Mevy: Hello there, Mevy here with a new story for Naruto

Sakura: Really? You already have a Naruto story, why make another one?

Mevy: Hehe, well you see my OTP for Sasusaku has, uhm, sailed off and now I have a major OTP for Itasaku and couldn't help but write this story

Sakura: So you're giving up on the other story?

Mevy: Nope, but I am taking a break from it for a while

Itachi: Hn

Mevy: (Hearts in her eyes) I love Ita-kun way more than Sasu-chan now!

Sasuke: Hn (Glares)

Shikamaru: Troublesome women

Mevy: Oh shut up troublesome man

Shisui: Lets just start the story

Mevy: Good idea, Panda-kun disclaimer please

Gaara: (Glares) Stop calling me panda! (sigh)

Mevy: Do the disclaimer and I'll give you a cookie XP

Gaara: (Quickly turns to the viewers) Mevy does not own Naruto (Turns to Mevy) Cookie. Now!

Mevy: (Gives him cookie) Enjoy!

The pain of a never-ending cycle of suffering

hidden behind cracked smiles and

a broken voice.

Oh shriveled blossom,

who has hurt you,

for your color is gone,

and the flame of your soul

is no more.

Rise fair blossom,

your path is far from over,

be watered by the elixir of life,

and with resilience,

Bloom like no other.

Under Tsunade's tutelage, it would be a lie to say that Sakura Haruno had not grown as a Shinobi. After becoming the Godaime's apprentice, Sakura had stopped putting forth her time in vanity, instead using that time in further studying medical ninjutus and training. While it was true that she still held romantic admiration for a certain Uchiha Sasuke, Sakura no longer held the obsession she had for him when she was younger.

Gone was the young girl who cried in the face of mean bullies and mocking words. Sakura was not the crybaby of her youth, Tsunade had made sure to drill into her disciple the need to keep such acts to herself. That is not to say though, that Tsunade prohibited the young genin from the emotional release, she did not by any means want some Uchiha-like emotionally crippled shinobi as her disciple. Once Sakura had become her apprentice, Tsunade had taught her that when one needs to cry, they must do so in the confinements of their own home, away from criticizing eyes and gossiping mouths.

So when said Sakura came running to her office, crying her eyes out while sobbing some unintelligible words, it would be an understatement to say that Tsunade was surprised. The Godaime was quite shell-shocked, and a tad disappointed, to say the least. What possibly could have happened to her student to cause her to lose control to this extent? "Sakura, what has gotten into you?" The Godaime asked, still shocked by her student's breakdown.

"I can't take it anymore, I'm done looking at their goddamn backs. Why am I so weak?!" Sakura practically wailed out. She then did something that shocked ten years out of Tsunade's life, she threw herself at the current Hokage and started sobbing whilst her head was buried in Tsunade's plump bosom.

Making sense of the situation, the fifth Hokage signaled the Anbu positioned in the room to leave and give her privacy with her currently distressed student.

The Anbu, understanding the signal, flickered out of the room and into the hall, leaving the Hokage and her disciple alone. Tsunade gently got a hold of Sakura's face by holding her cheeks with both hands. Shifting Sakura's head to make her look up at her, the fifth Hokage gave Sakura a sympathetic look.

"What did they do this time?" Tsunade asked the saddened kunoichi gently.

"I'm no use to them!" Sakura claimed, eyes closed as she tried to get a hold of herself with no avail. "I'm not even sure why I'm part of their team, all I do is stay in the side lines and watch as they do all the work. On the occasions I do come out and fight they see if fit to protect me and don't even let me do a goddamn thing. When we train they hold back, when we go to missions they protect me as if I was the client, and when we go out to team hangouts they act as if I were invisible!"

Tsunade sighed, she had always known that the time would come when the young Genin will finally get aggravated by her teamates treatment. Many konoichi sadly had to go through this, especially ones from civilian backgrounds, such was Sakura's case. While it might be true that Sakura wasn't the strongest konoichi out there though, that did not give her teamates reason to treat her like a procelain doll, such actions would ultimately end in the pinkette's demise in the face of a deadly force without her teamates there to 'protect her'.

