Chapter 333: Side Story — Sakura Haruno, Part Two
"Without any real strength, you're worth less than a stray dandelion on the side of the road."
Hearing that, the little pink-haired girl felt something complicated stir in her chest.
She thought of that horrifying, long-tongued man back in the Forest of Death, how she'd hidden behind Naruto and Sasuke.
She thought of the Sound Trio, an enemy she couldn't have stood against even risking her own life.
And she thought of the Land of Waves, when she'd done nothing but watch, helpless, as Naruto and Sasuke faced down enemies far beyond her.
She was useless. Nothing but a burden, hiding behind everyone else.
"What... do I need to do, to get stronger?"
"You'd know, wouldn't you?"
"A fragment of a single strand of hair can wander around Konoha without anyone noticing at all. Whatever strength you're carrying has to be greater than everyone else's here, combined."
The little pink-haired girl stood silent for a long moment before finally lifting her head to meet the eyes of this impossibly beautiful woman.
"Hm?"
Sakura lay sprawled across the bed, propped up on her hands, watching her with open amusement.
"There's no way you could watch another version of yourself, from another world, be this weak — letting other people push her around — and just... do nothing."
"Which means..."
The little pink-haired girl seemed to have already pieced together what Sakura's real intent was, speaking with newfound confidence.
"Hm?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
Sakura's words cut straight through her confidence.
"Wh— what?"
The little pink-haired girl blinked, stunned.
"Or, put another way — rather than watch a version of myself, in some other world, live out her whole life this love-struck, this clueless about what real strength even means..."
"If someone like you is destined to die at another person's hands eventually, or throw yourself away chasing some man like an unwanted delivery on his doorstep—"
"Wouldn't it just make me feel a little better, ending your life right now instead?"
Sakura sat up, an unmistakably malicious glint of amusement in her eyes as she looked at the little pink-haired girl.
She reached out, gripped the twelve-year-old's chin between her fingers, and pulled her in close.
Wh— what is she even saying?
If this woman really was her own fragment from another world, why would "she" want to kill "herself"?
The stranger hadn't moved a muscle, hadn't released a single trace of chakra — and yet the little pink-haired girl's body moved forward entirely on its own, step by step, coming to a stop right in front of her, letting the woman grip her chin without resistance.
"Or, put it this way — does 'Sasuke' actually mean anything at all to you?"
"Whatever feelings you think you're carrying, to him, you're nothing more than a weed growing beside the road he's walking."
"He has no interest in playing this little game of love with you."
Sakura's clear, jade-green eyes brimmed with a mischief so pointed it left the little pink-haired girl trembling from head to toe.
She's... she's serious...
The girl found herself thinking, on instinct.
The stranger's hand traced along the girl's jaw, brushing gently against her cheek, an almost regretful expression settling across Sakura's face — as though examining some priceless treasure marred by a single flaw.
"Besides — sending you off to the Pure Land would let me go back to my true self, and skip having to babysit your little playhouse fantasy any longer."
Playhouse...?
The stranger had said, earlier, that she intended to watch the girl right up until her death, until her soul finally returned to the Pure Land.
She had no idea what exactly the Pure Land was, but the name alone made it obvious enough — somewhere souls ended up after death.
Which meant — in this woman's eyes, her entire life amounted to nothing more than some child's game of make-believe?
What kind of joke is this?!
Even pinned in place by the woman's presence, the little pink-haired girl's eyes slowly hardened, sharp and defiant.
She glared back at Sakura, refusing to break, and a small, satisfied smile pulled at the corner of Sakura's mouth.
"Good look. Remember that feeling."
"I'd hate for you to make a fool of yourself over some man someday."
Sakura patted her cheek lightly, and the little pink-haired girl abruptly found she could move freely again.
"What was that supposed to mean?!"
Even with her body under her own control again, the fire in her eyes hadn't gone anywhere.
"Forgotten already?"
"Being love-struck is a bad look, kid."
Sakura rose to her feet, gazing out the window toward some point in the distance.
Her sight seemed to cut straight through the countless rooftops in the way, landing on someone specific.
"Love-struck..."
The little pink-haired girl murmured the words under her breath.
Was that really all her feelings for Sasuke amounted to? Being "love-struck"?
She pressed her lips together, thinking back to that oppressive, malevolent chakra in the Forest of Death — Sasuke, breaking Zaku's arm without a moment's hesitation.
"The feelings you're so sure of mean nothing to him at all."
"It's harsh, I know. But you really do tend to think about things a little too self-centeredly."
"It's time that changed."
"I'm not going to teach you how to get stronger myself."
"If you want to find a way to grow stronger, spend some time with Naruto over the next while."
Sakura spoke, calm, and the little pink-haired girl found herself confused.
But if the woman was saying all this, it at least meant she wasn't actually planning to kill her.
