felt an eerie silence fall over her; Sasuke's goal seemed the most radical of everyone's. Sakura knew if it came to it a ninja was expected to kill someone but she couldn't envision herself doing that but Sasuke seemed determined. Whoever this someone was they were in for it.

As expected Kakashi thought.

"Good you're each unique and you have your own ideas. We'll have our first mission tomorrow" The silver haired Jounin decided.

Sakura looked up, tomorrow? That wasn't a lot of time to prepare for a mission. Naruto did a salute

"What kind of mission are we going to have?" Sakura studied Kakashi carefully; there was something he was hiding from them.

"It's a task the four of us will do together" was his simple reply.

"What? What? What? What?" Naruto chanted.

"A survival exercise" Kakashi said annoyed.

"Huh? Survival exercise?" Naruto questioned.

"I thought we were supposed to have a real mission, not more practice. We already did this stuff at the academy that's how we got here!" Sakura said

"This is not like your previous training" Kakashi said, smirking under his mask.

"So uh so uh what kind of training is it then?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi began to chuckle and Sakura became rather annoyed.

"Hey hold on, that's a normal question. What's so funny?" she asked.

Kakashi stopped chucking. "Well if I tell you the answer you're not going to like it"

Naruto glared at the Jounin "Huh?"

Kakashi took a more serious tone and elaborated. "Of the 27 graduates who just came here only 9 will actually be accepted as Genin. The other 18 will be weeded out and sent back to the academy. In other words this is a make it or break it, pass fail test. And the chance that you'll fail is at least 66 percent"

Kakashi took one look at his new student's faces and sighed."See didn't I tell you, you wouldn't like it"

At this point Naruto lost it. "That's crazy! We worked hard to get here! Believe it! What was that graduation test for anyway?"

Kakashi smirked. "Oh that, that was just to select candidates who might become Genin or not"

"WHAAAAT?" Naruto bellowed out.

"That's how it is. I decide whether you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at 5am and bring your ninja gear"

Sakura looked over at Naruto who was shaking, his eyes glued to the ground, he was obviously determined. Sasuke was also shaking slightly and looked just as determined as Naruto not to be weeded out and sent back to the academy.

"That's it, you're dismissed. Oh, tomorrow you'd better skip breakfast or else you'll be sick" With that Kakashi disappeared leaving behind nothing but leaves.

Sakura turned around to see Sasuke gone as well.

"Well I'll see you tomorrow then Sakura" Naruto said before jogging off in the opposite direction.

Sakura remained seated on the stairs. What was her motivation to win tomorrow and not be sent back to the academy?

"We'll be separated from Sasuke forever! This is a contest of true love!" Inner Sakura offered.

Sakura nodded to herself but she still felt… Different. Like she didn't belong.

Naruto's dreams were almost unattainable; to become Hokage was a tall order. That was his motivation for winning tomorrow.

Sasuke's dreams weren't dreams because he was going to kill that someone and restore his clan. That was his motivation for winning tomorrow.

Sakura didn't have ambitious dreams like Naruto, or revenge motivated goals like Sasuke. All she ever wanted to do was marry Sasuke… Now that didn't seem like enough… Not just compared to her teammates but for her.

Sakura sighed and looked around her knowing she was completely alone. Sasuke and Naruto had it all together, they knew what they wanted to do and they knew what had to be done to achieve it. She didn't know what she wanted to do with her life as a ninja.

It seemed like her teammates were miles ahead, leaving her to watch from the background. Little did Sakura know that this would become more and more evident to her as time went on.