Furthermore, while it was true that Sakura was not the weak girl she once was, she was still not strong enough to face her demons without breaking. Sakura, while Tsunade hated to accept the fact, was just still not ready to face the world. She was strong, that fact was undeniable, but she was still just too damn dependent for her own good.

Glaring heatedly at her thoughts, Tsunade did something that made Sakura's sobs stop abruptly.

She roughly grabbed Sakura's face and slapped her. Hard.

Sakura's face turned to the side from the force as she looked back at Tsunade. She put a hand on her throbbing cheek, her eyes widened and mouth slightly open in shock. Tsunade had never slapped Sakura, sure she punched and kicked when training, but never laid a hand on her for disciplinary means outside of training.

"NO student of mine will cry just because of something as pathetic as that!" Tsunade growled at Sakura, an icy glare in her face. Tsunade had always hated when Sakura would cry over the most petty of things, it was unfit for a shinobi female or not. Memories of a time long past, of tears falling from brown eyes as the world seemed to crumble around her bombarded Tsunade's mind as she gritted her teeth. No, she will not allow Sakura to break in the face of despair.

She hated how much Sakura looked at others for acceptance, how she was still not strong enough to stand without anyone's help. But most of all she hated how much the girl's suffering reminded her of her own many years back. She hated the thought of her becoming a lifeless walking corpse just as she had been, she hated the thought of those bright jade eyes losing the fire that she had grown so accustomed to see from her passionate disciple.

"You can either choose to keep crying and be the weak, pathetic Kunoichi that they say you are or you could go out there, train until you're close to death, and prove those brats wrong!" Tsunade reprimanded, her voice full of demand and confidence, it made Sakura stand a bit straighter.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Sakura felt shame fill her as she reprimanded herself for her breakdown. This was not the person Tsunade had agreed to train, she was acting like the very embodiment of the girl her team saw her as. Such thoughts made her dulling jade eyes sharpen as she narrowed them slightly. No, she was not going to give them the satisfaction of truly dominating her and molding her into a weak, helpless medic-nin who always stays in the sidelines, knowing nothing about fighting. She will not fall, not now, not ever.

"I-I'm sorry Shishou, you're right I need to stop dwelling in self pity and start doing something about it." Sakura's eyes shinned with determination even with the hiccups making their way out of her mouth. She looked oh so very fragile, eyes bloodshot and cheeks red, tear trails visible, yet Tsunade knew Sakura was anything but.

It was true that the pinkette was still far too dependent and held little to no self-confidence, but she had the potential to become something great. That potential was the thing that caused Tsunade to accept her as an apprentice, and that potential gleamed from inside Sakura's reawakened flame in her green orbs.

"That's the spirit! Now go out there and get into those training fields, its only 7 pm I'm sure you can have a decent training session in that time."

"Hai! But Shisui, don't I need an instructor to be able to go into the fields?" It was well-known knowledge that genin required supervision by their jonin instructor or any other high ranking shinobi in order to go into the training fields. This was in order to keep freshly-promoted genin from causing themselves or others around them harm from a training accident. The truth of the matter though, was that this was mostly directed towards genin of civilian background, who had the highest casualties from training accidents before the rule was placed due to not knowing any other shinobi other than their instructors to supervise their training. Such was Sakura's case, who only had Kakashi or Tsunade to supervise her. One though, was too busy with a certain black-haired prodigy or his important hobby to bother supervising her on individual training, Tsunade on the other hand was far too busy with duties as Hokage to fully train Sakura.