That thought brought a small measure of relief.
"Go on. Find Naruto."
"Stay by his side for the next few months. You'll get something out of it."
Sakura continued, and the little pink-haired girl frowned, deep in thought.
Naruto...
His blond-haired image surfaced in her mind.
But before she could ask anything further, the pink figure had already vanished, without a trace.
There was no way the little pink-haired girl could ever hope to find Sakura on her own — or rather, in this entire world, as long as Sakura chose not to show herself, no one could find her at all.
Not even Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo himself could have located her.
And this was only a single strand of her true self's hair.
"Naruto, huh..."
The little pink-haired girl let out a sigh.
Everything that had just happened felt so surreal, it left her a little dazed.
But the very real sense of mortal danger she'd just felt hadn't been an illusion. She started getting ready to head out.
She'd do as the stranger said — go find Naruto.
Before she left, she glanced down at her same old, faintly tacky bright red outfit, then thought back to Sakura's white robe, wreathed in flame.
Compared to that woman, she wasn't just hopelessly outmatched in strength — even her fashion sense had been thoroughly, crushingly defeated.
The little pink-haired girl felt a small pang of regret.
Letting out a resigned sigh, she headed out the door.
She searched the streets for a long while before finally finding Naruto near a public bathhouse.
Emmm...
And, looking closer — was that outside the women's side?
The little pink-haired girl blinked.
"Naruto, you jerk!"
"You're PEEPING?!"
"How shameless can you get?!"
Furious, she stormed over and landed a solid punch square on Naruto's head.
"AH!"
"It wasn't me, Sakura!"
"It was that pervy old guy over there!"
Naruto had actually just been about to greet her when the punch landed, and let out a pained yelp.
"Huh?"
She blinked, following his gaze — and only then spotted a lecherous white-haired man peeping off to the side.
"Ah — heh heh..."
"Sorry about that, Naruto."
The little pink-haired girl scratched the back of her head, embarrassed.
You really do tend to think about things a little too self-centeredly.
Sakura's words surfaced unbidden in her mind, and she paused, caught off guard.
She looked at the tearful blond boy in front of her.
Something complicated welled up in her chest, hard to put into words.
She looked at the blond boy — remembered how he'd been willing to throw himself into danger, risking his own life to protect her, not long ago.
"S— sorry... Naruto."
The little pink-haired girl's mouth opened, then closed again, working through the words, hesitant.
Was I really such an unpleasant person to be around, this whole time...
"Huh?"
"Sakura?"
"It's fine, seriously, it didn't even hurt!"
Naruto, rubbing his head, looked at the girl in front of him, suddenly, uncharacteristically subdued, and got flustered on instinct.
He'd never once seen her make that particular expression before.
"Ugh, so noisy."
"You're ruining my research."
The tall, lecherous white-haired man tucked away his purpose-built peeping telescope, giving the blond and pink-haired kids interrupting him an irritated look.
"You're the one PEEPING, you creep!"
Naruto rounded on the man at once, furious.
Off to the side, Sakura stood alone, leaning against a wall, arms crossed, watching the whole scene unfold with a calm, unreadable expression.
Her gaze settled, quiet, on the little pink-haired girl.
Understand what needs to change now?
Well — how to put it.
There's still something worth working with there.
Sakura let out a faint, unconscious laugh.
Of course. Wouldn't expect anything less from a version of myself, whatever world she happens to be from.
Sakura watched everything unfold — Jiraiya, "Black Flash Ebisu" arriving on the scene, and the moment Jiraiya used a summoning technique to send Ebisu crashing into the water; then Naruto pestering Jiraiya relentlessly until the man agreed to train him.
"And Sakura too! Come on, train her too!"
Once Naruto successfully secured Jiraiya's approval, he immediately dragged the little pink-haired girl over, insisting the old man train her as well.
The tall, white-haired man studied the pink-haired girl before him, an assessing gleam flickering in his dark eyes.
Minato's son has a crush on this girl?
Jiraiya recalled the moment Naruto had just gotten smacked by her, moments earlier.
Reminds me a little of Kushina's personality, actually.
Though a bit gentler than Kushina, all things considered — at least she'd had the sense to apologize to Naruto afterward.
"Looks like I'll be needing to stock up on baby formula down the line."
Jiraiya rubbed his chin, a knowing, suggestive smile spreading across his face as he leaned in toward the little pink-haired girl.
...???
The girl blinked, thoroughly baffled.
Did... did I just get hit on by a fifty-something-year-old man?
"You creep!"
"What did you just say?!"
Nearly on instinct, her arm shot up and landed a punch square on Jiraiya's head.
"That kind of force — reminds me of a certain old friend."
Jiraiya paid the punch no mind at all, rubbing his head with a wistful, nostalgic look.