Tsunade smiled sadly at her pinkette student, thinking something along the same lines as her. There was just not enough time in the day for her to fully give Sakura the training she needed and deserved. Shizune helped quite a bit in training the young genin in the art of healing, but Tsunade needed her assistant, and while she hated having to put Sakura's training aside; the cruel fact was that Hokage duties always had to come first. No matter how much she loved her surrogate daughter, she could not put her before the thousands of civilians and shinobi alike who needed her full commitment. So, if this was something that she could do to give the young girl the chance to fully expand her limits, then dammit she was going to give it to her.

"Now Sakura, what point is there to have me, the Hokage, as a Master if you don't get privileges from it." Tsunade said jokingly. Sakura gave a small giggle as she gazed at her teacher lovingly.

She should have known that her Shishou would have a solution for this. The older blonde always seemed to have the answers for everything. Sakura sighed as she looked down at the floor. She truly did not deserve such a caring and loving teacher, yet she would be lying to herself if she said she was not happy that Tsunade accepted her as her own. Eyes blazing with determination, Sakura steeled her resolve. She was oging to train hard, she was going to transcend her limits, and most of all, she will prove to the world that Tsunade had not made a mistake in accepting her as an apprentice. She will prove to the world that she was strong, that was her new nindo, her ninja way.

Sakura, too deep in her inner resolve to pay any mind to her teacher, was startled out of her inner monologue by Tsunade suddenly grabbing her had with her own chakra-covered one. She felt a burning sensation on her palm as tears formed on her eyes, yet she pushed them back stubbornly. All hell will freeze over before she cried any more today.

The sensation left after a few seconds as Sakura looked down at her palm to see a mark. It was a criss-cross mark with a circle in the middle, kanji that she could only slightly make sense of formed a circle around the crisscross symbol; some of them said something like 'soul-bond' and 'signal' but she couldn't quite make sense of the intricate but small kanji. She could feel Tsunade's chakra embedded in the mark as she flexed her hand ever so slightly.

"There, just show that mark to the Anbu stationed in the gate and sign in on the sign in sheet. This will let you in in the advance training fields used mostly only by the Chunin, Jonin and Anbu. This mark is usually reserved certain individuals far ahead of their peers in need of training accommodations, but I don't see any harm in having my student take full advantage of this." Tsunade told Sakura with a wink, eyes glittering with mischievousness.

"Now I am going to go through a lot of trouble, especially from the council, you know how those annoying old hags can be, complaining is all they know how to do. They will go about the misuse of authority and such, really those old farts only want to make my life complicated." Tsunade sighed with fake exasperation, being a little melodramatic. Sakura rolled her eyes good naturely, knowing first hand how the council could be.

"Anyways because of my troubles I expect to see you in those sign in sheets at least 5 days a week and also one hour by the least. You are only allowed not to show if you are critically injured, are on a mission, or other critical circumstances, but you must send a letter explaining why you did not show and it better be good you hear. Now that does not give you an excuse to go overboard and put your health at risk like you tend to do. If that happens I'm not above taking the seal off and putting you in mandatory confinement until further notice."

Sakura gulped before nodding rapidly, the woman was frightening when her orders were not followed. Sakura could still feel the pain from the beating she had received during training the one and only time she had been late. That, and she still had nightmares that time Tsunade had put her into medical confinedment when she had overexerted herself to the point she had been in critical condition, the woman had never been as livid as she was in that instance. Sakura was careful about her training ever sense.

Her Shishou was one who desired discipline and obedience when it was due. She wanted strong and professional disciples who would not ruin her image in the shinobi world (more than it was already, but that was a fact that Sakura would rather not point out, else she might find herself missing a limb). Sakura learned early on that Tsunade expected her to be ot only responsible in her training, but her health as well. What was the use of a strong disciple if they died early from exhaustion where Tsunade's words, and Sakura could not say that she found any fault in her shishou's reasoning.

Sakura bowed waist deep at Tsunade out of both good-bye and thankfulness.

"Thank you Tsunade-shishou, I will not disappoint you. I will take full advantage to the opportunity you have given me."

"Just go now, oh and I would advise that you learned what chakra type you are by using the Chakra paper," Tsunade said before going back to her dreaded paperwork.

"Thank you Tsunade, I'll make sure to help you with the Hospital paperwork tomorrow."

The look Tsunade gave her was as if she was the saving grace sent to her by the heavens. "I'll hold you to that," Tsunade said before going back into her paperwork, looking slightly more giddy, anyone would be if someone volunteered to take a foot worthy of paperwork for them.

It was well known that all Kages hated paperwork, and so Sakura and Shizune had helped Tsunade with it in many occasions. Sakura had never been more thankful that her mother had made her spend so much time studying in the past, or the fact that she was a bookworm at heart.

Sakura smiled before going outside. In the hallway Sakura felt a slight breeze as the Anbu went back inside the office, they must have purposely made their presence known, as was customary show of respect to those of importance visiting the Hokage. Sakura had been quite surprised at the fact the first time she had felt them, but Shizune had explained to her that as the Godaime's apprentice, the Anbu needed to do so if they ever were made to leave the office for any reason, as a way to show that both her and Tsunade had been in privacy. She hated to admit it, but such a fact always made a small amount of pride form inside her chest.

Making her way outside the Hokage tower, Sakura headed to the training grounds, giddy to start her first solitary training session.

After stopping at the store Sakura always went to get any Ninja necessities, she had finally made it to where the training grounds were located at. She has been here a lot with her team, but this was the first time she came alone.

Going up to the guard, she studied him slightly. He was a shonobi she had never seen before, he wore the custumery chunin vest with messy black hair and grey colored eyes. Said eyes narrowed at seing her form, most likely already deducing that she was a Genin. Yet, before she could say anything, Sakura quickly lifted her palm, turning his attention to the seal on it. The Chunin's eyes widened slightly at the symbol, but he quickly regained his composure as he brought a chakra covered finger and touched the seal lightly. Seeming to be satisfied at something Sakura was unsure of, he mersely gave her the sign-in clipboard that was hanging on the fenced wall, afterwards he leaned back against the wall, though he could still feel his calculating gaze on her from under his bangs.

Trying to ignore his gaze, Sakura quickly wrote down her name along with her ninja ID number, while Genin Teams did not have to do this because their sensei would usually notify the training guards in the training grounds about when they would meet individual ninjas had to sign in so that the Hokage could keep track of who went into the training grounds. Sakura was not certain why this was mandatory but she just brushed it off as something important that she did not need to know.

After finishing with that Sakura gave the clipboard back to the guard, who merely nodded at her and let her pass through the fenced door. She quickly walked through the door and inside the training grounds, happy to be inside and away from the Chunin's inquisitive eyes. Automatically she made her way to the training grounds she saw had the most trees, going inside Sakura saw a nice clearing with trees surrounding it. Right away Sakura felt at ease surrounded by the trees and plants around her. Shhe felt at home.

That was something Sakura didn't quite understand about herself, she always loved being surrounded by plantation and especially loved being inside forests and places that were just greatly surrounded by nature. It was a quirk that she held ever since she was a kid, and one that had gotten her into quite a bit of trouble as a child, always getting lost in the forest next to the playground when she ran from mean bullies that made fun of her forehead. She would find consolation in the dense trees, in doing so she always gave her parents a hard time when she didn't get home in time. They always needing to go out looking for her when she was late in getting home, only to find her cuddled against the roots of a tree, fast asleep and oblivious to the world around her. Yet, for a reason unknown to her, they never prohibited her from going outside, no matter how many times she became lost in the forest, needing them to come for her every time.

Shaking away past memories, Sakura took out her newly bought Chakra paper. Sending a bit of chakra into the sheet, Sakura watched in amazement as the paper crumbled, turning into dirt. If she was correct that meant her main Chakra nature was earth. Funny, that made the training ground she chose an almost perfect place to train.

Sakura got into a meditating position and closed her eyes. Controlling her breathing, she listened intently to her surroundings. She read in a scroll that this would help with Chakra detecting and help her be more aware of her surrounding. If done enough, Sakura would be able to unconsciously detect any unnatural movement in her surroundings, making finding enemy ninja easier.