Watching that, Sakura let out an involuntary laugh.
This guy really is the same, in every single world.
The first time she'd ever met him, he'd said something almost identical.
Only that time, she'd knocked him flat with one punch.
And so, riding on Naruto's coattails, the little pink-haired girl fortuitously secured a place under Jiraiya's tutelage as well.
Sakura watched the girl with a measure of quiet satisfaction. At the very least, she owned up to her mistakes — clearly not a total lost cause.
The days passed, one after another. The little pink-haired girl and Naruto trained together under Jiraiya's guidance.
Jiraiya had originally only meant to treat her as an accessory to Naruto's training. But once he actually started working with her, he discovered her control over chakra was genuinely extraordinary for her age.
Her theoretical knowledge, too, was remarkably broad and thorough — her chakra control alone left Naruto in the dust by a wide margin.
Setting aside her ordinary chakra reserves, she was, in nearly every other respect, a talent on par with Minato himself.
Properly trained, in three years, she'd become at least a jōnin, worst-case scenario.
Sakura offered no particular opinion on Jiraiya's assessment.
Jōnin was just the baseline.
Even accounting for the time this fragment had already wasted, once the girl ended up training under Tsunade, becoming Kage-tier was practically a given.
From an anonymous, low-ranked genin to a top-tier support powerhouse on a Six Paths–level battlefield — all it would take was three years.
Setting aside her migraine-inducing tendency toward being love-struck, she was, without question, a genius who could hold her own against anyone.
Excepting, of course, those two overpowered freaks of nature, Naruto and Sasuke.
"Now this — this is a real find."
Under the glow of the evening campfire, Jiraiya drank alone, watching the two kids sleeping nearby, wrapped together under a single blanket.
The days passed, one after another.
Staying close to Naruto's side, the little pink-haired girl not only received Jiraiya's tutelage — she'd fully earned his genuine attention and respect as well.
And through him, she learned her very first technique.
Water Release — Water Gun.
A simple enough technique — compress water with chakra, then fire it out at high speed.
The more pressure applied, the greater the water gun's power.
Clearly, Jiraiya had it in mind to steer her development toward Water Release.
If she stuck purely to Water Release, though, it would be something of a waste of her natural aptitude for both Yin and Yang.
Sakura, however, made no move to point the girl toward any particular training direction.
All she cared about was making sure the girl understood what to do and what not to do — and, more than anything, that she stop throwing herself at men like some unwanted delivery showing up uninvited on someone's doorstep.
What a hopeless case of love-brain.
She'll deserve every bit of the lonely widowhood coming her way.
Sakura muttered, unimpressed.
With the celebratory fireworks going up, the final round of the Chūnin Exams began.
Sakura sat perched on a rooftop, watching, unmoved, as the little snake's plan to bring down Konoha unfolded below.
She had no intention of interfering.
Even knowing that the man trapped inside the Four Violet Flames Formation was, in a sense, her own teacher's counterpart in this world.
And besides — dying here was exactly what Hiruzen Sarutobi, in his own way, wanted.
If she'd wanted otherwise, a single strike would have shattered the rooftop beneath her feet and pulled her free of that barrier without the slightest effort.
As the plan to bring down Konoha kicked off in earnest, the entire village descended into chaos.
Fighting erupted everywhere.
"Where are you?!"
"I know you're watching!"
"I need your help!"
The little pink-haired girl, watching death unfold all around her, was experiencing, for the very first time, the true malice this world was capable of — she'd never been on an actual battlefield before.
She'd never imagined the village she'd grown up in could become a war zone like this.
Right now, she wanted to call out to Sakura — wanted her to protect Konoha.
Sakura watched, calm, and made no move to reveal herself.
"Calm down, Sakura."
Kakashi appeared, steadying the panicking girl.
"Sasuke's gone after the Sand jinchūriki."
"Go bring him back. He can't handle that alone."
Looking at Kakashi, the little pink-haired girl forced down the panic rising in her chest and nodded, agreeing.
Sakura watched it all unfold.
She watched Hiruzen Sarutobi die using the Reaper Death Seal. She watched the little snake's fury at losing the use of both his arms, permanently sealed away.
So he's dead, then.
Sakura watched the old man collapse to the ground, let out a quiet sigh, and vanished from where she stood.
Meanwhile, the battle in the forest was drawing to its own close.
Sakura found herself reasonably satisfied with the little pink-haired girl's performance. Still weak, sure — but at least she'd learned, finally, how to actually fight.
The little "ping-pong paddle" boy had, meanwhile, successfully triggered some genuine jealousy in the little blond.
And even the little pink-haired girl had gotten her moment — putting everything she had into a single desperate Water Gun, nearly draining herself dry, and managing to sever Shukaku's arm.
Not that it did the One-Tail much practical harm.
(End of Chapter)