Suddenly, there was a shift as Sakura heard a tree branch above her rustled ever so slightly. Opening her eyes, Sakura barely managed to move out of the way before a kunai struck the same exact place she had been sitting only a few moments ago.

Getting into a fighting position, Sakura threw a shuriken automatically to the place that the Kunai had come from. The person who was in the branch seemed to have disappeared into thin air as Sakura narrowed her eyes.

"Whoever you are come out now! I know you are there and I am not afraid to bring you out." Sakura said, trying to keep her voice from shaking, she could not show just how nervous she really was. This could be a shinobi that had infiltrated Kanoha. The question was though, why he was in the training grounds, and why he was attacking her?

"Try it if you can." A mocking, deep voice traveled throughout the training ground. Sakura could not locate from where it came from, the voice echoing around with seemingly no source. Getting frustrated, chakra covered her fists in a thin layer. Sakura knew this was reckless seeing as that she did not know how to properly use chakra enhanced strength, but all sanity left her mind at the taunt. Not only that, but the male she was facing against might truly be an enemy shinobi, one with considerable power if he was able to infiltrate Konoha without anyone noticing.

"Hn, the Hokage's apprentice." The figure, who Sakura guessed was a man because of his deep voice, said in an emotionless voice.

"Yes, and who are you?" Sakura demanded more than asked, speaking rudely due to anger. She just knew that her Anger management would greatly suffer after being with Tsunade for so long. Here she was, talking bravo to a potentially deadly enemy. Kami, she must have no sanity left.

The figure covered by the tree's shadow jumped in the clearing, presenting himself to Sakura. She gasped as her eyes became as big as dinner plates.

"Itachi Uchiha-sama, I am so sorry" Oh great, she was really starting to regret all those rude comments now. This was ITACHI-FRICKEN-UCHIHA! You did not disrespect the Uchiha heir, especially a renown prodigy like Itachi.

"Hn." Was all that said Uchiha heir said, looking slightly amused under his seemingly emotionless eyes.

"Um, what brings you here Uchiha-san?" Sakura asked politely, trying not to be too rude to the Anbu captain again. Dammit of all people to run into in the training grounds alone, it just had to be this man. She cursed the heavens for her luck. Sakura could hear Inner laughing at her expense as she stood there, twitchy and uncomfortable before Itachi.

"Training." Itachi responded, not being helpful at all. Damn all Uchihas and their monosyllable way of speech.

"Ah" Dammit now she was doing it! She seriously wanted nothing more than to high tail it out of here, she was not good under all this pressure in being in the presence of a world reknown prodigy. Especially when said prodigy could kill her in under a second flat.

"Where is your instructor?" Itachi asked her, he didn't looked like he would leave any time soon and that made Sakura even more nervous. Why the hell would he care what she was doing or where said teacher was, not that she had any though.

"Um, I-I'm here alone." Sakura hoped that was all and he would go his merry way. Seriously, why did he even care?! As far as Sakura knew they never even properly met each other before this, so what was his reason for barging into her training and almost killing her! Seriously if she wasn't so afraid of the taller male, she would have already demanded an explination for his actions and, if only she was bold enough, and apology.

Yet all she truly do is stand there, looking like a deer caught in headlights, as Itachi raised an eyebrow in question. After many years of trying to decipher the younger brother's body gestures due to her obsession for him, Sakura quickly understood what the older Uchiha was silently asking.

"Tsunade-shishou gave me special permission to train alone." To further prove the point, Sakura raised her hand palm out. Upon seeing the mark there, Itachi's eyes widened slightly at the sight of the familiar seal, only for him to revert back to his emotionless state. He nodded slightly with understanding.

"Ah" Itachi responded, once more using 'Uchiha language' once more.

"Y-Yes…."Sakura trailed off. She did not know what she was suppose to say to the male before her. Sasuke had talked about him in more than one occasion. Every time he talked about him, he made Itachi seem like the god of shinobi. That, though, made her situation all the more dire. How was she suppose to act around a seemingly perfect and high ranking shinobi?

While Sakura had visited the Uchiha compound in more than one occasion, she had never met the Uchiha heir. Every time she went to visit, said Uchiha would always be out and so she never really got to meet him.

The only reason she knew of him was because of Sasuke and his out of character rambling. That and a few pictures in the wall of the Uchiha main house.

Yet here they were, both staring at each other. The elder Uchiha as impassive as ever, while on the other hand Sakura was close to burying herself alive, twitchy and nervous under his emotionless gaze.

"Spread out your chakra." Itachi suddenly said out of nowhere. Sakura looked confused at him, 'What the fu-'

"What?" Sakura questioned, interrupting her Inner as said inner voice gawked at the male before them. 'You done laughing already?' Her inner said nothing, instead she continued to look at the male before them with calculating eyes. Seems like her inner mind couldn't make sense of the older male's intentions either.

"You're trying to expand your senses, to further sharpen them use your chakra to feel your surroundings."

Itachi gave off a demanding aurora, not unlike that of her shishou. Sakura felt the need to do just as he had said, already used to following the orders of such an aurora.

Sakura nodded her head, he looked at her expectantly and she suddenly got the feeling he wanted her to do it now. As in, in front of him.

Sakura quickly got into a meditating position and closed her eyes. Controlling her breathing she started to become more conscious of her surrounding. She could hear the rustles of the leaves as wind passed through the trees. Following Itachi's suggestion Sakura spread out her chakra.

The results practically blew Sakura out of this world and to the next. Her chakra, almost as if it already knew what to do, quickly spread from inside of her and into the plantation around her. The grass was quickly covered by her chakra as she felt the small, almost indecipherable, chakra signals from the small plantation. She felt her chakra brush against the trees around her as well. The chakra then traveling from the grass and brushed against the Uchiha before her slightly. She stifled a gasp as she felt his almost unlimited supply of chakra, seeming to be tightly held in his person. Sakura felt him tense slightly from the feel of her chakra, she quickly pulled her chakra away from him and let it brush against the trees around her. Their chakra was quite large, yet held a different feeling than that of Itachi's own.

The difference in chakra signatures between the trees and the Uchiha fascinated Sakura. She could only sense the chakra of the plants round 10 feet away from her, yet for her it was enough to awe her at the differences between the signatures of the nature around her. She felt at peace, almost as if the chakra of the plantation comforted her. She could sense the chakra of the few 12 trees that were close to her and of Itachi who was barely 5 feet away from her.

Sakura focused even more on the tree located around 6 feet away from her. She felt as the chakra in the tree moved through it, helping bring in the nutrients it needed to survive. The way the tree used chakra was so different than the way humans used it yet it was similar in so many ways that it intrigued Sakura.

So caught up with the tree and its chakra, Sakura didn't notice Itachi move from his position until he was right in back from her.

"You have quite the chakra control." Itachi slightly praised making Sakura well up with pride for the complement.

Suddenly Itachi disappeared, not being able to sense his presence anymore Sakura guessed that he had left her to her own devices.

"Thank you." Sakura said out loud to her now empty surrwondings.

Mevy: Okay I hope you like the first chappie

Naruto: Why did you make me and Teme come off as jerks in this fic

Mevy: Because you and Sasuke practically ignore Saku-chan throughout the whole show

Sasuke: (scoff) She was annoying and weak

Mevy: Okay, maybe in some occasions, that's why there are so many fandoms where she is stronger

Sakura: You guys are mean!

Shisui: There there cupcake, come here and let Shi-kun comfort you

Itachi: (Hits Shisui over the head) Idiot

Mevy: Oh the wonders of jealousy

Itachi: (Glare)

Mevy: Anyways~ Hope you liked this new story and till next time CX